"Yeah, work," he agreed absently, noticeably swallowing as he ran hungry eyes over her body. Zoe licked her lips as she did the same, pausing at the very noticeable bulge in his pants.
"You should definitely go," she mumbled even as her body screamed for her to beg him to stay, but she wouldn't. Couldn't. This arrangement was about fulfilling their needs, not screwing with their lives. For the sake of both their lives and jobs they needed to stay focused.
He started to take a step in her direction only to stop and abruptly turn towards the kitchen island and grab his lunch pail on his way out the door.
"This was your only warning," he said gruffly, pausing at the kitchen door with Toby hot on his heels.
Frowning, she asked. "Only warning about what?"
Was he that worried about her feeding the dog his food? She knew the man loved food, but really one slice wasn't going to-
"Wearing underwear in the house, Zoe. Next time your ass is mine," he said, giving her a wink before heading out the door and causing her mouth to drop open.
"You're kidding, right?" she yelled, knowing that he was joking. The man couldn't be serious, she decided as she started cleaning up the mess so that she could get ready for work. There was no way he actually expected to go around the house sans panties, she decided with a soft laugh. That was just crazy.
Chapter 19
Why did everything hurt? Trevor wondered as he shut off his truck and sat there almost too afraid to move.
After working a twelve hour day he could expect some muscle soreness and a night with several ice packs, muscle gels and aspirin to look forward to, but this was ridiculous. Of course he knew the real reason behind his current state.
Zoe.
Never in his life had he taken a woman all night like that before and he probably would have continued to take her until he was forced to leave the bed for work if Zoe hadn't conked out on him around three this morning. After seven hours of the best sex of his life the hot shower and two hour nap he'd taken hadn't done a damn thing to help ease the soreness from muscles that he'd never noticed before.
Heaven help him, but having this arrangement with Zoe might just end up killing him. As much as it pained him to admit it, he was going to have to limit his time between the sheets with Zoe to once a day, at night, after a hot shower to relax, and he was going to have to keep it very simple. If he was going to remain in control she was going to have to lie on the bed, in the dark and not move a muscle or say one damn word.
It would either take him longer to work her out of his system this way or bore the living hell out of him enough that he was finally able to break whatever weird little spell the woman had over him so that his life could get back to normal. One thing was for sure, he thought as he climbed out of the truck, groaning, if they kept this up nothing would ever get done.
This morning when he felt how wet and ready she was he'd almost ripped her panties off and found out just how good a hot, wet woman really felt, but at the last second he somehow found the willpower to resist her. He couldn't help but chuckle at the reminder that a woman like Zoe, a woman who shouldn't have caught his attention never mind had him drooling, had this much power over him.
None of the other women he'd dated, not that he was dating Zoe, he wasn't, ever had this much control over him or distracted him this much. All day he'd had a hell of a time focusing on his job. Every time he started to think about Zoe, not sex with Zoe just Zoe, he forced himself to work harder to clear his head. When he found himself constantly looking over at the office trailer, hoping for a glimpse of Zoe, he punished himself by setting a brutal pace.
He needed to get this under control before it got out of hand. Sex with her was great and he'd like nothing more than to spend the day with her in bed, but he couldn't. This was an arrangement. Nothing more. He wasn't about to make his plain little tenant the center of his world. Right now she was just a tiny part of it and the sooner they treated it like any other part of the day the better, he decided as he walked up the small walkway to his house.
There were a hundred and one other things that needed his attention like a cold beer and the television after a hot shower and he intended to give them his full attention without the distraction of his little tenant. If later tonight he felt the need to make his little tenant a visit he would do just that. It would be quick and simple, like scratching an itch and then he'd be done with her for the night, at least as far as sex was concerned. He still liked listening to her read at night so he'd return to the comfort of his own bed, alone, and listen as she read. Then he'd get a nice relaxing night of sleep, Zoe free.
"Do you see it, Toby?" he heard Zoe ask as he stepped into his apartment. It sounded like she was in his kitchen. Probably putting away the groceries, he thought with a careless shrug. He'd leave it in her capable hands and get started on his relaxing night, he decided, heading up the stairs.
"Trevor is going to kill me when he finds out," she said, stopping him dead in his tracks.
He turned around and headed back down the stairs, praying she hadn't brought home another dog or worse, a cat. He couldn't stand the damn things. As he made his way to the kitchen he swore if she broke another one of his rules, the rules that she agreed to when she rented the place, he was going to spank her little ass, he thought with a small frustrated groan.
Wait, no ass spanking. Touching her ass only led to really naughty things that he was trying to cut back on, he reminded himself as he walked into the kitchen and nearly tripped over his feet at the sight that greeted him.
Groceries covered every surface of his kitchen, but that's not what got his attention, okay maybe for a moment, he was a Bradford after all. Zoe on her hands and knees in that knee length navy blue skirt that he swore she wore to drive him nuts today. Every time he saw her today he had to stop himself from grabbing her and hauling her behind his truck or a shed and yank that skirt up so that he could bury himself in her.
For a moment he watched as her ass swayed invitingly from side to side as she looked beneath his table for something. He could care less at the moment what she'd dropped. The only thing that concerned him right now was her lack of respect for his rules.
Sure he could let it go and stick to the plan he'd made not even ten minutes ago, but how would that help Zoe learn to follow and respect his rules? It wouldn't, he decided as he spotted the thirty count box of condoms left on his kitchen island near a box of cereal. He grabbed the box and ripped it open, startling Zoe, but not enough to get off her hands and knees or even look over her shoulder.