She looked up at him and Maks had to stop himself from staring at her soft mouth.
‘What do you mean?’
‘You feel it too, don’t you? This...energy between us. Chemistry. Desire.’
Colour spilled into her cheeks even as she shook her head. When she spoke she sounded breathless, and it had a direct effect on Maks’s body.
‘No, I don’t... I don’t think I do.’
Maks smiled, because it was a long time since he’d had to seduce a woman. ‘Liar.’
Now Zoe looked bewildered. ‘Why are you interested in me?’
‘Why are you so suspicious?’
‘Because I’m just...nothing special. And I’m not looking for compliments.’
‘I know,’ Maks said.
‘I’m just normal. Nothing extraordinary.’
‘Your pictures aren’t “just normal”. You have a talent. And you’re beautiful. I want you, Zoe, more than I’ve wanted anyone in a long time.’
Her cheeks glowed. ‘You’re very direct. Has anyone ever told you that?’
A memory flashed into Maks’s head of his mother, her face contorted with fury, her hand coming out of nowhere to slap him across the cheek, her spittle hitting his face as she said, ‘I owe you nothing.’
‘On a rare occasion,’ Maks said dryly, pushing down that rogue memory of the time when he’d confronted his mother about her woeful mothering skills.
* * *
Zoe looked up at Maks Marchetti. She couldn’t believe he’d just told her he wanted her. Her. Boring, ordinary Zoe Collins.
But he didn’t think she was ordinary, or boring.
It was too seductive...too much. She could feel secret parts of herself that she’d exposed before wanting to unfurl and bask in this man’s dynamic presence. Dangerous to want those things. Because she’d wanted them before and she’d paid for it. For her naivety. For her vulnerability.
But, in truth, Dean Simpson hadn’t really had the power to truly wound her. She’d had a lucky escape. Whereas this man... She sensed a level of danger that she would be wise to heed.
He looked as immovable as a massive stone statue. But treacherously, in the same moment she could acknowledge the danger, she also felt it dissipating, to be replaced by temptation.
Desperation gripped her at the thought that he might see how tempted she was. She needed to nip this in the bud now—prove to Maks that he was delusional. Surely if she could prove that he’d leave, and then she could get on with her life and forget that she’d ever met him?
As if you could forget a man like this, taunted an inner voice.
It was a taunt that turned her desperation to panic. Panic strong enough to make her step closer to him and say, ‘I’ll prove to you that there’s really nothing between us.’
A glint came into his eye. ‘Go on, then.’
CHAPTER THREE
ZOE KNEW HE was issuing a challenge, but she had no option but to follow it through now. She sucked in a breath and stepped even closer. Maks made no move to touch her. She reached up, putting her hands on his shoulders, coming up on her toes.
He was so tall, so broad. Every part of her tingled with her awareness of him as a virile male in his prime.
That had to be all it was. She was only human. It couldn’t be desire uniquely for him. And he would soon realise that she really didn’t hold any appeal for him.
She reached up as much as she could, her hands gripping his shoulders, and pressed her mouth to his before she could lose her nerve.