Two-Faced (2 page)

CHAPTER FOUR

Zach's eyes we
re unnerving. Whenever Jessica glanced over at him during dinner, she found he was already watching her.

"
You have perhaps a favorite song you wish me to play?" The guitarist appeared at the side of the table without Jess realizing it. She put her wine glass down.

"No
," she began but Zach interrupted.

"Something beautiful," he said giving her a conspiratorial wink.

"Ah, a beautfiul song for a beautiful lady.” The musician nodded and began to play.

Flustered by the intensity of Zach's gaze and the romanti
c music, Jess tried to think of something to say. Anything to break the tension.

The song ended and the musician strolled away to another table. Zach leaned forward, looking intently at her. "I want to hear about you Jessica. All about you. You've been av
oiding talking about yourself all evening.”

She noticed the strange golden flecks in the pale grey of his eyes. Must be a trick of the candlelight.

"Well, there's not really much to tell. I was married, I mean I'm still married but I won’t be for much longer." Jess looked down. Lars and her failed marriage were the last things she wanted to think about at the moment. "What about you? Are you married?” She noticed there was no ring on his finger but, of course, that didn’t mean anything.

“
Nah, I haven’t been in any kind of real relationship for over two years,” he answered with a finality that made Jess think that he didn’t want to talk about it further. He took a sip of wine and smiled at her, trying to lighten things up. "How about a dance,” he said, putting his hand out.

She put her hand in
to his and allowed him to lead her out to the dance floor.

As he pulled her close, his strong arm encircling her waist she breathed in his musky scent, her mouth close to his smooth tanned neck. She fo
und it hard to think straight as he led her confidently across the dance floor. 

Maybe it was the alcohol, or the romantic setting but whatever it was, her custody problems with Lars, the hell he was putting her through, all that melted away. She wanted o
nly to be right where she was. In Zach’s strong, commanding arms.

When the music stopped their faces were close to each other and his grey eyes blazed intensely in the soft light. "I hate for this night to end, Jessica" he said, his voice a quiet growl.

She felt a tingling all the way down to her toes as she breathed in softly, inhaling his manly scent.

CHAPTER FIVE

As they walked back to the hotel, taking the path by the river, Zach slipped his jacket ov
er her shoulders. He opened up a bit, telling her about his life in San Antonio, growing up on a ranch, the only boy among three older sisters.

She wrapped his jacket tightly around her and breathed in the lingering trace of his scent. She couldn
't believe how natural yet thrilling it felt to be with him. Maybe Maddy was right after all. All you had to do was open yourself up and good things would happen.

At a bend in the river they paused and Zach grew serious. "Listen. I wasn't exactly honest w
ith you before, Jess," he said. "I may have given you the impression that I...the thing is, I was married. But my wife, Bonnie, died of cancer a little over two years ago."

Jess could hear the pain in his voice as he spoke his deceased wife's name. She fo
ught the urge to reach out and comfort him.

"I guess…
I haven’t really been doing much, uh, socializing, since then," he said. "I mean…I guess I just haven't been interested. But I feel different with you. For some reason, it feels natural.”

Jess looked in
to his eye and nodded. She knew just what he meant.

It was a disappointment when, a few moments later, he suggested they return to the hotel as it was getting late. The night grew cooler, Jess wrapped his jacket tightly around her shoulders and slipped her
hand into his as they walked back to the Regency.

"Thank you for tonight," she said when they stopped outside her hotel room door.

A small frown creased the corners of Zach's eyes as he leaned in towards her. "You’re something special, Jessica Parks," he whispered.

Jess
’s eyes went to his soft lips which were barely inches from her own. His breath tickled her cheek as he exhaled. She couldn’t fight it anymore. She closed her eyes and raised her face toward his.

"Well, goodnight," he said giving her a sma
ll kiss on the cheek.

Her eyes flew open and she pulled back, mortified. "Right, goodnight," she mumbled, her face flushing
hot and red.. She hurried into her room and closed the door quickly behind her, then she leaned against it, cringing in humiliation.

She couldn't believe what just happened.

Here, the entire night she'd thought Zach was as attracted to her as she was to him--but she’d obviously misread him. Zach had wanted only a dinner companion. Nothing more.

She sat on t
he edge of her bed replaying it over and over in her head. The almost-kiss. How she'd flirtatiously placed her hand in his as they walked. He must have thought she was a complete idiot. What was she thinking?

"A special lady,"
he'd called her. Wasn't that something you’d call your great-aunt?
Special.
Not sexy. Not exciting. Special. He might as well have said she had a ‘great personality.’

Jess walked to the mirror and studied her reflection, trying to see herself the way Zach had. A few small crinkles a
round her eyes that appeared when she smiled. A hint of a laugh line at the corner of her mouth. Could this be what he'd reacted to? Of course. He, like every other man in America, probably wanted some twenty year old babe.

She stepped back, taking in the
rest of her body. Granted, her body wasn't gym-perfect, but she still had what would be considered a good figure.

It was simple. Men might ask her out to dinner, might enjoy talking and socializing with her. But when it came to more, she had to be honest w
ith herself, she didn’t inspire passion. She just didn’t have
it.

Sighing, she opened her suitcase and looked
inside the zippered pocket for her sleep shirt when her hand brushed against the silk teddy that Maddy had given her. Almost angrily, she stripped off her clothes and stepped into the tiny negligee. Then she walked over and looked at her reflection in the mirror.

Leave it to Maddy, it was a perfect fit. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. The delicate see-through lace highlighted her long limbs, her cur
vaceous breasts, the soft milkiness of her skin. She closed her eyes and ran her hands over her curves imagining it was Zach touching her. She let out a soft moan, then reluctantly opened her eyes.

