Dear Diary, he makes me so mad!
“You look wrecked.”
Maddie sipped her steaming coffee from a Styrofoam cup as she looked over the latest changes to the plans.
“Thanks, Larry.” She glanced at the set’s Electrician/Carpenter. “You do know how to flatter a girl.” She gave him what she suspected was a wan smile. “I don’t know how I haven’t snapped you up already.”
Larry barked out his trademark raucous laugh as he shifted a stack of two-by-fours and carried them over to the foot of his ladder. “I’m biding my time. One day you’ll notice what a great catch I am.” He puffed out an exerted breath, rubbed his fleshy shoulder as he rotated it.
Maddie made a mental note to ask one of the young lads they had on apprenticeship to give Larry a hand. At fifty-something and overweight, Larry was a heart attack waiting to happen and Maddie grew concerned for his safety as he lugged about heavy wood.
Larry turned and caught her watching him through the floating particles of sawdust. He gave her a grin, winked as he scratched his belly.
“Like whatcha see?”
Maddie returned the wink. “Mmm ... lady-killer.”
She presumed it was her deadpan response that set off Larry’s laughter again as he turned back to his task.
“I hear you girls had a bit of a mishap in London yesterday. You didn’t get hurt, did you?”
Her heart warmed at his concern.
Maddie flicked a dismissive hand. “It was nothing. We forgot we were in London. You know what it’s like for mid-afternoon traffic.”
“And you’re sure you’re all right?” He winked. “Don’t need me to come over and rub something on your bruises, do ya?”
“Larry Campbell, you keep that up, and you’ll soon find yourself answering sexual harassment charges.”
“You wouldn’t do that to me, would you?”
“I might not, but I can’t speak for any of the other women you work with.”
“I guess I should behave then.”
“I think you should.” She smiled to soften the reprimand.
Larry had always been a bit of a joker, even if his jokes and comments leaned to the salacious side. But every now and then, Maddie got a note from one of the female crew asking her to ‘have a word with Larry’. She wasn’t sure how it happened, but she found herself nominated as the can you speak to Larry about his off-colour jokes, please monitor.
Cristi edged up to Maddie and nudged her gently in the side. “So, what was that last night?”
She knew the previous night at the jazz club would come back to haunt her, she just hoped it wouldn’t start quite so early.
“What was what?” She focused on the blue prints spread out on the table in front of her, leant one palm on the wide paper sheets while she kept a hold of her coffee with the other, and silently urged Cristi to get the I-don’t-want-to-talk-about-it message.
“You know...” Another couple of digs to the ribs with Cristi’s sharp elbow. “That moment between you and Zach on stage.”
Since Cristi obviously never learned to take a hint, Maddie forced herself to meet her friend’s gaze.
“There was no ‘moment’, trust me. Besides, how did you notice anything beyond Dane’s baby blues?”
Maddie had spotted her friend necking with Dane—almost from the moment she’d started to sing In the Wee Small Hours—and had edged her way over to Zach to find out if he’d seen how well their friends had hit it off.
Only she didn’t get to voice the question, because he had looked down at her with the kind of desire she could only dream to see from Zach.
She’d instantly lost her train of thought. Her breath had stalled in her throat as Zach’s stare zeroed in on her lips, and his head descended—
“He actually has brown eyes.” Cristi yanked her from the memory. “You’d assume because he’s blond that his eyes would be blue, but they’re brown. Well, brown sounds so dull compared to the lovely tawny topaz-like colour they really are.” Her attention slipped from Maddie as a besotted smile lit her face.
It seemed Cristi had a thing for Zach’s friend. “Good for you. Are you seeing him again?” She saw the moment Cristi caught on.
Her eyes wide in an I-see-what-you’re-trying-to-do stare she waggled a forefinger at Maddie.
“Nice try. You can’t sidetrack me so easily, Maddison. Let’s get back to that moment. Give!” Cristi bit into her croissant then waved it at Maddie, as if it were some kind of truth extracting tool.
The croissant’s warm-buttered scent reminded Maddie she hadn’t had breakfast. Her stomach growled.
