CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Sitting on the couch in Sean’s living room later that evening, Zoe clutched her cell phone in her hand as the revealing conversation with Sean that morning played over in her mind like a bad horror movie—as it had on and off all day long.
After leaving the Onyx, she’d headed to the office with Sean in tow and done her best to concentrate on the work needing her attention. While Sean sat in the reception area and thumbed through magazines and took calls on his cell phone, she’d approved the jewelry and accessory samples she’d received for the new pieces in her fall collection for ZR Designs, then placed a large order to carry her through the holiday months. She finalized the drawings on the construction for the interior of the boutique, and after giving the okay to start the work on Thursday of that week she had the company e-mail her the names and identification for anyone who would be in her shop. She’d then forwarded the list to Nathan to run background security checks for those employees before they were allowed access inside her store.
She’d even managed to carve out a half hour of time for Jessica, who stopped by the office unannounced but came bearing their favorite treats—red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Grateful for the sugar boost and her presence when Zoe needed it the most, she brought Jessica up to speed on the latest with Grant, as well as his connection to Sean’s dad, then listened while Jessica told her all about her overnight date with Noah—which explained the glow on her cheeks, along with a bubbly, blissful disposition Zoe couldn’t help but be happy for but also secretly envied.
A phone call from a local reporter interested in writing an article on the opening of her boutique brought her too-short time with Jessica to an end, and by five o’clock that afternoon Zoe felt drained and exhausted, as though she’d worked an eighteen-hour day when, in fact, only six hours had passed since she’d arrived at the office.
Sean had driven her back to his place, and while she’d taken a hot, relaxing shower and changed into a pair of comfortable Juicy sweats, he’d grilled chicken and vegetables for their dinner and served it over steamed brown rice. The man could cook, something she’d appreciate more if she wasn’t so exhausted.
There was no outward animosity between them from that morning’s discussion. As far as Zoe was concerned, it was a waste of energy to dwell on something that was already done and couldn’t be changed.
But deep in her heart, in the part that had been steadily falling for Sean, she felt a normal amount of hurt and disappointment that he’d kept the truth from her. But she also understood that he’d been trying to protect her from the pain of knowing the extent of her father’s deception. And to Sean’s credit, he’d been man enough to apologize, to admit he’d been wrong.
For her, Sean’s ability to express regret, and mean it, was huge. Because the only other man she’d ever fallen in love with had lacked any kind of decency when it came to lying to her and, worse, betraying her trust. For nearly a year Ian Croft had carried on a long-distance affair with another woman, and even after Zoe had confronted him with proof of his infidelity he’d expressed no remorse or contrition for his behavior. Nor had he ever apologized for breaking her heart.
Instead, when she’d asked him why he’d cheated on her, Ian had simply told her that she was sweet and classy and good for his image as an attorney, while the other woman he spent time with on his business trips was the kind of woman he could fuck.
As far as explanations went, it was a huge blow to Zoe’s feminine pride, and his brutal comment had caused her to question her sexuality—until a pep talk with Jessica and a couple pints of Ben & Jerry’s had helped Zoe come to the conclusion of just how much of a self-centered asshole Ian was and that she deserved so much better than being some man’s arm candy.
She was smart enough to know that there were very few similarities between Ian and Sean, if any at all. Despite Sean’s withholding the truth about his father’s involvement with hers, Zoe instinctively knew that Sean would never deliberately hurt her. And that was what made all the difference in the world to her and made forgiveness possible.
Sean had insisted on doing the dinner dishes and was currently in the kitchen cleaning up, and while Zoe was tempted to call it an early night and crawl into bed and succumb to a deep sleep, there was one more thing she’d spent the entire day avoiding that she needed to take care of.
Before she changed her mind, she pressed the speed dial on her iPhone for her mother’s cell phone. Even before the line began to ring, Zoe’s stomach knotted in dread, because she knew the upcoming conversation wasn’t going to be a pleasant one. But talking to her mother was necessary, because Zoe needed to hear from Collette exactly what she knew of Grant’s arrest twelve years ago.
There was a three-hour time difference between Las Vegas and New York, where Collette was vacationing, which put it close to ten o’clock at night on the East Coast—as good a time as any to get the answers to the questions that had been on Zoe’s mind since that morning.
“Zoe!” her mother exclaimed breathlessly as soon as she connected the call, just seconds before it would have gone to voice mail. “Tell me you’ve finally heard from your father.”
