Access Granted (5 page)

Chapter Seven

How could I have lost such control last night with Zander
?

Sabrina was positive that she had willpower over her feelings when it came to her brother’s best friend and business partner, but somehow Zander had got her to act out of character with that one
hot
kiss.

God, her mouth still tingled from thinking about it. Zander just showed up on her front porch out of nowhere last night and came right on inside when she told him he couldn’t. Why in the world did she ever think a man like him would actually listen to her?  He was way too used to getting his way. He didn’t know what the word ‘no’ meant.

From their first meeting at her brother’s birthday, Zander had captured her attention. The second she walked into the birthday party her eyes instantly landed on him standing off to the side of the room away from the other guests. Well, it could have been the fact he towered over the other men in the room by a full eight inches or more.

He stood tall and straight taking command of the room and everything in it.  Sabrina would never forget how the ocean blue shirt emphasized the muscles rippling in his arms. In addition, she recalled how the black slacks molded his thick thighs and slimness of his hips.

Zander turned his head and his eyes locked with hers like he almost felt her staring at him. Not even a second had passed before he moved and was walking in their direction. An authoritative air of self-confidence surrounded him as he came towards them.

The palms of her hands had been so sweaty that she had quickly wiped them on the side of her dress. It would have been so embarrassing to shake hands with him and have wet palms. As the distance closed more and more between her and Zander, she became acutely aware of his athletic physique.

Leaving his body alone for a second, she had taken in Zander’s face and wasn’t disappointed. There was an inherent strength in his face that made her want to know him better. His lips were firm and sensual and the idea of kissing him quickly entered her mind.

Back then, she barely remembered hearing her brother making the introductions because she couldn’t get over how gorgeous Zander looked when he smiled at her. How his teeth looked strikingly white against his tanned skin.  All of Zander’s features were so perfect that she hadn’t known how to take him.

She wasn’t used to dealing with men that oozed that kind of sexuality. Her biggest problem was turning down dates from football players back at her college dorm, so she could study.  She was required to take certain classes to become a court reporter and dating a lot of guys in college wasn’t on her mind.

Her decision to become a court reporter happened during high school at career day in the gym when she was sixteen years old. One of her classmate’s mothers was a court reporter and she talked about her career with such passion that it fascinated her. Up until that day, she wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to do with her life after graduation.

 Before graduation, she decided to continue her education with a Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice. The higher degree allowed her a wider range when it came to court reporting. Her last minute decision ended up providing other valuable skills that made her career rise even faster.

Attending an accredited college was her biggest worry because if she didn’t, her degree would have ended up being worthless. Sabrina found out rather fast that most employers didn’t even acknowledge continuing further education schools that weren’t associated with legitimate educational institutions.

Being a court reporter was in her blood and she hoped to do it for a very long time. She never had a problem getting up in the morning and going to work. She loved everything her job entailed and never thought about missing a day, not even when she was sick.

For years, she was proud of two very special things in her life: having a loving older brother she could bother any time of the day no matter how small her problems might be in her mind and landing a good job she loved doing.

Now, one of those things was gone forever and her life just didn’t feel the same to her. Avery’s death left a huge gaping hole in her heart along.

Nothing was ever going to fill it, but Zander was making the ache less and less when he was around her. Since her brother loved Zander so much and thought of him as part of the family, she did the same thing and before long she couldn’t think of her life without Zander being involved in it some form.

Zander reminded her so much of Avery when it came to shielding her. He never wanted anyone around her that he didn’t think was worthy of her. His interest in her wasn’t much of a surprise as she tried to pretend it was, but she couldn’t let Zander know that he made her a little nervous sometimes.

One of the first times she realized Zander saw her as more than a ‘sister’ was when she had made a surprise visit to Alpha Male Incorporated to invite Avery for dinner at their mother’s house.

She had caught Zander as he was coming out of his office just as she was heading towards Avery’s. He had literally stopped in his tracks and stared at her like he had never seen her before. She waved at him, but he didn’t even acknowledge the wave.

All he did was stand there and stare at her with this heated look like he was stripping the clothes from her body. It made her spin around and race down the hallway to her brother’s office. She would never forget the look of
need
and something else she wasn’t able to put her finger on in his eyes. But it wasn’t something she
ever
wanted to experience again, so she made sure to keep herself a safe distance from Zander.

Months had gone by before she ran into Zander again. She thought he was out installing a camera, but he was at the office instead of her brother. He called out to her asking her to come inside his office, but she had given him a flimsy excuse off the top of her head and left.

Everything about Zander was so sexual and their kiss last night proved how much out of his league she truly was. He was all man and her very limited experience with men wouldn’t hold up if he came onto her again.

Honestly, both Irizarry brothers had this attribute about them that made it seem like they were putting a person under some kind of spell. She was sure it came from their eyes, because Zander’s seemed to change colors when he talked to her and they always became more intense-looking especially whenever she mentioned Brent.

The mere reference of Brent’s name was like a trigger word to set off Zander’s possessiveness, something she didn’t need to be wasted on her because she didn’t want that kind of relationship with Zander.

Zander was pushing for something that would never see the light of day.  Her life revolved around work, it was what she lived and breathed for each and every day. Having a boyfriend, particularly one who possessed raw sex appeal like Zander did, would get her off her game plan.

She wouldn’t book a ticket on his train ride as long as Zander wanted them to step beyond the friend’s status. If he didn’t mind being kept in the buddies slot then everything would be fine with the world.

Sabrina couldn’t let Zander give her more than a brotherly kiss on the cheek or a friendly hug. Her mind was set and nothing or no one would change it.  If she let her guard down, it would only end up hurting one of them and she didn’t want to hurt him.

