Wrecked (19 page)

Why don’t you take it as it comes
was the exact
wrong
thing to say to somebody like Abigale because Abigale
planned
things.
Controlled
things.

“Well, I can’t speak for Zach,” she finally said, carefully testing each word in her head before she spoke. “But I’d say the fact that the two of you are already involved, that he’s obviously attracted to you, and the fact that you two have so much already between you . . . hell, Abby, it’s more than some people have.”

She squeezed her shoulders again and then, as the door opened, she pressed a kiss to Abigale’s cheek and said, “We need to get out there before he decides we made a break for it or something.”

Chapter Fifteen

“You realize this would be a lot easier if you just told
her you are in love with her.”

Zach glared at the phone. It wasn’t particularly effective since Marin couldn’t see him and it didn’t make him feel any better, but he couldn’t keep himself from glaring, either. He almost flipped the damn thing off but figured that was a waste of time.

It was almost midnight, he was alone in the shop, and the last thing he needed was to be scolded by Marin.

Especially after he’d already heard a variation of the same from his mom.

Especially after he’d dealt with Keelie’s cranky ass all week.

Especially after he hadn’t managed so much as five minutes alone with Abigale since they’d gotten back from San Diego.

“I don’t need advice on how to handle my love life, Marin,” he said sourly when the glare didn’t magically disconnect the phone call. It should work, he thought. If life was fair, it would have worked and then when she called back, he just wouldn’t answer.

“The hell you don’t.” Marin sighed. “Zach, listen . . . have you given her any inkling that you want something more out of this than sex?”

He flushed and rubbed the back of his neck. He was
not
discussing his sex life with Marin, either. She was like the sister he never had. “You realize we’ve only been going out a few weeks, right?”

“Long enough for you to start banging her,” Marin pointed out.

His hand clenched so hard around the pencil, it was a wonder it didn’t snap. The way he was going, he was going to have to buy stock in a damned office supply company.

“Marin . . . if you’re trying to piss me off, you’re doing a damn good job. I’m not
banging
Abby.”

A few seconds passed and then Marin sighed. “Zach, would you lighten up? It’s not like I think you’re fucking her and writing her name on the boy’s locker room door, okay? I know what she means to you. What I’m trying to get at is this . . . she’s falling for you. Hard. But she doesn’t know how serious this is for you. And she needs to.”

“Fuck.” Shoving back from the desk, he got up and started to pace. “And then what, Marin? When I tell her that I’ve loved her forever and that freaks her out, then what do I do?”

His heart lodged in his throat as she pointed out, “Zach . . . sweetie . . . what are you going to do when she
doesn’t
freak out?”

“Marin . . .” He groaned and dragged a hand down his face as he fought with each answer. Did he
want
to tell her?
Yes
. But he didn’t want to scare her off and he didn’t want to—

The buzzer rang.

Scowling, he said, “Marin, somebody’s at the back. I need to go.”

It was more than an hour past closing time so there were just a few possibilities. He thought maybe it could be Abigale, although she usually went to the front. The back of the shop faced out over an empty lot and he didn’t like any of his employees to be out there alone.

He checked through the judas hole and didn’t see anybody.

But the buzzer rang again.

Tension crawled along the back of his neck, making the hairs stand on edge. Bracing a hand on the wall by the door, he glanced at the alarm panel. It was active and engaged. He’d had his place broken into a few times. It would probably happen again—

A fist pounded against the door.

“Yeah?” Zach called out.

As somebody flung himself against the door, Zach hit the panic button on the alarm panel and dodged off to the side.

* * *

The call came in just before one in the morning.

Damn late for calling, but Abby smiled when she saw Zach’s number. She was exhausted after spending most of the day dealing with a bridezilla who practically
defined
the
zilla
part.

The one good thing was that the bride’s daddy was rich and Abby had no problem making them pay through the nose for the headache they were giving her.

The bad news . . . she was almost too tired to talk to Zach.

But tired or not, she needed to hear his voice.

