Under His Protection

“This is really good,” Zane said as he took another bite of his roast beef and gravy. “To be honest I never took you for one who cooks.”

“I can bake too,” she said snarkily. “Why is it that a man finds it hard to believe that a model can cook? We can do lots of things like sew, and guess what? We know how to read.”

He held up his hands in surrender. “Whoo, sorry.” He decided to change the subject. “You told me that you want to move and buy a tea shop in Kansas. Do you still plan on doing it?”

“It’s not just a tea shop. It also has coffee, soup, and sandwiches and yes I do. I used to help out my aunt and I would bake these little cakes and cookies. I miss it and the townspeople. The town is called Red River just outside Kansas City. It’s small with only a few shops, and a bar and has only one sheriff.”

“Sounds boring,” Zane commented.

“You might find it that way but I don’t, it’s my home and I love it.”

“Tell me more about this Trevor Frost.”

“What do you want to know?”

“For starters how did you two meet?”

“I was doing a runway show and he was there with a woman he was dating at the time. I guess he took a liking to me, he knew Reggie and asked him to introduce us which he did. He called me several weeks later and asked me out, we started dating after that.”

“How did he treat you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Was he abusive towards you, ever hit you other than that day he showed up at your work? He’s a big guy and being a wrestler he could hurt someone.”

“Trevor has a bad temper but he never hurt me, he actually put me on a pedestal. Treated me like a princess but he did have a jealous streak. We would fight whenever he thought I was being too friendly with another man, and he would accuse me of sleeping around. He was so possessive and I couldn’t take it anymore so I broke it off.”

“Were you in love with him?”

“I cared about him, but no, I didn’t love him.”

“He’s in love with you.”

“I don’t think it’s love. I was more his property and he doesn’t like giving up anything that he thinks belongs to him.” She looked Zane in the eyes. “I am no one’s property and never will be.”

He liked her spunk and found it sexy as hell.

“Now it’s your turn, tell me about the woman who owns the bra and panties.”

“I don’t know who they belong to, it was such a long time ago.” He was only telling part of the truth. He had many women over from time to time and how was he supposed to know who they belonged to?

“I know your type.”

“Really, and what type is that?” he asked, looking at her.

“The type that sleeps with every woman he can get into bed and then doesn’t bother to call them the next day. A player with no feelings for the woman he’s with.”

“Maybe that’s because I haven’t met the right woman,” he said. It kind of pissed him off that she was jumping to conclusions about him. But then she was partly right about him.

He helped her with the washing up and then they settled down in front of the TV to watch a movie. When she told him how much she loved the old black-and-white movies he found one for them to enjoy. They sat on opposite sides of the couch with a bowl of popcorn in the middle and he opened a bottle of wine, pouring them each a glass.

Zane tried to concentrate on the movie but was finding it hard being so close to her. She smelled so good, vanilla-scented and he wanted to put his face in her neck and taste her soft skin. He turned his head slowly to look at her. She was so engrossed in the movie that she didn’t notice the first piece of popcorn he threw at her. The third piece hit her cheek and she turned to him, rolling her eyes.

“What are you? Like twelve years old.”

“Just having some fun.” He threw another one and laughed when she shook her head at him.

“Grow up you jerk,” she said and turned to watch the movie. When he threw a handful of popcorn at her she grabbed the bowl, taking a handful started throwing it at him. “How do you like it?” she said, laughing.

As they continued throwing the snack back and forth, both laughing and forgetting all about the movie. Zane wrestled the bowl from her and pushing her down straddled her and pinned her hands above her head, looking down at her. The laughter stopped abruptly and when he looked into her eyes her pupils were dilated. His eyes moved down to her lips which were pumped up as she ran her tongue over them.

Lowering his mouth he kissed her, his lips pressed firmly to hers as he pushed his tongue into her mouth. He released her hands when he heard her moan and her body arched towards him, her arms going around his neck. His right hand went to the zipper on the front of her dress and pulled it down past her breasts. Slipping a hand inside cupped her breast, it felt so firm through the material of the bra she wore. He then pulled the zipper till it was all the way down and unzipped. Spreading the dress open his hand traveled down till he reached the panties and his hand moved between the sexy silk panties and her pussy which he found was wet. His heart was racing, his breathing becoming ragged. He was panting as his cock grew harder when she started grinding against his fingers as he stroked her.

