An Heir to Make a Marriage(19)

Zac turned back, the lines of his body suddenly tense. ‘Don’t worry, Rose, I won’t forget you’re here.’

He disappeared into the sprawling villa and Rose deflated like a balloon, all the tension leaving her body. She hated it that she was in such a constant state of awareness around him when he barely tolerated her.

Something dangerous tugged on her emotions now that she was mercifully unobserved. If only those two first times she’d met him hadn’t been so magical...if only she hadn’t been tempted to take what he was offering and convince herself that it would be okay...

Rose shook her head at herself. She had to stop thinking like that.

She had no regrets...

She put a hand over her small belly and took a deep breath, trying not to let a feeling of being all alone steal over her. She refused to give in to that vulnerability. She’d gotten herself into this situation—her and this baby—and it was up to her to make the best of it.





 CHAPTER SEVEN

FOR THREE DAYS Rose had an almost pleasant time. A wave of exhaustion had seemed to hit her after that first night, and she’d spent most of her time sleeping, taking long siestas during the hottest part of the day. Then Maria had taken her into the local village when she’d gone shopping the previous day, and Rose had loved looking around the market and the small artisan shops.

Zac had come and gone from the villa, sometimes using a helicopter, and hadn’t offered to share a meal with Rose again. She’d gotten used to eating alone on the terrace and told herself she didn’t mind. How could she mind? She was in one of the world’s most amazing locations and she was being waited on hand and foot, like a princess.

She’d braved the pool earlier, and lay beside it now after a long, leisurely swim. She was trying to engage with a book she’d taken from one of the bookshelves in the comfortable den.

That was the other thing about this house...it didn’t resemble the ascetic decoration of Zac’s apartment in New York. This was more like a home. Rose could imagine a family here...children chasing each other through the pathways and gardens...

She put down the book and closed her eyes, losing herself for a moment in the daydream, an unconscious smile making her mouth curl up...

* * *

Zac stood at a standstill in the shadows of a tree near the pool. Rose was reclining on a sun lounger in a bikini. As a connoisseur of women’s clothing, Zac knew this bikini was perfectly respectable—demure, even—but his eyes devoured her slim limbs and high breasts as if he’d never seen a semi-naked woman before.

His body got hard in an instant, and he scowled at his reaction. She wasn’t even trying to be sexy. She had a hand spread across her burgeoning belly and Zac felt the most compelling impulse to go over and place his hand there too, feel it for himself. Would it be firm? Could she feel the baby kicking yet?

In an effort to try and break out of his stasis he dragged his gaze up to her face and saw her smile. He had been feeling a measure of guilt for having left her to her own devices for the last three days. Ridiculous guilt. It wasn’t as if she was his lover and he was here to entertain her. She was here merely because he wanted her where he could keep an eye on her. And she was in the lap of luxury.

Maria, who was clearly a fan of Rose, seemed to think it was her duty to give him a blow-by-blow account of all her movements. So he knew she’d been sleeping a lot. And that she’d gone to the market and had enjoyed it, by all accounts.

And now here she was, with an enigmatic secret smile on her mouth.

Zac battled with the darkness lodging inside him as the insidious suspicion struck him that he was jealous of that smile, of whatever was causing it.

Frantically, he denied it to himself. Why wouldn’t she be smiling? he rationalised. She’d hit the jackpot, exactly as that headline had said. She had his baby in her belly and she would want for nothing ever again.

A surge of protectiveness rose up inside him for the child as he thought of Rose scheming with his grandmother. All of which renewed Zac’s intentions to make sure his child remained in his custody, kept well out of his grandmother’s reach and protected from whatever future machinations Rose had planned.

Except right now she looked less like a devious manipulator and more like that fey creature Zac had likened her to when he’d first seen her. Damn her.

As if hearing his thoughts, Rose turned her head and opened her eyes, that green gaze landing directly on him. The smile immediately slipped from her face and she sat up, cheeks colouring. ‘I didn’t hear you.’

