Authors: Bella Andre
Heather couldn’t believe they’d miss something that
obvious about him. “Haven’t you noticed that
mine
is practicaly
his favorite word?”
Nicola started choking on her sip of wine and as Chloe
patted her back, she told Heather, “Chase and I tried the
friends-with-benefits thing.” She looked down at her bely.
“Pretty obvious how wel that worked for us, isn’t it?”
Heather wasn’t sure if that was supposed to make her feel
better or worse about her agreement with Zach. But before she
could decide, Nicola said, “Cover your ears, girls,” to Lori and
Sophie, before teling Heather, “Marcus and I skipped the whole
friends thing and went straight for the benefits. It was just
supposed to be a one-night fling.”
“I stil can’t believe you fel asleep on him during your one-
night stand,” Lori said.
Nicola shot her a mock frown. “Can’t you at least pretend
that you don’t know al the details of my whirlwind romance with
your oldest brother?”
Lori roled her eyes. “We’re Sulivans. It’s our code to
know absolutely everything about each other. Right, Soph?”
Sophie took a sip from her glass of sparkling grape juice.
“Unfortunately, yes.” Just as Lori’s mouth opened, likely to say
something incriminating, Sophie beat her to the punch by teling
Heather, “I seduced Jake at Chloe’s wedding and ended up
pregnant. But it turned out he’d been in love with me for as long
as I’d been in love with him, so it al ended up working out.”
Heather was overwhelmed not only by how open each of
Heather was overwhelmed not only by how open each of
the women was being with her—and each other—but also by
what they’d told her about the other Sulivans. Each of their one-
night stand and friends-with-benefits attempts had turned into
long-term relationships and marriages.
Oh no
...what was she doing?
And just how far over her head was she realy?
“Zach’s racing for Tommy’s team tomorrow in LA, isn’t
he?” Lori asked.
“I hate it when he does those races,” Sophie admitted. “At
least when Gabe is running into burning buildings, I know he’s
facing danger to help people. But if Zach crashes, it’s just for
fun. I swear I’l never forgive him if he gets hurt in one of those
stupid races.”
Sophie’s concerns echoed the ones Heather had been
trying to push away ever since Zach had mentioned the race.
Lori dismissed it with a simple, “Zach is indestructible.”
Maybe it was the wine, maybe it was the way just thinking
about him made her endorphins shoot off into the stratosphere,
but Heather wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out Zach actualy
was indestructible.
Unfortunately, she was pretty sure that she wasn’t...and
when the day came that friends-with-benefits turned to just-
friends, or to nothing at al, she was no longer sure she’d be
walking away from that crash in one piece.
Even if Zach could, al too easily.
Monday morning came too bright and early for the little
sleep Heather had managed. She told herself it was one too
many dark chocolate brownies that had kept her awake, rather
than the way the bed already seemed too big without Zach
holding her as she slept.
They’d only spent two nights together. She couldn’t
possibly miss him already, and shouldn’t be on pins and needles
over worries about him getting hurt in the race that morning.
An hour later, after checking in with her staff and accepting
their congratulations on the successful fundraiser, she settled in
behind her computer in her office. Atlas immediately took his
place on the big dog bed in the corner and closed his eyes to
take his morning nap. But instead of draping herself over Atlas
the way she usualy did, Cuddles stood in the middle of the room
and gave Heather one of those pathetic little whines she’d started
last night when she realized Zach wasn’t back yet.
Heather scooped up the puppy and gave her a kiss on her
muzzle. “Don’t worry, he’l be home soon.” When the puppy stil
looked sad, she found herself echoing Lori’s words from the
night before. “Zach is indestructible. He’l be just fine. How
about we watch him win the race together?”
She kept the puppy on her lap as she clicked on the live
streaming link he’d emailed her. A bunch of men in colorful
racing suits were walking around the fancy cars, but it wasn’t
hard for her to spot Zach. He was taler, broader, a thousand
hard for her to spot Zach. He was taler, broader, a thousand
times sexier than any of the other drivers.
Her heart beat a little faster just watching him run one big
hand over the body of the car, and thril bumps lifted across the
surface of her skin as if he were touching her instead of the
vehicle.
Cuddles let out a soft yap that made Heather think she
could see Zach on the screen, too, and it made Heather’s
stomach hurt to think of how the puppy was going to react when
Zach gave her back to his brother.
There was no way for the young dog to understand that she
shouldn’t have let herself get so attached to him, that she
shouldn’t have made the mistake of faling in love with him.
Good words of warning for al females everywhere.
The drivers got into their cars and Heather gripped the
puppy tighter, burying her chin in the super-soft fur on top of
Cuddles’s head as the cars zipped away from the starting
blocks. Zach was in the Sulivan Autos car, of course, the now-
familiar blue and gold logo a blur as he pushed the pedal to the
metal.
She couldn’t believe how close he got to the other cars as
he did one lap, then two, then three. He wasn’t in the lead yet,
but something told her he was simply biding his time, taking it
easy the way it always looked like he did, before going al in for
the win.
She remembered what he’d said to her in the elevator:
Trust me,
whenever I’ve decided to focus on something I
want, I always get it.
want, I always get it.
