Free Tempting Isabel (Paradise South #1) by Rissa Brahm

that was just way too close!” Zack’s hands were gripping the steering wheel with all he had. “Puerto Vallarta, damn it! I love her…but, really? I’d rather not be put away in a Mexican prison for vehicular manslaughter because they damn near encourage jaywalking! All those manicured grass dividers with a billion paths to death. They’re all along the highway lanes! And then add the insane cabs, ancient buses, random horses, and pizza scooters. Fuck!” he ranted.
    “That poor child,” Isabel said quietly and obviously ignoring his frustration, her eyes following the woman and baby, almost as if she was willing them to safety on the far side of the road.
    Zack smiled at her sweet side amidst their palpable heat. “Yeah, but who takes a baby out this late at night? Shit, never mind,” he said, pissed that his heightened blood flow was now diverted from his cock up to his racing heart because of his near heart attack from the close call.
    She stopped clutching the passenger seat for dear life, moved her hand back to his thigh, bringing him back to the present, and said, “So, I have a rule.”
    “Only one? Is it about jaywalking?”
    “No, actually. It’s a one-screw rule. It ups my game. I always put in my all,” she said jokingly. “And the rule has an obvious subsection: no relationships.”
    She was so serious all of a sudden. A different side to her, still sexy, but it threw him a little.
    “I like a woman with a strong work ethic,” he answered to part one of her comment. “But as for a relationship, I would hardly say a brunch counts. An innocent late morning meal between…friends, physically close friends, is nothing to fear, right?” he asked her as he turned into the portico of the Airington.
    The conversation paused there as Zack handed the valet his keys, and then went around the car to usher Isabel out, taking her hand, and keeping it in his grasp.
    The silence and lust between them was thick as he led her through the lobby and into the elevator.
    *
    The elevator doors slid shut.
    He pressed the penthouse floor.
    Then he pushed her sumptuous ass into the elevator handrail and ground into the center of her smooth mocha thighs. “But one thing you should fear,” he continued their car talk, “is an addictive sexual encounter with me.” He breathed into her right ear with an intentional tone of arrogance. He might have been a Jittery Jason when it came to casual conversation with this woman, but his usual stride was all there when it came to the topic of pleasuring the living daylights out of this woman.
    She played coy, not letting his desperately seeking mouth reach hers, and his lust magnified with every teasing twist of her head.
    The elevator stopped at the penthouse, and he let her feet down to the floor. They exited the elevator, and as they walked, his hand slid into place low on her hip. Then he gently pushed her in front of him, wanting to watch her walk, her buttocks swaying, calling to him. His gaze moved up her back stopping at his puzzle piece. He wanted so bad to outline it with the tip of his tongue, then down her spine, all the way down to her smooth, round ass, and then around to the front to what his fingers gleaned from the car ride was a freshly shaven mound. Heaven.
    He stuck his hotel key into the slit, and the door opened gracefully. Before entering, Isabel hesitated. “Hey.”
    “Hey, yourself.”
    She smiled, no eye contact. “Zack, just wanting to be clear. I like to keep it casual. I draw my line at one night. That’s really all we’ve got.”
    His eyes focused on her like lasers, not worried about her lines. Not worried at all. Because for all the self-assurance he lacked around this woman, he had an overwhelming amount of confidence in the undeniable fire ignited between them. That fire would turn any and all lines either of them dared to draw to fine, wind-strewn ash.
    “Got it.” And he escorted her into his suite and shut the door behind them.

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