HIGHER (The Indigo Lounge Series) (16 page)

Chapter Nineteen

He took her out to dinner at an
Indian restaurant near the Flatiron District after giving in to her pleas for a
change of clothes. After their sweaty sex escapade, she’d also needed a shower.

After slipping into a simple
cream, floaty summer dress that left her shoulders and bare, she’d hurriedly caught
her hair up in a loose bun and added long silver dangly earrings that brushed
against her neck when she moved. Matching silver looped chains and three-inch
wedges completed the look and she’d seen Zach’s very masculine appreciation
when she’d returned to the car after her mad dash to get ready.

Now he fed her fragrant rice with
his fingers and didn’t care that he was making a mess.

The journey back from Newark had
been as quiet as the journey but this time, Zach’s profile had held a
concentration that indicated he was weighing up serious issues. She’d wanted to
ask if those issues involved them but she’d been too raw from the charged
experience to risk the choppy waters of Zach’s unreasonable demands.

Zachary Savage was used to
getting what he wanted. And he’d decided he wanted her love, even after
admitting he didn’t deserve it.

She shook her head to clear the
jumbled thoughts. Tearing off a piece of peshwari nan, she dipped it in spicy
sauce and held it out to him. He opened it his mouth and took the offering,
then nipped her fingers with his teeth.

His eyes sparkled with mirth and
her heart turned over. Of the many facets of Zach, his playful side rarely
shone through but when it did, she was overwhelmed all over again but how much
her heart yearned for him.

They ploughed through several
courses, their appetites voracious. Easy banter accompanied the beer and good food
and his husky, deep laugh drew more than a few glanced throughout dinner.

After the waiter cleared away the
warm water, soap and hand towels he’d indulgently brought for them to clean up,
Zach took another swig of his beer and settled the tab.

“You’re coming back to the
Penthouse with me.” It wasn’t a question and he didn’t bother framing it as
such.

“Zach--”

He shook his head. “I don’t want
to spend another night without you.” A trace of tension returned.

She sighed and twisted her napkin
in her fingers. “Zach, don’t take this the wrong way but you wear me out.”

One corner of his mouth lifted. “And
you love it.”

“Yes, I do,” there was no point
denying it. “But I really want to do a good job on the IL project. To do that I
need to pay some solid attention to what I’m doing. I can’t do that with you
around.”

“I distract you,” he said slowly
after he drained the last of his beer and set the bottle down.

She snorted. “Is that a serious
question?”

He frowned and looked genuinely
hurt. Well. Go figure.

“You distract me too but you
don’t see me asking for time out. Come back with me. I’ll set you up in the
library and I promise I’ll keep my inappropriate thoughts and hands to myself.
I’m sure you can do the same.”

“I don’t have inappropriate
thoughts,” she lied brazenly.

“You don’t need to. Your whole
fucking tight body is an inappropriate thought.”

“Zach!”

His grin was wide and unashamed,
the tension gone. She had no doubt it would return. And soon. For one thing she
couldn’t avoid his heated demands to look at him when they fucked for much
longer. She’d learned very early on what it meant to him to look into her eyes
when he possessed her. She’d got away with it twice. She was almost certain
there wouldn’t be a third time.

For another thing, the time was
creeping up for her next question. And she had a suspicious feeling he wouldn’t
like the question burning at the back of her mind.

In the car he pulled her close
and slung an arm over her shoulders. She leaned in and breathed him in. He
smelled of heat, and sandalwood and pure, unadulterated male. She glanced up at
him and saw the teeth marks she’d left on his neck earlier. Then she glanced
down and saw the faint bruising on his wrists.

“Admiring your handiwork,
Peaches?” he teased.

Mortification drenched her. She
kissed his neck, and traced her fingers over his wrist. “I…does it hurt?”

“For what I got in return, I’d
take this and worse.”

“That would probably please me if
I had a pain fetish. But I don’t. So I’m sorry.”

He tilted her face to his,
serious eyes studying her. “I don’t want you to apologise for anything we do in
bed, or out of it. We’re finding our way and I don’t care how we do it. As long
as we do it together. Understand?” He waited until she nodded, then placed a
hard kiss on her lips and tucked her head under his chin.

They remained silent for a few
minutes. She closed her eyes and just listened to his steady heartbeat.

Then she sighed. “I still want to
go back to my place, Zach.”

He stiffened. “Christ, Bethany.
Do I need to fuck a
yes
out of you?”
he growled.

She opened her eyes and met his intensely
irritated gaze. “You could just try
saying
yes?” she ventured, trying to appeal to his rapidly diminishing reasonable
side. “It would make me happy,” she added.

