The Italian's Fake Fiancée

15

    The dining room overlooked the outside, lit by several lights and the table overflowing with food ranging from Spaghetti Carbonara to Pesto to Risotto and some others she didn't know but which looked positively mouthwatering.
   
    Cutleries clinked and clanked as the family drank one of their brand wines, Amore.
   
    A sparkling white wine with a characteristic fruity taste which tended to soft velvet. Paige met Rosa's gaze across the table and the brunette smiled raising her glass to her lips. When she lowered it she said,
   
    "You know, you two, how did you meet?"
   
    "Leave the girl alone, Rosa," Aunt Gemma mumbled. "Question her when we are done eating."
   
    "But Gemma I think it's alright if the girl wants to speak, looking at that face I know she wants to tell us but If none of you will listen, you can all close your ears and I will do the listening for us."
   
    Aunt Elena must have been deluding herself or suffering from a case of misinterpretation because Paige's face didn't even look like she wanted to breathe a word. If anything, she was panicking in her seat. It was as though a fire had been lighted under her chair and she couldn't keep still.
   
    During their flight to Italy Leo had told her everything and anything, from his relationship with his parents to why he wanted the family company and even some personal things about him to help her with the charade but had forgotten to tell her the most vital things. Answers to questions like this one and she, in her mesmerization and little infatuation with Leo on the plane ride, had failed to raise it.
   
    She turned to Leo for help and noticed he had stiffened.
   
    Though his lean strong face showed nothing, Paige could tell, from months of working for him, he was panicking and thinking very fast, then suddenly a smile broke out on his face and he took out a napkin and turned to her cupping her chin and wiped the corner of her mouth which had been stained by the spaghetti Carbonara she was eating.
   
    Paige stiffened and felt her heartbeat escalate at his nearness. But Leo wasn't looking at her, his eyes were fixed on the mouth he was working on. And she could tell from his spontaneous action all eyes had turned to watch them, If she hadn't been sure this was a charade she too would have fallen under this trick for he was good.
   
    Muttering sweet words to her in Italian as he wiped her mouth with an exaggerated slowness Paige felt wasn't necessary. And to think he was doing that in front of everyone brought a swift rise of blush to Paige's cheeks.
   
    Someone saw it and pointed it out. "Look Leo's Fiancée is blushing. I bet all she can think of now is kissing Leo," a sigh. "Well, I did kiss my Joe if he did something like this for me," A giggle "Perhaps I would have done something that wasn't restricted to the lips."
   
    "Elena, we have the younger ones here." A stern masculine voice admonished.
   
    "We have? Oh well, that's even better they are going to hear it someday, anyway."
   
    As all this was happening no one noticed that Rosa had leaned close to the table and was watching her brother and his fiancée intently with an irritated expression on her face as everyone gushed about how good they look together, or that the men at the far end of the table had branched out of the conversation and had started a conversation of their own.
   
    Leo took his sweet time. When he finished he dropped the napkin and turned to his sister, "Why Rosa, I met her in an adoption agency and when I saw her..."
   
    "Adoption agency? You have a baby, and you did not tell me!" Flavia exclaimed.
   
    "Of course not madre! I would never do that."
   
    Silence reigned after that, in which Leo waited to see if any more questions would be raised. When none happened he continued. "You see when I met her I couldn't keep my eyes away from her, she did been there to adopt a cat no one wanted to adopt you should have seen how adorable she was I have never seen anyone want anything the way she wanted that cat, and it wasn't even handbag, so I offered to buy it for her and that's where the story began."
   
    "Uhhhhhh huh." Someone muttered. Paige didn't know who and didn't care because she was so surprised at the tale Leo was weaving, even she had a hard time not believing it. He was good, very good.
   
    "Isn't that right my love?" He turned to her, rubbing her cheek with his thumb. It took Paige a good second or two to regain her breath and for her heart to start beating at the force of that eyes on her.
   
    Where had that come from? She knew Leo had said there would be touching, but she didn't think the effect would be this electrifying. Paige turned to his family and thought she should say something too and not just sit there like a blustering fool. So she smiled and leaned close to him, laid a hand on his arm. Paige felt Leo's eyes on her but dared not look at him.
   
    "Oh! It was so wonderful, you should have seen it, to have a man come to my rescue is the closest thing to every girl's fantasy, and it wasn't the only time." Paige gushed.
   
    "What do you mean?" Rosa asked.
   
    "After the cat was handed to me Betsy did scratch me, and it was Leo who tended to my wounds. And he was so gentle." Paige lowered her voice purposefully.
   
    "He did that?" This came from Alberto, his dark eyes resting on Paige, and Paige got the distinct impression he knew something, but what it was he knew she didn't know.
   
    Ignoring that, Paige turned to Leo and looked into his eyes. Noting the amused twitch of his lips and the slight raise of his brow and felt he wanted to say something but because of the others there he couldn't and at that point, Paige would have given anything to know what he thought. She let her gaze linger, revealing a bit of what she felt for him, and said in the same breathy voice, "he did that and more." Leo swallowed.
   
    To everyone looking she looked like the perfect fiancée in love with her man, which was the story they were trying to sell. But to Leo, who knew she was making everything up, he didn't know what to make of it. So he stared at her.