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And now he had an erection.
That woman was driving him insane.
He reached for the Scotch. Who cared if he got drunk or not? His whole life had been about self-control, and where had that gotten him? Sure, he was president, arguably the most powerful man in the world. But what good was that? He didn’t even know his real name. And he couldn’t touch the one woman he craved.
“Are you all right?” a soft voice with the sweetest Southern accent asked. “Tonight was awfully intense.”
Zack looked up. Elizabeth stood in the doorway as though he’d conjured her from his thoughts. “I’m great. It’s not every day we raise the dead, after all.”
She was still in her business suit, but she’d let her classic French twist down and ditched the jacket. Her soft blonde hair tumbled around her shoulders and made him itch to sink his hands into it. He could control her with that hair, show her exactly how he wanted her to move, where to put that luscious mouth of hers.
“How are you handling that? I can’t imagine how shocked you were to discover that one of your best friends is still alive,” she said. “And I was happy to see that he and Everly have mended fences, but you must be angry with him. Zack, you can’t honestly think you’re a Russian plant. Mad should have come straight to you and told you his suspicions.”
Elizabeth had always been loyal. Of course, if she wanted to earn his trust and get close to him, she’d said exactly what she should.
He couldn’t deal with her tonight. Between all the bombshells, coupled with his fears, he felt too close to the edge of his restraint. Elizabeth being here—so close and yet so far away—was like dangling a match over the kindling of his self-control. But damn, she looked slightly disheveled. So sexy. All woman. Soft and vulnerable.
He was so hard and hungry.
And she was the perfect bait for a trap.
Normally when a day crashed in on him like this, when the pressure got to be too much, he’d go for a run. He’d jog for miles, until his body couldn’t endure anymore. Then, exhausted, he would finally sleep. But he couldn’t engage in the hard, punishing exercise he needed to chase away the shadows and burn off stress now. It was after midnight. He couldn’t force his detail to run in the middle of the night. And he couldn’t make himself an easy target for the Russians’ assassin.
That bottle was looking better and better.
“I think it’s safe to say we’ll all need therapy after this weekend. It’s late. You should get some sleep. We’ll have a lot to talk about in the morning.” His tone was curt. He hoped she’d take the hint and leave. He needed her out of the path of his frustration. If she went to bed now, closed and locked her door, she would be safe.
She didn’t take his advice, merely stood her ground. “I think you and I should talk now. We won’t have any privacy tomorrow.”
“About what?”
“I understand why you’ve been acting the way you have.” Her mouth tightened, telling him that she didn’t like it.
“And what way is that, Elizabeth?”
Everyone else called her Liz. He liked Elizabeth. He enjoyed the way her name rolled off his tongue. He loved to watch her, especially like now when she tried to be assertive…but still hesitated as if she sensed danger. Smart prey. She sensed there was a predator in her midst.
He needed to end this conversation or he would gobble her right up.
She took another brave but foolish step toward him. “Have you been trying to protect me?”
Zack sucked in a breath and remained glued to his seat because nothing good would happen if he got closer to her. He didn’t trust himself right now. There was still a desk between them, but he could too easily change that. “I didn’t think you needed protecting. Obviously Sara felt the same way since she didn’t end up forgiving Mad.”
Liz cocked her head in consideration. “I think their issue is more complex than that.”
“Is it? He loves her. He was scared for her. He tried to protect her. It seems simple to me.”
“But it’s not that simple between us, is it?”
Zack grimaced. She just wouldn’t leave it alone. “Nothing is simple when it comes to you.”
Her shoulders squared—a sure sign she was about to get stubborn. “Or you, Mr. President. Joy was killed simply because she was your wife. I had no idea. But you clearly have for a while. It makes sense that you tried to protect me. If you haven’t been, then I’d like to know why you suddenly rejected me.”
Like he’d had a choice…
Bitterness welled inside him, and something nasty took root in his gut. Or maybe it had always been there, simmering beneath his seemingly benign surface. “I didn’t reject you, Elizabeth. I thought once that we might date, but the minute Joy died, any romantic possibilities for us were over.”
She shook her head, blue eyes flaring with obvious frustration. “Why? Don’t get me wrong. I understand we had to take a step back. The optics would have been terrible.”
“The worst.” Zack sent her a dismissive shrug.
“But it’s been years, and I’ve always been in your corner. Always. Yet lately, you’ve treated me like something between a stranger and an enemy. And I’m tired of it. Maybe it’s the threat hanging over your head. Maybe I’m tired of being alone. Either way, I won’t go on ignoring the elephant in the room. So here’s the truth: I still care about you. I think you still have some interest in me, but you won’t admit it or act on it. And you won’t give me a decent explanation why. After hearing that Mad split them apart to save Sara from the danger, I suspect that’s exactly what you did to me.”
Well, he’d never said she was dumb. “Ah, but there’s a difference. Sara and Mad were lovers. We never were.”
They had never lain in bed for hours, worshipping each other’s bodies, never found comfort in one another’s arms. Always they had been forced to maintain a polite, professional distance. It rankled, this leash he kept himself on. Deep inside, he started to growl and fight that fucking chain he’d been on all his life.
“Still…” Her voice softened. “I thought we were friends.”
He couldn’t remain in his chair a second longer.
Zack stood, bracing his hands on the desk in front of him so he didn’t put them on her. “Friends? That’s what you thought?”
She laughed, a sound without any amusement. “Oh, that’s right. You think of me like your sister now. Sometime between that lunch when you asked me to go to Paris with you so we could fuck our brains out and last month, you changed your mind. I guess I should be glad we never got naked. Touching me would have been like incest, and I would have been deeply disappointed when you couldn’t get it up.”
The words sent a thrum of anger through him. They fueled his arousal because he ached to show her exactl
y how up he could get for her. Her barb tipped him right over the edge of his control.
She wanted to challenge him? There were a million reasons for him to walk out the door, and only one for him to stay. Because he wanted her. Damn it, he’d been a good boy all his fucking life, and despite that, it looked like his presidency and his reputation would probably end in disgrace. He’d become a footnote in history, either going down as a puppet or a traitor.
So why couldn’t he have one damn thing he wanted just this once?
Fuck everything. He was going to have Elizabeth.
“A sister?” The question came out almost polite, but it was all veneer. The civilized Zack Hayes had left the building.
He’d given her every out. He’d even told her to leave. She hadn’t. Now, she would feel the wrath of nearly five years of pent-up lust.
As he moved around the desk and prowled into her space, she didn’t shrink away. No, not his Elizabeth. She stood her ground. Despite wearing those sexy-as-hell stilettos he’d dreamed of wrapping around his waist as he fucked her hard, she had to tilt her head back to meet his gaze.
“Yes.” She raised a challenging brow at him. “Your words. Not mine.”
She was being awfully damn brave for a woman who was about to become his feast. Couldn’t she feel the energy rolling off him? Didn’t she wonder whether that spark was the need for violence or sex?
His cock knew exactly what it throbbed for. “You want the truth? All right. The feelings I have for you are far from familial. I have tried to protect you. Happy?”
The moment she had her answer, she seemed to reconsider. “Zack, I-I shouldn’t have pushed. I—”
“You’re right.” He backed her against the desk and caged her by gripping the edge on either side of her. “And you should have taken the out when I gave it to you. But you didn’t, so I’m going to show you how far from brotherly my feelings are for you. You’re going to let me, aren’t you, Elizabeth? You’re going to walk the eight feet to that door and lock it, then you’re going to come back here and let me get my mouth on you. You’re going to open yourself to me and I’m going to take all you have to give tonight.”
