The Baby Pact (Babies and Billions #5) - Holly Rayner Page 0,48

that knowledge meant that she didn’t have to despise him over something that had happened a long time ago. She could still love him as the father of her child and as her friend.

But she just couldn’t bring herself to trust him. Not fully. Especially not after the things he had said about understanding what his father had done. She knew Zach’s family had been poor, but they hadn’t been destitute. His father had had a job. He had been able to put food on the table and buy clothes for Zach. All right, perhaps they hadn’t had luxuries, the way Rhea’s family had, but that was no reason to stoop to theft.

I wouldn’t become a criminal if there was something my child wanted, she thought firmly. I would never put my child in the position of having to learn that I had done such a thing. That’s what Zach’s father did to him. I couldn’t do that to my child.

If Zach didn’t see eye to eye with her on something so fundamental, how could they ever be together? It would be impossible.

But he was so tempting. Even sitting across the table from him was hard. She longed to reach out to him, to rest her hand on his, to do something to dispel the almost painful chemistry that had sprung up between the two of them.

“Just spend a little more time with me,” Zach urged. “We owe it to one another to see if we can get past this, don’t we? Wouldn’t you be happy to find out that we could put it behind us?”

“I would,” she admitted. “But I don’t think I’m going to be able to do it.”

“Let me take you away,” he said. “Just for a few days.”

“Where?” she asked, in spite of herself.

“I know a place,” he said. “A really cozy little resort. You’ll love it. I can make all the arrangements. We can get away from the pressures of our lives for a few days and just deal with getting close again. Maybe we’ll discover that we can put the past behind us.”

She sighed. It was almost certainly a waste of time.

But she couldn’t resist when he looked at her like that.

“All right,” she agreed at last. “One week. You have one week to change my mind.”

Chapter 17

Rhea

“Okay, you didn’t tell me that we’d be going to Iceland,” Rhea said as the private jet taxied to a stop on the tarmac.

Zach raised his eyebrows. “Would you have come if I had told you?”

“I might have!”

His lips quirked slightly.

“Okay,” she admitted. “I wouldn’t have. I would have said that we could just as easily discuss our problems in Maryland, and that we didn’t need to fly across the ocean.”

“But this isn’t just about having a conversation,” Zach said. “I wanted us to get away for a bit. I wanted to do something that was just about you and me. While we’re here, we don’t have to worry about work, or about any other obligations we might have had back home.”

“You mean my family?”

He flushed. “Well, sure, among other things,” he said. “I know you’re under a lot of stress because of them. I know they don’t like the idea of you and me being together.”

“Can you blame them?” Rhea asked.

“No,” Zach admitted. “I understand it. I just think you should decide for yourself.”

She nodded grudgingly. “You’re probably right,” she said. “As long as I’m at home, I’ll be aware of my parents in the background of my life. I’ll be thinking about my father and wondering what he would say if he knew I was with you. It’s good that you and I are here on our own.”

A car was waiting for them, right on the tarmac. Zach led Rhea to it.

“Why do you have a private jet anyway?” Rhea asked him. “What does a caterer need with a private jet?”

“I don’t have it for work,” he admitted. “It was one of my first indulgences after I paid off the money I got from my father. I bought it to travel the world.”

“So you’ve been to Iceland before?”

“I told you we were going somewhere I knew, didn’t I?” he said.

“You did,” she said. “But where is it?”

“It’s a cute little resort just outside of Reykjavik,” he told her. “Privately owned. Doesn’t get a lot of business. We should have plenty of privacy while we’re here.”

The car wound through the Icelandic landscape. Rhea stared out the window.

“It’s nothing like I would have expected,” she admitted.

“What did