HIGHER (The Indigo Lounge Series) by Zara Cox Read Free Book Online Page B

looking,” he growled, low and dangerous.
    Keely stepped back, her eyes
widening as her gaze flicked back to Bethany. “Let’s go back inside, B,” she
said.
    “No—”
    “ Hell, no ,” Zach tagged on harshly. “The only place Bethany’s going
is home with me.”
    “If you think I’m letting you
anywhere near her—”
    “I’m going home. On my own ,” Bethany slid in quietly.
“Keely, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
    “Bethany—” Zach stepped
toward her. She turned away sharply. A cab was offloading a couple headed for
the club.
    The moment the couple alighted
she dived into the back and slammed the door shut.
    “Shit, wait!” He lunged for the
door but the driver was already pulling away.
    Her last glimpse of Zach and
Keely showed their astonished faces as the cab sped away.
    She lost track of time as her
brain reeled from being bombarded with what had just happened. Zach had
colluded with Keely to turn up and see her on her birthday. In that moment,
Bethany wasn’t sure whether she was madder at Zach or at Keely. Or whether she
could stop her heart from slamming excitedly against her ribs when she recalled
Zach’s face. His eyes. God, his hands…
    He was waiting when she stepped
out of the cab at her apartment. How the
fuck had he gotten here so fast?
    Shock held her immobile for several
seconds before the cab driver’s impatient prompt pulled her gaze away. She
refocused to find Zach slipping him a handful of bills.
    Her breath evaporated from her
lungs when he turned to face her. “If you do that to me again, I’ll put you
over my knee and spank the hell out of that tight ass of yours.”
    “You…God, Zach, what will it take
for you to get the message?”
    “What will it take for you to
understand that I’m going nowhere? That I’m not prepared to let one question
and one answer stop us from happening?” he grated out.
    His fury hadn’t abated. In fact,
if anything, it’d escalated. He reached out and grabbed her arms, jerked her
forward until she collided into him.
    Heat from his body rushed over
her burning her from the outside in. He lowered his head until his face was one
heart-stopping inch from hers.
    “You got into a cab, alone, after
fuck knows how many drinks. And after you nearly let another guy put his hands on you . Tell me why I
shouldn’t be hauling you off somewhere to teach you a lesson?”
    “Because you don’t own me,” she
yelled. “Because this is my life! Because what you told me is life-changing
enough for me to want to reassess whether I let you near me ever again.”
    He frowned. “Let me near you…what
the hell are you saying? That you’re afraid for your life ?” He uttered the words with a shocked breath. A shade of
color receded from his face and his eyes widened. “You think I’d ever deliberately hurt you?”
    He looked so stunned, a wave of
shame rushed through her. But then she shook her head. “I won’t let you guilt
me into defending my feelings, Zach. The reality is I don’t know what to think. You’ve given me nothing,
and you expect me to just trust you when you don’t trust me enough to be open
with me. I can’t live like that.”
    He clawed a hand through his
hair. “Why can’t you trust that if it were up to me, you’d know everything by
now?”
    “Oh, change the tune, I’m over
hearing your excuses. As for the cab thing, I’m a big girl, Zach. A whole
quarter of a century old as of,” she peered at her phone, “thirty-one minutes
ago. As you can see, I’m pretty good at getting myself home in one piece.”
    “Be that as it may, you’re drunk
and I’m still seeing you upstairs.”
    She lurched away from him and
walked into her foyer. “Do what you want. It’s not going to get you anywhere.”
    “It’s going to give me peace of
mind to know you’re safe, Bethany. I told you, taking care of you is now my
job.”
    She couldn’t stop her heart
flipping over as she stabbed the button for the elevator. “If that’s