No question about it, Zach Sulivan wouldn’t race if he
wasn’t in it for the win.
Again and again the cars wove around the track, until
seemingly from out of nowhere, Zach’s car shot out ahead of the
pack, and they were al eating his dust.
For a moment, she forgot to be scared about his getting
hurt as she chanted, “Go, go, go!” at the screen.
Cuddles was standing with her front paws on the desk,
joining in with her in dog language. And when Zach finished the
race a good car length ahead of the rest, she lifted the puppy up
and cheered.
Only, it turned out the two of them weren’t the only ones
who were happy with Zach’s performance. Because as he
unfolded his large body from the car, several scantily clad girls
rushed over to him and wrapped their perfect bodies around him
in congratulations.
Tina knocked, then popped her head in. “I thought I heard
you cal for me. Is everything okay in here?”
God, no, it wasn’t okay. How could it be when she was
literaly being eaten up, inside and out, by jealousy? She wanted
to rip the other women’s hands off Zach.
He was
hers
!
She clicked on the little X at the top of her screen to close
the streaming video and nodded at Tina. “Everything’s fine,
thanks.”
It would be, at least, once she’d set her brain back to rights
It would be, at least, once she’d set her brain back to rights
and refocused her attention where it should be.
She put Cuddles on the floor. “I’d like to go over the final
numbers for the shelter this morning so that I can draft up a
release on it by tonight.”
But as soon as they puled up the spreadsheet to taly up
the expenses and income from the auction items, and Tina
exclaimed over the Lamborghini that Zach had donated, Heather
realized it wasn’t going to be quite that easy.
Because somehow, in the span of one short week, Zach
Sulivan had infiltrated every part of her life.
* * *
than the rush of being in a race car.
Being with Heather was better. Way better.
When Tommy had caled to ask him to race, for the first
time ever, instead of jumping at the chance, Zach had tried to
turn him down. He’d told himself it was because he wanted to
stay with Heather in the hotel room to spend the entire day
exploring every inch of her skin, to make her laugh between
acrobatic bouts of lovemaking, to watch her eyes light up and
her skin flush with joy and then the heat of desire again and
again.
But even as he tried to deny the truth, he knew his reasons
for not wanting to race were bigger than that.
What, he couldn’t stop wondering, if this was it? What if his
What, he couldn’t stop wondering, if this was it? What if his
number came up on the race track...and he didn’t get to see
Heather again?
No.
He’d been careful. So had she. They’d agreed not to fal in
love with each other.
Besides, he hadn’t died in the race. Not this time, anyway.
Zach jumped out of his car in front of her building and
nearly knocked over a group of poodles as he ran inside to get
to her. Her assistant was in the middle of saying helo when he
barged past her and into Heather’s office.
It nearly kiled him to take the time to lock the door behind
him and pul down the blinds on her window before he grabbed
her from where she was standing at her file cabinet. The papers
in her hands scattered al over the floor as he slid his hands into
her hair.
A second later, her legs were around his waist, and he was
lowering her down over her desk, his mouth locked to hers while
she kissed him back just as passionately as he was kissing her.
She made a smal sound of pain and he shoved a stapler out
from under her. Using his hands to caress the softness of her hip
where it had dug in reminded him of the way she’d felt when
he’d been massaging her in the hotel.
“Missed you,” he said between nipping at her lips and
yanking off her long-sleeved shirt. He pressed a kiss right
between her breasts. “Needed you.”
He thought he saw her eyes flash with something more than
desire as she folowed suit by roughly yanking his T-shirt over his
desire as she folowed suit by roughly yanking his T-shirt over his
head. She leaned into his chest and he thought she was kissing
him until he realized they were more little bites that she was
giving him al over. Jesus, it was hot, but a whole hel of a lot
more aggressive than she’d ever been before.
Despite how badly he wanted her, his internal radar was
going off. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she said, but again there was that flash in her
eyes that looked too much like anger, and when she folowed it
up with, “Just shut up and do me already,” he knew a hel of a lot
more than
nothing
was wrong.
Somewhere between their extraordinary hours together at
the Fairmont and now, he must have screwed up. He didn’t have
the first clue how, just that he had.
With any other woman he wouldn’t have cared, would
have just finished doing her and then gotten out of there. But he
and Heather were more than just bang-buddies.
“What did I do?”
“You went and did your stupid race, even though you could
have been hurt.” The lingering worry in her eyes was quickly
masked as she snarled, “Congratulations on your big win.”
It was hard trying to think around the low level of blood in
his brain, with her legs stil around his and her beautiful breasts
bounding around in a white cotton bra that shouldn’t have been
sexy but made it nearly impossible for him to form a coherent
sentence.
Stil, he knew he’d better figure out how to get his brain to
work real quick, because he had a feeling a whole lot more than
a hot quickie was at stake.
“You watched me race?”
“Cuddles wanted to.”
She pressed her lips together hard as if she dared him to
chalenge that sily statement, and he barely checked the urge to
lick across the firm line of her pretty lips.
“So you saw me blow the other guys out of the water?”
“Among other things,” she muttered. “You certainly don’t
need me to keep congratulating you, when everyone else did