Clearly, Cristi wasn’t going to drop the subject. Maddie plucked the plump croissant from her friend’s hand. “I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Cristi frowned at her empty hand still held in mid-air.
“Hey!”
Maddie bit into the delicious pastry as she turned and headed to wardrobe. Filming was due to start in a couple of hours.
“Yeah-yeah.” Maddie raised the pastry above her head without looking back. “I owe you breakfast.” She knew Cristi would head back to the breakfast table the producers supplied each morning. “Don’t forget the production meeting after today’s shoot.”
“I wouldn’t dare. Lisa would have me slow roasted. Is it me, or is she especially crabby with this pregnancy?”
Maddie turned. “She has been a bit more ratty and forgetful this time around. I think she left a lipstick in my fridge the other day.”
Cristi sniggered. “I’ll let you be the one brave enough to tell her that.”
~*~
ZACH WAS mowing his lawn.
Maddie knew this, because she’d been spying on him for the last twenty minutes. She’d started her covert surveillance from behind her bedroom curtains the moment she’d woken to the Saturday morning drone of his lawnmower out back.
Then Sasha had phoned, wrenching her attention from Zach for the few seconds it took to grab the receiver from its position on her bedside table and press it to her ear. She’d immediately taken up her pose behind the curtain again while she half-listened to her friend and did her best not to let him catch her gawping. Two solid weeks had passed with her avoiding Zach, and she wasn’t about to change that status anytime soon. Shirtless, his defined muscles bunched as he pushed the mower the length of his back garden. His jeans rode low on his hips, sending her temperature a few degrees closer to the hundred mark.
She shouldn’t feel anything remotely pleasant toward him after his cold dismissal that night outside the jazz club, yet she found herself imagining running her hands over his solid biceps, over his chest, the washboard stomach. Her mouth dried, her abdomen flexed in reaction. She practically pressed her nose against the French door to her bedroom’s balcony for a better look.
He’d virtually frogmarched her to his car and drove her home. Neither of them spoke the entire journey back to their places, for which Maddie was glad. She knew if Zach had said anything, even just to comment on the weather, she would have burst into tears. As it was she had barely held it together until he’d pulled up outside her house, only waiting long enough for her to alight before speeding off.
Then the enormity of her humiliation had dawned, and Maddie couldn’t bring herself to face him—smile and pretend her heart wasn’t in pieces because of his rejection. She’d taken to waiting until she was sure he had left for work, which she presumed was exceptionally early since, so far, she hadn’t bumped into him leaving. And when she returned home at night she hurried into her house like the coward she was.
Maddie gawked with hypnotic fascination as the sheen of perspiration made thin, shiny tracks down Zach’s tanned back. She raised her left hand to her mouth, nibbled the thumbnail as she pressed the phone to her ear.
“Maddie, are you there?” Sasha’s voice yanked her back to their conversation.
“Umm...” She swallowed. “Sorry? What were you saying?”
“Honestly, Mad. I think you need to up your omega 3 or something. Your concentration’s been terrible lately.”
Not if you counted how completely focused she’d been on Zach. No lack of absorption there.
“Omega 3. Right.” She craned her neck to find him. He’d slipped out of view around a corner.
She needed to get a grip.
“Keith suggested we all go bowling. You, Cristi, and I—he, Dane, and Zach.”
The breath whooshed from Maddie’s lungs. “What?” Face Zach after the Sutton incident? No way. “That’s a terrible idea. Why would we want to go out with them?”
“Because some of us are dating. We thought it’d be fun to go out together. Looked like you had fun the last time we went out with them, even though you refuse to give up the juicy details.”
“I’ve told you, there are no details—juicy or otherwise.” None she was willing to put herself through further disgrace by divulging anyway. “And what do you mean ‘some of us are dating’?”
Zach came back into view, the hover mower throwing up almost as much grass clippings as it collected.
“I told you I was dating Keith last week, don’t you remember?”
She’d been preoccupied reliving her shame and plotting ways to move house in the dead of night so she’d never have to risk seeing Zach again. The mortification of his rejection was killing her.
