Fourteen
“Pen, hang on.”
The moment they’d exited Zach’s parents’ house, Pen marched down the driveway, fists at her sides.
“Wait.” Zach caught her easily, snagging her biceps with a gentle hand and spinning her to face him. He was grinning and she glared at the dimple rather than admire it. Nothing about this evening had been funny.
“They hate me.”
“No, they don’t.”
“Your mother hates me.”
“No, she doesn’t. She’s just...in shock. Not everyone is going to take this news as well as we did.”
“I didn’t take it well. I avoided you for three days and drafted nine PR plans before I decided I couldn’t make one until I told the father of my child I was having his baby!”
Zach’s emerald eyes darkened when he tugged her closer, his grip tight but tender. She’d been battling fatigue, nausea and dizziness for weeks, but now it seemed the worst was behind her. The sexual tension that existed between them returned.
“You handling Eleanor Ferguson was quite possibly the sexiest moment I’ve ever witnessed.”
Some of the fire went out of her. “Ever?”
His grin widened. “No. Not ever. Why don’t I take you home and we can try for a new sexiest moment ever?”
“It’s been a while.”
“I know.”
“You haven’t complained.” He’d been damn near angelic.
“I know.”
She took a few steps closer in heels he hadn’t bitched about tonight. Her shoes were a battle he’d allowed her to win. She fingered his collar and slipped her other hand down his buttoned shirt and over his black slacks.
A low grunt came from his throat when she pressed her lips to his, continuing her intimate massage down below. A few firm strokes and soon that part of him was much bigger than before.
He deepened their kiss, hands coming around to cup her ass. Every firm inch of him was flush against her and her hormones perked up.
“Zach.” The breathy lilt of her voice was one she’d forgotten she’d possessed. “How about we take the car out in the yard and see if I can’t break the sexiest moment record here.”
“In the car?” His voice took on a husky quality and she laughed.
“Don’t tell me you’ve never had a girl go down on you in a car.”
“Not a girl as classy as you are,” he all but growled.
“Good.” She put a teasing kiss on the center of his mouth. “I love being first.”
He wasn’t wearing a tie, so she settled for dragging him to his car by the shirtsleeve. Zach followed, wide steps allowing for the part of him currently cheering the most for Pen’s bold offer.
She liked that she had the power to affect him. It made her feel as if she could do anything. It made her feel like the woman she’d been before Cliff strangled her business into submission.
Zach put the car in gear and drove them behind the house and to the back of the grounds where trimmed trees and perfectly clipped grass met elegantly arranged flowers and shrubberies that were works of art.
“Your mom’s going to freak about the landscaping when she sees the tire treads.”
“First.” Zach turned off the car and rolled the windows down. “That’s the last time you mention my mom tonight. Second. I can’t think of a second because my brains have relocated to my crotch.”
“Hmm.” Pen stifled her laughter to take advantage of the very sexy scene this created. Bucket leather seats, windows down, a warm Texas breeze heating the interior of the car and covering her neck in a light sheet of sweat where her hair fell. “I’m going to have to get a closer look to confirm.”
Nothing felt better than turning him on. He wore lust so baldly—the flare of his nostrils, the widening of his pupils.
She undid his belt and released the clasp on his slacks. He was hard and ready, and when she slipped the waistband of his boxers past his erection, she licked her lips.
“You’re doing that on purpose.”
“Well. Yes.” She rolled her eyes and he crushed another kiss onto her lips before she pulled away and lowered her head. She took him on her tongue, guiding his length deep into her mouth. His legs went rigid, knees locking as she continued working him over. His utterances were a mixture of swear words, reverent callouts to the Almighty, and incoherent groans. Just when she was starting to enjoy herself, he tugged her up and pressed another kiss onto her lips.
“Don’t you dare move.”
He jerked his pants over his hips and came around to her side of the car, pulling the door open and offering his hand like a prince helping her from a carriage. Except his pants were sagging open, his erection outlined by the tails of his untucked, wrinkled white shirt.
“No laughing,” he warned.
She didn’t laugh, and when the heels of her shoes sank into the soft earth, she kicked them off. Zach maneuvered them to a particularly soft patch of grass surrounded by bushes.
He hoisted her dress over her head, tossed her bra aside and gently lowered her to the ground. He kissed her nipples, leaving them to pucker in the breeze while he unbuttoned his shirt and whipped it off his shoulders. Pants around his thighs, he didn’t bother taking them off, and she couldn’t think of a single reason he should.
She peeled her thong down her legs, ready for him and grateful to avoid another delay.
He slipped inside her, dropping his forehead to hers and letting out what might be a shudder. She tilted her hips and closed her eyes, head tossed back to appreciate the way she felt whenever he was inside her.
Full.
No.
Whole.
Her eyes flew open to meet his and he started moving again. Slowly, fluidly. Pumping in and out at a rhythm he set and she easily matched. Never had sex felt this intimate before Zach—before now. She reminded herself that her rounding belly and raging hormones were responsible for a plethora of emotions she hadn’t experienced before.
