Shaken by Heather Long Page B

time between eating the bites Tony fed her and sharing the puzzle. “This is great, you know?”
    “Oh, yeah. I know. I just hate that we’re going to have to stop tonight.”
    Her heart jerked in her chest. “Why?”
    “Because you have to work in the morning. I can’t spend all night keeping you awake and send you off to work exhausted.”
    Ugh . Work. “To be independently wealthy.” She toasted him with her coffee mug.
    “We’d be bored. You thrive on being in the thick of things even when you complain about people’s receipts.”
    The insight surprised her. She did get aggravated by the poor bookkeeping of her clients; especially those who didn’t want to use her services more than once a year at tax time. But she also enjoyed the challenge of bringing order to chaos.
    “How do you know that?”
    “I pay attention, Miss Zip. And I’ve been paying attention to you for a year. When you’re not reading a book while waiting for your girls, you’re working. You get this sexy little smile on your face when you’re poring through receipts and stacking them in whatever order you’ve deemed necessary.”
    She widened her eyes at the description, her cheeks heating. “I don’t think I’d ever have called taxes sexy.”
    “I wasn’t. I called you sexy. You’re the sexiest accountant I’ve ever seen.”
    “Flattery will get you everywhere, Mr. Giordano.”
    “Three letter word for vibrant, light shining.”
    Tingles shivered over her skin. “Any letters revealed.”
    “Z is the first.”
    The affection simmering in her blood wrapped lazily around her heart. “Zip.”
    “Oh, yeah.”
     
     
    ****
     
     
    Six-thirty a.m. Monday
    “I don’t have time to eat.” Zip slid her heels into the backpack, checked her receipts, book, and laptop. She’d barely looked at her work since Tony arrived at one-thirty Sunday morning. She’d be buried all day if she hoped to make the three o’clock meeting.
    “Yes, you do.” Tony held up a piece of toast enticingly, and she took a bite. He was dressed in his work slacks and shirt, his own bag stationed at the door. She’d rushed through getting ready. Her body ached from his wake-up call, and her sex was sore in a wonderfully, swollen and used fashion. She was already aggravated with all the clothes she’d put on, including the sexy little black bra Tony had insisted she wear after he’d caught sight of it.
    Stiffer than her usual choices, the lace added to the friction on her nipples. She reveled at the sweet kiss he gave her before feeding her another bite.
    “You’re going to spoil me.” After swallowing the toast, she plucked her coffee cup and took another long drink. She had ten minutes to get to the train and then another thirty-five before she’d be in the office. That would give her an hour before the weekly Monday morning, kick-off meeting.
    “You say that like it’s a bad thing.” He grabbed her coat and stuffed the corner of the toast into her mouth. Holding it with her teeth, she let him help her into the jacket. He donned his own coat and shoes.
    “It’s not.” She tried to push the words around the toast, grumbling until her jacket was buttoned and she could take her bite. “I’m just used to running and someone made me oversleep.”
    “We weren’t sleeping.” He grinned without a hint of repentance. “It’s going to be hours until you’re free again.”
    Her tummy did a little flip. “You want to come over again?”
    “Am I overstepping if I say I planned to grab some Chinese and meet you here at five-thirty?”
    “Absolutely not.”
    “All right, then.” He scooped up her bags and pointed to the toast. “Eat. I’ll walk you to the train because I need to run by my place today, too, so I thought I’d ride to Midtown with you.”
    She didn’t quite dance down the frosty steps, but her heart definitely bounced.
     
    Noon, Monday
    Tony shifted in the seat. He’d made it to his place, changed, and packed a bag with fresh