His eyes darkened and he sucked in
a long, harsh breath. “I ought to take serious issue with you even suggesting
you would happy to be without me for one night.”

“But?”

“I’ll try to be accommodating.”

“Thank you. I also need the final
guest list. Have the investigative reports come back yet?”

“The first one, yes.”

She frowned. “How many did you
order?”

“Normally? Two. This time…a few
more.”

She knew why. “Because of me.”

“I’m not taking risks with you,
baby.”

“I can take care of myself,
Zach.”

“Sure you can. But I prefer to
lend an active hand.”

She wasn’t going to win. So she
gave up. “You’ll let me have the list as soon as it’s ready?”

“If it’ll help you finish your
work quicker and get back into my bed, yes, dammit. You’ll have it in the next
couple of hours.”

Smiling, she started to lean up
to kiss the corner of his mouth. He turned and took over and didn’t stop until
her mouth burned with the power of his kiss.

He pressed the intercom and
informed Philip of the change of plan, then instructed him to take the most
traffic-heavy route.

Bethany rolled her eyes. “Is that
your idea of being accommodating?”

He shrugged unapologetically.
“The best route takes thirty-five minutes. This way gives us a full hour before
we get to your place. Not nearly enough but it’ll have to do.” He released his
seatbelt, pulled her into his lap and started lowering her thin straps.

Then he proceeded to work an
all-night-long’s worth of sex into a single hour.

***

The moment she closed her door
after her, Bethany wondered whether she’d made the right choice.

She missed Zach like crazy and
it’d only been ten minutes. Her phone buzzing with Sheena requesting a Skype
call check in an hour propelled her out of her sorry state and into a semblance
of work mode.

Ten minutes after she fired up
her laptop, her phone buzzed with a FaceTime request from Zach. Biting her lip,
she decided to ignore it. She was hopelessly addicted to the man. She knew it.
But she needed a tiny bit of independence from him or she would become
hopelessly lost in him. Turning her phone to silent, she worked steadily for
the next hour and a half.

By the time she logged on with Sheena
she had enough to report on not to feel total shame that she’d spent half the
day fucking Zach Savage instead of working.

“Where are we on the guests
shortlist?” Sheena asked after perusing the report Bethany had emailed her.

“Z…Mr Savage is sending it
shortly.”

Sheena nodded. “Excellent. I see
he’s chosen Rome, Kenya and/or Thailand. You’re using our people to arrange
entertainment on the ground?”

“Yes. But I’m also sourcing a few
contingent ones in case we need a back up plan.”

“Good thinking. Let me have the
guest list as soon as you receive it.”

Vague wondering why Sheena had
requested a Skype call if this was all she wanted to talk about, Bethany nodded
and prepared to sign off.

Her phone vibrated again, and
another tingle fluttered through her. Zach had been calling almost incessantly
in the last half hour. Irritation rose to mingle with the tingling. Despite
missing him like crazy, she would need to have a serious conversation with him
about holding up his end of a bargain to give her a little space.

“…so nothing can go wrong--am I
boring you, Bethany?” Sheena interrupted sharply.

Bethany refocused and noticed
Sheena’s flushed face for the first time. She also toyed with the stem of a
half-glass of red wine, which she picked up and swigged from as she waited for
Bethany to answer her.

“Umm…no. Of course not. I’m
giving this commission my full attention.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you are,” Sheena
murmured. The snark in her tone was unmistakeable but there was also a wariness
in her eyes that made Bethany frown.

“Is there something going on I
should know about?” Bethany asked.

Sheena smirked. “You tell me.”
She took another sip and slid a hand through her strawberry blonde hair,
tousling it into comical disarray. “You’re the one who’s landed the big fish.
Trust me, I’m all for it if it brings Neon other fat commissions. You better
not think about jumping ship anytime soon.” The mild threat was delivered after
another gulp of her wine.

Bethany frowned. “What are you
talking about?” Trepidation started beating an erratic tattoo in her chest.

“Your
picture
, dear. It’s doing the rounds on social media.”

“
My picture
?” she screeched.

Sheena nodded. “I don’t blame
you, really. Zach Savage is the fucking hottest thing since…God, since the
history of the world. All that animalistic vibes he throws around.” She leaned
forward and Bethany could almost smell the wine on her breath. “I have to know.
Is he a beast in the sack?”

Bethany froze, her body going
from warm to icy within a millisecond. “
Excuse
me
?” It couldn’t be…Zach had assured her the windows on the plane where
they’d made love were mirrored. And surely, she hadn’t been too far-gone to
notice a camera flash, had she? Yes, she had.

