running off with a friend of yours.”
She’d told him about Judy?
All the wind left her lungs, and a different kind of burn seared through her stomach. She wished Mama hadn’t revealed to Zane her latest humiliation. She felt so exposed, so vulnerable. Did she have an ounce of pride left?
“You have every right to feel hurt, Jess. But don’t let what he did change the person that you are.”
“You think that’s what I’m doing?”
“Isn’t it? You changed your hair, wear your contacts all the time. You dress differently now. Don’t get me wrong. You look beautiful, sweetheart. But you were beautiful before.”
She shrugged. She found it hard to believe. It was a platitude, a cliché, a way to make her feel better about herself.
“I need the change.” Tears misted in her eyes. She really did. She needed to look at herself in the mirror and see a strong, independent woman who had style and confidence. She needed to see that transformation, more than anything else.
“I get that.” Zane took her into his arms and hugged her, as a friend now. She felt safe again, protected. And just being with him made her problems seem trivial. “But promise me one thing?”
“What?”
“Don’t try to find what you need with another man. Makes me crazy.”
Makes me crazy. Oh, wow. There was no mistaking what he meant. Not from the genuine pain she found in his eyes, or the intensity in his voice. “You mean like Dylan or Adam? I told you, they’re not—”
He shushed her with a kiss, right smack on the lips. Her body instantly reacted, and goose bumps rose on her arms.
“You make me crazy, too,” he rasped and began rolling the hem of her T-shirt up. With his coaxing, she raised her arms as he brought the wet garment over her head and her breasts jiggled back into place. Zane’s hot gaze touched her there and lingered, then traveled over the rest her body clad in a skimpy New Jess bikini. He made a loud noise from sucking oxygen into his lungs. “From now on, sweet Jess, I want to be the man you go to when you need something.”
“You mean, like my rebound guy?”
“Call it whatever you want, honey.”
Jess didn’t have to think twice. Zane just abolished all deprecating thoughts she’d had about herself and totally wiped out any pain she’d felt about Steven. Even her pride was restored somewhat. The Steven ship had sailed, and she wasn’t going to waste another second thinking of him. Not when she had Zane offering her the moon.
He was a real man.
If she had any doubts before about her feelings for him, they were banished the second she’d thought he was drowning. She’d rushed in to save him, praying that God wouldn’t take him from her. And she wasn’t going to feel bad about it or apologize to anyone. Forbidden or not, she wanted him.
“I promise.”
He hooked his fingers with hers. “Your room or mine?”
“Neither,” she said. Her confidence soaring and her heart melting, she let go of every inhibition she’d ever had. “I think we need a hot, steamy shower to warm up, don’t you?”
“As long as I get to peel this bikini off you, you’ve got yourself a deal.”
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