“Too many,” he said a little grimly, and when he saw her expression at that, he reached for her hand and squeezed.

Their first physical contact all day, something she’d yearned for, but all she wanted to do was smack him.

“There’s my boss,” he said. “Sharon’s pretty certain I’m the most annoying man alive. And then there’s my sister. Amory loves me, but I annoy her big-time. It’s a special talent of mine.”

“Hard to believe,” she said, hoping the teasing note in her tone served as an apology for sounding like a shrew.

He brought their joined hands up to his mouth and brushed a kiss to her palm. “And then there’s you,” he said with one of his panty-melting smiles.

She tugged her hand free. “Okay,” she said. “No more of that, because my clothes tend to fall off when you look at me like that.”

He laughed, but his smile slowly faded. “Cat’s Paw has gone cold,” he said quietly. “They’ve moved out.”

She took in the tight look in his eyes, the grim set to his mouth. “You’re frustrated.”

“Frustration is a useless emotion. Goes against productivity.”

“So you never let frustration get to you?” she asked.

His gaze dropped to her mouth. “I didn’t say that.”

She sucked in a breath and then another one when he pulled his sunglasses off and let her see the heat in his eyes. And then he slid a hand to the back of her neck and drew her in and kissed the ever-living daylights out of her.

When he pulled back, he slid his glasses back on.

“What was that?” she managed.

“Me, letting my frustration get to me.”

And then he was gone, heading inside to wait while she did the postflight check and tie-down.

It didn’t take long. Within thirty minutes she was done and entered the airport reception hangar.

The open greeting area had a few people milling around and there were several more up front, not a single one of them Parker.

Joe was behind the front desk. “You sell our baby?” he called out.

“Did my best,” she said. “I think they’ll be calling you. Have you seen Parker?”

Joe gestured toward the hallway. Zoe headed that way, taking a quick side trip toward the restrooms, when suddenly she was stopped and pushed up against the wall. In the next beat, a mouth covered hers.

Parker. She’d have recognized his kiss blindfolded but her heart still leapt into her throat at the feel of his bigger, harder body pressing hers into the wall, holding her there for his kiss.

Not that she wanted to escape. It felt so good, so heart-stoppingly good that she struggled to free her hands just so that she could get them on him.

Instead, he growled—growled!—and grabbed her hands, pinning them on either side of her head as he kissed her deeper.

And then deeper still, so that escaping was just about the furthest thing from her mind. As for the closest thing on her mind? Finding a place to break her promise to herself and get them both naked as soon as possible.

Parker couldn’t believe it when he’d seen Tripp Carver coming through the front door of the airport. He’d had a single heartbeat to realize that the guy was about to see him and Zoe—who was coming toward him with a smile on her face—and he reacted.

He pushed Zoe up against the wall and kissed her, hiding both of their faces.

He had no idea why Carver was here right now, but he could guess. He was heading out, never to be seen again. And if that was true, the very last thing Parker wanted was to get caught spying on the Butcher with Zoe anywhere near him.

She could kick his ass later, but for right now this was about getting out of here without her being seen.

When he heard Carver pass by them and head down the hallway toward the private lounge, Parker broke off the kiss but left his mouth against hers. “Zoe.”

She blinked slowly, dazed. “Yeah?”

“I need you to go to Joe’s office, lock the door, and stay there until I come for you.”

“What? Why?”

“I’ll explain later, move now.” And when she just stared at him, he added a quiet but hopefully urgent “Please, Zoe.” Having no choice but to believe that she trusted him enough to do as he asked, he took off after Carver.

Twenty-five

Parker’s urgency had Zoe moving instinctually to Joe’s office, which was right off the hallway and only ten feet away. She shut the door and hit the lock and then stood there for a second, trying to gather her wits.

Didn’t happen.

When several minutes passed—okay, maybe thirty seconds—and Parker didn’t come for her, she was driven by a need to make sure he was okay. She cracked open the door and peeked down the hallway. It took a ninety-degree turn so she couldn’t see around the corner. She closed herself back in the office and once again locked the door just as her phone buzzed in her pocket. She whipped it out. “Parker, where the hell are you—”

“It’s Darcy,” her sister said. “You didn’t look at the ID screen?”

“No, I—” Zoe swiped a hand down her face and let out a low laugh. “Sorry. Parker just told me to stay and I got all discombobulated.”

“No man tells me to stay and lives through it,” Darcy said. A beat went by. “He give you a reason?”

“No,” Zoe said. “One minute he was kissing me and the next he got all weird and told me to stay, threw out a ‘please,’ and he took off.”

“You should definitely stay,” Darcy said.

“But you just said that if a man told you to stay, he wouldn’t live through it.”

“Yes,” Darcy said. “But you have sharp instincts. Remember that time we were in Budapest and I was hungry and you wouldn’t let me eat because you had a weird feeling?”

“Because what you wanted to eat was some bad-looking fish.”

“It looked fine to me and everyone else in the market,” Darcy said. “Remember I asked around?”

“God, you were a spoiled brat that day,” Zoe said. “And everyone but us got sick. I saved you.”

“No, your instincts saved us,” Darcy said. “Which is my point. What do your instincts say now?”

“That something’s up.” Zoe’s heart was beating heavily, although there was a solid argument to be made that it was from the kiss. She felt anxious, especially when she once again peeked out and peeked around the corner of the hallway, past the restrooms and pilots’ lounge to the side exit and saw not a single soul. She moved back to Joe’s office.

Still no Parker. “I’ve gotta go.”

“Follow your instincts,” Darcy said firmly.

Zoe disconnected and tried calling Parker. No answer. Dammit. Darcy had suggested she follow her instincts, but her instincts were tied. She needed a tiebreaker. So she called the most logical, reasonable, straight-headed person she knew—her brother.

Wyatt answered sounding harried and rushed. “Yeah?”

“You mean ‘Hello, sister, lovely to hear from you,’” Zoe said.

“Hello, sister, I’m about to go elbows deep in a cow. Literally,” Wyatt said. “State your emergency or hang up.”