Celine stared up at Zion. Just seeing him made sexual need stir to life inside her again. Would it ever let up? Would she always feel that robust surge of energy pass between them, making her want to be taken by him, over and over?
“Why can’t you answer my question?”
His words put a temporary hold on her sexual needs as she dealt with her mental ones. She would answer his question, but first she had one of her own. “You had me investigated?”
Tonight he had questioned her character. How could he do that? He’d been there when she’d phoned her father. She had even let him listen in on the call, so how could he think such a thing?
“I didn’t have you investigated, Celine. It’s your father and Nikon Anastas I’m suspicious of. I questioned some of the things your father was telling you. First of all, why is he protecting Anastas?”
Celine had wondered the same thing. But then, she knew her father. She believed he must be connected to Anastas in some way that any bad publicity attached to the man might cause Levy financial hardship. Her father liked basking in publicity as much as he enjoyed making money.
“So, you had my father and Nikon investigated?”
“Let’s just say York is checking out their story for me.”
He’d told her about his godbrother York Ellis, the ex-cop who was now a security expert. “That was him who called you?”
“Yes. In checking out information on your father and Anastas, since York believes in being thorough, he decided to check you out, as well. That’s how he found out about the body double. He also discovered your father lied about bringing in the FBI.”
Celine thought for the man to have discovered that she used a body double, he must be very thorough.
For the time being she wanted to just focus on what Zion had said about her father and the FBI. But from the way Zion was looking at her, she knew he was questioning her role in all this and wondering if she was as innocent as she claimed. She knew that was what needed to be cleared up first.
“Since I was a junior in college, I’ve been operating a business I didn’t want my father to find out about, Zion.”
His gaze flickered somewhat. “What kind of business?”
Instead of answering him, she sat up in bed, reached over and pulled out the top drawer of the nightstand, and retrieved the folder she’d placed there. She handed it to him. “This business.”
He sat up in turn and began browsing through it. What she’d given him was a packet containing brochures of Second Chances services. The packet her marketing department had created to attract potential donors.
Moments later he glanced back at her with what looked like both shock and admiration on his face. “This is your company?”
She nodded. “Yes, my brainchild. I started the company with trust funds I inherited from grandparents on both sides. Later I kept it replenished with the allowances my father enjoyed giving me. Don’t get me wrong—Dad gives to a number of charities, but he doesn’t believe in being a ‘bleeding heart,’ as he calls anyone who wants to do more. I happen to be one of those persons.”
She paused a moment before continuing. “Instead of arguing with him about it, I’ve kept my work a secret from him. Even going so far as to hire a body double and make him believe all I wanted to do with my time was shop and jet-set all over the world. When he thinks that’s what I’m doing, I’m usually planted right there in LA and working out of my office downtown.”
Zion handed the folder back to her. “So all the stuff the tabloids print about you isn’t true.”
“I told you, more than once, it wasn’t.”
“But why go to that extreme, Celine? You’ll be twenty-five in a few months. Why would a grown-ass woman sneak around and do something that’s evidently your passion? Why are you afraid to tell your father about the good you’re doing? Why are you allowing him to think he’s manipulating you?”
Celine looked away for a second and then back at him. “Losing my mother was hard on me. If you recall, Dad mentioned at dinner your first night in LA how after Mom died we lived here in Rome for a while.”
She paused a moment and then said, “The reason we did so was because the loss of my mother was so great I became grief stricken. I was only twelve and quite close to my mom. And I went into what doctors refer to as a sort of grief-driven mental shock, where for six months I couldn’t talk. The doctors suggested I needed stability for a while and plenty of attention. After the therapist helped me work through it and I got my voice back, I recall him telling Dad the same thing could happen again if I lost someone else that I loved or was attached to.”
“Namely him?” Zion asked.
“Yes. Namely him. While I was in college my father had a cancer scare. I almost lost him and that’s all I could think about. Since then I’ve tried not to upset my father about anything, and over the years he’s taken advantage of it.”
“Like allowing him to link you and Anastas in a relationship for a publicity stunt?”
“Yes. And even persuading me to star in those two movies, although I hated doing so. Only good thing that came from that was meeting and becoming good friends with Tiffany Sorrell, the person used both times as my body double.”
Zion nodded. “When you told me you’d been working on reports today, you were doing so for your company?”
“Yes. We had an important business meeting this week, which I needed to be back in LA for. Now, because of those kidnappers, I’m still here in Italy. I want them to conduct the meeting without me, which is the reason I worked on that report all day.” At least she’d tried to work on it. Typically, such a report would not have taken her more than a few hours, but her mind had kept wandering with thoughts of Zion.
