Rumours: The Secret Billionaires. Дженнифер Хейворд
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wanted to look away from that dark and questioning gaze, behind which she knew simmered the same kind of sizzling desire she too was wrestling to control. What would happen if she allowed that attraction, that needy desire to show itself? All she had to do was go to him, tell him she wanted him, but she was resisting, protecting her fragile heart.
‘You don’t think very highly of me, do you, mia bella?’ Antonio’s voice was thick and heavily accented, his eyes darkening, the intensity within them making her pulse leap.
‘Can you blame me?’ she replied firmly, desperate to hide the way just a look could send her senses spiralling out of control. ‘You married me for a challenge. Was that what those two weeks at the garage were all about? A dare?’
Still he didn’t enlighten her and she walked away from him, sighing in frustration, berating herself inwardly for being such an easy target, for allowing herself to become just part of a dare.
‘Sì, I was at the garage as Toni Adessi. It was a challenge.’ Antonio leaned casually against a pillar on the terrace, arms folded and with that arrogant expression on his face, looking far too sexy and dangerous. How could he so calmly stand there? ‘But I had no idea I would find you there—or my son.’
‘And you expect me to believe Leo and I were not part of the challenge, which looks very much like it was set by Sebastien?’
He pushed his body away from the pillar and walked towards her and although her heart thumped in her chest she refused to be intimidated. She had agreed to marriage partly to give Leo the father he needed, but also out of a misguided romantic idea that there was something from their weekend affair still simmering between them, something that might give the marriage a chance of success. Now, as he stood and looked down at her, so very close she could smell the fresh scent of his morning shower, she knew she’d made a big mistake. She might still have feelings for him, but Antonio was immune to that and certainly didn’t have any feelings for her, other than blatant lust. Nothing had changed.
‘You may believe what you wish, mia bella.’ For a moment she thought he was going to reach out and touch her face, the look which crossed his softening the hard angles, making her breath catch in her throat.
Aware her breath was coming hard and fast, she forged on, needing to know just what she’d done to Leo by marrying this man. ‘Why were you there, Antonio, living like a regular man? That is so not you; even I know that.’
‘Sebastien challenged me to survive two weeks without my wealth or family name. To live, as you put it, like a regular man.’ His jaw clenched, as if the idea that he’d done that, been that man, didn’t sit comfortably with him.
‘Did you choose to come to the garage in Milan?’ She held her breath as she waited for the answer.
‘No.’ That one brief and non-committal word cut deep into her heart. He hadn’t been looking for her. It had all just been a big coincidence, one that should dampen the heat of attraction she still had for him, but it didn’t.
Leo called and she stepped onto the lawn, glad of the distraction, the chance to put some physical distance between her and Antonio. There was something else, of that she was sure. ‘And what reward did you get for achieving that?’
‘Sebastien will honour his part of the challenge and make a donation to charity.’ Antonio went over to Leo and together they spent a few moments deep in conversation, Leo’s eyes wide with adoration for the man he’d welcomed into his life. If only she could let go and do the same. But she couldn’t. Not when she knew it was only desire and nothing deeper or more meaningful which drove him. She just couldn’t be that naïve a second time.
Seeking shade from the strengthening rays of the sun, she returned to the terrace, intending to keep the distance between them. Absently she picked up the daily papers that had been left on the table, but the image of herself watching Leo hug Antonio outside the town hall yesterday choked her into silence.
She gathered her wits and read the caption, translating it from Italian in her head several times, just to make sure she’d interpreted it correctly. She had.
Divorced Di Marcello heir marries in secret the woman who destroyed his marriage and becomes a father on the same day.
She looked up as Leo’s excited chatter drew closer and seeing Antonio carrying Leo dragged painfully at her heart. She’d thought she was doing the right thing marrying his father, but in reality she’d exposed them both to the talons of the press. She could cope, she could shake off any claims that she was somehow the reason Antonio’s marriage had failed, or even been partly the reason for his divorce, but the last thing she wanted was for Leo to become embroiled in such a public scandal.
Her heart sank. Would her parents see this? She had told her mother that she and Antonio were going away to work things out, to give it all another go for Leo’s sake. In her almost constant state of denial about marrying him, she’d never plucked up the courage to tell them.
Antonio placed Leo on his feet in front of her, a deep frown furrowed in his brow. ‘What is wrong?’
Bewildered, she looked up at him as he took the folded paper from her hands. ‘I can’t have Leo being brought into the spotlight like this.’
He quickly scanned the photograph and, from the tightness of his lips, knew he was stifling a curse for Leo’s sake. The morning sun shone in the inky darkness of his hair and, despite the anger the article had induced, she couldn’t help but notice how handsome he looked. A hint of black stubble covered his jaw in a way which made the skin on her face tingle at the memory of his kiss. She hated that he still had power over her, that he could still make her stomach flutter and her knees weaken.
She’d fallen for his charm again and had agreed to something which had brought not only her but also Leo into the kind of world he lived in. One played out in the eye of the public.
* * *
‘Leo will not be in the spotlight, on that you have my word.’ Antonio looked at Sadie as fierce protectiveness for his son engulfed him. Her earlier talk of the challenge made him see things from her perspective, made him realise how all this could hurt Leo.
‘And how are you going to do that?’ The spike of anger in Sadie’s voice was clear. ‘You weren’t able to stop a photo being taken. Or was that too part of the challenge?’
Rage more powerful than he’d ever known surged through him. It was obvious that the scum who masqueraded as reporters and photographers were digging deep for dirt on his first marriage and subsequent divorce. The dirt they were looking for was the truth only he knew—the truth he couldn’t tell anyone because of a promise he’d made to his ex-wife.
He’d promised her he’d never spill her secret, that it was hers to keep, but that was before his child had been dragged into the sordid arena of the press. He could brush off the barbed comments, the fierce intrusion, but he didn’t want Leo to be part of it. He wanted to be the kind of father who would protect his son as well as love him.
Guilt tore at him. Guilt because he no longer wanted to keep his promise to Eloisa. Guilt because of what he was subjecting his son to. Right at the moment his conscience pricked uncomfortably; he wanted to tell Sadie everything. He wanted to explain why his first marriage had ended so soon, wanted to tell her why he’d really come back to Milan, why he’d been undercover and that finding her and maybe even Leo had been exactly what Sebastien had planned. He recalled what had been said that night in St Moritz, which now seemed a lifetime ago.
Money does not make for a rich life. He remembered Sebastien’s expression as he’d continued. It is all superficial. Not at all meaningful.
‘Sebastien should never have said anything about the challenge.’ He spoke the words before he’d thought of how Sadie would interpret them but recovered quickly to turn the situation to his advantage. He couldn’t allow her to know how all this was affecting him, despite his calm exterior. ‘It also had nothing to do with our marriage. That came about because I discovered you had kept one very vital detail from me. My