Nicole Edwards - Zane

He had a feeling he was going to need to work on his stamina if he planned to keep up with her.

♀♂

As V was coming down from the potent sexual high, she couldn’t believe what they had just done. Well, she could believe it. Sort of. The attraction between them had always been like this. Combustible. It was the only way she could describe it.

Ever since the first time they had sex at her house several months ago, it’d been explosive. Back then they’d only spared a few minutes to discuss the necessities – birth control, condoms, and diseases. Once they’d come to a decision that they were both comfortable with, they hadn’t looked back. No holds barred fucking at its finest. Never did they make love. What happened when their bodies came together could only be described as hardcore fucking. It was vehement, erotic, and beyond good.

Her legs were shaking as she put her feet back on the floor, Zane’s hands firmly on her hips, holding her steady. He was still holding her close as his semi-hard cock slid from her body. The man was a machine and V knew that, in just a few minutes, he’d be rarin’ to go again. She, on the other hand, needed a little more time. Holy shit. That was one of the most explosive orgasms she’d ever experienced.

“You all right?” he asked, looking down at her from beneath that sexy as hell cowboy hat. V was surprised it still sat on top of his head.

“Better than all right,” she confirmed as she tried to right her clothes, pulling back from him.

She watched as Zane took a moment to clean up before tucking himself back in his jeans and fixing his clothes. He looked as if nothing had happened while she knew from the image reflecting back at her from the mirror above the sink that she had the just fucked look on her face. Her hair was in disarray, and she could see the telltale scrape along her jaw from the stubble on his face.

V realized her panties were torn, and managed to slip them down her legs while Zane was turned away from her. She glanced around the small bathroom and knew there was no way she was leaving them there. Since she didn’t have any pockets, she wasn’t sure what the hell she was going to do. Zane solved her problem when he turned to face her, that wicked gleam in his eyes as he held out his hand.

Hesitantly, she dropped her panties into his hands and watched as he slipped them in the front pocket of his jeans. Oh, God! How was she going to be able to look at him knowing her torn panties were in his pocket?

“I’ll give you a minute,” Zane whispered, dropping a quick kiss on her lips before slipping out the door.

V swiftly locked the door, realizing she was in the men’s bathroom. Staring back at the woman in the mirror, she couldn’t resist the urge to smile. Even with her heart raising all kinds of questions, V did her best to ignore the overprotective organ. What she had just done was wild, crazy and ultimately the most exciting thing she had ever done. From the minute Zane had started talking dirty to her at the table, V knew she had to have him.

He was right, yesterday was just a tease, and she had wanted him again as soon as he walked in the door tonight. Running her fingers through her hair, trying to put it back in place, she accepted the fact there was no disguising what just happened between them.

Turning on the water, V quickly washed up. When she felt semi-presentable, she unlocked the door and then stepped out into the hall, finding Zane leaning against the wall waiting for her. His head was down, but she knew he saw her. Taking tentative steps, she approached him and waited to see what he was going to say next.

“I will have you again before the night is over,” he warned her, and V smiled once more.

As he took her hand, she allowed him to lead her back down the hall and into the open area of the bar. Thankfully, everyone seemed to be minding their own business. She had no idea how long they were gone, but it didn’t seem like it was too long. As she slid back into the booth, she was reminded that she didn’t have panties on as the cool, silky material of her skirt brushed against her butt. Her face heated, and she looked up to see Zane staring back at her.

“God, you’re beautiful,” he whispered and V wondered whether he actually meant to say the words.

A minute later, Zoey and Kaleb returned to the table, and if either of them knew what just happened they were kind enough not to act as though they did. V would have given anything for another beer, but she knew she couldn’t afford to take the chance of lowering her inhibitions any more than they already were. She didn’t even want to think what she might do if she were actually drunk around Zane.

♂♀

“Who’ll backfill your position when you take over the club at AI?” Kaleb asked a short while later when he and Zoey returned to the table.

Zane felt V’s eyes on him.

