More from Zara Cox
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Chapter One
“You… you killed her?”
Of the three emotional grenades Zach Savage had just thrown at her feet, this was the one that had wreaked the most devastation. Not that she wasn’t shattered by the other two…
Farrah was my wife…
We were married for one day…
Bethany Green shook her head, unable to fathom how to begin to process those pieces of information. Her mind was locked on the last statement that the man, to whom she’d confessed her love, had just flattened her with.
He’d killed her. Killed his wife. Farrah. Around them, crickets chirped in the dark Moroccan night, uncaring that two people stood frozen in the middle of what should’ve been a sultry paradise, but instead was ground zero of epic proportions.
Following his stark confession, Zach had paled alarmingly, his vibrant golden beauty turned into a taut, cold statue. He looked shell-shocked, as if his revelation had stunned the hell out of him.
She was equally stunned. Stunned that she wasn’t fleeing his presence as fast as her legs could carry her. He’d just confessed to… to…
“Say something!” The words were propelled from the depths of her ravaged soul, the consuming need for an answer greater than the fear twisting her insides that she could be in danger from Zachary Savage.
He jerked out of his stasis. Grey eyes pierced through the darkness. Suddenly, he lunged for her.
“No!” Bethany scuttled out of reach, narrowly missing the shallow pool to her left. Renewed fear slammed into her as she adjusted her position to avoid yet another looming threat.
Zach checked himself and froze, looking from the water to her face.
“Bethany, come here.”
She glanced from his tormented expression to the mound of stones behind her. The beautiful shrine he’d built to his dead wife.
Oh God. Oh God. “Oh God.”
“Bethany!” he demanded, his focus strengthening as determination and that iron control began to reassert itself.
“Tell me what you meant.”
His eyes darkened until she could only see black holes, fraught with chaotic despair. A breeze wove through the garden. They both shivered.
“I can’t. It’s… Bethany, I can’t tell you anything more than I have. I’ve already said too much…”
The ice, which had engulfed her soul, hardened several degrees more. “You can’t? You brought me to the place where you’ve built a shrine to your dead wife, and you can’t tell me how she died? How you killed her? Please, God, tell me you meant that metaphorically?”
The words jerked out of her and dropped into the yawning space between them.
Zach made a sound like a wounded animal. He twisted away from her and dragged his fingers through his hair. “God, this whole thing is a fucking mess. I shouldn’t… You shouldn’t have…”
“I shouldn’t have what? Watched you sleep? Been awake to hear you talking to another woman in your dreams?”
He whirled back round. “That wasn’t what I meant.”
“Then tell me what the hell you meant!”
“I shouldn’t have let you this deep under my skin. I shouldn’t have let myself crave you this desperately. And you shouldn’t have told me…”
She took another shaky step back, her heart hammering hard enough to snap her ribs. “I shouldn’t have told you what? That I loved you? That’s what you mean, isn’t it?” Her lips barely moved. Her fingers felt numb. The stone she’d half-forgotten she held, the one that formed part of Zach’s monument to his wife, fell from her nerveless fingers.
He stared at her, his expression bleak but no less intense. Then his gaze dropped to the stone at her feet.
Wordlessly, he picked it up, walked to the mound and placed it back where it belonged. The gentleness with which he did so shattered her heart into a few more million pieces.
He faced her. Opened his mouth. No words came out. He sucked in a heavy breath, and his shoulders hunched.
She could barely get her vocal cords to work. “Message received.” She shook her head in derision. “And you’re right. We’ve known each other, what, a handful of days? How could I possibly be in love with you? How could I possibly believe that I can’t imagine my life without you?” The words burned her throat so badly, she was surprised she could swallow around the pain ricocheting through her heart.
He made another rough sound. “Baby?—”
“Are you really a killer, Zach?”
He flinched, and a tiny part of her felt hope for that action; a foolish part that wanted something to grasp in a world suddenly gone nuts.
I should be running!
But she couldn’t force her feet to move. All she could see when she looked at Zachary Savage was the man who’d made love to her like she was part of his soul; who’d had the patience to help her overcome her fear of water.
Then she looked at the stones, and a shiver coursed down her spine. The evidence of death was too hard to refute.
She took a step back. “Don’t worry, Zach, you can hang on to your secrets. Stay here with your precious shrine and your sacred memories.” She started to walk down the center marble walkway, which divided the pools, and realized she’d have to walk past him.
His eyes narrowed on her as he saw her hesitance. Her heartbeat tripled. She couldn’t risk him touching her for fear she would break apart.
She stared at the shallow pool and fought the rising panic. On top of everything else, she couldn’t deal with the terror that stemmed from her fear of water. Not right now.
Holding her breath, she stepped into the water. It closed over her ankle, wet and clinging. Panic flared higher. Her legs started to turn to jelly. Her arms flailed.
Zach stepped toward her. She looked at him. At the man who’d been so gentle with her, who’d called her brave and worshipped her body over and over this past week.
The man who’d just confessed to killing his wife.
She darted sideways before he could touch her.
Feeling solid tiles beneath her feet, she ventured another step. Then another.
And then she was running.
“Bethany!”
She didn’t stop until she was in the bedroom. Grabbing her weekender, she shoved as many of her belongings as she could find inside the bag.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
She froze. Zach entered the room and stalked to where she’d just slammed the bag shut.
She licked her lips and sucked in a breath. Here in the well-lit bedroom, she couldn’t miss the fact that he was only wearing boxers. His sleek body gleamed under the golden lights, and even in the midst of despair, something inside flared to life.
On top of having her life turned upside down, it was just too much to bear.
Hot, choking tears scoured her throat and pricked her eyes. Hands shaking, she tugged the button of her jeans closed and shoved her feet into her heeled wedges.
“You can physically stop me from leaving if you want to. But I know you won’t. I know that because the only reason I’d stay is if you tell me what you meant. And we both know that’s not going to happen. Don’t we, Zach?”
His eyes hardened. “Emotional blackmail doesn’t work with me.”
“And secrets don’t work with me! You know what I went through with Chris.”
He growled. “Do not compare me to that asshole.”
Her fingers tightened around the handle of her bag. “Then prove you’re different from him!”
Anger flamed through his eyes, and his fists clenched. But he remained silent.
Pain raked her insides raw. “That’s what I thought. Goodbye, Zach.”
She yanked her bag off the bed and stalked past him.
At the last moment, he grabbed her arms, lifted her clean off her feet and pressed her against the bedroom wall. His large body imprinted hers from head to toe, reminding her how powerful he was, how overwhelmingly male, even as his strong hands gently cradled her face.
A fierce, indomitable light burned in his eyes as he stared deep into hers.
“You’re seriously deluded if you think that, baby. We’re not over. Not by a long shot.”