If You Were Mine (27 page)

far from his mind, but ultimately he knew his siblings could take

care of themselves. Besides, if they needed his help with

anything, they would cal.

But the expression on Heather’s face when her assistant

told them her parents were outside had haunted him for hours.

Heather was so strong, so confident. Sassy and beautiful

Heather was so strong, so confident. Sassy and beautiful

and so damned smart she’d kept him on his toes every single

second that he’d known her. No one and nothing should ever

make her look that sad. Completely on guard, like she was trying

to prepare for an emotional blow that could come at any

moment.

Before he even raised his hand to knock on her front door,

Atlas announced his arrival with a few loud barks. Heather

opened the door and she was so breathtakingly beautiful in her

dress and heels with her hair flowing around her shoulders that a

split second after Cuddles leapt out of his arms to go play with

Atlas, Zach was ruining her perfect hair with his hands as he

kissed her.

She kissed him back with the same heat before saying,

“Thank you for coming with me tonight.”

“I wouldn’t have missed it,” he said, and it was true. He

couldn’t stand the thought of leaving her alone with her parents.

Not when he knew how upset they made her. “I get how family

can be.”

“I wish we were like your family, but we’re not. We don’t

actualy love each other.” Her voice was thick with unshed tears

as she said, “We just lie about it.”

“You’ve never lied about anything,” he said, hating the way

she said
we.
“They’re your parents. They’re not you.” He puled

her closer. “Tel me what you need from me tonight.”

“Just this,” she said, but her voice was shaking as she

repeated, “Just be here for me, like this. Just please don’t let me

think about the way he treats her and how she always lets him

think about the way he treats her and how she always lets him

—”

His mouth covered hers to cut off the rest of the sentence,

her wish immediately his command. If she didn’t want to think

about her parents’ screwed-up relationship, then he would do

whatever was necessary to keep her mind on other things. Now

and throughout dinner, whatever way he could.

Because he was her friend. And that’s what friends did.

They looked out for each other.

And yet...even as he slid his hands under her skirt and

Heather let out a soft gasp of pleasure as his fingers found her,

he could almost hear the rumbles in the distance. Rumbles of

something big, heavy, and impossible to avoid as it sped toward

him.

He moved his hands to her bottom to lift her up from the

floor and she wrapped her legs around him. But even the intense

pleasure of having her heat al around him wasn’t enough for him

to get some distance from the emotions that were trying to nail

him straight in the middle of his chest. Right from the first moment

they’d met, he hadn’t been able to keep his mind, hands, or

mouth off her.

And his heart was heading the same way, whether he

wanted it to or not.

It was pure, practiced instinct for Zach to fight these

feelings. To pretend they weren’t true. To tel himself as he undid

his pants and was inside of her seconds later, that Heather was

the perfect friend to have sex with, and nothing more.

She kissed him with a wildness that told him how much she

needed this distraction, this outlet, this chance to let herself be

fierce, bold, without risking retribution. He knew she wanted to

be taken with that same fierceness, so he didn’t hold back as he

slammed against her, pushing her into the wal even as she

pushed right back at him with her hips.

He’d never wanted anyone like he wanted her—more

every time they came together—and yet even though he could

have lost it at any second, he made himself focus on her

reactions so that he’d know when she was close.

Tonight wasn’t about his feelings, it wasn’t about his fears

for the future that had always been wrapped up in his father’s

untimely death. No, tonight wasn’t about him at al.

On the contrary, it was about making sure Heather survived

her parents’ visit with minimal damage. And he knew exactly

what would keep her on the edge of her seat al night, regardless

of whom they were having dinner with.

Heather gasped into his mouth as her inner muscles began

to tighten down around him. Lord, it kiled him to pul out of her

right then...but the knowledge of just how physicaly painful the

next several hours were going to be didn’t stop him from doing it

anyway.

He wouldn’t have made the sexual sacrifice for anyone but

her.

Her eyes flew open as he gently set her back on her feet

and puled her skirt down before doing up his pants.

“Zach? What are you doing?”

“Zach? What are you doing?”

He had a hel of a time keeping his voice steady. “We need

to go.”

She was looking at him like he’d lost his mind as he

grabbed her purse from the counter, told the dogs not to cause

any trouble, and dragged her out to his car. And maybe he had

lost it, purposefuly stopping just before the big finale like that.

Only, tonight, something bigger was at stake than getting off

with a beautiful woman.

Heather’s heart was on the line, and he was going to make

damned sure it remained in one piece, no matter what her father

tried to pul.

* * *

seen her once today looking like she’d just stepped out of his

bed. This was almost worse, this persistent wanting that buzzed

through her, making it virtualy impossible to not only appreciate

the glass of fine red wine from his brother’s winery, but to nurse

her frustration at her parents for acting the same way they always

did.

She narrowed her eyes across the table as her father

stroked her mother’s hand and gazed at her as if he were the

luckiest guy in the world. Anyone looking at them would think he

was the most devoted husband on the planet.

God, it al was so false. So fake. It made her want to—

“Too bad we didn’t have enough time to finish what we

“Too bad we didn’t have enough time to finish what we

started at your house,” Zach murmured, his breath hitting her on

the spot just below her earlobe that instantly melted her every

time he came near it.