Of course, the first thing on her mother’s mind was that damn missing alimony check. “No, I haven’t,” Zoe said, unable to keep the annoyance from her voice. “I called because I need to talk to you about Dad.”
“What about him?” Collette’s voice was clipped with impatience.
Zoe clutched her cell phone against her ear, already feeling the tension between herself and her mother rising, and knew it was going to get a lot worse. “About his arrest twelve years ago.”
A dead silence descended over the phone line. Zoe knew she’d caught her mother off guard, and it didn’t take Collette long to recover.
“Zoe, is this really necessary?” her mother asked, her tone brusque. “It’s late and I’m entertaining.”
“Yes, it’s very necessary.” Zoe refused to let her mother dismiss her or brush off something that was so important to her. Not this time.
“Fine. Give me a second.” Collette didn’t even try to disguise the fact that she felt put out by Zoe’s insistence on having this particular discussion with her.
Zoe glanced toward the kitchen, catching a glimpse of Sean as she listened to her mother tell someone that she needed to take this call and would be back in a few minutes. A male voice responded in the background, then a door shut, and Zoe’s mother was back on the line, more annoyed than she’d been a few moments ago.
“Why is this so important now, Zoe?”
“Because Dad isn’t on a business trip as he’s led everyone to believe,” she said, not mincing words but getting right to the point of the matter. “He’s gone missing, and he’s taken a lot of money with him. Money that doesn’t belong to him, but to the clients who invested in the Meridian project.”
“How do you know that?” her mother asked, her tone cautious.
“George at the office confirmed that checks are bouncing and money is missing from business accounts that only he and Dad have access to. There is also an investor claiming that Dad owes him millions of dollars.”
“Unbelievable,” Collette muttered in disgust. “I should have guessed something was up when I didn’t receive my alimony payment.”
Zoe shook her head at her mother’s inconsiderate attitude. Of course, for Collette, it was all about the money she was out. Never mind the hundreds of other people who’d trusted Grant Russo with their investments and were now left wondering if they’d ever see another dime from him.
The one thing that really stood out for Zoe was the fact that Collette wasn’t at all shocked by what her daughter had just told her—and Zoe called her on it. “You don’t sound surprised to learn that Dad was most likely operating a Ponzi scheme under the guise of taking investments to develop the Meridian project. Is that because he’s done it before and that’s why he was arrested twelve years ago?”
When Collette didn’t respond right away, Zoe went on, unloading the frustration that had been building within her. “I was only fifteen at the time, but I remember things, Mom. I remember loud, angry arguments between you and Dad about him being at the police station, and how he wanted you to take me to Europe for the summer to get me away from everything.”
Other memories came rushing back, painful ones that had opened Zoe’s eyes to just how manipulative and self-absorbed her mother truly was. Collette had agreed to take Zoe out of the country, for a price—Collette wanted a divorce, along with a hefty payout above and beyond monthly alimony. Zoe’s father had obviously wanted to protect her from the scandal of the arrest and trial, while her mother had used her daughter as a bargaining chip for monetary gain.
“Your father’s arrest was a misunderstanding,” her mother said, refusing to admit the truth even now.
“Dad’s arrest was legitimate,” Zoe refuted in a straightforward manner her mother couldn’t argue with. “But he cut a plea deal that sent his partner to jail for fifteen years, while Dad got off with a slap on the wrist in comparison.”
Out of the corner of Zoe’s eye she saw Sean in the kitchen again, and she knew he was done with the dishes but was giving her privacy to talk to her mother. Zoe wasn’t modifying the level of her voice at all, so she was certain he could overhear her side of the conversation—not that she cared. She had nothing to hide from Sean and wanted him to know she was on his side when it came to what had happened between her father and his.
“Fine. It’s true,” her mother replied irritably. “What does it matter now? It’s done and over with.”
“It’s not over with, Mom.” This time, Zoe’s voice did rise in pitch, and she didn’t even try to temper it. “Did you not hear what I just told you? That Dad is being accused of scamming people again? God knows how many lost their investments!”
“They aren’t my problem, Zoe. My missing alimony check is.”
Zoe’s jaw dropped open, and she promptly snapped it shut again, stunned by her mother’s careless reply—though she shouldn’t have been surprised. Collette didn’t possess the capability to feel empathy for anyone but herself.
