Free Celestial Desire by Abbie Zanders

he couldn’t tell her that. After having to deal with her ex, she’d probably be running fast and far if she had any clue just how strongly he was drawn to her. It was unnerving, even to him. So he sidestepped all that by answering, “I’m here, aren’t I?”
    She released the pent-up breath slowly, almost imperceptibly. The death grip on her clutch relaxed. “Yeah, you are.”
    Zane sipped his coffee, hiding the intense wave of relief that flooded through him. Crisis averted .
 
     

Chapter 8
 
    Mitch watched Zane in silence for the better part of an hour. His nephew was definitely up to something. There was a gleam in his eye, a sense of purpose to his movements that wasn’t there a few weeks ago. While he wouldn’t readily admit it, the older man had been worried when Zane first came to him a few months earlier. Despite the fact that Zane said all the right things, and did all the right things, Mitch knew he hadn’t completely come to terms with everything that had happened. Sometimes Mitch would catch him staring off into space with a look so haunted it sent a shiver down his spine. It wasn’t gone entirely these days, but was markedly less than it had been.
    “Should I be worried?” he asked dryly from behind his newspaper as Zane gulped down a cup of coffee and shoveled large spoons of whole-grain cereal into his mouth.
    Zane finished chewing, swallowed and grinned, looking every bit the devilish little boy Mitch remembered and feared had been lost forever. As concerned as he was for Celeste, he could not find it in himself to be sorry to see his nephew looking happy again. “Nope.”
    Mitch raised an eyebrow. “You sure?”
    “Yep.” Another infectious grin, and Mitch found his own lips quirking.
    “Seeing Celeste today?”
    “Uh-huh.” His blue eyes twinkled.
    Mitch lowered his newspaper and glared at his nephew, giving up all pretense of feigned indifference. “What are you up to, Zane?” he finally asked.
    Zane rinsed his bowl and coffee mug in the sink then placed both in the dishwasher. His grin widened as he grabbed his motorcycle helmet and wiped an imaginary speck of dust from the surface. “I’m going to help Celeste with her bucket list.”
    Mitch stared at the door as it closed with a snick in Zane’s wake.
 
    * * *
 
    Zane could barely contain himself as he made his way over to Celeste’s. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been so excited; it certainly hadn’t been any time in recent history and definitely never over something as simple as this.
    He couldn’t wait to see her face. He’d texted her earlier, so she was expecting him, but he had kept the details of his plan a secret. As far as Celeste knew, they were going to spend the rest of the morning at her place, the same way they usually did. Spending hours making love to Celeste and discovering new ways to make her squeal with pleasure was definitely a great way to pass the time but today, he had something else in mind.
    “Change into jeans and grab a jacket. Oh, and tie your hair back.”
    Celeste tilted her head inquisitively, forgetting the wireless router she’d been tweaking. “It’s eighty-two degrees outside. Why would I need a jacket and jeans?”
    “Because,” he said with exaggerated patience, taking the device from her hand and replacing it with a helmet. She looked at the shiny black headgear, then at Zane. She took in his jeans, black leather Harley Davidson boots, black T, and the leather jacket in his hand, and licked her lips. Then her eyes widened as realization dawned.
    “You have a motorcycle?”
    He grinned. “I have a motorcycle.”
 
    * * *
 
    “Quit squirming,” Zane commanded much later that night, splaying his large hand across her midsection to hold her down. He used the cotton swap in his other hand to carefully clean around the fresh piercing. “You’ve got to keep this clean or it’ll get infected.”
    When he was finished with that, he applied salve to the new