Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 70955 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70955 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
“What are you doing?” she snapped.
“Kidnapping you,” I responded lightly as though I’d simply informed her that it was a beautiful day outside.
“What?” she shrieked. Luckily, we’d entered the kitchen by that point, so I didn’t have to worry about customers calling the police.
“You heard me,” I said in the same tone, but I added a gentle slap to her ass. She gasped, sounding outraged. However, I felt the shiver that wracked her body, and a grin split my face.
“Put me down. What about your job, Zack?” she asked, apparently trying another tactic.
I was curious where she was going with this, so I played along as I left the kitchen and entered a back hallway. “What about it?” I nodded to the security guard who returned the gesture, barely sparing a glance at Amelia.
“Aren’t you worried about being fired? What if the owner hears about this?”
I almost stopped in my tracks but managed to stay on course and refrain from reacting to her comment. She didn’t know who I was. I thought back over my introduction to her friends and realized I hadn’t referred to myself as the owner. This was an interesting turn of events. I knew I should tell her right away, but the little devil in my head suggested I keep quiet about it. I was sure Amelia wasn’t a gold digger, and I tried to explain that to the evil little voice. He argued that it couldn’t hurt to make sure she would want me whether I owned a hotel or not.
We paused at an elevator, and I swiped my card to open the doors. After I stepped inside, I swiped again and punched the button for the fortieth floor, where my office was located. “I think he’d approve of my strategy,” I joked playfully.
The car began to swoosh up, getting us to the top in no time at all. When the doors silently opened, I continued toward my office at a clipped pace. We reached the glass walls that spanned the front of my assistant’s area, and I used my other shoulder to push open one of the glass doors. The entrance to my office was on the other side of a wall, situated behind the lobby desk. I unlocked the thick oak door with one hand before shoving it open like I had the glass one. Stepping inside, I shifted Amelia into my arms as I kicked the door shut. After flipping the lock, I made my way over to my desk and set her on the tabletop.
Amelia’s brow rose as she looked around at the large space with the obviously expensive furniture and a view that would take anyone’s breath away. “Nice digs for a manager,” she murmured.
I almost laughed at her assumption. I was about to correct her and tell her the truth when she spoke again. “This isn’t your office, is it?” Her tone was suspicious, and again, I had to suppress a snicker.
“This is the owner’s office,” I informed her slyly. An electronic photo frame on my desk had pictures of Delia and me, but it was facing the other way. And she obviously hadn’t seen my name on the door. Other than that, there wasn’t much to make it clear that this was where I worked.
“You guys must be really good friends if he lets you use his office for your shenanigans.” She was clearly fishing for information, and I wanted to set her mind at ease.
“I’ve never been tempted into ‘shenanigans’”—I winked and used air quotes around her word—“until I met you.”
Amelia’s cheeks bloomed with pink, and she bit her lip, making me want to run my tongue over that exact spot and soothe away the sting. “Why in the world would you want to resort to kidnapping and risk your job for me?”
My head reared back, and I stared at her in bewilderment. “Are you kidding? Besides the fact that you’re drop-dead gorgeous, sweet, and genuine?” I cupped her face and locked our gazes. “There’s also this.” Closing the distance between our faces, I captured her mouth with mine.
5
Amelia
The last thing I should’ve done was give myself over to a kiss from a guy who’d just carried me out of my cousin’s bachelorette party, but my body wasn’t willing to listen to my brain. My arms twined around his neck as his lips pressed against mine. When his tongue teased my lips, they parted on a sigh. Zack took full advantage, tilting my head back to deepen the kiss further.
By the time he lifted his head, it had taken me a minute to clear the sensual haze from my brain. Dropping my arms to my sides, I leaned back and glared up at him. “You can’t just carry me out of a restaurant and kiss me senseless!”
Male satisfaction gleamed from his dark eyes, and his lips curved up in a smug grin. “My kisses make you senseless?”