I’ll Be There (32 page)

“Yes. Please,” she panted and almost groaned with relief when he turned them toward the bed. He'd placed her down on the bed when there was a knock on the door. “Oh…damn.”

Zach looked down at her. “Were you expecting someone?” he teased.

“It's housekeeping. More pillows,” she groaned.

“Stay there. I'll be right back.” He walked out of the room and she heard him open the door, thank whoever was standing there, and then close the door.

And bolt it.

He came back into the room and tossed the pillows on the floor. “We'll deal with them later. Right now, all I can think about is you.”

She smiled shyly and held out a hand to him to pull him down beside her. “That's good,” she said. “Because I want to be all you can think about.”

His hand roamed from her ankle to her thigh and back again. His expression hot, his hand exciting her as he continued the journey back and forth.

“Don't worry,” she said after a minute. “The shoes are staying on.”

He smiled and placed a knee on the bed before reaching for her ankle and unhooking the rhinestone-studded stiletto.

“Zach?”

He smiled at her. Sexily. Tenderly. “I think tonight we should take them off.”

It was possibly the sweetest thing he'd ever said to her.

* * *

The sun was starting to come up and Gabriella was sprawled across Zach's chest, watching the sunrise through the balcony doors. “So you really thought firing me was the way to get me to forgive you?” she asked sleepily.

They'd spent hours making love with short bouts of sleep in between. This was the first opportunity they actually took to talk.

“In my defense, I thought it would be a good conversation starter.”

“Maybe someone needs to come in and train you,” she teased.

He chuckled. “Maybe. But I wanted you to know I'm in love with you, Gabriella, as a woman. It isn't because of the job you did for me or anything work related. I want you—the woman. I don't want us to get settled into a routine where you're the only one sacrificing for me. I need to do a better job of paying attention to your wants and needs and dreams. You don't have to take me on as a client but I'd like to help you get your dream business off the ground.”

She snuggled closer. “I appreciate that, Zach. I really do. It means a lot to me that you'd trust me to do that.”

“How could I not? There's no one better than you. And if you can't be my assistant anymore, then I'd like knowing you trained your replacement.”

“Well…just know this. My replacement is going to be old. Like, in her sixties and happily married and a grandmother to at least eight.”

“What?” He chuckled. “What are you talking about?”

“If you think for one minute I'm going to hire anyone young and single who wears high heels to work for you, then you're crazy. You're mine, Zach Montgomery. All mine.”

He kissed the top of her head. “Sweetheart, that's all I ever wanted to be.”

Six months later

“Um…yeah. I'm not doing that.”

“Oh, come on. Don't be such a baby. It's not so bad.”

“Easy for you to say. Uh-uh. I can't. Let's just go back to the hotel and forget about the whole thing.”

“Not gonna happen.”

Zach tried for a distraction. “Did you ever figure out that text earlier? What it meant?”

She looked at him quizzically for a moment. “Oh, you mean the one from your uncle?”

“Yeah. It seemed a little weird. Even for him.”

She shrugged. “Something about our favorite college. I don't know. I told him we'd think about it.”

“Maybe we should. I mean, how do you feel about the Ivy League schools?”

Gabriella stared at Zach for a solid minute before breaking off in a fit of laughter.

“What?” he demanded. “What's so funny?”

“You are! Nice try with the distraction! You do realize this is relatively tame by your standards and you're refusing to do it!”

They were on their honeymoon, standing at the top of a nine-story-high waterslide the resort was famous for. “It's crazy! Why would anyone want to freefall for nine stories? It's insane!”

“This from the man who used to jump out of airplanes. You know those leaps were higher than this, right?”

“Sure, but there were parachutes and guides… It was completely different.”

Gabriella stretched, the fabric of the tiny white bikini practically transparent. Zach groaned and she smiled. “I'll tell you what—you follow me down and then we'll spend the rest of the day doing whatever it is you want.”

“Anything?”

She nodded. “Anything.”