“I need to go,” Zoe’s mother said, making it clear she was done with the conversation.
“Fine.” Zoe didn’t push the issue. There was no reasoning with her narcissistic mother, so why even try? “Goodbye, Mother.”
The line disconnected, and Zoe laid her head against the back of the sofa, closed her eyes, and released a heavy, defeated sigh. She’d called her mother hoping to get answers and closure, and instead Zoe had been forced to face the fact that Collette just didn’t care about what Grant Russo had done in the past or even was doing in the present. As long as it didn’t directly affect her in any way.
“I thought you could use some chocolate.”
Zoe opened her eyes to find Sean standing next to the couch, a plate stacked with brown squares in one hand, a glass of cold milk in the other, and a charming smile on his lips that instantly lifted her spirits.
She sat up and took a closer look at what he was offering and laughed. “Brownies? What did you do, whip up a batch while I was on the phone with my mom?”
He set the milk and treats on the coffee table within Zoe’s reach, then sat down on the sofa next to her. “I wish I could take the credit, but they’re store-bought.”
Regardless, she appreciated the sweet, thoughtful gesture after dealing with her mother’s cool and indifferent behavior. “Hey, it’s chocolate. It’ll do. Thank you.”
She picked up one of the squares and took a bite of the moist, fudgy cake, the taste immediately making her feel better. Or maybe it was Sean’s presence that calmed her. Either way, she was grateful for both, and that revealed far too much of her feelings toward Sean.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She heard the concern reflected in his deep voice and shrugged. “I should be used to my mother’s self-centered personality, but I just don’t understand how she can be so cavalier about something so serious that has hurt so many people. Twice now.”
Sean relaxed against the cushions and stretched an arm along the back of the couch, the tips of his fingers close enough to touch Zoe. “Maybe she’s that way because she’s been through all of this with your father before.”
“It’s just not normal.” Zoe took a drink of milk, knowing that Sean was giving her mother the benefit of the doubt. But Zoe knew Collette so much better than he did, and she didn’t deserve his consideration. “I know there’s nothing she can do about the things my father has done and she’s not responsible for his actions, but she can at least show a little compassion about the situation.”
Zoe set the glass of milk back down on the table and waved a hand in the air between them, refusing to let any further thoughts of her mother bring her down. “There’s no changing her, so I just need to let it go.”
But the one thing Zoe couldn’t stop thinking about was the fact that during her father’s arrest twelve years ago, while she’d spent the summer in Europe having fun, oblivious to her father’s trial and what he’d ultimately done to Casey O’Brien, she was pretty certain that for Sean there had been no escaping the painful trial process or listening as Grant Russo betrayed Sean’s father.
There was so much she didn’t know about Sean. Other than telling her that he was an only child and his mother had passed away when he’d been twelve, he never spoke of his past and childhood. But now Zoe was genuinely curious about how it had been for him, growing up without a mother and living with a father who’d ended up in jail by the time Sean had turned eighteen.
With the intention of getting the answers to her questions, she finished her brownie and felt a tug of awareness in her belly as Sean’s dark blue gaze watched her lick a smudge of chocolate from the corner of her mouth. As she remembered everything that had happened between them just that morning, the slow burn of renewed lust prickled along her skin.
Pushing aside her sudden craving for more than just chocolate, she offered Sean a smile that would, she hoped, encourage him to open up to her. “What was your childhood like?”
Sean frowned at Zoe’s unexpected question and the genuine interest glimmering in her eyes. Just a moment ago the air in the living room had been thick with the erotic memories of what had transpired between them this morning and everything that hadn’t. While he was grateful for a change in topic, he wasn’t thrilled about the subject she’d chosen. He wasn’t comfortable talking about himself, especially his past and childhood.
“Why does it matter?” he asked, unable to mask the reluctance in his voice.
She shifted on the couch, tucking her legs beneath her and turning so that she was facing him straight on. “It couldn’t have been easy, having your mother die when you were twelve. Were your parents married at the time?”
God, Sean so didn’t want to have this too-personal discussion with Zoe. He didn’t come from a conventional family, nor did he have a traditional kind of upbringing. Far from it. He’d been raised by a con man and turned into one himself. He had a criminal record that would never be erased, mistakes he’d made that could never be forgiven, and his father was serving a fifteen-year term in prison for investment fraud. There was nothing pleasant about Sean’s youth or the man he’d been shaped into because of his father’s lifestyle.
