Instead, he’d let down his guard some.

“He was waiting for you. At my house. Why don’t you understand this?”

“Understand what?” He took a step back. “You weren’t even at the bar when he jumped me there, were you? So I’m not sure how you get to blame yourself for any of this.”

“No, I wasn’t. But if it weren’t for what happened at Anderson Croft’s, none of this would be happening. And in case you forgot that all started because of me.”

True. V had a point there. The whole thing started that day, but besides her accuracy on the timing, her logic didn’t make any damn sense. Regardless, talking to her was useless because she had since made up her mind. The only thing he could do now was to try and change it.

 “You couldn’t control what Jake was going to do, baby, any more than you can control whatever this is between us.”

Zane hadn’t expected to say the last part, but somehow the words had slipped out. The woman was a distraction, one that kept him away from some of the darker, gloomier thoughts and he welcomed that into his life. He’d gotten attached to her, and he wasn’t ready to let go even if she resorted to trying to convince him otherwise. Which he knew she was going to do.

Zane didn’t have it in him to give up, and no matter how hard she tried to push him away, he wasn’t going to budge.

Not this time.

“Zane,” V choked a sob back, “I can’t do this anymore.”

Well, that wasn’t what he wanted to hear, even if he had expected it. In fact, it was a long time coming because he had been anticipating this conversation ever since the day he went to pick her up to take her to the groundbreaking ceremony. She’d been alluding to the fact that she didn’t want to see him anymore, but Zane didn’t believe her then.

He still didn’t believe her now.

“What can’t you do?” He needed to hear her say the words. He wasn’t sure she could actually say them.

“This.” She wiggled one hand back and forth between them, referencing the two of them.

“You can do this.”

“I’m not talking about sex, Zane,” V huffed, backing up another step, her hands going to her hips, her eyes blazing with frustration and what he sensed was anger. “Fucking you has never been the problem.”

Fucking him?

Zane’s body hardened at the same time something else took root deep in his soul. Something that told him whatever this was between them wasn’t just about sex. Even if V wanted to believe that.

“Then what’s the problem?” He was getting irritated now. “Are you scared, V? Scared that fucking me might turn into something more?” Taunting her, he continued, “Scared that I might just be able to get past that impenetrable outer shell?”

“No!” V stormed away, presenting Zane with her back.

“That’s what it sounds like to me, baby. Sounds like you can’t handle fucking me because you’re scared there might be something more between us.”

There already was, but Zane didn’t say that out loud. He knew how far he could push her.

“You’re delusional, Zane Walker. Maybe you should go back to the hospital. I think the doctors might’ve overlooked the severity of your brain damage.” V turned abruptly to face him again.

Zane laughed, and that earned him a death glare. God she was so damned bewitching when she looked at him like that.

“Honey, I think you already feel something for me.”

“Bullshit. You’re just a baby, Zane. We might have fun between the sheets, but that’s all it is.”

V’s reference to his age, specifically the difference between them, only pissed Zane off more. He hated that she used that as an excuse. She’d tried it one other time, and if he remembered correctly, she’d been sprawled out beneath him in ten seconds flat, begging him to let her come.

He was twenty four, almost twenty five, and she was just barely thirty. Fuck, he wouldn’t care if she were forty. What Zane felt for her, he’d never felt for anyone else, and he wasn’t about to let her get by with throwing whatever this might be away because of a few measly numbers.

“A baby?” Zane stalked her across the room until he pressed her into the glass partition that enclosed his bathroom. He didn’t stop crowding her until he was crushing her between his body and the cool glass at her back. “That’s not what you were screaming when I had my dick buried inside of you.”

Zane leaned in closer, his mouth hovering above hers as he waited for her response. Her sharp inhale, along with the full body shiver, told him exactly how much he still affected her.

“Was it?” Letting his lips brush lightly over hers, he waited for V to push him away.

She didn’t.

And that told him all that he needed to know.


