LITMIR.BIZ

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background. The Oliveiras had long since run through their family fortune but that was less important than their reputation and their impressive family tree.’

      ‘Your mother had a sad life.’ Freddie sighed reflectively. ‘She didn’t really fit anywhere.’

      ‘Life is what you make of it. Her attachment to Afonso was toxic. Getting too attached to anyone is dangerous,’ Zac pronounced grimly. ‘Think of how attached you are to Eloise and Jack and the sacrifices you’re prepared to make to keep them!’

      Unexpectedly, Freddie smiled. ‘But, loving them has enriched my life in so many other ways. Yes, I could have made different choices but they’re my family and they make me happy. I have no regrets.’

      The dinner was being held in a private room at an exclusive restaurant. Freddie remembered Charles Russell and his eldest son, Angel, joining Zac for coffee one morning. But the two women, one brunette and one elegant, much older blonde, were completely new to her. The blonde turned out to be Sybil, Charles’ girlfriend and also, it seemed, Merry’s grandmother.

      Zac kept one arm wrapped protectively round Freddie’s spine as he introduced her to everyone. Angel’s wife, Merry, admired Freddie’s ring, but although both women were charming Merry seemed a little uncomfortable around Freddie and Zac, while Zac’s father treated Freddie for all the world as though she was his dream choice of bride for his youngest son.

      They took their seats while Freddie noted what the other two women were wearing and recognised that Zac had not brought her to the party overdressed. Merry and Sybil sparkled with jewellery and sported stylish outfits sprinkled with the kind of little handmade embellishments that screamed haute couture. Merry talked about her little girl and asked her about Eloise and Jack. Zac shared Eloise’s current obsession with dragons. Charles was asking when he could hope to meet the children when Freddie rose at the last minute to follow the other two women out to the cloakroom.

      ‘I just felt so awkward meeting Freddie!’ Merry was exclaiming loudly in the corridor as she and her grandmother rounded a corner. ‘I wish Jazz hadn’t told me what Zac got up to at the royal ball.’

      ‘What did he get up to?’ the older woman asked as Freddie automatically speeded up in the hope of hearing the rest of the tantalising exchange.

      ‘Apparently, Zac disappeared into a private room with two women that work at the palace. Obviously, they went in there to have sex. Jazz said he didn’t even blush when he reappeared. He’s shameless,’ Merry contended in a pained voice. ‘But that was only two weeks ago. How am I supposed to treat Freddie like a happy bride-to-be when I know that Zac was still playing away so recently?’

      ‘Well, I think you have to give Zac the benefit of the doubt because only the individuals in that room know what actually happened there. I also think you need to remind yourself that you are very happy with a man who enjoyed an equally raunchy reputation before he married you,’ the other woman commented wryly.

      Snatching in a breath, Freddie had frozen where she stood as she listened. Merry and her grandmother were talking about Zac. Apparently, he had had sex with two women at the Lerovian ball that Freddie had declined to attend. Two women. Shock rippled like a lightning bolt through Freddie, jarring every bone and muscle. A wave of fierce jealousy ripped through her in the aftermath as she realised that, without ever thinking too deeply about it, she had come to look on Zac as hers. Yet while coming on to her, pretending to want her, he had still been having sex with other women. That knowledge cut into her like a knife and made her feel like a fool. How many other women had he dallied with since they met? Appalled and deeply wounded, she walked stiffly into the cloakroom as the other women were leaving and managed a vague smile even though she felt like a zombie.

      How could she marry a man she couldn’t even trust to be faithful? She had taken exclusivity for granted in their relationship but it was not something they had actually discussed. She had made stupid, naïve assumptions, she acknowledged painfully, and Zac had played on her lack of experience. Telling her that he had never gone so long without sex! Yet it was only two weeks since the ball. Was two weeks a long time for him? How did she know? And what did she care? How could she possibly care about a man that brazen?

      Thankfully, she didn’t care about him, she told herself resolutely. She was wildly attracted to him but that was all, because she was cautious with her feelings and careful to protect herself from unhealthy attachments. She had watched, after all, what love did to her sister, Lauren. Lauren had bent every rule there was to justify keeping Cruz in her life, refusing to break away from him, excusing his infidelities as a trifling ‘man thing’.

      Zac noticed how pale and quiet Freddie was when she returned to the table and decided that it was time to call it a night. She was probably tired, he thought wryly, knowing the kids woke her at the crack of dawn. He had seen the tiny room she shared with the children and marvelled that she could live in that confined space without complaint. He draped an arm round her as they said their goodbyes, but she pulled away from him on the pavement outside, slipping into the waiting limo like a little silvery ghost.

      ‘Can we go back to the hotel first?’ Freddie asked tautly. ‘We have to talk.’

      Angel had once joked that the four deadliest words in Merry’s vocabulary were those words but Zac was nonchalant, cocooned as he was in his conviction that he was absolutely without a sin to his name. He wondered only absently what she wanted to talk about.

       CHAPTER SIX

      ‘NO, THANKS,’ FREDDIE said flatly in answer to the offer of a drink.

      Zac was already revising his belief that nothing could be seriously amiss because Freddie was posed in front of him with all the accusing stiffness and tension of a miniature St Joan of Arc. All she lacked was a sword and a burning torch. ‘What’s happening here?’ he demanded abruptly.

      ‘I overheard a conversation tonight,’ Freddie volunteered between gritted teeth, struggling to prevent herself from visibly trembling with rage. ‘I heard how you entertained yourself at the royal ball.’

      Zac put the evidence together and within seconds he had the whole picture clear in his mind. Vitale’s wife, Jazz, had probably gossiped to Merry and then Merry had talked and somehow Freddie had got to listen. His macho pride had been his downfall, he registered, his teeth gritting. Losing the bet, not even being able to persuade Freddie to join him at the ball, had hit his ego hard and when his brothers had assumed he was partaking of a little al fresco sex, he had seen no reason to put the record straight.

      Now Freddie had judged him and found him wanting and it was far from the first time he had endured the experience of others believing the worst of him. As a child he had come up with his own defence strategy and it had only hardened to steel as he matured. Never apologise, never explain. In point of fact he didn’t owe Freddie any explanations as they had not been together at the time. He had done nothing he was ashamed of doing. He had told no lies, had caused no injury to anyone and he refused to apologise for something he hadn’t done to keep the peace.

      If Freddie was going to be his wife, she had to respect his boundaries. He loathed emotional blackmail and had no scruples about fighting fire with fire.

      ‘Was it educational?’ Zac countered softly, his sibilant Brazilian accent roughening his vowel sounds with the hint that he might not be as cool and calm as he appeared.

      His apparent complete lack of reaction infuriated Freddie. He stood there, lean, powerful body balanced and strong in his beautifully cut suit, his eyes glittering like crushed ice below his luxuriant black lashes.

      ‘Is that all you’ve got to say to me?’ Freddie launched at him furiously.

      ‘I don’t know what else I can say since you still haven’t clarified the issue,’ Zac responded with sardonic bite.

      Colour spattered her cheeks, chasing away the pallor induced by shock. ‘You went into a private room at the ball

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