Spin (The Indigo Lounge Series) (17 page)

“Nope. We both thought it was a joke at the time, remember? I mean, what would a multi-billion dollar organization have to gain from offering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity like this?”

“Maybe Zachary Savage doesn’t want the world to think he’s just a super-rich dick?”

“Why should a guy who doesn’t give personal interviews and is practically a recluse care what the world thinks of him?” Bethany asked.

“Jeez, I don’t know. But let’s not stare this gift heifer in the mouth.” She pointed the edge of the envelope at Bethany. “This invitation has fallen into your lap and you. Are. Going.”

Bethany pressed her lips together to stop the torrent of objections rising inside her. On the one hand, she was thrilled—beyond thrilled. On the other, her self-confidence had taken a severe blow six months earlier when her long-term boyfriend had left her...for another man. Her shock at Chris’s double betrayal still hadn’t worn off. More and more lately, she was beginning to wonder if it would ever wear off.

“What else does it say?” she asked to distract both herself and Keely from the reasons why taking this step felt so very daunting.

Keely glanced down at the envelope. “The usual disclaimers—total, unwavering confidentiality or you lose both kidneys, no drugs on board the jets...no drugs on board the jets...no drugs on board the jets or you’ll be prosecuted...jeez, they really hammer the ‘no drugs’ things home.”

“Maybe someone had a bad experience with drugs on board?”

“Hmm...they have twenty-four hour entertainment on board, but the private suites are private. Fuck, if you come back and tell me you never left your suite, I’ll kill you.” Keely glared at her.

“I haven’t agreed I’m going yet, Keel.”

Her best friend sighed and dropped the envelope. “Listen. I know why you don’t want to go. Chris-the-A-hole did a real number on you with that I-prefer-men thing, I get that. Hell, it didn’t even happen to me and I was fucking traumatized. But you need to move on, baby girl. You’ve worn out six vibrators in the last six months and God knows how many more dildos, and those are the ones you’ve told me about—”

“Keely!”

“You’ll break your goddamn clit if you don’t stop using battery powered gadgets on it and believe me, you need your clit for when a real man comes along. Seriously, can you tell me you don’t miss the real thing? A warm body against yours, a hard cock inside you?”

Heat suffused Bethany’s face and she sagged onto the sofa. “Okay, fine I do but—”

“No buts.”

“Yes, buts! For fuck’s sake, Keely. The last hard cock I had inside me decided it preferred anal with other men. It is any wonder I have a goddamn complex?”

Keely’s green eyes gentled in sympathy. “Of course not.”

“Those are stories we read in trashy magazines and laugh ourselves hoarse. Do you know how it feels to know I’m suddenly
that
girl? The one who couldn’t keep her man happy enough, so he jumped into bed with another man?” Even after all this time, just saying the words made her stomach turn over with pain, anger and disgust.

Slowly, Keely shook her head, but then she got the look in her eye. The look that said,
I love you but...
“No, I don’t know how it feels, honey, but neither am I going to let you hide away forever because of what that asshole did. What better way to get over it than to open yourself to new experiences? You go, you have a sizzling, no-strings-attached hook up in the lap of pure luxury, and you come back and move on with your life. Bethany, the Indigo Lounge couldn’t be more perfect for you right now.”

“It’s not that easy...”

“Yes, it is. You need to get your ex out of your system, and a flying sex palace is just the way you’re going to do it. You really should give up trying to fight me because I’m not letting you chicken out of this, B. It’s time to step back into the real world.” She picked up her dish and sat back, chopsticks poised. “Now eat up, you’ll need your strength to keep up with the to-do list I’ve drawn up for you.”

***

S
unday dawned bright and sunny over New York.

Bethany lay in bed, her whole body alert and tingling with an excitement she hadn’t felt in a long time. It would’ve been the perfect time for a session with her Rabbit but Keely had confiscated each and every pleasure-giving gadget before her diva exit last night.

When Bethany had begged, she’d produced a brand new, hermetically sealed one, which was now stashed in one of the two large weekenders at the foot of her bed.

