Free A Facade to Shatter by Lynn Raye Harris Page B

you’ve no objection, I’ve brought a doctor who is going to take a blood sample.”
    “Why?”
    Zach came into the room, his hands shoved into the pockets of his faded jeans.
Dio
, he was sexy. Lia shook herself and tried not to think about him that way. She failed, naturally. Her heart thumped and pumped and her bones loosened in the shell of her skin.
    “There is a paternity test that will isolate the baby’s DNA from your blood. Just to be certain, you realize.”
    Lia lifted her chin. “I have nothing to hide.”
    It hurt, of course, that he didn’t believe her. But if a test would erase all doubt, she was for it. Not only that, but she also looked forward to the apology he would have to make when the test proved he was this baby’s father.
    “I’ll bring her up, then.”
    “Yes, do.”
    He left and then returned a few minutes later with a smiling woman who took Lia’s blood and asked her questions about how she was feeling. Once it was over, and the woman was gone, Lia was left with Zach.
    “I have an important dinner to attend tonight,” he told her. “You will accompany me.”
    Lia swallowed. She wasn’t accustomed to large gatherings. Aside from the wedding-that-wasn’t, and a few family things that happened once a year, she spent most of her time alone or with her grandmother.
    “I don’t have anything to wear,” she said. She didn’teven know what kind of dinner it was, but if it was anything like that gathering she’d crashed last night, she knew she didn’t have anything appropriate. She’d put on the nicest thing she had for that event.
    Zach didn’t look perturbed. “There is time. I’ll send you to my mother’s personal shopper.”
    “That is not necessary,” she said, though in truth she wouldn’t begin to know where to start in this city.
    “I think it is, Lia. It’ll go much faster if you simply let her help you pick out what you need. For tonight, you’ll need formal wear. But select a range of clothing appropriate for various events.”
    “And do you attend many events?” she asked, her heartbeat spiking at the thought of being out among so many people so frequently.
    Plants she understood. People not so much.
    His eyes were flat. “I am a Scott. And a returning war hero. My presence is in demand quite often, I’m afraid.”
    She didn’t miss the way his voice slid over the words
war hero.
It was like they were oily, evil words for some reason. As if he hated them.
    “You don’t sound as if you enjoy it.”
    One corner of his mouth lifted. “No, I don’t. Not anymore.”
    She wanted to ask what had changed, but she didn’t. “Then why do it?”
    “Because I am a Scott. Because people depend on me. And if you are going to be a Scott, too, then you’d better get used to doing things because you have to instead of want to.”
    Lia nibbled the inside of her lip. She was no good at the social thing. She had no practice at it. But, for tonight, she would have to try and be something she wasn’t. She would have to navigate the social waters without falling flat on her metaphorical face.
    “I’m no good at this, Zach,” she told him truthfully. “I don’t have any experience.”
    Not to mention she was awkward and grew tongue-tied around too many people. She’d always been so self-conscious, so worried about whether or not others liked her.
    Because she’d never felt very wanted and she didn’t know how to fix it.
    “Then you’ll learn,” he said. “Because you have no choice.”
    Zach slipped into his tuxedo jacket and tugged the cuffs of his shirt until they were straight beneath the jacket arms. Tonight was another event, another speech, where he would be speaking to some of Washington’s elite about the need for funding for veterans’ causes. Everyone tended to think, because the military worked for the government, that returning vets’
    care was assured. It was to a point. Where that point ended was where Zach stepped in.
    But tonight was