The Blind-Date Bride

He wasn’t going to be in her life.

Except for this one night.

Pete paid the restaurant bill, insisting it was his party treat for Livvy. Everyone had drunk their coffee. It was time to go. Nervous tension gripped Catherine as Zack moved to hold her chair back for an easy rise from the table. She looked at the full moon as she stood up. Was this lust for him a madness that she would shake her head over tomorrow?

She didn’t understand it.

Was she raw and needful from Stuart’s most recent dalliance with another woman? But she wasn’t feeling any bitter hurt right now. It was as though all that was in a far distant place. Zack Freeman generated a physical immediacy that completely clouded anything else.

She was super aware of her legs moving in step with his as they followed Pete and Livvy out of the restaurant, aware that the top of her head was level with his chin, aware of the strength of the man and the weak little quivers running down her thighs, aware of her breasts straining against the stretch fabric of Livvy’s dress, aware of the flutters in her stomach where the yearning to experience Zack Freeman was strong and deep and beyond any mental control.

Pete decided to drive down to The Crowne Plaza and have his car parked at the hotel for an easy pickup when he and Livvy had had enough of the disco. They said their goodnights at his BMW and Catherine and Zack watched them drive off before moving on to the end of the car park where her red convertible was waiting for them.

‘Do you like to dance?’ Zack asked as they strolled along.

He wasn’t touching her, merely walking beside her, but Catherine barely found breath enough to answer, ‘Yes.’

‘I’m sorry if you feel you’re missing out.’

She shook her head.

‘For me it would have been more of a torture than a pleasure.’

The wry statement drew her into glancing at him.

His eyes caught hers and delivered their own searing meaning as he elaborated. ‘I would have wanted more than the touching permissable on a public dance floor, Catherine.’

She wrenched her gaze from his as heat whooshed through her entire body. The direct acknowledgment of the desire he was feeling for her left no way of dismissing it as possible fantasy. It was real. And it was vibrantly alive, pulsing through her, arousing eager responses that clamoured for expression.

Her mind tried to over-ride them. She didn’t do one-night stands. She believed that casual sex diminished what should be really special to a relationship that shared far more than just sex. Men were different, she’d told herself, having excused Stuart’s infidelities as meaningless rushes of testosterone. But she’d never felt so sexually connected to a man before, not even with Stuart at his charismatic best.

She fumbled in her evening bag for the car keys. Just a short ride and this…this raging temptation…would be over. Unlock the car, get in and drive Zack Freeman to Forresters Beach. He would fly away tomorrow and she’d come down to earth with a big thump if she strayed from what she believed in tonight.

But what if she never felt like this again?

Was she passing up a once-in-a-lifetime experience?

Would she always wonder?

Her fingers found the car key, curled around it, brought it out. Her hand trembled as she pointed the key at her car and pressed the remote control button to unlock the doors. Zack accompanied her to the driver’s side, intent on doing the courtesy of seeing her settled on her seat. She waited by the door for him to reach out and open it. He stepped forward, then turned to face her instead.

‘Have I embarrassed you?’

His eyes scanned hers with probing intensity, driving her out of her tongue-tied state.

‘No.’ She tried to smile but her mouth felt as wobbly as the rest of her. ‘I think the wolf in you was howling just then.’

‘And you didn’t want to answer?’

‘Wolves tend to keep to their own territory.’

‘They have been known to cross boundaries if the call is strong enough.’

He reached up and touched the silk flower in her hair.

‘It’s not real.’ Her voice emerged as a husky whisper.

‘No. But this is, Catherine.’ His fingers feathered her earlobe before sliding under the fall of her hair to the nape of her neck. ‘This is,’ he repeated, his voice a low erotic burr as he moved closer and bent his head to hers.

The drumming of her heart filled her ears, blocking out any last second denial her mind might have dictated. A light tug of her hair tilted her face up. She was beyond fighting this moment which shimmered with the promise of answers she craved. His lips brushed hers, stirring a host of electric tingles. Then came the tasting, a feast of sensual pleasure that was more seductive than any kissing Catherine remembered.

