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“And where is that?” I asked, following along behind him.

Zach opened the driver side door and turned to look at me. “We’re taking a road trip,” he exclaimed happily. His good mood and smile were infectious, and I felt my own lips lifting as I went around the front of the truck and climbed in. By the time we pulled onto the main road outside the lake, the weight of my earlier thoughts had disappeared and was replaced with excitement over getting to spend more time with Zach.

“So, are we ditching work and going on a joyride, or do you have an actual destination in mind?” I teased. Zach laughed beside me. He rolled his window down and the smell of his shampoo hit my nose as the wind whipped through his silky tresses. I tried not to make it obvious as I took a deep breath.

“We’re heading to Michigan. There’s a supplier there that Edith uses whenever she needs more fish. We have to stock the lake for this weekend,” Zach explained.

“You mean the fish don’t replenish the supply, naturally?” I asked, wrinkling my brow.

Zach laughed. “They do, but not fast enough and, of course, a lot of the baby fish get eaten up by the larger fish.”

“That makes sense,” I said. “I never realized before I started working at the lake just how little I knew about fish and fishing.”

Zach laughed. “Don’t feel bad; neither did I. Edith taught me everything I needed to know to work there.”

“So, what did you do before you started working at the lake?” I asked. If I hadn’t already been watching him, I might have missed the subtle tensing of his shoulders or the clenching of his jaw and I wondered if he’d answer me or change the subject instead.

“I moved around a lot, working odd jobs,” he answered stiffly.

“Let me guess. Pole dancer? Stripper? Porn star?” I teased. I could tell that the subject had made him uncomfortable and I wanted to bring back his good mood from earlier. It worked, because he started to laugh.

“Out of all the jobs in the world, what in the hell would make you think I’d done any of those?” he asked, shooting me an incredulous look.

“Are you kidding me? With a body like that, you would’ve made a fortune.” I made a show of looking him up and down. He swallowed hard and turned his attention back to the road, but not before I saw a beautiful blush creep over his cheeks and the hint of a smile on his lips.

“You’re the one with the hot body,” he said quietly.

It shocked the hell out of me that he was actually flirting with me, but I was excited to see that new side of him. It let me know for sure that I hadn’t been reading the situation wrong. He was obviously as attracted to me as I was to him. He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, trying to judge my reaction.

“I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s been looking,” I responded with a smirk.

“You’re not,” he said as he pulled up to a stop sign. He turned to face me then and his eyes traveled slowly over my body, leaving my skin feeling like it was on fire. “Definitely not.”

My heart hammered in my chest and my blood felt like lava as it pumped through my veins. He turned to face the road again and I let out the breath I’d been holding. I tried to be discreet as I adjusted my stiffening cock inside my jeans, but the low chuckle I heard coming from him told me that he’d caught the movement.

We got on the interstate and drove about a couple of hours before we stopped for some food. We kept our conversation light, but there was an undercurrent of electricity between us that hadn’t been there before. As we got back on the interstate to continue on to Indiana, Zach spoke up.

“Busboy, janitor, road crew, and one of those fancy car washes,” he said.

“What?” I asked.

He shrugged his shoulders casually, but I could see the tense set to his eyes. “You asked what I did before I started working at the lake.”

My heart pounded in my chest. To anyone else, it would’ve been just a casual conversation between two friends, but to me, it was huge. It was the first time that Zach had offered me any kind of personal information about his past. And he’d done it voluntarily. I hadn’t pushed him or coerced him into telling me anything, he’d chosen to because he was beginning to trust me. I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry at the situation, but I kept my face neutral like it was no big deal.

“Which one was your favorite?” I asked him. He let out a long breath and I could see him starting to relax again.

“I’m not sure I really cared for any of them which is part of the reason I switched jobs so much,” he answered. “But I guess working on the road crew wasn’t so bad. It kept me busy and the pay was good.”

“If you could have your dream job, what would it be?” I turned in my seat and leaned my back against the door, so I could watch him.

Zach looked at me and then back at the road. “I always wanted to go to school to be an EMT,” he said.

“Really? What made you want to do that?” I asked curiously.

He swallowed hard. “My mom OD’d when I was a kid. I watched them working on her, trying everything they could to save her. I thought they were amazing, and ever since then, I wanted to do that.”

“Did they? Save her, I mean,” I posed the question as gently as possible, but I could still see the pain in his eyes as he shook his head no.

“She was gone, but they still tried. Maybe because I was standing there, I don’t know,” he shrugged.

The ache in my chest was something new. I’d never felt so much pain for someone else, but seeing Zach hurting actually caused my heart to hurt. Without thinking, I reached over and took his hand. He stiffened at first and I kept my hand loose, giving him the option if he wanted to pull away, but after a few seconds, I felt him tighten his grip, just a fraction. We stayed that way, with his hand in mine, the rest of the drive. I stared out my window, trying to figure out what was happening to me.

I was no stranger to developing bonds with other people, after all, I’d been very close with my mom and I’d even had the occasional boyfriend before. The men I’d served with in the Air Force and the guys I worked with at Hamilton Security were like brothers to me. I trusted each of them with my life and they trusted me with theirs. Yet, sitting in that truck, holding Zach’s hand, was the most connected I’d ever felt to another human being.

What had started out as a simple attraction was quickly becoming more, at least for me. How much more, I couldn’t say. Logically, I knew that getting involved with Zach was reckless, but I was also helpless to stop it. I still didn’t know why Micah wanted him brought to Chicago, if he was in fact Zane. For all I knew, he could be wanted by the police, possibly as a hacker or a drug dealer, although my instincts told me that he wasn’t a criminal.

Regardless of all the unknowns, two things were perfectly clear; the man sitting beside me affected me more than anyone I’d ever met in my life and reckless or not, I wanted to get to know him better.

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