“True forensic cases,” she answered breathlessly, her eyes unable to stay away from his muscular bare chest.
Zane might amuse her at times, but mostly, he made her entire body ache to get closer to him. He looked perfectly comfortable dressed in only a pair of flannel pajama bottoms. Ellie was fairly certain no guy looked as edible as Zane right now. His hair was artfully mussed, like he just crawled out of bed, which he had. But no man should look that good with bedhead. She thought it was completely unfair.
Ellie combed her fingers through her hair, knowing she had errant locks sticking out all over the place. Between that and a highly unsexy pair of Tinker Bell pajamas she had tugged on at bedtime, she was pretty sure she looked downright scary.
Strangely, Zane didn’t seem to notice or care if she was a mess.
She snuck a sideways look at him, but he was focusing on the show now, one of his brows rising in the adorable way that happened when he was concentrating.
“You’re right,” Zane said as he shoved more food in his mouth, and then reached for her soda on the table and took a slug. “It’s not the husband.”
Ellie relaxed and leaned her back against the couch. “I know I’m right.” She reached out and grabbed her soda. “He didn’t have any reason to kill her.”
Zane shook his head. “It’s not just that. The forensic evidence doesn’t implicate him. They need to move on and look for the real killer.”
Ellie reached for a chip as she answered, “They will. But they always seem to need to clear the husband or boyfriend first on this show.”
“You mean there are more of these types of programs?” he asked curiously.
Ellie laughed. “Tons of them, and I’ve watched them all. I’m an addict. I’ve slowly been catching up on the episodes I missed.”
Getting comfortable, Zane sat through two more episodes, the two of them bantering back and forth about who committed the featured crime. Ellie was right both times, but he agreed with her in both episodes.
As the second show ended, Ellie stood up and took the empty bowl and soda can to the kitchen. After flipping off the television, Zane followed.
“Are you going to be okay now?” he asked quietly as he leaned a hip against the kitchen counter.
“I’ll be fine. It’s not the first time I’ve had a forensic marathon when I couldn’t sleep,” she confessed, smiling at him.
“Why didn’t you wake me? I would have sat with you before tonight. You don’t need to be alone.”
Ellie shook her head. “I didn’t want to disturb you. It’s my strange little issue. I eventually go back to bed.”
Truthfully, there had been nothing she wanted more than Zane’s company on those sleepless nights, but it was safer for her to just sit it out alone. He was her boss now, and she needed her job. Somehow, she needed to get over her desire to climb up his ripped body like a mountaineer and ride him hard on the way back down.
“Next time…wake me up,” he demanded, slowly backing her against the kitchen counter.
His body surged into hers, and Ellie could barely crane her head back enough to look at him. “Why?” she asked simply.
“Because I’ll try to make you forget all your bad dreams.”
“How?”
Zane’s eyes flashed like molten silver, making Ellie’s heart start to gallop.
Kiss me. Please kiss me.
She’d yearned to have him devour her like he had the day he’d brought her home. Only now, she never wanted him to stop. She’d become so connected to him in every way but the physical, and she yearned for that, too.
He leaned down, so close that she could feel his warm breath on the side of her face, his breathing so fast and harsh she could actually hear him.
“Fuck! I can’t do this!” Zane growled as he smashed his fist against the counter beside her. “You need a friend right now. The last thing you need is a man who wants to fuck you so damn much that his balls are blue.”
Ellie wrapped her arms around his neck as he went to pull back from her, stunned by Zane’s confession. “You want…me?”
He nodded slowly. “I don’t want to want you, but damned if I don’t. I shouldn’t want you because you’re my friend, now my employee, and you’re healing from an emotional trauma most people can’t even understand. I can keep bullshitting myself forever, but I can’t change what is and probably always will be. I can’t rationalize it or make it make sense. But I want to bury my cock inside you and lose myself in that pleasure more than I want to take another breath.” He speared a hand into her hair and fisted some of the locks. “I want to hear your moans of pleasure; hear you scream my name when you come. I want to be the next man to fuck you until you don’t even know your own name.”
His voice was dangerously graveled and rough, as though every word he spoke was being dragged from some deep cavern inside him. Ellie shivered as he pushed his hard body against hers, the feel of his engorged cock brushing against her pelvis. “You’d be the only man,” she whispered softly, right before Zane swooped down and captured her mouth with his.
He plundered her mouth like she was his sustenance and he was starving. Ellie felt her core clench as their tongues tangled together, both of them desperately trying to get closer. As she tangled her hands in his hair, she struggled for breath as Zane nibbled on her bottom lips before soothing it with his mouth again.
“I want you, too,” Ellie confessed as she buried her face in his neck, nearly sobbing as she inhaled Zane’s masculine scent. “So much it hurts.”