Zane (Alluring Indulgence) (7 page)

“If
you’re not doing your fucking nails, is this a book club or something? Why are
you two here? Shouldn’t you be out on a job somewhere?” Zane turned his
attention to the twins, leaning his forearms on the chair back.

“
Why
did the doctor clear you to come home?” Ethan asked as he walked in the
back door. “Or was it because they couldn’t take any more?”

“Probably.”
Zane grinned. Despite their constant ridicule, he sure had missed this shit.
“Where are Sawyer and Travis?”

“Sawyer’s
on his way,” Kaleb added, glancing down at his computer screen. “Trav had to go
to Dallas. He’s meeting with Luke and Logan again this week.”

“How’s
the resort coming along?” Considering the ground breaking ceremony was so long
ago, Zane had expected to see something happening with the construction, but
when Travis brought him home last night, he hadn’t seen much of anything, other
than some clearing of the land.

Apparently,
Travis had brought in an environmentalist to survey and find the best place for
the resort, that wouldn’t affect too much of the land. Zane wouldn’t have
thought his brother would’ve cared much about it, so he’d been a little taken
aback. Not that he didn’t agree, he just didn’t expect as much from Travis. His
brother was a hard ass, in so many ways. Had been for as long as Zane could
remember. The others had tried to tell him that Travis wasn’t always like that,
but Zane wasn’t much of a believer

“We
should see a lot more in the coming weeks,” Kaleb answered, turning away from
his computer.

“How’s
the wedding planning?”

“We’ve
set the date.” Kaleb grinned.

“Again?”
Zane knew that Kaleb and Zoey had pushed out their wedding until the beginning
of the year because he’d been in the hospital. It still irritated the shit out
of him that he was the reason they were delaying their momentous day, but no
amount of arguing with them had done any good.

“We
never were happy with the original date.”

His
brother was lying, but Zane smiled anyway. That’s what his brothers did. They
had each other’s back, no matter the reason. And, in this case, every one of
them stood beside Zane during a really touch and go point in his life. And now,
despite the little white lie, Zane didn’t fault Kaleb. “Bachelor party planned
yet?”

“Oh,
hell yeah!” Braydon stood, his restless energy palpable in the small room.
“Bren and I are handling that one.”

Oh,
hell
.
Zane laughed again, noticing how good it felt to be able to smile a real smile
for the first time in a long time. “You’re a brave man leaving your fate in
their hands.”

“You’re
telling me,” Kaleb groaned.

“That’s
ok. Wait till you hear what V’s got planned for Zoey’s bachelorette party.
We’re thinking Vegas!”

“Hell
no,” Kaleb barked. “No Vegas. I don’t trust you in Coyote Ridge, I damn sure
don’t trust you in Vegas.”

Braydon
and Brendon merely laughed at that and the look they passed to one another said
they didn’t much care what Kaleb wanted.

Zane
was pretty sure Vegas was in the cards.

♀♂

“I’ll
be so fucking happy when I don’t have to look at another one of these again,” V
hissed as she scrubbed the devil’s form of white porcelain hell. She’d rather
be anywhere than cleaning toilets on her knees.

Anywhere.

“Well,
only a couple more weeks and then we’ll be off to bigger and better things.”
Zoey laughed from behind her.

They
were doing the last bathroom at the Wilson’s house before they were finished
for the day and V couldn’t wait to be out of there for good. Two more weeks were
fourteen days too long as far as she was concerned.

The
prospect of working for the Walker brothers wasn’t high on her list of things
she wanted to accomplish in her life, but it beat scrubbing other people’s
messes. Admittedly, V hadn’t set a direct career path for herself, but she was
happy about the choices she had made thus far. She was supporting herself,
helping her mother when she could, and she got to spend every day with her best
friend. In her opinion, she couldn’t ask for much more than that.

Although,
the idea of working for the Walkers was a little intimidating, V had been
giving it some serious thought. When Zoey mentioned she was going to be closing
her small cleaning service, V had been worried at first. When her best friend
mentioned they’d be working for the resort, V had initially thought about
turning down the offer. She was glad she hadn’t jumped the gun too early on
that decision though. After some serious thought, she had come up with an idea
that she was actually excited about. When she mentioned it to Zoey a couple of
weeks ago, she was thrilled to know her best friend supported her in this
little venture.

Alluring
Indulgence Resort was going to rock their sleepy little town in more ways than
one. When she actually sat down and thought about it, the opportunity this place
presented made her head spin. With her sights set on managing the resort’s luxury
day spa, V knew she needed to take the next step toward securing the next phase
of her life, but she hadn’t yet presented the idea to Kaleb, Sawyer and Travis.

She
was working on it though. Well, at least she was mentally mapping out what she
was supposed to do next. With Zoey’s support, V knew she just needed to ask for
what she wanted. She wasn’t looking forward to having the conversation with the
oldest Walker brothers, but she knew if she wanted it, she was going to have to
go for it. Now she was just biding her time and trying to muster up a little
more backbone. They were an intimidating bunch.

“Are
we getting a drink after this?” V prayed they would be, or she might just burst
at the seams. Being only two days into the work week, for some reason this was
turning out to be one of the longest weeks of her life. She knew she probably
could thank Zane for that.

“Definitely.”
Zoey sounded as exasperated as V felt. It truly was getting difficult to get up
each day and clean houses when there were some substantial changes just around
the corner. Some changes that would alter the course of their lives, and the
lives of so many others.

Just
like the Walker brothers did.

