Zane was seething with anger, he wanted to kill someone. That someone preferably being the little shit squirming on the floor in the break room. He would make Dave follow his friend as well for good measure. But for once he had controlled his bloodlust. The reason was trembling in his arms as he made his way to the back door of the club. He had to remind himself she wasn’t used to the violence which was a natural part of his world. The sight of her trying to defend herself with a fucking fork while that vile creature put his hand on her had Zane close to losing his sanity. She was his, and no other man were to place his hands on her. “Zane, I think I can walk on my own,” Ava’s frail voice said. “You are precisely where you should be,” he told her as he forced himself to keep his voice soft. “I’m fine,” she insisted. “I know you are, I’m not,” he told her. “Okay,” she said, relaxing in his arms again. Zane wasn’t lying, having her in his arms was the only thing keeping him from go
“Angel.” The soft word rolled over Ava, and she looked up at Zane. He stood in the doorway of the room, looking at her. “Yes?” she asked.“Why haven’t you moved?” “Oh, I don’t really know. I need to start cleaning my room,” she said. Her mind was a little foggy. She hadn’t had the best of days, and her reserve energy was about to deplete. She needed to make sure she could sleep in her bed before she crashed. “Angel, you won’t have to clean that up. Anna will sort it out,” Zane told her as he took a step into the room and closed the door behind him. “I can’t let her do that. It’s late, and she has already been working the whole day,” Ava objected. A smile curved Zane’s lip. “She will do it tomorrow. I’m not a slavedriver.”“But where will I sleep?” she asked, confused. “You can stay right here with me tonight. Just sleeping.” She looked at him. She was confused. This was his private room, no one but him was allowed here. “Don’t look so surprised, angel. Go on and take a shower, o
Zane smiled down at her and kissed both her cheeks, the spot between her brows, both sides of her mouth and then gave her a gentle kiss on the mouth. “Your face tells me everything. You are an open book, never play poker,” he chuckled. Ava blushed. She had no idea she was that easy to read. That could be a problem. To distract herself, she traced the outline of a rose on Zane’s shoulder. It was one of several that stretched over his shoulder, down to his arm. She could see a black snake entwined in the roses and a dagger. “Do they bother you?” he asked. Ava looked up in surprise. “No, I find them fascinating,” she told him. She saw his face changing into an amused smile.“You never stop surprising me, angel,” he told her and lifted a lock of her hair and played with it. “Do they have meaning?” Ava asked as she traced the dagger with her finger. “Most of them do. Some are just to fill space and bring it together,” he told her. She made a soft sound to let him know she understood. S
Zane’s firm hands lifted Ava up from his lap and helped her wrap her legs tightly around him. Without ending the kiss, Zane stood up and Ava clung to him like a spider monkey. His hands supported her by grabbing her ass and helped her continue to grind against him. “Remembered what we talked about the second night at the club?” Zane asked Ava. He sounded out of breath.“If I don’t want to continue, I say ‘stop’,” Ava said. In her mind, she thought that there was no way she was going to use that word. “That’s right but let’s use a different word, if you feel we should stop, say three. Can you remember that angel?” Zane used a serious voice.“Three means stop,” she told him.“Good girl, promise me you will use it if you need to.”“Promise,” she told him. “I promised you a reward.” Zane gave her one of his sexy smirks, and Ava wondered when she had started to think of them as sexy. Her thoughts was interrupted by another soul igniting kiss. Ava could feel Zane’s hands let go of her a
Zane looked down at Ava as she slept. She was curled into him with her head on his shoulder and her golden hair spread all over the pillows. She had never looked so innocent and beautiful. Zane wanted to trace her face with his finger, but he didn’t want to disturb her. He looked at the clock on his bedside table and saw it was almost five in the morning. She deserved to sleep some more. He was satisfied just looking at her. It was a new thing, waking up with someone in his bed. He tried to avoid actually sleeping with the women he had sex with. Sleeping together seemed to invoke intimacy, which he didn’t want. But Ava, she looked right in his bed, like she was the thing that had been missing from it until now. As he looked at her and gently played with the ends of her hair, he had to be honest with himself and confess that he loved her. Even in his own head, those words sounded grand and terrifying to him. He had no illusions about who he was or what he did. He was a selfish man who
Ava was sitting on Zane’s bed, waiting for him to return from her room. He was refusing to let her go into it until it had been cleaned and put together again. She didn’t care what Zane told her. He was sweet. Ava had told him what she would like to wear, and she was hoping the outfit was still in one piece. “It looked to be untouched, so I think it will be fine,” Zane said as he walked into the room, holding a dress bag and her makeup. “Thank you, I will be quick,” she told him and took the things from him and walked into the bathroom. Something seemed different with Zane today, Ava thought. She couldn’t put her finger on what. Maybe he was a little uneasy about her sleeping in his bed. She had chosen her dress because it made her feel powerful and in control. She suspected she needed it if she was to sit in on this meeting. It was a white, knee-length, bodycon dress with halter nek. The back was bare. Ava felt it had become her signature. She liked the subtle way of showing skin a
There was a surprised silence in the room as they all looked at Ava. Ava looked at Zane. She saw a mild surprise in his eyes, but mostly he seemed amused.“Please tell me more,” he said.“I’m living in your house, eating your food and sleeping in your bed,” she reminded him. “True, but only because I asked you to,” he said.“But you didn’t ask me to take advantage of you last night,” Ava whispered, just loud enough to make sure everyone heard her. She was not comfortable doing this, she felt like she was exposing herself to Zane and to the others. But if she was to play this game, she would play to win. Zane looked at her for a second, as if he couldn’t believe what she had said. Then he laughed and kissed her. “You got a point. You did take advantage of me last night,” he agreed. Ava could hear a chuckle coming from Jax. “But I forgive you and give you permission to do so in the future as well. It was enjoyable,” Zane added. Ava blushed even though she tried her best not to. As Zan
After a tight hug with Gabriel and both of them telling the other how much they had missed each other, they ordered coffee and pie and sat down at one of the corner tables.“Work is so boring now you aren’t there,” Gabriel told Ava.“It can’t be that bad.”“It is. James keeps coming by asking if I have planned a party for you, or if I know if you will drop by to visit. I never knew he had a thing for you,” Gabriel said with a teasing look. Ava glanced over at Tom and Ryder. They pretended to be busy, but their ears were practically twisting like antennas to pick up what she and Gabriel was talking about.“I didn’t either,” she told her friend.“But…”“But nothing.”“Oh, come on Ava. My dating life is dryer than the Sahara Desert. I need to live vicariously through you,” Gabriel complained.“Yeah, I’m not dating either. So tough luck,” she told him.“Come on, you have a hot doctor chasing you, you are staying in a mansion, a god honest mansion, with a hoard of more or less good-looking