Page 55 of Reckless
His cock stirred at the sleep-edged memory of Zoe, with her panties in a pool of lace on the shadowy hallway floorboards as he’d knelt between her thighs until she’d screamed. With her throaty, honey-covered moans and her blond hair wild around her face, she’d been the picture of sexiness, and Alex blinked his eyes open, wanting to match the image in his mind’s eye with the sight of the woman who had fallen asleep next to him.
But his bed was empty.
Letting his eyes adjust to the sunlight spiraling in past the blinds, Alex scanned his room. The navy blue sheets and matching comforter were appropriately rumpled, albeit unoccupied. The pink top and faded jeans Zoe had worn to Bellyflop lay neatly folded on top of his dresser, in the exact spot she’d put them after retrieving them from the hallway last night. Soft, indistinct sounds filtered in through the doorless entryway to the alcove on the far wall of his bedroom, past the small, sunlit sitting area. Alex slipped from the bed covers and into a pair of basketball shorts, shaking off the last of his sleep as he padded toward the short pass-through leading to the master bath. The bathroom door was ajar just enough for him to catch the sound of running water and the strains of a crooked song being hummed by a familiar, velvety voice.
Alex knew propriety dictated that even though Zoe had left the door cracked open, he should knock. But with the toilet itself set off to the side of the en suite behind a separate door, chances were pretty high he wouldn’t catch Zoe terribly indisposed. Even though Alex knew he was skirting the boundaries of propriety, he nudged the door just far enough from the frame to take a quick peek inside.
Zoe stood in front of the far-side vanity, a toothbrush in one hand and a wide-open expression on her face. The L-shaped room gave him a good enough vantage point to see her without being noticed, and he used the opportunity to take her in from head to heels. The hair that had tangled around her shoulders last night in provocative waves now sat in a tidy knot at her crown. Her face had been scrubbed free of any makeup she’d had on, leaving behind a trail of light freckles over her nose and a pair of bow-shaped, pale pink lips. The dark blue tank top readingDo Not Disturband the pair of matching, ruffled short-shorts she’d slipped into offered Alex a flawless view of her decadent curves as she leaned in toward the mirror to brush her teeth.
A minute later, she paused in her humming to wipe a smudge of toothpaste from her lip with a washcloth, her eyes finally connecting with his in the mirror as he stepped farther into the room. Rather than jumping out of her skin or becoming self-conscious at his watching, though, Zoe’s face broke into a smile that took over her whole face, and all of his chest along with it.
Holy hell. He’d thought she’d been gorgeous last night, with her sexy moans and barely there lace panties. But standing here in her silly pajamas, smiling over at him through the honest, bright light of morning, Zoe Westin was the most stunning woman Alex had ever seen.
“Hey. You’re up.” She lowered the washcloth to the vanity, her bare heel squeaking softly against the ceramic tile as she turned to look at him.
If the current state of affairs in his shorts was any indication, her words could headline the understatement of the month club. “Mmm hmm.”
“I didn’t mean to go poking through your stuff,” Zoe said, biting her lip and dropping her gaze to the toothbrush still in her hand. “But I left my toiletry bag at home by accident. You had an extra toothbrush in the medicine cabinet, so…”
Alex cut her off gently with a shake of his head. “It’s fine. That’s what the extra is for.”
“You keep an extra toothbrush for all the women you seduce in your hallway?” Her retort arrived with a saucy tip of her lips, but Alex had already seen the sweet side tucked deep beneath her moxie.
He’d already had one. Now he wanted the other.
“Nope.” The tiles were cool against his feet as he took the handful of steps necessary to reach her. Plucking the toothbrush out of her hand, he turned toward the sink on the other end of the counter, placing it in the holder next to his before saying, “I bought it three days ago.”
Her lashes fanned upward in a honey-colored arc. “You did?”
“Sure.” Running his own toothbrush under a steady stream of water, he lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. They’d spent all of their nights together at Zoe’s apartment, but ending up here at some point had only been a matter of time. “I figured we’d stay here sooner or later.”
“The house is beautiful.” Zoe gestured to the ivory-tiled space around them, and Alex completed a quick but thorough scrub down of his teeth before answering.
“I had the master bedroom and the bath in here completely redone a couple of years after I graduated from college. I wish I could take credit for how the job turned out, but I kind of just let the contractor do his thing.”
Her expression softened, but she didn’t pull back from the subject. “Wanting to make the space your own makes sense.”
Alex nodded, his words coming easily enough to surprise the hell out of him. “My parents left me the house, and even though it was a tough choice, I decided to stay rather than sell. After that, it seemed disrespectful not to really live in the place.”
As if Zoe could sense that he didn’t want poor-baby sympathy, her lips curved into an honest smile. “So, does really living involve nice, long soaks over there? Because I have to tell you, that bathtub looks like heaven.”
“Ah, there’s another thing I let the contractor take charge of.” He followed her gaze to the oversized soaking tub on the wall to his right. “I’ve used it a few times after a really hard shift or a long day of rock climbing. But I’m not here enough to take full advantage on a regular basis.”
“That’s a travesty,” she said, a soft puff of laughter crossing her lips. “And here I thought you were all about seizing the moment.”
The earlier bolt of want in Alex’s blood charged back to life, running the length of his spine in a hard ripple before settling low and deep between his hips. He eliminated the space between him and Zoe in the span of time it took her to suck in an audible breath, pressing his palms to the granite vanity top to cage her tight against his body. Where last night had been fast, full of the thrill of the moment, right now he wanted to slow down, to explore every inch of Zoe’s sweeter side.
“So, tell me.” Alex dropped his mouth to the sliver of space just above Zoe’s ear, close enough to feel the heat radiating off her in a thousand places although he touched her in none. “Do you want to seize this moment?”
She pulled back just far enough to meet his eyes, the small of her back pressing flush against the vanity. “Yes.”
“And do you trust me?” He tightened his grip on the counter behind her, keeping his hands anchored in place even though every instinct he had screamed at him to touch her.
“Of course,” she said. Alex’s lips hovered over the sweet, pale expanse of her neck, his cock growing instantly hard at the rasp of her shaky breath and the brisk citrus scent of her hot, mostly bare skin. But when Zoe shifted forward to link her arms around his shoulders, he dodged back to capture her wrists, one in each hand.
“If you want to take this moment and really live, then let me show you how.”
Swinging Zoe around, Alex lowered her hands to the vanity top, pressing her palms against the cool granite before covering her fingers with his own. The good half foot he had on her in height gave him the perfect vantage point to see over her shoulder. The contact of their hands was their only connection until Zoe’s eyes met his in the mirror, and fuck, this was going to take every last ounce of his already questionable restraint.
