“Best of three,” she said on a whoosh of air.
Heads.
Heads.
Somewhere out there, someone had to be laughing at her, Sophie decided before returning the coin to her purse and climbing back between the sheets.
So the fates had decided she was to seduce whatever information she could out of Zach regarding his knowledge, or otherwise, of Alex’s disappearance. Sounded simple, really. She flopped back against her perfectly aligned feather pillows and huffed out a sigh. She’d never succeed. She’d been the one to stop things going any further when he’d kissed her good night.
Then, surely, she had the right to change her mind...
Sophie reached out to flick off her bedside light and lay in the darkness staring blindly toward her ceiling. This was big. More than big, it was monumental. It went against everything she’d ever been brought up to be. But she owed it to Alex, didn’t she? Her boss deserved someone in his corner. Oh, sure, she knew the police were investigating, but so far they’d been unable to turn up any solid leads. What if Zach had been actively pushing them in the wrong direction?
She rolled onto her side and closed her eyes. What if he hadn’t? What if her conjecture was nothing but smoke and mirrors? At worst she’d potentially embarrass herself horribly, and she cringed at the thought. But at best, well, at best she could possibly find out vital information about Alex while in all likelihood having the very best sex of her life. And if this crazy scheme of hers turned out to be completely off the mark, well, it wasn’t as if she wasn’t powerfully attracted to Zach or that interest wasn’t reciprocated. Who knew where things could lead?
A groan ripped from her throat and she threw herself onto her other side in disgust. It all sounded so mercenary. She was nothing like the kind of person who could carry this off. She wasn’t designed for intrigue and seduction. She liked order, security. But that very security was threatened if she lost her job. While Alex and Zach were business partners, Zach could just as easily conduct his business anywhere but Royal. There was nothing and no one to hold him here.
She tried to think it all through logically, to weigh the pros against the cons, but as sleep claimed her she was no closer to a resolution. The next morning, after a surprisingly restful sleep, Sophie woke with the answer clear in her mind. Zach had already shown he was attracted to her, but he’d respected her when she’d stepped back. She’d leave it to him to make her decision for her. But nothing said she couldn’t try to sway that decision in her favor.
She crossed the room to her wardrobe and considered the five outfits she’d hung in order for her Monday to Friday office wear. No, these wouldn’t do at all. Not in their current incarnations, anyway. Sophie unhooked the suit and camisole that she’d decided on for Monday and tossed the camisole onto her bed. Was the neckline of the suit too bold or, with the right bra, would it be perfect for Operation: Seduction?
She giggled to herself as she put the suit back on the rail and considered Tuesday’s ensemble. Yes, this could work, too. Instead of buttoning the form-fitting blouse to her throat, she could easily flick a few extra buttons open, and maybe wear a pendant—she had exactly the right one in her jewelry box—that would draw the eye, specifically Zach’s eye, down.
Was he a boob man or a leg man, she wondered. No harm in covering all bases, she decided, eschewing Wednesday’s getup as way too staid for the new Sophie Beldon. Instead, she reached for a short, straight skirt she saved for nights out with her girlfriends. Even her legs, which she’d always considered too short to be beautiful, looked good in this. Stacked with a set of heels she’d be invincible.
Sophie laughed out loud. She was starting to enjoy this.
“Roll on Monday,” she said to herself as she closed her wardrobe and went to get herself some breakfast. “I can’t wait.”
* * *
Zach felt every one of his thirty-four years come Monday morning. Over the weekend he’d spent time on a video conference with a panel of doctors at the private mental health clinic he wanted to admit Anna to. Problem was, she’d dropped off the radar. Her parents said they hadn’t heard from her over the weekend, something that wasn’t unusual in their experience but, for Zach, combined with Anna’s ultrafragile state of mind, it was red flag of titanic proportions.