He had been there for her through the toughest time in her life. She wouldn’t know what she would do if Zander found out her secret and turned against her.

Chapter Eight

Writing down the last bit of information about his new client, Zander hung up the phone ecstatic to add another customer to his ever growing business. He had decided to come in to the office early today, so he could talk to Jax about Sabrina Yet, it had totally slipped his mind how his brother decided to surprise Sahara with an ‘I’m  sorry’ trip to Jamaica for two weeks to make up for their argument.

Leaning back in his chair, Zander couldn’t keep the smile from pulling the corners of his mouth. Pretty soon he would be doing the same sort of things with Sabrina because she would be done with all of this avoiding him nonsense.

She would be
his
and that was all there was to it.

He wasn’t going to allow her fear of them being together hinder his pursuit of her. Sabrina had nothing at all to fear when it came to him. All he wanted to do was protect and love her like she deserved to be loved by a man.

They would be in a relationship as partners—equals. Neither one of them would have more power than the other one. He would share everything with Sabrina and hopefully she would eventually start feeling the same way about him.

Their commitment to each other would consist of having an equal partnership but Sabrina would never know any of this because she was constantly fighting what was actually there between them.

His sister-in law Sahara was so different from Sabrina in that aspect. She had known there was a pull between her and Jax. The reason she fought it was out of wanting to keep her independence, not apprehension or fear like Sabrina was experiencing.

His mate was truly fearful of the magnetic pull between them. She didn’t understand the harder she ran the more he would pursue her no matter the distance she forced between them. The separation only made it harder for her to break the natural bond connecting them.

Sabrina was his for a reason. The chemicals in her blood linked her to him. Another man’s touch wouldn’t feel the same as his and their kisses wouldn’t be as drugging to her senses. No matter how many countless Brent’s or idiot Sean’s Sabrina tried to surround herself with, none of those fools would ever measure up to him.

Last night Sabrina tossed him out of her house because their kiss had gotten too intense for her; however she didn’t know that he didn’t leave right away. Instead, he drove a little ways down the street, staying inside of his car and watched her house, pondering how to get even closer to the woman he adored.

He hadn’t been ready to leave her yet.  Even at that short distance, Zander still felt her fighting herself to be with him. More than once his hand reached for the car door only for him to wrap it back around the steering wheel.

On more than one occasion, Zander wanted to grab Sabrina by her shoulders and shake some sense into that beautiful head of hers but he didn’t. Forcing her to come to him wasn’t how the rules worked when it came to claiming his mate.

Sabrina couldn’t confess her emotions to him unless they were spoken completely from her heart and soul. For a moment uneasiness settled in the middle of his heart almost making it stop beating completely.

What if Sabrina truly wasn’t able to overcome the box she had placed him in? What if her nervousness of breaking out of her shell when it involved him was too much for her to handle?

He could be making an ass out of himself assuming he completely knew Sabrina’s mind. Yes, he could slip past her mental defenses and sneak a peek at her thoughts, but Zander felt as if he wouldn’t know the true Sabrina by treating her like that.

He didn’t want to invade her privacy unless he really had a cause to do it.

Sabrina’s emotions and feelings for him came from more than her thoughts. Her body language, facial expressions and gestures also showed how she was reacting towards him, giving him a better change at gauging how to approach her.

Zander noticed on more than one occasion how Sabrina got the cutest eyebrow twitch whenever she got nervous about something. She would pick at her fingernail polish or twitch a piece of her hair around her finger when she was worried about something at work.

He knew all about her quirks and flaws because Sabrina was his everything. Sadly, Sabrina hadn’t taken the time to learn those things about him, but he wasn’t mad over it.

A vampire should know everything about his mate down to what made her smile at a moment’s notice to her favorite ice cream topping. Sabrina was still so young and inexperienced when it came to life.

Her job as a court reporter was continually placing her into dangerous situations and he hated it. No one would hurt the woman he adored.  The thought of someone placing Sabrina in harm’s way, made his blood run cold. Nothing was ever going to happen to Sabrina.  Zander would make sure of it.

Resting his head against the back of the chair, Zander closed his eyes as he tried to figure out another way to get Sabrina to finally see him as a man.  Not as anything else, but the man she could spend the rest of her life with because as long as she kept him in the friend’s box he wasn’t going to get anywhere with her.

Her fascination to him was there. It wrapped around him the first time they met which made him falsely believe he wouldn’t have any problem winning over her heart. Something had happened between them that scared Sabrina making her take a step back from him.

But his instincts were off the mark since Sabrina was battling him tooth and nail making it so much more difficult for him to tell her his ultimate secret. However, Zander wouldn’t and couldn’t allow her behavior to go on for much longer. His patience was wearing very thin on his end.

Every time he was around Sabrina all he wanted to do was bite her and then inform her later about the reason he did it, but he couldn’t do it.

Sighing in the back of his throat, Zander slowly opened his eyes and sat up in his seat running his hand down his face. Sitting around like this wasn’t going to get him anywhere. He had to do something to keep his mind off her until he had a definite plan of action. Work was always the best thing to keep his mind occupied.

Reaching for the paper on his desk, Zander picked it up, folded it in half and then slid it into the front pocket of his jeans before standing up. A few hours out of the office dealing with a new client might help clear things up for him. He would bet money that Sabrina wasn’t sitting around thinking about their future together.

She was probably thinking of new ways to avoid contact with him. Zander loved how Sabrina actually thought he was going to let her go.
She was his
! They might not be together at the moment, yet he knew their relationship would end up just the way he saw it.

Sliding his hands into his pockets, Zander headed towards the door with a spring to his step.  Jax won over Sahara after a long battle and it seemed like he might be going down a tougher road with Sabrina, but she was so worth it
.