Access Granted (17 page)

Chapter Thirty-Four

Early the next morning at Alpha Male Incorporated, Sabrina stood outside of Zander’s closed office door debating if she should even be here to see him after her dream last night.

How could she have dreamt about Zander being in her bedroom after her decision not to see him again? She was going to have a hard enough time turning down the vampire mate thing without remembering him whispering how much he loved her.

She didn’t believe how vivid the dream still was to her.  She actually thought she’d heard Zander talking to her last night, but when she tried to wake up from her dream and open her eyes her eyelids wouldn’t move and she fell into an even deeper sleep. Nothing like that had ever happened to her before.

Squaring her shoulders, Sabrina shook off the last of her nerves. She couldn’t put this off any longer. She had to tell Zander the truth. As much as she cared about him, she wasn’t interested in becoming a vampire or living for the rest of her life. He might be upset with her; however, he would get over it and find someone else to be with.

Before she talked herself out of it, Sabrina knocked on the door once and waited. She prayed Zander took the news well because she wasn’t going to let him trick her into changing her mind.

“Come in,” Zander called out a few minutes later.

Opening the door, Sabrina went inside closing it behind her. She stopped in her tracks when she spotted Zander sitting behind his desk wearing a suit looking too handsome for words. She had never seen him in anything but t-shirt and jeans or maybe occasionally a pair of slacks with a jacket, but this was totally different. He looked gorgeous.

“Sweetheart, I’m so glad you came by to see me before I had to leave for my meeting.” Getting up from his seat, Zander came around the desk and he stopped a few feet in front of her. “You look beautiful in that dress,” he complimented, tugging her towards him. “You know how much I love your legs.”

“Hmmm...thank you,” Sabrina said, trying to keep her wits about her but it was difficult with Zander smelling so good.

His cologne was inviting her to kiss him, but she wouldn’t do it. She came here to tell Zander she wasn’t ready to give up everything to be with him. She was positive he wouldn’t want to accept her no, but he would do it and that was it. There had to be another
Unique
woman out there in the world he could accept as his mate and she wouldn’t care about living forever.

Placing her hands on his chest, she pushed Zander away from her and then took a step back. “I didn’t come here to talk about my legs. I spent more of the night thinking about what you told me and especially what I saw. I mean it’s not everyday I see a pair of fangs appear in a hot guy’s mouth.”

“Baby, I’m glad you think I’m hot. It will make our relationship a whole lot easier because I think you’re sexy as hell,” Zander told her.

“Thank you, but I didn’t come for a compliment,” Sabrina said. “I need to tell you something and I hope you don’t try to change my mind because you won’t be able to do it. I thought about my decision long and hard last night.”

Crossing his arms across his wide chest, Zander frowned at her. She could tell from the narrowing of his eyes that this conversation wasn’t going to go as she hoped. Coming here might have been a mistake on her part, but she would stay strong because it wouldn’t be right to give him any false hope.

“Did you come all the way here to tell me something I’m not going to like?” he inquired

“Yes, I did,” Sabrina admitted, honestly. “I can’t accept being your mate. It’s just too much. I’m sure there are other women who wouldn’t mind the terms, but I’m not one of them.”

After she was finished, Sabrina blew out a breath that she didn’t know she had been holding as the pent up tension left her body. Her conversation with Zander went a whole lot better than she thought it would. However, she waited for the blow up she knew was coming. Zander hated been turned down for anything. He loved winning and being on top.

Yet, instead of getting mad at her; Zander stared at her and then burst out laughing. His laugh broke off after a few minutes then his eyes smoldered as he looked at her. “Sabrina, I’m not about to let you toss me to the side. Darling, you belong to me and I belong to you,” he said, taking a step closer. “You can deny it all you want to but I can tell how turned on you are about me being a vampire. Why are you trying to lie to me and tell me you aren’t?”

“No, I’m not,” she answered way too quickly as she moved back. “I’m actually a little scared of you.”

“Oh, really,” he countered. “If you were so frightened of me, why would you be fighting off the urge to kiss me only minutes ago?”

“How did you know that?” Sabrina sputtered. “I never said anything to you.”

“A vampire knows everything about his other half. I sense when you’re happy, sad or dreaming about making a career decision.” Closing the small space between them, he ran his eyes over her face stopping at her mouth.