Zach chose that moment to look directly at Maddie’s balcony. She took a hasty step behind the wall to prevent him from catching her spying on him, and knocked over her bedside lamp. Reaching out, she caught it just before it toppled off the edge of the small table.
Settling it back in place, she edged close to the balcony door again so she could peek out without risking Zach catching her. Still within easy view of her balcony, he’d notice if she took up her spying position again. Disappointed, she turned back to the room, trying to focus on the conversation with Sasha.
Bright sunshine filtered through the gauzy curtains and trailed across her queen-sized bed. She flopped down in the middle of its untidy heap of throw pillows.
“When did you say the bowling night was?” Maddie pulled one of the overstuffed grape-coloured silk pillows from the pile and positioned it under her head.
No way was she going out with them if Zach was going to be there.
“Tonight.”
She searched her mind for an excuse as she crossed her left ankle over her bent knee to inspect her recent pedicure. “That’s too bad. I’m busy tonight.”
“Doing what?”
Great. Sasha’s suspicious tone was going to compel her to fib. If she stood a chance of wriggling out of an evening with them, she had to make this good.
Maddie cleared her throat. “I have a date.”
A silent beat while Maddie frantically tried to think of someone she could use for her pretend date.
“Since when?” Sasha finally asked.
“Since ... um ... um ... last week.”
“Are you lying to me, Maddison?”
She rolled her eyes, looked at the bright white ceiling. “Would I do that, Sasha?”
“You haven’t mentioned it before now.”
“That’s because I ... er ... wanted to take it slow. You know ... get to know him before telling you guys.”
“Who’s this hot date, then?”
An answer sprang to mind. She let her eyes drift shut so she wouldn’t have to face the lie. “I met him at the juice bar on my way to work one morning.” Which wasn’t really a lie.
“You agreed to go on a date with a man you met in a juice bar? Maddie, have you lost your mind? What if he’s a stalker or something?”
“He’s not a stalker. He’s a stockbroker.”
“What’s his name?”
Maddie’s eyes snapped open; she hadn’t thought that far ahead. “His name?” She played for time. It was true she’d met a stockbroker in the juice bar on her way to the set. However, she’d only met him yesterday, and she was hard pressed to remember his name.
He was tall and passable, but way too full of himself. Not Maddie’s type at all, and she’d dismissed him.
He wasn’t Zach.
She suddenly remembered he’d slipped his business card into her jeans back pocket. Maddie wasn’t positive, but she thought he’d copped a feel of her butt in the process.
“It’s...” She leapt off the bed and dashed to the wash basket in her en suite. She grabbed the jeans and rummaged in the pockets.
Bingo!
Her fingers closed on the thin piece of card, and she whipped it from the pocket. “...Jackson.”
“Jackson?”
“Yep.” She smiled. Relief coursed through her.
“Jackson who?”
Good grief. What was up with the questions?
Maddie looked at the bold type on the small white card. She read Jackson’s name and cringed. Cleared her throat and muttered, “Benson.”
Sasha burst out laughing. “You’re dating a guy called Jackson Benson?”
Maddie withstood a couple more minutes of Sasha’s cackling. “He goes by Jack.”
Dear Lord, why did I start this?
“Why don’t you bring Jack?”
“Bowling with my friends isn’t my idea of a romantic date.” How hard was it to wriggle out of a measly evening with these people?
“It’ll be fun. We can meet your new guy. See if he passes the friends’ test before you get in too deep.”
“I think it’s too soon to bring him to meet my friends. I’m not even sure I like him, yet.”
“Nice try, Mad. If you like him enough to agree to a date, you like him. See you at the bowling alley at eight.”
The resonant dial tone in her ear had Maddie wondering how she was going to produce Jackson Benson tonight. She could simply not turn up, but that would make her look dreary. And there was no way Maddie could let that happen.
~*~
WHAT A JERK!
That was the only fitting description Zach had for himself after the way he’d treated Maddie two weeks ago. He had to resist the combustible chemistry between them, so he shouldn’t have allowed himself to get carried away—to lead her on. When he’d discovered she was his new neighbour, he’d been amazed and ecstatic.