Her body grew icier.

Sheena shrugged a bony shoulder.
“I get it now why he demanded that we have you on the project. And like I said,
I really don’t mind. I’d do it too in your shoes. In less than a heartbeat.”
She drank some more, gave a little giggle, then notice Bethany’s cold silence.
“Hey, if you don’t want to share, that’s fine. But I you really can’t blame a
girl for trying.”

Bethany’s phone buzzed again.

Zach.

There was a photo floating around
on the Internet. A photo to do with them.

She now understood why he was
calling. Her fingers itched to grab her phone but she stopped herself and
returned Sheena’s blatant stare.

Ideally, she didn’t want to lose
her job before she’d taken her next Indigo Lounge trip. Most likely Zach would still
take her with him if she were fired. But still she bit her tongue against the
anger roiling through her.

She realised she didn’t mind
being fired if it meant putting this bitch in her place. “Are we done here,
Sheena? Because I don’t believe requesting inappropriate details about my sex
life is part of my job description,” she enquired frostily.

For the first time since she
started working at Neon, Bethany witnessed a touch of embarrassment flicker
over her boss’s face. Followed closed by a dart of envy.

“Sure…we’re done.” She seemed to
realise what had just happened, and the fact that their exchange had been
recorded. “Umm…Bethany,” she said, leaning forward.

“See you at work tomorrow,
Sheena.” She ended the call and realised she was trembling from head to toe.

She quickly accessed her search
engine and exhaled when the mysterious picture popped up.

Except it wasn’t mysterious
anymore. It was very current; as in less than six hours old. And the article
that went with it accurate enough.

Her phone buzzed. She leaped for
it.

“Zach, I know someone took our photo--”

“No, it’s
not
Zach. But I guess that tells me everything I need to know. What
the fuck, B?” Keely’s voice held a world of hurt.

Chapter Twenty

Bethany gripped the phone harder.
She’d been putting off telling Keely about her renewed reconnection with Zach.
Now it was too late.

“I meant to tell you. I really
did.”

“Right, you had your chance when
I asked you what you were working on. Obviously you chose not to share that you
were working on a commission for the Indigo Lounge and for none other than Zach
Savage, the man you’re
obviously
banging again.”

Bethany cringed. “I wasn’t…I
didn’t know how things would pan out. I still don’t…I’m sorry.”

“Fuck sorry. You think I would’ve
interfered, is that it?”

Guilt assailed her when she
silently admitted the truth to herself. “I didn’t know what I was thinking
myself but I wanted to make any decisions without…” she stopped and bit her
lip.

“Without Pushy Keely’s
influence?”

“No. I like Pushy Keely. But I
was scared Kick-Zach-In-The-Nuts Keely would hurt my man.”

“Oh right, he’s
your man
now, is he?” Keely’s voice
rose.

Bethany sighed. “We’re trying to
work through it. Like you suggested.”

Keely remained silent for several
seconds. Then she sniffed. “I fucking hate that you shut me out. I don’t want
to lose you, B.”

“You won’t.”

“You say that but you’re already
keeping things from me. Next you’ll be telling me you’re flying off again with
billionaire lover boy to some exotic paradise.”

Bethany’s heart flipped over with
more guilt as her silence damned her.

“Fuck, Bethany!”

“It’s for work, Keely.”

“Sure, you keep on believing that.
Because of all the event planning outfits in New York Zach Savage could’ve
picked, he just happened to pick the one where you worked,” she drawled.

“Okay, maybe it’s also to get
away from things like this photo,” she flicked her finger against her computer
screen, but her gaze was riveted on the picture of her and Zach, taken at the
exact moment before he’d kissed her on the forehead in the aircraft hangar.

At least it wasn’t a picture
taken on the inside of the plane. She cringed harder at the thought of that
happening.

Nevertheless, this picture was
equally as potent. The look on Zach’s face…the look on hers.

“The way he’s looking at you, B,”
Keely whispered raggedly, so perfectly in tune with Bethany’s racing thoughts.
“It scares me how much he wants you. Especially when you still don’t know shit
about his past.”

Bethany shivered. She yearned to
reassure her friend, to spill what Zach had told her this morning in his
bathroom. They’d never kept secrets from each other in the past. But this was
the kind of secret she couldn’t tell. Even if it came to nothing, because Keely
was the type of friend who’d fight to the death for her, whether Bethany wanted
her to or not. And if there were legal implications to what Zach would
eventually reveal, then no way could she jeopardize his safety by betraying his
trust.

