The Innocent Behind the Scandal (The Marchetti Dynasty 2)

Maks ran a hand through his hair, making it messy. Which only made him look sexier.

He gestured to the papers. ‘I should have warned you what might happen.’

Zoe looked down again. ‘It’s a bit of a shock to see myself in a national newspaper...but it’s not the end of the world, is it?’

‘Of course it’s not. But it won’t happen again.’

Zoe looked at Maks. He stood only a few feet away, but he couldn’t have been more remote. The little fantasy she’d entertained that he might be rearranging his day so they could spend time together mocked her now.

‘What do you mean?’

Maks’s grey gaze looked silver in the light. Impenetrable.

‘What I mean is that this ends here and now, Zoe. It’s not fair to string it out...generating more pictures and headlines...for what? The sake of another few days? Weeks? I have to go to New York today for a meeting with my brother Sharif,’ he continued. ‘I can arrange for you to get back to London, or wherever you want to go.’

Something like desperation filled Zoe’s gut. ‘Maks, I’m sorry I took those photos. I can delete them—’

He waved a hand. ‘This isn’t about that. It’s just...time for this to end. Like I said, I’ll make sure you’re taken wherever you want to go.’

Zoe felt cold. ‘I can make my own way back.’

Maks said, ‘You should call Pierre Gardin, the photographer from the shoot in St Petersburg. He doesn’t encourage people to get in touch unless he rates them. He liked you. I know he’s not a particularly pleasant person, but this is an opportunity for you to get into the business.’

Zoe was too stunned to respond straight away.

Maks looked at his watch. ‘I have to go. My plane leaves within the hour. I’ll leave instructions for the hotel to arrange your onward transport. Please let them take care of you, Zoe.’

He came closer, and for a second Zoe thought she saw a flash of something in his eyes, but she told herself she was imagining things. He reached out and ran a knuckle across her jaw. Her traitorous body sizzled with awareness.

‘I had fun, Zoe. More fun than I’ve had in a long time—I won’t deny it. But this was never going to go any further. I lost perspective for a short time. But better that it ends here. Now.’

Zoe’s brain wouldn’t work. She felt pain—incredible pain—deep inside. The kind of pain she’d only ever felt once before. The kind of pain she’d vowed never to feel again. Yet here she was. Being eviscerated.

Her instinct was to get away as fast as possible. Curl up into a ball and push the pain back down.

He got too close. He’s doing you a favour.

Somehow she managed to formulate words, to sound normal. ‘I think you’re right. Better for both of us to put this behind us and move on.’

Maks smiled, but it was a kind of smile she’d never seen before. Tight.

‘Goodbye, Zoe.’

He walked to the door, picked up a small bag and didn’t look back.

Zoe wasn’t sure how long she stood there, breathless

from the speed at which Maks had ruthlessly cut her out of his life.

She walked over to the balcony and marvelled at how, within twenty-four hours, this view that had felt so full of promise and wonder now felt tawdry and mocking.

She turned back into the suite. Empty. No trace left of the man who had dominated it so easily.

No, his trace was left inside her. A wound that would be added to her other wounds and which would, in time, become a scar. But not visible, like the scars on her face. Invisible.

Anger rose inside her. Anger at herself. For stepping into the blazing centre of a fire that she had known would consume her.

She’d already learnt a lesson at the hands of Dean Simpson—a lesson in not letting herself be weak. How could she have let it happen again? So soon? So fatally?