So thrilled to have her back in his life, to continue their close relationship, he hadn’t stopped to consider the changes the years had made and what they meant. He’d let himself get carried away by his desire for this new Maddie. He’d placed Maddie in the friend box, and needed to keep her there.
Too much had gone wrong in his life. Maddie was the one right thing, and he wanted to keep it that way.
It had nearly killed him to put a stop to that last kiss. Now all he thought about was how right she’d felt in his arms. How she’d tasted, fresh with the sweet hint of wine. How her breasts had felt pressed to his chest and how badly he wanted to sneak a hand inside her sexy plunging neckline and caress the full globes. How she melted against him and fitted like she belonged in his arms. Kissing Maddie had been stupid. In just a couple of seconds, he’d crossed the line separating friendship from lust. Then he’d backed off with a callous comment that had hurt her. She braved it, but he saw the wound he’d inflicted. Afraid of this new weak spot for her, he’d decided not to apologise. He’d let her think the worst of him, and had taken her home. Not that she’d gone quietly. All the way to Delaware Gardens where they lived, heat and tension rolled between them.
There was no refuting what he felt had little to do with wanting to re-establish their friendship and more to do with exploring the astonishing passion between them.
He thought he knew everything there was to know about lust, but he’d never experienced such explosive pleasure as he had with Maddie’s body pressed so intimately against his. He’d wanted to take her right there, had had to rein in his hunger before he got them arrested. At least he’d get to say sorry tonight. Keith had suggested they go bowling with Maddie and her girlfriends. She didn’t deserve the way he’d treated her and now, after two weeks of her blatantly avoiding him, he’d get to talk to her, show her he wasn’t as big a jerk as he’d seemed.
She’d started a fire in his blood he couldn’t extinguish. Zach was beginning to think the only way to get her out of his system was to take her up on that offer of a one-night stand. Even now, the memory of how she’d responded to him had his groin throbbing with a merciless ache.
Maddie had offered him a one-night stand.
He shook his head.
Unbelievable.
She was right. He didn’t know her at all.
He released the lever that powered the lawnmower, reached into his back pocket for his vibrating phone, glanced at the screen to see who was calling.
Keith.
For a second he’d hoped it was Maddie.
“What’s up?”
“Hey, Zach, slight change of plans. Maddie has a date tonight, and Sasha asked her to bring him bowling with us.” Zach turned his gaze toward Maddie’s bedroom as Keith spoke. “So unless you don’t mind playing the seventh wheel, you might want to bring a date too.”
“Maddie has a date tonight?” He stepped over the lawnmower and turned to face Maddie’s house.
“Yeah, some guy called Jack something.”
Zach’s eyes narrowed on Maddie’s balcony doors. She hid somewhere behind the gauzy curtains. He’d spotted her earlier, nibbling a thumbnail as she watched him. Just the glimpse of her—obviously fresh from bed despite it being eleven o’clock—had been enough to kick desire low in his gut before she’d leapt out of view.
His mind filled with the image he’d seen earlier of Maddie in a hot pink tank top and panties, her hair mussed as if a lover had tangled it in the heat of passion. His stomach turned. Was this guy there now? Had he been out here lusting after her while she was in there with...?
Zach cleared his throat and pummelled the jealousy from his mind with a rough hand through his hair.
“Thanks for letting me know.” The words hissed through his teeth.
“No problem, mate. I think the girls want to vet this guy.” Keith laughed. “Apparently, Maddie picked him up in a juice bar last week.”
Zach rubbed the back of his sweat-slicked neck as he ended the call. What was the matter with that woman? Had she changed that much? She was picking up men in juice bars? He glanced up at the cloudless blue sky. He’d told her to find some other guy, so why was he getting upset because she had?
Lord, help me.
Maddie was a grown woman, fully capable of deciding how she wanted to live her life, who she wanted to date, and whom she chose had nothing to do with him. Despite what his body had to say on the matter, Maddie was not his.
