Zane (Alluring Indulgence) by Nicole Edwards Page B

to her, his thigh against her thigh, his arm against her arm, he stared
down at the floor, his hands clasped in front of him between his spread knees.
    “I’m
scared to go in my own house,” V whispered.
    For
a moment, Zane wasn’t sure that he hadn’t just imagined the words. He waited
patiently to see if she would continue. When she didn’t, he prodded her to tell
him more.
    “Is
it because of what happened?” he asked, hanging his head low, knowing the
answer was yes, but wanting to hear it from her.
    “I
keep seeing you lying on the ground, beaten and bloody,” V’s voice was soft and
she swallowed hard before continuing, “and I hate that it’s my fault –”
    “Stop!”
Zane barked, pushing to his feet instantly. “It wasn’t your fault, Vanessa. You
couldn’t have stopped Jake from doing what he did.”
    “You’re
wrong,” she said, her tone still sad. “If it weren’t for me and the fact that
the town thinks of me the same as they do my mother...” V didn’t finish her
sentence, but Zane didn’t need her to.
    “Do
they, V?” he questioned angrily. “Do they really think you’re like your mother?
Or is that something you’ve conjured up in your head?” Zane had heard some of
the rumors, but he never paid them any mind. The rumors were nothing more than
a bunch of hot air, spoken by people who didn’t have anything better to do with
their time.
    “They
call her a whore, Zane.” Vanessa’s tone firmed as she stared up at him.
    “I
know what they call her, but that doesn’t make the rumors true. Do you believe
them?”
    V
stared down at her hands, but she didn’t respond. Zane had a hard time thinking
anyone could think so lowly of their mother. The rumors had spanned two decades
now, with Regina Carmichael painted as a woman looking to bed a billionaire.
With several sharing their stories of bedding V’s mom, never intending to have
a relationship with her, but wanting to see just how far she’d go. True or not,
V’s mother had issues, but that didn’t make her a terrible person.
    “No,
I don’t. I think she has problems. I think she loved the wrong men, but no, I
don’t think she’s a whore. She’s made some mistakes, but she’s my mother,
Zane.”
    Zane
sat back down beside her, taking one of her hands in both of his and holding it
firmly. “We can’t change how people want to view things, V. And we can’t change
how they’ll react. I know you hated what I did that day, but, there won’t be a
single person who is allowed to talk about you like that when I’m around. You
didn’t cause Jake to go off the deep end. I did. And honestly, I’d do the same
thing all over again.”
    “How
can you say that?” It was V’s turn to jump up from her seat. She paced the
floor in front of him, her long hair flowing down her back, the same color as
creamy milk chocolate.
    “I
care about you, V. I won’t sit back and let anyone talk to you that
way.”
    “You
don’t know what the hell you’re saying. You don’t care about me. It’s sex.”
    “What’s
‘sex’?” Standing to his feet again, wanting to be on a level playing field with
her, Zane watched her intently.
    She
was purposely trying to piss him off, and if it worked to erase that look of
utter helplessness he’d seen on her face earlier, he’d oblige her. “I don’t see
any sex going on here at the moment, do you?”
    V
pinned him with a glare, and he could detect her exasperation. Vanessa
Carmichael was never going to accept the fact that he felt more for her than
she wanted him to. It couldn’t be changed, and he wasn’t looking to change it.
But, Zane also knew when to keep his mouth shut.
    “I
want you to stay here for a little while. A few days. A week,” he told her.
    “I
can’t do that,” V argued.
    Damn
woman.
    “You
can and you will.” Zane turned away from her, wanting the conversation to be
over. V would argue with him until they were both blue in the face, he knew
that