“Zane, oh God,” she managed to say as he moved deeper, his finger was doing things that had her mad with desire. There was a fire in the pit of her belly, stars flashed under closed eyelids as she enjoyed the feeling and her core throbbed madly when she felt his hard shaft pressing against her. She opened her eyes when he stopped and watched as he pulled his shirt up over his head and taking it off threw it to the floor. She ran her hands over his muscular chest before his lips went to her neck and he kissed and sucked lightly.

Just as he started pulling her panties down the phone rang but he ignored it until the answering machine clicked on and a female voice spoke.

“Zana, where the hell are you? You were supposed to be here twenty minutes ago. I’m here waiting, naked so hurry up and come over.”

Hearing this Jade came to her senses and pushed him off her. “What was I thinking? You better hurry, your date is waiting.” Standing up she did her zipper up, her back turned from him.

“Jade, I’m sorry you heard that but I have no intentions of going over there.” He walked up behind her, his hands going on her shoulders. “That date was made before I knew you. I much rather be here with you.” He went to kiss the back of her neck but she shrugged him off and walked away, keeping her distance from him.

“I’m glad we got interrupted, what almost happened shouldn’t.”

He moved closer to her, his eyes burning into hers. “There’s fire between us and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t. You wanted it, Jade. I saw it in your eyes, you want me as much as I want you. That woman on the phone means nothing to me, she’s not important.”

She stood staring at him, her brow lowered, lips thinned and nostrils flaring. “You are disgusting the way you treat women. You’re disrespectful to women and I will not be another notch on your bedpost.”

“It’s not like that with you. Those other women didn’t mean anything to me. You’re different Jade, you’re not another conquest.”

“The fact that you could treat women that way shows me what kind of man you are. I would never be able to trust you. I need to be with someone who would be happy with one person, one who wouldn’t cheat. I’m not saying you’re a bad guy, just that you are a player and you’ll never settle down.”

“Wow, you think you know me but you don’t.” Going over he grabbed her and put her up against the wall. “You can’t deny that there’s something between us, something special. Give me a chance to prove to you that I’m not the guy you think I am, and that I can change.”

“You can’t, it’s in your blood. From now on it has to be just business and if you can’t keep it that way I’ll have to ask for someone else to take your place.”

“Is that really how you want it?”

“Yes, now let go of me. I’m going to bed.”

When he released her and walked away she went to the bedroom and shut the door behind her and rested her forehead against the coolness of the door. She had come close to sleeping with Zane. She could not deny the attraction she felt towards him nor the way her body reacted whenever he touched her. Except for her ex, every other man she had ever dated cheated. There was that terrible feeling of betrayal and pain, one that cut deep into your heart when you found out the one you were with cheated on you. It was the worst feeling in the world, made you feel unworthy of love. She never wanted to feel that pain again and just knew that Zane had the power to hurt her.

Things were a bit awkward over breakfast the next morning between the two. Each one avoided making eye contact with the other. Dressed in a dark suit he drove Jade to her photo shoot and escorted her into the building. He stood off to the side keeping an eye on her as he watched and listened to all that was going on.

The only time he left Jade unattended was to go to the bathroom. He was more than annoyed when one of the models dressed in some sexy lingerie cornered him when he came out. When he tried to walk past she got in front of him and put her arms around his neck.

“I hear you are some sort of bodyguard for Jade. My body could use some guarding. What do you say sugar, wanna go in back?”

He placed his hands on her arms. “Not interested doll.”

As he was about to remove her arms Jade came around the corner and what she saw was Zane with his hands on the model. Seeing her he removed the woman’s arms and walked away and towards Jade.

“I knew you couldn’t change,” she said, shaking her head and went to walk away but was stopped when he grabbed her hand.

“It’s not what you think. I was in the men’s room and she cornered me and threw her arms around me. I was removing them when you saw us. Besides, what do you care? It was you who wanted our relationship to be strictly business.” His hand went up and stroked her cheek. “Unless you want to change your mind.”

She swatted his hand away. “I don’t care and no I haven’t. I need to change my outfit for the next shot.”

He waited outside her door, then walked her back out and stood back as the lights started flashing, music played and she did her posing thing. His eyes wandered around, something seemed off to him, call it a gut feeling. He noticed one of the lights from above was flickering. Shielding his eyes he scanned the ceiling and saw that the one spotlight was hanging lower and looked like it was about to drop. Jade was right under it.

Running towards her he yelled for everyone to get out of the way.