He drew in a deep breath filled with the scent of fresh mowed grass, then another, in an effort to squash the ball of jealousy hitting him in the solar plexus. She deserved better than him. Therefore, it didn’t matter how much he wanted her, he could never pursue his growing feelings.
Not unless he wanted to end up breaking Maddie’s heart, because that’s what he did. Doomed with an inability to let anyone in, he never got to that special emotional place with the women he dated. His relationships always ended with the woman psychologically frustrated, disappointed, and slamming out of his life.
Zach pulled the plug and reeled in the power cable. It was best he remained just a friend to Maddie, stepped aside, and let her find a guy who could love her the way she deserved to be loved. But he was going to be right there to vet every one of Maddie’s dates—make darn sure she ended up with the right man.
~*~
ON NO PLANET could Jack Benson be mistaken for Mr Right.
Maddie huffed out a breath and tried not to let her smile turn to a scowl as she watched Jack’s hand gestures when his conversation with Zach’s date grew animated, while the other woman gave him her full attention.
Small and curvy, the blonde made Maddie feel like the Hulk. The fact that the large super hero happened to be green wasn’t lost on her, either. When Maddie had first seen the girl with Zach, jealousy had filled her chest with its overpowering gloom. The evening had taken a sudden nose-dive.
Zach had barely spared Maddie a hello since he walked into the bowling alley with Miss Blondie, who had seemed to monopolise his attention with no effort at all.
Why couldn’t she get Jack to focus on her like that? Instead, he was absorbed in conversation with Blondie. Maddie pulled her gaze from Zach, who was talking to Keith, and tried to catch Jack’s attention.
What was he doing? He should be fawning over her. Not Zach’s date.
Okay, she was willing to admit she may have put him off slightly when she’d leaned close to his ear and promised to break all of his fingers if he ran them up her leg again. But really, did he have to flirt so obviously right in front of her?
And why wasn’t Zach clobbering him for making a play for his date? What was her name?
“Hey, Amber, you’re up.” Zach’s deep voice broke into the low murmured conversation between Amber and Jack.
That’s it! Amber.
Maddie forced a smile as Amber leapt off the plastic bench seat, clapped, and screeched, “Yay!” as if she’d already won.
Jack’s face took on an infatuated expression as he watched her jump about.
Maddie felt like hurling him down the lane in place of the ball.
Her gaze collided with Zach’s. She narrowed her eyes and tried to relax the muscle curling the corner of her upper lip.
He grinned, waggled his eyebrows, and followed Amber to the lane, eyes firmly planted on her rear.
Let the challenge begin. She refused to let the fact he was dating hurt. So he didn’t want her.
Big deal.
Yet her insides boiled when he wrapped his arms around Amber to show her—for the umpteenth time—how to roll the ball.
Maddie turned to Jack, leaned in close so the others wouldn’t catch her words.
“Look, Jack. You’re supposed to be my date. I’m warning you now. If you don’t buck up and act as if I’m the love of your life, I’m giving my investment account to your biggest rival—and I’m doubling it. Got it?”
Jack paled. “That’s a lot of money.”
“Exactly.” From her peripheral vision, Maddie noticed Cristi watching her. She smiled for her friend’s benefit as she tangled her fingers with his, and took her murmur to a whisper. “Did you or did you not agree to make this look real if I placed my investment portfolio with your company?”
“Yes,” Jack whispered. “But that was your idea. Anyone listening would think I blackmailed you.”
“I suggest you drag your eyes from Amber’s chest, and fix them on mine—I mean me. Understand?” Maddie dropped his hand.
“Just tell me one thing.” Jack’s gaze flicked over Keith with Sasha on his lap nuzzling her neck. Dane pulling Cristi into his arms for a kiss that wouldn’t quit and Zach, arms wrapped around Amber’s waist from behind as he murmured in her ear at the foul line. “Which one of these guys are you trying to make jealous?”
Maddie’s eyes flicked to Zach before she thought of stopping them. “None. These are my friends. I don’t want them feeling sorry for me.”
“If I had to guess, I’d say it’s Zach. And I have to tell you, I’m not as worried about you breaking my fingers as I am him.”
