When Tessa turned into the kitchen, she found Zach standing at the sink with his back to her. He was shirtless, using his tee to clean himself up much the way she had just cleaned up Sophia. Tessa stopped at the threshold between the living room and the small kitchen to admire all the muscles rolling beneath his tanned skin.

A rush of desire flooded her. God, she wanted him. Knowing she should end their physical relationship to maintain the current goodwill between them didn’t keep the desire from flashing in her blood. She loved the way he made her feel when they were together—like she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever been with. Like she could do no wrong. Like he felt the same bond between them that she did. Like it wasn’t just sex.

“Hey.” Zach’s voice startled her from her thoughts.

“Hey.” She continued into the kitchen, slipped off her blazer, and opened the refrigerator door to pull out a bottle of water, then grabbed a plastic tumbler from the cupboard. “I’m really sorry about tonight. That sort of thing doesn’t happen often—”

His arms circled her, sliding around her waist and pulling her back up against him. Tessa gasped and instinctively stiffened at the sudden intimate contact. Then the front of his body molded to the back of hers, and the desire rushed back in, heavy and hot.

“Did you do that on purpose?” he asked at her ear, his voice husky and soft.

“What?”

“Take Pegasus?”

She started to bristle at the accusation, but realized his voice held no menace, no anger, not even irritation. In fact, she thought she heard a hint of humor. She glanced over her shoulder to read his expression. Sure enough, he was smiling.

“Do you really think I’d do that?” she asked.

“If you did, I wouldn’t blame you. It gave me a crash course in three-year-old damage control.” He turned her in his arms, backed her against the counter, and leaned in. His blue eyes were heavy lidded, his grin fit only for the bedroom. “But I do think you owe me.”

She lifted her brows. “Owe you?”

“Owe me some TLC after suffering through three hours of listening to my baby cry.”

She huffed. “If that’s what you’re owed for a few hours, then I’m owed a lifelong vacation in Belize with a pool boy and a masseuse.”

His hands slid up her back, then down again. “I’ll be your masseuse…” He pulled away only enough to ease her body from the counter and slip his hands over her hips to her ass. “And your pool boy.”

With a sigh, he pulled her into him, tilted his head, and pressed his lips to hers. And before she knew it, she’d opened and let him taste her.

God, how did this happen?

Tessa pulled out of the kiss but couldn’t find the will to pull away when his lips traveled down her neck.

“I need…to bring Sophia some water.” But the tingles burning over her skin made her forget all about what she should do. Which was why she was supposed to be putting up barriers.

She pressed the hand holding the cup to his chest and eased him back. He let her go, but it was too late. Tessa’s whole body already ached to feel him. Her soul needed the relief she found when she was in his arms.

Tessa pushed the door open wider but paused when she found Sophia sound asleep. She felt Zach before she heard him. He stood close behind her, his heat and presence overwhelming Tessa’s resolve. With his hand on the doorjamb over her head, he murmured, “I think she was overtired.” His words tingled over her neck. “You were right. Between the sun and the surf, she was one toasted little marshmallow.”

That made Tessa chuckle. “I see a lot of you in her.”

“You do?”

Tessa nodded. “When you two were asleep, your profiles aligned. I used to only see Corrine, but now that I know you…”

Now that she knew him, all her plans had been shot to hell, and her future looked like the aftermath of a tornado.

She sighed and lowered the cup. Zach’s hand slid down her arm. God, how she wanted to turn into his arms.

“I didn’t,” she told him, returning to the Pegasus topic, “…do it on purpose, I mean. But I’ll admit that when I saw it in the backseat, I did waffle on whether or not to bring it back.”

His hand slipped around her waist and pulled her into a familiar and exciting fit against him. “What made you decide to keep it?”

“Time, really,” she only partially lied. “I looked at the clock and realized I had to choose between getting it back to her or making my meeting on time.”

He chuckled. “Life’s unrelenting way of making us choose between the things we love.”

She tilted her head and looked over her shoulder at him, trying to decide if that had been an authentic musing or a deliberate cut. His gaze was on Sophia, and the flicker of pain Tessa saw provided her answer.