He studied his wife. It was a tempting offer. Very tempting. It had been a long time since he'd felt the pull of any extreme activity, and although she was right and this was fairly tame in comparison to the adventures he used to take, Zach no longer felt the need to push the limits.

“Okay. Fine. One time, and then…we're going back to the room and you're losing the bikini.”

“Ooo…I like the way you think.”

“And we'll swim in our own private pool.”

“I like that even more,” she purred, then pressed up against him and kissed him thoroughly on the lips before turning and sitting down at the top of the slide. The attendant explained the proper position to hold for the fall. Gabriella looked over her shoulder at him. “See you at the bottom.”

He nodded. “See you at the bottom.” He loved the look of pure joy on her face as she took off and knew he'd finally found his greatest adventure of all in Gabriella. Feeling anxious and excited, he assumed the spot at the top of the slide and waited for the thumbs-up from the attendant before taking his own leap.

It was fast-paced and blindingly terrifying. But just knowing his wife was down there waiting for him made it all worthwhile.

Order Samantha Chase's second book
in the Shaughnessy Brothers series

Love Walks In

On sale April 2016

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Love Walks In

Stepping into the evening air, Hugh Shaughnessy looked around and couldn't help but feel a sense of pride. It never got old. This was his. All of it. He'd worked hard, invested well, ran a tight ship, and knew his limitations. Sure, he could have expanded on most of his properties, but Hugh liked a more intimate atmosphere—a place where couples could come and relax. Let the bigger names compete for acreage and the most amenities. What he had accomplished with his resorts was in a class by itself.

The walk to his suite normally would have had him turning to the left, but Hugh took the path to the right, toward the gardens. He was restless. Within the hour he'd have dinner brought to his suite and he'd be alone with his thoughts. Not that it was an unusual scenario, but tonight it felt a little more…lonely.

Luckily he had a trip home coming up. It had been almost six months since he'd been back. The last time had been for Darcy's birthday and even that had been nothing more than a quick weekend.

Or maybe he needed a date.

It had been about three months since he'd last spent a weekend with a woman and while it certainly wasn't a record for him, it was amazing how fast the time had gone and how it hadn't occurred to him until right then. As he strolled around toward the back of the main building, Hugh tried to picture his date's face in his mind and couldn't.

That couldn't be good a good sign. No matter. It was what it was. Note to self—after closing this deal with Bellows and finding a replacement for Heather, he needed to relax with the family. Then it hit him—maybe he should call Riley. Hell, his little brother was one of the biggest rock stars in the world. If anyone could hook him up with someone for a weekend fling, it would be him.

Problem solved. With a renewed pep in his step, he turned the corner and saw some movement up ahead. Guests didn't usually come around to this part of the resort. It was the back of the main building—there weren't any signs to stop them or warn them away, but it was mainly parking spaces, a couple of small storage buildings, and trees. Nothing to see.

Slowing his pace, he saw someone peeking into one of the windows. Odd. Doing his best to stay out of sight without losing sight of what was going on, he heard some rustling in the bushes lining the back of the building. Some were taller than others and now, from where he was standing, he couldn't tell what was going on.

With no other choice, he stepped back out into the open and walked toward this potential…what? Peeper? Perpetrator? Seriously, he had no idea what it was he was about to confront.

“Dammit,” came a muttered voice and Hugh decided it was definitely female.
That
piqued his interest. He stopped just on the other side of the tall bush shielding her from his view and realized the woman was looking in
his
window! The window to his office! What in the world?

Not a minute later, he was appalled to see she was sliding the window open! How had he managed to lock the door of his office and not the window? Damn it, he'd opened it earlier in the day because the temperatures had been so mild and sometimes he just needed to smell the fresh air when he was cooped up in his office.

It wasn't likely to happen again after what he was currently witnessing.

The window squeaked and it snapped him back to the present. Great, he was so busy obsessing about fresh air he had forgotten about the person trying to break into his office! Stepping around the shrub and ready to haul off and give this person a piece of mind, Hugh immediately stopped short, his jaw hitting the ground.

