Dirty Little Lies: A Men of Summer Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

him wonder at the decision to hide who he was, what he was from her all these years.
    She didn’t think he could protect her. That thought ran through his mind on repeat, infuriating him with each pass.
    It was a dare.
    A challenge.
    He’d never imagined Grace would have the nerve to step that close to the danger zone where he was concerned. Few people did, male or female.
    Lust, anger, fear for her. They all collided then, wrapped around him, and broke the restraints he kept on the inner demons trapped inside. That darkness, that hunger he’d denied himself, and the aura of nonthreatening courtesy he was always careful to maintain.
    In that second, they were gone, and a part of him wondered if he’d ever recover from it.
    “Then I’ll make it my fucking fight, how’s that one?” He moved before she could anticipate it, one hand sliding into the back of her hair, the other gripping her hip while he loomed over her, pressing her back to her pillow.
    Before she could utter a cry or so much as whimper, his lips covered hers, and in that second, he realized why he’d stayed away from Grace Maddox.
    Zack didn’t ask for the kiss; he didn’t warn her first.
    He owned the kiss.
    His lips mastered hers. His tongue slipped past, parting hers in surprise. Then his lips slanted over hers, and it was nothing like what Grace had imagined this first kiss would be.
    It was better.
    It was hotter.
    It completely consumed her senses and shot to hell any preconceived notions she might have had about Zack as a lover and the pleasure he could give her.
    He mastered her senses with his kiss, stole reason and resistance before he pushed his hand beneath the blanket to the sweet flesh hidden there. His fingers slid into rich, heavy dew and swollen folds of flesh as the heel of his palm pressed into the engorged bud of her clit.
    And right there, between one heartbeat and the next, she cried out into his kiss, her body bowing, moisture rushing over his fingers as sweet, quiet little Grace came in his hand with a strength and desperate hunger like nothing he’d known in his life.
    In that moment, Zack knew that this woman was the greatest weakness a man could possess. Especially a man who didn’t dare allow weakness into his life.

 
    chapter three
    Now what?
    Stepping into Vince Maddox’s office nearly thirty minutes later, Zack felt that punch of the inevitable still ricocheting through his senses. The second Grace exploded like dynamite in his hands, he’d known he was in more trouble than he ever imagined he could be. And he’d imagined quite a bit of trouble where she was concerned.
    And she was madder than hell at him.
    The thought of her flushed face, anger gleaming amid the pleasure sparking her eyes, had left him wanting nothing more than to feel her coming for him again.
    Damn, she made him hot. It had taken everything he had to pull back—to keep from crawling over her, tearing his jeans from his hips, and pushing inside the sleek, wet depths of her. As she’d climaxed, her nails had dug into his shoulders, her body bowing, pushing closer to him, unconsciously seeking more, searching for every second of pleasure to be found.
    “’Bout time you showed up,” Cord growled from where he sat in a heavy leather chair next to his father’s desk. His brothers, twins Deacon and Sawyer, sat on the other side, sprawled in matching chairs as they glared back at him.
    “Call Jazz and Slade off,” Vinny demanded as soon as the door closed behind Zack. “Those two are like a coupla junkyard dogs.”
    With an arch of his brow, Zack took a seat in the leather sofa facing the desk. “What are they doing?” he drawled, knowing damned good and well what they were doing.
    Vinny leaned forward, propping his elbows on his desk, his dark green eyes shadowed with grief and the knowledge that his wife had been murdered by her own sister, his own daughter nearly killed more than once by the same woman.
    The past two months hadn’t been