Until he said, “You’ve never been more beautiful than you are now.”
She pressed her fingertips to his mouth and he gave them a playful nip.
“You’re saying that,” she breathed as she braced for another sensual slide, “because you have to.”
“I’m saying that—” another harsh breath from him blew her hair from her forehead “—because it’s the truth.”
She pushed on his chest. “On your back, cowboy.”
His pause was momentary, but a second later he cupped her head and hip and, keeping them joined, shifted so that he was on his back instead.
“Impressive move with your pants around your knees.” She smiled down at him.
“Thank ya, ma’am.”
She rolled her eyes as he tipped a pretend cowboy hat, but his good humor erased when she pushed his chest to leverage herself up, and sank down on him again.
A hiss of air came from between his teeth, but he didn’t close his eyes. No, he kept them right on her as she moved. His hands covered her breasts, his hips rising to meet hers.
And when her orgasm all but shattered her, Zach caught her against him, holding her hair from her face as he kissed her. He tilted his hips while she held on to the moving earth and then he came inside her.
The only sounds in the garden were crickets humming, the distant bark of a dog and Zach’s father’s shout on the air.
* * *
“Seriously?” The Zen of Penelope’s orgasm washed away as her eyes went wide, her hands covering her breasts.
He let out a laugh. She speared him with a murderous glare before looking over her shoulder. He’d driven them deep into the gardens at the side of the house, so all his old man had seen—or could currently see—was the black blob of Zach’s car.
And he and Pen were safely hidden on one side of it.
He sat up, keeping their connection as a tremor ran down his spine. Damn, he could have used a few more minutes to Zen out with her. Cradling her face, he gave her a swift kiss. Unfortunately, timing was of the essence before Rider called the cops.
“Get dressed,” Zach told Pen. “I’ll handle this.”
Not since he was sixteen had he been caught with his pants around his ankles, and he wasn’t starting today. He yanked them up, buckling his belt and pushing a hand through his hair.
He snatched his shirt off the ground and turned to find Pen, grass in her hair, roll her tiny scrap of a pair of panties up those long, golden legs.
He lifted her dress off the ground and handed it to her, noticing the grass stain a microsecond before she did. She merely shook her head and pulled it on, tugging it down and wadding the bra in her hand while Zach stepped into his shoes.
He spared one last glance the second his dad turned on the floodlight, enough to see her grow a little more irked, and in the process, a whole lot more beautiful.
Who knew that could happen?
“Zach?” his dad bellowed.
“It’s me!” he called back. “Don’t shoot!” He was only half kidding. From what he could see, Rider wasn’t carrying a shotgun, but one could never be too careful.
So much for his parents never using this part of the house. He’d been sure this side was left to the staff or only opened up for parties.
His father strolled into the yard. Zach approached while he finished buttoning his white collared shirt.
“What in Sam hell are you doing?” Rider asked, his voice filled with mirth. “Trying to give me another heart attack? Because if your mother knew you were out here having sex in the petunias, she’d make sure I had one.”
Rider turned to look over his shoulder but only briefly. They both knew Eleanor was in her bath by now with the TV on and a magazine in hand.
“I don’t think those were petunias,” Zach said in response.
“You two have your own place and you’re carrying on like teenagers.” His father sent a look over to the car where Pen sat in the front seat, elbow on the window, one hand hiding her face. “She knows I know that’s her, right?”
“Yeah. She does.” His own gaze lingered there a moment before he bid his dad adieu. “I’ll pay to repair the lawn.”
“You know I don’t give a shit about that.” Rider chuckled. “Get your girl home. Continue what you started indoors.”
Zach’s back straightened on his walk to the car, his swagger taking over. He was proud that this woman was with him. And that she’d offered to do dastardly things outside with him. Pen embodied the motto “work hard, play hard.” He liked that a hell of a lot.
Zach reached the car and Rider called out, “’Night, Penny!” His loud boom of a guffaw heard as clear as day.
When Zach sank into his leather seat, Pen watched him for a solid thirty seconds. Fine by him. It gave him a moment to rebutton his shirt since he’d done it wrong on the walk over to his dad. He adjusted his seat belt and started the car, aware of her watching him the entire time.
“What?”
“Now your mom definitely hates me.”
“She has no idea. Dad won’t tell her.” He reversed the car and drove through the grass.
Pen went stone silent.
Zach grasped her chin and turned her to face him, his car idling at the gate of his parents’ gargantuan home. “I would never let her hate you. Give her time.”
Pen’s blue eyes softened with worry.
“I mean it. Give her a little time and she’ll love you as much as my dad does.”
He pulled out of the driveway and onto the street, the words he’d said wending around his brain. He’d meant them. Everyone loved Penelope—her clients, his siblings, his dad.
Do you? came the unplanned thought.
But that kind of love was different—he’d learned long ago that loving with his full heart wasn’t rewarded. He wouldn’t make that mistake again.
He drove home, arm leaning on his open window and the summer air blowing his hair.
Some thoughts were best left unexplored.