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Prospects had to be able to have a little fun sometimes.
“Sounds good. See you tonight at the lodge?” There was a big club bonfire that evening. Viper’s ol’ lady was turning twenty-five for about the thirtieth time.
“I’ll be there.” And if the stars aligned, he’d be able to talk Toni into coming with him.
He left Bones in the prospects’ capable, though not tender, hands.
With each mile that brought him closer to home, Zach’s excitement grew. Toni would still be out on her wraparound porch, wineglass in hand, enjoying the sunset. It had become her ritual. And while Zach had been too busy to pop over in the last week, he’d found some excuse to run to his house or past his house almost every evening.
Just for a glimpse of her. The woman who turned his head. The woman who accepted him and his brothers by allowing them in her family business without knowing a damn thing about them.
After making the twenty-minute trip, he slowed and turned into his long driveway. The house he’d grown up in was set about a hundred feet back from the road. Toni’s was even farther, another fifteen or so feet, so though they were next door neighbors, the houses weren’t side-by-side. His bedroom, however, lined up with a window in Toni’s living room.
Any excitement he’d been feeling died out when he realized she wasn’t in her usual spot. She wasn’t outside at all. Damn shame. The air was warm and the sky clear. Good day for sunset gazing.
“You’ve gotta be shitting me,” Zach muttered. Toni may not be outside, but she was in the house, visible through the window. And she had a visitor. A suit-wearing, douche bag of a man who wasn’t worth a smile from Toni.
Under her reserved exterior, Toni burned hot. Zach could sense it. For some reason, she was denying that part of herself, to him at least, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there. And it didn’t mean it could be ignored forever. A man like the suit wouldn’t know what the hell to do with a woman like Toni. Wouldn’t know how to coax out the passion and fire she’d buried under a layer of seriousness.
Zach did.
Zach knew just how to tease a response out of Toni that would shatter her defenses and have her screaming his name.
And that’s exactly what he planned to do.
She just had to agree to let him touch her.
Chapter Ten
He’d actually done it.
Chris had shown up on her doorstep like he’d promised, both when he’d left and when he’d called a few days ago while she was working. While she was waiting on Zach’s table, to be exact.
Damn him.
“Chris,” she said, holding the door open and blocking the doorway. Half convinced it was going to be Zach paying an unexpected visit with a lame excuse like he needed some sugar, but really wanted to flirt, she’d flung the door open with far too much enthusiasm.
Zach had been on her mind each and every day. More specifically, his mouth had been on her mind. After he’d issued that challenge about kissing her, it was all she could do to keep her wits about her. And her vibrator in its drawer.
Yeah, she’d failed at that one.
“What are you doing here?” She kept her body in the doorway.
A frown marred Chris’s otherwise perfect face. He was handsome, she had to give him that. But in a refined, snobbish, moneyed kind of way. Not like Zach, who was…well, Zach was straight up hot. Rugged. Muscled. A little dangerous. The kind of man who would know exactly what to do with a woman. Whether that was to throw her down on the bed, or slam her against the wall…
And she was fantasizing about Zach again. Why?
Whatever the reason, her body reacted to her wayward thoughts and she had to resist the urge to stick her head in the freezer.
“I told you I was coming. Remember? I told you we had some space and it was time to discuss our relationship and future. Hit the reset button. Any of this ringing a bell?” Chris stepped closer, as though he expected her to move back and let him into the house.
She didn’t. He wasn’t welcome.
“And I told you, as I told you before you left here, that it wasn’t a break. It was a break up. I specifically asked you not to come.” This was the last thing she wanted to deal with. He was making her miss the sunset. “We broke up, Chris. I’m sorry if you’re hurt or upset, but my decision is final. There isn’t anything for us to discuss.”
He scoffed and had the gall to remove her arm from the door frame so he could push his way inside. “We didn’t break up, honey. You were upset about your parents and it made you emotional. Irrational. Not to mention the unwanted interruption by your thug neighbor. Now that you’ve had some time to get your head on straight, we can talk about it like adults.”
