Chapter Fourteen

The photo shoot had broken Zach. When Jenna had come out of the changing room, he’d been sitting in the waiting area with a blank look on his face. He’d hardly looked at the photos Penny had uploaded to her computer. He just told her he was buying all of them, which suited Penny just fine. She gave them digital versions on a thumb drive and asked for an address to send the prints to. When Jenna was silent, suddenly remembering she no longer had a home address, Zach robotically recited his address, handed Penny his credit card, and stared off into space for a few more minutes until they left the studio.

“Are you having an allergic reaction or something?” Jenna asked him when they emerged into the late afternoon sunlight. The beach and sun and ocean breeze weren’t making even the slightest impact on the daze that had overtaken him. “Do I need to call a doctor?”

“I’m fine,” he said, giving her an awkward smile.

Oh, crap. Maybe Penny referring to him as Jenna’s husband had spooked him. She hoped this wasn’t some weird morning-after thing because last night…well, that had been mind-blowing. Jenna hadn’t known sex could be that way. It had always been pleasant enough, but she hadn’t understood the frenzy other people talked about until Zach. Now she understood what drove people to wreck their lives for amazing sex. Logic never entered the equation once you were that amped up. Just thinking about it was making her wonder how fast they could get back to the resort and get naked.

“I’ve always wanted to do that,” she said. “I just never thought…well, just never had the guts, I guess.”

“Why not? You’re beautiful and sexy. And I was definitely not thinking about your guts.” He grinned at her. “You should always do what makes you happy. If someone else doesn’t like it, too bad. Be fearless.”

“Fearless. Yeah. I like that.” She did feel pretty kick-ass at the moment. What would it be like to live that way every day? “How about some ice cream? There’s a place right over there. Double fudge is calling my name. We can sit on the beach and eat it.”

Zach didn’t say anything, just took her hand in his and led her across the street to the ice cream shop. A tinkling bell played them into the old fashioned mom-and-pop place. Cafe tables were scattered around the black and white checkerboard floor, where couples—newlyweds, probably—totally engrossed in one another, sipped milkshakes or lapped at towering ice cream cones. Each couple seemed like they were in their own little bubble, totally oblivious to anyone or anything else.

It was kind of cute. And kind of annoying. Had she been like that with Elliot? Would they have been that sickly sweet if they’d gone through with the wedding and ended up honeymooning here?

Jenna looked at the male halves of the Planet Newlywed couples. They all had the same goofy, glazed looks on their faces. The well-sexed, can’t-wait-to-hit-that-again look, but also something else. The look of love practically shone from their faces. She’d never seen that look on Elliot’s face. Never. Even when he’d proposed. Certainly not when he’d seen her in her wedding dress for the first time.

And even though she’d been over the moon when he’d proposed, she was sure she had never looked at him the way the brides were gazing at their new mates, either. Something shifted in her belly, a kind of sadness, really. Although she’d loved Elliot and had looked forward to them being a family, she didn’t think she was ever in love with him. Not like the people around her eating ice cream who were totally, obsessively in love with the person across the table from them.

Maybe she never would be in love with someone like that. Someone that made reality outside their little bubble the dream, because reality was basking in that one special person’s light.

“What’s wrong?” Zach asked. Jenna glanced up at him and found the blank stare was gone, replaced with a look of concern. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Just…being around all the newlyweds makes me think, you know?”

Of course he didn’t know. And she wasn’t sure how to explain it to a man who was driven purely by what he could see, hear, and graph.

“You’re not—that is, you’re not sorry. About last night?” He looked down at Jenna, banked heat in his gaze. But something else—maybe a hint of insecurity?

“Of course not,” she said, nudging him. “That was some pro-level lovemaking.”

“So, we’re good?”

“Totally,” she said, meaning it. “Let’s taste some ice cream.”

After she’d tasted about four different crazy varieties of homemade ice cream, she settled on a scoop of chocolate chip double fudge and a scoop of cookie dough. Zach went with vanilla. Of course.

They settled into a table in the corner, and Jenna watched him meticulously lick circles around his cone, keeping all the sides drip free and even.

“What?” he asked when he saw her watching him.

“Just wondering how a guy eating a vanilla cone like it’s a science project can be so…unvanilla in bed.”

“I don’t like drips,” he said. “At least not on my shirt.” He leaned in, the gleam in his eyes back. “But in bed, I’m all about the drips.”

His low words sent warm ripples loose in her belly. Hell, yeah, he did. And Jenna couldn’t seem to get enough. She’d had no serious boyfriends in high school or college. But a few brief relationships—very brief—had progressed to fumblings in the backseats of cars and in messy dorm rooms. Then there was Elliot, who had been an adequate lover, much better than the partners of her youth, but even that couldn’t come close to sex with Zach. The way he touched her, the way his body fit perfectly with hers…they just matched.