“Tonight was an eye-opener for me,” he said, his voice soft. “For the first hour, I was in a panic with no idea how to help her. The second hour, I was exhausted over my inability to cope. But the last hour…” He drifted for a moment. “The last hour was…powerful.”

She leaned her head against his shoulder. “What do you mean?”

“I didn’t think I could handle it, you know? Thought Kerry and Candy were right about me having a kid. I mean, hell…”

Tessa’s stomach pinched with guilt. She might not have purposely set him up to fail, but she hadn’t gone out of her way to make sure he’d succeed either. And didn’t that make her just as bad as the women on the beach—discounting his ability to care for his own child just because he didn’t have the experience?

That wasn’t looking out for Sophia’s best interest.

“What changed?” she asked.

He sighed, shrugged. “I guess my stubbornness just won out because her energy stores were low. I tried everything I could imagine. I asked her what she wanted. I googled shit on my phone. Damn.” He chuckled, “I’m lucky the kid can talk. I just kept reading and reading. I never want to hear about a pigeon again.”

That made Tessa laugh. She stroked her hand over his forearm wrapped around her waist. “All parents are inexperienced the first time around. And this situation is more challenging than most.” She sighed and closed her eyes against the desire throbbing at the center of her body. “In so many ways. Too many ways.”

He groaned, wrapped his other arm around her, and pressed his face against her neck, kissing her there. “How’d your meeting go?”

She sighed and leaned into him. “We’re running up against some opposition.” She hadn’t had someone to talk about work with for a long time. Not since her last boyfriend, two years before. And she was warmed by his interest. “I knew we would. There’s never a bill that pleases everyone. I just wish it hadn’t happened now, while I’m away. Or when we’re so close to introducing it.”

He kissed her again, closer to her ear and shooting tingles across her skin. “I have a surefire way to eradicate stress.”

She laughed, but the sound came out husky and lust laced. “That you do.”

Tessa forced herself to pull out of his grasp and rubbed her eyes as she wandered into the living room. God, she was tired. But beyond just sleepy, Tessa was worn out. She rounded the sofa, putting the furniture between them, as if that would help her self-control. Pressing her hands to the edge of the couch, she looked out at the night through the windows.

“I know this thing between us is just sex and it’s no big deal,” Tessa told him. At least that was how Corinne and her friends had always seen it. And how Zach had always lived his life. He wandered toward her, all muscled bare chest and tight abs. She swallowed and looked away again. “But it doesn’t make sense to let it go on. We have a good thing here—you and Sophia, me and Sophia. It’s important to hold on to that. Especially now that we’ll be—”

Zach had rounded the sofa and come up behind her. His warm hands stroked over her shoulders, down her arms, and snaked around her body. The words “leaving soon” evaporated on her tongue.

“Don’t try to fix something that’s not broken,” he murmured at her ear, his voice carrying a lusty rasp. His hands flattened on her belly and pulled her ass against his growing erection. “And this ain’t broken. It’s also not just sex.”

Her heart jumped. When she turned her head to read his expression, he grinned and said, “It’s amazing sex.”

Tessa rolled her eyes and huffed a laugh, but disappointment pinched her gut. Irrational disappointment. Maybe she was creating a problem where there wasn’t one. She lived her life by so many rules. Tonight, Zach had proven that there were other ways of getting results.

His hands slid down her belly, around her hips, and down the outsides of her thighs. He pressed a kiss to her shoulder while his fingers slipped under the hem of her skirt and slid it upward. “I can’t believe how hot this whole über-professional look makes me.”

As his hands rose on her thighs, she gripped the cushions of the sofa with both hands and tipped her head to lean it against his. “Me either. Sure doesn’t turn on anyone else.”

“Idiots with no imagination. And I know how red-hot you are underneath.”

His big, warm hands cupped her ass. He growled with approval and leaned over her, finding her mouth with his. As soon as his hungry tongue plunged between her lips, Tessa knew her control was as toasted as Sophia’s marshmallow. And as he squeezed and caressed her ass, Tessa promised herself she wouldn’t hold on to any fantasy of this happening again after she returned home. Promised herself she wouldn’t be jealous when he found the next woman in his life. Promised herself she wouldn’t allow her own feelings to hurt Sophia’s relationship with her father…

Sophia.