“You’re going to manage one of the clubs?” V turned slightly in her seat to look at him directly.

“Yes.” That was the plan at least. Not that he wasn’t sure of his decision, but he hadn’t had the opportunity to speak to Travis and he still wondered whether he would get any pushback from his oldest brother.

“A sex club?” V clarified, and Zane glanced down at her, his arm still looped over the back of the booth behind her.

“Yes.” He wasn’t quite sure whether she was trying to go somewhere with her questions, or if she were just confirming.

“I was thinking V would be a perfect person to manage the spa,” Zoey added when the table fell silent. Zane had still been watching V, so he noticed the way her eyes widened in shock as she looked back at her friend.

“The spa?” Kaleb questioned, glancing between the two women. “That’s a fantastic idea.”

“I – I –” V stuttered, but didn’t complete her sentence.

“You what?” Zane found himself unable to stop himself from touching her. He let his right hand slide down, and his thumb sweep back and forth over the silky skin of her neck, just below her ear, beneath her hair.

“I was planning to talk to Kaleb and Sawyer about it myself,” she answered, glaring at Zoey.

“As far as I’m concerned,” Kaleb added, “it’s a done deal. If you want to talk to Sawyer and Travis, I suggest you do it soon. We’re looking at some applications that we received in the last few days because we’re hoping to get a jumpstart. Travis is at the point that he is sparing no expense to get AI off the ground.”

“When’s Travis gonna be back?” Zane asked.

“Should be today or tomorrow. They had something monumental go down at Club Destiny in recent days, and the McCoy’s insisted that he come up there.”

“What happened?” Zoey’s interest matched what Zane’.

“He didn’t go into detail when I talked to him last night, but from what I gathered, Luke McCoy went off the deep end.”

Zane didn’t know Luke McCoy other than the bits and pieces he had gathered from Kaleb and Travis. Since he never made it to the groundbreaking ceremony, he didn’t get a chance to meet anyone that his brothers were working with in Dallas.

“What are you going to name the club?” Zoey turned her attention back to him.

“No idea.” He hadn’t thought that far ahead. He wanted to talk to Sawyer to get an idea of what he might’ve been planning for the other club, to give him some ideas. Truthfully, Zane didn’t see any of it mattering for at least a couple more weeks, maybe months, so he assumed he still had some time.

For the next few minutes, Zane half listened while Zoey and V discussed various things, most of them related to clothes which made him want to laugh. Zane wasn’t all that familiar with girl talk, and honestly, even sitting here with V was different from any other relationship he’d ever been in.

Admittedly, Zane didn’t have serious relationships. Not even in high school. The women he associated with knew not to expect much from him because quite frankly, he didn’t have much to give. He spent most of his time working, the rest of it hanging out with either his brothers, or a couple of his close friends, mostly Beau. When it came to socializing with women, Zane tended to gravitate toward the horizontal conversations versus anything else. For some reason, the women didn’t seem to mind. Just as long as he spent more than one night with them.

He had spent more time with V in the months leading up to the assault than probably all of the women from his past combined. He knew she tried to play off their interactions as only sexual in nature, but Zane knew better. They might not know everything about one another, but he certainly knew more about her than she was willing to admit.

V wasn’t much on asking questions about him personally, but he knew her well enough to know she tried to keep her own life as quiet as possible, and as a result, she didn’t seem interested in getting to know others. Probably because she was scared they would learn more about her than she was comfortable sharing.

Zane wouldn’t go as far as to say he knew V as much as he wanted to because she had an uncanny ability to keep herself guarded. There were a few times in the months leading up to his attack that she had almost opened up. And there were things he knew about her just because they both lived in the same small town all of their lives. Like the fact that she was an only child, her mother being one of the most infamous people ever to come out of Coyote Ridge thanks to her promiscuous lifestyle. Even to this day, V didn’t know who her father was, and according to the rumors, Zane wasn’t sure her mother even knew. Not that he believed the varied bullshit that was thrown out like old garbage on an ongoing basis. In fact, Zane preferred not to listen to it at all.