She rubbed a hand down her face. “Tiffany has nothing to do with what’s going on with Dad and Nikon. I hire her whenever I want my whereabouts feigned. And if Dad hasn’t involved the FBI in my kidnapping like he claimed to have done, then I want to know why he lied to me.”
* * *
Zion wanted to know that, as well, and he knew York would discover the truth and provide the answers. In the meantime, there was another subject he needed to address with her. Namely, another rule he’d broken. In all his thirty-three years he had never made love to a woman without a condom, but he’d made love to Celine without one tonight. Several times.
There was no excuse for what he’d done. And what made things so horrific was that he had enjoyed it. He should have pulled out of her the moment he’d realized what he was doing. Instead, he’d gotten even more caught up in an ecstasy the likes of which he’d never experienced before.
“We need to talk about what happened between us, Celine.” In a way, bringing up such a thing seemed odd when they were still naked and in bed together.
She met his gaze. “What about it?”
Did she really need to ask him that when she knew the answer? “I didn’t use a condom.”
“I told you I was on the pill, but it was your rule to use a condom anyway.”
Yes, it was his rule. At least it had been. “It’s always better to be doubly safe.”
She frowned. “Do you think I would intentionally get pregnant from you? Is that what this is about, Zion?”
“I didn’t say you would intentionally get pregnant, but there’s a chance you could.” You could be pregnant.
She studied him for a moment and he had a feeling he wasn’t going to like what she had to say. She proved him right. “You don’t like kids that much that you’re afraid of having one of your own?”
Zion didn’t say anything at first, tempted to let her think whatever she wanted. But for some reason he felt inclined to set the record straight. “I love kids, but I don’t plan to father one if I can help it.”
“Why?”
Celine had no right to ask him that, since it was none of her business. But then, it could very well be her business if she ended up pregnant. Women on the pill were known to get pregnant. Nothing was 100 percent safe.
She was looking at him, waiting for a response. How could he explain that not knowing if Langren Blackstone was his biological father had a major impact on him? How could Zion bring a child into the world when he wasn’t certain of his own parentage? There was no way he would tell Celine the true reason he’d turned his back on extending the Blackstone line and why he was willing to let it end with him. The last remaining Blackstone. So instead he said, “Fatherhood doesn’t agree with me.”
“I’ll remember that in a month if I’m forced to do a pregnancy test.”
He frowned and held her gaze. “I hope that doesn’t happen, but if it does, I want you to know that I will accept my responsibility.”
He knew what he said sounded cold and distant, but there was no hope for it. If she was pregnant he would want her to have the baby and he would do right by it.
“If I am pregnant, which I doubt, I don’t need you to accept anything. I will take care of myself and my baby without you.”
That wouldn’t be happening but he decided not to argue with her. Instead he thought it best if he got out of her bed and got to his, where he belonged.
“So what’s next...regarding my father? Do you think I should call and confront him about the FBI?”
Zion shook his head. “No, I wouldn’t just yet. You have a place here where you are safe, and he has no idea where you are. I suggest you see how things play out with him while York continues his investigation. I would hope, whatever is going on, that your father has your best interests in mind.”
“I hope so, too.”
He glanced at the clock on the nightstand. It was time to go to his own bed. Returning his attention to her, he said, “Thanks for leveling with me about Second Chances, Celine. I think it’s wonderful for you to care about others so much.”
“Thank you.”
“And another thing...” He forged ahead. “I think what you’re doing is something you should be proud of and not keep hidden. I would think regardless of how your father feels about ‘bleeding hearts,’ that he would be supportive and proud of what you’re doing.”
She didn’t say anything, just broke eye contact with him and stared down at the bed coverings for what seemed like a long moment before lifting her gaze back to him. “Thank you for saying that. For believing that.”
Did that mean she didn’t believe it? Thinking that was too much to dwell on at this hour, he said, “I need to go to my room.”
“All right.”
As if his hand had a mind of its own, he reached up and brushed his fingers against her cheek in an unexpected display of tenderness. “Chances are you won’t be seeing me until late tomorrow again,” he said huskily. “I have a lot to do to finish up that project I’m working on.”
“I understand.”
He wondered if she really did. Was she aware he would intentionally be putting distance between them again? He removed his hand from her face. Celine Michaels was too much temptation. For him to be in her bed now was confirmation of that. Once again she was testing his control.
He moved to ease from the bed, but his legs rubbed against hers in the process. It was like a torch lighting dry kindling; immediately he felt a tightening low in his gut and every nerve in his body convulsed in sexual need.
Their gazes locked and held for the longest time. Then they began leaning toward each other, and within seconds were in each other’s arms. The moment his tongue entered her mouth and she intercepted it, began feasting on it greedily, sexual excitement curled in his stomach. And he knew before he left her bed she would be rocking his world yet again.
Just like he intended to rock hers.