Fiancée For The Cameras (Mills & Boon Modern)

CHAPTER SIX

A NDREA ’ S HANDS CAME over her shoulders when she swayed. He smelled like pine and cloves and the deepest, darkest want she hadn’t admitted to herself. His fingers on her flesh reminded her of the ache between her thighs when he’d touched her scar. Two more steps and her nipples would brush against his chest, and it was such an overload of sensory pleasure that she felt dizzy. The back of his hand came against her forehead. “Do you feel faint again?”

The pang of concern in his tone dissipated the shivers. God, she was acting like some Victorian virgin given to swoons at the slightest touch of a man. She needed distance, needed to fight the haze of desire he enveloped her in with his mere presence. Slowly, she edged back from his touch. “No, I’m fine. I just...”

“Ah...is the very idea of being affianced to me that frightening?”

“Of course not,” she said, raising her gaze to him. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“As sure as I can be.”

“And it has to be an engagement? Not just...a fling.” Just saying it made a lick of heat flash through her.

“If it’s a fling, that just proves the media’s point, no? That I used you when you were under my power and then discarded you? An engagement also gives me armor against Chiara’s mind games. Her father can come back to the table to discuss the merger without thinking that I rejected his daughter.”

“Because you were already serious about me! And everything Flora said that day at the dinner to Mrs. Rossi adds up to it,” she said, nodding. Then she blew out a breath that seemed to settle right between her throat and chest. “But what about Francesco?” Just saying his name made shame sit on her chest like a boulder. “He won’t keep quiet when he hears this version. While he’s not evil or anything, he’ll try to twist this into some kind of gain for him and—”

“I will deal with him.”

She raised a surprised gaze to him. “You will?”

“I’m Andrea Valentini. I have some resources available to me.”

“As if anyone can forget who you are,” she said, warmed by his attempt at humor.

Silence grew between them, gathering every twitch of her hands, every hitch of her breath, saying more than she wanted to say, betraying her.

“I know it puts you in an awkward position and I will understand if you refuse,” he said, turning back toward his desk. When she didn’t say anything, he gave a hard nod. “We will begin with the statement you can make to the press tomorrow and—”

“No, I...want to help sort this out. I want to pay you back in some small way for all the kindness you have shown me for four years.”

He whirled around, every lean, hard inch of him radiating anger. “You will make a monster of me, just as the media says?”

“What? No. Why is it wrong to want to return—”

“Because if it was a kindness, then you insult Mama and Romeo and me by constantly talking about wanting to pay it back and—”

“No, that’s now how I meant it. I had nothing and no one when I arrived here that summer on a whim. Now I have so much and I just want to contribute—”

“If that’s why you want to do it, then let’s stop now. If I had taken your overinflated sense of obligation into account, I’d have never considered it. Do you count us obligated to you since you nearly died to save Mama? What is the price for that?”

Frustration made Monica groan. Why was she botching this so badly, alienating him with her words? “I’m sorry for how I said it. I meant that if there’s anything I can do to...help you out of this tricky situation, part of which I’m responsible for, I’m more than willing. I just can’t help but wonder if you’ve thought this through.”

“Three weeks with Romeo has shown you your claws, huh, bella ?” His gray gaze swept over her face, as if he was seeing her anew. And yet, instead of irritation, admiration glinted there. “You never would have asked me that before.”

“Yes, well. Humiliating life experiences have one upside to them. You’re forced to think what’s the worst that can happen and then come up with Been there, went through that .”

“This new boldness suits you,” he said, and a thrill shot through her. “Now, tell me your reservations.”

“I’m not...used to the high society you move in. Just speaking to Mrs. Rossi—who was so sophisticated and poised—gave me the biggest fright. Luckily for us now, I couldn’t mumble a word in my defense when she kept warning me to stay away from you. But I worry that I might cause your reputation more harm than good. I might be found out as an impostor of the worst kind. I know nothing of arts or fashion except for reading about them.”

“All of those can be learned. You know enough about me, and that’s more than most women, even Chiara, can say. Don’t let anyone tell you you’re less than who you want to be. Even me.”

“Believe me, I’m trying,” Monica said, liking this new, charming side of him as much as she liked the serious, ruthless side.

“ Bene. What else?”

“This one’s a big one.” To avoid losing herself in those eyes, she started walking around the room, her pulse skyrocketing with every step she took. But she had to tell him. She had to make sure he understood before they got deep into this. “You might even decide that it’s a deal breaker. But I...don’t want to play games with you and I don’t think I could, even if I tried. And I’m afraid it might just be—”

“Monica, what is it?”

His impatience made the words burst out of her. “I’m attracted to you!”

Dio mio , it was the last thing he’d expected her to own up to. And with such open, artless naiveté.

The primal attraction he’d felt toward her that day... It had taken him by shock, too. Still, he was experienced enough—Cristo, he’d thought his manly prowess was in winning as many women as he could as a cocky twenty-year-old race-car driver—to know that it wasn’t one-sided. In the three weeks since he’d left her in his mother’s care, he had wondered, multiple times, if she simply hadn’t seen it. Or if she’d lied to herself that it didn’t exist, since she also clearly believed that she was in love with that rogue. People clung to intrinsic beliefs like lifelines, even when the evidence to the opposite was in front of their eyes.