When he hadn’t been able to reach Anna on her mobile phone all day Saturday, he’d driven the fifty miles to Midland on Sunday morning. But the house they’d previously shared had been empty, without even a sign of recent occupation. It had all but slaughtered him to go upstairs to check the bedrooms and to discover that even now, almost two years since Blake’s death, his nursery was still in the same state of casual disarray as it had been on the day Anna had taken him in the car and driven away after yet another argument with Zach.
None of her friends seemed to know where she was and it frustrated the hell out of him that he seemed to be the only person truly concerned about her whereabouts. If she’d ended up hurting herself, or worse, he didn’t know if he would ever be able to forgive himself for not acting sooner to keep her safe.
Compounding his concern for his ex-wife was the complication of how he felt about Sophie Beldon. Taking her out on Friday night had seemed like a good idea at the time, but after a chillingly cold shower when he’d arrived home, he’d begun to examine his sanity in pursuing her as he had, even if it was as subtle as turning a chaste good night peck on the cheek to something so much more. He could have sworn the air around them had crackled with the energy that sprang to life between them. But she’d pulled back, and he’d been gentlemanly enough not to attempt to override her decision, no matter how much his libido had screamed at him to do otherwise.
Zach pushed open the door to the executive suite and started toward his office, only to be halted by Sophie coming out of the kitchenette.
“Ah, there you are. Good morning. Would you like coffee?”
He stopped in his tracks, his eyes locked on her as if seeing her for the first time, his mouth suddenly dry. Words failed him. He’d seen her wear this suit before, several times in fact. But he’d never seen her wear it quite like this. The rich amber fabric was a perfect foil for her eyes and the shining cap of her blond hair, but it wasn’t the color that had arrested him. No, it was the fact that she most definitely wasn’t wearing her usual demure something underneath it. And her breasts, they were soft gentle mounds peaking up against the lapels of her jacket.
“Zach? Coffee?” she prompted with a sweet smile.
“Uh, yeah. Coffee. Thanks. That’d be great.”
He forced himself to turn toward his office and get himself under control. He felt as if he’d been ambushed and shook his head slightly. No. He had to be imagining things. And he continued to console himself with that thought right up until she came into his office with a steaming mug of coffee and bent down to place it on his desk.
Oh, yes, definitely ambushed. A hint of white musk and vanilla and something else that made him want to reach for her and repeat their embrace of Friday night—and more. Worse, though, was the glimpse he got of soft, warm flesh encased in some frothy cream-colored lingerie.
“Thanks,” he said through gritted teeth. “Any news from the sheriff this morning?”
Sophie straightened and made a little moue with her lips. Darn it all. What was it with him and her lips?
“Nothing yet,” she said. “Is there anything in particular you need me for today?”
He could think of several things right off the top of his head. None of them had anything to do with the work at hand, however.
“I’m fine,” he said, reaching for the coffee and taking a long sip of the brew, burning his tongue and the roof of his mouth in the process.
He welcomed the pain; it was the perfect distraction from the torture his body was going through.
“Okay, then. Well, if you need me, you know where to find me.”
She exited his office and he couldn’t tear his eyes off her. It wasn’t just his imagination. She was different from last week. Way different, and yet no less appealing.
And so it went each day. Her new fragrance, while subtle, managed to stay with him every hour in the office, driving him crazy. He was on edge constantly, and in a state of semiarousal from the instant he set foot in the executive suite until he drove himself back to his empty mansion containing his all-too-empty bed each night.
But it was her subtle brushes against his body when he least expected it that were his undoing. They were working late on Thursday night and she’d brought him the reports he’d been waiting on so he could send them out to investors with his recommendation. She brushed lightly past him as he stood staring at the mounting piles of paper on his desk, the outside edge of her breast touching ever so slightly against his shoulder.
The heat of her body seared through the blue silk blouse she wore and transferred past the high-quality cotton of his tailor-made shirt with the conductivity of electricity.
“Sorry,” he said, pulling away from her even though it was her contact.
“No problem. Will that be all tonight?” she asked, barely moving a scant inch from his side.
“Yeah, you can go. Thanks for staying with me.”
