felt too hot under that incisive blue gaze. As if he was mentally stripping her bare, just as he’d done physically that day. Laying her on his bed, telling her to ‘lie down, sweetheart’, before shattering her world to pieces—literally and figuratively.
Anger that he’d been able to seduce her so easily made her lash out now. ‘There were two of us there. I asked you to protect us.’
Zac’s mouth flattened to a thin line and he straightened from his nonchalant stance. ‘Don’t think for a second I’m not taking full responsibility for my actions. I’m well aware that we made love again without protection, and I will deal with the consequences.’
Rose’s hand went to her belly. ‘This baby is not a consequence.’
Zac looked derisory. ‘You’re telling me that this baby is more than just a means to an end for you? Please don’t insult my intelligence.’
Rose’s vision was blurring…with anger, she told herself. Anger was good. Because if she didn’t focus on the anger she was afraid she might go to pieces.
‘This baby is not just a means to an end.’ Suddenly something snapped inside her. Something she’d been suppressing. It rose up—an awful compulsion to know—and before she could stop herself she was blurting out, ‘That night we first met you acted like it meant something…like it wasn’t usual for you.’
Zac’s whole form went still. His face was a smooth mask, telling her nothing. Already Rose was cursing herself for having said anything. But it was too late. He was moving…coming closer with dangerously lithe grace.
He came so close that she had to tilt her head to look up at him, and she could see the flinty chips of ice blue in his eyes, the darker ring around his irises.
Quietly he said, ‘Oh, it meant something, all right.’
Her heart jumped. He lifted a hand and traced the line of her jaw with a finger, so lightly she could barely feel it, but it burned like a brand. She tingled, nerve endings snapping and sizzling. The past was coming dangerously close to the present again…
His gaze moved from her mouth, where it had dropped, back up to her eyes. ‘Do you want to know what it meant?’
Rose nodded, even though she knew she should know better. It wasn’t going to be good.
‘It meant that you piqued my interest—which is exactly what you set out to do. The fact that we had amazing mutual chemistry only made your job easier.’
Rose opened her mouth to protest again, but Zac put his thumb over her lips, stopping her from speaking.
When had he moved so close that his body was brushing hers? Rose couldn’t think straight… Zac’s thumb was moving back and forth now, over her mouth, and his eyes were on her there. Hot. Desirous.
‘Do you know what it also meant?’
She couldn’t move. He sounded as if he was talking to himself.
And then he said, ‘It meant this…’
Before Rose could react Zac had hauled her into his body, snaking his arm around her waist, and his mouth was crashing down on hers. Four months of aching exploded inside Rose as she found herself not hesitating for a second, responding as if the past and present had indeed meshed and there was only this…blissful sensation of coming home.
Zac knew that he hadn’t intended to kiss Rose for any other reason except to prove a point. When she’d looked at him and asked so earnestly if it had ‘meant something’ fury had risen up. She was still trying to play him…
But as soon as his mouth touched hers, as soon as those soft curves slotted into his harder planes and muscles, his motivation grew hazy and his severely frustrated libido snapped and growled, seeking only pleasure and satisfaction.
Rose twined her arms around his neck, hitching her chest closer to his. Were her breasts bigger? He itched to cup one, test its weight and firmness. His hand rose, skimming over her hip and waist… And it was that evidence of her thickening body that finally managed to bring him back from the roaring brink.
Not because his desire was doused—if anything his blood had got even hotter—but because this was only meant to be a lesson, and he was in danger of losing it all over again.
Zac pulled back from Rose so abruptly she was left clutching at air. She opened dazed eyes to find him standing a few feet away, looking at her. Her mouth was still open, fire was in her blood…but when she registered that he was looking at her as if he’d just been reading the paper, not a hair out of place, she cursed herself for a fool.
She shut her mouth and wrapped her arms around herself, hating that her breathing was so rough and that her nipples were still hard, stinging. Betraying her weakness.
‘What was that in aid of?’ At least she sounded cooler than she felt.
His jaw was like granite. ‘You asked what it “meant,” the night we met and our subsequent meeting. It meant we had physical chemistry, pure and simple. It meant I wanted to get you into my bed. And that even though I was unaware of your agenda the end result would have been the same.’
‘The end result…?’ Rose parroted back, struggling to get her hormones back under control. She felt raw.
‘Yes. The end result being that no woman is a fixture in my life—not even the ones who play hard to get. And not even the ones who get pregnant in a bid to earn themselves a fortune at my expense.’
He smiled then, as she digested his words, but it didn’t meet his eyes.
‘You’re good for an innocent. I’ll give you that. Who knows? Maybe you’ve been practising in the meantime. Maybe this baby isn’t mine at all…but you’re not going anywhere till I know for sure. And if paternity is confirmed, be under no illusions. He, or she, will be a Valenti. No force on earth will prevent that. This child will not suffer because of your betrayal and greed. It will be under my protection, and the extent of your involvement will be negotiated with me.’
At that stark declaration—at the prospect of what that would mean—Rose felt fear grip her by the throat, cutting off her breath. She felt weak and told herself it wasn’t because of that kiss. The sofa was nudging the back of her knees and she sat down.
She tried to rationalise, to reassure herself. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t… But she knew as she looked into that hard-boned face and saw those eyes full of disgust that he could. And would.
Zac Valenti had already shown the world what he did to people who got on his wrong side. He excised them from his life like a toxic wound and he flourished in the aftermath.
He’d famously left his fiancée standing at the altar, subjecting her to public ridicule and humiliation. And that was a woman who hadn’t even betrayed him. Rose knew he would do much worse to her.
A bitter dart struck her as she realised that he still suspected the baby might be someone else’s. Considering the anxiety she’d endured for the last few months, and the morning-to-midnight jobs she’d taken to improve her father’s chances of getting that operation, it was laughable that she would have taken another lover.
Right now she knew that she couldn’t endure another bruising round of words or, worse, his taking a notion to prove that he felt nothing for her by kissing her again. He’d done it purely to prove a point. That she’d revealed herself so easily burnt her up inside.
Maybe it was better this way… Better for her to have found out exactly how detached Zac had been all along. Better that than have him guessing for a second how much it had meant to her, losing her virginity to him. If he ever knew that…
The