Zachary David Productions (9 page)
Read Zachary David Productions Online
Authors: Gina Watson
She fretted for others—Priscilla and Sawyer, and likely she’d fretted for him as well. Lives are precious and Cammie enriched the life of everyone around her.
He climbed into bed that night at odds with himself. They couldn’t be together if she couldn’t understand that when he was with a woman at work he wasn’t getting romantic.
Placing a hand under his head he sighed and stared up at the ceiling. To be near Cammie was to be near an angel.
Was he really going to throw all of that away to preserve his porn business?
***
C
ammie tiptoed
down the hallway toward Zach’s room.
She found him lounged on the bed, looking like a sexual feast in nothing but a well-worn pair of jeans.
He threw her a sexy smirk that had her insides doing backflips.
“Just can’t stay away, hmm?”
She crawled on top of him and kissed his lips…for the last time.
She helped divest him of his jeans. He wore no underwear.
She removed her clothes, and then took his hands in hers, guiding them along the outer swells of her breasts.
This time would be different. This time she’d set the tempo. This time she’d show him what a giving lover she was. All of this because she hoped he’d never forget her.
Using her hips she rocked, depositing her moisture over his hard erection. Slowly she sank down on him, feeling every inch, every pulse, until she’d taken his entire length.
A low moan escaped his throat. “I love you, Cammie,” he whispered.
She let a lone tear roll down her face. It was better to leave while they still had passion and love between them. Before he grew to hate her for what she would make him give up.
His hands on her hips aided her rocking, slow at first and building into a crescendo.
Together they came, their bodies melting together, allowing her to take one last snapshot for her memory bank.
Cammie fell asleep in Zach’s arms.
He took her again during the night.
By eight in the morning, she had gone.
***
Z
ach rolled
onto his side and reached for Cammie, but all he got in return was a cool, crisp sheet.
He’d made a decision and he couldn’t wait to tell her that in his dreams he’d seen the future and it included her. Not his porn business, but her. The thing of it was…he’d wanted to get out, he just wanted to be the one to make the decision.
Stupid man.
He lifted his head to look around the room, freezing when he spotted an envelope on the bedside table with the word
ZACH
in feminine scrawl.
In his gut he knew it was a Dear John letter.
He removed the letter with shaky hands.
Z
ach
,
Somehow in this crazy, messed up life of mine I fell in love with you. The kindness you showed me reawakened my soul. I’d hit a point in my life where I thought honest compassion didn’t exist, but I found it in you.
You gave me back my ability to believe in myself. I feel stronger for just having spent this time with you. I was able to clear my head and make some decisions. I think I can make this life work for me.
As much as I love you I won’t let our aspirations come between us. This way we will always be in love, we will always have passion.
Thank you for loving me,
Cammie
G
one
.
She’d left because he’d been too selfish to listen.
His chest felt tight and when he tried to breathe deeply, he couldn’t and became even more anxious.
He jumped from bed, pulled on his jeans, and then grabbed a T-shirt from the drawer.
He’d knock on every door in Lake Pontchartrain if he had to, but he’d find Cammie and bring her back where she belonged…in his arms.
***
Z
ach pulled
up to the green house on Lemon Tree Lane and frowned. Unless Cammie had recently purchased a Gray Dodge Ram Pickup truck, there was someone at the house with her.
He walked toward the house.
Men drove Gray pickups.
Men especially drove Dodge Hemi pickups.
His blood ran cold at the thought of her with another man.
At the front stoop he could hear Cammie arguing with a man and though he couldn’t make out the words, he could hear the distress in her voice.
His blood ran cold for an entirely different reason now as he imagined Cammie in some kind of trouble.
Frantic, he pounded on the door with his fist.
As soon as he was face to face with the man who’d been the cause of her distress he punched him square in the nose. The oaf was large and gave as good as he got.
Cammie screamed.
Zach had been knocked back two feet when a beefy fist connected with his jaw. He spit out the blood and lunged into the towering statute, knocking him to the ground. He was big but in Zach’s experience the bigger they are, the harder they fall…as the saying goes.
Zach zapped him a few times in the kidneys for good measure, knowing from experience the pain could be searing, not to mention he’d be peeing blood for a week.
Once he turned onto his back, Zach climbed on top of him and repeatedly assailed him in the face with his fists.
Somewhere in the distance he heard Cammie screaming and calling his name. His fists slowed. Cammie tugged his arm and he looked into her pleading eyes.
“Please, Zach.”
He let her pull him into the kitchen where she called the cops.
With Cammie as the rightful deed holder, Phil was escorted from the home. He denied his right to press charges against Zach.
She cleaned Zach’s face and applied a butterfly bandage to a cut above his lip.
“I’m sorry.” Zach said.
“Why are you sorry? I should be the one apologizing.”
“Is this why you called the lawyer?”
“I did call a lawyer but I didn’t have the deed back until yesterday so I couldn’t go forward.”
“I shouldn’t have been so selfish. I should’ve helped you. I was so wrapped up in my own crap with the business and my cousin that I didn’t even bother to ask you about the lawyer who called, asking for you. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Her hands fiddled with gauze and Band-Aids, frowning at his words. “This was something I wanted to take care of by myself.”