“I’ll be okay, Keely. He won’t…he
won’t hurt me that way. I mean physically.”

“How do you know? Did he say
something?” she snapped.

“No, not exactly. I really can’t
talk about it.” Bethany could feel Keely’s hurt as if she stood in front of
her. She closed her eyes and swallowed. “I’m sorry.”

“Not as sorry as I am. I’ll see
you around, B.” The line went dead.

Crap!

She blinked back the tears that
welled and stared blindly at the picture that was currently trending on
Twitter.

A New Prey In Savage’s Lair?

The caption would’ve been
ridiculous if it wasn’t ridiculously accurate. There was no room for
ambivalence in the picture whatsoever. Zach was staring at her as if he wanted
to devour her. And she was staring back as if she yearned to be his next meal.

Another shiver ripped through
her. God.

If the whole world could see how
she felt about him, what hope did she have of denying him what he wanted from
her?

When her phone went again, she
forced herself to check the caller ID. Seeing who it was, she answered with
shaking fingers.

“I really need to teach you a
lesson in answering your phone immediately when I call.” His voice held a hard,
savage bite, tinged with a boatload of anxiety.

“I’m sorry…I was online with
Sheena. Then Keely called…” her voice fractured.

“What’s wrong?” he demanded
sharply.

“She’s mad at me.”

“Because of me?”

“Because of us. She thinks she’s
losing me.”

“You have two demanding alphas in
your life. One has to win eventually, baby.” His tone spelled out clearly that
he intended to be the victor. And damned if she didn’t want it to be him.

“I want you both.”

“Then we’ll find a way to make it
work.” He spoke with such conviction that it immediately set her anxiety at
ease.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Did you see the
photo?” he asked warily.

“Yes,” she answered simply.
“It’s…”

“Revealing? Yes. It is.”

“Do you know who took it?”

“Yes,” his voice turned deadly
sharp, “and that problem’s been taken care of.”

Her breath shuddered out. “Is
there another problem?” She didn’t know if she could bear it if this picture
became yet another thing between them.

“I’m working on it. We’ll talk
about it when I get there.”

Surprise arrowed through her.
“You’re on your way here?”

His silence told her what he felt
about her question.

“Sorry, I just didn’t think…”

“No you didn’t. I’ll be there in
five minutes. You know what to do.” He hung up.

She got up from her tiny desk and
went to the door to buzz down to the front desk. “Vlad, I have a friend coming
over.”

“Yes, Miss Green. He’s already
here. He’s on his way up.”

When Zach exited the elevator a
minute later, his face was set in grim lines. She realized he’d tried to
moderate his tone on the phone. Seeing him, watching the tension twisting
through his frame and the way he moved, she swallowed.

“Is it that bad?” She asked after
he set her free following a searing kiss.

He shut the front door and
followed her into the living room. “It could be,” he clipped out. He stared at
her for a long moment, then he began to pace the room.

“Don’t shut me out. You’re
worried. Tell me why,” she said.

He stopped and jerked a hand
through his hair. “I didn’t want certain parties finding out about us. Just
yet.”

She winced inwardly at the dart
of pain that lanced beneath her breastbone.

“Certain parties.”

“Farrah’s family,” he replied. “I
don’t care that they know about you but I don’t want to give them any more
ammunition to stall them providing their consent.”

Her pain eased. “Oh. I see.”

His gaze sharpened. “What are you
thinking? Or should I ask what
were
you thinking a moment ago?”

“I thought…you were…ashamed for
them to know about me.”

He inhaled deep and long.
“Ashamed. Jesus, on top of everything else going on, do I have to take the time
to show you again how much you mean to me? How incredibly fucking blessed I
feel to have you in my life?”

Her heart did that crazy gooey
shit again. “I…No,” she said hurriedly. “I’m good.”

He put his hands on his hips and
glared at her. “You better be. A reminder fuck would take too long.”

She couldn’t stop her smirk. “You
have somewhere else to be?”

“No, but I don’t want to be
accused of
distracting
you. I sent
you the final list by the way,” he threw at her, then he resumed pacing.

She wanted to tell him she’d
finished her work for the evening but she had a feeling sex would very quickly
climb back up the menu if she confessed that. And more than anything she wanted
to establish a connection with him some other way.

“So what are you going to do
about the photo?”

“My attorney is dealing with it.
I can’t have direct contact with her family.”

Her eyebrows rose. “They filed a
restraining order against you?”

He reefed his fingers through his
hair. “No. We just agreed that it would be better that way.”

