That’s how Jake Sanders had found himself up against the wall with Zane’s hands wrapped around his thick neck. The man thought he could start talking shit, and he just happened to pick the wrong woman to start running his mouth about. Zane had learned real fast just how much he was willing to tolerate from smart mouthed bastards like Jake. Especially when it came to V.

Thanks to his quick temper, Zane also learned that V wasn’t fond of having someone stand up for her. She had been downright livid once she finally got over the hurt that Jake’s words inflicted. Not that Zane cared about that one way or the other. He didn’t regret it, and he’d do it again in a heartbeat. As far as he was concerned, a man stood up for those he cared about. That’s what his parents had taught him, and he’d never questioned their logic. Since he cared about V, even if she didn’t want him to, Zane was going to make sure no one spoke to her that way. And if they did, they’d be damned smart not to let him find out about it.

“Zane?” A dainty, feminine voice interrupted Zane’s thoughts, along with V and Zoey’s conversation apparently. When he finally looked up at the woman standing beside the table, he could feel V staring from her place beside him.

Zane nodded his head in acknowledgement, recognizing the woman standing just a few inches from where he sat.

“I heard you were out of the hospital,” Tamara Stalth smiled affectionately, her baby blue eyes darting from the other three at the table and then back to Zane.

“I am,” he answered, not sure what he was supposed to say.

Zane knew Tamara. He’d had sex with her once.

Literally, one time.

From that day forward, the woman had stalked him to the point he thought he was going to have to move to another country and change his name. It was a mistake, and he knew he was solely responsible for his own actions, but... Well, there were no buts. It was entirely his fault.

“I talked to your mom when I went to visit you in the hospital. She was so sweet.”

Oh, hell. Just what Zane needed, Lorrie Walker talking to Zane’s ex-flings. Still staring up at her, he had absolutely no idea what to say. He couldn’t very well thank her for coming to visit him. If he did, he knew she’d take it as an invitation, and she’d probably show up at his damn house later.

When he felt V’s hand on his thigh, Zane didn’t react. At first, she was just touching his leg, but when she squeezed in a possessive gesture, he turned his attention to her. He expected to see anger in her pretty brown eyes, not heat. She didn’t seem to be jealous, but her touch was meant to be a warning and he found he liked her reaction.

Letting his arm drop onto her shoulders, he pulled her close, never taking his eyes off of her. “Did you need something, baby?”

His words were loud enough for everyone at the table, including Tamara to hear, but he honestly wasn’t speaking to anyone but V. At the moment, she was the only damn person that mattered.

She flashed a smile, then tore her gaze from his, looking back up at the woman still standing by the table. Waiting.

“I’m sure Zane’s mother will fill him in on all of the visitors he had while he was there. She probably hasn’t had time yet,” V told the woman nicely.

Zane wanted to crush his lips to V’s sassy little mouth and kiss her with the fierce, agonizing longing that he’d been living with for the last three months.

What he did was turn to face Tamara and smile.

She smiled back as though he was only there for her. Weird.

“Thanks for checking up on me.”

“If you need anything, anything at all, you’ve got my number. Just call me. Anytime.”

V pinched the inside of Zane’s thigh, and he had to bite his tongue to keep from growling. Fuck that hurt.

“Thanks,” Zane replied through clenched teeth.


♀♂


Watching as the lovely young girl walked away, V felt every single one of her thirty years. The girl couldn’t have been older than twenty one, maybe twenty two. She clearly had an interest in Zane, and from the way she looked at him, she was hoping for a white picket fence sometime in the near future. If V knew anything about Zane, it was that he would not be giving anyone a white picket fence. At least not in the near future.

Considering he was only twenty four years old, V also knew he had years to think about it. Hell, she was thirty, and she felt as though she still had a few good years in her before she worried about settling down and having... Ok, she wasn’t going there.

Just like his brothers, Zane liked his women willing and often, although he wasn’t quite the player the others seemed to be. He steered clear of clingy women and more often than not had one night stands over brief affairs. Those were things V knew from having lived in the small town with him.

