They were good together. A team. Professionally, but more important, personally. Simone was certain that they were better as one than apart. And then the words she’d tried to hold in simply came out on a sigh.
‘I love you, Leo.’
He was hard, aching. Wanting release. Wanting to forget. Rome had become a problem. A place he needed to travel to in order to continue to try to put to bed the sins of his past by helping the families he’d hurt. Then the Tessitore contract had arrived and he’d lost his head completely. Simone had wrecked him and remade him. But her words…
I love you, Leo.
No. That had never been part of the deal. It was based on a lie. She claimed to love him but he was a man who’d been created by the media, hiding his sins. Carefully curating his life so that he could atone for his crimes in peace.
Her words had just shattered everything he knew or wanted. He couldn’t be trusted with love. He couldn’t be trusted with her.
She’d slumped against him, replete, and part of him ached to simply ignore what she’d said and make love to her, here, on his desktop. But in doing that he’d be cementing the fantasy she’d wrapped herself in. One where she could truly love him for who he was, and he was actually deserving of that love.
He pushed away from her and she looked up at him, her glassy grey eyes confused.
‘Do you…?’ Her cheeks flushed pink. He adjusted himself, uncomfortable but that was his problem. This, between them, needed to be dealt with.
‘I’m perfectly fine.’
Her face crumpled a little, before she put on what he saw now was her own carefully crafted mask. He rounded his desk and gathered up the precious contract. Read the attached letter. Soon he’d be informing the Silvestris that once their existing agreements with Tessitore had expired, they wouldn’t be renewed.
It should have been a triumph. He didn’t know why it suddenly felt so meaningless.
‘Okay then,’ Simone said, though the words were only a whisper. She began straightening her clothes. ‘I might just go—’
‘You can’t love me.’
She turned back to him, eyes wide, skin pale, like all the life had been drained from her. A lot like when he’d first seen her lying in her hospital bed. All his fault. But he wouldn’t think of that. He couldn’t…
‘Isn’t that for me to decide?’
‘That wasn’t the deal.’
‘Deals can change.’
‘This one never will.’
He’d taken enough from her. Over the past two weeks he’d realised that’s what everyone did. Her parents, her ex, even her sister Holly. She had so much to offer and now he’d done the same. Married her because she’d been perfect for his plans, not thinking how it might affect her. Making love to her when he should have known better. He’d thought only of himself and she’d almost died because of it. Simone didn’t need someone like him who could never give her what she truly deserved. Who hadtakenfrom her without any thought. She needed someone whose heart was open. To free herself from the self-imposed shackles of her own hurt and pain and to live. Tolove.
It felt as if a switchblade had speared through his ribs.
He could never be that man, when all he’d done was take from her.
‘You’re a businessman. You know that’s not true.’
She was so beautiful, standing there wanting and hoping. Her cheeks still flushed from the orgasm he’d given her. That she hoped for more at all, let him know he was right to push her away. He was not the man for her. In truth, he never was and never could be. Releasing her from this arrangement was a kindness, even if doing so required some cruelty.
To show her the man he really was.
‘There, you’re wrong. Since my teens, I’ve only ever cared for myself. Me andmyneeds were what was important. That’s never changed.’
She shook her head. Whilst she said she’d learned lessons in life it was so like her to try to see the best, even if she was looking at the worst.
‘That’s not true.’
‘This man you see here? He’s concocted from lies. You’re only seeing who you want to, Simone. Not whoI am.’
‘Then who are you? You keep yourself so closed off. If you’d just let me in—’
