As the kitten pounced on her shoe, Zara watched him. “Should we give him a name or something?”
“Does this mean you’re keeping him?”
Zara threw Braden a look. “I didn’t say that. I just feel like he should be called something other than Cat.”
Braden laughed. “Admit it, you like him.”
“I’ll call him Jack while he’s here,” she decided.
“Jack?”
Zara nodded. “Jack Frost.”
Braden smiled at the perfect name. “Jack it is.”
Zara didn’t want to make commitments, didn’t want to have to worry about anyone else but herself, and Braden understood her reasons. But at some point she’d have to put herself out there, even if it was with a cat. She was going to be one lonely person if she kept herself so distanced. He wouldn’t know what he’d do without his family.
“So, what’s it like having siblings?” she asked, staring into her glass...her fourth glass if he was counting correctly. “Being an only child sucked sometimes.”
Braden shifted his back against the side of the bed, brought his knee up and reached out to pet Jack as he came over and slid against Zara’s leg. Braden had stopped at three glasses of wine. He was a big guy, so he wasn’t feeling anything, and one of them had to keep their wits about them. Apparently that responsibility fell to him.
“We had our moments,” he admitted. “Laney is the baby, and she gets a bit angry when Mac and I look out for her. She’s determined, stubborn, always putting others first, even at the sacrifice of her own happiness.” He narrowed his gaze, which he knew she could see since they had lit candles and she was only a few feet away, staring right at him. “Sounds like someone else I know.”
Zara took a sip of wine. “I prefer career driven.”
Braden laughed as went on. “Mac and I tend to get along now, but when we were younger we pretty much caused havoc in the house. Mom passed when I was ten, Mac was seven and Laney was only four. That was about the time Ryker started coming around, too.”
Propping her elbow on the arm of the chaise, Zara rested her head in her hand and settled the base of the wineglass in front of her, still holding on to the rim with those delicate fingers. “You speak of him quite a bit. You all are really close. I can hear the affection in your tone when you talk of your family.”
When she discussed her parents, all that had laced her tone was disdain. The only love he heard from her was when she told stories of her grandmother.
“We’ve always been a close family. My parents were adamant about that. We may fight, yell, even throw a few punches, but when it comes down to it, I know my family always has my back, and they know I always have theirs.”
Zara smiled. “Unconditional love.” She drained the rest of her glass, then sat it on the small accent table on the other side of the arm. “I bet when you all were younger you had snowball fights in weather like this.”
Braden nodded, his hand stilled on the kitten’s back as he replayed one particular day. “My brother, Mac, has a scar running through his brow as a souvenir from one of our snowball fights.”
Zara’s eyes widened. “He got cut from snow?”
“He got cut because our sister threw a snowball that had a rock in it. She’s a lot stronger than she looks, but she had no idea about the rock. Trust me, she felt awful, and Mac played on her guilt for years.”
She made a soft noise of acknowledgment, nearly a tender tone that had him almost hating how he was reliving these memories when she didn’t have too many happy ones. But she wanted to hear them, and he actually enjoyed sharing stories of his family...so long as people didn’t start butting into the family business and asking unnecessary questions.
“I bet you all had a big Christmas tree, family vacations, huge birthday parties.”
“Yes to all of that,” he confirmed. “The downfall of the siblings, when you’re a kid, no matter what you got for a present, you had to share. I never liked that rule. When something belongs to me, it’s mine for good.”
Zara’s lids lowered a touch, from the alcohol or from the double meaning she’d taken from his words. Had he subconsciously said that just for her benefit? Maybe, maybe not, but he wasn’t sorry now that the words were out.
“This morning, when we...you know...”
“Had sex,” he finished when she trailed off. He had no clue where she was going with this, but he knew exactly what topic she was dancing around when she couldn’t even say the words.
“Yes. I didn’t handle that very well.” Her fingertip toyed with the binding running along the outer cushion; her eyes remained fixed on his, though, which only made her sexier, to realize that she wasn’t afraid to face this head-on.
