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Her resigned tone crawled across his skin. “All right?”
“Let’s do it.”
“Don’t sound so excited.”
“I’m not sure it’s going to work. And you have to admit, it’s weird that we went from best friends to...” Her voice trailed off for a moment and she focused her attention back on her coffee. “To not, followed by years of no contact, and then in twelve hours we make international headlines and dive into a fake relationship so the media gets off your back and I can try to get my career on track. Doesn’t that all sound a little crazy to you?”
A smile tugged at his lips as excitement tingled in his chest. “It does. But I haven’t done crazy in a long time.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
“THISISAbad idea,” Anna repeated for the seventh time as wrought-iron gates parted to reveal a stone-paved drive.
“You mentioned that.” She could hear Kess’s grin through the phone. “I think it’s exactly what you need.”
“Yeah, sure.”
The car started forward. The driveway sloped upward, the stones glowing beneath the lanterns that marched up to the imposing mansion in the distance.
Le Porto. The Haven. Antonio’s boutique hotel for the wealthiest people in the world. The one that their little charade would place in the spotlight. It had stung, hearing that he had no problem pretending to be in love, or at least in lust, with her to get free publicity.
But, as he’d pointed out several times, she was getting something out of it, too. So why didn’t she feel more excited, hopeful?
She leaned her head against the cool glass of the window and stared out over the darkening ocean to her right. Probably because it still didn’t sit well with her that she was doing exactly what some of those fame-hungry brands had tried to do—use the Cabrera name to advance themselves.
After she’d signed her soul over to the devil himself, Antonio had insisted on escorting her back to her hotel. She’d let him, walking in a daze as he’d rattled off a list of details. His car would pick her up at the airport. He’d meet her in Positano, where they would discuss a strategy for the upcoming week.
By the time he’d deposited her on the steps of her hotel, the sun had climbed into the sky and crowds of tourists were swelling in the streets. Kess had found her fumbling with her key out in the hall, taken one look at her face and followed her inside, where she’d gently but firmly demanded an explanation for Anna’s shell-shocked expression.
Perhaps it had been the roller coaster of emotions she’d been riding since last night. Or maybe she’d been too tired to put up a fight. Whatever the reason, she’d let Kess guide her out to the balcony overlooking a quiet garden and press another cup of coffee into her hands. Kess had barely sat down before the whole story had come pouring out.
Kess, bless her, had just sat and listened. Nearly fifteen minutes later, Anna had finally run out of steam and drooped in her chair. She’d covered it all. The young boy who had befriended an orphaned girl newly arrived in a strange country. How free she had felt with her best friend when everyone else around her had suppressed her, creating a foundation of emotion that had evolved, as she’d grown older, into affection and then her first love. How she’d finally mustered up the courage to tell him how she felt his first summer back from college, only to have him tell her he’d never be able to see her as more than a little sister.
And how she had now done the most foolish thing of her life and agreed to be in a fake relationship with the man who’d broken her teenage heart.
Unfortunately, Kess hadn’t uttered words of caution or talked her out of it. No, she’d beenthrilled,encouraged the charade.Then she’d hugged Anna, said all the things a best friend would, and made Anna promise to text daily updates. Ten minutes after Kess had left, the front desk had rung to say that her limo had arrived. She’d almost laughed.Herlimo? She hadn’t missed the photographers clustered on the sidewalk opposite the hotel.
When she’d arrived at the airport, it had been to find that Antonio had stepped in once more and swapped out the ticket she’d managed to snag on her favorite airline for one of his family’s private jets for the short flight to Naples, where yet another limo had awaited. She’d called Kess as soon as the limo pulled onto the winding road that led to Positano.
To her fake boyfriend.
“You know what you have to do, right?”
“Um...call and tell him I changed my mind?”
“No. Seduce him.”
“Kess, he has no interest in me like that, even now,” she protested, even though her heart flip-flopped at the wordseduce.The woman in the hotel window materialized in her mind. She hadn’t needed to see the details of her face to know she was the kind of woman men lusted after. Even if she wasn’t a classic beauty or a femme fatale, her poise alone attracted men like moths to a flame.
A passing lantern threw her reflection onto the window of the limo. Plain brown hair pulled into a ponytail. Freckles on her nose. A swipe of mascara, a dash of tinted lip balm and she looked...the same. She wasn’t unattractive, but she wasn’t the kind of beauty men like Antonio and his brothers escorted. Everleigh Cabrera was a jaw-dropping blonde who sparkled. Calandra, whom Anna had only met once at the party in Paris, had had a bewitching dark vibe, aloof and mysterious yet surprisingly kind.
Her stomach dropped. Who on earth would believe that a Cabrera would date someone like her?
“The way he was looking at you last night by the fountain—”
“I appreciate the support, but you’re wrong,” Anna said firmly. “This is just business.”
She said goodbye to Kess and watched the mansion grow closer.