Maddie flicked an eye-dagger into Zach’s back, fanned a dismissive hand between them.
“Pu-lease. I doubt Zach even notices I’m here. His date has his full attention.” And that doesn’t depress me at all.
Jack shifted closer and leisurely brought his mouth next to Maddie’s ear. “Really? So why is he glaring at me right now?”
Maddie glanced over to the lanes again. Amber had her back to them; hands on hips as she watched her gutter-ball slowly roll the sixty feet toward the pin deck.
Zach faced them; hands shoved into his jean pockets, glaring as if he had murder on his mind.
Delicious satisfaction shimmied through her. Dare she imagine Zach to be under the green-eyed monster’s attack? Maybe if she hadn’t known how fiercely protective he could be, she might’ve allowed herself to dream that her dating another man bothered him.
Maddie reasoned the only logical explanation for Zach’s homicidal stare was Jack’s inability to take his eyes off Amber.
“Your turn, Maddie.” Was it her or did Zach’s tone sound rather laconic?
Jack rose with her. She reached up and kissed his cheek, whispered, “From now on, every time your attention slips from me, I’m subtracting a thousand pounds from my total investment.” She patted his cheek. “Remember that.”
Maddie stuck her fingers in a medium pearly, black onyx and navy ball. She approached the black foul line where Zach had planted himself. Her stomach bottomed out just from looking at him.
She may be humiliated and angry with him but she couldn’t help but notice how yummy he looked in a black T-shirt—with the words Wild Ride printed on the chest—that fitted close to his powerfully built body in all the right places.
Her mouth watered as her imagination conjured up an image of Zach fulfilling the promise on his T-shirt.
She hated to sink to derision, but knew it was the only sure way to distance herself from Zach’s potent pull.
“Shall I ask for a children’s launching ramp for your date?” She cradled the high gloss ball between her hands as she got level with him. “Or maybe we can pull up the bumpers for her.”
“Focus, Maddie. Grip the ball tight, now.” Zach winked, letting her know her attempt at mockery bounced off him. He turned to Jack, raised his voice above the racket in the bowling alley. “You might want to move, Jack. Maddie has a habit of flinging the ball behind her.”
She moved to the foul line, lifted the bowling ball in front of her nose as she found the centre path down the slippery lane.
“That’s because I was usually trying to hit you.” She couldn’t resist a quick glance to see Zach’s reaction.
A glint of humour sparkled in his eyes. His chuckle rumbled down her spine and sent a tremor to her hands, unnerving her as he strolled back to the bench seats.
~*~
“STRIKE!” MADDIE threw her arms in the air, the gesture thrusting her breasts forward as she did a little strut over to the ball return, and tossed Zach an in-your-face glance.
He sat forward, his body warming at the memory of those breasts pressed against his chest. Think about the team meeting on Monday, man. And not Maddie’s cute butt in those skinny jeans, or how much you’d like to suck on her navel every time she throws her arms up and exposes her midriff. Zach reached for his glass of cola, took a huge gulp with plenty of ice, and crunched loudly.
Maddie had him tied in knots.
She even had him trying to get a reaction out of her. Anything that would show him she wasn’t over wanting to sleep with him. That she hated him being with another woman as much as he hated seeing her with another man. He’d caught her daggered glances a few times, her face giving away her irritation every time he put his arms around Amber, whose helpless-female performance hadn’t fooled Zach. He’d played along simply because it delighted him to see Maddie’s jealousy.
He liked that she was jealous. She deserved to experience some of the torture he was feeling right now.
He hid a smile.
This veiled attraction bubbling beneath the surface with Maddie was a bittersweet excitement. It made him both wary and anxious to see her. She reminded him of how it felt to be alive, when he thought his emotions had died long ago. It also tormented him, because there wasn’t a darn thing he could do about it.
Which reminded him he too was supposed to be here with a ‘date’. Zach questioned the crazy reaction to hearing Maddie was seeing someone that had made him snatch up the phone to call the waitress who’d waited his table during a midweek business lunch.
