arching her pelvis to meet his. Relentlessly, he took her higher and higher until, at the end, he clutched her close. When he shuddered and ground his hips against hers, she cried his name again and again, her release glorious.
For a long time afterward, their bodies spent, they clung. An hour or so later she awoke to find herself still wrapped in his arms. Never had she felt closer to anyone.
This is where I belong, she thought, refusing to consider the secrets she still hadn’t told him.
Some time later he began to kiss her with a feverish need that fueled her own desire into an instant blaze. He licked his way down her slim body, exploring secret feminine places until she felt she was so hot and tremulous even her bones might melt.
Don’t stop, she thought. Don’t ever stop…
After she recovered from the most shattering climax of her life, he made love to her again. Then they napped and made love again, and maybe again. She lost count.
Needs she’d never experienced before made themselves known. Their bodies spoke to each other in a dark, sweet language only they understood. They said things and did things they’d never done before. Things they could only do now because trust was building between them.
They played erotic games, with tied hands and blindfolds. Sometimes their love was rough, but mostly it was gentle. For an endless time, Summer lived in a sensual universe she shared only with Zach. It was nearly dawn when she drifted to sleep in his arms once again.
She felt changed, as if she’d been reborn within the dazzling magic of his love.
At eight o’clock sharp, his phone and doorbell rang at the same time.
They sprang up groggily, laughing when they realized it was morning.
Zach grabbed for his phone, cursing when it wouldn’t stop ringing.
“It’s Bob! How the hell could I have been so crazy as to ever tell him eight?”
She giggled. “You wanted me gone, remember.”
“Strange how that seems a lifetime away.”
He spoke much too curtly to Bob then, who said he was surrounded by paparazzi.
“Poor guy,” she said after he hung up.
“I’ll apologize. But later. He’s too busy keeping the screaming horde at bay.” Zach’s gleaming eyes met hers sheepishly. “Now that we’re up, we might as well make the most of it.”
“First, I’m going to go downstairs and take a shower, brush my teeth…present a more civilized-”
He laughed and grabbed her hand, preventing her from squirming across the sheets and running downstairs. “I don’t want civilized! I want the wicked wanton I had last night all over again, only wilder.”
“Not possible.”
“I’m going to prove to you that you’re wrong. You’re going to stay right here where you belong. Under me. In my arms.”
Unable to deny him anything in that moment, she lay back and waited for him to again turn their world into a fiery wonderland that was theirs alone.
Nine
Summer Wallace Steps Out With Billionaire Zach Torr!
“What the hell do you think you’re doin’, boy?”
Nick slapped a newspaper with the two-inch headline onto Zach’s desk, covering the blueprint he’d been studying.
When Zach looked up, Nick began to read him the article in a low, sarcastic voice.
“It seems the thirty-one-year-old actress known for her light comedy roles has revamped herself. Shortly after pirated film clips from Dangerous Man exploded all over the internet, Wallace was seen on Torr’s arm at the ground-breaking ceremony for his new casino. The couple has a scandalous history. She once charged Torr with-”
“What is this? Read-aloud time?”
Zach wadded the paper and pitched it into the trash. “I’ve seen it already. Read it already.”
And he’d been sickened to have the most beautiful thing in his life described in such cheap terms.
“You said you saw her again for the publicity, yes? Was her two-day sleepover a publicity stunt, as well?”
“That’s my business, and hers-not yours! And certainly not the damn newspapers’!”
“Then date another woman.”
Zach’s voice was meticulously polite. “Look, I intend to. In the future. Right now…I’ll be seeing more of Summer.”
No way in hell could he give her up now.
“Tell me you’ve got more sense than to start up with her again. You know as well as I do that she’s a liar to the core of her rotten soul, yes? You had to sneak around with her in high school because her step-daddy thought you was trash. Then look what they done to you, those high-and-mighty folks, first chance that they got.”
Zach remembered too well. He still wasn’t sure about what had been real back then between him and Summer. Hell, he wasn’t sure what was real now. But he wanted to find out.
“People don’t change, boy. She’s probably stepped on a lot more folks to get where she is. You gonna end this or not?”
Or not.
Since he couldn’t reassure Nick, Zach fixed his gaze on the blueprint. The tension between them built until Martin knocked on the door of the trailer.
“Pete’s here,” Martin said. “He thinks he sees a way to get what you want done and not go over budget.”
“Great.” Zach turned on Nick. “I’m busy as hell. I’ve got things to do here. The costs on a project in Houston are going through the roof, so I’ve got to fly home ASAP. You and I-we’ll catch up later, okay?”
“I’m not finished here, no. That little gal proved what she was fifteen years ago, yes. All that she ever worries about is what’s good for her. She don’t care about you. She never did. She never will.”
Flushing with dark embarrassment to have interrupted his boss’s personal conversation, Martin backed out of the trailer.
Zach’s face grew stony. “Look, Nick, I’ve dated a lot of women since Summer. Can’t a guy fool around?”
“Not with her, you can’t, no. You’re not just playing with fire. She’s nuclear.”
Zach clenched his fist around his pencil, letting go of it right before it snapped. “You’re right. You’re right.”
“Which is why you’re madder than hell, yes.”
“Stay out of this, Nick.”
Grabbing the blueprint, Zach stormed past Nick and out of the trailer.
“No! No! No! Earth to Miss Wallace!” Paulo, Summer’s stage director, was bouncing up and down as he bounded toward her, his face purple.
“You still haven’t got it! Quit thinking about your personal love triangle and listen to me!”
Summer blinked first. Then she blushed. She was sick of the ceaseless teasing she’d had to endure due to all the news stories.
“Sorry.” Rubbing her forehead, she fought to concentrate on what Paulo was saying.
Paolo was actually a very insightful, inspiring director, one of the rare ones who really understood actors. Still, it wasn’t easy for her to take direction. She was too worried about her fragile new start with Zach and about how she would tell him about the baby. She was concerned about how all the media attention impacted him, as well. Again, the sex had been glorious. Again, she’d felt she’d shared everything with him in bed. But once they’d separated and the stories about them had hit full force, he’d erected the old walls between them. So, she was no
