Off Limits (7 page)

She angled her head to look up at him. “Just dinner.”

Just—he hadn’t had “just dinner” with a woman in years. If a woman wanted “just dinner” he steered clear. But this was Paige. She wanted to be romanced. And, after seeing her again, being here with her, he wanted her back in his bed. Right now, no other woman would do. Despite the ache in his groin, he nodded. No matter how stupid this might be, Zach always went after what he wanted.

Chapter Five

As she waited for Zach to pick her up for their date, Paige’s stomach fluttered more than it had when she’d walked into the sex club the other night. She’d thought long and hard about their first night together, both at the club and at the hotel. Zach was attentive, and made her feel like the only woman in the world—while he was inside her. But before, and after, left her feeling as lonely and empty as the bed when she woke up.

She wanted more, and she wanted it from Zach. Yes, he was handsome, and yes, a kind of power rolled through her when she thought about being the woman to tame his wild ways. She’d watched him grow up the middle child in a struggling family of five children, watched him study hard to get a scholarship to college, the first in his family to make it there. She could understand his need to indulge himself after that. But she also knew he had more to offer.

She needed to see what he was willing to give, because she was prepared to hand over her heart.

The kiss last night had been toe-curlingly romantic and sexy, and that he hadn’t argued when she asked him to stop gave her hope. It wasn’t enough that he see her as a grown woman. She wanted him to fall in love with her.

When the doorbell rang, she answered. Her breath caught to see him standing in the hallway dressed in a business suit, head dipped, just a touch of five o’clock shadow. His gaze slid over her and warmed appreciatively as he took in her flowy white dress and sandals.

“You look gorgeous,” he said in that voice that sent shivers down her spine.

“Thanks. So do you.” Okay, her breathless voice didn’t bode well for him seeing her as a grown woman. She reached for her purse on the table behind her. “Shall we go?”

“That’s not what happened,” Zach said with a disbelieving laugh, setting his wine glass at the far edge of his plate on the white tablecloth.

Paige couldn’t remember the last time she’d heard him laugh like that, and she hadn’t seen him so relaxed since they’d encountered one another again. She’d take responsibility for that—she hadn’t made life easy for him once she’d set her sights on him. Maybe he was worried about Adam and his reaction. She understood the whole big-brother thing, but she wasn’t going to let what Adam thought get in the way of her desire. And she wanted Zach more than anything.

“So explain to me why you were sitting outside my senior prom, hunkered down in your car.” She’d noticed his car the moment she’d walked out of the country club where the prom had been held. Her heart had done a little jump at the sight. Even then he’d been so gorgeous.

The corners of his lips turned down as he turned the wine glass on the table, his attention focused on the wavy liquid. “Adam asked me to look out for you.”

“Why wasn’t he there?”

“He was up on The Hill, waiting to stop you if you got past me.”

The Hill had been where kids had gone to park their cars and make out in those days. More than one person she’d known had ended up pregnant after a night in the backseat. Her friends had declared it cursed and never let their guys get their panties off after that. “What made him think if I was planning to sleep with Chris, that I’d do it up on The Hill? What about a motel room? Didn’t he think of that?” Which had been the plan, until she saw Zach’s car and had crossed the lot to show her displeasure at his imposition by banging on the hood and yelling at him for invading her privacy—though part of her romantic young heart had allowed her to believe jealousy on his part motivated his actions. Poor Chris. She’d been on a tear about nosey family members, and he’d ended up just taking her home.

“I think your dad had that angle covered, threatening any motel owners that offered Chris a room.”

She flipped her hair over her shoulder. “You were too late in any case. I lost my virginity way before senior prom.”

Zach snapped his gaze to hers. “You did?” His tone was sharp, fatherly. “With who?”

“Jordan, two days after my sixteenth birthday.”

He snorted. “Jordan was a dick. I’m sure it was very memorable for you.”

