Zach came to the last button and spread her blouse apart until her white skin was bared; the pale globes of her small breasts peaked from the top of her white cotton bra. He studied the bounty he was unwrapping with both satisfaction and self-hatred for doing this to her. But he couldn't stop. He stared down at her chest. The plain, unadorned bra somehow highlighted the beauty of the top swells of her breasts. His stomach muscles clenched in anticipation. "Don't cry, baby. You're too pretty to cry." Zach slid his hands from her blouse to the small cups of her bra and tugged down. Her breasts popped out.
Katie swayed in shock before she lowered her lashes over her eyes.
Zach looked at her small, perfectly round breasts with the delicate pink nipples and felt himself swell to his fullest. He'd slept with a lot of women. A lot of women. But he had never seen breasts more perfect than hers. He cupped them gently in his hands and simultaneously, ran his thumbs over her pink nipples. She let out a tiny mewling noise and he continued to abrade the tips. When he couldn't stand it anymore, he lowered his head and swiped his tongue where his thumb had just been.
Katie began to tremble uncontrollably. He spoke against her breast. "You like that, babe?" He continued to take strokes with his tongue.
Katie was being bombarded with too many emotions at once. "Yes," she whispered, too shocked at the feelings beating inside of her to lie. How long had it been since her breasts had been touched in a gentle, loving way? She knew exactly how long, but she'd never expected to feel even an ounce of desire if it ever happened again.
Zach held her to him and reached for her mouth as he said, "A Turner who can tell the truth."
As his lips touched hers, Katie absorbed his cutting comment and started pushing against him. The hatred and anger he had for her family was still there and it probably always would be, no matter what he'd tried to make her believe three years ago. She couldn't change the Turner blood that ran through her veins. Nor would she want to.
She managed to take him by surprise and broke free from his hold and stepped away from him. She stood rigid. "That's all you're going to get until I see a contract. Until I see some proof you're not going to foreclose on my parents and make them homeless." She adjusted her clothing as she spoke and managed to button her blouse with shaking fingers.
Frustration screamed through Zach. Why the fuck had he made that goddamn comment? Was he absolutely stupid? Katie didn't wait for a reply to her statement. She moved away from him and slammed out of his office. As he lifted his nose and smelled her lingering scent in the air, he knew he had to get his shit together. He had to get his head out of his ass and figure out what the hell kind of emotions were still fucking with him. The last three years hadn't been good. He'd never expected her to continually ignore him as if he didn't exist. And that had produced resentment and now he had to deal with it. But he knew one thing, she'd never come to him of her own free will. It would never happen. It might be fucked up, but he was going to take advantage of the position he now found himself in.
Zach didn't waste any time. He picked up the phone and started barking orders to his lawyers.
The rest of the week flew by for Katie. Every moment was precious when she felt like the noose was going to close at any minute. She spent the days finishing up with her students. They were special to her, they always would be because they were her very first class. At night, she packed things up, organized her finances, and as Zach requested, went shopping. She didn't feel bad spending his money, because he'd demanded it, and because she knew that whatever he stipulated to her on Friday, she would have to agree to. She had no choice. She couldn't see her parents and Josh lose the family homestead. She couldn't do it to them. Not when she had a way to save the farm, literally as well as figuratively.
She closed her eyes and refused to think about how she would possibly get through the act of sleeping with him, on an on-going basis. One step at a time. She would get through this the only way she knew how, one step at a time.
Friday afternoon at one sharp Katie sat in reception and waited to be called into Zach's office. Her stomach was tied in knots and she knew that her life as she knew it would be put on hold for a while, possibly for a long while. She felt queasy because she'd gone to visit a doctor and started taking the contraceptive pill. She wasn't used to the hormones, and her stomach was roiling. The doctor had warned her that it might make her a little sick at first, but she didn't see any way to avoid it. The pill seemed the best solution. She absolutely couldn't risk a pregnancy. The thought of having Zach's baby sent terror screaming through her. He would take it away from her, she knew. He had all the power and plenty of money at his disposal. She wouldn't even be able to afford a lawyer to fight him. She couldn't risk it.