“I have loved you for too long, wanted you for too long.  No matter how hard you try to fight me I will win you over unless you’re trying to tell me you aren’t attracted to me. Is that what you’re trying to say?” His voice was a velvet murmur as he continued to watch her as she got lost in his eyes.

“No, I’m not saying that to you,” Sabrina stammered, wondering why she couldn’t look away from Zander.

“Sweetheart, you don’t know how thrilled your words have made me. I wouldn’t be able to let you leave until I found a way to make you change your mind and I had so many pleasurable ideas running around in my head.” A huskiness came into his tone as he reached out and traced her bottom lip with his finger. “I just love your mouth. It is just so perfect and made for kissing.”

“Were you intending to kiss me?” she asked in a low whisper.

“No, I wasn’t thinking about it because I already had it in my mind to do it the second you walked through my office door,” Zander admitted then crushed her to his body capturing her waiting mouth with his.

Chapter Thirty-Five

His tongue explored the recesses of her mouth; the kiss sent the pit of her stomach into a wild swirl. Zander’s lips were more persuasive than she cared to admit.

Raising his mouth from hers, he gazed down into her eyes. “Sabrina, do you know how much I’d rather stay here and kiss you than go to my meeting?” he asked.

The smoldering flame she saw in his eyes used to startle her, but now she craved to see it more and more. Her feelings for him were intensifying, aching for the fulfillment of his lovemaking. She couldn’t deny the spark of excitement at the prospect.

“Do you really have to attend this meeting?” Sabrina asked, shocked by the words coming out of her own mouth.

For some reason, she didn’t want Zander to leave her. It was too easy to get lost in the way he looked at her. She noticed that he was watching her intently like she was the most important person in the world to him and she liked that feeling.

“Sabrina, baby I wish I could cancel it, but I need to catch all of my employees up on the new equipment and assign someone else to take care of Ms. Case, so I won’t have to go back over there again to deal with her nonsense.

“I have to be honest. I’m very surprised you want me to stay here with you,” Zander said. “Weren’t you trying to get rid of me only a few minutes ago?”

She wanted to deny it, but she couldn’t. Anytime Zander kissed her, she wanted it to go on forever. She loved how his warm, firm mouth felt against hers. It was a purely sensual experience.

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Sabrina admitted. “One minute, I want to get as far away from you as possible and then you kiss me and I can’t wait for it to happen again.”

“Sweetheart, you’re experiencing the tangible bond between us. You can fight it all you want, but it’s only going to get stronger. Your body knows it belongs to me. All you have to do is get your mind in the same place. Do you want me to help your head get there? I would love to do it.”

A delicious shudder heated her body as the images of her and Zander in bed flashed right before her eyes as clear as day. They were so real she could almost feel his lips on her skin.

“Can you do it without kissing me?” she challenged.

“Are you telling me that the only way you think I can seduce you are through my kisses? I bet that I can prove you wrong. I have so many other ways to make you submit to me,” Zander said.

Arching one eyebrow, Sabrina’s gaze drank in the sensuality of Zander’s physique. She bet that he did have other methods to make her surrender to him. She had already had a little taste of his lovemaking skills and her body still burned from the
hot
reminiscence.

“So you do want me to succumb to you,” she tossed back with a little spunk in her voice.

Leaning down until they were eye to eye, Zander held her eyes with his and she noticed a mischievous look she had never seen there before.

“Baby, I’ll submit to anything you want me to do for you. Our relationship will never be one-sided. I like it when a woman takes control and it is even better when it’s my stunning mate. So, what do you say? Will you meet me somewhere later? I’ll text you the directions.”

Nibbling on her bottom lip, Sabrina wondered how she went from coming here to dump Zander to thinking about going out on an official date with him. How did he do than to her and why wasn’t she more upset about it?

“I’ll do it, but only under one condition,” she said.

A satisfied light came into his eyes after her answer. Sabrina knew no matter what she suggested to Zander that he would agree to it because he wanted to spend more time with her.

“Alright, I’ll take you up on your condition,” he agreed.

“You don’t even know what it is,” Sabrina reminded Zander. She loved the fact he was so willing to do anything with her. She was going to call him on it and see if he really would go through with it.