She was waiting patiently for Sean to respond. Her expression was soft, caring, and kind. He didn’t deserve any of it. Zoe Russo was much too good for him, and she didn’t have the good sense to keep her distance from a man who was all wrong for her, in so many ways. This morning’s tryst proved as much, that she was opening herself up to him and setting herself up for heartache in the end.
As much as he wanted to get up and walk away from the dreaded conversation, he saw it as the perfect opportunity to get the truth out in the open, all of it, and show her exactly what kind of man he was. And if Zoe was smart, which he knew she was, she’d shore up those walls to protect her own emotions and leave with her heart intact once they found her father and the case was over.
“My mother and father never married.” Sean saw the immediate surprise widening Zoe’s eyes and knew this was just the beginning of the shocking details he was about to share. “In fact, for the first twelve years of my life I only saw my father occasionally. My mother and I lived in Henderson, where she was a waitress at a coffee shop, and my father preferred the excitement and opportunities available for him in Las Vegas. When Casey came around, he always came bearing gifts for the both of us, as if that could make up for his absence.”
And for Anna it had been enough. Sean, not so much. When he was a child, all he’d wanted was for the three of them to be a real family, which included a mother and father who were married, lived under the same roof, and spent time together like normal families.
“That must have been difficult,” Zoe said quietly.
Sean’s lips tightened as he remembered those old days and how much he’d resented his father. As a kid, Sean had been painfully aware of how much his mother loved Casey, and despite his wandering ways, Anna had always believed that one day he’d change and settle down. But what she never knew was that Casey loved the thrill and excitement of being a hustler, a man who always looked forward to the next con. And he’d never give that up for anything or anyone.
“When I was twelve, my mother was diagnosed with stage-three breast cancer. It was so invasive that within months she was gone,” he said, feeling that familiar tightness in his chest whenever he thought of his mother’s quick passing. “My father wasn’t there when she died, and I was sent straight into foster care until he showed up a few weeks later to claim me.”
Compassion softened Zoe’s features. “I can’t even imagine what that was like for you.”
It had been hell for the twelve-year-old boy he’d been. He’d felt so lost and alone, and the time he’d spent in foster care believing he’d been completely abandoned had only cultivated his anger and bitterness toward his father. But at least Casey had shown up, instead of leaving Sean to the state’s foster system. That was more than he’d expected his absentee father to do.
“I came to live here in Vegas with my father, who had absolutely no idea what to do with a defiant, rebellious kid with a huge chip on his shoulder,” Sean went on. “So, he did the only thing a seasoned con man knew how to do. He taught his kid the tricks of the trade and recruited him to help whenever he needed it.”
Zoe stared at Sean, her expression appalled. “He made you con people?”
She sounded so incredulous and looked so outraged on his behalf. While it would have been so easy to pin all the blame on his father for corrupting him, Sean had been genuinely intrigued by Casey’s lifestyle and what he did for a living. At twelve, Sean had been drawn into his dad’s world of cons and scams and eventually embraced it because it was the one thing that bonded him and his father. And even after Sean was old enough to realize that what Casey did was wrong, by then he’d been hooked, too—and was equally good as his father in using his charm and wit to his advantage.
“My father didn’t force me to do anything, Zoe,” he finally said, and looked her in the eye, knowing the next part of his story was going to change everything between them. As well as make her realize that he wasn’t the kind of man she should pin her hopes on. “Even after I knew better, I didn’t stop. A part of me liked the thrill and excitement of a good con. Just like my father did.”
“Oh.” The one word was spoken with shock.
Yeah, oh. And that wasn’t even the worst of his offenses.
He leaned forward on the sofa cushion, clasped his hands between his spread legs, and tried to relax his clenched jaw. “I’d just turned eighteen when my father was arrested, along with yours, for investment fraud.”
“Did you know about the Ponzi scheme?” she asked before Sean could continue.
“No.” He shook his head. “When I asked my father what he was doing, he’d only tell me that he was working on something big and he didn’t want me involved.” At the time Sean had been annoyed that his father had excluded him, but in hindsight he’d wondered if his dad hadn’t been trying to protect him somehow, just in case something went wrong—as it had.
“You already know what happened at the trial,” he said, knowing it was unnecessary to rehash those details. “In the courtroom, right before my father was carted off to prison he looked me straight in the eye and told me not to make the same mistakes that he had, to go and make something of my life and make him proud.”
She drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, her gaze curious. “And did you do as he asked?”
“For a while. After realizing my father was going to spend fifteen years of his life in jail, I knew I didn’t want to end up like him. I wanted to change, and I tried to. I went to college for a business degree while working nights and weekends as a bartender. But when I graduated and I was faced with a load of student loans, I felt overwhelmed financially. Even with a degree, it was difficult to find a decent-paying corporate job, and I kept falling further and further behind on my payments.”
He dragged his fingers through his hair and released a deep breath that did nothing to ease the growing pressure in his chest. “One evening while I was working a double shift at the bar, I ran into one of my dad’s old partners who was looking for someone to help him seal the deal on a con he’d already set up with a wealthy house wife looking to make a quick buck. Derrick offered me thirty percent of the take and all I had to do was back up the guy and convince the woman that the investment was a legitimate deal. It was quick, easy money, and the temptation was too great for me to resist.”
When he was quiet for too long, Zoe finally prompted him. “What happened?” she asked.
He forced himself to finish the story, to relive the dark, unpleasant memories that still haunted him and probably always would. “The con went down as planned, except shortly after, the woman’s husband found out about the missing money from their savings account and beat the shit out of his wife for losing it to a scam. The woman was so badly beaten that she ended up in the hospital, and when the police got involved they found out about the con and both Derrick and I were arrested for fraud.”
Stomach churning with dread, he cast a glance at Zoe, certain he’d accomplished the feat of completely alienating her. Her fingers were pressed to her lips, but instead of the outrage he’d been expecting to see, her eyes were filled with a sadness and grief that wrenched at his heart.
He glanced away and swallowed hard. “At the trial, I found out that the woman had invested all of their savings in hopes of making some big money so she could finally leave her manipulative, abusive asshole of a husband and get a divorce. And knowing that I was partly responsible for those bruises on her face, her shattered jaw and broken arm…it had literally destroyed me to know that I put someone’s life in danger like that.”
Even now, so many years later, the thought leadened his conscience with guilt. And the only thing that made living with what he’d done the least bit bearable was the fact that he’d had Caleb check into the woman’s whereabouts and he had discovered she was divorced from the abusive prick and was now living in South Carolina, where she’d grown up. She’d recently married her high school sweetheart and they’d just had a baby girl. Judging by the investigative reports, the woman appeared happy and healthy. Most important, she’d moved on and put her tumultuous past behind her.
Sean wished he could do the same. “I was sentenced to three years in county prison, rightly so, and was released after eight months for good behavior,” he went on. “I was fortunate enough that the judge on the case was so lenient and saw something in me worth redeeming. He was also good friends with Caleb and set me up with a job interview with him as a bartender at the Onyx, and I was lucky enough that Caleb gave me a second chance when not many employers would have hired an ex-convict.”
“Caleb believed in you, that you’d changed,” Zoe said softly. “And he obviously trusted you enough that he eventually hired you on for The Reliance Group.”
“Yes, and I don’t ever want to let him down,” Sean said adamantly.
She propped her chin on her knee, her gaze much too perceptive. “Like you let your father down?”
Sean blinked at her, shocked that she’d managed to so accurately tap into one of his deepest regrets. All Casey O’Brien had wanted was for his son to turn his life around, to be a better person than his old man had been. Instead, Sean had done the exact opposite and now had a criminal record to show for his stupidity.
Yeah, he’d disappointed his father, in so many ways. Sean had been so ashamed by his own time in prison after promising his father he’d change that he’d never told Casey what had happened with that last con or about his own incarceration. Instead, over the years he kept his sporadic visits with his father in prison brief, the conversation light and superficial because Sean couldn’t handle the guilt when his father praised him for being an honest, hardworking man.
He had a lot to make up for when it came to his father, and for Sean, catching Grant Russo and putting him away was a start to earning Casey O’Brien’s pride and respect.
But in the meantime, Sean had Zoe staring at him, waiting for some kind of response to her comment. “I’ve let a lot of people down in my lifetime, Zoe,” he said, his voice gruff. “And I’ve hurt a lot more with my selfish actions.” And ultimately he was afraid of hurting and disappointing her, too.