“God, just what the hell
happened?” When he stopped pacing, she raised her hands. “I know you can’t talk
about the actual event but tell me something…anything! How did you and Farrah
meet?” she asked in a rush before he could tell her something inane that told
her nothing.

He stared off into the distance
and swallowed.

Her breath caught in terror in
her throat, she walked slowly toward him. “Would you like a drink?”

Turbulent grey eyes refocused,
stared down at her for an age and finally nodded. She went into the kitchen,
got a couple of glasses and a corkscrew, and grabbed a bottle of red from her
alcove. He was seated when she returned, albeit leaning forward with elbows on
knees and thrumming with tension.

He took the bottle from her, and
patted the seat next to him. When she sat, he worked the foil loose and held
out his hand for the corkscrew. He poured and handed her a glass before pouring
his own.

Setting back, he pulled her into
his side, his fingers sliding into her hair to gently caress her scalp. For
several minutes he stayed like that. And although outwardly he may have looked
calm and assured, she heard the erratic beating of his heart.

Remembering Marrakech when she’d
been sick with jealousy that he was dreaming of another woman, she fought to
hide the acid bite of envy that a woman could create such a powerful reaction
within him.

The feeling grew and grew until
she wanted to block her ears when he finally started to speak.

“We met in grad school. You know
she’s Moroccan. She grew up there. Her parents were very wealthy, very
influential. She was…very beautiful.”

She winced and his fingers
convulsed in her hair. He pulled her head back and stared down at her in a
narrowed-eyed way that questioned whether she was okay.

When she nodded quickly, he
exhaled and continued.

“I said that because her parents
were very strict and she told me it was partly because of her looks. They were
right, I guess. She turned heads whenever she went.” He stopped and drank.

“Grad school was the first time
she knew any real independence. She was completely innocent and beyond naïve.
Hell, she could barely meet my eyes when we first met.”

Her heart squeezed tight. “Is
that why you liked her, because she was submissive?”

His bitter laughter ricocheted
around the room. “Trust me, she wasn’t submissive for very long. Once the
culture shock wore off, she fully embraced her inner wild child, right along
with the wild partying. Even changed her PhD to reflect her new outlook on
life.”

She frowned. “What was she
studying?”

His mouth twisted. “I don’t
remember what her initial course was - a doctorate of some sort - but she
changed it to sexual psychology.”

“Great. She started studying sex.
Right after she met a sex god.” The bitter acid in her gut rose higher.

“Bethany.” His voice was a low
warning.

She took a sip of wine and tried
to keep from choking on her feelings.

He slid a hand around her nape
and began massaging her knotted muscles. “Are you going to be okay with this?”
he demanded.

Hell no
. “Yes,” she muttered.

His eyes told her he wasn’t sure
about her answer but his hard kiss heated her from the inside, sparking an
immediate yearning that had her clutching him when he pulled away.

“Let’s get this over with. Then
you can have your way with me. Yes?”

The heat cooled. “Did it occur to
you that I may not want to after you tell me about how you once felt about
another woman?”

“You’ll want to.”

She rolled her eyes at his sheer
arrogance but decided not to challenge him. Challenging Zach always got her in
trouble. That kind that usually included getting fucked to within an inch of
her life. “So she embraced her inner wild child. Then what?”

He closed his eyes and his chest
expanded on a ragged inhale. “Then she found drugs.”

Her breath caught.

“It was soft stuff at first. I
didn’t think anything of it because I…I was using too.” His hand tightened on
her nape and his eyes searched hers frantically. Understanding. He wanted understanding.

Her hand slid around his waist.
When she nodded, he exhaled.

“Even after she started the hard
core stuff I never thought twice about it. I was already making serious money
from my business ventures. I was young, a bit of an arrogant dick and
independently wealthy enough to have a fucking posse. They kept me supplied
with enough drugs to keep everyone happy but right from the start it was very
much recreational for me. I could stop whenever I wanted so I foolishly
believed she could too.”

“But she couldn’t?”

He shook his head. “Her parents
began to get suspicious when she stopped calling and refused to return home
between semesters. When they threatened to cut her off and sent her brother
after her - he’s everything you can possibly imagine a tyrannical, asshole of
an older brother can be, by the way - she panicked and for a while she stopped
using. I checked her into rehab to get her clean properly. She even went home
for a couple of weeks. But within a week of returning for our last semester,
she was using again.” He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the sofa.
“I tried to get her clean again.”

“Because you felt responsible.”

Stormy grey eyes met her, and her
heart squeezed at the raging torment in the bottomless depths.

“I
was
responsible. I introduced her to that world, to that life.
Hell, I rolled up and put her first joint in her hand!”