“I don’t know.”
“Don’t know what?”
“I’m so sorry. So incredibly sorry.” He turned away, avoiding eye contact. “I can’t do this.” Seeming defeated, he climbed off the bed and plucked his swim trunks from the floor.
Meanwhile, Allison was knee-deep in confusion. “Zane. What’s wrong? I thought we were good.”
“I thought we were, too. But I can’t do it. I can’t betray my best friend.”
Naked on the bed and reeling from the pleasure Zane had just given her, the rejection still landed on Allison like the proverbial ton of bricks. Zane, the man she’d dreamed of for years, had just told her no. Logic said she should be incredibly hurt. Devastated. But right now, with this beautiful man still standing in her bedroom with an obvious erection, she was nothing but flat-out mad. It didn’t have to be this way. And he knew it.
“Please don’t do this,” she said. “Don’t leave.”
“I have to. I’m sorry, but I do. I shouldn’t be here in the first place.”
His apology didn’t do much to quiet her anger. “You’re doing this. You’re seriously putting on the brakes.” She rolled onto her stomach, head and arms dangling off the side of the bed, and grabbed her sarong from the floor, where she’d tossed it earlier. Let him have a perfect view of her backside. Let him see what he was missing.
“I don’t know why you’re mad. From where I’m sitting, I just gave you a pretty mind-blowing orgasm.”
“It was amazing. And not the point. I want you, Zane. All of you.”
“I can’t give you that. Not now.”
A deep grumble was forming at the base of her throat. “Then when? Later tonight? Tomorrow morning? Please don’t tell me we’re going to leave this island without having sex.” She wanted to applaud herself for truly putting it all out there.
“I’ve thought about it, and it’s not a good idea. We’ve already gone too far.”
She knew what that really meant. “You’re going to let my brother come between us here? Nobody needs to know about this, Zane. Nobody. I don’t kiss and tell. And I certainly wouldn’t kiss and tell about you to him.”
Zane turned away from her and stalked over to the French doors. His heavy steps were born of frustration, which seemed like an awfully good argument for him getting back in bed with her. But apparently not. “I would know it had happened. That’s all that matters. I can’t violate that trust.”
“I would like to know where in your friendship agreement it says that you can’t sleep with your friend’s sister, when she’s a consenting adult and so are you.”
He whipped around, his eyes full of an emotion she couldn’t put a label on—it wasn’t anger and it wasn’t hurt. It was something in between. “It’s a guy thing. Plus, you and I both know that this would be nothing more than a hookup. Is that really what you want?”
“Are you saying that because it’s all you’re capable of? Hookups? Why is that, Zane? Why do you seek out one-night stands with women, but never actually commit?”
“Now is not the time for us to discuss the rest of my personal life.”
“Oh. Right. Because you’re always beyond reproach.” She was so angry, it felt as though her blood was boiling. She hated that this was her reaction, but it was the only thing that made sense right now.
“That’s not what I was saying. You just came off a breakup, Allison. You told me yourself that it was bad. I’m not the cure for that. The cure for that is time.”
Allison jumped off the bed and wrapped her sarong around herself, tying it at the shoulder. Her breakup had been a distant thought until then, and she didn’t appreciate him bringing it up or, worse, using it against her. “I don’t need to be cured. I need the chance to move on.” She stormed past him into the living room. Out of habit, she picked up her phone from where she’d left it on a side table. She had a text from Kianna. Nothing of paramount importance, but she replied. She watched as the bar moved across the screen, then she got an error message. Not delivered. That was when she saw she had no bars. “Service is out.”
“You said you were going to turn off your phone.”
“Well, I didn’t.”
Zane’s eyes went wide with disapproval, and Allison was struck with a horrible realization. This really was all a mistake. Zane still saw her as a kid. He’d always see her as Scott’s little sister. He’d never think of her as an actual woman.
“I love how you just come out with it,” he quipped.
“I’m being honest. I told you I’d turn it off because I knew that it would be the sensible thing to do on a vacation where you’re supposed to truly relax, but the reality is that Kianna and I are just barely keeping our heads above water with our business and we have an important new client that could turn into a long-term retainer. I need to be able to work.”
“Oh, give me a break. That guy you were talking to yesterday? That was not work. If it was, you wouldn’t have sneaked off into your bedroom and closed the door. It’s not like I know a single thing about your company or what you’re doing.”
Allison’s heart was hammering in her chest. She’d thought it would seem reasonable that she’d want some privacy during a work call, but she had to admit to herself that it was solely because she was working for the one person on the planet Zane would hate forever. “It actually was business. I owe it to my recruits to exercise discretion. I’m sometimes going after very high-level people who already have important positions with big companies. I’m sorry if it’s my regular practice to conduct those phone calls out of earshot of anyone. It’s nothing personal.” Except that it was,
