Massimo takes my hand and leads me down the hallway, but before we get to the main room, I tug on his arm, stopping him. He turns to look at me.
“Were you being honest back there?” I ask.
“About?”
I tilt my head and let out a sigh. “Come on, Massimo. About never having been here before.”
He raises a brow at me. “Of course I was being honest.”
“Then why do you have a membership here? You’ve never brought one of your models before?”
His grip on my hand tightens, and he pulls me into him. I stumble, tugging my hand out of his grasp and bringing it up to his chest to catch myself. His arms wrap around my waist in a possessive hold.
“I have a membership because I know the owners. And those models? They were never anything to me. I told you I’ve only ever had eyes for one woman in this world, and that’s you.”
His words don’t make sense to me. “You’ve brought dozens of women to my boutique for me to style. You’re telling me you never had sex with any of them?”
“Never,” he says, and there’s something very finite about his tone.
“I don’t believe you.”
Why does it matter if I believe him? Why do I suddenly care so much about the women he’s slept with?
He stares into my eyes. There’s something piercing about them, as if he’s trying to see through to my soul.
“Those women I brought into your boutique were an excuse for me to see you, Liana. I’ve been celibate for the past six years. I haven’t been with anyone since the night I met you.”
My face blanches, and I don’t know what to say. I’m not even sure I heard him correctly. “I’m sorry, you what?”
“You think after I had a taste of you I’d be able to be with any other women?”
I shake my head, not wanting to believe him. This is not the Massimo I thought I knew. “But you brought in all those women. There’s no way you didn’t have sex with them.”
“Think about it, Liana. Yes, I brought those women into your boutique, but did you ever see me touch them once?”
A crinkle forms between my brows. “What do you mean?”
“If I was fucking them, don’t you think I would’ve hadsomekind of chemistry with them? Hold their hands. Wrap my arm around their waist.Something.With you, I can’t keep myself from touching you, no matter how many times you tell me not to. Don’t you think if I was really seeing any of the women I brought into your boutique, I would’ve done the same?”
“I-I don’t know,” I shake out.
“Yes you do, Liana. I think you and I both know I enjoy affection. If I was fucking any of those women I brought into your boutique, you would’ve absolutely known it.”
I open my mouth to say something, but I can’t think of the words. Have I really had Massimo wrong this entire time?
“How do I know you’re telling me the truth?” I ask.
“You can call up any one of them and ask. Ask Sheila. I only brought her in those few times because we had work events we needed to attend.”
My brain runs rampant with this information. I can’t believe a man like Massimo Bonetti hasn’t had sex since he metme. And the women he brought into my boutique… They were all models other than his assistant. Did he…?
“The women. They were all models other than your assistant. Why? If they didn’t mean anything to you, why did you have a specific type?”
He caresses my cheek with his thumb before tucking a loose strand behind my ear. As he stares deep into my eyes, he says, “Why do you think?”
It doesn’t evade me that the models he’s brought in continue to wear my pieces to this day. I actually thank them for helping my brand explode as quickly as it did. I just didn’t realize this was all Massimo’s doing. He knew what it meant having them wear my designs, but I can’t bring myself to say the words, because it means I’ve been completely wrong about him.
Thankfully, before I’m forced to acknowledge something I’m not ready to, another couple comes down the hallway. I take a step back from Massimo, whose eyes are still sharp on mine, holding his hands in the same position as if I never slipped out of them.
