God, he could hardly believe it. His heart surged into his throat as he rang the doorbell. He had never imagined himself falling in love again. Marrying again…
The door opened. Eve stood there, smiling, a vision of perfection in a short black dress, and Zach knew that he was kidding himself.
He had never been in love before, not really. And he’d never been married, either, not the way he would be, once he married Eve.
She was everything he’d ever wanted in a woman and never thought he’d find. A friend. A partner. A lover.
“Zach?” Eve gave him a searching look. “What is it? You look so strange.”
He wanted to take her in his arms and kiss her. Better still, he wanted to drop to one knee and make the most old-fashioned marriage proposal a man had made since Romeo proposed to Juliet.
But not with Mrs. Harmon’s eye behind the spy hole in the door. Not with Dex Burton waiting in the wings.
No. This had to be just right. Tomorrow, he thought, tomorrow…
“I was just wondering if I’d ever seen a more beautiful sight than you,” he said. Eve smiled, and he put his arm around her and led her down the steps. “Good night, Mrs. Harmon,” he called, waving a hand high in the air.
Eve looked at his laughing face. She laughed, too, and leaned into his shoulder.
Maybe the night wasn’t going to be so difficult, after all.
* * *
Dex was a study in sophistication. If he was surprised to find Zach with Eve, he didn’t show it.
“Both principals from Triad,” he said. “I’m flattered.”
“Eve and I are a team,” Zach said with a polite smile.
But the arm he slid around Eve’s waist, the way he held her against his side, said something more.
Eve saw Dex’s eyebrows raise, and she stiffened. This was precisely the kind of thing she’d told Zach she wanted to avoid.
But why? She loved this man, and she was beginning to dare think he might love her, too. Her heart filled with joy at the thought. She’d been wrong, wanting to hide their relationship.
“Yes,” she said, smiling at Dex, “Zach’s right. We are.”
“How nice for you both,” Dex said pleasantly, and they settled in at the table.
The evening went well, but even after dessert and coffee, Dex still hadn’t committed to the role.
“I know what you’re saying, Eve. I understand this part would give me the chance to test my mettle.” He sighed. “But I’m just not fully convinced.”
Zach leaned forward. “What more can we offer you, Burton? Eve’s outlined an excellent package. If the film does well—and we’re convinced it will—you’ll not only reap terrific publicity, you’ll make a fortune.”
Dex nodded. “I know. But, as I say, I’m not yet completely convinced.”
He looked at Eve and smiled, and as he did, she felt his hand on her leg.
She froze, jerked back and shot a quick glance at Zach, but he was frowning into his coffee cup. He’d had enough of Dex’s posturing, she knew, and that was a damned good thing, because all she wanted right now was to get out of here.
The slimy bastard! He hadn’t finished his ugly little game yet. She could only imagine that it must give him a perverse kind of excitement, thinking he could play it in front of Zach when he knew she and Zach were lovers.
He was wrong. Dead wrong, Eve thought coldly. She would find a way to make Triad succeed without Burton, and even if it didn’t, Hollywood Wedding was only a movie.
Zach—Zach was everything.
She shoved back her chair. “Zach,” she said, “it’s late.”
Zach looked up. “Yes.” There was surprise in his eyes, and then relief. He smiled at her as he signaled to their waiter. “It is.”
“It’s not late,” Dex said, still smiling. “It’s the shank of the evening.”
“I don’t think so,” Eve said coolly, and stood up. “Goodbye, Dex.”
Zach caught up to her as she stepped out of the restaurant.
“Hey.” He turned her toward him. “Eve?” His smile was puzzled. “What happened back there?”
“Nothing much. I just decided that you were right. Dex is not only a fool, he’s a sneaky little leech, as well. The one thing he isn’t is the only actor in Hollywood.”
Zach put his arm around her as the parking attendant hurried off to get the Porsche from the lot.
“Did I upset you? Letting him know you and I were…that we’re involved. I didn’t plan it, it just seemed to happen.”
“I’m glad it did. I was wrong about keeping us a secret.” She looked at him. “I did have reasons, Zach. And—and it’s time to tell you what they are.”
Zach put a finger beneath her chin, tilted her face up and kissed her gently.
“Not tonight,” he said huskily. “Tomorrow, darling. When we reach San Francisco. I have something to tell you then, too.” A faint smile curved across his lips. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m not even going to ask you to come back to my hotel with me tonight.” His smile faded. “Just tell me this. If I’d asked, would you have come?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “But this is better. I can go home and make myself beautiful for you tomorrow.”
Zach smiled. “You couldn’t be more beautiful than you already are.”
The attendant drove up in the Porsche. Zach handed the boy a tip that made his eyes bulge, and he and Eve got into the car.
Once they’d pulled out into traffic, he reached across the shift lever and took her hand in his.
Had there really been a time he had distrusted this woman? He almost laughed.
If the answer was yes, it must have been in another lifetime.
CHAPTER TEN
EVE locked the door to her apartment and leaned against it, smiling.
In all her life, she had never been this happy.
Zach had walked her to the door, taken her in his arms and given her a kiss filled with promise. When it ended, he’d framed her face in his hands.
“Eve,” he’d whispered, “my beautiful Eve, I——”
Both of them had heard the sound of Mrs. Harmon’s door as it eased open. Zach had groaned, laughed and planted a kiss on Eve’s forehead.
“Tomorrow, darling,” he’d said.
Whistling jauntily, he’d trotted down the steps.
Eve knew—oh, she knew—what he’d been going to say. The unspoken words had almost shimmered in the air.
I love you.
She did a mad, swift dance around her tiny living room. What a wonderful night this had turned out to be, she thought happily. In some strange way, she probably owed Dex a vote of thanks.
Dex. Eve shuddered. She could still see
his lecherous smile, feel his oily touch.
“Ugh,” she said, and began stripping off her clothes.
By the time she reached the bathroom, there was a trail of clothes behind her—her high-heeled sandals, her black dress, her stockings, her panties, her bra.
With a final shudder, she stepped into the shower.
* * *
Zach drove toward his hotel, still whistling, still feeling wonderful.
That old snoop, Mrs. Harmon. He laughed as he coasted to a stop at a red light. If she hadn’t poked her nose out the door, Eve would know how he felt by now. He’d been determined to wait for tomorrow and a more romantic setting, but standing there with Eve in his arms, he’d known he had to tell her.
Those three most simple, most complex words in the world had been on the very tip of his tongue—until Mrs. Harmon had turned a twosome into a threesome.
He should have said the words anyway. To heck with Mrs. Harmon. To heck with romantic settings. What did he need but Eve and those three magic words?
Zach leaned out his window.
“I love her,” he yelled to the startled driver in the next lane.
He loved her too much to wait for tomorrow.
The light went green. Zach shot a look into his rearview mirror, jammed his foot to the floor and damned near fishtailed the Porsche into a U-turn.
* * *
Eve was still in the shower. She had scrubbed the part of her thigh Dex had touched until the skin was red. She knew it was silly, but it made her feel better.
She laughed as she tilted her face to the spray. Not that she wasn’t feeling wonderful already. How she loved Zach. How she adored him!
Why had she let him leave tonight? She could have asked him to come in, to stay with her for the first time in her very own bed.
Being in his arms would have erased the memory of Dex’s sleazy touch better than all the soap and hot water in the world.
She stepped from the shower and wrapped herself in a towel. Her heart tripped into a quicker cadence. There was nothing to stop her from phoning Zach at his hotel.
If only he’d asked to stay. If only he’d think what she was thinking and come back…
The doorbell rang.
“Zach,” Eve whispered.