“Hey, gorgeous,” she said, smiling a little as she padded into the bathroom. She eyed the tub and thought about running a bath and soaking for a while. It would keep her awake while she talked—

“Hey . . . ah.” His voice was raw, heavy with exhaustion as he asked, “Can you come to the hospital?”

She froze and the cloud of exhaustion cleared from her head. “Hospital?”

“Yeah.” He paused for a second and then in a rush, said, “I’m fine, okay? But somebody busted into the shop while I was there and I got . . . well, I’m here and I . . . Look, I need somebody to take me home. Can you?”

* * *

Her heart dropped down to somewhere in the range
of her soles when she saw him. Zach lay half propped up in the bed and the bright fluorescent lights were unapologetic as they highlighted every damned bruise, every damned wound. And there were a number of them.

“Zach . . .”

His lashes lifted, and slowly he turned his face toward her. “Hey, Abs,” he said, his voice thick and rusty. He had a cut on his mouth. That beautiful mouth was busted up, she thought, and her heart tripped up and stopped as she eased a little closer.

“Damn it, Zach, what happened?”

“I got the crap pounded out of me by a couple of punks looking for some quick cash.” Then he grinned a little. “I pounded the crap out of them, too. One of them got away, but the other one is down the hall. Broken leg.”

“You broke his leg?” She gaped at him.

“Well, me and one of the chairs in the break room. I’m not entirely sure how it happened, but I tackled him. He went down, and his leg snapped.” His lids flickered a little. “Ugly sound, you know. Hearing a bone break.”

“What room is he in?” she asked. “I’ll go break another bone so I can hear.”

“Bloodthirsty . . .”

He yawned and sat up, blinking a little as he looked around. Then he focused on her. “Abby?”

Frowning, she moved to the side of the bed and laid her hand on his cheek. “Zach, baby . . . are you okay?”

He slid an arm around her waist and smiled at her. It was a slightly loopy smile, she decided. No. Very loopy. “They gave you something for the pain, didn’t they?” Zach couldn’t take anything much stronger than Benadryl without it hitting him like a fifth of whiskey.

He pressed his face against her belly and nodded. “Ribs hurt. Nothing’s broke, but it hurts.”

Smiling a little, she brushed his hair back from his face. “Well, I guess that explains why I’m here.”

He hooked his arm around her waist and held her tighter. “You’re here ’cause I need you,” he muttered, rubbing his lips over her and even through her t-shirt, she felt that teasing caress. “I want to get the fuck out of here.”

She didn’t really hear much of anything else he said.

You’re here ’cause I need you
.

Bending over him, she closed her eyes and wondered just how much. How much did he need her . . . and was it because he needed the damn ride? Because they were friends?

Or was it more?

She really, really hoped it was more.

* * *

He woke in pain.

Pain
every
fucking where. His lip throbbed, his hands throbbed, every muscle in his body ached, and when he went to roll to a sitting position, his ribs screamed at him.

Fortunately, Abby wasn’t in there, so he didn’t have to worry about the fact that he might have almost whimpered a little as he made his way over to her bathroom. Bright morning light shone through the frosted glass window and he had an unrestricted view of his battered face.

Left eye was black and blue, with the bruising spreading down over his cheek.

Mouth was busted. Tats covered much of his chest but they ended just below his pecs and he could see the vivid bursts of bruises forming there. The jerks had whaled on him hard and the one time they’d managed to get him down, they’d kicked the hell out of him, too. He’d kicked the legs out from under one of them and used that brief second to get back to his feet and that was when he’d lunged for the other one.

Not more than a couple of minutes had passed before the cops arrived to check out the alarm he’d sounded, but one of them had taken off.

Whether or not they found that guy would depend on if the punk they’d arrested last night decided to talk. Regardless, Zach had every damn intention of pressing charges. This was the third time somebody had decided to break into his place and he’d been in there last night.

His gut twisted a little as he thought about everything that could have gone wrong.

Javi or Keelie could have been in there.

Abby
could have been there with him.

