A Facade to Shatter(25)

“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 different in a way he had not expected. For the first time since he’d returned from the war, he was taking a woman with him. A woman who was his date.

His fiancée, for God’s sake. An unsettled feeling swirled in his gut at the notion, but it was too late to back out now. He’d had the call from the doctor. They’d rushed the results—because he’d paid them a great deal of money to do so—and he knew the truth.

Lia Corretti was pregnant with his child.

He wasn’t quite sure how that made him feel. He was still stunned at his reaction to her earlier today, in her hotel room, when he’d suddenly decided that marrying her was the thing to do. It had been a preemptive strike, because though he’d fully intended to get an answer to the child’s paternity before proceeding, he’d also known on a gut level that she was telling him the truth.

She’d been a virgin. He’d realized something was different about her that night in Palermo, but she’d distracted him before he’d puzzled out precisely what it was. Not that being a virgin made someone truthful, but he imagined it was highly unlikely she’d turned around and taken a new lover so quickly.

His gut had known what his head hadn’t wanted to admit. And now he had a fiancée. A fiancée he didn’t quite know how to fit into this life of his. She hadn’t wanted to accompany him tonight, but he’d insisted she would anyway.

He’d been angry and resentful toward her all day. But now he felt a twinge of guilt over his reaction. Still, he’d told her the truth. She would learn to deal with her responsibilities as his wife because she had no choice.

They had appearances to maintain and commitments to keep. If he was going to have a wife, then she was going to be at his side. It’s the way it worked in his world. The way it had always worked.

He went downstairs and into his office, where he opened the wall safe and extracted a box. He’d told Lia to shop for clothing, but he’d not thought of jewelry. He had no idea what she would wear tonight, but he knew what would look good with her coloring. He opened the box and slid a finger over the art deco rubies and diamonds. These had belonged to his grandmother. She’d left them to him on her death and he’d put them away, certain it would be years before he found a woman to give them to.

He flipped the box closed after a long moment and held it tight. His life was changing in ways he hadn’t expected. Ways he wasn’t quite sure how to cope with. He resented the changes, but he would deal with them the way he dealt with everything else in his life these days.

By hiding his feelings beneath a mountain of duty and honor.

She was learning, or trying to. Lia stood beside Zach at a posh gathering being held in the National Gallery of Art. It was past closing time, and the museum was only open for this exclusive party.

She’d chosen a gown in a rich cream color, and swept her dark hair off her shoulders and pinned it up. She’d applied her makeup carefully, slid into her heels—not too high because she was already self-conscious about her height—and wrapped a shawl around her shoulders. Her jewelry had consisted of her simple diamonds, until she’d arrived downstairs and found Zach waiting for her in the foyer of the big house.