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‘Even though you don’t seem to want to be here you might want to be a little less obvious about the whole work thing. A man in love would take some time to enjoy himself with his girlfriend while he was here.’
Sebastiano frowned. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘Before, when you found out your grandfather wasn’t available, you kind of looked like you wanted to kick something.’
‘That’s because I did want to kick something.’
Her sparkling eyes disarmed him completely. ‘Like I said, you might want to tone that down a little. I mean, isn’t the whole purpose of me being here to show you in a new light?’
Unaccustomed to having his actions questioned, Sebastiano frowned. ‘The reason you’re here is to do whatever I say.’ He noted the way her eyebrows hit her hairline and it only aggravated him more. ‘Trust me, Poppy. I know what I’m doing.’
‘Oh, right, because you—’
‘Don’t you dare say it,’ he growled, secretly astonished at her temerity when he realised the direction of her comment. He’d been a superior ass when he’d told her he could handle anything, because he closed billion-dollar deals every day and he didn’t even think his impish cousin would tease him about it as openly as Poppy did.
She laughed softly and held her hands up in mock surrender. ‘I wasn’t going to.’
But they both knew that she was and something pulled tight in Sebastiano’s chest when he realised that her light teasing had been to pull him out of the mood he’d been about to spiral into.
He stared at the closed bedroom door long after she had disappeared through it. Usually the women he dated thought more about themselves than anyone else, and he wasn’t completely comfortable to think that Poppy wasn’t one of them.
CHAPTER SEVEN
POPPY CLOSED THE door on Sebastiano’s scowling face and leant back against it, waiting for the butterflies to resettle in her stomach. She didn’t know why she felt the need to tease him; she just couldn’t seem to help herself. He was so serious most of the time, so controlled, and she couldn’t help but wonder what had made him that way, and whether he allowed anyone to penetrate beneath his aloof exterior.
Let it go, Poppy, she urged her curious side. You’re not here to fix the guy.
Sighing, she spied the
bed and the row of shopping bags that must have been delivered to her room while she had been downstairs. Right now she longed for more than a shower and a change of clothing. She longed to go home, the instinctive need to protect herself riding her hard.
She checked her phone for any further messages from Simon but he must still be in the movie. She smiled as she remembered snapping a heap of photos on her phone on the drive from Naples to the house and sending them to him. He had replied with a playfully annoyed face after he’d received them, telling her that he should be there with her.
Next time she’d love to bring him. Not that next time would be any time soon. Once Poppy finished her degree, she would be working hard to give them both a better standard of living, not holidaying in exotic locations such as this.
Glad for that reality check, she headed for the bathroom, sighing at her pale complexion. The weekend had barely started and already she felt like a fish out of water.
After washing and drying her hair with the luxurious products set out on the marble bench top, Poppy padded back into the bedroom and paused in front of a walk-in closet as big as a shipping container. Someone—most likely one of the discreet white-coated servants she had noticed earlier—must have unpacked her duffle bag because her measly amount of clothing hung in a forlorn row as if the wearer had needed to escape in a hurry and had left the dregs of their wardrobe behind.
An image of Nicole in her svelte purple dress slid into Poppy’s mind. She knew she could never pull off Nicole’s polished poise if she spent a century getting ready, but she guessed that whatever was in those bags beside the bed would get her closer to the mark than what was currently hanging limply in front of her.
Was she being silly in her insistence that she wasn’t going to wear any of them?
Probably, and she recalled the vow she had made back on the plane to make their relationship look real. A pretence that would require a lot of acting, and well, what was an actor without a costume? Or a knight without armour? What was a person without integrity?
The thought stayed her. She was already compromising hers by fabricating this relationship with Sebastiano so that he could take control of his family’s company; she wasn’t going to expound that by pretending she was someone she wasn’t.
It was probably only pride driving her decision to ignore the shiny bags, but it was all she had to hold her head up high, and she wouldn’t compromise that.
Sighing deeply, she once again scanned her clothes and pulled a green jersey dress from the hanger. She had found it at a vintage shop and Maryann liked it on her.
‘It shows off your legs,’ she’d said. ‘Especially when you team it with those sexy black heels with the little strap around the ankle.’
Dressing quickly, she tied her hair back in a stylish ponytail and slid her feet into said sexy black heels. She rarely had a chance to dress up in her day-to-day life, and a fizz of excitement invaded her belly as she stared at herself in the mirror.
Would Sebastiano admire her in the dress, or would he be angry that she was not wearing one of his offerings?
Poppy’s lips flattened as she realised where her thoughts were leading her.