Tessa broke the kiss, fighting to clear the sexual haze. She darted a look at the bedroom door. It remained open just a couple of inches, and she sighed in relief. “Zach, Sophia’s—”

“Out like a rock.” He turned her to face him and lifted her butt to the back ledge of the sofa. “But feel free to watch the door.” He slid his fingers beneath the edge of her panties and lowered them over her hips, then dropped to his knees in front of her. He held her gaze as he spread her thighs. “My attention is needed elsewhere.”

Tessa’s fingers dug into the ledge at her hips. Her heartbeat spiked. “Zach…”

His gaze lowered to her body with a look so ravenous, her sex surged with need. Tessa glanced over her shoulder toward Sophia’s room and the still mostly closed door.

Then Zach’s mouth covered her. Heat and pressure shot sensation hip to hip. “Ah God.” Her eyes closed. Her back arched. Her head fell back. “Zach…”

He groaned, his mouth growing more aggressive, his tongue working her opening in the most erotic swaths and plunges. He sucked and nuzzled and licked and scraped until Tessa released the sofa with one hand to bury her fingers in his hair. “Fuck…”

Tessa’s chest tightened, her stomach clenched. She leaned into the hand against the sofa, lifting her hips toward the source of pleasure. When she opened her eyes, she found his already latched on to hers, his face buried between her legs, sucking and licking and making her head swim. His eyes were dark and hot, his expression blissfully hungry.

Tension coiled and coiled and coiled. He could take her from zero to orgasm in mere minutes. And not just any fleeting orgasm, but bone-deep pleasure that altered her view of life and reality. “Oh my God.”

He moaned against her and the sound shivered over her sex. His fingers dug into the flesh of her thighs, pressing her open, giving him complete control.

“Fuck, Zach…” The orgasm rose like one of those pipeline waves he mastered, and he rode Tessa with his mouth as expertly as he rode the ocean—into a smooth, thrilling peak that shuddered through her so hard, her muscles clenched and bowed and quivered with ecstasy.

A sound erupted from her throat before she could catch it, but she cut it short by clenching her teeth and growling.

She floated on the bliss created in the wave of the release, her muscles lax, her body languid. Zach’s mouth softened and pulled away. He blew softly on her swollen, wet tissues, shooting tingles across her sex that made her moan a laugh. Releasing her thighs, he laid them on his shoulders and lifted his gaze to hers.

“I could eat you all night.”

His words pushed another rush of excitement straight between her legs while Tessa’s head was still spinning. She loosened her fingers and combed them through his hair. His fingers stroked her opening, sliding through her wetness and making her shiver. He brought those fingers to his mouth, sucking off her essence while his gaze held on hers, telling her he wanted lots more. While his fingers were still in his mouth, his other hand moved in, and two thick fingers plunged deep inside her.

Tessa drew a sharp breath as pressure and a fresh wave of excitement pulsed through her. His gaze lowered to her sex, watching his fingers penetrate and dig and manipulate. The eroticism of being splayed open at eye level while he controlled her pleasure intoxicated her.

“Zach…” she breathed his name. “God…”

“You know what I think?” he murmured, his fingers sliding smoothly in and out of her body. “I think you like letting go of control.” Tessa couldn’t speak. Her mind wouldn’t form a coherent thought, and her mouth wouldn’t form understandable words. Her body ruled her. Her need for the intense pleasure he delivered overwhelmed her. “I think you’ve spent so long controlling life and serving others”—his gaze lifted to hers and held—“that I think it turns you on to be controlled. To be served.”

Yes. God yes. All she managed was a groan of need.

“I’m going to serve you tonight, Tessa.” His voice was low and smooth, and the confident tone zinged excitement through her body. “I’m going to serve you and serve you and serve you until you cry for relief from the pleasure.” His fingers plunged deep and moved inside her, teasing, rhythmic pressure that created a hot ball of ecstasy at the center of her pelvis. One that grew and grew and grew until she writhed against his hand, needing more. Needing relief. “I’m going to take control, and I’m going to deliver.”

“Fuck, yes…” Her own hoarse whisper touched her ears and embarrassed her. But she couldn’t hold back. He made her insane.

