The Innocent Behind the Scandal (The Marchetti Dynasty 2)

Maks stopped. ‘Zoe...?’

She felt impaled, as if she couldn’t breathe. The force of Maks’s body deep inside hers was so alien and yet...utterly right. She moved to try and escape the sharpness and it subsided. She breathed out on a shuddery breath. ‘I’m okay...honestly.’

Maks moved again, pulling back before seating himself deep again. He did this over and over, letting Zoe’s body get accustomed to his.

At one point he said, ‘You’re so tig

ht...are you sure I’m not hurting you?’

She shook her head, a feeling of awe and wonder moving through her as she felt flutters of sensation eclipsing the sense of discomfort. Tension was spiralling inside her, adding to a hunger that made her move restlessly under Maks. There was no pain now, only a delicious sensation of building pleasure, deep at her core.

Maks’s movements became harder, faster. He reached under her and tipped up her hips, and she gasped when he touched her so deep inside she saw stars. She was overcome with a primal need that only this man could fulfil. She was almost sobbing, begging him for something she knew only he could give her, and that was when he reached between them and touched her, just where his own body was moving powerfully in and out.

That was all it took. A featherlight touch and she flew apart into a million brilliant shards of ecstasy.

* * *

It was only when Maks felt Zoe’s body climaxing around his that he was able to let go. It had taken superhuman strength not to spill as soon as he’d entered her tight, slick body, but somehow he’d managed it. His whole focus had been on making this good for her.

And now...as his own climax ripped him apart, inside out...he knew that he’d never experienced anything as good as this.

CHAPTER SEVEN

WHEN ZOE WOKE, dawn was just a faint pink trail outside. Maks was sprawled beside her, on his front, legs and arms splayed. Every inch of his magnificent body was no less powerful in repose. His buttocks were two perfectly taut orbs, and Zoe felt hot when she thought of all that power thrusting between her legs.

He was facing away from her, and she was glad of that tiny respite. Even in sleep she was sure she would feel as if he could see right into her...to where she was freaking out as the full enormity of what had happened last night sank in.

She’d slept with Maks Marchetti. She was no longer a virgin.

She’d allowed herself to be intimate with someone. Blindly. Without a moment’s hesitation. And not just because she’d wanted him so desperately—although that consideration had wiped everything else out—but also, and far more worryingly, because she’d trusted him.

She went cold inside when she recalled saying that to him. I trust you. She hadn’t even noticed. Not really. Too intent on the hunger clawing inside her, too intent on achieving satisfaction.

But as that sank in now she went colder than cold. All her precious defences, which had protected her even when Dean had gone too far, had crumbled like a flimsy house of cards in the wake of Maks’s expert seduction.

She’d allowed him access to her most deeply secret self. Where she was most vulnerable. Where she’d hidden all her insecurities and fears. And now...she had nowhere to hide.

Maks moved minutely beside her and she held her breath, but he didn’t move again. Terrified he would wake before she was ready to deal with him, Zoe moved off the bed silently. She found a robe hanging on the back of the bathroom door and pulled it on. Then she picked up her strewn clothes and stole out of his suite, hurrying back down the empty corridor to her own.

When she’d closed the door, she let out a long, shuddery breath. What had she done? She went into the bathroom and caught her reflection and winced. Her hair was a wild tangle. Her face was still flushed. Her eyes were bright and sparkling. Belying her inner turmoil.

She remembered him kissing her scars.

Zoe stripped off the robe and dived under the shower, lamenting getting rid of Maks’s scent from her body even as she scrubbed herself. She saw the faint red marks where his stubble had grazed her skin. The faintest bruise on her thigh where he’d gripped her as he’d thrust deep.

He’d marked her as primally as if they were animals. And she thrilled to it even as she might try to deny it. You want to be his woman. She rejected that outright. There was no way, after initiating a virgin, that Maks would be hanging around to repeat the experience. She’d been a novelty from the start, that was all. And now it would be over.

When Zoe was out of the shower she dried herself perfunctorily and went into the bedroom, dragging out her meagre little suitcase. She dressed in jeans and a shirt and packed the rest of her things, ignoring the stunning yellow evening dress hanging in the wardrobe. The sooner she got out of this fantasy land, the better, before she—

She stopped herself. Before she what? Fell for Maks Marchetti?

At that moment the doorbell chimed. Zoe’s heart stopped. It chimed again. She went and opened it, not prepared to see Maks on the other side, dressed in jeans and a dark shirt, tucked in. He was clean-shaven and his hair was damp.

Zoe instantly felt weak at the thought of him in the shower, water sluicing over that taut, powerful body.

‘Maks? Did you want something?’

His face was expressionless, but she could see that his jaw was tight. ‘You could say that. Why did you leave my bed?’