The Italian's Fake Fiancée

30

After Leo left Paige in the garden he strolled to the veranda downstairs and held the railings tight. Looking unseeing into the night. Light from the dining behind illuminating his tall, sleek form.

From there he could still see the trail that led to the garden and should he follow it he knew what he would find there. A bedraggled Paige with swollen lips and wide eyes that bespoke of innocence.

The fingers on the gold railings tightened and Leo cursed himself. He shouldn't have kissed his assistant tonight.

Even though he had told her there were chances, kissing might be involved with their charade. He had promised himself he would do everything in his power to make her comfortable and only kiss her when it was absolutely necessary. But hadn't he gone and ruined that?

Paige was one woman he preferred to keep far away from him as possible and look upon from afar with curiosity and admiration and not taint her with his blackened reputation.

But tonight at the garden he had felt that thin thread vanish and a burning desire that told him he could be able to get more from this girl.

Her innocence attracted him. Even when he shouldn't be attracted. For God's sake, she was his personal assistant.

Leo ran an agitated hand over his hair and then stuffed his hand into his pocket. His face revealing so many emotions at once as he tried to gather himself.

Although Paige was 26, there was this naivety about her that screamed she wasn't too
exposed to the world and men in general.

She wasn't the type of woman to surprise with the type of passion he had wielded today, let alone tangle with. Yet he had gone and done that and more.

The sound of heavy footsteps coming from inside the palazzo interrupted Leo from his thoughts, and he turned his head at the intrusion just in time to see his cousin step into the veranda.

"Did anything happen outside with the girl?" Alberto asked strolling into the veranda with a wine glass in his hands and flopped down on a cushion there, throwing one leg on its arm. His long slim fingers holding the wine glass over the other side.

Leo looked down at his cousin, at the carefree position he had assumed, and felt a hint of jealousy hit him.

Here he was battling heavily with thoughts he cannot understand, while Alberto was busy enjoying himself with nothing to worry about. His fine face squeezed at that, and he folded his hands under his chest. "Why will you think something happened?"

Alberto shrugged, "I don't know it's just the way you look. Solemn, like you have done something you shouldn't have. Crossed some line or so."

Leo's eyes opened wide. He knew Alberto always had the sixth sense to know when he was bothered by something, even when he pretended not to be, but to be able to surmise the situation to this extent was impressive.

Standing there as straight as a tree with one hand in his pants pocket Leo stared at the red liquid in the glass his cousin was holding as Alberto took the glass to his lips, took a sip, and brought it down smiling sheepishly at him.

The night breeze playing particularly with his brown hair. "Well? Did something happen?"
Seeing the smile on his cousin's face. Leo's eyes narrowed, How shameless. He couldn't believe Alberto was fishing shamelessly for information.

He opened his mouth, prepared to say something and then snapped it shut. He gave Alberto his back. Tottering towards the rails. "I don't see how any of this is your business."

"Like i know you would say that," Alberto chuckled, pulling a strawberry into his mouth. Leo hadn't known he had come with anything aside from his wine. Look how his thoughts have consumed him.

Alberto leaned forward, dropping the small plate of strawberry he was carrying on the table there. "Well i saw your assistant this evening, and she was looking so dejected I feared she might walk unseeingly into something."

As soon as he finished saying those words Leo's legs moved on their own accord and he took three steps and halted in Alberto's front. "You fool, don't you know how to keep your voice down. Don't call her my assistant carelessly someone might hear you," Leo hissed.

A look of understanding crossed Alberto's face, and he put up his hands in weak surrender, staring at Leo in deep amusement.

Leo's hands curled into fists by his side as Alberto's words came rushing back to his head. 'She looked so dejected i feared she might walk unseeingly into something.' What the hell did he mean by that. Did she hate the kiss so much she had to look like that? That thought irritated Leo and made his heart burn.

Reaching down, Leo took Alberto's glass and gulped the contents in one go. Slopping down on the cushion next to him and released a whoosh of air from his mouth. His legs already resting on the small table there.

"I saw the way she was looking... i mean Paige. The messy hair, the swollen...." Leo threw a dark look at Alberto, and he knew not to continue that line of the sentence. "I am assuming it was your handwork." Alberto said instead.

"Shut up, Alberto," Leo groaned.

Alberto sighed. "You're such a killjoy I was just trying to get some information from you. I took her to your room she had gone to change for dinner. Now for once in your life be a good fiancé and go escort her down for dinner.
Perhaps you might learn why she is like that."

All Alberto ever did since he came was annoy Leonardo with his careless observations and silly comments, but Leo would have to admit what he said now made sense. So without appearing that he might have heard, Leo left there and climbed the stairs. His mind still hovering over what Alberto had said.

When he got to their room, he threw the door open and stopped short. Paige was standing in front of the dressing mirror. Her back to him. She was wearing a gold gown that complimented her skin color, her blond curls tumbling down her back and pulled to one shoulder. The zip of her gown closed halfway and revealing the skin at her back.

She turned and saw him and for a moment or two, they stared at each other across the expanse of the room before she lowered her lashes and turned sideways, working furiously at the zip which Leo noticed refused to budge.
In two-three steps, Leo tottered towards her and stopped a few inches away from her.

The first thing he did was to look at the annoyed look at her face because she couldn't get the gown to zip up and asked, "Is there anything i can help you with?"

She paused and turned to him while Leo busied himself with watching her eyes for any signs of the dejected look Alberto had talked about however, all he noticed was that she won't meet his eyes. She looked everywhere but his face. Leo's hand fisted by his side.

"Can you help me with the zip? I have been trying to zip this gown up for ages, but it seems the zip is stuck. Will you help me?" She turned her back and Leo forgot how to breathe.

Up close, the fair skin at the girl's back looked tender and soft and as Leo stared at it he was tempted to touch. However, he couldn't move. All he was capable of was slow, heavy breathing.

A funny feeling had taken over his body, the same one he had felt at the garden when he kissed her. The only difference was that while he was in control in the garden, here the feeling threatened to jump out of its leash.

As he stared at the delicate curve of the girl's back, he imagined pulling his hands into the material at her shoulder and letting her dress fall to her waist. Leo had only been thinking it, but his hand lifted as if to feed on that desire and ran a trail from her nape to the curve of her ass where the brass zip stuck and held it.