“I’m sure I will.” She stood then and walked towards the door. No point drawing this out. “Well, I’m sure you have lots to do before we leave. So, maybe I’ll see you later.”
Eve said it with a casual detachment she in no way felt, and didn’t look his way as she walked. She didn’t count on him grabbing her arm as she passed, pulling her in and hauling her close to his very appealing, very solid body. “Eve?” His beautiful, unfamiliar brown eyes were clouded with worry. “What’s going on?”
She didn’t answer. Couldn’t. His behavior with Luke might have told her one thing, but the way his body curved sinuously against hers told her another altogether. Physically the intimacy was there—in spades.
“You’re pushing me away. Blocking me out. Why?” He ran his fingers down her cheek in a gesture so personal, Eve couldn’t breathe for a good few seconds. What the…?
He’d traced his fingers over her face in the exact way she always did, as if he were carrying out the action for her. Sensing her discomfort and reacting as she would.
Thrown by the familiarity of his touch—and by the physical proximity of his hand to her scars, Eve didn’t check her response. “I’m not the one doing the pushing, Zachary.”
His face creased in confusion. “You think I’m pushing you away?”
She bit her tongue. God, why had she said that? “Look, it’s nothing. Ignore me. You were right. I’m just upset about the press and my face being plastered over every newspaper in Australia. It’s tough to comprehend that I suddenly need a security guard just to walk down the road. I’m not used to it is all.”
Zachary stared deep into her eyes as though he could read her thoughts. “No, that’s not all. Something else is upsetting you. Something else…like me, and I don’t know why.”
And there it was again, the intimacy, the connection she’d just tried to convince herself she shouldn’t be feeling.
“Eve. Talk to me.”
She clung to that connection, hoping against hope she wasn’t imagining it. “You wouldn’t answer my question.”
“Huh?”
“About your being a father. You avoided it.”
“What? When? Luke just answered.”
“That’s just the thing. Luke answered. Not you.”
“Does it make a difference?” He looked perplexed. “You asked, then we got sidetracked by the whole media debacle and I didn’t have a chance to respond. Soon as I realized that, I wanted you to know the truth.”
His reply was so logical it made Eve feel petty. Still… “I’d have like to hear it from you. Not your band manager.”
“I figured you’d believe it if it came from Luke.”
Her jaw dropped. “Are you implying I wouldn’t have believed you?”
Zachary shrugged and looked away. He didn’t let her go, but his hold on her loosened. “The rest of the world didn’t when the story broke.”
Oh, dear God. The poor man. “Zachary.” She waited until he returned his gaze to her face. “I’m not the rest of the world.”
He looked at her for a very long time, a thousand emotions playing through his eyes before his arm tightened around her again. “No, you certainly aren’t.”
She buried her face against his chest. “It just kind of hurt that you didn’t answer yourself.”
“Your question threw me. It took me back to a bad place, a bad time.”
“I shouldn’t have asked.”
“Yeah, you should have. I’d rather you ask than look elsewhere for answers.”
“Yet you sent me elsewhere for the answer.”
“I referred it to Luke.” He sighed deeply. “That’s my standard way of handling the hard questions. The landmines that have the potential to blow up in my face.”
Another frisson of hurt shot through her and she pulled away from him. “So I’m a landmine?”
“No, Tiny.” Zachary frowned. “The question you asked? That’s the landmine. One that already blew up in my face. I had to face the backlash, the rumors, the lies, the press hounding me day in and day out, making up crap. Luke dealt with it at the time, just like he deals with all the shit we face. My instinct, when you asked, was to let Luke deal with it again.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I shouldn’t have. I should just have given you a straight answer.” He blew out a long breath. “You touched on a sore point. I wasn’t prepared.”
“How about now?”
“Now what?”
“Are you prepared to talk about it?”
“It’s the ugly side of fame, Eve. You sure you want to hear about it?”
She wanted to hear everything about him, no matter how ugly. “Only if you’re up to discussing it.”
He squared his shoulders. “Seven months ago a woman sent Luke a lawyer’s letter. She had a baby, it said, I was the baby’s father, and could I please hand over child support for the rest of the kid’s life.”
“Did you know her?”
“I didn’t recognize her name and couldn’t remember having met her, never mind…getting her pregnant, so of course I denied her accusations. I assumed that would be it, end of story, but no. A day later she went to the press. Told anyone who’d listen that she and I had had a torrid one-week affair when I was in Colorado the year before, and the kid was the result.” Zachary’s face turned hard. “Anyone who’d listen turned out to be every rag in the States. Every TV channel too. Suddenly I was the biggest villain on earth. The wealthy rock star who refused to pay child maintenance. I was hauled over the coals. Ripped to shreds by the press.”
“Oh, God. Zachary, I’m so sorry.”
He gave her a hollow smile. “That wasn’t the worst of it. Within a week of the news breaking, three other women came forward with similar stories. Instead of Jonah Speed superstar, I became Jonah Speed, super-sperm-producer.”
Eve shuddered at the humiliation he must have experienced. “What happened?”
“We asked for paternity tests. Requested the women take the children to a lab for genetic testing. Three of my accusers, including the first woman who’d stepped forward, vanished, kids in tow, retractions of their accusations firmly in my lawyers’ hands. The fourth one went ahead and had the test.”
“And?”
He gritted his teeth. “It wasn’t mine.”
She studied him for a long moment. “Did you think it might be?”
“Honestly?”
“Yeah, Zachary. Honestly.”
“When she took the test, I was worried.”
“Did you know her?” She couldn’t help thinking that he hadn’t actually denied knowing the first woman. He simply hadn’t recognized or remembered her.
“She looked vaguely familiar. I may have slept with her.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s like I told you last night. I’ve slept with a lot of women over the last three years. Too many to remember names and faces.”
Eve shuddered.
“They were meaningless. Every one of them. Easy lays because women offered themselves to me.”
Her sympathy soured.
Zachary must have noticed. “You have to understand, the fame was sudden. Almost overnight I went from being unknown Zachary Pace to world-famous Jonah Speed. Suddenly everyone wanted a piece of me. And of Nathan and Seth. Of Luke too. Women and men threw themselves at us. It’s a strong aphrodisiac, that. Knowing I could pick and choose whenever I wanted. And no one ever said no.”
Of course no one ever said no. How could anyone in his or her right mind say no to Jonah Speed? She certainly hadn’t.
“I used condoms. Every time. But feasibly, yeah. There was a possibility the child was mine. And it scared the crap out of me. I want kids someday. But with a woman I love. Not a stranger I spent a few unimportant hours with.”