Falling for Rachel
Page 45

“Have a heart.” The blonde was giggling now as she tugged at his sweater. “Help me get her off. She’s plowed.”
“I’d think a big strong man like you could handle that all by yourself.”
“She moves like a damn eel,” he muttered. “Come on, Babs, let go. I’ll call you a cab.”
She was slithering over him, Rachel noted, and with a sigh she took charge. Gripping the blonde’s artfully tangled mane in one hand, she tugged. Hard. The quick squeal of pain was very satisfying. Following up on it, Rachel shoved her face close. “You’re trespassing, dear.”
Babs weaved, gave a glazed-eyed grin. “I didn’t see any signs.”
“Consider yourself lucky I don’t make you see stars.” Using the hair as a leash, Rachel pulled the squeaking blonde to the door. “This way out.”
“I’ll take it from here.” Lola slipped an arm around the blonde’s waist. “Come on, sweetie, you’re looking a little green.”
“He’s just so damn cute,” Babs sighed as she stumbled toward the ladies’ room with Lola.
“Call her a cab,” Zack shouted. After one heated glare at the grinning faces of his customers, he slammed the door shut. “Listen, Rachel…” Besides being mortified, he was out of breath, and he took a moment to steady himself. “It wasn’t the way it looked.”
“Oh?” The situation was too entertaining to resist. She sauntered over to his desk, scooted onto the edge and crossed her legs. “How did it look, Muldoon?”
“You know damn well.” He blew out a breath, tucked his useless hands in his pockets. “She got herself wasted on a couple of stingers. I came in to call her a cab, and she followed me.” His brows drew together when Rachel lifted a hand to examine her nails. “She attacked me.”
“Want to press charges?”
“Don’t get cute with me.” As embarrassing moments went, Zack considered this in the top ten. “I was trying to…defend myself.”
“I could see it was a pitched battle. You’re lucky you came out of it alive.”
“What was I supposed to do, knock her cold?” He paced from one wall to the other. “I told her I wasn’t interested, but she wouldn’t back off.”
“You’re just so damn cute,” Rachel said, fluttering her lashes.
“Funny,” he tossed over his shoulder. “Really funny. You’re going to play this one out all the way, aren’t you?”
“Bingo.” She picked up a letter opener from his desk, tested the point, thoughtfully. “As counsel for the defense, I have to ask if you feel that strutting behind the bar in those snug black jeans—”
“I don’t strut.”
“I’ll rephrase the question.” She flicked the tip of the letter opener with her thumb. “Can you say—and I remind you, Mr. Muldoon, you’re under oath—can you tell this court you haven’t done anything to entice the defendant, to make her believe you were available? Even willing?”
“I never… Well, I might have before you…” As a man of the sea, Zack knew when to cut line. He crossed his arms over his chest. “I take the Fifth.”
“Coward.”
“You bet.” He eyed the letter opener warily. “You don’t plan to use that on any particularly sensitive part of my anatomy?”
Letting her gaze skim down, Rachel touched her tongue to her upper lip. “Probably not.”
His smile came slowly and was full of relief. “You’re really not mad, are you, sugar?”
“That I walked in and found you in a compromising position with a blond bombshell?” After a quick laugh, she shifted her grip on the letter opener. “Why should I be mad, sugar?”
“You may have saved my life.” He thought he’d gauged her mood correctly, but his approach was still cautious. “You don’t know what she said she was going to do to me.” He gave a mock shudder, and slipped his arms around her, as if for support. “She’s a yoga instructor.”
“Oh, my.” Biting back a grin, Rachel patted his back. “What did she threaten you with?”
“Well, I think it went something like…” He leaned close to her ear, whispering. He heard Rachel’s surprised chuckle. “And then…”
“Oh, my” was all she could say. She swallowed once. “Do you think that’s anatomically possible?”
“I think you’d have to be double-jointed, but we could give it a try.”
Wicked laughter gleaming in her eyes, she tilted her head back. “I don’t care what you say, Muldoon. I think you liked being pawed.”
“Uh-uh.” He nuzzled her neck. “It was degrading. I feel so…cheap.”
“There, there. I saved you.”
“You were a regular Viking.”
“And you know what they say about Vikings…” she murmured as she turned her mouth to his.
“Go ahead,” he said invitingly. “Use me.”
“Oh, I plan to.”
The kiss was long and satisfying, but as it began to heat he tore his mouth from hers to bury his face in her hair.
“Rachel, you don’t know how good you feel. How right.”
“I know this feels right.” Eyes shut tightly, she held him close.
“Do you?”
“Yes. I think…” She let her words trail off into a sigh. She’d been doing a great deal of thinking over the past few days. “I think sometimes people just fit. The way you told me once before.”
He drew back, cupping her face in his hands. His eyes were very dark, very intense, on hers. She wasn’t entirely sure what she was reading in them, but it made her heart trip-hammer into her throat. “We fit. I know you said you didn’t want to get involved. That you have priorities.”
She linked her fingers around his wrists. “I said a lot of things.”
“Rachel, I want you to move in with me.” He saw the surprise in her eyes and hurried on before she could answer. “I know you wanted to keep it simple. So did I. This doesn’t have to be a complication. You’d have time to think about it. We have to wait until everything’s straightened out with Nick. But I need for you to know how much I want to be with you—not just snatching time.”