Rhythm of My Heart

Wait.

What the…

Princess Eve?

She waved at him.

Zachary’s jaw dropped. He blinked. Then blinked again, and then again. Then he scrubbed his hand over his eyes to clear his hazy vision as the next few lines of his grandmother’s lullaby rang through his ears.

Appearances fool, you have been warned,

Follow your instinct, don’t be torn.

And as he looked at her once again, the clouds parted from a part of his brain he hadn’t realized they’d been shadowing, and sunlight poured through the space, enlightening him.

Holy crap.

Princess Eve.

He slapped his head as the pieces of a puzzle he’d never solved before fell into place. His heart leapt, as though charged by an electric pulse.

Princess Eve, the red-haired beauty of his vision was her. Eve. Tiny. The woman he’d fallen in love with. His fate and his love were one and the same. He’d just been too focused on the red hair and green eyes to see the similarity in the facial structure. Although she was taller than usual, by a good few inches. But that could be explained away by a pair of heels. And her lips looked different—the color was off. They were a bright orange he’d never seen on her. And her cheekbones were more pronounced—but that was obviously a trick of the makeup.

Princess Eve removed the tiara from her head and placed it on one of the girls. Hannah?

Zachary didn’t know. He didn’t care. Because as he stared at his present and his future, she beckoned to him, calling him over. And in that second, Eve was the redhead who’d beckoned to him in his vision. It was the exact moment he’d seen, over and over as his grandmother had sung to him, the moment he’d immortalized in his mind.

His heart flipped, his chest tightened, and for the first time ever, Zachary felt complete. Contentment, happiness, excitement and anticipation filled him as he realized there was no longer anything standing in the way of his—and Eve’s—happily ever after.

No wonder the connection he’d instantly felt with Eve had been so strong. No wonder her recollections of the Bali bomb had gutted him. He’d felt her pain because she was his fate. His soul mate.

His.

He walked towards her, dazed, and she stilled to watch him approach. For once he was content not to touch her, not to haul her tight against him. All he wanted to do was stare. Look at her until he’d finally had his fill. He stopped a mere inch away and gazed into her deep, green eyes. Eyes that now looked suspiciously like his and his brothers’ when they performed.

And then he couldn’t help it. He smiled. Just let a goofy grin spread across his face.

Eve smiled right back.

“It’s you.” His voice reflected his wonder and his enchantment. “It was you all along.”

This time, it wasn’t her own cheek she ran her fingers down, it was his, and he felt her touch all the way through to his heart.

Her green eyes shimmered with emotion. “It is, Zachary. It’s me.”

And that was all they had time to say before a mob of mothers, armed with cameras and questions, surrounded them.

Many long hours later, Eve stood beneath the spray of the shower, letting the grime and sweat from the concert wash down the drain.

Try though she had, Eve had been unable to keep her eyes off Jonah the entire duration of the concert. She’d had to force herself to focus on Delilah and Devine, force herself to ensure their makeup was perfect, because all she wanted to do was devour the man she loved with her gaze. And when the man she loved got onstage and became Jonah Speed, he was a sight to behold. Breathtaking. Magnificent.

They hadn’t had a minute to themselves the entire day. Bree’s friends had crowded around him during the party, not giving him a minute to breathe, then Bree and Anthony had insisted he stay for lunch, and Hannah had insisted he help her open presents.

Even four-year-olds, it seemed, were spellbound by Zachary.

Luke had phoned around three, demanding Zachary get back to the hotel, and Eve had followed about an hour later. Jake had gotten her to the arena, dressed once again as Eve, with time to spare and no interruptions from the press.

But cameras had flashed backstage. And more than one photographer had caught Eve and Zachary together. Not kissing this time—just talking when they found two minutes to be together and alone. Eve strongly suspected a kiss wasn’t necessary to capture her feelings for him on film. Every time she looked at Zachary, she knew her eyes turned all gooey and her lips wouldn’t stop smiling.

Eve was no fool. She’s seen her reflection in the mirror this morning. It hadn’t occurred to her before, not at any point, that she might be the woman from Zachary’s vision. But a mirror didn’t lie. And when she’d seen his face, seen his reaction as he’d stared at her made up as a princess, she’d known for certain.

It was her. She was Zachary’s fate.

The water splashed over her hair and in her ears, deafening her, so when two arms encircled her waist from behind, she jumped a good half a meter in the air.

“Easy, Tiny,” Zachary soothed. “It’s just me.”

The blood drained from her face. Every muscle in her body went lax. “H-how did you get inside my room?”

She’d felt safe removing her mask. Safe behind her locked door. But now Zachary was here, with her, in the shower. With her and her unpainted face.

He chuckled a low, sexy chuckle that echoed through her belly and made her groin clench with need. “Simple abuse of power,” he confessed. “I charmed the woman at reception into giving me a spare card for your door.”

He pulled her against him, his chest to her back, his erection nestled against her ass. And God help her, Eve was ready for him. Hot, aroused and achy with desire.

She was also absolutely terrified. Her hands quivered so bad she had to clasp them together.

“You…” She cleared her throat, finding it hard to talk. “You are incorrigible, Zachary Pace.”

God, she so wasn’t ready for this. So wasn’t ready to expose herself to him. Not now, when everything should be so perfect between them. Not when she’d just discovered she was his fate.

Not now, when she was so in love with him she almost couldn’t breathe from all that emotion crammed into her chest.

How could everything she’d never dared dream about fall in her lap, making her the luckiest, happiest woman on earth, only to be torn away when Zachary saw the real her?

“I wasn’t Zachary down there. I was Jonah. Desperate to get to my drumsticks, which I’d accidentally left in your room earlier.”

“Just admit it. You turned on the full power of your sexual prowess, and the woman fell over herself offering you the card.” Her voice was as shaky as her hands. Could he tell?

He chuckled again, sending an erotic shiver down her spine. “Maybe.” He nipped her ear. “She may have offered me a key to every room on the floor.”

“Poor thing didn’t stand a chance.” Now her voice shook even more. Partly from fear that he’d turn her around, and partly because his hands had wandered over her front, feathering over her breasts, down her belly, around and up her sides only to find her breasts again.

“We going to talk about a woman whose name I can’t even remember?” He leaned in and pressed a kiss to her neck. Water pounded her front, slipping down her skin and over his hands. “Or are we going to acknowledge what happened at your sister’s place?”