Page 21 of An Inconvenient Marriage
Irritated with myself and with her, I pushed away from the table. The scratch of my chair across the wooden floor was enough to snap Natalie out of her moment with the flan. Unfortunately, that also meant I was now the target of her undivided attention.
And fuck, those blue eyes boring into me had my skin stretching way too tight over my bones.
“You’re leaving?” she asked.
“Yes.”
I didn’t want to stand there and make conversation, so I spun around and had every intention of heading to my office when Natalie called out, “Zach?”
The way my name rolled off her tongue was unsettling. My gaze zeroed in on her lips. They were pink and full and they were… moving. Was she speaking?
“What?” I ground out, a little harsher than I’d intended.
She blinked, then instantly averted her gaze and shrank back in her seat like a child being scolded. For reasons I didn’t fully understand, her reaction bugged the shit out of me. Before I had time to explore it, though, she shook her head so subtly I would have missed it if I hadn’t been staring at her. Straightening her spine, she turned those blue eyes on me again.
Her tongue darted out and slowly slid over her bottom lip. I couldn’t help myself, I followed the movement with laser-sharp focus, my own tongue tingling with a sudden desperate need to taste. To take. To claim.
Puta madre. Clearly, I needed a cold shower and some time alone. A warm willing body would have been preferable, but since the only warm body in the vicinity was that of my wife, my hand would have to do.
Her lips moved again, and I forced myself to listen.
“Would it be okay if I explored for a bit?”
Yes, please go. I need time to regain my damn sanity. “Sure.”
This time, I spun around and didn’t stop walking until I was far, far away from Natalie fucking Stevens.
8
Zach
Withacurse,Islammed the laptop shut and shoved it away from me.
If anything could reel back my thoughts from where they’d gone over dinner, it was work. At least that’s what I thought. But I’d sat in my office for the last hour and all I’d managed was answering one email to Sophie.
Pathetic.
And completely unacceptable.
I wasn’t the type of man who got distracted. Ever. And yet here I was… distracted. By Natalie of all people. She’d occupied most of my thoughts over the past sixty minutes. Hell, she’d been running around inside my mind for most of the night.
And it wasn’t just because I was deeply attracted to her on some messed-up level, it was because of the woman herself. She wasn’t at all what I’d expected her to be. Not even close.
I dragged the laptop closer and powered it up. Once I was in, I opened the search engine and typed in Natalie’s name. It didn’t surprise me too much when the first I saw were photos of our wedding.
Most of them were snapped at close range which only meant Trent had left nothing to chance and had either hired someone or took the snaps himself.
Neither of those would have been a shock to me.
I felt a pinch of guilt, though. This was how my brother had found out. I’d never considered how hard it must have been for him. The world might not have known who we were to each other, but that didn’t mean we weren’t close.
We spoke as often as our schedules allowed and made time to see each other.
I should have at least told him before he found out on his own. I could only hope by the time all of this was over, I hadn’t lost another piece of my family.
Pushing the thought aside, I shifted my attention back to the photos onscreen. None of them did Natalie any justice. She might have been wearing black, but holy shit, she was magnificent.
My gaze drifted over her dress, up to her face. Porcelain skin with flawless makeup, she was every bit the blushing bride she was supposed to be. Although… I leaned closer to the screen, and there it was.