Without thinking, Zoe reached out and touched Sean’s shoulder in a gentle, caring caress, and he stiffened against the bit of tenderness she’d tried to extend to him. She wasn’t a psychic by any stretch of the imagination, but Zoe could practically read Sean’s mind—as well as feel his physical withdrawal from her. She hated feeling like an outsider when all she wanted was to offer him the comfort and understanding he seemed to need so badly after spilling so much about his painful past, but it was obvious that he wasn’t ready to accept any compassion, or concession, for the choices he’d made.
“Sean…we all make mistakes, some worse than others,” she said, hoping her words would break through that burden of blame he still carried around and give him some kind of emotional relief. “But I do believe that everyone has the ability to change for the better, like you have. And despite what you think, you are a good, decent, honorable man, in every way that counts.”
He shook his head in denial. “You’re foolish to believe that.”
Clearly, he still judged himself harshly, still saw himself as the con man he’d once been, instead of the trustworthy, respectable man he’d become. The man she saw when she looked at him, when she was with him.
“I’ll admit that things between us haven’t been ideal, far from it, but neither is this situation with my father,” she pointed out. “But through it all, you’ve been there for me, whenever I needed you. And I know you’d never deliberately hurt me.”
She trusted him with her life.
The thought came without hesitation or filters, and she knew it to be true. This man, despite what he’d done in the past, was someone who would never let her down. He was the kind of man she could rely on to keep her safe and protected, always.
She knew it and believed it.
Zoe’s heart beat fast and hard in her chest as their gazes held, suspended by the silence in the room and the sudden awareness swirling between them. More than ever, she wanted to experience how good the two of them could be together. And not just foreplay this time. No, this time she wanted it all—to feel his strong, muscular body sliding over hers, his thick erection stroking hard and deep as he pushed them both toward the peak of a breathless climax.
Having sex with Sean wasn’t a decision she made lightly or casually. Her desire for him was strong and undeniable, as it had been from the beginning, but it was the growing emotional connection to him that changed all the rules for her.
In that moment, all she wanted was to show him with her mouth, hands, and body how much she cared and what he’d come to mean to her. That despite all reasons not to, she was falling in love with him.
Placing her palm on his stubble-roughened cheek, she leaned in to kiss him and was gratified when he didn’t pull away. At first touch, his mouth was firm, unyielding, but that didn’t last long. A slow, sensual lick of her tongue, followed by a gentle tug of her teeth on his bottom lip, and he groaned deep in his throat and let her inside, right where she ached to be.
Feeling triumphant, she fisted her hands in his shirt, reclined against the corner of the sofa, and pulled Sean along with her. He followed, his strong body moving over hers, his hips settling between her thighs while his mouth ravished hers. Desperation radiated off him in waves as he tangled his fingers in her hair and angled her head for a harder, deeper, more possessive kiss.
And then, just as quickly, he stopped. He was off of her and standing by the couch before she realized what had happened, leaving her breathless and aroused but not entirely surprised that he’d put an end to things before the desire between them had spiraled out of control.
Disappointed, she slowly sat up, already knowing what he was going to say, even before he spoke.
“Zoe, we can’t do this,” he said, his voice a tortured rasp of sound while his eyes expressed a wealth of frustration…and a deeper, more personal agony, too. “You and I…it’ll never work out, and I’m not going to take advantage of this, of you, because when this case is over and your father is in jail and we go our separate ways, I don’t want you to walk away with regrets.”
As if she could ever regret being with him.
For a man who thought so little of his own self-worth because of his past, he was very quick to protect her from himself. Clearly, he respected her and had a conscience and morals that proved he’d reformed over the years—even if he didn’t believe he’d changed so drastically and for the better.
He scrubbed an agitated hand along his jaw, his entire body vibrating with sexual tension. “I’ll be in my room if you need me for anything. Otherwise, I’ll see you in the morning.”
Even as Zoe watched Sean leave the living room, she knew that letting him shut her out tonight wasn’t an option. If he thought he was doing her a favor by walking away, she was about to prove otherwise, because she was going to follow him into the master bedroom and demonstrate exactly what she needed from him, in a way he’d be hard-pressed to deny.
Without further hesitation, she stripped off all her clothes and tossed them onto the couch. Completely naked, with her pulse beating wildly in her veins, she headed in the direction he’d just disappeared.