Up until recently, V didn’t have much interest in the goings on at the Walker household, but for some reason, after that one party she attended with Zoey, she’d developed some strange infatuation with Zane Walker. Hell, she couldn’t explain it. No matter how hard she tried, so she’d given up.

V remembered the day she and Zane had actually said more than a standard “hello” or “goodbye” to one another. She’d run into him at a party that Zoey had dragged her to.

“Why are you standing in the corner all by yourself?” A dark, seductive voice caught V’s attention, and she turned to see none other than Zane Walker standing much too close.

“Why are you worried about where I’m standing? Do you own this piece of real estate?” V couldn’t help the snide remark because suddenly she felt a little off kilter. Ok, a lot off kilter.

The Walker men were sinfully attractive, that wasn’t a secret. From their dark hair to those wicked blue-gray eyes to the hard bodies they honed with hard work. Every inch of them screamed prime, alpha male. Considering the party was hosted by Jaxson Briggs, a cousin of the Walkers, V had seen more than her fair share of them tonight alone.

On any normal day, she tried to ensure she never got this close to one of them. Yet here she was standing less than a foot away from the youngest of the seven sinful brothers, and she couldn’t come up with anything better than a snide remark.

“Maybe I do,” he replied, his head cocked to the side just slightly and an adorable, crooked grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.

“I didn’t realize you were friends with my cousin, Jaxson,” he said a moment later when it was clear she was trying to ignore him.

“I’m not.”

“Then what brings you here?” He took a step closer, successfully invading what was left of her personal space. V took a step back, finding herself much closer to the wall than she expected.

“I’m here with Zoey,” she said smartly, keeping her eyes trained on his.

“Well, it must be my lucky night then.”

“That’s a horrible pickup line,” she retorted, laughing.

“Who said I was trying to pick you up?” Zane asked, sounding much too serious.

“No one. I –” V had no idea what to say to him at that point.

Zoey’s voice broke through V’s wayward daydream, bringing her back to the present and the three people who were staring at her. “What?”

“What were you thinking about?” When V realized Zoey was talking to her, she caught her friend grinning sheepishly.

“Nothing,” she said, grabbing her beer and making a giant production out of finishing the rest of it off. Yuck! She hated warm beer.

“Nothing, huh?” Zane’s big, warm arm held her much too close for comfort.

V had never been into public displays of affection, but for the last hour, she’d been sitting beside Zane, his rough, callused fingers touching her in some manner and she’d managed not to shrug him off. Mainly because she was enjoying it, although, it still made her a tad uncomfortable. She only could imagine what other people thought when they saw the two of them together.

“Well, I think we really need to get going. I’ve got to get up early and meet the contractors at the house before I come pick you up,” Zoey stated as she pushed her drink away.

“I really should be going, also,” V proclaimed when Kaleb maneuvered out of the booth and back on his feet.

“Stay,” Zane’s voice was low, but V knew the others could hear him.

“I can’t,” she lied, grabbing her purse from the spot beside her.

“Then I’ll take you home,” Zane insisted, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to argue with him. Considering she and Zoey had ridden together, she didn’t have much of a choice. From the look in Zoey’s eyes, she had much bigger plans for Kaleb anyway.

“Thank you,” she replied, not wanting to make a big deal out of it.


When Zane pulled up in front of her house a short while later, V knew she wouldn’t have the luxury of sitting in his Jeep and trying to figure out just how she was going to force her legs to move up those steps and through the front door.

What if Jake was hiding in the shadows?

She absolutely had no intention of letting him know just how panicked she was, so as soon as he pulled the emergency brake, she grabbed her purse and reached for the door handle. She was out in the crisp night air with her feet planted firmly on the ground before she could think about what she was doing, but not before Zane was rounding the front of his Jeep moving briskly to her side.

“I don’t need you to walk me to the door,” V stated, her nerves erupting as she instinctively began looking around, waiting for something dreadful to happen. “Please, just go.”