As for their engagement? There was no surprise about it at all. She’d been desperate to help Holly after they’d reconnected. Even with Simone’s generous wage the medical bills were becoming crippling. She hadn’t really thought about Leo’s situation at all, given she never wanted to marry and Leo was her boss, until he’d uttered the fateful words in his office one day after yet another failed attempt at finding the right bride. After he asked why it couldn’t be her, she’d immediately asked herself the same question.
Simone had known the eyewatering amount he was prepared to offer in his pre-nuptial agreement. It was enough to pay for an apartment in California for Holly. Her medical care. A nurse on call to visit whenever needed. Set things up for Holly and the baby. She could give her sister what Simone hadn’t had for herself.
A soft place to land.
‘Don’t tell me you don’t do the same to people who aren’t important to you any more.’
The corner of his mouth kicked up. ‘We’re alike in that way, you and I. Were you at least happy with how it went today?’
Not so alike that their differences wouldn’t keep pushing them apart like the same poles of a magnet. Yet if she was honest with herself, this had been the perfect wedding. Not for the teenage girl she once was, but the woman she’d become, even if she’d decided that love wasn’t for her. From the intimate setting to the elegantly appointed room with whimsical floral centrepieces spilling from tall stands at each table’s centre. The magnificent, tiered cake of different flavours, including chocolate hazelnut torte especially for her, decorated with cascades of blowsy sugar roses and tiny citrus blossoms that matched those in her bouquet. Leo’s speech, which was strangely sentimental and delivered to warm applause.
The man knew how to please a crowd. It seemed like the whole day had been designed to make her happy.
‘Yes, I was. Thank you. But with that, I’m going to turn in. It’s been a long day.’
One she needed to process. Sift through. And she also needed to text Holly because Simone wanted to make sure her sister knew everything was okay. Wanted to send her photos of how beautiful everything had looked, since she’d expressed some suspicion as to what exactly was going on between Simone and Leo.
‘Do you need any help with your dress?’
It was a benign kind of question and the look on his face seemed genuine enough, but something about today had been charged, a little electric. Hard to escape. The beautiful, silky dress that caressed her skin like a lover’s touch. Leo, looking more handsome than any man had a right to be. The way he’d held her in his arms as they’d danced. She seemed to be enjoying the fantasy of the day a little too much.
But life wasn’t a fantasy. She’d lived the end of hers. Jace’s rejection. Taking money instead of a life with her. Her parents’ disapproval. Her friends’ disdain for and ridicule of her falling in love outside of her class.
Holly was living a kind of nightmare now too. Pregnant, unmarried. Once Simone had craved a loving family, one who accepted your failings. Embraced you and helped you through life. But that wasn’t the world she’d come from and Leo represented everything that she’d left behind. A life she’d rejected because she’d realised it would never fit her. One where people cared more about how you appeared than who you really were and Leo was thekingof appearances.
The Sultan of Style.
Simone stood and so did Leo. He was unfailingly polite that way. His manners impeccable.Everythingabout him impeccable when her life was really a bit of a mess. And whilst Leo claimed to like messy, she didn’t believe him for a moment.
‘No, thanks.’
‘It has quite a few inconveniently placed buttons,’ he pointed out.
A myriad of tiny satin covered ones down her side. It would be easier if someone undid them for her. She now had a sixth sense for bad intentions, having batted off a few CEOs who’d thought being their assistant at their beck and call meant ineveryway. Leo didn’t give off those vibes. He never had. Their parameters were clear. For her, this was a job like any other. He’d promised her the same. Simone shook her head as he looked down on her with those famed eyes of his. Transfixed in a shade of blue the colour of a tropical sea.
‘I got myself into this, I’ll get myself out of it.’
CHAPTER THREE
It had beenan eight-hour flight from New York to Milan on Leo’s private jet. Simone had tried to sleep on the way in the stateroom at the back, given they’d left in the early evening and flown through the night, but all she’d done was toss and turn. Much like she had in New York. After she’d sent Holly some pictures hastily snapped of the venue, Simone had finally had time to replay the wedding and reception, recognising how much effort Leo had put into getting everything right. It was no less than she’d expected from him, but the day had been a whirlwind where she hadn’t had time to think about the things that Leo hadnocontrol over. In bed on her own, on her wedding night in their suite, she finally had. How she’d felt like a different woman under the intensity of Leo’s gaze. The sensation of being cradled in his arms on the dance floor, their bodies close, like she’d always imagined when she’d fantasised about being married for real.
A flush of heat washed over her.
When she’d agreed to this arrangement, Simone hadn’t much thought about how it might affect her as she’d been in the midst of panic after finding out about Holly’s situation. She’d been desperate to protect her sister, who by coincidence was the same age as Simone had been when her own life had imploded. The sheer relief of knowing she could pay all of Holly’s outstanding medical bills and keep her safe had then obliterated the logistics of what it meant to be Leo Zanetti’s wife. Because it wasn’t like being his executive assistant, at all.
In the lead up to the wedding it had been easy enough to be all smiles. Playing the game she once knew intimately. She’d been happy that with each stage towards their wedding another payment mandated by their pre-nuptial agreement came through. That she could find Holly an apartment, make sure her high risk pregnancy was monitored by the best available team. That all her sister needed to do now was to sit back and relax while her baby grew.
The difficulty was maintaining the fakery to everyone else when Simone had fought to live her life true to herself, with authenticity. It didn’t sit well. Yet she tried reminding herself that getting married to Leo was a means to an end, not the end itself.
‘I’ve been advised there are photographers outside the house,’ Leo said from where he sat in the back of the car as they travelled to his home in a fashionable part of the city.
‘Photographers follow you wherever you go.’
‘A teaser of one of our wedding photos for the magazine spread dropped today. It’s not me they’re interested in.’
He shot her an unreadable look. Simone was dressed as she always was for a flight like this, when they weren’t going straight into the office or a business meeting afterwards. A white collared shirt with casual black trousers. Her uniform. Something she didn’t have to think about. Yet she was thinking about it now. Was Leo judging her appearance? What might be written about her when the inevitable pictures hit the press?
In contrast, Leo looked stylish as ever with his casual elegance.Sprezzaturashe’d heard it called, an almost careless perfection. Today he was dressed in buff tan chinos and similar toned loafers. A navy linen shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He’d strolled onto the tarmac after their flight carrying a worn and well-loved leather bag looking effortless and gloriously rumpled. If she didn’t know better, she might have thought the flight attendant had fanned herself as they’d walked off the plane.