“No problem. What about you? Are you heading home now?”
“No, I still want to give these a final pass-through and compose the individual letters.”
She turned slightly so her cutely shaped backside was resting against the edge of his desk.
“You’re working too hard, Zach. Don’t you think you should lighten up, loosen that tie of yours a little and cut yourself some slack?”
Slack? There was nothing slack in his body right now, in fact, every working part of him was exactly the opposite—taut and aching and frustratingly unsatisfied. Words failed him as she leaned a little closer.
“Or maybe I should just loosen it for you?”
Her fingers undid the work of his perfect Windsor knot in a matter of seconds, then gently flicked the top button of his shirt undone.
“There, isn’t that more comfortable?” she said with a curve of her lips.
Before he knew it his hands were at her wrists, tugging her toward him until they were face-to-face.
“Comfortable? I’ll show you comfortable.”
He leaned forward and captured her mouth with his. The relief was instant but short-lived as the perfection of kissing her incited a whole raft of new sensations within him. He pulled away.
“Tell me to stop now and I will,” he growled, barely able to hold on to his instincts a moment longer.
In answer, Sophie captured his face between her hands and pulled him back toward her, her tongue slipping between his lips to caress and entice and thoroughly chase away any last rational thought of control. He gave over to the moment, to the rush of desire that consumed his body. For the first time this week, everything felt right. He sank into her warmth, her welcome.
She tasted of coffee and a sweetness that was pure Sophie and he couldn’t get enough of her. His hands skimmed up her rib cage to touch the sides of her breasts. She groaned and pressed herself against him, her hands now on the buttons of her blouse, pulling them open and exposing the silver-gray lace cups of her bra. Behind the sheer fabric he could see her nipples, taut and prominent nubs of palest pink.
Zach bent his head to the warm swells of her flesh, pressing his lips to the crevice created by the push-up effect of her bra. Sophie shuddered in his arms as he reached behind her and unsnapped the hooks on her bra, releasing her breasts.
“You’re beautiful, so beautiful,” he said reverently, palming the full globes, his thumbs brushing over her nipples, drawing them to attention even more.
“You make me feel beautiful,” she whispered in return, her hands now busy yanking his tie from his collar and loosening the rest of his buttons.
“I want you, Sophie.”
“I want you, too. So much. For so long.”
Her words slowly sank in. He’d been holding back, determined not to engage in a relationship with her and she’d been willing all along? He was a crazy fool. Here she was, as hungry for him as he was for her, and he’d been nobly refusing to follow what his body had been begging for all this time.
Her small hands pushed his shirt aside before spreading across his chest. He gasped at the sensation of her fingers on his skin. It had been so long since he’d allowed himself to give and receive physical affection, to have pleasure from meeting a need that went soul deep.
He kissed her again, and again and again, his mind a haze of need and want and sensation. Somewhere along the line she shed her skirt, revealing tiny panties to match her bra and thigh-high stockings with lacy tops. His fingers skimmed the lace, stroked the softness of her skin, felt her tremble at his touch. His hand worked slowly past the edge of her underwear to the neatly trimmed thatch of hair at the apex of her thighs, his fingers stroking her heated core, feeling her wetness, her desire for him.
He reached behind her to push aside the papers he’d been so fixated on only moments ago and gently coaxed her backward onto the surface of his desk. Her legs splayed over the edge and he felt his breath catch in his throat. He’d never seen anything more wanton, nor more exquisitely feminine in his life. Zach slid his fingers into the sides of her panties, drawing them down her legs, exposing her lush femininity to him. She was spread before him like a feast to be devoured, and he a man who hadn’t dined in so long he’d almost forgotten what pleasure was anymore.
Zach stood between her legs and bent over Sophie’s prone figure and kissed her again, her hands thrusting in his hair, then down the back of his neck and to his shoulders, her nails digging into him as he trailed one hand up and down her body, taking his time discovering the shape of her, the feel of her skin against his palms.
