A Facade to Shatter

Chapter SIX

ZACH LIVED IN a sprawling house in Virginia. It was gated, with manicured green lawns and a view of the Potomac River. Here, the Potomac was still close to the source and was wilder and freer than it had been in Washington. It tumbled over huge boulders, rushing and gurgling toward the city where it would become wide, placid and subject to Chesapeake tides.

Lia stood in a room that overlooked the backyard and the cliffs of the Potomac. Glass doors opened onto a wide stone balcony that ran the length of the house. Immediately outside was a small seating area, with a chair and a table. Perfect for reading.

The gardens weren’t overly ornate, but there were a lot of gorgeous flowering plants in manicured beds. Roses bloomed in profusion along two stone walls, red and pink and white. Fat flowering hydrangeas, blue and pink, sat in the shade beneath tall trees, and a host of bright annuals bloomed in beds that ran down toward the river.

Lia’s fingers itched. She wanted to lose herself in the garden, to go dig into the dirt and forget all about Zach Scott and the Correttis for a while.

But that was impossible right now.

She hadn’t seen Zach since she’d arrived. A chauffeur had come to get her at the hotel earlier, after a terse call from Zach informing her to be ready. Once she’d arrived, a uniformed maid had showed her to this room and offered to put her things away. Lia only had one suitcase and a carry-on, so she didn’t really have much with her. She’d declined and hung everything herself.

Now she felt like she was in stasis. Just waiting for something to happen. The garden called to her, but she resisted. What would Zach think if he came looking for her and she was on her knees in the dirt?

As the minutes dragged by, she resolved to go out on the balcony and run her fingers through the potted geraniums and lavender, just for something to do, but a knock at her door stopped her. “Yes?” she called.

The door opened and Zach stood there, tall, handsome and brooding as ever. Lia folded her arms over her chest and waited.

“If you’ve no objection, I’ve brought a doctor who is going to take a blood sample.”

“Why?”

Zach came into the room, his hands shoved into the pockets of his faded jeans. Dio, he was sexy. Lia shook herself and tried not to think about him that way. She failed, naturally. Her heart thumped and pumped and her bones loosened in the shell of her skin.

“There is a paternity test that will isolate the baby’s DNA from your blood. Just to be certain, you realize.”

Lia lifted her chin. “I have nothing to hide.”

It hurt, of course, that he didn’t believe her. But if a test would erase all doubt, she was for it. Not only that, but she also looked forward to the apology he would have to make when the test proved he was this baby’s father.

“I’ll bring her up, then.”

“Yes, do.”

He left and then returned a few minutes later with a smiling woman who took Lia’s blood and asked her questions about how she was feeling. Once it was over, and the woman was gone, Lia was left with Zach.

“I have an important dinner to attend tonight,” he told her. “You will accompany me.”

Lia swallowed. She wasn’t accustomed to large gatherings. Aside from the wedding-that-wasn’t, and a few family things that happened once a year, she spent most of her time alone or with her grandmother.

“I don’t have anything to wear,” she said. She didn’t even know what kind of dinner it was, but if it was anything like that gathering she’d crashed last night, she knew she didn’t have anything appropriate. She’d put on the nicest thing she had for that event.

Zach didn’t look perturbed. “There is time. I’ll send you to my mother’s personal shopper.”

“That is not necessary,” she said, though in truth she wouldn’t begin to know where to start in this city.

“I think it is, Lia. It’ll go much faster if you simply let her help you pick out what you need. For tonight, you’ll need formal wear. But select a range of clothing appropriate for various events.”

“And do you attend many events?” she asked, her heartbeat spiking at the thought of being out among so many people so frequently.

Plants she understood. People not so much.

His eyes were flat. “I am a Scott. And a returning war hero. My presence is in demand quite often, I’m afraid.”

She didn’t miss the way his voice slid over the words war hero. It was like they were oily, evil words for some reason. As if he hated them.

“You don’t sound as if you enjoy it.”

One corner of his mouth lifted. “No, I don’t. Not anymore.”

She wanted to ask what had changed, but she didn’t. “Then why do it?”

“Because I am a Scott. Because people depend on me. And if you are going to be a Scott, too, then you’d better get used to doing things because you have to instead of want to.”

Lia nibbled the inside of her lip. She was no good at the social thing. She had no practice at it. But, for tonight, she would have to try and be something she wasn’t. She would have to navigate the social waters without falling flat on her metaphorical face.

“I’m no good at this, Zach,” she told him truthfully. “I don’t have any experience.”

Not to mention she was awkward and grew tongue-tied around too many people. She’d always been so self-conscious, so worried about whether or not others liked her.

Because she’d never felt very wanted and she didn’t know how to fix it.

