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“Heather?” Her assistant sounded worried about something more than just interrupting her boss having sex in her office. “Your parents are here.”
Chapter Twenty-five
Oh God. She’d forgotten about her father’s phone call earlier that week. Working to try to keep her panic from taking over, Heather looked down at herself, then over at Zach.
“They’re going to know what we were doing.”
What, she silently berated herself as she made sure everything was zipped and buttoned, had she been thinking, having sex in her office?
That was just the thing. She hadn’t been thinking. The second Zach had walked in, she’d lost all control of her synapses—and her hormones. Her reaction to him was that instinctive, that primal.
He put down the puppy and moved closer to undo the tangles he’d just put into her hair.
“You look great, just like you always do.” His mouth left hers tingling again before he said, “Don’t worry, Heather. It’ll be all right.” She just shook her head at him, but he gently cupped her cheek and said, “I’ve got your back.”
She didn’t know how he always managed to do that, to completely turn her inside out no matter the circumstance, but for once she was glad for the way just one soft kiss—and a handful of sweetly confident words—had her unable to focus all of her energies on being completely freaked out about her parents’ visit.
He put his hand on the doorknob. “We’ve got this, Heather.”
Strangely, even though they’d been caught barely seconds post-sex, she did feel a whole lot more able to deal with her parents with Zach than she normally did on her own.
She’d seen him in action enough by then not to be surprised by the way he had her mother eating out of his hand within seconds of saying hello. Her father, however, was slightly less than his usual charming self.
Then again, had any man ever come even close to out-charming him?
“Heather?” Her mother’s eyes moved from Zach to Heather, then to the desk they’d made a mess of. “Is this a bad time?”
Belatedly, Heather realized she’d forgotten to put her shoes back on. She moved to quickly slip them on, but not quickly enough for her parents not to notice what she was doing.
Her father pulled her into a hug before she could act fast enough to step out of reach. “My precious girl. How your mother and I have missed you.”
When she was actually a girl, she’d loved the way he’d come home from a business trip and hug her and tell her how much loved her, that she was the center of his world. But she hadn’t been that naïve for a very long time. She knew better than to think anyone was the center of her father’s world but himself.
Her father didn’t take his arm from around her waist, as though he was trying to make some kind of statement to Zach about whom she really belonged to. Atlas stood up, his ruff bristling, and she was glad to be able to use him as a reason to move away from her father.
He frowned at her dog. “Does he sit in your office all day?”
Heather ran a comforting hand down her dog’s back. Atlas had never liked her father. “Yes.”
Clearly not impressed with her answer, he asked, “Didn’t you get my message last week?”
“I apologize for not calling you back. This week has been really busy.” She tried not to flush at the memory of what she and Zach had just been busy doing, especially when her father looked between the two of them again, his frown deepening.
If only she’d remembered to call him back, then she could have invented a bulletproof excuse. Maybe even taken an impromptu trip out of town for a few days to somewhere she couldn’t be reached.
“I hope you’re not too busy to spend a few hours with us,” he said, effectively trapping her into an evening together.
Thankfully, Cuddles chose that moment to start barking, pulling attention away from her for just long enough to regain her equilibrium and to figure out how to respond. Zach had watched the exchange in silence and she guessed that he had quickly taken her parents’ measure.
She shot him a look that she hoped he could read as well as he read her thoughts in bed: Please don’t leave me alone with them.
Zach picked up the barking puppy and smiled at her, before turning that beautiful face of his on her parents. “Heather and I would be very pleased if you joined us tonight at 212 Stockton.”
Heather tried not to act surprised that he’d just named one of the hottest new restaurants in San Francisco. Even now that she knew how wealthy he was—and how well connected via his famous siblings—the fact that he did absolutely nothing to broadcast his wealth had her completely forgetting about it.
She could tell from the look on her father’s face that he knew just how hard it was to get a table at that restaurant. Clearly, not only could he not believe a guy in wrinkled jeans and a T-shirt had the pull to get one, but he wished he’d thought to do it first.
Her mother’s eyes were wide as she responded, “I just saw a piece about 212 Stockton on TV. It’s owned by a group of movie stars and billionaires.”
Her father’s expression darkened. “All I want is to spend quality time with my little girl, not rub shoulders with a bunch of stars with more money than morals.”
Fairly certain that Zach’s brother Smith was likely one of the “moral-free movie stars,” Heather said, “Why don’t I show you some of the improvements I’ve made to the training areas?” No doubt her parents would quiz her endlessly about Zach, and nitpick all the parts of her business that weren’t shiny and perfect, but even though she would have loved to lean on him, her parents weren’t his battle to fight. They were hers.
