CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Sloane
“We’ve lost electricity.”
Zane was still inside me, our bodies curled together, his dick pulsing. “Is that it? I thought that last climax caused me to go blind.”
I laughed and snuggled into his warmth. I didn’t want to say anything to disrupt our postcoital bliss, but the loss of power caused me to worry. “Marcus said the water will still work, didn’t he?”
He held me even tighter. “He did. It won’t be heated, but it will be wet. If you need to shower, I’d do it now while any heat in it lasts.”
I absolutely needed a shower. “I think I’ll do that.” Grabbing one of the battery-operated candles, I slid off Zane and padded into the bathroom.
“Bring a wet washcloth back for me, would you?”
I looked at the man still laid out on the bed, hands under his head, looking handsome as hell. “Sure, I’ll come back and clean you all up.”
“I can’t wait.” His smile went from one ear to the other.
Going to the bathroom, the candle’s glow filled the small room with a yellow hue that made shadows dance in every corner. Alone, I could hear the storm screaming on the other side of the wall, and for the first time, fear curdled in my stomach.
Not fear, exactly. Just worry. Concern.
For the briefest of moments, nagging doubt filled my mind.
Would I make it out of this alive?
I thought of all the people who’d lived through a real hurricane, and how horrifying that experience must’ve been, and told myself to not get overly dramatic. But I knew it wasn’t the storm outside I feared.
Jumping into the shower, I washed quickly, being gentle between my legs. I was getting sore. I toweled off and pulled on the complimentary robe, then brushed my teeth as I relived every beautiful moment with Zane.
Not forgetting his washcloth, I wet one for him, using the last of the warm water. His eyes were closed when I padded back to the bed. He stirred, smiling at me as I washed him off, enjoying the simple, caring task.
Looking at his body, I felt a sense of ownership I’d never felt with any other man. He belonged to me, and I wanted to take care of him the same way he wanted to take care of me. Doing something so simple helped me understand him a bit more.
My gaze ran up his body then to his face, his eyes closed again. He was so handsome it made tears spring up in my eyes. Everything about the man was gorgeous to me. Could he really be mine?
It almost seemed too good to be true.
Leaving him, I went to peek out the window and shuddered as the rain and wind tore at the beautiful island. Tightening the belt of my robe, I let the curtain fall closed and went in search of something to eat, settling on a fresh glass of wine and some cubes of cheese, crackers, and fruit then went back to the window and faced my fear of the storm.
When I was young, I was deathly afraid of spiders. All of them, even the harmless ones. I’d run, screaming like my tail was on fire the moment one appeared. After years of my overly dramatic behavior, my father decided I needed to face my fears.
He picked up a daddy longlegs one afternoon and told me to come to him. He promised it wouldn’t bite me. I didn’t care. I was scared, and I wasn’t about to come close to him and the thing he held in the palm of his hand.
After much coaxing, he got me to come to him and placed that spider in my hand. I nearly jumped out of my skin at first, but then I felt how the legs tickled my palm and saw how it was kind of like a work of art. Long, multi-jointed legs and a small round body at the apex. And Daddy was right. It didn’t hurt me. It didn’t do anything to me.
Dad showed me pictures of the spiders that were harmless and the ones that were not. I began to find them beautiful, and the fear faded after a while. Not so much that I ever wanted one as a pet but enough that I didn’t embarrass myself if one crept into sight.
Maybe I could find the beauty in the fierce storm too.
The wind whipped the rain in all kinds of directions, even straight up as it moved up the building at times. The lightning looked like long fingers as it branched out both across the sky and down to the ground.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
I turned to find Zane up on an elbow. My lips curved into a smile at just the sight of him. “I think so.”
“Kind of scary too, huh?”
I nodded then sipped the wine. Taking the platter of food, I went to him, placing it on the bed between us. Picking up the bottle of wine, I filled his glass. He sat up, facing me. Running his hands under the robe, he pushed it apart, making the belt come untied. He pulled the belt all the way out of the loops. “Uh, oh, did I accidently get dressed?”
“It appears so.” But he left the robe where it was after strategically opening it enough to see a nipple. Yeah, he was sexy as all hell, but he was still a man.
“Are you okay?” I asked him.
He smiled and linked his fingers through mine. “Very. It just amazes me how beautiful you are. No makeup. Wet hair. You seem to just glow with perfection. It’s hard for me to remember a time I haven’t loved you. It’s as if you’ve always been there, lingering just beneath the surface.”
We took turns feeding each other grapes then drinking the wine we’d forgotten about earlier. And it may as well have been the first time for me. With Zane, things felt different. I didn’t know exactly what to call our type of sex. Making love seemed too sweet, fucking seemed too harsh. Somehow, we managed to mix it all up and make it our own.
It was only six in the evening, but the sun had been completely obliterated by the dark storm clouds, making it dark as night. Back before technology came along, one would think the apocalypse was upon us. We were lucky, we knew the storm would end. Only I didn’t want it to end.
I wanted us to stay right where we were, safe from the world and all that was trying to destroy us. Like a kid who never wanted to grow up, I never wanted the fantasy I’d found with Zane to end.
In our little room, we could play with each other, live out all kinds of sexual fantasies, and pretend we were the only two people in the world. In a twist of nature, it was the storm outside keeping us safe from harm.