Maybe it was because there was no pressure. Sex with the others had fit into a bigger picture of a relationship. And any time it had progressed that far, in the back of Jenna’s mind was always about how this was going to change the relationship. Would the guy think she was too easy? Would the sex be good enough for the guy to want to have her as his sole partner forever? Was he thinking about someone else while they were in bed? Did her thighs jiggle too much?

With Zach, none of that applied. They had mutually acknowledged that this was a physical thing. A friends-with-benefits situation that would end on check-out day. Those were the constraints and also possibly what made this feel so free of all the other concerns when they were naked and he was licking his way across her—

“Jenna,” he said, employing the Smolder. “Stop looking at me that way or I’m going to have to stick this cone down my pants before I’m decent enough to stand up.”

Her messy ice cream dripped down her hand, her treat totally forgotten as she considered that he wanted her again already, even though last night had been quite…active.

Zach brought her hand to his mouth and licked a ring around her cone.

“Hey,” she said. “You chose boring and now you’re stuck with it.”

“I was fixing it,” he said and went back to his own cone. “And I prefer the term ‘classic.’”

“What do you want to do next?” Jenna asked once he’d released her now perfectly drip-free cone. He had chocolate on his chin, and she decided not to tell him just yet. It was cute.

“I was thinking we could go back to the love shack and maybe take a nap,” he said.

“A nap.”

“Well, there may not be much sleeping, but there would be a bed involved.” He gave her a half smolder as he licked his cone then took a big bite off the top.

“Mmmm. I can do a nap. I don’t have another anti planned until tomorrow—my last one.”

“We didn’t check dinner off the list, either,” he said. “We went to bed hungry.”

“I didn’t hear any complaints,” she said.

“I haven’t filled out the comment card yet,” he said with a grin. “What’s the next anti?”

“Couples’ massage.”

He nodded. “Glad to see you’re finally on board with finishing the anti-honeymoon plan. Although a massage does sound pretty good. I’d be down for that, if you want to keep that appointment.”

“Well, we can’t possibly leave something unchecked,” Jenna said. “And we’re kind of under some time constraints here. Check out is Wednesday morning, so we have the rest of today, tomorrow and Tuesday, really. Two and a half days.”

Two and a half days. Then this would be over. Zach would go back to his well-ordered life, and she’d go back to the wreckage of hers and begin the rebuilding process.

Zach frowned. “Yeah. Two and a half days. Saturday through Wednesday is kind of a short honeymoon, isn’t it? Doesn’t seem like nearly enough time.”

“I scheduled the full week originally, but Elliot has big meeting set up for Thursday afternoon, so we were actually going to fly back Wednesday evening.”

“Must have been a big client to want to give up time with you.”

Jenna shrugged. “The honeymoon was an afterthought. Elliot put all his energy into the wedding.”

Zach didn’t seem happy about the time frame. But he didn’t have to stay the whole time if he didn’t want to.

“Look, I know I’m keeping you away from work,” Jenna said. “If you need to get back, I’ll be fine. You’ve been a huge help. A great friend. But I’m fine. Really.”

His mouth tightened. “You want me to leave?”

“No, of course not. But I’d understand if you needed to. That’s all I’m saying.”

“I’m here because I want to be,” he said, still frowning at her.

“I know,” she said. “It’s just that Elliot…whenever he was away from work too long, he started to get kind of…antsy, you know? He always had meetings set up. Was away most evenings, taking clients out to dinner and such.”

“You never went with him? Lots of those guys take wives and girlfriends when it’s social, even if they are partially discussing business.”

“He never asked,” Jenna said quietly, pretending it didn’t bother her. But it had always made her feel like she was just a sidecar to his life, not fully integrated. “He always made them sound like just business meetings, nothing social. Sometimes I felt like I didn’t fit his image or something. Like I was the belt that didn’t go with his shoes. But then other times, I felt like the trophy he wanted to show off. It was weird.”

Zach finished his cone, popping the last bite neatly into his mouth and wiping his hands on the napkin before replying.

“Maybe it was the client he was meeting with,” Zach said. “Maybe having you there would have been too distracting. And some of those guys are a little handsy. He could have been protecting you from gropers.”

“Now you’re sticking up for him?”

“Just trying to make sense of it,” he said. “I would…” He paused then smiled. “I would think that he’d want you with him as much as possible.”

“There is one guy he was really tense about. He’s met with him several times lately, and when he came home—well, I got the impression that things were not going well.”

“Do you remember the name?”