Zac felt like a peeping Tom. He stepped out from the shadows and saw Rose reach for a short robe, which she quickly pulled around herself. It made him say provocatively, ‘It’s nothing I haven’t seen before.’

He saw her cheeks redden in earnest now. How was it that she could still project such innocence when the evidence of her treachery was there as plain as day, expanding her waistline? Which should not be turning him on—dammit. He put a screeching halt on his wandering thoughts.

Something about that sphinx-like smile she’d had on her face just now made him want to test her. He said, ‘I’m going out to the mine to check on progress. You could come if you like?’

He regretted the impulse as soon as he’d spoken out loud. It was no place for a woman—much less a pregnant woman. But she was looking at him now with wide eyes, and something in those green depths stopped him from taking the invitation back.

‘Really?’

This was the last response Zac had expected. Most women he knew would run a mile from anything that sounded remotely boring or work-related, but she actually looked excited. His conscience pricked again for leaving her alone.

Far too belatedly he tried to change her mind. ‘It’s really not that exciting. It’s grimy and dusty...’

‘I don’t mind...but I don’t want to be in your way.’

Feeling bemused now, but also wanting to see how far she would go before bailing, Zac said, ‘You won’t be.’

She stood up and said quickly, ‘I’ll just go and change.’

He called after her as she hurried off. ‘Put on something practical—like jeans and a long-sleeved shirt.’

It was only when she’d left and Zac was waiting for her that he realised there was a little hum of something that felt suspiciously like excitement in his blood. He tried to suppress it, telling himself it wasn’t because she was coming with him. He was just testing her. That was all. And he was intrigued to see how long she would keep the interested act up. No doubt she was just seizing an opportunity to court his favour.

But then she emerged minutes later, in soft faded jeans, sneakers and a light long-sleeved shirt, her hair pulled back into a ponytail and an anxious look on her face, asking, ‘Is this okay?’ And suddenly Zac wasn’t sure of anything at all. Except for the surge of heat in his body.

Gruffly he said, ‘It’s fine, we’ll go in the Jeep.’

* * *

Rose strapped herself into the passenger seat, feeling ridiculously buoyed up that Zac had asked her to come with him. Well, had grudgingly offered to take her. She hoped, as they drove out of the estate, that she hadn’t appeared like an eager puppy, starved of affection.

Zac drove the Jeep with the same insouciant confidence that pervaded everything he did. Fast, but not too fast. Smooth. The countryside rolled out around them, stunning.

Rose said, ‘I can’t believe there are mines here. It seems such a shame to churn up this scenery.’

Zac’s mouth tipped up slightly at one corner. ‘I think the local population figure some desecration of the scenery is worth the benefits of having a local industry.’

Never had Rose felt more aware of her education going only as far as graduating from high school. She flushed with embarrassment. ‘Well, of course. I didn’t mean—’

‘I know what you meant,’ Zac surprised her by saying. ‘I agree—it does seem slightly sacrilegious to mess with this view. This is one of the few mines that is still functioning—most of the seams have been depleted by now. It’s rare to find an untapped source of raw minerals.’

He glanced at her then, but Rose kept looking straight ahead, aware of the fact that there seemed to be a very delicate cessation in hostilities. She didn’t want to say anything to provoke his sharp tongue again.

Then he surprised her by asking, ‘How are you feeling...you know, with the pregnancy? We haven’t really spoken about that. Do you have morning sickness?’

Rose looked at him, and then quickly schooled her features in case he was offended by her obvious surprise at his question.

She put a hand to her belly. ‘I’ve been okay, actually. Luckily. I only experienced morning sickness in the first eight weeks, and then it seemed to pass. Every now and then if a strong smell hits me I might get nauseous...but nothing untoward. At my last doctor’s visit she said everything looked okay. But I should have a scan at around twenty weeks.’

Zac surprised her by saying, ‘I have a local gynaecologist on standby in case you need anything. And the hospital in Siena is only a short helicopter ride away.’

She was strangely touched to hear that he’d organised this. Until she realised that of course his concern was for his potential future heir, which seemed to matter to him as much as it did to his mother.