The Innocent Behind the Scandal (The Marchetti Dynasty 2)

Zoe was drowning in a sea of rising lust. The urge to just sink into Maks, allow him to seduce her again, was overwhelming. She desperately wanted to forget everything for a moment...forget the need to think about what he’d said, about what it might mean.

She wasn’t sure what signal of acquiescence she gave, but Maks was tugging her towards him and saying, ‘Are you sure?’

Zoe just nodded, her eyes fixed on his mouth, silently begging him to kiss her. And then he was, and for the first time in months she felt as if she could breathe again.

It was fast and furious. Clothes were dragged off, thrown aside. They only stopped for a moment when they were naked. Zoe touched Maks reverently, feeling emotional. She’d thought she wouldn’t see him like this again.

He pulled her down onto the bed and she sank into him, her whole body melting and on fire at the same time. She gasped when his fingers explored her, testing her readiness.

He moved over her and she welcomed him into the cradle of her body, breathing deep as he moved inside her, deeper and deeper, until she couldn’t breathe any more and he

r whole body tightened before the exquisite release.

Zoe fell down into a warm comforting blanket of peace and satisfaction, only vaguely aware of the rush of warmth inside her.

* * *

When Zoe woke a few hours later the sun had started dipping in the sky. She had her back to Maks. They touched at every point where he spooned her. Her bottom was tucked against the potency of his body—no less potent now, even in sleep.

His arm was wrapped around her, his hand splayed across her. Zoe went cold. His hand was right there...on the thickening swell of her belly.

Panic gripped her. She moved as stealthily as she could, dislodging his hand, moving out from under his arm.

He stirred and said a sleepy, ‘Zoe?’

She mumbled something and fled to the bathroom on jelly legs, closing the door behind her. She looked at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were sparkling and her face was flushed. She didn’t have to look further to know the evidence of Maks’s touch would be all over her body.

She took in everything he’d said before they’d made love. He’d apologised. He hadn’t even sought proof of Dean’s guilt. He finally trusted her. He still wanted her.

That could be the case—and she couldn’t stop the hitch of joy and relief inside her at that fact—but she had to remember what was at stake here. She was pregnant, and as soon as Maks knew that everything would change again.

Like that morning in Venice, he’d go cold. Let her go. Because he didn’t want more.

She couldn’t do this—not now...not when she felt so raw.

But she had no choice. She had to let him know.

She went back into the bedroom and steeled herself, not prepared for the deflation she felt to find Maks still asleep. She looked over his body greedily. She noticed that he had shadows under his eyes. As if he hadn’t slept for a while. Wishful thinking that it might have anything to do with her.

She dressed quickly, quietly, wanting to be ready to face him.

Maks stirred again, and those grey eyes opened. He looked for her and found her. Came up on his elbow, smiled sleepily. Sexily. Held out his hand. ‘Hey, come back here.’

Zoe teetered on the brink of blurting it all out. She had to tell him. Now. But in this moment before she said anything, before she ruined it with reality, a different future shimmered between them. A chance to go back into that Maks bubble, where time stopped and became magical.

Zoe wished she could go back there even as she knew it wasn’t really what she wanted. Because she’d suddenly realised here, just a couple of kilometres from her old family home, what she did really want. And she couldn’t bear to have Maks lay it to waste. Not just yet.

Instead of blurting out what she should be saying, she said, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t do this. I can’t just go back to what we had for as long as it might last. I want more, Maks.’

She turned before she could see his expression change and fled the room, heading blindly downstairs and back out of the hotel, down to the stony beach.

* * *

Zoe felt Maks’s presence before she saw him. She was sitting on the beach, knees pulled up to her chest. He sat down beside her. She didn’t look at him.

He surprised her, asking, ‘Is this near where your house was?’

She nodded. ‘It’s the big yellow house up on the cliff behind us. This beach is where we used to come and play.’