Chapter 21 – Zane #2
The sound of voices coming toward us makes the kiss stop. I don’t let her go though; I hold her close to me but step into the corner of the office. “Zane,” she whispers my name and I smile, feeling it all the way through my dick. “Let me go.”
I lean in, my lips going to her ear. “No,” I whisper in her ear. “Text Jaxon that you are leaving,” I tell her as I step away from her. “Now.” She tilts her head to the side, “or don’t, I don’t care.”
“You can’t leave the party, it’s your event.” She chuckles.
“I don’t care,” I finally say. “We need to talk.”
“We can talk, but we can do it after the event. The last thing you need is to Irish goodbye.”
“I don’t even—”
She rolls her eyes at me. “I’m not explaining it to you,” she huffs out as I lift my hand to touch my thumb to her cheek. “You have to go out there. I have to go out there, and then later on—”
“No,” I shake my head, “I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
“You know where I live,” she snaps at me. “Even if I wanted to run away, how far do you think I’m going to get?”
“Thirty minutes,” I agree. “Thirty minutes and I’m out of here and you are going with me.”
“Thirty minutes,” she agrees, and I kiss her lips gently before letting her go. “I’m going to go out there first,” she starts, “and then in thirty minutes, you come and say goodbye to us and I’ll ask you for a ride.”
I nod at her as she moves away from me and my hand slides into hers as she walks by me, pulling her back to me.
“Thirty minutes, Victoria.” The hand holding her hand comes up to hold her jaw.
“Not a minute longer.” I give her one more kiss before she walks out of my office.
I look down at my feet, giving it a few minutes before I step out of my own office, the last thing I want is her being in the center of gossip.
I walk back out and see the crowd has dwindled and after twenty minutes, I’m done. I walk over to Jaxon, who is by the ball pit with Ariella and Victoria. “Hey,” I say, “I’m heading out.”
“I think we’re going to go too,” Jaxon replies. “It’s almost time for this guy to eat.”
I look at Victoria and I was not kidding when I said she’s coming with me. I will throw her over my fucking shoulder if I have to. She stands up. “Maybe I can catch a ride with you,” she says to me, “so they don’t have to go out of their way.”
“Sure,” I agree.
“What if it’s out of his way?” Jaxon now says.
“I have nothing to get home to. I have the time. See you on Monday,” I tell Jaxon. I hold out my hand for Victoria to walk with me before he asks questions or thinks too much about it.
“See you guys tomorrow, I think,” she says, giving Jagger a kiss and then walking side by side with me out of the event.
“That was smooth,” she teases, looking at me, “and you said thirty minutes.”
“You’re lucky I lasted as long as I did,” I tell her as we walk into the garage and head over to my SUV. We don’t say anything the whole ride to my house or as I park in the garage and then get out.
I hold the door that leads into the house open for her as she steps in, placing her purse down by the door. “Okay.” She inhales. “Let’s do this.”
She steps into the house, going to the living room and I follow her.
My hands grip her hips, and I pull her to me, needing to taste her again.
“Let’s do this, Victoria,” I declare before I kiss her.
This time she pushes away and stands in front of me.
All I want is to touch her, to have my hands on her, so I do it.
“Well, talk,” I urge, “but I have to touch you while we talk.”
“No, Zane.” She shakes her head. “If you touch me, I’m going to forget what I have to say and then we’ll be back at square one tomorrow.”
“Five minutes to get it all out, and then all bets are off.”
“You can’t put a time limit on a discussion that we are having,” she snaps.
“I just did.” I take out my phone. “Set timer for five minutes,” I say as I pull up my timer.
“You are incredible.” Her voice goes louder and louder. “You don’t talk to me for what… a month?”
“Twenty-four days,” I correct her and her mouth hangs open. “Yeah, I was counting.”
She blinks. “Okay, you want to do this like this. Hostile, let’s do it.
First time was a casual hookup.” She folds her arms over her chest, and my jaw gets tight.
“Second time we knew each other a bit more. Now it’s becoming a pattern.
” She looks at me, and I want to touch her.
“I’m not interested in being a random hookup when you get horny. ”
The look becomes a glare as I growl out, “Don’t ever fucking talk about yourself like that, ever again.” My voice is tight, surprising her, and I put my hands on my hips.
