Zane (Alluring Indulgence) Read Online Free PDF Page B

in those heels, he still had to look down at her,
and when she hit him with those whiskey brown eyes, some of his anger subsided.
    “No,
baby. None of it was your fault. You couldn’t have predicted what that fucker
would do.” He kept his tone low and even as best he could.
    Truth
be told, Zane should’ve been smarter. He should have known after Jake jumped
him at Moonshiners that the man was rapidly losing touch with reality. Maybe it
was because Zane had knocked his ego down a notch the day Jake had insulted V,
or maybe Jake was just a loose cannon, bound to explode at any time. Either
way, Zane should’ve been prepared.
    Instead,
he’d let down his guard some.
    “He
was waiting for you. At my house . Why don’t you understand this?”
    “Understand what ?” He took a step back. “You weren’t even at the bar when he jumped
me there, were you? So I’m not sure how you get to blame yourself for any of
this.”
    “No,
I wasn’t. But if it weren’t for what happened at Anderson Croft’s, none of this
would be happening. And in case you forgot that all started because of me.”
    True.
V had a point there. The whole thing started that day, but besides her accuracy
on the timing, her logic didn’t make any damn sense. Regardless, talking to her
was useless because she had since made up her mind. The only thing he could do
now was to try and change it.
     “You
couldn’t control what Jake was going to do, baby, any more than you can control
whatever this is between us.”
    Zane
hadn’t expected to say the last part, but somehow the words had slipped out.
The woman was a distraction, one that kept him away from some of the darker,
gloomier thoughts and he welcomed that into his life. He’d gotten attached to
her, and he wasn’t ready to let go even if she resorted to trying to convince
him otherwise. Which he knew she was going to do.
    Zane
didn’t have it in him to give up, and no matter how hard she tried to push him
away, he wasn’t going to budge.
    Not
this time.
    “Zane,”
V choked a sob back, “I can’t do this anymore.”
    Well,
that wasn’t what he wanted to hear, even if he had expected it. In fact, it was
a long time coming because he had been anticipating this conversation ever
since the day he went to pick her up to take her to the groundbreaking
ceremony. She’d been alluding to the fact that she didn’t want to see him
anymore, but Zane didn’t believe her then.
    He
still didn’t believe her now.
    “What can’t you do?” He needed to hear her say the words. He wasn’t sure she could
actually say them.
    “This.”
She wiggled one hand back and forth between them, referencing the two of them.
    “You can do this.”
    “I’m
not talking about sex, Zane,” V huffed, backing up another step, her hands
going to her hips, her eyes blazing with frustration and what he sensed was
anger. “Fucking you has never been the problem.”
    Fucking
him?
    Zane’s
body hardened at the same time something else took root deep in his soul.
Something that told him whatever this was between them wasn’t just about sex.
Even if V wanted to believe that.
    “Then
what’s the problem?” He was getting irritated now. “Are you scared, V? Scared
that fucking me might turn into something more?” Taunting her, he
continued, “Scared that I might just be able to get past that impenetrable
outer shell?”
    “No!”
V stormed away, presenting Zane with her back.
    “That’s
what it sounds like to me, baby. Sounds like you can’t handle fucking me
because you’re scared there might be something more between us.”
    There
already was, but Zane didn’t say that out loud. He knew how far he could push
her.
    “You’re
delusional, Zane Walker. Maybe you should go back to the hospital. I think the
doctors might’ve overlooked the severity of your brain damage.” V turned
abruptly to face him again.
    Zane
laughed, and that earned him a death glare. God she was so damned bewitching
when she looked at