God, no, it wasn’t okay. How could it be when she was literally being eaten up, inside and out, by jealousy? She wanted to rip the other women’s hands off Zach.
He was hers!
She clicked on the little X at the top of her screen to close the streaming video and nodded at Tina. “Everything’s fine, thanks.”
It would be, at least, once she’d set her brain back to rights and refocused her attention where it should be.
She put Cuddles on the floor. “I’d like to go over the final numbers for the shelter this morning so that I can draft up a release on it by tonight.”
But as soon as they pulled up the spreadsheet to tally up the expenses and income from the auction items, and Tina exclaimed over the Lamborghini that Zach had donated, Heather realized it wasn’t going to be quite that easy.
Because somehow, in the span of one short week, Zach Sullivan had infiltrated every part of her life.
* * *
Zach had always believed that there were few things better than the rush of being in a race car.
Being with Heather was better. Way better.
When Tommy had called to ask him to race, for the first time ever, instead of jumping at the chance, Zach had tried to turn him down. He’d told himself it was because he wanted to stay with Heather in the hotel room to spend the entire day exploring every inch of her skin, to make her laugh between acrobatic bouts of lovemaking, to watch her eyes light up and her skin flush with joy and then the heat of desire again and again.
But even as he tried to deny the truth, he knew his reasons for not wanting to race were bigger than that.
What, he couldn’t stop wondering, if this was it? What if his number came up on the race track...and he didn’t get to see Heather again?
No.
He’d been careful. So had she. They’d agreed not to fall in love with each other.
Besides, he hadn’t died in the race. Not this time, anyway.
Zach jumped out of his car in front of her building and nearly knocked over a group of poodles as he ran inside to get to her. Her assistant was in the middle of saying hello when he barged past her and into Heather’s office.
It nearly killed him to take the time to lock the door behind him and pull down the blinds on her window before he grabbed her from where she was standing at her file cabinet. The papers in her hands scattered all over the floor as he slid his hands into her hair.
A second later, her legs were around his waist, and he was lowering her down over her desk, his mouth locked to hers while she kissed him back just as passionately as he was kissing her. She made a small sound of pain and he shoved a stapler out from under her. Using his hands to caress the softness of her hip where it had dug in reminded him of the way she’d felt when he’d been massaging her in the hotel.
“Missed you,” he said between nipping at her lips and yanking off her long-sleeved shirt. He pressed a kiss right between her br**sts. “Needed you.”
He thought he saw her eyes flash with something more than desire as she followed suit by roughly yanking his T-shirt over his head. She leaned into his chest and he thought she was kissing him until he realized they were more little bites that she was giving him all over. Jesus, it was hot, but a whole hell of a lot more aggressive than she’d ever been before.
Despite how badly he wanted her, his internal radar was going off. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she said, but again there was that flash in her eyes that looked too much like anger, and when she followed it up with, “Just shut up and do me already,” he knew a hell of a lot more than nothing was wrong.
Somewhere between their extraordinary hours together at the Fairmont and now, he must have screwed up. He didn’t have the first clue how, just that he had.
With any other woman he wouldn’t have cared, would have just finished doing her and then gotten out of there. But he and Heather were more than just bang-buddies.
“What did I do?”
“You went and did your stupid race, even though you could have been hurt.” The lingering worry in her eyes was quickly masked as she snarled, “Congratulations on your big win.”
It was hard trying to think around the low level of blood in his brain, with her legs still around his and her beautiful br**sts bounding around in a white cotton bra that shouldn’t have been sexy but made it nearly impossible for him to form a coherent sentence.
Still, he knew he’d better figure out how to get his brain to work real quick, because he had a feeling a whole lot more than a hot quickie was at stake.
“You watched me race?”
“Cuddles wanted to.”
She pressed her lips together hard as if she dared him to challenge that silly statement, and he barely checked the urge to lick across the firm line of her pretty lips.
“So you saw me blow the other guys out of the water?”
“Among other things,” she muttered. “You certainly don’t need me to keep congratulating you, when everyone else did such a good job of it on the race track.”
He was a guy. And he was horny as hell around Heather, especially with her stripped half-naked. But he wasn’t stupid.
She’d obviously seen the trophy girls congratulating him on the track. And it had upset her.
“I’m not going to screw around on you, Heather.”
He watched surprise and hope flicker in her eyes, before she tamped them down. “You don’t owe me any promises. It’s just sex. That’s all we’re doing. Having sex.”
Anger rose in him, just as hot as hers. “Are you going to sleep with anyone else while we’re together?”
“No.” She looked like she couldn’t believe he’d asked her that question. “God, no.”
“Then why are you assuming I’ll do it?”
She looked at him like he was a complete idiot. “It’s what every guy does.”
“No,” he told her, “not every guy. Not me.” Frustration had him saying, “I’m not your father, damn it.”
But she was shaking her head and trying to push him away. “I saw you with those girls at the racetrack. I saw you put your hands on them.”
“To push them away, not pull them in closer!”
He wouldn’t let her go, wouldn’t let her leave his arms in anger when the only thing that had gotten him through the past thirty hours was the thought of having her back in them. “Can’t you see you’re the only one I can even think about? The only one I want? Don’t you understand that I’m losing my mind over you?”