His free hand traveled up her body, clutched her breast, and squeezed hard, matching the clench of his jaw as he growled under his breath. Then continued up her neck, under her hair, and around her nape, where he clasped on and tilted her head down. “Look at me, Tessa. Look at me while I serve you.”

He plunged deep again, until his knuckles pressed against her body, then twisted his hand and ground against her, drenching her sex in heat and pleasure. Her eyes rolled back, her mouth dropped open. Over and over and over, plunge, twist, grind.

“Fuck…” The ecstasy was almost painful, and she couldn’t hold back the sounds rolling from her throat. When it finally peaked, Zach’s hand came off her neck and covered her mouth.

The orgasm shuddered through her body. She fell forward, holding fast to the sofa, and dropped her head against Zach’s for support. But she barely had a second to rest there before he was moving again. He stood and reached for the waistband of his board shorts with one hand and his wallet with the other.

Tessa’s brain was so fried, by the time she’d recovered enough to realize she should help with one or the other, Zach was rolling the condom on his engorged cock. Tessa sighed in appreciation and reached out to stroke him. Zach barely gave her time before he slipped his hands around her thighs, pulled her ass to the edge of the sofa ledge, and sank into her.

Even knowing what was coming didn’t prepare Tessa for the luxurious stretch and burn. She choked out a moan as he sank home and stilled. Head hung, panting, he rested his forehead on her shoulder.

“Fucking perfect,” he whispered. Zach lifted his head and looked into her eyes. Deeply studied them as if he were searching for something. His gaze flicked over her shoulder and held a millisecond on the door to Sophia’s room. Then he pulled his hips back and thrust, driving his cock home with enough delicious friction to make a cry roll from her lips.

He leaned in, wrapped one arm around her neck, pulling her close while his hand covered her mouth. “Don’t wake Sophia. I don’t want to share you tonight.”

His words warmed her in ways her lust-soaked brain couldn’t comprehend. And the way he imprisoned her, his hand over her mouth, his other arm wrapped tight at her hips, his cock driving pleasure through her body with each stroke at a speed and depth he dictated, created a wild flash of excitement deep in her body. A flash that erupted on his next thrust. The orgasm was sharp, intense, and totally unexpected, cutting through her in a sharp it stole her air. Her eyes squeezed closed as the pleasure ripped her in two and fire spread through her body. She felt her own moans rumble in her chest while her blood pounded in her ears.

When the ecstasy subsided, she realized that Zach had stilled, his cock buried deep, still thick and hard, burning heat through her sex, her fingers cramped where they sank into the flesh at his hips. She opened her eyes and found his blue irises watching, dark with lust. A little smile twitched at his lips. A little smug. A lot sexy. “I think someone likes being controlled.”

What?

Her mind balked at the idea. Letting go, maybe. But controlled? No. That was not her. She shook her head.

His smile deepened. “No?”

He released her, uncovering her mouth and letting go of her waist. Tessa caught her breath while his hands stroked down her arms. His fingers curled around both her wrists. He dragged her fingers off his hips, then pushed them behind her, where he closed one hand around both wrists, trapping her hands and drawing them back until her shoulders ached and her back arched to relieve the pressure.

Then his free hand combed through her hair in a luxuriously slow stroke before closing around the strands and drawing her head back. He covered her sound of surprise and pain with his mouth. His tongue took everything and demanding more, eating at her with a hunger that stole her breath. An intensity that ignited her body. The pull in her shoulders, the burn in her scalp…excited her. Zach’s show of dominance and passion…thrilled her. A well of untapped lust broke open and poured through her body, and Tessa whimpered for more.

Zach broke the kiss with a deep lecherous chuckle that stoked fire in her blood. “I’m more than happy to take over.”

His humor vanished as quickly as it had flared. He pulled on her hair again until she hissed a breath through her teeth. Then his hand stroked over her jaw and rounded her throat, holding there.

“I’ve never felt like this.” He held her gaze a long, deep moment while his hand squeezed and released the flesh of her throat. “Like I want to…”

Her breath caught. Lust spurted between her legs and her sex tightened around his cock. Zach’s eyes closed and his nostrils flared as he exhaled heavily. Then his hips rocked, and need backed up in Tessa’s throat.