♀♂


What the hell was wrong with her? Why did she knowingly push him like that? Zane wasn’t the kind of man to back off freely, and she had found exactly what it took to push his buttons. With the warmth of his body pressed against her, V knew she should be pushing him away, knew she should race right across the room, throw open his front door and run. Never look back.

For the life of her, she couldn’t seem to do it. Just like the very first time her eyes met his, there was a kinetic energy that shifted between the two of them and she couldn’t force herself to move away. Zane stole her breath and her common sense with just a smile. When he actually touched her, it was even worse.

In fact, V was positive she had never met a man as capable as Zane of causing her to drop her defenses as quickly as he caused her to drop her clothes. He was like a drug, impossible to resist once she’d had a taste of him.

And as for their age difference, V didn’t give a shit about it at all, but it was the only tangible thing she had to hold on to; her only justification for putting distance between herself and the one man capable of breaking her heart. Never would V let that happen. Not after what she saw her mother go through.

Her mother and her wandering ways had taught V one valuable lesson: never rely on a man to fulfill you. As she had seen time and time again, no man had ever satisfied her mother, yet Regina continued to ruthlessly pursue them in hopes of finding the one who would. V just figured if she never started, she’d never be disappointed.

This man threatened all of her carefully erected walls because she wanted him more than she wanted anything else.

“It’s not going to work, V.” Zane’s words broke through the haze of lust that was clouding her thoughts.

“What?” V felt as though she missed a vital part of the conversation.

“Trying to push me away is only going to make me come after you more.”

One thing she had learned about this man, he didn’t say things he didn’t mean. He’d been pursuing her for about a month before he was attacked and she’d tried to push him away. He didn’t listen; always coming back for more, no matter how cruel she was with his feelings.

Whatever he thought this was, it wasn’t. What was happening between them was nothing more than a highly reactive proclivity to lust. It was one hundred percent physical reaction between two people who were attracted to one another, spurred on by some wild and impassioned urges. Oh, and pheromones. Yes, definitely those too.

“What do you want from me?” V asked the question although she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the answer.

“Everything.” The way Zane articulated each syllable had V’s pulse soaring. The way he looked at her like she was everything and then some made her wish that there actually could be something between them. The fact was, they came from different worlds, and she wasn’t so sure that there was a way for them to meet in the middle.

Now, if he were talking about sex, V could see the potential in a short term fling with him. The man inspired orgasms with just a tilt of his head, and V could attest to what he was capable of doing with his mouth. Anything more than that was out of the question, and she didn’t want to lead him on.

“You think that somehow sex is going to make me fall in love with you?” She let the words drip with her incredulity.

“Baby, you keep saying that word like that’s all you want from me,” Zane grinned and V was damn near blinded by the intensity of his beautiful smile.

“That’s all you have to offer me, Zane,” she whispered, trying to sound convincing.

“That’s what you think. Give me a chance, V. Stop trying to push me away at every turn. All I need is a chance.”

“You don’t need to prove anything to me,” V said honestly. She knew just how real he was. She’d experienced just how incredible it felt to be in his arms. She also knew just how devastated she would feel when it was over.

“Maybe not, but I need to possess you. All of you.” Zane’s mouth was brushing against hers with every breath he took, every word he spoke.

Fuck. She was a goner, and she knew it. She couldn’t get another word out if she tried. He wanted to possess her? V knew exactly what he was referring to. He’d mentioned it before. She had seen a glimpse of his dominating side on more than one occasion, and she had a feeling he knew how worked up she got because of it.

She found herself leaning closer to him, although she knew she was supposed to be pushing him away. She was taunting him, daring him to kiss her. If nothing else, at least she could get lost in the kiss and forget about all of the emotions this man stirred inside of her.

Thankfully, Zane stole her ability to think anymore.

He crushed his mouth to hers, the evidence of his desire pressing intimately between her thighs. When his strong, warm hand slid down the back of her thigh, then behind her knee, she knew there was no more fighting him. The only thing she needed was his touch for her brain cells to stop functioning properly.