Maggie stood silently and slowly followed him, her heart breaking a little with every step, as he started walking back through the garden to the front of the building. They stood in silence, not touching, as the valet retrieved Zane’s car and helped Maggie into the passenger seat. The ride back to Zane’s place took a million years, neither of them daring to speak or touch each other. They got out and just as silently got into the elevator in his building, standing next to each other, but miles apart. Now that she’d had a little time in quiet to mull it over, she could see she’d made a huge mistake. She’d let her insecurities and emotions take over and had accused Zane of terrible things without any real evidence. It was obvious she’d jumped to conclusions about what she’d seen and now she’d hurt this man who’d been nothing but loving and kind to her. She was sorely afraid she had permanently broken the relationship they had been building. All because she couldn’t believe that she was
After Zane left her alone in the guest room again, Maggie slipped out of the dress and unfastened the tiny hooks on the corset, dropping both to the ground. She hadn’t expected the warm hand on her waist and the kiss. That kiss on the top of her spine. She’d thought she was going to melt into a puddle right then and there. She thought maybe he was going to forgive her but then the warmth at her back disappeared along with his hands. He’d left her without a backwards glance. She took a deep, cleansing breath and dug through her big pink tote. She found a pair of soft black leggings and a pink heathered T-shirt that said “BOSS BABE” across the front. It wasn’t something she would have ever bought for herself, but it was a gift from Dani – another of her attempts at affirmation. She usually pulled it out when she wanted to hang around the house and feel comfortable. Tonight, Maggie donned it like armor over the remains of her tattered heart. She moved to the ensuite and scrubbed the pa
The doorbell rang and Maggie went to answer it in a fog. She had spent the day curled up in her bed, alternately crying or staring at the ceiling going over the horrible mistake she had made and how, or if, she could fix it. At this point, she didn’t know if it was even fair to subject Zane to her obvious craziness. She opened the door to Dani on the doorstep with a large canvas shopping bag. “You look like shit,” her friend told her in greeting. Maggie was too worn down to even chastise her for her language. Dani pushed her way into the house and Maggie trailed her to the kitchen. “I wasn’t sure exactly what level of crisis this was as JT said you wouldn’t talk to him about the details,” Dani continued, unpacking the bag onto the kitchen counter. “So, I brought supplies for all three – ice cream, wine, and tequila.”Instead of laughing as she would have expected, Dani saw Maggie’s head drop. The smile left her face. “Tequila it is. I’ll get the mixer, you grab the blender.”Five min
Maggie woke to a pounding head the next morning thanks to Dani’s visit with her friend, Jose Cuervo. She knew better than to have more than two of Dani’s margaritas, but she’d needed the escape. Though her head was paying for her lapse in judgment, she had to admit she had come up with a plan of how to right things with Zane. She decided to text him before everything got crazy at the cafe. Her anxiety started rising when she waited several beats and didn’t see the three little dots that would show he was responding to her. She texted him again. Still no answer. She stared at the screen, willing it to answer her but no response came. Her heart sank. ***Zane felt his phone vibrate but whoever it was would have to wait. He stood at the bedside of a twenty-one-year old who had been injured at his job. The boy had been standing on the back of a logging truck bumper directing his buddy in backing the rig out of the woods when the truck hit a large hole in the ground, and he had been bucke
Zane spent most of Saturday trying, and mostly failing, to distract himself. In his experience, a woman who said she ‘needed to talk’ didn’t usually have good news to share. He lifted weights at the gym until he couldn’t feel his arms, then went on a long run in White Rock Lake Park but found that only gave him more time to stew over what Maggie wanted to tell him. He wasn’t remotely ready to let her go. He felt in his heart that they were starting something important. He just needed to get her to quit overthinking and giving into her insecurities. He needed to convince her that she was exactly what he wanted. Honestly, what he needed at this point. And he did need her, he realized, all of her. He made his way back to his condo, sweaty, exhausted, and in no better of a headspace than when he started. He slammed his water bottle on the kitchen counter in frustration as he made his way to the shower.Damn, I’m stressing like a teenage girl waiting to be asked to the prom.He’d never us
Despite the erotic assault Zane was committing on her body, a small, niggling, negative voice tried to worm its way out of the corner of her mind she had shoved it into. What are you doing? You let him bare you in your office? Under fluorescent lights? Are you insane? He’ll see all your flaws. But then she felt a finger crook deep inside her at the perfect spot. The voice vanished in a puff of sensual smoke. Words completely failed her and all she could do was groan. She felt him smile against her neck where his lips had been traveling back up to her mouth. “Another thing you like,” he whispered gruffly in her ear, before he nipped the lobe. “I love hearing you moan for me. I want to feel that tight pussy come on my fingers.”Before she could register any shock at his dirty words, she found his lips back on hers, his tongue mimicking the thrusts of his fingers in her body. She rocked desperately against his hand, pursuing her release. She fisted the soft material of his T-shirt in he
Maggie felt like she’d been asleep for days. She couldn’t seem to will her eyelids to open. She was so warm and relaxed. She lay still taking in the sensations. She realized a heavy weight was around her waist and she felt like a heating pad was at her back. Her hand explored the weight and realized it was a warm arm. The arm tightened around her middle when she started to trace the lines of the muscles there and everything came rushing back. Zane. Here in her bed. Wrapped around her. She smiled and felt lips and stubble on her jaw. “Good morning,” Zane said, pulling her closer against the hard planes of his chest.“Yes, it is.” Maggie giggled and turned her head to meet his mouth. “I could get used to waking up like this.”“Mmmm, me too.” Zane kissed her again and, before she knew it, she was under him again looking up into his eyes. “We need to discuss something first, however.”He looked serious and Maggie felt a pang of panic in her gut. I knew it couldn’t really be this perfect.
A few days later, Maggie found herself paying an emergency maid of honor call out to Dani’s house. Her friend had called in a tizzy and begged Maggie to come out to help. Something about plates. Maggie had been helping Sofia clean up after the lunch rush when Dani called. “I need you out here asap,” she said, sounding decidedly distressed.Maggie immediately stopped what she was doing and clutched the phone. “What’s happened? Are you ok? Did something happen to Levi?”“Your mother was just here.” Maggie could practically hear her friend’s jaw clench through the phone.“Oh, my,” Maggie responded, her posture relaxing and her mouth quickly quirking up. Her mother had volunteered to be Dani and Levi’s wedding planner, whether Dani wanted her or not, and was about to drive her to distraction. “What has she done now?”As Dani regaled her with the million tiny decisions that Mrs. Wade was prodding her to make that Dani didn’t care a flip about, Maggie thought of what her mother had accompl