She couldn’t decide if she wanted to kick him under the

table to get him to stop...or if there was some reason she could

invent to pul him into a dark halway and
make
him finish what

they’d started.

Stil, even though she was practicaly jumping out of her

skin from wanting him, once she’d calmed down a bit during the

short drive to the restaurant, she’d finaly figured out what he

was doing.

And she couldn’t help but adore him for his briliant

distraction technique.

“So,” her mother said as she beamed at the two of them,

“your father and I are dying to know how you met.”

Thank God, that was an easy one. “Zach lost his puppy—”

“—and Heather found it.”

“Aren’t they adorable, the way they finish each other’s

sentences. Just like we do, sweetheart,” she said to her husband.

Heather suddenly wanted to puke.

Zach slid his hand up her thigh beneath the tablecloth, to a

spot that was much too high for public comfort.

“No,” he said in an easy tone. “We’re nothing like the two

of you.” He grinned at Heather. “You hated me on sight. Didn’t

you?”

She couldn’t explain why Zach’s honesty made her so

happy. Especialy when it was guaranteed to upset her parents.

happy. Especialy when it was guaranteed to upset her parents.

But oh, how she loved what he’d said.

No, we’re nothing like the two of you.

She wanted to grab him and kiss him in front of the whole

world for that alone.

“It’s true. He was yeling at the puppy, so I tried to take

Cuddles away from him.”

“Cuddles?” Her father laughed with faint derision. “That’s

some name for a dog.”

Rather than rise to the implied chalenge to his masculinity,

Zach simply refiled the wine glasses and said, “I stil owe your

daughter for saving Cuddles.”

Her mother looked confused. “If it al started off so badly, I

don’t understand how the two of you started dating, then?”

Heather
hated
lying. She’d grown up in a liar’s house, after

al.

“We’re just friends.” It was the truth, although, unlike the

night at his sister’s apartment, she decided to leave off the
with

benefits
part.

“Just friends?” Her mother looked between the two of

them. “But today when we dropped by your building—”

Her mother didn’t have to finish her sentence for it to be

abundantly clear that she’d assumed since they had been having

sex in Heather’s office that they were an item.

Just as she’d known it would, Heather felt the evening

begin to crash in around her. But then, Zach slid his hand higher

up her thigh and said, “Our dogs can’t stand to be apart. It was

up her thigh and said, “Our dogs can’t stand to be apart. It was

love at first sight for the two of them.” His eyes held hers a

moment too long. “Which means Heather is stuck with me.

Aren’t you?”

Her father’s frown would have normaly made her feel like

garbage. Any other time she would have felt sick at the fact that

after al he’d done, it stil mattered to her what he thought.

But yet again, Zach somehow managed to turn everything

inside out and upside down. Enough that she found herself

smiling in the face of barely averted disaster.

“It realy was love at first sight for Cuddles and Atlas.” She

raised an eyebrow at Zach. “Fortunately, you’ve grown on me

since that first day at your garage.”

Her mother tried to nod as if it al made sense, and her

father was stil glowering at Zach, but when the waiter came to

tel them the specials, she found it surprisingly easy to tune them

al out.

Briliant man that Zach was, he made sure the feel of his

fingers on her skin, the way he was playing with the hair lying

between her shoulder blades, kept her focus more on him than

on anything her parents were doing during dinner. And as he

purposefuly steered the conversation to his famous siblings, and

his mother practicaly lost her mind at learning he was Smith

Sulivan’s brother, she was amazed to realize that Zach had

come through for her in a way no other man ever had.

Right when she needed him the most.

It was stil dark outside when Zach’s cel phone started

buzzing on her dresser. When he ignored it, the cal came

through again.

Heather turned in his arms. “Sounds important.” Her words

were muffled by his bicep.

Even as he shifted away from her to reach for his phone, he

enjoyed running a hand over the curve of her hips. She made a

smal sound of pleasure at his touch and he couldn’t believe how

much he liked having her in his bed. In his arms.

In his life.

When he saw the name on his phone’s screen, he came

instantly awake, thoughts of early-morning sex with Heather

moving to the back burner for a few seconds. “Chase? Are

congratulations in order?”

He could hear the satisfied grin in his brother’s voice.

“Chloe and I want you to come meet Emma. We’re at home.”

Pure joy at hearing about the newest Sulivan warred with

his sudden realization of what day it was: the twenty-third

anniversary of his father’s death.

Zach’s chest clenched tight as he heard Chase’s wife

speaking in the background. “She wants you to bring Heather.”

It took Zach a few moments to force thoughts of his father

out of his head before he turned back to Heather.

She was sitting up in the bed. “Your brother had his baby?”

Her long hair was flowing around her shoulders, tangled

Her long hair was flowing around her shoulders, tangled

from the previous night’s lovemaking. Things had been crazy

when they’d gotten back to her house after al the hours of

teasing. He’d taken her against her door, finishing what he’d

started before dinner in the same place, driving into her so hard

that the door frame shook with every thrust as he took both of

them to heaven and back.

For the second time in one day the dogs had gotten a