“You’re not allowed to open it until after a full day on board the jet and only in case of emergency. And if you bring it back unopened, I’ll love you forever.”

Heaving a sigh of regret at the loss of Dildo Pete, Bethany got out of bed and jumped into the shower.

Twenty minutes later, Keely’s super aggressive revving of Bethany’s beloved Mini Cooper, Hermione, made her wince.

“Please promise me you’ll go easy on Herm while I’m away?”

“It’s just a car, B.”

They argued all the way to Newark Airport about Keely’s shoddy treatment of Hermione, but both fell silent when they drove into the private jet area of the airport.

The Indigo Lounge jet was immediately recognizable. The immense, gleaming black super jumbo jet with two thin lines of indigo running from nose to tail screamed its dominance over the smaller, lighter-colored planes.

Keely slowed as they gaped at the jet. “Color me sludge-green with envy. Remember you owe me one. I could’ve had Clark reciting the Fibonacci sequence to me while I fucked the living shit out of him Friday night
and
last night. Now all I have is nerd porn for company while I imagine you living it up on that jet. At least promise me you’ll have wild fun?”

The look in Keely’s eyes was a cross between that of a worried sister and a stern schoolteacher. She brought the car to a stop in front of a glass and steel building that had “The Indigo Lounge—Executive Guest Suite” over the doorway.

Bethany nodded. “I can’t promise it’ll be wild, but I’ll have fun.” She tagged on a smile and saw Keely relax a little—if it were possible for someone as high-strung as Keely to relax.

“Great, now...shoo!” Keely made accompanying gestures.

Bethany opened the door, stepped onto the hot asphalt, and smiled.

As she reached into the back where her bags were stashed, a gust of wind blew out of nowhere, lifting the skirt of her dress.

A low whistle sounded. “
Christ
, check out those legs.”

Grabbing her bags, she turned to see three, good-looking guys, dressed like they knew their way around the style section of a grooming magazine.

She heard Keely’s satisfied laugh. “You’re off to a great start, I see.” Taking her sunglasses off her head, Keely jammed them on her face. “
Adios, amiga
.”

Bethany had just enough time to slam the door before Keely accelerated away in a squeal of tires. Poor Hermione was in for a hammering. Trying not to wince at the fate of her car, she turned toward the Indigo Lounge office.

The men were disappearing into the glass building. She followed slowly, her pulse thundering at the knowledge that she was stepping over an unknown threshold. She glanced back at the huge black and indigo jet, a feeling of mingled apprehension and excitement shivering through her.

The opportunity of a lifetime.

She could shy away from it; from the possibilities of letting go and having...
FUN
. Or she could embrace it in the hope that the experience would help her banish the pain of the past few months once and for all.

Chapter Two

Zachary Savage looked up from the papers he was perusing and watched three men enter the Executive Guest Suite.

From his position behind the glass wall of the mezzanine floor office he’d commandeered from his assistant, he tracked them with narrow-eyed attention.

The lead member of the rock band Friday’s Child was immediately recognizable. Back in what felt like another life, Zachary had attended a couple of their gigs. But that was before everything had gone to hell.

As usual, any thoughts of how his life had changed over the past six years made his jaw clench with anger and sorrow.

If he’d known that this stopover would clash with one of his Indigo Lounge flights, he’d have made other arrangements and placed himself very far away from harsh reminders of the past.

What the hell, he was here now.

That he normally did the guest vetting from the comfort of his San Francisco home office, was neither here nor there. The stopover from London to refuel his jet was taking longer than expected. Working while he waited helped contain the restlessness that continued to prowl inside him.

He tried to get his brain back to work mode. So far he’d gone through the info on all the passengers boarding his plane except one.

As far as he’d been able to determine, the band members were clean. No evidence of drug use or excessive drinking. The other six parties travelling on this Indigo Lounge experience had been equally vetted. He tracked the band members to the front desk, watched them flirt with the receptionist.

Boredom escalating, his gaze returned to his papers. There was only one unknown quantity.

Bethany Green. The wild card.

Her invitation had been issued late, but so far the preliminary background check was clean.

