Rumours: The Secret Billionaires. Дженнифер Хейворд
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what she’d done was mixed with his anger at the situation he had unwittingly catapulted the son he’d only just discovered into. He had to do something. There was no way he was going to wait around for the press to dig up the truth and use Leo, or even Sadie, as some sort of a scapegoat for his past mistake. He and Eloisa should never have married, whatever family duty and coercion had driven them. It should never have happened.
‘I’ll make arrangements for us to leave.’ The words ground out from him and he sensed Leo at his side, looking between him and Sadie. He calmed his anger. ‘We’ll go somewhere we can’t be disturbed.’
‘What is it they want, Antonio?’ Sadie’s frank question completely threw him.
‘That is what I want to know.’ He picked up Leo and looked around the grounds of the villa. He might have stipulated the need for privacy when he’d engaged the property agent to purchase his new marital home on his behalf, but he also knew the lengths the press would go to. He was used to it, having grown up in one of Milan’s oldest and most influential families, then living the life of a billionaire playboy. Maybe he was hardened to it, but Sadie and, even worse, Leo weren’t.
‘Tell me, Antonio,’ Sadie demanded as he walked into the villa, away from any prying long lenses. ‘Whatever it is, tell me. I’d rather hear it from you than read it in the press.’
Sadie’s lovely green eyes implored him to break his silence. But he couldn’t. He was a man of his word. A man of honour. Those first thoughts were quickly pushed aside as Leo wriggled in his arms, demanding to be put down.
He looked down at Leo and knew that his loyalty now belonged to his son. That knowledge tested everything and the final hours of a marriage much coveted by his parents, to a woman he’d grown up with, hurtled back at him.
‘There is nothing to tell. It was practically an arranged marriage. Eloisa and I were far from suited even though we’d known each other since we were young.’ He gave her the basics and skirted around the truth, wanting to keep Eloisa’s secret and his promise. ‘None of that matters right now. What does is getting you and Leo somewhere those menacing men can’t find you.’
‘And how are you going to do that?’
That was exactly the question racing through his mind. He’d only just bought the villa, yet they’d been found out, proving the lengths the press would go to. He certainly couldn’t go to any of his properties around the world. It would have to be somewhere unconnected with him if he wanted to give Sadie and Leo the privacy they deserved.
He thought of Alejandro and his extensive property portfolio, and in particular the Caribbean island retreat. Alejandro might be undercover at the moment, but he could speak to him on the phone Sebastien had provided. He’d call him as soon as he’d calmed Sadie’s growing unease.
‘That is for me to worry about. Make sure you and Leo have all you need for several weeks. Think of it as our honeymoon.’ He added those last words as an afterthought but knew from the frostiness of her eyes that would be the last possible way she would view it.
‘There is no need for a honeymoon. We are married. You have secured your son and heir and I think, in light of the current situation, it would be best if Leo and I returned to England to start a new life.’
If he’d thought the rage which had engulfed him moments ago could never be topped, he had been very much mistaken. Her request sent his senses spiralling out of control, but outwardly, just as he always was, he remained icy calm.
‘The only new life you and Leo will be starting will be with me and, as I am not going to England any time soon, your request is out of the question. I put a ring on your finger, which means I have a say in my son’s upbringing.’
* * *
The harshness of Antonio’s voice cut Sadie’s fragile heart in two, as did her own words coming back at her with startling force. He stood and glared at her, challenge issuing from every limb of his body. She wanted to fight him, wanted to tell him she and Leo were going to England, but something held her back. Misguided emotions? She had no idea, but the way he and Leo had bonded was throwing her plan for a long-distance marriage, one purely of convenience, into complete disarray.
‘This isn’t a real marriage, Antonio.’ She tossed her hair back from her face and stood tall against his icy determination.
His brows lifted and for a moment she thought she saw something like amusement spark in his eyes. That brief let-down of his defence, that hint of the Antonio she’d first met sent butterflies all through her and the memory of the time they’d spent laughing and having fun in bed that weekend four years ago came forward through the mist of memories she’d tried to forget.
‘After spending my wedding night alone, I am well aware of that.’ He looked at her pointedly, then pulled out his phone. ‘We are married, Sadie, and, however you think of it, we will live as a family. You will not keep me from my son any longer than you already have.’
‘Let’s go and pack your teddy,’ she said to Leo, desperate to get away from Antonio’s piercing and knowing gaze. ‘We are going on a holiday.’
‘Is Padre coming too?’ Leo hesitated and Sadie hated all the upheaval she’d put him through in the last few weeks. First a move to the Rome apartment, then here to the villa and now somewhere new. She had to fight hard with herself to reason that it was all for him, about giving him the father he so obviously needed.
‘Sì, but of course.’ Antonio again stunned her by bending down to Leo’s level and reassuring him. ‘You want me to, no?’
Leo nodded, looking shyly at his father, and Sadie’s heart broke just a little bit more.
* * *
Antonio called Alejandro, well aware that he was right now undercover, and wondered just what Sebastien had in mind for him. He hadn’t expected Alejandro to answer, but his friend’s voice instilled the calm objectivity he needed.
‘Alejandro. How’s it going?’
‘Smoothly... I think. Something seems too easy.’
‘What do you mean, easy?’
‘Other than enjoying a visual of me up to my ankles in horse manure, I think Sebastien has sent me here to end a feud between the Salazar and Hargrove families.’ The sound of clanging metal in the background jarred his ear. ‘Given what you two have gone through, I’m sure he has more up his sleeve.’
Antonio was sure he was right. But why worry his friend when he had no choice but to confront whatever was ahead? Sebastien had really done his homework, sending first him, then Stavros and now Alejandro on a challenge that was far more than what it had at first appeared. Their two weeks of working and living a so-called normal life was just a cover-up for what he’d set them as their challenges.
‘I’m enjoying that image, Alejandro.’ Antonio laughed, trying to conceal the unease he felt for his friend. ‘But I need to take Sadie and Leo somewhere the press can’t link back to me. I can’t have my son the subject of media speculation.’ Antonio laid his request out, unused to seeking help from anyone, but if he couldn’t ask Alejandro or Stavros, then who the hell could he ask?
‘My private Caribbean island will be perfect—for your honeymoon.’ Alejandro’s jest hit its mark and Antonio clamped down on the denial that it was a honeymoon. How could it ever be a honeymoon when Sadie was intent on keeping him as far as possible from her physically and emotionally, even though that spark of sexual attraction was intensifying?
‘Perfect, I’ll have my PA liaise with yours.’
Antonio ended the call a little more at ease. It was several hours since Sadie had taken Leo to his room to put him to bed and, even though he had no real experience of children, he guessed that the move to the villa had unsettled the child yet again. He mentally added a nanny for Leo to the list for his PA to sort. After all, it wasn’t as if Alejandro would have a nanny on standby at the permanently staffed island he’d recently added to his property