“Like you want to what?” she prodded in a rasp.

When his eyes opened, they were so dark, it seemed like his pupils had taken over completely. “Like I want to feel the vibration of your voice under my hand again.”

“Zach…”

His nostrils flared, and he caressed the entire column with a heavy, constricting hand.

“Yeah,” he whispered, watching his hand move. “Like that. Like I want to feel it as you scream to climax. As you scream my name.”

This was a wild turn-on. One she didn’t understand. Didn’t want to take the time to understand. She just wanted him to take possession of her. Own her. Body and soul.

“But, we’ll have to save that for another time,” he murmured, his voice so low, so rough, so fucking sexy. “Our baby’s sleeping.”

The tender use of the words “our baby” opened a soft spot inside Tessa, winding with the wild lust and tugging at a deep, deep place inside her. One she hadn’t visited in decades. One that made her feel wanted. Wanted down to her bones.

His hand dropped from her throat and caressed one breast, then the other, where he molded and squeezed, making Tessa whimper, arch, and rock her hips.

“Mmm.” His growl sounded as he lowered his head and opened his mouth over her clothed breast. His teeth bit down. The material took most of the sting out of the rough gesture, leaving a pinch and pressure that made Tessa arch toward him.

She dropped her head back to relieve the pressure on her neck and shoulders, and Zach pushed her blouse and bra out of the way, closing his mouth around her flesh this time. By the time Tessa cried out, his hand was clasped over her mouth again, holding her head there.

She couldn’t imagine feeling more controlled. Her legs spread, her back arched, her voice stripped. She felt vulnerable and sexy, and a thrill snaked through her in a shiver.

Zach devoured her like a lion would attack a steak. His teeth bit into her breast before scraping over the skin. Her hot cry pillowed against his heavy hand, and he showed no mercy as he ate at her breast as if it were a delicacy. Every pinch of his teeth, every stroke of his tongue, every suck of his lips could have been directly between her legs. And even though she rocked her hips against his, begging for his powerful thrust, he remained deeply imbedded in her, stone still while she was anything but. She clenched and released him, rocked and lifted.

“Zach…” she whimpered, working toward a release just out of reach while he moved his mouth to the other breast and feasted. “Zach… Ah.”

Pleasure swamped her on a wave, carrying her higher, higher, higher before it crashed, wringing excitement through her.

As she slid toward reality, catching her breath, Zach released her wrists and cupped her face with both hands. When she managed to open her eyes, she found his gaze hot and intense. “I’m so fucking crazy about you.”

Her heart jumped, and pleasure spread through her chest. That hadn’t been what she’d expected him to say. In fact, it confused her. She tried to stop the spin of her mind. “Wh-what?”

He stroked her face with his thumbs while he dropped hot, sultry kisses to her lips. “You’re so beautiful.” His hips rocked, stroking his cock into her body. “So beautiful.”

His eyes closed; his thrusts quickened. He pressed his forehead to her cheek, wrapped his arms low on her waist, and held her hips steady as he fucked her, fast and deep. Tessa combed her hands through his hair, locked her arms behind his neck, and kissed his throat. And despite what he’d already put her through, her body responded.

“God…” she choked. The pleasure he pulled from her was unbelievable. And this time when she came, he was right there with her.

His handsome face glistened with sweat, his features creased with intense pleasure. “Fuck, Tessa,” he rasped, dropping his head to press his mouth to her shoulder, muffling his guttural growls of release.

His muscles went lax as he leaned his weight against her. Tessa lowered one hand to the ledge of the sofa, helping to steady herself.

She looked over her shoulder and found the door to Sophia’s room still closed. That let Tessa relax into the momentary bliss. She stroked her hands over his back and scored him with her nails, drawing a moan from his throat. Tessa smiled and tilted her head to whisper, “I could sleep with you in the other bedroom for a while. Move over to Sophia’s room before she wakes up.”

He lifted his head and looked at her with heavy lids and a sated expression. One hand stroked over her hair, the other touched her face. And he smiled. A sleepy, happy smile that warmed her. “That sounds like heaven.”