He shook his head, “No.” Needing her to hear what he had to say, he pulled her hands, leading her to the breakfast table. She sat while he talked.
“I shouldn’t have hesitated when you came to me with your issues about my work.”
“No, Zach—”
He raised his hand to keep her from talking. He wanted to get his thoughts out in the open. “The truth is…I want to make you happy. I want to see what’s in our future. You said five years from now you knew you wouldn’t be happy with me, but I want to prove you wrong. I want to sell.”
“What?” She stood. “I can’t let you do that.”
“It’s already been done. I’ve been fielding offers for years. This morning I accepted one of them.”
Her huge eyes as gray as cement blinked wide at him. “What are you going to do now?”
“I’m going to start living.”
He pulled her into his arms, his side a little tender from the blows given by her son of a bitch stepfather, but nothing could keep him from her now.
He looked into her eyes so expressive they reminded him of watching a storm at sea. “I wanted to know about this…should have known. I want to be the one you run to for worry and comfort and for love.”
“I want that to.”
“So you see, that’s why I had to sell. I want a family one day and I want kids and I want them to have eyes the color of slate.”
“But I want them to have eyes the color of moss.”
“Well what in the world are we gonna do?” He placed a kiss on her nose.
“We’ll have to have a few so that we both get what we want.”
“Hmm, I like the way you think.”
Overcome with joy at the prospects the future held, he kissed her…his little cleaning lady who’d come into his life and scrubbed it clean. He felt like a weight had been lifted, felt as if he could hold up the world and believed that with her by his side he could in fact do just that. And he would…for her he would.
C
ammie rushed
through the doors of the little yellow Lake Pontchartrain home that had been in her family for over forty years, but now with one major difference…she lived there with Zachary Howard David. She kicked the door closed using her foot and carried the bag of groceries into the kitchen.
Humming, she unloaded the ingredients to make shrimp scampi. When she opened the fridge to chill the champagne she’d purchase she was surprised to find a bottle staring back at her. Leaning into the fridge she took inventory…marinating steaks, mushrooms, potato fixin’s. Hmm, this was an interesting development. Maybe—
She screamed, but immediately knew the hands on her waist belonged to the love of her life.
Bracing against the open and cold refrigerator door, she accepted Zach’s burning kiss.
“What are you doing home?”
He smiled his sexy smile and flashed those sleepy moss green eyes. “What are you doing home?”
“It’s the last day of finals and who do you think completed her first semester of college with a four point O?”
“I want to say you but if it isn’t then this is a terrible story.”
“It’s me and I’d planned to make us a celebration dinner but I think you beat me to it.”
“How do you know it’s a celebration, little Miss Four-point-O? I may have failed all of
my
first semester classes.”
She shook her head and wrapped her arms around his neck. “No way. You’re too smart to fail.”
She shivered, the cold air seeping through her thin cotton summer dress, but he was right there to warm her up.
“I’m proud to say I made the President’s List,” he said, and then kissed her cheek.
“We’re just a couple of smart mother jumpers.”
He chuckled at her description. “I was thinking maybe we’d take a break from all the studying this summer and head somewhere tropical.”
She grabbed the chilled bottle of champagne, and then he tugged her toward the back porch.
“I was thinking I’d make up for lost time and take a full load this summer.”
She sat on the swing and he took the bottle from her. Looking around she could see he’d been busy. The table had been set with their nicest dishes, accompanied by glass champagne flutes. “My plan also includes making up for lost time.” The cork popped and then he filled the glasses.
“What lost time is that?”
He passed her a flute and then sat next to her on the swing. He took her left hand and fiddled with her fingers while she sipped the cool, fizzy liquid, the soda making her dizzy as soon as it hit her empty stomach. Or maybe it was him…all she knew was when he was around, her body simmered on low heat.
He kissed her fingers. Pulling it back she gasped at the weight of the ring and its sparkle and shimmer.
“All of the time before I met you is lost time to be made up for and I intend to spend the rest of my life doing just that. Marry me, Cammie.”
The years would fall away quick now, but she’d cherish every one knowing that to be loved in life was the absolute human condition. To be loved by someone such as Zach was the most special gift a girl from Slidell, Louisiana could hope to receive. And in the back of her mind, the path that led her to him wasn’t lost on her. She had to go through that dark place to get to where she was right now. And where she was right now was worth all of the fight she’d endured. That look in his eye when he adored her was worth life alone.
For any future storms she’d fall back on her no fail formula of tenacity and confidence…only the next time she’d have Zach to help her weather the storm.
He wiped her tears away with the pads of his thumb. “You haven’t said no, but you haven’t said yes either. Should I be worried?”
The hurt look on his face was her undoing.
“I’m overwhelmed with joy. Of course I’ll marry you, crazy boy.”
She cupped his cheek and he scooped her into his arms, carried her to their bedroom that they’d painted light gray.
What neither of them knew was this night would yield their greatest creation yet…a mossy eyed, sandy-haired little boy.
G
ina Watson is
author of contemporary series romances. She lives in Texas where she leads a double life: university instructor by day, romance writer by night. She loves to be contacted by readers to discuss all things romance.
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