Zane grew quiet again, and I grew concerned. “What’s wrong?” I asked him, stroking his face with my finger.
“I’ve just been trying to think about how to make all this work between us. I mean, you already have your career going and you love your job. I never cared for anything that much. But I like the whole idea of being an agent.” He glanced up at me, as if measuring my reaction. “Maybe working with you.”
I smiled. “Really?”
He looked surprised that I hadn’t laughed at him, so he went on. “How does one become an FBI agent?”
I watched the wine swirl in my glass. “Well, it all starts with a college degree, at least a Bachelor’s, but it’s better if you have even higher degrees than that. I had a Bachelor’s in Criminology when I began the application process. While I was in school, I also did my internship at the local police station. I was just a dispatcher, but I learned a lot.”
“You knew you wanted a career with the FBI for a long time, didn’t you?”
I nodded, smiling at the memory. “My father’s hometown was Fort Worth, Texas. His father was the sheriff there. I have all sorts of pictures with them both when they were in the Mounted Posse. I didn’t get to know my granddad until I was twelve. That was the first time Dad took us back to the place he grew up. I never got to see my grandfather in action, he was retired by then. But he had lots of stories, and my father had some good ones too from when he was a deputy.”
“Is your father still in law enforcement?”
“No. My mother is from Queens, but she and her family were on vacation, traveling across the country to take in some of the big cities. Fort Worth was one of their stops. They fell in love the weekend she spent there. They did the long-distance thing for a while, writing letters before he finally moved to New York. She begged him not to be in law enforcement. She thought it was too dangerous.”
He chuckled. “How’d she take you getting into the FBI then?”
That wasn’t a memory I wanted to recall — ever.
“Badly, of course, but I couldn’t let Mom’s fear detour my dream. I made the best grades I could in school and applied to the University of Texas, a college where many applicants of the FBI attend. That’s what my grandfather had told me to do. He’s the one who got me on the path I needed to be on.”
He pushed my hair back from my face, looking at me with genuine admiration. “You’re amazing, Sloane Anderson. Being a woman, I bet you came up against a lot of asshole men who thought you should do something else with your life.”
Another bad memory. “Once I got into the academy, it wasn’t just the men who tried to break me, the women did too. I was small compared to some of those amazons, so I worked harder, got in the best shape possible. And learned all I could so I wouldn’t get stuck at a desk once I finished the academy.”
He ran his fingers over my abs. “Yeah, you have proof to just how hard you have worked.”
I couldn’t help but be proud. I’d worked my ass off trying to be fit. “It’s been worth it. I’m still officially a rookie, so landing this assignment was a big deal.”
A big deal I can’t screw up.
He squeezed my fingers. “I know it takes a certain kind of person to make a good agent. I don’t want you to think I’m being a dick when I ask you this.”
I was curious. “Ask me what?”
Trailing a finger up the middle of my stomach, his hand came to rest on my breast. “I happen to have a Master’s Degree in Law. I didn’t go past that. I never even tried to pass the bar exam. I lost interest. Would that kind of degree be helpful in getting through the application process?”
I didn’t mean to look so stunned, but I couldn’t get the stunned look to disappear from my face. Him? This playboy had a Master’s in law? “You think you’d like to become an agent?” He looked embarrassed and I forced myself to stop gaping at him. “Zane, look at me. Are you serious?”
He lifted a shoulder. “I loved helping you. I know I fucked everything up, but I loved doing it up until that point. With some training, I think I might be good at it. I’ve never wanted anything before. The law degree was something my parents thought I should get since I had no interest in anything else. Believe it or not, I’m smart. I can usually do anything I set my mind to. I’ve just never set my mind on anything. Until you came along. Now it seems I’ve got my mind set on you.”
They said to never judge a book by its cover, and no cliché could ever be more true than with the man in front of me. I traced his tattoo, thinking how truly special he was. “You do seem to be genuinely interested. I don’t see why you couldn’t apply. You’ll need a few years of work experience too.”
“Would interning in a law office suffice?”
I laughed. The surprises kept stacking up. “Have you got that under your belt too, Zane Boyd?”
“I do. I spent three years interning as an assistant in a New York law firm. Even though I didn’t want to be a lawyer, I loved the puzzle and challenge of law. Seeking out the truth, stuff like that.”
I leaned over and kissed him. “You are full of surprises, Mr. Playboy. Do you have more I should know?”
“Nope. That’s everything. Well, maybe not. In my search to find myself, I’ve tinkered with all kinds of things.”
“Like what?”
“Well, I’m a certified deep-sea diver, and I can weld underwater too.”
I shook my head, mesmerized by him. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope. Sounded interesting at the time.”
“Shit, Zane all those things are great. When you add in the fact you have a license to carry a concealed weapon, you just might pull this off. But what will your parents think about all this?”
He tucked some hair behind my ear, his eyes growing soft as he looked at me. “They’re going to be so fucking over the moon that I have a woman I love and a career, they’ll probably have a party.”
The thought of meeting Zane’s parents shook me to the core. The weather seemed to agree with me because the wind rattled the window.
“Listen to that wind, Zane. It sounds insane.”
He kissed my temple then my lips. “Yeah, it does.” He pushed me back onto the bed and stroked my nipple with his tongue. “But don’t worry, I’m happy to distract you.”
And distract me, he did.