V’s
mind drifted to the day before, and the way Zane had pinned her to the wall and
fucked her into oblivion. She hadn’t realized just how much her body had craved
his until the instant he touched her. How she had ever convinced herself that
the memories they had created before his attack would be enough to sustain her
for a lifetime, she would never know. Clearly she’d been delusional.

And
now Zane wanted to pursue this little affair for as long as it would last. V
didn’t have high hopes that it was going to last all that long because hell,
sex was sex. She might not have many compelling offers, but she knew, for a
fact, the Walker brothers didn’t spend many nights alone. The idea of Zane
attempting to change her mind about this being anything more was preposterous.
But she had to admit, she was looking forward to him trying.

Ok,
so maybe she had a change of heart – it was more like a real slight shift
actually – somewhere in the dark of night when she was lying awake, fearful of
every single noise she heard, every creak of her house, every brush of the tree
branches outside her window against the screen. At that point, V had been
willing to run to Zane if she thought it would do her any good. Sure, she was nervous,
timid even, but this was Zane Walker and she was undeniably affected by him.

Granted,
yesterday could’ve been a fluke as far as she was concerned. Hell, Zane hadn’t
been out of the hospital for two hours before she’d been competently persuaded
to give in to him. The man made her physically ache with his nearness.
Considering he hadn’t had sex in three months, she could almost believe that
she’d just been an easy way for him to rectify his celibate slump. Except V
didn’t
believe that. She wouldn’t have had sex with him if she had either.

For
the better part of the morning, V had been satisfied just thinking about what
happened between them last night. Now that the day was dwindling on, V was a
little disappointed that she hadn’t heard from him yet. But not enough for her
to try and reach out to him. There was still time left, so she held out hope.
Yes, that dreaded word that she shied away from was right there lingering at
the edge of her periphery.

He
probably was elbow-deep in an engine somewhere and totally oblivious to the time.
That’s what Zane did. He gave one hundred and fifty percent to everything he
did and everything else fell to the wayside except what he was working on.
Since she’d been privy to his undivided attention a time or two, V couldn’t
complain.

“Smiling,
huh?” Zoey stood just a few feet away staring down at her while V mindlessly
scrubbed. “I know it’s not the job that’s making you light up like that. Must
be Zane.”

Zoey
turned and walked off; successfully dodging the dry cloth V threw at her. She
had to agree with Zoey though. She hadn’t been smiling much lately, and that
was mostly because she still couldn’t get over what had happened to Zane that
day.

Just
last night, when she went home after leaving his house, she’d sat in her car
for a good fifteen minutes before she managed to walk to her front porch. She
wasn’t quite sure what was wrong with her, but whatever it was, it scared her
senseless.

When
she was finally finished with the bathroom and she had vacuumed the master
bedroom carpet, V met Zoey in the kitchen to find the woman on the phone,
looking all googly-eyed and dreamy.

V
didn’t need to eavesdrop on the conversation to know Zoey was talking to Kaleb.
She wasn’t sure how either of them managed to get anything done during the day
with as many times as they stopped to talk on the phone. They’d been together
for several months now, and yet they still acted like the relationship was new
for both of them. It was cute. And a little nauseating at times.

V
felt absolutely no ill will toward the couple though. She was more than happy
for her friend and the fact that she had finally found what she’d deserved from
the beginning. Kaleb Walker was one of the finest men V had ever known, and his
love for Zoey was apparent. It had been for a long, long time, although both
Zoey and Kaleb had been oblivious to it. Most of the people who knew them had
seen it, but the two of them had denied their physical attraction to one
another for years. Thankfully, they’d both found their way, and now they were
planning a wedding.

This
reminded, V... She was working on the bachelorette party.

Without
preamble, V began loading her things into Zoey’s truck while she waited for her
to finish her phone call. She’d heard plenty of “I love you” and “I miss you”
in the last couple of weeks that she didn’t need to hear any more.

By
the time Zoey was heading out of the house, V had loaded her things into the
bed of Zoey’s truck and was waiting patiently. Not that patience was one of her
virtues, but she was working on it. Probably had a lot to do with Zane’s attack
and the fact that there for about a week, they hadn’t known whether he would
make it or not.

The
thought still made her sick to her stomach.

“I’ve
got to go home and shower, but then I’ll pick you up and we’ll head over to
Moonshiners,” Zoey mumbled as she approached and at first V thought she was
still on the phone. When she looked up, she saw that her friend was, in fact,
talking to her.

“Sounds
like a plan.” Not that the idea of going home sounded appealing. Especially
considering V would actually have to go into the house, but it wasn’t like she
had much of a choice.

“How’re
the renovations on the house coming along?” V figured idle chit chat was the
only way to keep her mind off of going home, so she brought up the safest subject
she knew of.

“Fantastic.”
Zoey grinned from ear to ear as she settled behind the wheel and started the
engine. “With the sale of the land, I’ve got enough money to do some pretty significant
improvements to the house. If it weren’t for the age, we wouldn’t be looking at
so much money or change, but I think when they’re done, it’ll be totally worth
it.”

“When
will they be finished?” Completion of the work had been a precarious topic for
Zoey last week, although V hadn’t understood why. Considering she and Kaleb
were already shacking up at his place while the work was being done, V figured
there were other more important battles Zoey should be focused on.

“Now
they are telling us about three months. Kaleb talked to the general contractor
today, and he’s going to get a crew started this week.”

Since
Zoey’s father moved into the guest house that Zoey had originally been
occupying, the main house currently stood almost empty which seemed to make her
friend a little nervous. Zoey’s little bouts of frustration were few and far
between these days though, and V was just happy to see the smile on her friends
face. Zoey deserved all the happiness in the world as far as V was concerned.