ELEVEN
AT brEAKFAST, she ate next to nothing. Still, she wouldn’t be awkward about it. Her shame couldn’t get in the way of her work. So when Honi appeared in the doorway of the dining room after Alessia scampered off for her day, she went to the corporate suite as usual. Without hesitation, she planned to stride inside, beach bag on her shoulder, head held high… and with a lot of humility.
Zane paced in the terrace doorway, hands locked at the small of his back.
When he noticed her, he stopped. For a few seconds, they just looked at each other.
Zane was the first to break the silence. “Thea—”
“It’s okay,” she said, showing his contrition a smile. “You don’t have to worry.”
His hands swung loose from each other to settle at his sides. “I don’t?”
“That’s the whole point of dating,” she said, going to the desk. Oh, man, there was her lip gloss. He must’ve found it after… in her defense, her bra did stay on. “We went out to see if we might be compatible.” Pulling out her chair to sit, she put her bag on the floor and bent to retrieve her laptop. “Just because the romance didn’t work out doesn’t mean we can’t still work in the same space.” After putting the laptop on the desk, she hesitated to look at him. “Does it? Am I being presumptuous?”
“Yes, you are,” he said, marching over. “The romance did work out. It definitely worked out.”
“Zane,” she said on a semi sigh. “Would you like me to leave? I can work in my room or on the beach. I have most of the files I need saved to—”
“Babe,” he said, bowing to set both hands on the table. “I stopped because I didn’t trust myself.”
“You don’t have to—”
“Having you in my arms, kissing you… Thea, I had to be a gentleman. I took you to a bed and plied you with alcohol. If we’d woken up there, together, after… You’d never have looked at me again. You’d have been angry and for a damn good reason. You’d have been right to report me.”
“Whether you stopped out of respect or just because you weren’t as attracted to me as we thought, it’s okay.” She smiled again. “I had a nice time and you’re a good guy.”
“Yet it sounds like you’re saying goodbye.”
Time for humility. “I wasn’t sure I’d be able to look you in the eye ever again. I knew I had to try. To come here and apologize for making a fool of myself.”
“You didn’t—”
“I started the night telling you over and over again that it wouldn’t happen. Then I took off my dress and assaulted you.” The embarrassment heated her through and not in a good way. “Thank you for not following through and I promise I’ll never put you in that position again.”
“Tonight we’ll have dinner. Meet earlier and then I have a treat for you.”
“No.” Shaking her head, she opened her laptop to turn it on. “Thank you. You don’t owe me anything.”
“Somehow, you’ve got it in your head we stopped because I don’t want you. Last night only cemented we made the right choice.”
“To stop?”
“To give us a shot. If stopping messes with your head or made you doubt us, come around here…” He boosted his hands off the desk to stand up straight. “Come here while we’re both sober and kiss me like you did last night… I promise you it’ll end different.” What a conundrum. “I want you, Thea. Bad. But I want you more than once. If I’d followed through with you last night, we’d be over already.”
“Aren’t we?”
“You tell me,” he said. “What did last night do for you? Put you off? Are you attracted to me today?”
More than she wanted to admit out loud. “Zane—”
“We’re going to be together, Thea. That means sometimes we’ll have to step in for each other. Being together for the first time last night, the way we ended up, wasn’t right. So I stepped up to keep us right. You did it yesterday when I had you on your back on that desk… We’re a team. Equals. We each step up for the other.”
His certainty was so seductive. “You’ve got this all figured out.”
Zane shrugged. “I had a lot of time to think about it. I didn’t sleep much.”
That was troubling. “Why not?”
“Take your pick,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “Obsessing about how amazing your body felt on mine or stressing about how quiet you were on the drive back to the hotel.” He took a breath. “Tell me I haven’t messed this up already, Wanderer. Please, babe. Give us another chance.”
She was the screw-up, yet somehow, he was the one contrite.
She sighed, giving in. “Dinner?”
“Yes. Dinner. Yes.”
The offer of a do-over. Already they were running out of chances. Too many false starts and they’d be over before they began.