While letting the tub warm up, Maggie turned her attention to getting Zane ready for their bath. She slowly undid his belt buckle, button and zipper and let his slacks fall to the floor. His black boxer briefs were next, giving her an unobstructed view of exactly how much he wanted her. She stepped into his arms, her hands gripping the taut curve of his ass and pulling him flush to her body. He chuckled and lifted her petite frame to wrap her around his waist. She giggled as she readjusted her grip. “We should probably turn off the water or it’s going to overflow,” Maggie commented looking over Zane’s shoulder. He started to lean over the tub when she stopped him. “Wait! Take me over there a minute,” she said, pointing in the other direction at the built-in shelves. He looked at her inquisitively. “Bubble bath!” she explained.“Oh, well, can’t have a bath without bubbles, can we?” Zane said with playful sarcasm and dutifully carried her to the shelves to retrieve the pretty pink bott
JT was just finishing up cleaning up after his prep work in the Common Grounds' kitchen when Sofia popped her head in. “Hey, boss. I finally got the final numbers from Jim at the bank if you have a few minutes to go over the menu with me,” she said brightly.“Sure, give me five minutes,” JT said. Sofia shot him a grin and nodded. With a flip of her dark, shiny ponytail, she was gone.JT smiled and shook his head as he wiped down his workstation. He’d never seen Sofia in a bad mood. No matter how onery the customer or how crazy the day got, she always had a smile on her face and a bounce in her step. And she was good at everything she did. He’d never tell Maggie, but he thought Sofia could give her a run for her money in the organization and customer service departments. The best decision they’d ever made was recently promoting her to manager of the cafe and assistant event coordinator for Common Grounds Catering.When he met her at the table a few minutes later, he moved over some pa
Zane sat in his club chair, Jameson in hand, staring at the city lights from his window. He had picked up a book to read but couldn’t focus. He'd hated to have to leave her after her weekend together. The Shawna situation made him want to wrap Maggie in bubble wrap and lock her in his apartment where nothing could get to her, but maybe she was right. He had always been the one Shawna followed and harassed. He'd casually dated a couple of other women after her and nothing had happened. Maybe all these new and intense feelings he had for Maggie were just making all his protective instincts go into overdrive. Hell, he hadn't even really been aware he had protective instincts before Maggie. He sipped the smooth scotch and tried to convince himself that Maggie was right. She would be fine. He had to make himself believe it. It was the only way he could get anything else done. He glanced at his watch and saw he had two hours before Maggie would be done with her catering event and he could
The last few months had flown by in a happy haze for Maggie with the wedding planning, her business going great guns and her nightly marathon Facetime sessions with Zane between visits, but with only two weeks left until Dani and Levi’s wedding, she was exhausted. There seemed to be a never-ending list of things to do and not nearly enough hours in the day to get them all done. I’ll just lay my head down for a minute.Sofia started to knock on the door jamb but then stopped abruptly at the sight in front of her. Maggie was at her desk with her head pillowed on her arms, fast asleep. She was really burning the candle at both ends. Sofia was worried about her. She’d never caught her sleeping at her desk before. She rarely even took a coffee break during the day. Maggie could do more things in a day than most people did in a week but even she apparently had her limits.She saw JT coming down the hall and put a finger to her lips. “Shhhh,” she whispered, closing the door softly. “She’s as
Saturday came before she knew it and Maggie found herself rushing to pack for the weekend before she was late. Her thoughts were unusually scattered and she couldn't seem to get her things together. Her current dilemma included her boots taking up too much room in her weekender bag causing her to not be able to get the zipper closed. “Aren’t you coming back tomorrow night?” JT asked, leaning on the door frame to her bedroom and watching her attempt to get her bag closed with amusement.Maggie glared at him over her shoulder. “Yes, I am, but we’re going to Mama Tried to see Morgan Wallen and I have to get.these.boots.to.fit,” she said punctuating her last words with the effort to get the teeth of the zipper close enough to catch.JT chuckled and went to her side, pushing her away from the bag with a hip. “Here let me fix it.” He reached in the bag, removed the boots and easily zipped up the case. “There, fixed.”Maggie stared at him, hands fisted on her hips. “I could have done that,”
"Get security!" he yelled, turning to the woman he had pushed past to get into the ladies' room. She started to argue with him but then took in the sight before her. "I'm on it," she said and quickly moved through the crowd. “Maggie!” he yelled, falling to his knees next to her. She was on her hands and knees on the floor near the sink. Blood was pouring down her face and her eyes weren’t focusing. He could tell she was trying to stand but couldn’t get her feet under her.“Don’t try to get up, baby,” Zane told her. He eased her back down to sit on the floor and took her face in his hands trying to see where all the blood was coming from. He knew logically that head wounds bled copiously even from a tiny cut but, his heart stuttered in his chest at the sight of her beautiful face and gentle hands covered in red.“Zane?” she asked in a confused whisper. “How did you get here? Are we in the ladies’ room?”She tried to raise her bloody hands to her head, but he caught them. “It’s ok, swe
Zane sat for a long time, holding Maggie’s hand and watching her sleep. He wanted to memorize every detail of her, her beautiful rosy skin, those plush pink lips that drove him to distraction, the way her silky chestnut locks spread out across the pillow. Her eyes were closed but he could visualize the chocolate brown orbs that changed to dark expresso when she wanted him. The unfathomable look in them when she told him she loved him. And her hands, the wonderfully small hands that were so soft but competent and graceful. Those hands that had the power to drive all his worries away and make him feel whole. He wished he could see her smile at him one more time. His eyes shone with unshed tears. He wondered if you could truly die from a broken heart. When he was sure she was sleeping soundly, he let go of her hand carefully placing it under the starched white blanket on her bed. He leaned over and let his lips brush her cheek, careful not to wake her. He took a deep breath filling his
Maggie came back to herself in pieces. She smelled bleach and some other antiseptic and wrinkled her nose. Sun was beating onto her closed eyelids and her head was throbbing. She moaned and reached a hand up to her head finding a bandage at her forehead. It slowly came back to her. She was in the hospital. Someone had attacked her at the Mama Tried. “Zane?” she asked without opening her eyes yet. “Can we shut the blinds? My head is pounding.”He didn’t answer her, but she felt a shadow fall over her face and the brightness dimmed. She carefully cracked open her eyes. She blinked a few times to bring everything into focus and saw Dani and Levi standing over her bed.“Hey, Mags, how’re you feeling? Do you need some water?” Dani said softly to her.She started to nod but then stopped abruptly when pain shot through her skull with the movement. She raised her hand to her head again. “Ow. Yes please.”Levi poured her water from a plastic pitcher next to her bed and handed a cup to Dani. S