He was about to flip over to the photograph page when a flash of yellow caught his attention.

She stood framed in the doorway of his building, two large weekenders clutched in her hand and an oversized purse slung over one shoulder.

Long, dark hair spilled in rich waves around her bare shoulders and over her arms. Against the sunlit backdrop, Zach couldn’t immediately see her face but what he saw of her body made his breath catch as something flickered awake inside him.

The way she held herself intrigued him; slightly unsure but poised on the threshold, as if talking herself into taking the next step. In his world, women reveled in being ball-breakers, strove to show no weakness in his presence in hopes of impressing him.

Seeing a woman who recognized her vulnerability and struggled to own it was oddly captivating. He stood and walked to the window, surprised by how much he wanted to see this woman.

The wind caught and flattened her short dress against long, sexy bare legs, legs that seemed to go on forever before they curved to embrace rounded hips and a firm, flat stomach.

Zach’s cock jerked, stunning the hell out of him with a hunger his jaded existence hadn’t allowed him in a very long time. When his gaze reached her breasts, he let out a growl and realized his fingers were braced against the glass, his head almost touching it as he strained to see her face.

But she remained in shadow, poised on the threshold of the building, undecided whether to step in or bolt.

Come in.

He realized he’d whispered the words and froze, a touch of confusion making him frown. As he watched, her head cocked to the side, one hand lifting to brush her long, luxurious hair off her face. And still he couldn’t see her.

But with her hair out of the way, he caught sight of a sleek neck, smooth skin.

The hunger grew, slammed inside him like a living thing. His cock, now fully awake, demanded action. Action it hadn’t seen in weeks because even the thought of sex bored had him to distraction. Until now.

He breathed in deeply, every nerve in his body straining to see her fully.

Come in!

She continued to play with her hair, holding it back from her face. He grew harder, nearly dizzy with the force of his erection.

Finally, she stepped forward.

Zach’s breath blew out of his body when he saw her face. Sensation hit him with the strength of a force-five hurricane. Her features were luscious; her pink mouth full and deliciously curved as if created for kisses...his kisses. High cheekbones and a pert nose completed the gorgeous tableau, and he watched with unwavering attention as she entered his domain.

With each step she took, he felt a powerful charge go through him. By the time she was directly below him, his fist was clenched against the glass, his emotions and his body both on fire.

She glanced up directly at him, but of course, she couldn’t see him through the one-way mirrored glass. At that angle, her face was even more stunning, her clear blue eyes shining with a mixture of excitement and apprehension.

Zach wanted all her excitement and none of the apprehension. Hell, he wanted her, period.

No, “want” was too tame to describe the feelings coursing through him. The desperation churning inside him was as alien as it was forceful. He didn’t do spontaneous. Didn’t crave a woman on just seeing her. Nowadays, his girlfriends were carefully chosen, fully vetted.

And yet...

She lowered her gaze, shook her head slightly as if to clear it and looked around her. The moment he saw her head for the desk where the rock band were getting checked in, Zach cursed.

He was running out of his office before the string of filthy words was complete.

***

B
ethany tried to shake off the strange sensation that had come over her and moved toward the front desk, where a drop-dead blonde goddess was checking in the last of the group of men. One of them, dark-haired and wearing an expensive-looking leather jacket, glanced over at her and winked.

She wasn’t naïve enough to mistake his interest but her return smile felt strained all the same.

Now that she was here, out of the sphere of Keely’s confidence, she was bombarded with second thoughts. And that sensation she’d felt a moment ago as she looked up the frosted glass, the feeling like she was on a yawning precipice, staring into the face of danger...well, that had scared the shit of out her—

A door to the side of her burst open, and Bethany stopped dead.

Jesus!

He was all her wet dreams personified. The living god of her sexual fantasies, her daydreams and her cravings come to life.

Eyes the color of slate zeroed in on her from a face so incredibly stunning that her mouth went dry. His bold stare transmitted a raw, sexual pulse of electricity straight between her legs. As he moved like an animal barely caged by civilization, her clit pulsed to life—contrary to Keely’s hypothesis, it wasn’t quite dead yet it seemed.