“You’re just as beautiful as I knew you’d be.”
She felt herself flush with pleasure at his compliment, even as she said, “You shouldn’t have done this, Zach.” Flustered, she blurted, “Why did you do it?”
“I had to.”
“Did you—” She couldn’t believe she was actually going to say this. “Did you do it for me?”
His eyes were dark as they held hers. “Yes.”
Her breath caught in her throat. “Giving away an expensive car won’t change anything between us. You know that, right?”
“If I thought I could buy you, I would have done it that first day I met you. Don’t insult us both.” The bite of his words softened as he added, “You were very convincing up on that stage, Heather.”
She flushed, biting back the apology on her tongue. Instead, she said, “It’s too much, Zach. Especially since you didn’t exactly take much time to think over the donation.”
“No,” he told her in as serious a voice as she’d ever heard from him, “auctioning off one of my cars isn’t nearly enough. Just thinking about what might have happened to Cuddles if she’d ended up in the wrong hands makes me sick.”
“Still,” she insisted, “you could have given away something else, like free car service for a year at your garage. I’m afraid you’re going to regret giving away something so precious.”
“It’s just a car, Heather. A hunk of metal that’s put together to drive fast. I would never give away anything truly precious.” His eyes darkened even further with heat and a flash of emotion that hit her just behind her breastbone. “You must know by now that I’m far too selfish for that.”
He always did that to her, made it hard for her to find her breath at the same time that she couldn’t help but give in to a smile. “You are pretty selfish,” she agreed.
“Greedy, too,” he said as he finally moved close enough to pull her into his arms.
If she’d managed to forget how good his goodbye kiss had been that morning, the kiss he gave her in front of the Fairmont was the perfect reminder.
Of course, she hadn’t forgotten a thing about that earlier kiss. And she wouldn’t be forgetting anything about this one, either.
When he finally let her go, she was glad his arms were around her to hold her up on shaky legs.
“Besides,” he murmured against her earlobe, “getting to see you in that dress—and knowing I’m going to strip it off you later—is worth every penny.”
Heather liked him so much more than she should. He made it so hard not to. If he’d given away the car because he wanted people to be impressed with him, if he’d done it to try to buy a part of her heart, she could have written him off as just another rich blowhard with more money than sense.
But he’d clearly done it simply because he believed it was the right thing to do.
And this time she was the one kissing him before grinning and saying, “I would have let you take off my dress for free.”
Chapter Twenty-one
“Time for bed.”
Heather looked up from where she was placing empty wine glasses in their plastic cases to find Zach standing in front of her. “But there’s still so much to do.”
“The catering staff can take care of the rest of it.” He took her hands in his and pulled her to her feet.
The heat in his eyes immediately drew her in and she knew there was no more fighting the inevitable. She wanted to sleep with Zach again, of course, but she was worried that she was going to forget to keep it just sex, even more than she had forgotten the night before. After his selflessness tonight, she was very much afraid that her heart was going to do something stupid in response.
She was surprised when he led her to the bank of elevators with his large hand on the small of her back. She was tall enough that she rarely felt small around a man, but between his height and broad shoulders—and his air of confident masculinity—she’d always felt incredibly feminine around Zach.
“Where is Cuddles tonight?”
“Hanging with Atlas at your assistant’s house. She’d already mentioned that she was going to be watching Atlas and said she was happy to have them both.”
Heather turned to him in surprise just as the elevator door opened. “Have women always been unable to resist giving you whatever you want?”
His pretended to leer at her. “Whatever I want, huh?”
She rolled her eyes. “I was talking about other women, not myself. I can resist you just fine,” she lied with a flourish.
His grin told her he knew otherwise as he slid his key card in for the penthouse suite.
“You booked the penthouse for tonight?” On top of giving away a shockingly expensive car just hours ago? “Have you completely lost your mind?”
“Most women not only give me whatever I want, but they also know my net worth within five minutes of meeting me.” He slid the fingers of one hand into her hair and tugged her closer before saying, “You’re the first one who doesn’t care about my money.”
He was right, she didn’t. And maybe if she weren’t so tired, she would have moderated her thoughts a little better before blurting, “You’re hardly ever serious. How can you run a business that big without working all the time like everyone else?”
True to form, he didn’t look upset about what she’d just said, or how she’d said it. “Like I said before, they’re just cars. And trust me, Heather,” he said in that low voice that always sent shivers running up and down her spine, “whenever I decide to focus on something I want, I always get it.”
She believed him, especially when he pressed her back against the wall of the elevator. His mouth was sinfully delicious against hers as his stubble rasped against her cheeks and chin. She immediately wound her arms around his neck to pull him closer as their kiss deepened.
“Is there a Stop button in this thing?” she found herself asking against his lips, even though she’d never done something crazy like have sex in an elevator. Then again, she would never have felt safe enough to do that with anyone but Zach.
But before either of them could find it, they reached the top of the building and the doors slid open. Together, they moved out of the elevator, not separating or stopping their kiss. Feeling bold, she grabbed the room key from him, pressed it against the card reader beside the double doors, and used his tie to drag him inside.