“I remember locking myself up in the bathroom afterwards.” The night before she gave in to Jordan’s pleadings, Zach had turned up at the house, home from college break, and hadn’t looked at her, though she’d teased him, practically begging for his attention. When he’d brushed her off, her fragile young heart had been broken, and she decided she needed to grow up, so she’d given in to Jordan. And for the two minutes he’d been inside her, she’d imagined he was Zach. She’d continued that practice well into college before she realized she was cheating herself.

“I’d like to kick his ass for even looking at you,” Zach said, his voice a low rumble.

She gave him an exaggerated pout through her lashes. “Why? I was cute, and I wanted
someone
to look at me.”

His lips curved down and his eyebrows drew together. “You were too young, and Jordan didn’t know what he was doing.”

She folded her arms on the table and watched his gaze flick to her cleavage. “How old were you when you lost your virginity?”

The corner of his mouth lifted. “Sixteen, but I knew what I was doing.”

She rolled her eyes. “You do now, but I doubt you did then.”

“I did. I could give you references.” He winked, and delight raced through her at the lighthearted gesture.

“No thank you.” She sat back and folded her hands primly on the table in front of her. “And I’d appreciate you not giving out my name as a reference in the future.”

He chuckled, the low sound sending a thrill through her. “I’d be too afraid of what you’d say about me.”

She angled her head, determined to keep the mood playful. “Which would hurt worse, a comment about size or endurance?”

The waiter, who’d chosen that moment to reach for her water glass, lifted his eyebrows, filled the glass and moved on.

“Why are we talking about sex?” he asked. “Are you trying to make me crazy?”

“That has long been my favorite pastime.”

“Sex? Or making me crazy?”

She let her lips curve in a mysterious smile. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

He lifted her hand from the table and rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. “What are we doing here?”

“We’re on a date.”

“Why?”

“Because I figured since I already put out, you could buy me dinner.”

The waiter, passing by, almost tripped over his own shoelaces.

“So we’re doing this backwards.” He placed her hand on the table and rubbed his palms on the arms of the chair as if he had to touch something.

“Roundabout, maybe. I don’t usually move in a straight line.” She held her hand out expectantly, and he put his in hers. She turned it over, palm up, and traced a circle on his palm, then a figure eight, and watched his nostrils flare as he followed her movement. “I don’t want any dessert.”

The words were barely out of her mouth before his free hand shot into the air, signaling for the check.

Zach pressed her against the wall outside the door of her apartment, unable to keep his hands from her any longer, coursing his palms down her sides and up, over her hips, lifting her skirt a few inches as he explored her mouth with his tongue, as her fingers curled into his hair, holding him to her, her kiss as hungry as his. He pressed his erection into the softness of her belly, needing the contact, needing her to see what she did to him, and she rubbed back.
God, yes.
He groaned into her mouth, and she broke the kiss, turning in his arms to fumble for her keys in the light by the door. The jangle of metal was almost an aphrodisiac. Soon he’d be in her apartment, in her bed, in her body. The key slid in the lock, and he turned to follow, only to have her stop in the open doorway, her hand braced on the doorframe as she faced him.

“Good night,” she murmured, and closed the door.

He stared a few moments, waiting for her to open it again, then he heard the chain. Well, hell. She couldn’t have picked a worse punishment for his crime.

The quiet knock on Paige’s door the next morning surprised her. She set her cup of coffee on the breakfast bar and crossed the room to peek through the peephole.

Her heart kicked when she saw Zach. This was twice he’d shown up of his own volition. What did that mean? Probably that he was as determined to get her back in bed without falling in love with her as she was determined to get him to fall in love with her before they got back in bed.

She removed the chain and opened the door. He bounced on the balls of his feet in a T-shirt and running shorts.

“Want to go for a run with me? We can get coffee afterwards.”

A run. She didn’t run. She’d planned to hit the gym downstairs in a few minutes, so was already in her yoga pants and tank top, but running? That was outside, and jarring, and she was pretty sure Zach wouldn’t find her wheezing sexy. But no way was she sending him off, not when he’d gone to the effort, clearly wanting to spend time with her, no matter his motivation.