“You feel so good,” he murmured against her lips.
Beneath his mouth he felt her lips pull into an answering smile. “You should feel it from my side,” she said teasingly, her voice ending on a gasp, her body going rigid as his hands trailed lower to tease the tops of her thighs.
“How about I feel inside,” he responded, his voice thick with longing.
He gently parted her moist flesh and felt her tense in anticipation as he stroked the heated entrance to her body.
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” she said, her voice strangled.
“Oh, yes.”
Zach eased one finger inside her, her heat enveloping him and making another part of his body all the more eager to follow in kind. He stroked her inner walls and gently pressed his palm against her clitoris. The instant he did so, it was as if it catalyzed her body into paroxysms of pleasure. Her inner muscles clenched rhythmically around his finger, her hips strained upward and her cry of satisfaction filled the office. He slowed his movements, taking his time, easing his hand free even as she reached for him, dragging his belt undone and unzipping his trousers.
He almost lost it as her hands closed around his straining erection through his boxer briefs, but somehow he managed to regain control.
“I don’t have any protection,” he said through clenched teeth as she freed him from his underwear and stroked him from base to tip.
“I’m protected,” she said in invitation. “Seriously, I’m clean, I have regular checks, I haven’t had a partner in at least a year and I’m on the injection.”
“Same, except more than two years and while my shots are up-to-date, we’re probably not talking about the same thing.”
He smiled, caught by the random humor of the situation even as his body trembled and his brain, and other parts of him, demanded he simply take her and be done with it. Take both of them on a ride to deliver a maelstrom of feeling. Sophie stroked his length once more, making him hiss a sharp breath in between his teeth.
“Then what on earth are you waiting for?”
“Are you certain you want this?” he asked, desperately trying to maintain his equilibrium even though he felt as if the top of his head would blow off any second now from the pressure building inside him. “I’m—I...I haven’t been with anyone in a long time.”
She met his gaze full-on. “I’m certain. I trust you, Zach, and you can trust me, too. I’m not the kind of girl who—”
It was all he needed to hear. “Shh, I know. I trust you.”
And with those words of acceptance, he slid inexorably inside her body. Zach dragged in a deep breath and slowly withdrew again. This was pleasure and pain and everything in between. The gratifying impression of her slick body clasped around him, the piercing agony of holding back, of gripping the last vestiges of control. It was too much, especially when Sophie drew her feet up behind him. He heard her shoes drop to the floor seconds before her heels dug into his buttocks.
“Take me, Zach. I’m all yours.”
The dam of constraint burst and he surged forward, again and again until the sensations that drove him spiraled out of control. Vaguely he was aware of Sophie cresting another climax before his own flashed through his body—a kaleidoscope of color and sensuality, of connection and completion, of give and take.
He groaned as he collapsed, none too gently, upon her. Sophie’s arms closed tight around his body, holding him as if she’d never let him go. His heartbeat pounded at a mega rate as aftershocks of fulfillment shuddered through him. Finally he pushed himself up, mindful of his weight on Sophie’s much smaller frame.
Zach reluctantly withdrew from her body, his own instantly mourning the unforgettably sweet intimacy of their skin-to-skin contact.
“Are you okay?” he asked, extending a hand to her and helping her to her feet.
“Never better,” she answered and went up on tiptoes to kiss him.
Despite having enjoyed mind-numbing sex with her only seconds ago, desire slammed into him anew and he wrapped his arms around her slender form and drew her firmly against his body, deepening their embrace. The buzz of his mobile phone caught his attention.
Sophie pulled out of his arms.
“I’ll go and tidy myself up while you take that,” she said, with another quick buss against his cheek.
He watched as she collected her things, her movements graceful as she walked naked out his office door and toward the private bathrooms that were part of the executive suite. He ached to follow her but his phone continued to buzz insistently.
He swept it up and answered it without checking the caller ID.
“Zach? Is that you?”
Anna.
Guilt slammed into him with the weight of a runaway freight train.