“Hey.” Zach’s voice was rusty.
“Oh. Hey.” I laughed nervously. “Didn’t mean to wake you.”
“It’s okay. Can I help you?”
“If you don’t mind.”
He threw the sheets aside and got out of bed, and my pulse picked up at the sight of his nakedness. I loved that he wasn’t self-conscious about it. Even so, I tried not to stare, turning around and presenting him with my back, where I held the bustier closed with both hands.
He managed to work the hooks into the eyes, then bracketed my hips with his hands and pressed his lips to my shoulder.
I closed my eyes and swallowed. “I have to go.”
“I know.” But he didn’t move.
“I had a really good time last night,” I told him.
“Me too.” He went over to the dresser while I pulled my dress over my head and tugged it over my breasts and hips. Deciding against strapping myself into the heels, I scooped them up in one hand and raked the other through my hair. But anyone who saw me tiptoeing down the hall in my bare feet in this dress and last night’s mascara beneath my eyes would immediately know the truth—I’d had a one-night stand with a stranger in his hotel room.
A hot, mysterious stranger fifteen years older than me, who’d spanked me, ravaged my body, and made me come all night long.
My heart pumped hard as I looked at his naked backside. I wished I had more time...I wanted to explore the tattoos on his body, ask about them. Trace them with my fingers. My tongue.
“Here.” Zach turned around and handed me a business card. “If you ever need protection in a hotel bar, call me.”
I glanced down at the card. “Zachary Barrett, Cole Security. San Diego, California.” There was a telephone number listed. I looked up at him and smiled. “San Diego, huh?”
He nodded.
My eyes traveled over his shoulders, chest, arms. “You have a lot of tattoos.”
He glanced down. “Yeah.”
I noticed one with an anchor and rope that said US NAVY. “Were you in the military?”
“I was a Navy SEAL.”
I smiled. “Of course you were.”
He took me by the shoulders and kissed my forehead. “Be safe, Millie MacAllister.”
“I will.” I picked up my clutch from the dresser and tucked it under one arm. Zach walked to the door and pulled it open, staying behind it.
As I walked out, I blew him a silent kiss and left the room without a single regret.
I owed Winnie a nice bottle of wine.
CHAPTER4
ZACH
OCTOBER
Iwoke up slowly, reluctantly.
I fought back at consciousness, clinging to the softness of a dream. To long hair caressing my chest. To a sweet, feminine sigh in the dark of a Manhattan hotel room. To her hands sweeping over my skin. To my lips skimming her throat. To my body moving inside her.
But the dream faded, and I was left with the reality of an empty bed in my San Diego apartment and a massive hard-on. Groaning, I reached down and stroked myself, my eyes closed tight, as if opening them might allow some visual detail to escape. I pictured her for the hours she’d been mine—walking across the bar turning every guy’s head, leaning toward me with her hand on my leg, perched on the edge of my bed with her leg over my shoulder, holding onto the headboard while I spanked her, writhing beneath me as she came on my cock, the wonder in her big brown eyes when she confessed she’d never had so much sex in her life.