Under normal circumstances, he never would have phoned her. But he’d stomped into his room in a red haze after talking to Keith this morning, aggravated in a way he didn’t want to analyse. When he’d glimpsed Amber’s name and number on the back of the receipt sitting on his bedside table, he’d grabbed the phone and called her.
Zach exhaled.
Amber had read more into the invitation than he’d intended. Nowhere during their conversation had he mentioned the word date. He’d merely offered her the opportunity to help him even up the numbers—nothing more.
Now he had her flashing angry eyes at him. “...So why do I see couples everywhere I look? Cristi and Dane have barely come up for air since we got here. Keith and Sasha may as well not be here for all the notice they’re taking of the game, and Maddie and Jack can hardly keep their hands off each other. It seems a natural progression that we would...”
Zach zoned out again. His stomach clenched hard at the mention of Maddie’s inability to keep her hands off Jack. The cola he’d downed sloshed back and forth in reaction. Amber’s words had cooled him off more effectively than the ice he’d angrily chomped.
He turned to the lane Maddie and Jack had more or less monopolised. Keith and Sasha had given up their turns and Maddie had snapped them up. Jack pressed close to Maddie’s back, his hands on her hips while he spoke next to her ear.
Maddie’s laughter tinkled over to Zach—the same tinkling laugh she’d given him that night outside the jazz club. The night they’d kissed senseless. Or at least he’d been senseless with the need to make love to her, while she’d been totally unaffected.
He itched to pull Jack off her. As he watched, Maddie leant back, flicked a glance at him, then kissed Jack’s cheek.
Fresh anger sliced through him. “Come on, Maddison. Roll the ball or give someone else a turn.”
She gave him a bright smile and sashayed over to him. “All yours.” She dropped the ball in his lap, her lip curling as if she’d like to eat him alive—and not in a good way.
Zach barely caught the ball before it did him lasting damage. Why was she pushing him?
He stood, leaned in close to her so his lips were only a breath away from hers. Her eyes widened, her nostrils flared, and she leant just a half inch closer.
While all around them balls crashed into pins, and the regular Saturday night bowling alley din cloaked them, Zach wanted nothing more than to close the tiny space between them and kiss Maddie for all his worth.
If only.
Unfortunately, Maddie wasn’t the type of girl you kissed if you didn’t want to get involved—and he definitely wanted to remain uninvolved. She may pretend she wanted a one-night stand, but could she have changed so much that she’d abandon her principles? If he remembered correctly, the old Maddie was full of principles.
He had to remind himself she was here with another man. A man who would take her home later tonight and...
Tension tightened his gut just as jealousy socked him a blow. At the same time his heart told him it didn’t matter whom she was with, it wasn’t going to stop him wanting her. In the last fortnight, he’d obtained a growing weakness for a certain tall, sleek, right-off-a-glossy-magazine-cover-sexpot with long tawny hair, olive-green eyes, and drive-me-wild voice.
“Thanks.” Even to his ears, his voice sounded unnaturally husky.
Maddie cleared her throat, dipped her gaze to his mouth then back to his eyes. He felt the glance like a caress on his lips that sent shockwaves through him and reminded him how good she’d tasted.
She gave him a small, self-assured smile. “No problem, party-Zach.”
He clenched his jaw. For the first time ever, the epithet grated on his nerves.
~*~
MADDIE EXHALED—long and slow—as Zach stomped off to the approach. She dropped onto the seat next to Jack as her wobbly knees finally gave way.
“How did I do?” Jack lifted the three-pint glass jug from the table and topped up their glasses with cola.
Maddie accepted the glass he handed her, grateful for the icy drink to cool her heated insides. Zach could really get a girl fired-up with just one look.
“You did perfect.” She couldn’t seem to drag her eyes from Zach’s delicious body. How was she going to get through the rest of the evening?
The rest of her life?
“You know, if this was real, I’d be extremely ticked off right now.”
Maddie hauled her attention off Zach, pinned it to Jack. “What do you mean?”
“You spend an awful lot of time gazing at him—” he jerked his chin toward Zach. “—as if you’d like to eat him up.”
Maddie couldn’t hold back a gasp of indignation. “I do no such thing.”