“Drake something, I think he said.”

“Drakeport.”

“You know him?”

“Yeah.” Zach wadded up his napkin.

“So, about you and Elliot,” Jenna said. There was a lot of overlap between the two of them that she had questions about. “You guys were roommates in college?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Elliot was…Elliot. Outgoing, charming, came from money. As established, I was kind of the opposite.”

“You’re charming,” Jenna said in his defense, but she knew what he meant. Zach had a fun personality and an amazing sense of humor when he wanted to show it to you. But he totally could withdraw into his own little word when he was uncomfortable or when he was intent on puzzling something out.

“Anyway, we started a data analysis firm our last semester of college, and it turned into IDS.”

“But you have your own company now,” Jenna said. “What happened?”

He paused, and she noticed the muscle in his jaw working. He was choosing his words carefully. “We had some differences of opinion.”

“You ended up leaving.”

“Yeah.”

“And haven’t spoken since.”

“Not really, no.”

There was a lot going on there, under the surface. “And that’s how you knew about my cousin Niki,” she said, it suddenly dawning on her. “She and Elliot and I hung out a lot that summer her parents got divorced, and she stayed with us.” That would have been between Elliot and Zach’s junior and senior year in college.

Zach nodded. “She made an impression on him,” he said, not quite meeting her eyes.

“I’ll bet. She had a major crush on Elliot that summer.”

“And that didn’t bother you?”

“Not at all. Elliot and I were just friends. Out parents were very close, and I saw Elliot quite a bit socially when they’d get together. Honestly, though, he barely looked at me. It wasn’t until after my parents passed that he showed any romantic interest in me.”

“And you never had a girlhood crush on him?”

“He was good-looking,” she said with a shrug. “But I never tried to date him or anything.”

Zach grunted.

“Are you jealous or something?” she teased.

“It’s just kind of strange that he’d come around after your parents were gone and propose so quickly,” Zach said, narrowing his eyes.

She laughed. “You think he was after my money?”

“Maybe.” Zach wasn’t laughing.

“Well, the joke’s on him, then, because there wasn’t much money left. It turned out that the last few years, Dad’s company hadn’t been doing so hot.”

“The recession hit people pretty hard.”

“Yeah. So I got the house, which had some equity but had lost a lot of value. Most of the cash went to paying off debts. There was no life insurance. I think Dad was kind of riding things out, trying to push off creditors, waiting for the markets to improve.”

Jenna licked her cone, thinking about what Zach had suggested. Could Elliot really have thought she had money he could use to infuse his business?

“You know, he did call me after I received my inheritance,” she said. “But some of the issues took a while to move through the lawyers, and I didn’t start settling the mess they left the estate in until after we were engaged and I’d moved in with Elliot.”

“So he didn’t help you deal with all that? Seems overwhelming.”

“It was. But Elliot was busy.” Jenna had waded through all of that on her own. “I mean, Tommy helped me some and gave me the number for a financial advisor, but as far as Elliot, no. He was busy with his business and really didn’t have any idea of what I was dealing with. It was a nightmare sorting everything out.”

“That’s terrible. I’m so sorry, Jenna. Elliot should have been there for you. And your parents should have made sure things were in order. That’s a big burden for one person.”

She shrugged. “I’m not exactly destitute, but I’ll need to find a job as soon as I get home. I’d been working part time at Sunrise when Elliot came knocking at my door again,” she said. “But that was more for something to keep me busy, rather than a career.”

“And it’s where you met your friends?”

“Yes,” Jenna said, smiling. “They sort of adopted me.” She missed them. She so wanted to tell them about Zach, although she was sure they were getting an earful from Chuck already. But really, what would she say? That she’d met a friend of Elliot’s a few days ago when she’d run out on her wedding to another man and had spent the week banging him silly? Maybe not.

“I can see why having them there for your wedding was so important,” he said, a scowl on his face. “And it makes me want to punch Elliot even more.”

Jenna was flattered by his urge to stick up for her. “I can’t see you punching anyone,” she said.

“What do you mean? I took you kick-boxing.”

“Yeah, but that was hitting bags full of sand. Not a person.” She finished her ice cream cone and wiped her hands. “Not that I think you’re a wimp or something. I just think you’re too…logical to let a burst of testosterone convince you to try to settle something with your fists. You’re more of a long-game guy, I think.”

His face relaxed a fraction. “You’re actually right. I’ve never punched anyone in the face before.” He leaned across the small table and laid a kiss on Jenna. A slow, lingering kiss that tasted of vanilla. “I can think of much better uses for testosterone.”

She pulled back, smiling. “Nap time?” she suggested, already getting her purse from the back of her chair.

“Absolutely.”