Page 106 of Offside Devil

The embarrassing thing is that I’d probably accept that apology.

Zane draws out of me and finds our clothes on the floor. He hands me my dress and tugs on his jeans, all while I’m panty-less and spiraling on the counter.

Finally, he stands in front of me and holds out his hand.

I stare at it. “What is that?”

“My hand,” he says flatly. “One of several body parts I just had inside of you.”

Even after everything we just did, I blush. “I know, but what are you doing with it now?”

He forces his hand into mine. “We’re starting fresh.”

“Like, starting over?” Panic claws up my throat. “You want to forget what we just did?”

“That would be physically impossible. I plan to come to the memory of this night for a long, long time.”

He’s making me feel special. Like he hasn’t had a thousand different women in a thousand different positions.

Zane is almost making me feel like this meant something to him.

“So, why do you want to start over?”

He drops my hand and drags his through his hair. “I want to pretend that we did this in that bathroom the first day we met, like we both wanted to.” He fixes me with a look that tells me there is no point arguing, so I don’t. “Maybe then the last couple weeks of sexual tension wouldn’t have happened and we could have… fuck, I don’t know… cohabitated better.”

My thighs are still shaking, but I squeeze them together. “So, now that we got that out of our systems, you think we can move forward and be professional?”

I try to picture what it would be like to live in this house and not be able to touch Zane now that I know what touching him feels like.

Torture.

I’d rather forget about the money and run penniless into the night.

“I don’t think there’s any way I’ll ever be professional with you,” Zane admits, his throat bobbing. “I don’t know how this thing between us is supposed to work, but we need to try to figure it out. For Aiden.”

“For Aiden,” I repeat. “Right. Of course.”

“Instead of fighting and not talking for days, maybe we can work our frustrations out in other ways.”

I raise both brows. “You want me to be your nanny with benefits? That’s a little cliché, don’t you think?”

He slides closer to me and walks his fingers slowly up my leg. Goosebumps trail in his wake. “There is nothing cliché about what we just did. Which is why I think we should do it more. And often.”

I chew on my lower lip, trying to decide how I tell Zane I can’t fuck him anymore because my feelings might get hurt.

“There’s a lot going on right now. With CPS dropping in for visits, Aiden starting school, hockey. I don’t want to do anything to mess that up for you.”

“This is the clearest my head has been in weeks,” he says. “Plus, it’ll be good for our ruse. We need to be on the same page if we’re going to convince CPS that I’m a family man now. That’ll be easier if we’re on good terms. So be a good girl and say yes.”

There’s a twinkle of mischief in his eyes. Like he knows that he’s toeing the line by talking to me like that, pushing me like that, having his way with me like that.

And there’s a twinkle that says he knows the answer I’m going to give before it even leaves my lips.

“Okay,” I whisper hoarsely, still rippling with the oozy, melty goodness of post-sex hormones. “Yes.”

42

ZANE

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