Forbidden Fantasies Bundle(103)

A faint sound—a ringing—pulled at her, but she fought it. She wanted the sensations she was experiencing to continue. Endlessly. She had no cares, no worries, no—

The ring was sharper this time, and it had Zoë’s head snapping up. Her hand connected with something, and she heard a flutter of…something. She blinked, but her mind was so fuzzy, so disoriented, that she wasn’t sure where she was.

Another ring.

Zoë looked around and tried to focus. She wasn’t in the hammock. Disappointment rolled through her. Reality crashed back in. She was in her office. And she’d just sent a pile of note cards slithering helter-skelter across the floor. Damn. An hour’s work was destroyed in one fell swoop. She dropped her head into her hands.

It was all Jed Calhoun’s fault.

When the phone rang yet another time, she picked it up. “Zoë McNamara here.”

There was no response on the other end. Whoever had called had been transferred to voice mail. Had it been Jed? She pressed the caller ID button, saw Sierra’s name and made an effort to swallow her disappointment.

Jed hadn’t called her. Not the night they’d made love, not yesterday and not today. It was ridiculous for her to feel so bummed about that. They’d had an agreement.

She had to put aside the fact that the one-time-only event had been a bad idea. Making love with him in that hammock had only increased her appetite for him.

It hadn’t worked the way she’d planned. Not at all. When it came to men, nothing ever did.

Dropping her hands to the desk, she fisted them and shoved down on the bubble of panic that was expanding in her stomach. Opening the top drawer of her desk, she took out her Jed Calhoun notebook and flipped it open to a fresh page. Her experience analyzing research had taught her to face the truth head-on.

Number one: She wanted to make love to Jed Calhoun again. No use lying about that. Her dreams, along with her waking thoughts, were filled with him even more than they’d been before.

Number two: Arranging another “event” with Jed probably wouldn’t solve her problem. It might even make it worse. What if her appetite for him increased again? There were cases in the narrative data she’d collected where instant and high-potency chemistry between two people never burned out. It lasted for years and years. She’d recently interviewed a couple in their sixties who’d sworn that what was between them was “hotter than ever.”

Number three: She needed another solution. Her theory that making love with him one time would solve her problem had been wrong. It was time to try something else. That’s what researchers and analysts did. She glanced at the cards strewn across the floor and at the blank sheet of paper on her desk. Work. It had always been her salvation before. She’d just throw herself back into it and eventually, the memory of Jed Calhoun would fade.

It had to.

She was about to rise to gather up the note cards when a sharp knock sounded on her door.

“Zoë, are you in there?”

Before Zoë could reply, the door opened and Sierra strode in. “Are you all right? I’ve tried twice to get you on the phone. I—” Sierra’s voice broke off as she gazed at the floor. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” Zoë said.

Sierra glanced around the room. “I don’t think so. You’re not answering your phone, and I’ve never seen your office like this.”

“I have a lot on my mind.”

Sierra sat down in the chair facing Zoë’s and said, “This is about Jed Calhoun, isn’t it?”

Zoë folded her hands on the desk and concentrated hard. Lying wasn’t one of her strengths. “That’s over. Jed and I just decided to act on our mutual attraction for one another. Both of us have other priorities right now and the chemistry between us was getting in our way. Now it’s finished.”

Sierra’s eyes narrowed.

The lie hadn’t worked. Zoë could sense it, but she managed to hold Sierra’s gaze and she didn’t blush.

“If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine. But I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t had my sisters to talk to when I first met Ryder. Did you know that I kissed him in the bar of the Blue Pepper before I ever knew his name? I just kissed him—a perfect stranger.”

Zoë bit on her bottom lip, glanced at her phone and then finally said, “It’s been two days and he hasn’t called.”

Sierra frowned. “Jed’s life is complicated right now. He moved out of Ryder’s houseboat yesterday. And Ryder can’t or won’t tell me where he’s gone.”