“We could swim. There’s no one at the apartment pool this early, and it’s great to do laps.”

Wariness tightened his features. “You’d be wearing a bathing suit, I’d imagine.”

She cocked her hip. “I’m not quite daring enough to go without.”

“It’s probably not one of those that covers you chin to knee.”

She had several bathing suits, in fact. One was a modest exercise suit—well, as modest as it could be for a woman with boobs like hers. And she had a tiny bikini that looked like crochet. Of course she would wear that one for Zach, even if it was harder to swim laps in. “It’s a two-piece.”

He swallowed, and she could see he was making an effort not to look below her chin. “You’re trying to kill me.”

Test him, at the very least. She stepped back to invite him in. “Help yourself to the coffee. I’m going to change.”

Zach was glad he hadn’t taken a sip of coffee when Paige walked out of the bedroom, wearing nothing but strategically placed strings over her full breasts and hips. Her skin was smooth, and he closed his hand against the remembered sensation of it, at the remembered response when he’d stroked it. He was insane for agreeing to this, when it couldn’t end well.

The worst of it was, he wasn’t being led by his dick, not entirely. He’d had a good time at dinner. While, yes, part of his mind had been on taking her to bed, he’d otherwise been relaxed. He hadn’t been the successful ad exec or the charming ladies’ man, or anything other than himself. He didn’t feel that at ease with anyone but Adam, and even with Adam there were expectations. He’d thought Paige would have more, but her conversations about the past and her job, just the easiness of talking with her, had caused his usual defenses to melt away.

So he’d thought of her first thing this morning. And here he was, suffering.

“Oh! Towels.” She pivoted to go back the way she’d come, giving him a view of her nearly naked back and mouthwatering ass.

He was already hard and gripped the edge of her counter to keep himself from following her and tasting all that gorgeous flesh.

“What time do you have to be at work?” she asked, scooping up her keys from the table by the door.

Right, work. So not enough time to swim and make love to her. Maybe they’d skip the swim. She approached with a sway that told him she knew exactly what she was doing, punishing him, no doubt. If he’d stayed that night, would she have let him back in her bed already?

Would he still want to be there? The thought kicked him in the chest. He liked the forbidden. Was he lying to himself? Was he more interested in Paige because she was holding him off? The idea had him frowning when she stopped in front of him.

“Can you hold my keys?” She let her fingertips drag down the inside of his wrist as she dropped the keychain into his palm. “I don’t have a place to keep them.” She spread her arms, as if he wasn’t already looking.

“Sure.” He cleared his throat when the one word came out in a croak, and tucked the keys in his pocket. “Your roommate and CeCe?”

She met his gaze with a knowing smile. “They’ll be up in a bit so CeCe can go to nursery school.”

So no wall-banging sex. No, the next time they made love, he wanted her so crazy she screamed. Wouldn’t do to have an impressionable kid in the next room. Just as well. He needed to figure out what he was really doing here.

He stepped toward the door. “Shall we go?”

The pool sparkled in the early-morning sunlight. As she’d said, they had it to themselves. He hoped the water was cold enough to douse his arousal, because watching the play of muscles in her back as he walked behind her had him harder than he’d been since the last time he’d seen her.

Once they reached the edge of the pool, she tossed the towels on a nearby lounge chair and dove in without hesitation. He watched her body cut gracefully through the water before she surfaced at the other end, pushed her hair out of her face and grinned.

“Brr!” Her laugh echoed off the surrounding buildings.

“Good.” He stripped off his shirt, tossed it on the lounge with their towels and followed her in.

The water was colder than hell, thank God, but when he swam up to Paige, his cock forgot the rules about cold water. He wanted to take her hand from where it rested on the side of the pool and rub it over his erection.

His willpower frayed, and his gaze was drawn to the gleam of water on her breasts, the way her nipples thrust against the knit fabric. He could almost taste them in his mouth. Had he given her breasts enough attention when they’d made love? He couldn’t remember, but he wanted another chance now.

“I’ll race you,” she said, bracing herself against the side of the pool in readiness.