Page 25 of Sweet Tooth
I nodded and grabbed my tongs.
I handed him the bag. “I know, you know.”
His gaze grew quizzical.
“About your check-ins with Tamara.”
He met my glare. “I’m not going to apologize. Not for wanting to know you were ok.”
“How did you know about Parker and Paul?”
Zane considered this, then took out a chocolate and popped it into his mouth. The careful arrangement of his features was failing.
“Tonight. Will you come over? I can explain then.” He looked around. “Here, right now.” He shook his head as the door jingled. “Neither of us have time right now. Will you come?”
It was Mr. Vueberry, coming for his weekly caramel corn, but he could wait another few seconds.
“Yes,” I said. “I’ll meet your friend first and then I’ll come.”
“Ok, bye then,” he said, smiling warily.
“Bye,” I said, turning my attention to Mr. Vueberry, whose grey handlebar moustache was already bristling with excitement.
I hadn’t told Zane the other part on purpose. That part of me was hoping his friend would be clearly unsuitable so I could have an excuse to say no. The same perverse part of me that was hoping Zane would screw up, so I could be free of him before it was too late.
15
Jessica
Minnie was a natural, Parker loved her, and I was doomed. In no uncertain terms, I was done for. A goner. Finished.
I knew it as I got into Zane’s Tesla, and I knew it even better as I stepped out of it. I looked on the house that looked like it had come out of dreamland itself.
It was just as we’d talked about, all those years when we were dirt-poor and would make believe we were rich. The cobblestone walkway. The Greystone exterior, as hulking and beautiful as a castle. The hedges were trimmed better than my hair, the trees were lush and happy, and I was finding it hard to speak.
“I know,” Zane said. “Kind of weird, me getting a Zane-Jessie house when I didn’t know if you’d ever see it.” He cleared his throat.
Inside, it was more of the magical same. All antiques exuding grace and beauty, everything in the right place.
“I didn’t do this, if you were wondering.” Zane smiled self-consciously. “Told an interior designer what I wanted, and she figured out the rest. I was on the verge of selling it a few times, just…” He cast me a sidelong gaze. “Couldn’t bring myself to it.”
“I don’t know what to say,” I said simply. “I’ve never been in a place so beautiful.”
Or expensive, I added to myself privately.
“I didn’t bring you here to intimidate you,” Zane said, apology already all over his face.
I eyed him silently. Then why did you bring me here?
If it had been to impress me, then he was doing a good job.
Though it scared me, too. Reminded me how little I really knew Zane now, despite how similar he seemed in some ways. For years now, he’d been living a life utterly apart from what I knew.
“Want some food?” Zane said. “I could whip us up some fish.”
Inside, the kitchen was a stainless-steel wonder. The kind of clean you where you could lick the floor.
Just because Zane seemed to know what he wanted and was handsome and funny and charming and hopelessly rich, did not mean that I should just fall in bed with him. Again. Even if I wanted to.
As Zane busied himself, I could only watch in wonder as he opened cavernous cabinets to procure the ingredients.
“Don’t be too impressed,” he said. “I looked up this recipe on my lunch break at work.”
“I could’ve brought chocolates if I’d known,” I said.
“Don’t bother.” Zane went over to another cupboard and took out the box that I had delivered to his office a few days before. “The office loved them, but I still snuck a few for myself.”
“Just our luck,” I said.
“Yes. Just,” he said, looking at me.
God, the way he reduced me to liquid. If he kissed me now, I’d never be able to resist it. Jesus, I was weak.
As if reading my mind, Zane was in front of me the next instant and his lips claimed mine.
“Only a few hours,” he kiss-murmured. “And…”
He didn’t need to finish the sentence. I’d felt it too. How, after being together, being apart was that much harder. The kind of addiction that was never satisfied. Even now, this kiss didn’t feel like enough. I wanted more. I wanted all of him. All of the time.
He hooked his fingers in my belt loops and pulled me in close. Chest to chest, the fire in me alighted.
My hands traced down to his dick, grabbed it over his jeans. Fuck foreplay, fuck being in his kitchen.
“Whoa.” Zane pressed his palm to my chest lightly. “Jess.”
He indicated the fish on the pan with an incline of his head. “Hold on.” He snapped off the burner and came at me.
