Page 75 of An Inconvenient Marriage
“The owner was nothing more than a spoiled little rich boy who didn’t know the first thing about running a business. He made terrible decisions and even worse investments. I’m surprised it took the bank as long as it had to take this place from him.”
He was sharing so much, and like a little sponge, I soaked it all up, but I wanted more. “Is that why you moved to the States?”
“No.”
The murderous look on his face was enough to turn my blood to ice.
“We moved before that.” Zach speared his long fingers through his hair and let out a heavy breath. “When they worked here, my mother was a tour guide while my father and his team tended to the vineyard.
“He was always so proud when he spoke of the way my mother drew attention everywhere she went. I sometimes wonder if he had known what all that attention would eventually do to our family.”
Zach grabbed his water and drank almost half of it before setting the bottle down, hard. The right thing would have been to tell him it was okay, he’d shared enough. But he was right when he’d called me greedy earlier.
I was.
I wanted to know everything about him. That’s why I waited and waited until he gave me more.
“My mother, thecharmershe was, attracted the attention of a rich American. He had some connection to the owner and was offered a private tour of the vineyard. Apparently, my mother had made such a huge impression, he came back again a month later. And again the month after that. Pretty soon, once every four weeks wasn’t enough, and he started coming twice a month.
“Before long, the inevitable happened, and he promised my mother the fucking world if only she’d leave her family and follow him to America.”
My hands flew to my mouth. “Oh, Zach.”
He was on a roll now, I doubted he even heard me.
“So what did my mother do? She packed her bags and took my father’s savings and his children and hopped on the first flight out of here.”
I made a move to reach for him, but when I saw his fist clenched tightly on top of the counter, I thought better of it.
“Of course, when she arrived in the US with her kids in tow, the bastard wanted nothing to do with her. Shame and guilt drove her over the edge, and for whatever reason, instead of going back to my father, she committed suicide.”
“No.”
This time he heard me. His head shot up, and he got a look on his face that told me he hadn’t meant to share so much. I felt bad for not making him stop, for having him relive that awful memory just because I wanted to know more.
I understood the pain that came with losing your mother and the feeling of not wanting to share that memory with anyone else. I’d taken that from him. It wasn’t right.
Tears stung the backs of my eyes, and I couldn’t keep myself from reaching over and putting my hand over his clenched fist. “I’m so sorry.”
Because he didn’t know what I was really apologizing for, he slipped his hand out from under mine and brushed the tears from my cheeks. “Don’t be. As tragic as the loss of my mother, of my family, was, it’s not only made me the man I am today, it’s also taught me valuable life lessons.”
His fingers slipped down my face to grip my chin at the same time as a terrible feeling swirled around in the pit of my stomach.
“The most important lesson,” he said, his face deadly serious. “Love leads to nothing but pain for everyone involved. It’s why I want nothing to do with it.”
I swallowed hard and tried to ignore the hurt gnawing at my chest for no apparent reason.
“I’m sorry, Natalie, I should have told you this before I touched you, but you’re just so damn hard to resist.” His thumb scraped over my bottom lip. “I still want to touch you, though, so fucking much, but I need you to know this will never go beyond the physical. It can’t. I know it’s unfair of me to bring this up now. But not bringing it up would be even worse.”
So many emotions flowed through me at once. The most surprising one definitely disappointment. Which made no sense. I didn’t want his heart. I just wanted him to help me escape my father and maybe teach me a few things along the way.
But love… that was never part of the plan.
Right?
Thankfully unaware of my scrambled thoughts, Zach took my hands in his. “I told you I’d help you build your own life away from Trent. That hasn’t changed. And if you tell me now that you don’t want me to ever touch you again, it still won’t change.”
Somewhere amidst all the disappointment and hurt for what he’d been through, a sliver of something blossomed. It wasn’t quite hope but it was something close to it. And when I opened my mouth to speak, the words that came out, shocked even me.