It was ridiculous. She would go to bed right now and forge
t the man down the hall. She’d sleep if off and by morning she'd be back to herself. Her sweet safe self. Her dull, old self. Her
special
self
.
No wonder Lars cheated on her—she wasn’t exciting enough to keep a man’s interest.

Jess took a final glance at h
erself in the mirror then strode resolutely out the door and down the hall.

She couldn't believe she was doing this, but she wouldn't give herself time to think about it either.

She knocked lightly on Zach's door.

He answered the door, shirtless, in his
white boxer shorts.

“
Are you okay?" he asked, looking at her with sleepy concern.

"I...I'm okay" Jess said hesitantly. "I don't really know what I'm doing here." She looked down, feeling the blood rush to her cheeks. When she looked up, Zach's eyes were
on hers. He seemed to know exactly what she was doing.

He took her hand and led her into his room, never removing his eyes from hers. "God you're beautiful Jessica" he said. "Do you know how beautiful you are?"

He lowered his mouth to hers, kissing her gently at first then parting her lips with his tongue, hungrily searching her mouth. She felt his warm breath on her neck as his lips softly caressed her flesh, moving downward to her breasts.

Without a word he lifted her effortlessly and carried her to th
e bed. "I wanted you from the moment I saw you."

Jess woke up
to find Zach still asleep in bed beside her. She studied his face in the early morning light. With his wavy hair and long dark lashes, his lips slightly parted in sleep, he looked so innocent. She could easily see him as the young boy he'd described so amusingly the night before.

She wished she could stay in bed all day. Instead she reached for his white robe and tiptoed out of the room.

****************************************

Lars answer
ed on the second ring. "Where have you been? I've been trying your room all morning and there was no answer."

Jess's heart dropped. "What's wrong?”
She was unable to keep the panic from her voice. "Is Danny okay?"

"If you're so concerned about your son y
ou should be where you say you'll be."

"Lars! What happened?"

"Danny had a party today and I didn't have the address. So he missed it. "

"But I gave you that address before I left town." Jess was too relieved to summon any anger of her own. “
I wrote it down on that paper I gave you."

Lars sighed in irritation.

"Let me talk to him..."

"Save it. He's not here, try him later." He clicked off.

Jess hung up the phone, frowning. She felt bad that Danny missed his party but there was no way she was going to let Lars ruin her good mood. She’d try Danny again later.

Looking at her watch she realized she ought to hurry. There was a real estate conference to attend after all and she
’d be expected to report back to her co-workers on what she'd learned. "If only they knew," she smiled to herself.

CHAPTER SIX

Hundreds of participants milled about the hotel conference area, drinking coffee and talking in small groups. After signing in and receiving her participant
’s badge, Jess scanned the crowd, looking for Zach but he was nowhere to be seen. She couldn't contain her feeling of disappointment when the work sessions began and he still hadn’t appeared.

It was during the afternoon break that she finally saw him. He l
ooked handsome and tan in his crisp white button down shirt and blue jeans. She could see that his hair was still slightly wet from the shower and she wondered if he had just gotten up.

His laughter boomed out across the room and it was then that she noti
ced that he was deep in conversation with a sexy, young redhead in a short mini skirt. Jess took a deep breath. "Excuse me," she said to the two women she'd been chatting with, "I see someone I know."

She couldn't believe she was doing this. She walked ove
r to Zach and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Jess." He said, turning to face her. "How are you? "

"Fine" she said, forcing a smile.

“
Jess, this is Tracy, Tracy, Jess.”

The two women nodded and subtly looked each other over. "Tracy has her own agency in D
allas. We were just comparing notes on the housing market in our respective cities."

"So Zach," Tracy said, turning her attention back to him, "I have these tickets to the Cirque de Soleil tonight. Will you join me?"

Zach smiled at Tracy and Jess could sense the magnetic pull between them. She felt like an idiot. Embarrassed that she had come over when they were obviously in the middle of planning a date. She felt like a third wheel. A third
older
wheel.

"I...I thought I'd just come over to say hi," Jess
said quickly. "To see how you thought the work sessions were going. I've gotta go. Nice to meet you, Tracy." Jess turned and walked away without waiting for a response.

She had to get out of the hall and away from him. She knew she was overreacting but sh
e couldn't stop her emotions. Pushing the glass hotel doors open, she stepped outside, telling herself to calm down.

She'd been such a fool. Thinking she meant something to him when she was just another conquest. He probably had millions of women, probabl
y slept with all of them and of course, it meant nothing one way or the other. That line about his two year hiatus was probably just that. A line. She'd been a fool to expect it to be anything more.

She looked around, then walked over to the taxi stand an
d opened the door of a waiting yellow cab.

"Jess."

She turned around and found herself looking into Zach's pale eyes as they searched her face. "Where're you rushing off to?"

"I...I just..." She shrugged, not knowing what to say.

"Wanted to get outta there, huh?" He said with a more confident smile now. "I'm with you there. Pretty dull."

Jess tried to smile but couldn't quite manage it. She needed to get away from him. The last thing she wanted was his pity.

"Look, Jess, I was hoping, I mean, I know you might have other plans," he moved so close to her that she could smell his familiar musky scent. “I was hoping we could go out again tonight."

Jess looked up in shock. "But your friend, Tracy
––I thought..."

"I told her I had other plans tonight. I mean…
I hope I have other plans." He looked at her with a combination of such boyish shyness and brash charm that she involuntarily pushed her hair back behind her ear in girlish manner. "Yeah. Yes, absolutely,” she said. “I'd love to see you tonight."