“Then you’ll learn,” he said. “Because you have no choice.”

Zach slipped into his tuxedo jacket and tugged the cuffs of his shirt until they were straight beneath the jacket arms. Tonight was another event, another speech, where he would be speaking to some of Washington’s elite about the need for funding for veterans’ causes. Everyone tended to think, because the military worked for the government, that returning vets’

care was assured. It was to a point. Where that point ended was where Zach stepped in.

But tonight was different in a way he had not expected. For the first time since he’d returned from the war, he was taking a woman with him. A woman who was his date.

His fiancée, for God’s sake. An unsettled feeling swirled in his gut at the notion, but it was too late to back out now. He’d had the call from the doctor. They’d rushed the results—because he’d paid them a great deal of money to do so—and he knew the truth.

Lia Corretti was pregnant with his child.

He wasn’t quite sure how that made him feel. He was still stunned at his reaction to her earlier today, in her hotel room, when he’d suddenly decided that marrying her was the thing to do. It had been a preemptive strike, because though he’d fully intended to get an answer to the child’s paternity before proceeding, he’d also known on a gut level that she was telling him the truth.

She’d been a virgin. He’d realized something was different about her that night in Palermo, but she’d distracted him before he’d puzzled out precisely what it was. Not that being a virgin made someone truthful, but he imagined it was highly unlikely she’d turned around and taken a new lover so quickly.

His gut had known what his head hadn’t wanted to admit. And now he had a fiancée. A fiancée he didn’t quite know how to fit into this life of his. She hadn’t wanted to accompany him tonight, but he’d insisted she would anyway.

He’d been angry and resentful toward her all day. But now he felt a twinge of guilt over his reaction. Still, he’d told her the truth. She would learn to deal with her responsibilities as his wife because she had no choice.

They had appearances to maintain and commitments to keep. If he was going to have a wife, then she was going to be at his side. It’s the way it worked in his world. The way it had always worked.

He went downstairs and into his office, where he opened the wall safe and extracted a box. He’d told Lia to shop for clothing, but he’d not thought of jewelry. He had no idea what she would wear tonight, but he knew what would look good with her coloring. He opened the box and slid a finger over the art deco rubies and diamonds. These had belonged to his grandmother. She’d left them to him on her death and he’d put them away, certain it would be years before he found a woman to give them to.

He flipped the box closed after a long moment and held it tight. His life was changing in ways he hadn’t expected. Ways he wasn’t quite sure how to cope with. He resented the changes, but he would deal with them the way he dealt with everything else in his life these days.

By hiding his feelings beneath a mountain of duty and honor.

She was learning, or trying to. Lia stood beside Zach at a posh gathering being held in the National Gallery of Art. It was past closing time, and the museum was only open for this exclusive party.

She’d chosen a gown in a rich cream color, and swept her dark hair off her shoulders and pinned it up. She’d applied her makeup carefully, slid into her heels—not too high because she was already self-conscious about her height—and wrapped a shawl around her shoulders. Her jewelry had consisted of her simple diamonds, until she’d arrived downstairs and found Zach waiting for her in the foyer of the big house.

His gaze had flicked over her appreciatively, and she’d felt warmth spread through her limbs. She liked the way he looked at her. And she wasn’t happy about that. After the way he’d behaved since she’d arrived, she didn’t want to like anything about him. She kept telling herself that the man she’d spent two days with was gone—except she couldn’t quite convince herself when he looked at her the way he had earlier.

“Wear these,” he’d said, flipping open a box that held a ruby-and-diamond necklace and matching earrings. It was ornate, but somehow simple, too. An impressive feat for an expensive necklace.

“I shouldn’t,” she said. “I’m too clumsy—”

“Nonsense.” His tone had been firm. “You’re a beautiful woman, Lia. And you are about to be my wife.”

He’d taken the necklace from the box and clasped it on her once he’d removed her small pendant. Then he placed her necklace carefully in the box he’d taken the larger necklace from. She was grateful for that, considering it was the only jewelry she had that had belonged to her mother. It might be small and unimpressive, but Zach didn’t treat it that way, and that touched her even though she did not want it to. He held out his hand for her earrings, which she handed over, and then she put the diamonds and rubies on.

When she was finished, he gave a satisfactory smile. “Excellent. You look lovely.”

They’d climbed into the Mercedes, and the chauffeur—Raoul—had driven them here, where Zach had been greeted like the political royalty he was. Now, they were sipping cocktails and waiting for the dinner to begin.

She didn’t miss that women slanted their gazes toward her. Some were appraising while others were downright hostile. Zach kept her at his side. Periodically, he would drape an arm around her, or slide his hand into the small of her back to guide her through the crowd. His touches made her jumpy yet she found herself craving them.