There, right in front of him, were two of the longest legs he'd ever seen and quite possibly the world's most perfect female bottom.

In nothing but a hot-pink thong.

His throat instantly dried and his heart rate kicked up. He stood—mesmerized—as her sexy bottom wiggled back and forth. He couldn't tear his eyes away.

Or move.

In that instant, it didn't matter that she was trespassing. It didn't matter that she was clearly breaking and entering. All that mattered was watching the movement of her body.

Then she disappeared through the window and into his office.

It took a full minute for Hugh to realize he was staring at nothing but his window before he shook his head to clear it and made his move. In a flash, he was silently through the window, and his sexy intruder hadn't noticed. She was looking around the dimly lit room and unfortunately, he couldn't get a good look at her.

Standing in the corner, he continued to observe. If she was going to try and steal something, he wanted to be certain to catch her in the act. In a perfect world, he'd hit the lights as soon as she took something that clearly didn't belong to her so he could press charges. He hated people touching his belongings—especially when they so blatantly held such little regard for his privacy.

But who was she? Why was she here in his office?

“Finally,” he heard her mutter. Stepping closer to his desk, he reached for the small lamp there and turned it on. A small scream escaped her at the intrusion of light.

“Is there something I can help you with?” Hugh asked with a calmness he didn't feel. As soon as his eyes adjusted to the light, he felt as poleaxed at the sight of her face as he had at the sight of her climbing through the window.

The first thing to register was the fact that she was wearing more than the hot-pink thong. She had on a strapless white dress. It hit mid-thigh and showcased a curvy body and tanned limbs. Her hair was long and blond and she looked like some sort of beach goddess.

Huge blue eyes stared back at him. One hand covered her heart as the other covered her belly. “Who…? What are you…?”

“Doing in my own office?” he supplied. “I believe that's what I should be asking you. How about explaining why it is you're in here and why you decided to climb in through the window? Some call it breaking and entering.” Hugh watched the play of emotion on her face as she lowered her hands to her sides. He expected tears. He expected apologies. He certainly didn't expect attitude.

“You stole my suitcase,” she snapped at him.

“
Excuse me?
”

“You heard me,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest and cocking a hip. “That suitcase right there? It's mine. You had no right to take it.”

Hugh was stunned speechless. He owned the damn resort—didn't this woman realize that? “You left it out in the middle of the property. I brought it here to keep it safe. Anyone could have grabbed it and taken off with it. I was simply making sure nothing happened to it.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. It wasn't your responsibility. I left it there for a reason.”

He cocked a brow at her. “Oh really? And what was it?”

“None of your business,” she said evenly, then looked at the watch on her slim wrist. “Look, are we cool here? Obviously the luggage is mine so…can I go?”

Was this woman for real? “Actually, it's not obvious the luggage is yours. There's no tag on it, no identification. And if you knew it was in here, why didn't you go to the front desk and ask for it?”

A little of her bravado seemed to fade. “They were busy and…and…I needed to get it so I can go.”

“Leaving already? Were you even a guest here?”

She nodded. “I really need to go. What's it gonna take to prove to you this suitcase is mine?”

The resort was small enough that Hugh normally recognized his guests. He didn't recognize this woman and God knew she was attractive enough that had he seen her before, he definitely would have remembered. “I don't believe you.”

“About what?” she asked incredulously.

“About being a guest. I know all of our guests. I've never seen you before.”

She rolled her eyes again. “We just checked in this morning. What are you, resort security?”

“No,” he said smugly. “The resort owner.”

Those blue eyes went wide again. Slowly she composed herself. “Okay, Mister Resort Owner. What happens now?”

“You said ‘we just checked in.' Who's ‘we'?”

“It doesn't matter. I checked in with someone and now I'm leaving. It's not a crime.”

“No…but breaking and entering is.”

“You stole my suitcase!” she cried.

“Okay, we're going around in circles here, Miss…?”

“Burke. Aubrey Burke.”

“Do you have ID?”

“In my purse.”

Hugh looked at her expectantly.

“It's outside in the bushes.”