“Well, we need to call a spade a spade and this…” she points to me and then herself, “this is a spade.”
“I don’t even know what the fuck you are talking about,” I say, walking to her to take off her jacket and sit her on the couch with me. I reach for her jacket, but she moves away from my hands, and I groan as I look at the ceiling.
“This is the last time you zigzag”—she points at me, and I grab her finger, kissing it—“or pivot.”
“Pivot?” I ask, confused.
“Yeah, no more pivoting,” she snaps. “You’ve walked away from me four times.” She holds up her hand.
“How do you count four times?” I ask her.
“One was the day after the one-night stand.”
“How does that count? You left me, so you technically walked away from me.” I slip my hand into hers.
“The second time you saw me at the bar and got all jealous and showed up at my door.” She holds up another finger.
“I had to go to work, so no one walked away from anyone. So that is still zero for me and one for you.”
“Then I came here and you broke up with me.”
“I didn’t break up with you. You walked away from me.” Her eyes go into slits. “So it’s zero me and two for you.” I lean and kiss her jaw. “You walked away from me the last time,” I point out to her.
“Yeah, and why did I do that?” she asks, but doesn’t wait for me to answer, “because I said I was done with this casual thing.”
“Victoria, nothing between us has been casual, not once.”
“Whatever, Zane.” She rolls her eyes. “I’m here,” she says breathlessly, “and I told myself I wouldn’t be here unless you finally admit this thing isn’t just a hookup.”
“I already admitted it.”
“Really, when did you admit this?” she asks me. “I have been here for less than five minutes and I have not heard the words come out of your mouth. I’ve heard nonsense come out of your mouth, but not that. You have to say the fucking words, Zane.”
“I want you,” I declare. “I want you so much, you have no idea.” Her face goes soft. “For the past twenty-four fucking days, I’ve talked myself out of calling you over a thousand times.”
“Let’s not go to extremes.” She rolls her eyes.
“Whatever the fucking number is, it was every single day. I have no fucking idea what the hell I’m doing,” I admit to her.
“I’ve never done this before. Never. Not with anyone but you, Victoria.
My main focus was always my work, but with you…
With you it’s just foreign. You make me smile after all I want to do is fucking frown.
You lift me up when I get so down it’ll be hard to fucking stand.
You make me feel that all of this is going to be okay and if it’s not, then that is okay also.
All I know is I’m done fighting this thing between us.
I’m fucking done not being able to touch you, call you.
Talk to you, kiss you. I’m fucking done with it all. ”
“Obviously, I’m unforgettable,” she retorts, flipping her hair behind her shoulder, and she makes me laugh. “We’ve established you aren’t going to find better than me.”
“Isn’t that the truth,” I mumble.
“So, does this mean we are doing this? Me and you.” I nod my head.
“And we keep it to ourselves for now,” she clarifies.
“We need time to figure shit out, and the last thing we need is everyone in our business. I don’t really need more opinions on this relationship when I’m still trying to convince you that we’re good together. ”
I grin at her. “My job is a mess.” I pull her to me and wrap the arm that is holding her hand behind her.
“I’m being dragged through it in the press,” I swallow, “and I don’t want you caught up in it.
” I think about the scandal it could be if the press got wind of this.
How they would spin it and might even blame her for us losing.
There is no way in fuck I’m going to allow that to happen to her.
“We keep it between us, and we stay under the radar,” she confirms softly, “but I swear to everything, if you change your mind tomorrow—” Her look turns into a glare and I close the distance between us. “Things on you are going to hurt more than they’ve ever hurt before.”
“These past weeks have been torture for me,” I admit to her, as she puts her hands on my chest. “Fucking torture.”
“Well, you have no one else to blame but yourself.” She doesn’t even try to let me off easy. “This could have all been avoided if you took your head out of your ass”—her finger taps my chest—“and taken what you wanted.”
“You are one-hundred percent right.”
“I know,” she says, smiling up at me. “I’m usually always right.” I throw my head back and bark out a laugh. “This bodes well for our relationship if you admit I’m always right.”
“You are always right, Victoria,” I agree softly. “You’re beautiful, so fucking beautiful.” I kiss her lips gently and the kiss goes from zero to a hundred, and there—in the same room I’ve sat in for the last weeks thinking of only her—my thoughts become a reality.