Soon they were seated at a large round table toward the front of the gathering. Lia wasn’t intimidated by the array of cutlery and plates before her. She might not be any good at the socializing part of this, but she’d been brought up by Teresa Corretti, the most elegant woman in all of Sicily. Lia knew which fork to use, and which bread plate was hers. She also knew how to sit through a multicourse meal and how to pace herself so that she wasn’t too full before the last course arrived.

But tonight she was finding it hard to concentrate on her food. She was still tired from the trip, and the stress of everything was starting to overwhelm her. She’d left Sicily on impulse, and now she was here with Zach, and he wasn’t the man she’d thought he was.

He was an automaton, an aristocrat, a man who did what he had to do because he cared about things like social standing and reputation. While it wasn’t a foreign concept to her, coming from the Corretti family, it wasn’t what she’d thought she was fleeing toward when leaving Sicily.

She could hardly reconcile the man he was here—dressed in a bespoke tuxedo and sporting an expensive watch—with the stiff military man who’d thrown a medal at her feet. The two did not seem to go together, and it confused her.

“You aren’t eating.”

His breath ghosted over her ear and a shiver of something slid down her backbone. She turned her head, discovered that he was frowning down at her, his dark eyes intense.

“I’m tired,” she said. “My schedule is all messed up. In a couple of hours, I would be waking up and having breakfast, were I still home.”

“You need to eat something. For your health.”

She knew what he meant. And why he didn’t say it. “I’ve eaten the soup and some of the bread.”

“Beef is good for you. There’s iron in there.”

“I’ve had a bite of it.”

“Eat more, Lia.”

“I can’t eat just because you order me to,” she snapped quietly.

Zach glanced at someone across the table and smiled. Then he lifted his hand and slid it along her jaw, turning her head as he did so. To anyone else, the gesture looked loving and attentive. But she knew what it really was. He was attempting to keep her in line.

His eyes held hers. She couldn’t look away. His mouth was only inches away, and she found herself wanting to stretch toward him, wanting to tilt her face up and press her lips to his.

His gaze dropped to her mouth, and one corner of his beautiful, sensual lips lifted. “Yes, precisely,” he murmured. She felt her face flood with heat. “And I am not ordering you to eat, Lia. I’m concerned about your health.”

She dropped her gaze from his. “Grazie. But I will not let my health suffer, I assure you.”

“Excellent,” he said. “Because you are mine now, and I take care of what is mine.”

A shiver slid through her. And a flash of anger. “Are you certain about that? What if the test results aren’t what you want them to be?”

His eyes sparkled with humor that she sensed was at her expense. “I’ve already had the result. And it is precisely what you said it was.”

Lia wanted to jerk herself out of his grip, but she knew this was not the place to show a bit of temper. “You could not have told me this earlier?”

He shrugged. “Why? You already knew the answer.”

“Perhaps I would like an apology. You did suggest I was lying, as well as exceedingly promiscuous.”

“My mistake.”

“You consider that an apology?”

“I do. You must realize, sugar, that you aren’t the first to try and trap me this way. You’re just the first to succeed.”

Lia shoved her chair back, uncaring how it looked to the other guests at their table. The murmur of conversation ceased and all eyes were on her. She swallowed and stood, hoping the trembling didn’t show.

“If you will excuse me, ladies and gentlemen,” she said. “I believe I must freshen up.”

Then she turned and marched away without waiting for a response. She was certain the fashionable ladies were appalled with her. The gentlemen probably shrugged it off as foreign eccentricity. Nevertheless, she didn’t quite care what they thought. She wasn’t about to sit there and let Zach talk to her like that.

She found the ladies’ room and went inside to perch on one of the settees and calm down. She refreshed her lipstick in the mirror and smoothed a few stray hairs into place. As she gazed at her reflection, it hit her how unusual her reaction just now had been. She’d sat through enough humiliating Corretti functions in her life to know how to be invisible for the duration.

She also knew how to be a lady whenever any attention happened to turn on her, and she knew that marching away in a huff was not a part of the training her grandmother had instilled in her. Teresa Corretti would be disappointed at that display of temper just now.

Lia curled her hands into fists on her lap and took a deep breath. Damn Zach, he had a way of getting beneath her skin and irritating her so much that she simply reacted without thinking. It wasn’t like her to draw attention to herself, or to argue, but she couldn’t help it with him.

Still, she should not have let him get to her like that. But he’d suggested she’d purposely set out to trap him into marriage, and it made her furious. What kind of God’s gift to women did he think he was anyway? It was ludicrous. And she planned to tell him so just as soon as they were alone and she could give him a proper piece of her mind.

