Bree must have cleared the women from around him, because suddenly a path opened up, leaving him with an unobstructed view of none other than the woman he’d waited his whole life to meet.
The red-haired, green-eyed beauty he’d seen in his vision.
She stood right there, laughing, enchanting the group of girls who surrounded her. Her red hair flowed over her shoulders in lustrous waves, and her green eyes snapped with joy.
Jesus, she was even more beautiful in the flesh than she’d been in his imagination. She took his breath.
Her laughter tinkled through the air like the peal of a small bell, and every fantasy Zachary had ever had about her came crashing back to haunt him. He was assaulted by pure exhilaration, stunned confusion and complex horror.
Twenty-four years he’d thought about her. Twenty-four long, lonely years.
And the minute he finally decided to give up on her, finally decided his future lay with someone else—with a woman he’d met just days ago yet fallen irrevocably in love with—she made an appearance in his life.
Oh, yeah, fate was a bitch all right. A crazy bitch, who must be sitting somewhere, laughing raucously.
She’s out there now, quietly waiting,
Red hair, green eyes…fascinating.
His grandmother’s song reverberated through his head.
There would be no more waiting. That time was officially over. She was out there now. Red hair, green eyes. And fuck, yeah. She was fascinating.
He couldn’t deny it, couldn’t look away.
And when she looked up and caught him staring, her smile broke into a huge grin meant only for him.
He was so fucked. So absolutely and completely fucked.
Yeah, he loved Eve. Yeah, he wanted a future with her. But fucking hell, the future he’d anticipated his entire life now stood in front of him, grinning. Smiling the smile he’d seen a million times in his mind.
“She’s gorgeous, isn’t she?” It was Bree who asked. Bree who stood beside him.
“More beautiful than anything I’ve seen in my whole life,” he agreed. Although he wasn’t sure that was really true. She was beautiful. No two ways about it. Striking. Stunning. But she was no more beautiful than Eve.
Bree said something else, but all Zachary heard were her words from earlier. If you hurt my little sister, I promise to hunt you down and kill you. Slowly and painfully.
Jesus, he didn’t want to hurt Eve. The thought alone about killed him. But how did he reconcile his feelings for her with his feelings for his red-haired fate?
Hadn’t his grandmother’s predictions come true for Nathan, Seth and Luke?
How did he now change his fate, when she stood before him, smiling?
“Sing us another song,” one of the children begged. “Please, Princess Eve. Sing us a song.”
His red-haired beauty flashed him one last smile, then clapped her hands and turned back to the girls. In seconds they’d formed a circle around her, and while she sang a tune he recognized from one of the Disney movies, the kids danced around her.
He watched, spellbound, as she charmed the girls.
Watched spellbound as she sang to them. Her voice was sweet, lyrical. But it wasn’t her singing that held them all rapt. It was her sheer joy in entertaining them. Her delight in making the girls smile and laugh.
It was almost magical.
His red-haired beauty, Princess Eve with the sparkly tiara in her hair, was born to make children happy.
Wait.
What the…
Princess Eve?
She waved at him.
Zachary’s jaw dropped. He blinked. Then blinked again, and then again. Then he scrubbed his hand over his eyes to clear his hazy vision as the next few lines of his grandmother’s lullaby rang through his ears.
Appearances fool, you have been warned,
Follow your instinct, don’t be torn.
And as he looked at her once again, the clouds parted from a part of his brain he hadn’t realized they’d been shadowing, and sunlight poured through the space, enlightening him.
Holy crap.
Princess Eve.
He slapped his head as the pieces of a puzzle he’d never solved before fell into place. His heart leapt, as though charged by an electric pulse.
Princess Eve, the red-haired beauty of his vision was her. Eve. Tiny. The woman he’d fallen in love with. His fate and his love were one and the same. He’d just been too focused on the red hair and green eyes to see the similarity in the facial structure. Although she was taller than usual, by a good few inches. But that could be explained away by a pair of heels. And her lips looked different—the color was off. They were a bright orange he’d never seen on her. And her cheekbones were more pronounced—but that was obviously a trick of the makeup.
Princess Eve removed the tiara from her head and placed it on one of the girls. Hannah?
Zachary didn’t know. He didn’t care. Because as he stared at his present and his future, she beckoned to him, calling him over. And in that second, Eve was the redhead who’d beckoned to him in his vision. It was the exact moment he’d seen, over and over as his grandmother had sung to him, the moment he’d immortalized in his mind.
His heart flipped, his chest tightened, and for the first time ever, Zachary felt complete. Contentment, happiness, excitement and anticipation filled him as he realized there was no longer anything standing in the way of his—and Eve’s—happily ever after.
No wonder the connection he’d instantly felt with Eve had been so strong. No wonder her recollections of the Bali bomb had gutted him. He’d felt her pain because she was his fate. His soul mate.
His.
He walked towards her, dazed, and she stilled to watch him approach. For once he was content not to touch her, not to haul her tight against him. All he wanted to do was stare. Look at her until he’d finally had his fill. He stopped a mere inch away and gazed into her deep, green eyes. Eyes that now looked suspiciously like his and his brothers’ when they performed.
And then he couldn’t help it. He smiled. Just let a goofy grin spread across his face.
Eve smiled right back.
“It’s you.” His voice reflected his wonder and his enchantment. “It was you all along.”
This time, it wasn’t her own cheek she ran her fingers down, it was his, and he felt her touch all the way through to his heart.
Her green eyes shimmered with emotion. “It is, Zachary. It’s me.”
And that was all they had time to say before a mob of mothers, armed with cameras and questions, surrounded them.
Many long hours later, Eve stood beneath the spray of the shower, letting the grime and sweat from the concert wash down the drain.
Try though she had, Eve had been unable to keep her eyes off Jonah the entire duration of the concert. She’d had to force herself to focus on Delilah and Devine, force herself to ensure their makeup was perfect, because all she wanted to do was devour the man she loved with her gaze. And when the man she loved got onstage and became Jonah Speed, he was a sight to behold. Breathtaking. Magnificent.
They hadn’t had a minute to themselves the entire day. Bree’s friends had crowded around him during the party, not giving him a minute to breathe, then Bree and Anthony had insisted he stay for lunch, and Hannah had insisted he help her open presents.
Even four-year-olds, it seemed, were spellbound by Zachary.
Luke had phoned around three, demanding Zachary get back to the hotel, and Eve had followed about an hour later. Jake had gotten her to the arena, dressed once again as Eve, with time to spare and no interruptions from the press.