The Italian's Fake Fiancée

17

His concern would have been sweet had it been real and not just because he was worried about what his sister said to her. And his hands on her shoulder was making her loose herself in his warmth. She almost felt like closing her eyes to enjoy it.

Lowering her eyes Paige murmured, "No, she didn't come here."

When he continued staring at her obviously not believing her, Paige let a big smile cross her anxious face. "I thought I forgot something, that was why I was worried, but on a second thought now I realized I didn't."

"Well, what is that?" The words were spoken slowly, yet it reminded her of an anxious child.

Eyeing him askance, Paige mumbled, "it's a female necessity." Feeling uncomfortable for all the lies she was spouting. Did he have to come in when she was thinking out loud?

A reluctant smile broke out on his face and then straightened as though he wasn't sure he should be smiling yet. "You forget I helped pack your bag, and you didn't say anything was missing."

"Give it up Leo, am not going to say what it was." She paused after that statement, realizing she had called him by his given name when it was just the two of them with no watchful eyes about.

But Leo didn't notice because he shrugged and said,"If you say so." Finally breathing out a sigh of relief.

After that, silence reigned, and they stared at each other awkwardly. Paige thought her boss had changed, usually, when he talked to her, it was normally with a stiff voice but here his voice had wavered from gentle, to smooth to low nothing at all stiff in them, and he had even joked with her sometimes perhaps the charade had gotten his defenses low.

Spying the bottle of wine in his hand Paige mumbled, "So what are we celebrating?"

He lifted the bottle to eye level as though he had almost forgotten he was with it. "This? We are celebrating our performance."

"Our Performance? Paige said in disbelief. "We were almost caught!"

"But we weren't, were we?"

Paige shook her head.

"Good."

He went to a table in the room and poured the wine into two glasses, handed her one and twirled his drink in the air and took a sip. "To good performance."

Paige took a sip of her own, feeling ridiculous she was celebrating when they should be planning ahead. "I still think this is not healthy," Paige said after the first sip. "What we should be doing is planning ahead instead of celebrating."

"That we would do, but I doubt any more questions will be thrown our way," Paige opened her mouth to protest, but he cut her off with one hand. "However, if there is, I give you the permission to cook up something. Just fill me with the details later, that's all I ask."

"And you think that would work?"

"Perfectly," he looked more than sure it would work. "But that's the least of my concerns, I realized today with all the questions thrown, I know nothing about you besides the basics, name, age, and address." He ticked off on his finger.

At the last one he paused and stared deeply at her and Paige felt her self grow warm even though he was hardly giving her any sexual look.

"Now from what I understand we are going to find ourselves at different sides of the house from the next few days, and I need to know what to say when I am being asked something personal about my fiancée. So tell me, Paige, what can you tell me about yourself."

The question came, so suddenly Paige who had been ogling his chest and having wild fantasies of him in her head gagged on her wine erupting in a fit of cough, Leo lifted from the sofa he was sitting on and went to her, but Paige put out a hand and held him back.

Wasn't it enough she was coughing indelicately around him now he actually wants to come closer and see for himself? At this rate she will never have any chances with him if he continued seeing her in this embarrassing states.

Oh God! Paige risked a look at him and noticed he looked offended she won't let him help.

"At least let me have the glass," he mumbled and Paige handed him the glass, still coughing. When she finished, there were tears in the corner of her eyes and she wiped it with her finger. Her mouth half open as she did this.

She glanced at him. "Why do you want to know about me?" Paige beseeched.

His response was to stare at her. He had returned to the mahogany table in his room where the wine was and was fingering his wine glass, but at her question had lowered the glass on the table."Why won't I want to know about my fiancée?" Paige opened her eyes wide, and he corrected himself immediately "Fake fiancée."

A frown crossing his face, but that was the least of Paige's problem. Paige dreaded telling him about her background she had never had a good experience telling rich blokes like him about how she lived. They always turned their nose at the poverty. At least her one and only boyfriend, Richard, did.

Crossing her thigh to form a composure she wasn't feeling Paige drawled out. "So what do you want to know?"

Hoping that if she said it slowly like a dejected cat, he wouldn't want to continue, but to her surprise, he followed that action with his eyes until it came to rest on her face. And Paige felt the ridiculous need to blush. He held her gaze.

"Anything," he muttered slowly.

"But I don't know where to start."

"Start from somewhere." his voice was gentle, probing as though he knew this was not a good subject for her but still needed her to say it all the same. "At dinner, you said your parents died when you were young. Start there. Tell me how they died."

Her boss was no easy pushover, Paige realized resigning herself to fate. "Well," Paige lifted from the bed, knotting the tie of her nightgown tighter even though they were already tight. She was nervous and felt the ridiculous need to part her hair behind her ear, or wipe her hand in front of her nightgown. She settled for holding her hands together in her front, well aware he was watching her carefully. His face appearing as though he was reading something of the situation.

Instantly Paige left there to stand near the window, stopping only when she had succeeded in creating a substantial amount of distance between them.

Staring into the dark, Paige said," I was ten when my parents died in a car accident." With no response from him, Paige took it as a sign of encouragement and continued. Sensing his dark gaze on her back because she had turned to back him.