“I don’t know,” he amended. “I think you handled the sex perfectly.”
A flirty smile spread across her lips. “I meant afterward. I’m not used to such a giving lover. I didn’t know how to react, and with you being my boss, I thought it was easiest to just ignore everything and try to pretend we were on the same level playing field as before we stripped out of our clothes.”
Braden didn’t say a word. The wine was apparently making her more chatty than usual, and now that she was discussing the proverbial elephant in the room, he wanted to know what she had to say.
“I guess I should’ve said thank you,” she added quickly. “Circumstances have us here together, and you could’ve been selfish, you could’ve totally ignored me after, but you didn’t. You were...”
“If you say nice I’m going to be angry.”
“Sweet.”
Braden groaned. “I would’ve rather been nice.”
He eyed her for another minute, more than aware of the crackling tension that had just been amped up in the past two minutes.
“I’m trying to thank you,” she went on, talking louder to drown out his mumble. “It’s refreshing to know there are guys like you out there.”
Guys like him? He wanted to laugh, he wanted to confess just how ruthless he truly was and he wanted her to never look for a man like him in the future. Yes, he’d been caring in bed; yes, he’d rescued a cat. Those were qualities any man should possess. Braden didn’t go above and beyond. For one thing, her pleasure brought him pleasure. Call it primal, territorial, whatever. When Zara had been turned on, that made him all chest-bumping, ego-inflated happy because he’d caused her arousal, her excitement.
“Does that mean you’re looking for a guy who will treat you right, and you’re done with the asshats you’ve been dating?” he asked.
“Maybe it means I want you to show me again how a woman should be treated.”
Braden froze. The bold statement slammed into him. Nothing much could catch him off guard, but this woman kept him on his toes.
“Your wine is talking,” he stated, attempting to blow it off, give her an out in case she hadn’t meant to say that aloud.
“Maybe so,” she admitted. “Or I’m just saying what I’ve been thinking all day. Every time I’d look at you or accidentally touch you, I’d think back to how amazing this morning was. Even though a relationship would be a huge mistake, I’m finding it rather difficult to stay over here while you’re in my bed.”
Had the heat cranked up more in here? Braden was sweating after that speech she just delivered.
Zara stretched out even more on the chaise and rolled on to her back, staring up at the ceiling as she continued to talk. “Wanting you isn’t new, though. You know what you look like. I’m sure women throw themselves at you all the time. I don’t want to be that typical, predictable woman.”
“Baby, you’re anything but typical and predictable.”
Her soft laugh wrapped him in warmth. “I’ll take that as a compliment and I like when you call me baby. But I meant that I wanted you when I first saw you, but this job had to take precedence and I refused to be so trite as to hit on my boss.”
Oh, he would’ve loved had she come into his office that first day and had her way with him. Before his fantasy carried him away too much, Braden concentrated on her as she continued.
“Then I was mortified you had to see that whole incident with Shane, but when you and I were dancing, I wasn’t thinking about Shane. I was thinking how great you smelled, powerful and manly.”
Braden smiled into the dim light. She would be so embarrassed tomorrow when she woke and realized all she’d verbally spewed out tonight. But there was no way in hell he was stopping her.
“Now that you’re stuck here, all I can think about is how amazing this morning was and how I’m going to lie here tonight and replay it in my mind.”
Braden came to his knees and slowly closed the space between them. He laid a hand across her abdomen, startling her as she jerked to stare him in the eyes. Their faces were inches apart, so close he could ease forward just a touch and have that mouth beneath his in seconds. From this closer vantage point, he could see the slight flush in her cheeks from the wine, the moist lips where she’d licked them from being nervous, the pulse point at the base of her neck.
“Who said you had to lie here and replay it?” he asked, easing his hand beneath her shirt. His palm flattened out on her stomach, and the quivering beneath his touch only added to his desire for her. “Maybe that bed was lonely last night. Maybe I got sick of rolling over and inhaling your jasmine scent. Maybe I was awake all night wondering when you’d come to your senses and join me.”