Lia stood and smoothed her dress. She studied herself in the mirror and was pleased with what she saw. Oh, she was still too plump—and too tall—but she cleaned up quite nicely when she was able to wear designer dresses someone had picked out specifically for her shape and coloring.

When she left the ladies’ room, Zach was standing across from the door, leaning against the wall in a sexy slouch that made her heart kick up. He really was spectacular. Tall, broad and intensely handsome. The kind of man that, yes, would have women falling all over him.

“You’ve been gone awhile,” he said.

Lia tilted her chin up. “Yes. I needed to get my temper under control.”

Zach laughed. She didn’t like the way the sound slid beneath her skin. Curled around her heart. Warmed her from the inside out.

“I wasn’t aware you had a temper, Lia.”

“Of course I do. And you know just how to aggravate it.” She’d never really realized precisely how furious another person could make her until she’d met Zach. He had an ability to make her feel things she’d never quite felt before—and to say things she would have never said to another person. Usually, she hid her emotions down deep.

Except with him. With him, she couldn’t help but say what she was feeling.

It was that or burst.

She crossed the hall and stood right in front of him, nearly toe to toe. She was tall in her heels, five-eleven, but she still had to tilt her head back to look up at him. “You might think you are some sort of priceless gift to womankind, Zach Scott, but I’ll have you know that I would much prefer to be back home and for none of this to have happened.”

It wasn’t quite true, but she wasn’t going to tell him that. She wasn’t sorry for the two nights they’d spent together. She wasn’t even sorry about her baby. She was sorry for the way it had happened, and for the man it had happened with. Why couldn’t she have chosen a good Sicilian man for her night of rebellion? A single, sexy Sicilian who had no hang-ups about women and their motives.

Even as she thought it, she knew she didn’t really want that, either.

“For your information,” she continued, “I did not set out to ‘trap’ you. That is the most arrogant, conceited, unbelievable thing you have said yet. No one forced you to do what you did in Palermo. No one forced you to take that risk.”

His expression was dark. “No, you’re right about that. No one forced me. It was a mistake, and I was stupid enough to make it.” His eyes slid over her, came to rest on her face again. “Everything about those two days was a mistake.”

Lia tried not to let that hurt her, but she didn’t quite succeed. It stung her in places she’d thought she’d locked away long ago. “Well, now that we have that out of the way, I think it must be time for the dessert course.”

She turned her back on him and started down the hall, back toward the dinner. Tears pricked her eyes. Angry tears, she told herself.

Zach’s hand on her elbow brought her up short. She whirled around and jerked out of his grip.

He was a dark, brooding presence. “Look, I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.” He shoved a hand through his hair, blew out a breath.

Lia glared at him steadily. “I did not trap you, Zach. I’d like you to admit that.”

His expression remained dark. “Fine. You didn’t trap me.”

“And what about not believing I was telling the truth? Are you going to admit you were wrong about that, too?”

His eyes gleamed. “No.”

She stiffened. “Of all the rude, arrogant—”

“What reason did I have to believe you?” he said heatedly. “We’re strangers, Lia, regardless of what happened in Palermo.”

She swallowed against the knot of anger and pain clogging her throat. But she knew what he said was true. Would she have believed a story like hers if she were Zach? Considering his previous experience of women, perhaps not.

“I will concede that point,” she said coolly, though her heart beat hot at the admission. “But I don’t like it.”

He reached for her hand, slipped it into his. Her entire body went on red alert just from that simple touch. She wanted more of him, more of what they’d had in Palermo. And yet she knew that was the last thing she should want. The very last. They had an arrangement in name only, to protect their families, until such time as they could go their separate ways and not cause a scandal.

She had to remember he didn’t truly want this child. Or her.

She tried to pull her hand away, but he held it tight.

“Darling, we’re returning to the event,” he chided her. “We have to look happy together if they are to believe our whirlwind romance.”

“I’m not very good at pretending,” she said stiffly.

He tugged her closer. “Then I will have to give you a reason to smile,” he said, slipping his hand around to the small of her back and pressing her against him. He pulled the hand he’d trapped up to his chest, pressed her palm against the smooth fabric of his tuxedo.

“There is nothing you can do to make me smile, Zach,” she said, though her heart beat harder and faster as the look in his eyes changed. Heat flared in their dark depths and her body responded by softening, melting. She held herself rigid, unwilling to give in to the feelings swirling inside her. Feelings that wanted her to tilt her head back and offer her lips up for him to claim. “I want you to let me go.”

His eyes were hooded as they dropped to her mouth, and a shot of adrenaline pulsed into her veins.

“I will,” he murmured. “But not quite yet.”