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‘Come again?’
‘You said you were taken aback. Why?’
‘There’s a room full of people. Leonard will have been regaling them all with stories of our heady love affair...’
‘Yes, I’m sure he will have been.’
‘What’s wrong?’ Alessio looked at her narrowly and then sighed. ‘Look, I know you have doubts about this but, as I keep telling you, we just have to enjoy what we have. And when the time comes we probably won’t even have to explain anything to my father.’
Sophie frowned. ‘Sorry, I don’t understand.’
‘Well, think about it...’
He drew her further into the room, and his hand lightly resting on hers made the blood rush to her face. She could feel the heat emanating from his body, and his careless power over her senses filled her with the urgency to say what she knew she had to say.
‘Tell me how I should be thinking about this,’ she said coolly, pulling back slightly, enough to detach herself from his loose grip, and then folding her arms protectively over her chest.
‘When things inevitably begin to cool between us, my father will pick it up. I realise he might try and play ostrich for a while, but he’s sharp enough to see when the end comes and by then the process will have been gradual enough for him to deal with it.’
‘Because I would have already started warning him of our impending demise as starry-eyed lovers?’
‘Something like that. Now, we should go and join the crowd...’
‘Not yet.’
‘What else is there to say at this point in time?’
Alessio’s voice was laced with frustration, and his dark eyes resting on her face were genuinely puzzled. Sophie knew that he had no idea where she was going with her repeated conversations on the same subject.
Alessio was a solution-driven guy. They had jointly agreed on a temporary solution. They had also agreed on the way out they would take and how to deal with damage limitation when the temporary solution was over.
So of course he would wonder why the Spanish Inquisition now? When Leonard and his friends were all lining up to offer their congratulations? When there was a part to be played? Where was the problem when they actually fancied one another so the part was pretty much on point, all told?
For now...
Sophie drew in a shaky breath and managed to look him steadily in the eyes. ‘This just doesn’t work for me, Alessio.’
‘It’s not going to last for ever.’
‘And that’s where the problem lies.’
‘I’m not following you.’
But he was very still, and his dark eyes were watchful. He might not be following her, but he was following the tenor of her voice, and he must know that wherever it was leading was not going to be a destination at which he wanted to arrive.
‘I don’t want this to end.’
Sophie saw his natural inclination was to glance away, so this time it was she who gently placed her finger on his chin so that their eyes met, so that he couldn’t obscure his reaction.
‘When I first came to see you at your office, Alessio, I knew that I was coming to see someone I disliked...someone I disapproved of.’
‘I know.’
‘I thought I’d never like you.’
‘Again, you’re not telling me anything I don’t already know.’
He smiled, a slow, wicked smile that sent her pulses racing. From dislike...to the force of passion. She knew that that was what he was thinking.
