Emma Darcy: The Blind-Date Bride

Her long throat moved in a convulsive little swallow. Dry-mouthed from the heat coursing through her? The low V-neckline of her dress pointed into the valley between her breasts, shadowed by the soft swell of lush feminine flesh on either side. He wanted to fill his hands with her, wanted to…

‘Coffee, anyone?’

The waiter deftly removed the emptied dessert plates as choices were made around the table.

‘Short black,’ Catherine said,

Strong and dark, Zack thought, which was how he wanted it, too. ‘The same for me.’

He didn’t hear what the others ordered. The waiter departed. Pete suggested they walk on down the hill to the Crowne Plaza after they’d finished their coffee, disco the rest of the night away. Livvy applauded the idea. Catherine smiled at her sister but said nothing, waiting for Zack’s reaction with no persuasion from her either way.

Hours of ear-blasting music and hot, sweaty dancing didn’t appeal to Zack. Nor did a long sexual tease with Catherine that promised without delivering. She had burned him enough tonight. If there was to be any action between them, it was now or never, he decided.

Her choice.

‘I hope you’ll all excuse me—you, particularly, Catherine…’ He offered her a rueful smile. ‘I wasn’t planning on a late night tonight. I have a car calling at seven-thirty in the morning to take me to the airport. I’ve enjoyed the evening very much but…’

‘You don’t want to be a total wreck tomorrow,’ she finished for him, smiling her understanding and with more than a hint of relief in her eyes.

Off the hook?

‘I won’t cut into your plan of action, Pete,’ he directed to his old friend. ‘I can call a taxi from here and the three of you can…’

‘No need for a taxi,’ Catherine cut in. ‘I can drive you back to Forresters Beach on my way home.’

Excitement zipped through his veins. Opportunity had just been opened up. Was it deliberate, decisive, or merely flirting with a chance she might take? ‘Thank you,’ he said, anticipation surging into a storm of desire at the thought of being alone with her.

She looked at her sister. ‘That’s okay with you, isn’t it, Livvy? Pete will bring you home after the disco?’

‘Absolutely,’ Pete agreed, happy to have Livvy to himself.

Her sister heaved a sigh and looked from Catherine to Zack, clearly exasperated by this abrupt end to their foursome. It wasn’t what she’d planned but the decision had already been taken out of her hands.

Zack smiled at her. ‘May I say it’s been a delight to meet you, Livvy. You and Pete have yourself a ball tonight.’

‘Hey! And wake me for a coffee with you before you leave in the morning, Zack,’ Pete demanded.

‘Will do.’

‘You don’t have to go home this early, Catherine,’ Livvy pressed, frowning at her sister. ‘It will only take ten minutes to drop Zack off at Forresters Beach…’

‘I don’t want you watching out for me at a disco,’ she stated firmly. ‘You and Pete should feel free to have fun together. It’s your birthday.’

And that might be the straight truth of it, Zack cautioned himself. Being at a disco without a partner, guys on a high trying to pick her up…he could well imagine a fight breaking out over Catherine Trent…and that could be extremely tiresome if she wasn’t in the mood to play. With anyone else but him.

Conviction fizzed through his mind. She need not have made the offer to drive him home. She could have waited until he’d left in a taxi, then made the decision not to go to the disco. This was not a safe play. The chance was on.

Catherine beamed her sister a flinty look that said enough was enough and there’d be no forcing her to circulate in a crowded disco where she might or might not hit it off with some guy. Impossible anyway after being with Zack Freeman all evening. Though her impulsive offer to drive him to Pete’s place now had her stomach churning.

The move protected her from being thrown at more men, which Livvy had obviously intended once Zack removed himself from the field of play. It also protected her from any argument over her decision to leave since giving her blind date a lift home was a perfectly reasonable and polite thing to do in return for his company tonight. But it did mean she’d be alone with him in her car and when they reached Forresters Beach.

Would she be safe with him?

Did she want to be safe with him?

Livvy’s resigned grimace set her free to do whatever she liked and Pete was obviously not troubled by their party being cut in half. He’d done what had been requested of him, supplying Zack for Livvy’s sister, and if the two of them went off together, that was fine by him. He had the woman he wanted still at his side.

The coffee arrived.

She hoped its hot bitterness would sober her up. Not from alcohol. She’d only drunk one glass of champagne. It was Zack Freeman’s affect on her that needed diluting down to something manageable. He was like a magnet, playing a tug-of-war with every female hormone in her body. Never in her life had she been made to feel so aware of her own sexuality, as well as a chaotic craving to experience his.

He had the most sinfully sexy eyes, teasing, challenging, flirting, knowing and constantly evaluating the response he drew from her. He made her laugh. He made her smile. He made her tingle all over. He was the intoxicant and not even the knowledge that he’d be gone tomorrow lessened the addictive power of his attraction.

‘So I get to have a ride in your car.’

She stopped sipping the coffee and looked up to answer him, her heart squeezing tight at the warm pleasure in his eyes. ‘A short ride,’ she said, reminding herself again of the brevity of this encounter.

One night…which was fast coming to an end.

‘An impractical self-indulgence,’ he drawled softly.

For a stomach-clenching moment, she thought he was referring to her decision to ride with him, whatever that might lead to between them. Then she realised he was repeating her own words about owning such a car.

‘You get wet if it rains before you can stop to get the hood on,’ she explained with a shrug.

‘But you don’t mind the wind in your hair.’

She smiled. ‘Nor the sun on my face.’

‘You like the feel of nature.’

‘Yes.’

He smiled. ‘An elemental woman.’

He made it sound intensely sensual, made her feel intensely sensual. She took refuge in sipping coffee again, trying not to wonder just how elemental he was and how he would look as nature had fashioned him.

The open-necked shirt had been tantalising her all throughout dinner, giving her a glimpse of tight black curls arrowing down his chest. His forearms weren’t hairy, their darkly tanned skin gleaming like oiled teak. She imagined his whole body would be mainly like that with a sprinkle of black springy curls in the most masculine places. The desire to know, to touch, conflicted terribly with the sensible course of simply wishing him well and waving him goodbye.

He wasn’t going to be in her life.

Except for this one night.

Pete paid the restaurant bill, insisting it was his party treat for Livvy. Everyone had drunk their coffee. It was time to go. Nervous tension gripped Catherine as Zack moved to hold her chair back for an easy rise from the table. She looked at the full moon as she stood up. Was this lust for him a madness that she would shake her head over tomorrow?

She didn’t understand it.

Was she raw and needful from Stuart’s most recent dalliance with another woman? But she wasn’t feeling any bitter hurt right now. It was as though all that was in a far distant place. Zack Freeman generated a physical immediacy that completely clouded anything else.