Her arms lifted and wound around his neck, her own hands thrusting into his hair, fingers driving through the thick mat of curls, pressing for a continuation, wanting to know and feel more. He scooped her body firmly against his and the hard, heated strength of him was imprinted on her, the muscular wall of his chest, rock-hard thighs, and an erection that instantly set a wave of desire rolling through her, inciting a wild, questing passion for satisfaction when his mouth invaded hers. Long, fierce, ravishing kisses…kisses in her hair, on her throat, shoulders, her breasts yearning to be touched, taken, her stomach revelling in the feel of his urgent wanting.

A burst of laughter jolted them both out of the wild compulsion to pursue more and more sensation. It came from another group of people emerging from the restaurant and heading for their cars. Zack sucked in a deep breath, one hand lifting to cup her cheek, fingers stroking soft reassurance.

‘I know a private place. I’ll drive us there.’

Her mind was too shattered to think. With quick, purposeful strides, he bundled her around to the passenger side, all his energy focused now on taking her with him. Catherine was still too tremulous to take any positive action herself. He’d already guided her into the car and fastened her seat belt before she remembered…

‘The key…’ It wasn’t in her hand anymore. ‘I must have dropped it.’

‘I’ll find it.’

He bent and kissed her, stoking the need that had been left hanging. She sat dazed by the whole tumultuous eruption of passion. It didn’t even occur to her that she hadn’t given him permission to take control of her car. He settled behind the driving wheel, flashed her a dazzling grin as he fastened his seat belt, switched on the engine, and they were off.

‘Where are we going?’ she finally found wits enough to ask.

Another white grin—the grin of a man on a winning streak that couldn’t be stopped. ‘To a place that was made for us, Catherine Trent…a place that will give us a night to remember.’

CHAPTER FOUR

A NIGHT to remember… The seductive words kept floating through Catherine’s mind as Zack drove through Terrigal, crossed the bridge over the lagoon, and headed along Ocean Drive Road—all familiar territory to her, yet nothing felt familiar on this journey with Zack Freeman.

They hadn’t put the hood of the convertible down. She was closed in with him and he seemed to dominate the space inside the car, emanating an irresistible power that would pull her along with him wherever he wanted to take her. That was seductive, too, removing from her all responsibility for what happened. Except Catherine knew that wasn’t true.

She could still say no, though her gaze was continually drawn to the hands firmly wrapped around the driving wheel, hands in control, sure of what they were doing, and the wanton desire to feel those hands on her clouded any decision. So far he hadn’t done anything she hadn’t secretly yearned for. Why stop now? Yet wasn’t it risky, even dangerous, trusting herself to him like this?

At the Wamberal roundabout he took the road that led towards Forresters Beach. Catherine told herself it would be easy to stop this madness now, insist he drive to Pete’s place and say she didn’t want to take this night any further. It was the safe thing to do, just open her mouth…and lose out on having Zack Freeman as her lover for one night.

This immensely desirable man…

Even in profile he was strikingly handsome. And his aggressively male physique had a sexual power which stirred basic instincts she could neither ignore nor deny. More than that, every time he looked at her, his eyes seemed to connect to what she was thinking, what she was feeling…dark burning eyes, challenging her to acknowledge that the desire between them was real. Not a fantasy. Real and urgent and compelling. Every jangling nerve end in her body was still affirming this reality.

Whether it was right or wrong for her…was such a question relevant at this point?

She was over thirty. Thirty-one. And going nowhere with the man who’d monopolised her interest for the past few years. It was time to face the fact that Stuart Carstairs was a footloose philanderer and always would be. Zack Freeman might be one, too, for all she knew, but at least he wasn’t pretending to have fallen in love with her and he’d been honest about not holding out more than one night with him. This blind date did not have a blind end to it. She knew precisely what was on offer.

Well, not precisely. Her imagination was running riot, fueled by the feelings Zack had stirred in her. It might be a wild, reckless act to ride this tide until time ran out but she didn’t want to go home wondering what it might have been like. She needed to know there was something more than Stuart had given her, something she could look for in the future, knowing it was real.