For her, this wasn’t a seduction tactic as much as it was an intimate, emotional message to Sean—that he meant something more to her than just a fling. She’d never felt so vulnerable in her entire life, so laid bare for a man, literally and figuratively. Her heart, body, and soul were his for the taking, unconditionally. All he had to do was trust in his own feelings for her.
With a final deep breath to bolster her courage, she opened his bedroom door without knocking and stepped inside. He was facing away from her, and he’d already taken off his shirt and his hands were in the middle of unzipping the fly of his jeans.
He jerked his head around, a dark, agitated glare in place. “I told you—”
Realizing she didn’t have a stitch of clothing on, he snapped his mouth closed and stared in shock, his words forgotten as pure male instinct took over, just as she’d hoped. His expression darkened with lust as his gaze roamed hungrily over her firm, full breasts, down her flat stomach, to the apex of her thighs. Everywhere his eyes traveled she felt singed by the sweetest kind of sensual fire, and she shivered in response.
He forced his gaze back up to her face again and swallowed hard before attempting to speak. “Jesus, Zoe,” he rasped. He sounded as though he were being strangled.
He didn’t move, his entire body rigid. And aroused, judging by the outline of his erection straining the front of his jeans. His jaw clenched, and she could clearly see the desire and denial warring within him. Unwilling to give the latter the chance to take root, she slowly closed the distance between them.
“You said if I needed anything, you’d be in your room,” she said, and smiled when she realized how hard he was trying to keep his gaze above her neck. “Right now, I need you. I also want you. And before you say another word about regrets, I can guarantee you that the only thing I’ll regret in the morning is not making love with you.”
He looked like a man so tormented and torn, but ultimately he didn’t tell her to leave his room. Zoe took it as a positive sign, that Sean wanted this night together as much as she did, even if he didn’t believe he deserved what she was offering.
Stopping in front of him, she placed both of her hands on his bare chest. The firm muscles beneath her palms bunched and rippled, and his skin was hot to the touch. “Give us tonight, Sean. Please.”
She lifted her lips to his, and with a harsh groan of surrender he crushed his mouth to hers in a wild, greedy, tongue-tangling kiss that stole the breath from her lungs and set the tone for what was about to come.
A fast, frenzied mating.
Liquid heat surged between her legs at the thought.
His fingers delved into her hair, tugging on the strands as she quickly dragged her hands down his abdomen, then lower. She finished unzipping his jeans and broke their frantic kiss so she could push the denim and his underwear down his legs. He stepped out of the restricting clothing and kicked it aside, and she gave herself only a second to admire his thick, jutting shaft before she made herself comfortable on his bed and waited for him to join her.
He opened the nightstand, retrieved a foil pack, and she watched in anticipation as he deftly rolled the condom in place. He climbed up onto the mattress and his hands pushed her legs wide apart to make room for him in between. He didn’t waste any time with foreplay, and she was glad because she was already so hot for him, so wet, and beyond desperate to feel every inch of him inside her.
He moved over her, his hard body covering her soft curves, and she lifted her hips as the broad tip of his erection slid along the slick folds of her sex. Bracing his forearms on the mattress beside her head, he looked down at her, and the helpless need she saw in his eyes was her undoing.
She locked her ankles at the back of his thighs, urging him forward. “Take me, Sean,” she whispered.
With a hard, powerful thrust, he filled her full, and she gasped as she adjusted to the sudden penetration. Her fingers clenched into the sinewy muscles along the slope of his back, and she instinctively arched into him, taking him deeper still.
They both moaned in unison at how perfectly they fit together, how amazingly good it finally felt to be as one, before Sean dropped his mouth over hers and began to move in earnest. He kissed her with a feverish heat and passion that matched the aggressive way he claimed her body. Primitive and raw, he pumped in and out of her in a steadily increasing rhythm, possessing her completely with a relentless, demanding urgency that pushed her closer and closer to climax.
She wanted to wait for him but couldn’t. She cried out against his lips as her orgasm crashed over her like a wave and she was awash with the most exquisite, overwhelming pleasure. Her body rippled with the force of her release, and her inner muscles tightened around him as she came.
He wrenched his mouth from hers and stared into her eyes, all of the defenses he’d shored up against her stripped away in that moment. He seemed to know it, too, and didn’t fight the emotions he was so obviously feeling.
“Oh, God, Zoe,” he said in a reverent whisper, then let his head drop back as he thrust into her with a renewed sense of purpose and finally succumbed to his own soul-shattering orgasm.