By the time she was led into Zach's office, she was green around the gills and prayed she wouldn't embarrass herself in front of him and his team of lawyers.
She took one look at the conference table where he was sitting with three other men, and she knew she wasn't going to make it.
"I'm sorry. May I use your restroom please?" Her words were shaky and she was holding on to the back of the chair she was supposed to sit down in.
Zach must have seen the pinched look on her face and realised something was wrong. He stood up and directed her to an unobtrusive door that led to his private bathroom.
She gratefully went inside. She turned on the cold tap and held her wrists under the cool water. She refused to vomit and have those men hear her. She swallowed several times in an effort to control herself. She felt so alone. Tears came to her eyes and slowly began to roll down her face as she sagged against the sink.
There was a light tap on the door and then Zach walked in. She had forgotten to lock the door, and he didn't seem to have any qualms about invading her privacy. She would have to remember that for future reference. More tears welled at the thought and bile rose in her throat as she valiantly tried to suppress it.
"What's wrong with you?" Zach stood against the closed door watching her. "The thought of being with me, sleeping with me is so abhorrent to you that you're reduced to tears?"
Katie hesitated. She was embarrassed to be in this situation, and even the small amount of privacy she needed was being denied her. Her reserves of anger had been depleted by the queasiness in her stomach, and trepidation was a constant knot in her chest. He wanted an intimate relationship with her? Let it start now, by God. "I'm nauseous. I'm trying not to be sick." She put her hand to her mouth and looked at him in the mirror. "I'm sorry, Zach."
"Did you eat something bad? Are you running a fever?" He punched the questions out like a drill sergeant, but came closer and laid the back of his hand against her forehead in a gentle touch. "Are you trying to pretend that being with me repulses you so much that it makes you ill? Because believe me, Katie, it's not going to work. I had you in my arms three days ago. I may inspire several different feelings, but trust me, babe, I know nausea isn't one of them."
Katie shook her head and twin tears ran down her face. "I'm worried about it." She looked away and then slowly lifted her eyes back to him. "But you don't repulse me." She knew she was looking at him as if confessing her greatest sin, but she had no strength for lies or subterfuge. She knew in that moment that she told the truth. Sex scared her. Zachary McIntyre's touch might alarm her, but in no way did he repulse her. "I'm sorry. I know you told me not to cry. I started taking the pill last night and it's making me ill." Her eyes dropped from his and her lips quivered. "I've never been so queasy in my life. I don't want those men to hear me retching."
Zach stood across from her, his gaze focused on the tears that rolled down her face. "You started taking the pill last night? The contraceptive pill? Is that what you're saying?" It was obvious from his tone of voice that he was confused by her explanation.
Katie wondered what was so difficult to understand. "Yes."
Zach walked over to the small cabinet above the sink vanity and retrieved a wash cloth. As he ran cold water over it and handed it to her he asked, "Why?"
At his instigation, Katie sat down on the closed lid of the commode and gratefully took the damp, cool cloth from his hand. She rubbed it lightly over her face and neck, trying to control the raging heat flowing through her veins. "Why what?"
"Why would you start taking the pill now?" He bit the words out one at a time as if he were asking something of a small child.
"It should be obvious. I don't want to get pregnant with your child." Katie answered him in shaky, stilted words.
Zach winced at her answer. "I get that part, Katie. Of course you don't want to get pregnant. What I'm trying to understand is why would you change your method of contraception now? When you have so much other upheaval in your life?"
The question took Katie totally by surprise and she didn't know how to answer. Her private life was just that, private. He was taking her by storm, calling all the shots, practically demanding her body, life and soul.
As she tried to think of a way to answer him without giving anything away that wasn't his business and that she couldn't bring herself to tell him right then, she looked up at him.