Free A Facade to Shatter by Lynn Raye Harris

intuition. You didn’t act like a virgin, but you felt like one when I …”
    He swore again, his eyes meeting hers once more.“I’d have done things differently if I’d known. Been more gentle. You should have told me.”
    Lia couldn’t stop herself from lifting a hand and sliding it along the bare skin of his arm. It was the first time she’d touched him, really touched him, in a month. And the electric sizzle ricocheting through her body told her just how little had changed for her.
    “I should have. I know it. But everything was so surreal, and I was afraid it would end. You were the first person to make me feel wanted in a very long time. I liked that feeling.”
    He moved away from her, went over and sank down on a chair. Then he sat forward and put his head in his hands. Lia didn’t say anything. She didn’t move, though her heart throbbed at the sight of him looking so overwhelmed.
    “This is not what I expected to happen at this point in my life,” he said to the floor.
    “I don’t think either of us did,” she replied, swallowing. “And though I could make it all go away with a visit to a doctor, as you intimated earlier, I can’t do that. It’s not who I am or what I want.”
    He lifted his head. “No, I know that.” He blew out a breath, swore. And then he stood again, his presence nearly overwhelming her as his eyes flashed fire. “The press will have a field day with this.”
    Lia bit the inside of her lip. In all the drama, she’dnever considered the press. It was true the paparazzi flocked around her family like piranha. But she’d never been their target, probably because she was so humdrum and uninteresting in her family of brilliant swans.
    But this baby was a game changer, especially considering who Zach was. His family was even more famous than hers. American royalty, if there was such a thing. A family with incredible wealth and power. She’d read all about the Scotts on her way across the Atlantic.
    And she’d read about their heroic son, a man who’d returned from the war after a dramatic plane crash behind enemy lines. Her gaze drifted to where she’d set her purse. Inside, in a little zippered pocket, she still had Zach’s medal. A medal he hadn’t cared about.
    She thought of him flat against the ballroom wall in the Corretti Hotel, his eyes tightly closed as he fought against something, and knew there was more to the story than had been reported.
    “We’re the only ones who know,” she said. “And I have no plans to inform them. I think the secret is safe for now.”
    His gaze was steady, cool, and she realized he didn’t entirely trust her. It stung.
    “There are always leaks.” He shoved a hand through his hair. “There’s only one way to deal with this. Oneway to keep everything from exploding into an even bigger problem than it already is.”
    Her heart thundered in her chest. And it hurt, too. Hurt because he’d called her—and their baby—a problem.
    “Congratulations, Lia,” he said, his voice chilling her. “You’ve won the jackpot, after all. You’re about to become a Scott.”
    “This is not how I wanted this to happen,” she said on a throat-aching whisper. Tears pressed the backs of her eyes. She couldn’t let them fall.
    “You came here,” he said, his voice hard. “What did you expect? Did you think I would be happy?”
    She dropped her gaze. A single tear spilled free and she dashed it away, determined not to cry in front of him. Not to be weak.
    “I had hoped you might be, yes.” She lifted her chin and sucked back her tears. “Clearly, I was mistaken.”
    “We’ll marry,” he said. “Because we must. But it’s an arrangement, do you understand? We’ll do it for as long as necessary to protect our families, and then we’ll end it when the time comes.”
    Anger started to burn in her, scouring her insides. He was no better than her father had been. He didn’t care about his child any more than Benito Corretti had cared