“Stop it, man.” He turned away from his battered reflection. That
what if
game was a bad, bad thing to get started. Blanking his mind, he hooked his thumbs in the gray boxer briefs he wore and went to shove them down, but even that had him almost doubled over as his ribs screamed at him.

“Need some help?”

He shot Abby a dark look as she came into the bathroom. She wore a pale green chemise with skinny straps that just barely skimmed her hips and her dark red curls were still tousled. He wanted to bury his face against her neck and just stay there. For about forever.

Instead, he looked away. “I can handle the damn shower.”

“Cranky.”

He glared at her. “A couple of assholes broke into my shop, I get the shit beaten out of me, and there’s not an inch of me that doesn’t hurt. Yeah, I’m cranky.” Then, as she arched a brow at him, he groaned and looked away. “Sorry. Just . . . I need a shower and I’ll find some Motrin and . . .”

She sauntered inside, moved around him to open the cabinet just beyond his shoulder. She pulled out a bottle and popped the cap. She shook out four and held her hand out. “The doctor ordered that dosage so here . . . you’ve also got some narcotics downstairs.”

“No, thanks,” he muttered, swiping the orange pills out of her hand. “That stuff makes me loopy.”

“Hmmm. Trust me, I’m well aware.” She filled the little glass from the side of the sink with water and held it out to him.

Once he’d taken the pills, she stood in front of him, eyeing him critically for a long, long moment. Then she moved in and slid her hands down his ribs, carefully, her palms ghosting over his flesh.

“Abby, I . . .”

“Shhh . . .” She slid her hands inside his boxers and tugged them down. His cock swelled in response and when she brushed the back of her hand against him, he groaned. “I don’t know if I’m up to this, sugar.”

“Oh, really?” She grinned at him and closed her hand around his cock, stroked up, then down. “You feel pretty up to me. But . . . don’t worry. I think we should take it easy for now.”

He almost whimpered just then, because as sore as he was, when she went down to her knees in front of him, every damned thing in him responded.

A faint smile tugged her lips and she shot him a look. “See? You’re more than up for what I’ve got planned,” she murmured, leaning and placing a hot, openmouthed kiss to the head of his cock.

He caught her hair in his fist when she lingered and slid her mouth down, then back. “You . . .” He closed his eyes and rested his hips against the counter of the sink. “I think I can only handle about five or ten minutes of this in my condition.”

She rolled her eyes up to meet his, and the wicked glint in her eyes just might have sent him to his knees. He didn’t think he could get back up if he went to the floor, though. Swearing, he braced one hand against the cool marble of the counter and fisted his free hand in her hair, tangling the crazy curls around his fist and shuddering as she sucked him deeper, taking him so far back he felt the head of his cock bump against the back of her throat.

She did it again and again, and for a few minutes, Zach forgot about the aches in his body, forgot about anything and everything but the slick glide of her mouth over his cock and the silk of her hair fisted in his hand.

Her fingers stroked up over his thigh and he hissed out a breath as she closed her fingers around the sac of his balls, gripped him tight.

Her teeth scraped over the sensitive underside of his cock and then, as she took him back inside, so fucking deep, she hummed a little, and he thought the top of his head was going to come off as he started to come. He rocked forward to meet her, muttering and panting under his breath as he reached out with his other hand to hold her steady.

She moved with him, her mouth hot, sweet, and wet. It was pure, sheer bliss and for those few minutes, the pain he felt faded away and all that mattered was her. Her, and that amazing mouth, her tongue curling over the head of his cock before sucking him deeper, harder. Her fingers, tormenting him as she gripped his balls.

As pleasure streaked through him, building higher and higher, he cupped her head in his hands and surged forward, holding rigid, legs locked as the climax tore through him. All the way through.

* * *

Abigale licked her lips and wiped the back of her
hand over her mouth as she stood up, kicking his boxers out of the way. “You know . . . all I’d really planned on doing was helping you get out of your boxers,” she teased. “I figured you’d have trouble moving much with your ribs and all.”