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“Either leave willingly or I’ll have security escort you out,” Christian said in a deceptively soft voice, sending shivers down Zoe’s spine. She hoped to God he never spoke to her in that tone.
Jaylen smirked. The woman would have been even more beautiful if her soul wasn’t so disgusting. “So good to see you, Zoe. Christian, don't be a stranger.” She glided away.
You tell me how it feels! Of course she’d think of the right thing to say now that Jaylen was gone.
“We need to talk.” He pulled her into an empty workout room, flipping on the lights. “Is what Jaylen said true?”
“Martha Alfred is my mother’s sister.”
“Martha’s your aunt?” His jaw worked. “Zoe Martha Ambrose, makes sense now.”
“Guess you didn’t get that far in your Welcome to Zoe’s World packet.”
He didn’t look remotely amused by her attempt at humor. “Did she put you up to this?”
“Being seen with you or this?” She held up her left hand, wiggling her fingers.
“Either.”
What did he have to be so mad about? “Just to be seen with you at dinner and that’s it. Didn’t you ask me to hang out with you because I wasn’t your usual type?” she reminded him. “And I didn’t set up an elaborate marriage proposal in the middle of the strip either.”
“You have me there,” Christian admitted. He’d chased her all over Vegas, time and time again. “I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but I have to know where and when we met for the first time.”
“The first time I met you was on New Year’s Eve. Right before you really made it big with the Austen remake. We kissed at midnight.”
Over four years ago. Four months after moving to LA. Closing his eyes, he tried to bring back the memory of that night. Unfortunately, all he could remember was blur of colors and bodies writhing against one another. He didn’t remember a damn thing about kissing her.
Shame filling him, he said, “I’m sorry.” Flimsy but it was all he had at the moment. However, from here on out, he would make it up to her.
“Me, too. I shouldn’t have let my pride get in the way of honesty and—”
“Stop beating yourself up over a kiss. The past is the past.” He grabbed her hand, kissing the rings he’d given her. “Everything has worked out as it should have.” He would have been no good for Zoe at that point in his life.
“You think so?”
Wrapping her in his arms, he nuzzled the top of her head. “Yes.”
She remained silent and he continued to hug her, thinking she needed time to collect herself or her thoughts.
“Was that your one time being naughty bit? Kissed me when you had a boyfriend, did you?”
“No, I got caught up in everything.” Her words were muffled by his chest. “I was trying to find a place to hide when you grabbed me again.”
He tilted her face up and smiled down at her. “We all do stupid things. Daring things. In your case scandalous things like marry a man with a scandalous reputation.”
She looked at him with exasperation clearly written on her face. “Formerly scandalous, remember?”
He bent low to nibble on the curve of her ear. “I’m still scandalous, but only with you.” He ran his hands along the curves outlined by her dress. His entire body ached for his wife, but he could be patient. “Let’s join the party, shall we, before I kick everyone out.”
They re-entered the room and Christian surveyed it. The party goers looked firmly entrenched as they drank and mingled.
To hell with waiting.
He craned his head around until he found the man he was looking for and nodded, then swept Zoe up in his arms and headed toward their bedroom. She snuggled against him, wrapping her arms around his neck.
“Thought you were going to strum a sweet tune, mate?” Sasha called out.
Christian shut the door in his face, then locked it.
“You were going to play guitar?” she asked.
“I’ll play whatever you’d like. Tomorrow.” He dropped her in the middle of the bed. “Either you take off your clothes while I get rid of mine, or I’m going to rip your dress to shreds.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
A marriage underpinned by lies. That’s what she had with Christian.
But he’d said the past was the past, she reminded herself. He’d also said she’d never put him in one of her books. If only he knew the truth, if only she could stop being a coward and tell him. Waiting for the perfect moment would never happen. There was no such thing as the perfect moment to reveal a lover’s betrayal.
Sitting up, she rubbed the heel of her hand over her heart. “There’s something else I need to tell you.”
He placed his knee on the bed and caressed her cheek with the back of his hand. “Can it wait?”
She gazed at his body, shirt undone and unbuttoned pants hanging low on his hips. Her fantasy come to life. The fantasy of many women who only wanted to be real with one. “No.” Her voice cracked over the word.
“We did more than kiss?” Despite his question, he sounded less than shocked. Maybe he’d suspected or assumed they’d done more than kiss all along. After all, what woman held a grudge over a kiss?
Nodding, she made herself look at his face. At the tenderness and desire that made him more handsome than ever. She was such a fraud. “A lot more.”
He pushed the material of her dress up her legs, exposing the tops of her black stockings. His eyes grew dark. “Were you wearing something like this?” He bent, dropping a kiss on one bare thigh then the other.
“Yes.”
Small puffs of hot air scorched her skin. “At the risk of sounding like a complete arse, I think you should let me make love to you like I did that—”
“Night,” she supplied. One lie uncovered, only one more to go.
Sitting up, he placed his in his lap. “I don’t know how else to make it up to you, beyond apologizing and there aren’t enough apologies in the universe to fix it. Allow me to do this, give me this night.”
“Words are overrated.” Giving him a shy smile, she held out her hand. “Give me a man of action.” Tonight could be his and in the morning, she would be a woman of words and actions. Whatever the consequences, she would bear them, because it would be no less than she deserved.
He pulled them to a standing position, then unzipped the side of her dress. It slithered down her body and to the floor, leaving her wearing nothing spiked heels and stockings with a garter belt. She shivered but not from the cold.
