Rumours: The Secret Billionaires. Дженнифер Хейворд

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СКАЧАТЬ emotions and not fall in love with him all over again.

      ‘I would like to see them.’ He stepped closer to her, instantly making her pulse leap in the way only he’d ever done. ‘But it is time for a family photograph, no?’

      He took out his own phone and asked a nearby tourist to take their photo and, before she knew what was happening, Sadie was standing very close to Antonio, who held Leo in one arm and pulled her against him with the other. She forced a smile to her face as the tourist took several shots, trying to ignore the intense heat of Antonio’s touch, his body against hers stirring up all the desire and longing from four years ago. Time hadn’t dulled the heady passion.

      ‘Grazie.’ Antonio thanked the tourist and took back his phone and looked at the photo. She watched as a range of emotions swiftly crossed his face. Then, just as quickly, they were gone; he put Leo down and slipped his sunglasses back on. The controlled Antonio Di Marcello was back in place, the moment of softness with his son over—or had she imagined it?

      As they made their way back to the busy streets, the atmosphere of the past left behind within the walls of the Colosseum, she couldn’t help thinking it was a shame that their past couldn’t be consigned behind high walls so easily. Maybe then she wouldn’t have to fight a growing attraction for the man who’d let her down in the worst possible way.

      * * *

      Even though it had been a week since their day out at the Colosseum, Sadie felt as if it had only just happened. Leo had settled into his new home far better than she’d ever thought possible, but his attachment to Antonio was becoming stronger and she worried that he would be let down, as she had been.

      That worry intensified as she flicked through one of the glossy celebrity magazines she’d bought the previous day. The image she saw staring back at her brought everything that had happened that day sharply into focus. Her mastery of the Italian language wasn’t perfect, but she could translate the majority of the article which accompanied the photograph of the three of them outside the Colosseum.

      Had it been an opportunistic photographer who had witnessed that single moment when the three of them had become a family, or had it all been set up by Antonio? He had, after all, made it perfectly clear he would do anything to be in Leo’s life. Was this his way of ensuring she didn’t back out on the marriage?

      All day she stayed in the apartment, even though Leo didn’t like the confinement. She was worried by the thought that other photographers would do the same and while Antonio was at his office she tried to occupy Leo. It kept her mind from exploring those questions, but once Leo was tucked up in his bed and asleep she knew there was only one way to get the answers she wanted.

      She sat on the terrace as the heat of early summer was cooling a little in the evening. Throughout the meal she and Antonio had shared, he hadn’t made any reference to the article. It was up to her to say something. At the very least she wanted reassurance that he’d had nothing to do with it, but doubt assailed her the more she thought about it.

      ‘I bought a copy of a magazine yesterday,’ she began as he joined her on the terrace. ‘Our photograph was in it.’

      She looked directly at him, watching for any hint that he knew. Instead he frowned. ‘Which photograph would that be?’

      ‘Of us all together at the Colosseum.’

      ‘And Leo?’ Doubt and suspicion filled his voice, making her question if he really had instigated it. She wanted to believe that he hadn’t. He had much to gain from it and, from the way he’d brokered a deal with her, as if in a boardroom, he had scores to settle. Scores with her for shutting him out of Leo’s life.

      ‘Yes,’ she snapped, unable to calm her panic or soothe her humiliation that he was prepared to use his own son. ‘And now it is being used to name him as the love child who destroyed your marriage, and I am the gold digger who has snared a billionaire.’

      She got up and went to the corner of the terrace to stand looking out over the rooftops of Rome. She couldn’t look at Antonio; it hurt too much. What she felt for him was coming back stronger than ever and her resistance was weakening. She wanted him to hold her, tell her it was all okay, but how could she trust him? He’d abandoned his billionaire lifestyle, lied to her for two weeks, pretending to be another man, just to satisfy himself that Leo was his child.

      He approached her. She briefly closed her eyes as he lifted her chin with his fingers, forcing her to look at him, the intention in his gaze clear. ‘Don’t do this, Antonio.’

      ‘Do what, Sadie? Kiss you?’ His words were a husky whisper and, before she could do anything, say anything, he pulled her against him and his lips claimed hers.

      Sadie’s body was on fire. The firmness of Antonio’s chest was against her and she couldn’t decide if it was his heartbeat she could feel or hers. She shouldn’t want this, shouldn’t be kissing him like this, but she couldn’t help herself. She was drowning in desire and all the emotions she’d worked hard to bury when he’d walked away from her rushed to the surface again.

      She wanted to lose herself in his kisses, sink into his embrace, but she couldn’t. This was no longer about just the two of them. This was about Leo and, thanks to the deal Antonio had felt compelled to make, it was about her parents too.

      These sobering thoughts dimmed the desire within her and she pushed against him. ‘This isn’t what I want.’

      ‘Isn’t it, mia bella?’

      ‘No. I’m here for Leo’s sake. He likes you. He wants you.’

      ‘And you? Do you want me too, like I want you?’

      ‘No. I don’t want you—or any of this. All I want is for Leo to be happy.’

      She stumbled back a step as he let her go, the closed-off expression on his face only confirming what she’d suspected since the moment he’d walked into her apartment in Milan. He wasn’t here with her because of any feelings for her. He was here out of duty or honour to Leo.

      ‘What is it that you do not want, mia bella? Marriage to me or my kiss?’ The hint of huskiness in his voice didn’t quite disguise his contempt for the idea of marriage and a shiver of doubt slipped down her spine. This version of Antonio was so very different from the man she’d loved in such a carefree way four years ago. If he was here now, so much would be different.

      ‘I don’t want either, Antonio.’ She folded her arms across herself, hugging against the chill which suddenly hung in the evening air.

      ‘Then you are as calculating as I am, Sadie. Our marriage will be a perfect match.’ Antonio moved towards her with fierce intent, but she refused to move, refused to be intimidated.

      She looked at him as below them the city of Rome bustled, but the air on the terrace was drenched in tension, not only from his commanding words but from the kiss which had just added heady sexual tension to the mix.

      ‘I am not, unless you consider doing what is best for me and my child as calculating. It wasn’t me who brought my parents into this—you did, Antonio.’

      ‘I thought you’d want your parents at the wedding, even if it is only a civil ceremony.’ The anger in his voice only irritated her further.

      ‘I don’t want my parents to know anything until we are married.’

      ‘And СКАЧАТЬ