The Italian's Fake Fiancée

43

"What's the meaning of this Leonardo? Why do you have that... that woman in your arms?" Carlo pointed in annoyance.

Flavia covered her mouth with her hand and gushed out a horrified, "Oh my goodness."

Brown eyes blazing, jaw clenched hard, Leonardo released Lolita's arm he had been gripping tight and gave her a little push away from him. She stumbled forward.

Catching herself at the last minute Lolita turned and noticed his parents and to Leo's horror the woman who had grown pale at the thought of the security men seeing her in her bikini, parted her hair behind her ear, and released a drunken inspired smile. "Leonardo, you didn't tell me your parents were here I have been wanting to meet them." Her voice went high pitched at the last sentence.

Giggling, she walked towards his parents. Leo could sense a disaster in the air. He moved fast to stop her, but on realizing there was no way he could stop her before she reached his parents.

He stopped abruptly, and watched her stretch out a hand for a handshake in front of his parents, giggling sheepishly. She was wasted.

"Hello, Mr. and Mrs. D'Angelo."

Carlo looked fit to burst. The short man with his potbelly was staring down his aristocratic nose at the hand Lolita held out as if it was shit and then he looked sharply at his son, his nostrils flaring, saying without words look what you have done.

Flavia, on the other hand, sighed and waved a hand carelessly in the air. Holding her head as if the entire situation was giving her a sudden headache. "Alberto, take this half-naked woman away from here before she causes any more trouble. Clearly she is drunk and doesn't know what she is doing."

Like a shadow behind them, Alberto stepped out and took hold of Lolita's arm, steering her towards the shaded patio. Lolita didn't protest, but she tried to reach out to him as they passed him, but Leo snatched his hand back.

When they left, all eyes turned to him and Leonardo realized his father was still waiting for an answer. He allowed himself to survey the group. Rosa was trying to hide a smile behind her hand. His mother looked tired and weary. His father was the only one full of energy and was fuming quietly while Paige... Paige looked like she rather be anywhere than there.

Leo's critical eye observed that and strangely, that assessment did not sit well with him. It was eating him up inside.

With a heavy heart, he turned to his father, ready to be done with the explanation so he can go speak to Paige.

"I do not know that woman," he began. "Somehow, I don't know how she managed to enter into the palazzo and tried to seduce me. She was already naked in the pool when i came and..." Leo stopped realizing how stupid he sounded.

Their house had a very high-security pass, and it was hard to get in without the right and appropriate means. Which means bypassing the security at the gate. He was just spurting nonsense by saying he didn't know how Lolita got into the house. He saw that knowledge reflected in Rosa's eyes and knew he was screwed. His face grew taut

He lifted his head and met his father's blazing eyes.

"Are you having an affair with her," Carlo pointed at Lolita's departing figure, his nostrils flaring. "Is that why you refused to come for the charity so you can stay back and screw her. I thought you have changed!"

"I have changed," Leo countered back immediately. Hating that every little thing had to come back to that word; change. How long did he have to prove himself?

"Well, I don't see it!" Carlo fumed.

Both father and son stared at each other with identical pairs of eyes. One, lean and tall with a heavy expression on his face, while the other was short, with his face full of mustache and a round rim glasses sitting high on his nose.

"Father," a voice sighed. "I told you not to get your hopes up. We all knew Leonardo wasn't going to change." Carlo's eyes turned to his daughter, and Leo's mouth tightened in annoyance, listening to the rubbish that was coming out from his sister's mouth. "You know how he is more interested in his pleasure than in the company. Father, take a good look at him."

Leo stared down at himself to know what exactly his sister was trying to point out and discovered his shirt was open all the way down to where it was stuffed into his pants.

It must have been the result of his little ruffle with Lolita earlier. Not only that, his white shirt was damp in some certain areas.

Summing everything up, he didn't have to touch his hair to know it was a mess.

He met his sister's eyes, and she smiled. "Tell me father if he doesn't look like a man who had just ravished a woman."

Leo grew still. He hadn't been expecting that assessment. Is that how they saw it.

He supposed catching Lolita in his arms like that could have given them that impression, but that wasn't the truth! he turned to Paige, wanting to know what she thought too.

If she also believed he was ravishing Lolita. However, Paige won't make eye contact with him. Her eyes would stray to anywhere but his face. Leo retracted his eyes from her. Feeling angry for no good reason. Mayhap he wanted her to believe in him without having to defend himself, but he knew that was crying for the moon.

"I thought you have changed, son. If i had known you were still accommodating women like this, I wouldn't have held a board meeting in your honor. You had me believing it was different this time. You... you." Carlo faltered, breathing heavily.

Unmoving, Leonardo stood there listening to his heart pound in his ear. Leonardo couldn't believe his ears. His father had been working towards making him the new CEO and he had gone and ruined that. No, not him. Lolita did, and he felt like snapping her neck into two for that.

It had taken him such a long time to gain his father's trust. And pull his life back together and make them believe he was different from the wasted man he had been before and indeed he was, but Lolita has crumbled all that hard work with just one wicked exhibition. How cruel.

"Everything is not as it seems, father," He tried one last time to clear the air. "I wasn't trying to be intimate with her."

Carlo scoffed. "I'm not yet that old, my boy. My eyes are still good. I know what I saw."