“Trust me. You do.”
“We’re just friends.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Sure about that?”
“Of course.”
Jack sipped his drink, angled his glass in Zach’s direction. “Does he know that?”
Maddie glanced over to Zach in time to see him score a strike. He had the highest pinfall of them all. Hardly surprising when every ball he threw earned him a strike.
She puffed out another breath. “It’s his idea.”
~*~
“GET IN the car, Maddie.”
It was after eleven, and she stood in the bowling alley’s car park in the middle of a heated row with Zach.
She knew what this was.
Sexual frustration.
Not that she’d ever experienced it before, yet she’d wager it was the reason she and Zach had been at each other’s throats the entire evening.
“All I said was since you haven’t brought your car, I’d be happy to take you home. You live right next door to me. What’s the big deal?”
The ‘big deal’ was that if Maddie had to endure another second in Zach’s presence she might do something shamefully stupid—like kiss him again.
Amber had abandoned him in favour of Jack, had left with Maddie’s so-called date five minutes ago, and Zach didn’t seem to care.
His complete indifference to his date’s defection made Maddie glad she wasn’t in Amber’s position—and never would be.
“I don’t want to car pool with you. I’d rather catch a cab home.”
Whether it was the eerie car park lighting or the angry haze interrupting her vision, Maddie wasn’t sure, but Zach appeared ready to bust a blood vessel.
He flung open the front passenger door to his metallic red Aston Martin. “Get in the car, Maddie.”
Why couldn’t he just let it go? She huffed out a breath, swung away, then back to Zach. “This is all your fault!”
He flung his hands wide. “My fault?” He slapped them against his thighs. “Why is it my fault you can’t keep your date’s attention?”
“How dare you! When your girlfriend is clearly a date-wrecker?”
Zach stared at her for a count of ten, his voice chilly when he finally spoke. “What are you blaming Amber for? Jack clearly wanted her from the moment he saw her.”
“So you just stepped aside and let him take your woman?” That last word tasted bitter on the way out of her mouth.
“She isn’t my property, Maddie. I don’t own her. She’s free to choose who she wants.” Zach stood statue-straight as he held the car door and waited for her to comply. The scent of polished leather drifted from the car’s interior. It brought to mind masculinity and power, made her aware the car matched its owner perfectly.
Why hadn’t she taken her car tonight instead of letting Jack collect her by cab? And why hadn’t she protested harder when Jack volunteered to give Amber a lift, claiming his taxi had to pass her street on his way home.
And why hadn’t she grabbed a lift with one of her traitor friends who’d taken off with Zach’s mates so fast they barely paused to say goodnight?
“Get in the car.”
“I’d rather walk.”
“Get in, or I’m going to toss you over my shoulder and put you in.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
He took a step toward her. She jerked back.
He exhaled exasperation, folded his arms across his wide, muscled chest, over the T-shirt that promised some lucky girl a Wild Ride.
“Just get in the car. I’ll take you home.”
Maddie gave him her meanest glare as she edged past him. At this hour on a Saturday night who knew how long she’d have to wait for a taxi. She dropped onto the low-slung soft leather seat, barely giving the luxurious interior a second glance. She scowled at Zach. “And another thing—”
He slammed the car door, cutting her off.
He slid in next to her, fired the engine.
She opened her mouth.
“Not another word.” He pointed a warning finger at her as he backed out of the parking space and screeched onto the main road. “One thing I’d like to know, Maddison. What were you thinking when you picked up that guy in a juice bar?”
Maddie cut him a killer glance. Who did he think he was with his condescending question when he’d made it quite clear he didn’t want her?
“How dare you turn your nose up at my date when your taste in women is even worse than I remember? What was Amber, a last minute decision? And what’s with the Bers? Kimber. Amber.”
He flicked her a sideways glance, changed gear, and tightened his jaw. “Maybe it’s my thing.”
In flinty silence, she focused on the blur of lampposts as the DBS ate up the couple of miles to Delaware Gardens while the tension radiating off him jangled her nerves.
Why would he care where she sourced her dates, anyway?