right ear and ended at the tips.
Training and instinct told him there were eleven people scattered around the room and all their gazes were on him now. He didn’t care. What he wanted was now in arm’s reach. All he had to do was touch her.
He spotted something out of the corner of his eye that sidetracked him, but not for long. The Service Club had obviously prepared the room for the meeting and whatever whim the members had tonight. A few sex toys had been laid out on an end table. He didn’t see anything really kinky, but the set of fuzz-covered handcuffs caught his eye.
Randy Pope stood closest to the table and apparently read Zane’s intentions in a glance. The man quietly snagged the cuffs off the table and brought them to Zane.
Zane nodded his thanks as he took them, then all his attention was back on Danica. He hooked the cuffs over his thumb, letting them dangle as he curled his fingers over her shoulders. He felt her shiver at his touch and smiled to himself. He enjoyed making a woman quiver and couldn’t wait to intensify the sensation for her.
He dragged his hands down her arms, letting the cuffs graze her flesh until his fingers closed around her wrists. She stiffened, not much, but enough that he knew her nerves were kicking into overtime.
“Relax. I’m not going to hurt you.” He grimaced. Damn it, he hadn’t meant to speak. After countless, seemingly endless nights spent talking on the phone in the last several weeks, she would surly recognize his voice.
“I don’t even know you.”
Despite her declaration, Zane felt her almost immediately start to obey. She hadn’t put two and two together yet. Maybe if he kept his words at barely above a whisper, the tone of his voice wouldn’t click before he wanted it to.
“Would it make it more difficult or easier if you did?” He tightened his grip on her wrists and guided them behind her back. Holding both in one of his hands, he used the other to ready the cuffs for her wrists.
“I’m not sure.” The tremble had moved to her voice now, each word spoken softly and shaking ever so slightly. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to take away one more sense they’ve left you.” Zane fastened the cuffs around her wrists, then danced the fingers of both hands back up her arms. “We get to touch.”
“While I just stand here?”
“And feel.” Zane glanced at Lowell again and caught a flash of approval move through the man’s eyes. He was taking a liberty with this one. This part, they hadn’t discussed. The inspiration had struck when he had spotted the cuffs on the table. If she was going to be as pissed as Lowell expected when she finally realized who they were, taking away her ability to throw a few good slaps their way until they could calm her was probably a safe idea.
“I can smell, too, you know?” Strength had returned to her voice, steadying her words.
Her trust baffled him. It was unconditional, complete. Despite the nerves she’d obviously been struggling with off and on since she had arrived, she apparently truly believed she was safe. It was exactly what he wanted. She was in a room surrounded by people she knew, people she thought of as friends. There might be two strangers in the room, but despite the sexual tension thickening the air, she obviously knew she was safe and believed they wouldn’t do anything to her she didn’t want.
“What do you smell?”
She hesitated for the span of several heartbeats, taking deep even breaths and letting them out slowly before she answered. “I smell you, your cologne. It has a musky scent and is just a little bit sweet.”
“Do you like it?” He moved closer, pressing his front to her back, and leaned over her shoulder just in time to see the small smile unfold on her luscious lips.
“I do. It’s masculine and very...sexy.”
Zane chuckled. “I’ll remember that.”
“I smell him, too. The guy in front of me. His cologne is a bit stronger with a woodsier