“It doesn’t matter as long as we spend more time together than we have been doing. I’m not a patient man and what little patience I had I have used up. Now, I’m going full speed ahead with you.”

“Your full speed ahead and mine might be two totally different things,” she pointed out, wondering what he was going to tell her.

“I don’t care how fast either one of us is going. All that matters is that both of us end up at the same spot. I can promise you that all of our battles will be worth it. So, are you telling me you aren’t scared of me anymore? I thought you came here to break my heart and pawn me off on another woman.”

“Don’t be getting cocky on me, Mr. Irizarry,” Sabrina scolded. “I haven’t decided what I’m going to do about you yet. Somehow, you got into my head and made me not quite so sure of what I want to do anymore.”

Honestly, she did come here with one plan in her mind but after talking and seeing Zander again she couldn’t forget about all of the times he had been there for her in the past caring and loving her without asking for anything in return.

“I’ll be glad to give you a list of suggestions about what you could do with me and for me,” Zander said, winking at her.

Sabrina tried not to smile but she couldn’t help it. Zander always knew to make her smile even when she hadn’t wanted to roll out of the bed in the morning. He was a wonderful man and if she allowed it to happen he could be all hers.

“I bet you do, but we can’t go into any of them right now because you have people waiting for you.”

Zander groaned as he glanced away from her and down at the expensive watch on his wrist. “Damn, my meeting is way across town and if I don’t leave now I’ll be late. It shouldn’t last any longer than an hour or two. Do you have to be anywhere this morning or will you be able to wait for me here? I want to come back and talk to you some more. I don’t want to pressure you into accepting me if you still have questions that I need to answer.”

“I’m not scared of you that much anymore,” Sabrina admitted it, meaning it. “I’m just still trying to figure everything out about my birthmark and being a
Unique
woman.”

“You won’t be able to do any of that without me which is the reason you should wait until I get back from my meeting. There is still so much I have to tell you. Will you stay and wait for me?”

She wanted to go, but she couldn’t do it. Zander asked her to stay here for him. She could hear the need in his voice and she didn’t want to turn him down. If he still had things to tell her then she wanted to stay and find out what they were.

“Sure, I can stay and wait for you,” Sabrina answered. “I’m off from work for the next two days. I don’t have to be back there until next week.”

Reaching out, Zander touched the side of her cheek and then suddenly gave her an arresting smile making her pulse race. “Thank you for staying. I promise you that I’ll make it worth your while when I get back.”

“Zander, you don’t have to promise me anything. I want to stay because I still have so many unanswered questions and mostly because you asked me to do it.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll answer all of them once I get back.” Before she could ask another question, he gave her another quick kiss.  “God, I love how you taste,” he breathed against her moist lips. “I’m going to love getting you to fall in love with me.”

You might not have to try that hard
, Sabrina thought suddenly, surprisingly herself.
I’m already half way there.

“Sabrina, are you okay? You’re looking at me oddly.”

As their eyes met, she felt a shock run through her. The thrill caused her words to wedge in her throat and it took her a few minutes to get herself together.

“I’m fine. I was just thinking about how much my life has changed since you have come into it. You’re so different from me and I used to hate how determined you were to win me over anytime you walked into the room and I was there.”

“What do you think about me now?” he asked, watching her closely.

“Let’s just say we can talk about it more later?” she teased.

“Beautiful, I’ll take you up on that when I get back,” Zander said then kissed her again before spinning around. He headed for the office door but paused and looked back at her.

“Make yourself comfortable and I promise to get back here to you as soon as possible.” Turning back around, he walked out of the door closing it behind him.

Standing in the middle of Zander’s comfy office, Sabrina sent up a silent prayer of thanks at how Zander’s sensuality hadn’t threatened to make her spill her secret feelings for him. She had kept them hidden for so long. She couldn’t deny the truth any longer when it came to him.

Anytime he left her she felt an extraordinary void. Sabrina didn’t have to wonder what caused it, she already knew the answer. She loved Zander with everything in her and the more she was around him the deeper it grew. Avery tried to force it out of her once, but she blew him off. She wasn’t ready to face it back then, but now she was.

However, now she wondered if it was real or if it came from the connection she was already born with to share with him. Was she under some kind of vampire spell and didn’t know it?