And here it was. The answer he’d desperately wanted to hear, delivered in such easy but complicated words.

Her arms were wound around her belly in a gesture of defensiveness that tugged at a part of him he hadn’t known existed. Dio mio , did she think this attraction was wrong? As if everything around them and about them wasn’t complicated already.

“Look at me, Monica.”

It was the first time she defied his command, refusing to meet his gaze, continuing to walk around the study. “It feels...awful to feel all these things about you. And I don’t even fully understand it. I’ve never felt like this before. Even with Francesco, it was never—”

“You don’t need to draw a comparison chart, bella !”

She shook her head. “It could be that I’m just attaching to you because you were so good to me that day and I was half out of it. I had hoped these three weeks would be enough to wake me out of the trance but no, it’s still there.” She rubbed a hand over her neck and when his gaze went to the smooth column and the rising swell of her breasts, she pulled away from her own body, as if scalded. “It’s still there and I am afraid that you...”

“Will take advantage of this...thing that you’re not even sure about?” he bit out, his mind stuck on the word awful . She thought her attraction to him was awful? He hadn’t required his masculinity or his ego to be validated on any basis in a long while, but Dio mio , if her assessment didn’t rankle like a thorn stuck under his skin.

“What? No?” Alarm widened her big eyes. “I’m afraid that you might be...disgusted by me and my reactions and my little twitches every time you come near me when we put up this pretense of an affianced couple. I’m not sophisticated enough to play it all cool. Not that I would make a move on you. And I’m not even sure if this is some kind of reaction to Francesco and you’re like this giant rebound blanket—”

“I would prefer it if you didn’t bring that bastard up in our conversations.”

She tilted her chin up, and then everything about her stilled. “You’re angry with me again.”

“It seems you’re better at gauging my moods and my reactions than understanding your own feelings.”

Now, when she should back off at his grumbly tone, she stayed put. “Why are you angry, Andrea?”

He sighed. “Let’s just say my fragile ego got dented.”

She smiled then, and it lit up her entire face. Those unique amber eyes of hers glowed with pleasure and he wondered how they would look full of desire. “That’s not possible, is it? Will you not tell me? Please? If there’s one constant, one anchor around me, it’s you and where I stand with you. I’d like to—”

Andrea had to stifle his groan. If she used that pleading tone with him, he ran the risk of granting her whatever she wanted. “I’m not angry with you.”

“More like frustrated?”

He shrugged. Then he asked the question he shouldn’t. “Do you want to act on it?”

She looked as if he’d asked her to jump from a running train. Also something he’d attempted once to show off. She licked the curve of her thick, shapely lower lip, her pulse fluttering like a butterfly’s wings at her neck. He wanted to press his mouth to that delicate spot, lick up the susurration and bite down on the sensitive skin, leaving a mark.

Usually, he preferred experienced partners, women who liked and demanded pleasure as much as he demanded his own. And here was this creature, looking like she might be blown off her feet by a strong kiss. So where was this coming from?

She was beautiful, yes, but simple beauty had never done it for him. Not since he’d finally grown up.

“What?” she whispered, her entire body trembling from head to foot now.

“Do you want to act on the attraction?”

“Why would you... What does that mean?”

“It means that this—” he motioned a hand between them, wondering at how convoluted this was “—is not one-sided.”

“Oh! You mean you’re attracted to me, too? You want...” Her mouth fell open on a soft gasp, her gaze finally, finally, landing on his mouth and staying there. “You want...”

“You. I want you.”

She swallowed audibly.

He scoffed. “In case you haven’t looked at a mirror recently, you’re hot, bella .”

“I’m a selection of symmetrical features and in-trend arbitrary body constructs that we’ve been programmed to like, but you are...” Her gaze moved over him—from his hair to his mouth to his neck to his chest—with a sweeping, overwhelming thoroughness, before she jerked it back up to his eyes.

“What? A slab of unfeeling rock?” he taunted, feeling as unbalanced and on edge as she seemed to be. Which made him wonder at how new this felt. “I would take you to my bed right now and give you what you want and demand you give me what I want, if you said yes. That’s what I mean when I say acting on it. My only hesitation would be that I can’t be a hundred percent sure Mama won’t come banging on the door to protect her innocent lamb from me.”

The reddish streak warming her cheekbones intensified as she pressed a hand to her mouth. “Flora knows.”

“I think the entire goddamned world knows by now. Except you.”

She walked toward him then, surprising him yet again. He could feel the pull between them as easily as if there were opposing poles embedded deep in their bodies. Her gaze, usually so meek, met his, pupils blown wide already. A breathless gasp left her as she seemed to find whatever confirmation she sought. Her hands fisted at her sides, and Andrea understood the need for that, too.

“This is a lot,” she said, after what felt like an eternity stitched of hot, hungry moments.

“It is,” he said, trying hard not to let his disappointment seep into his tone. “But chemistry is nothing but nature and instincts. It doesn’t mean we have to give in to it.”

“But you want to?”

He touched her then, just the pad of his thumb skimming over the soft, silky swath of skin on the inside of her wrist. Her pulse went haywire under his thumb, and her shallow breath was a symphony in his ears. “Yes. But it would be an affair, a fling , in your words. A...finite thing. I won’t make false promises. I won’t dress it up and call it dating. I won’t lie and tell you that I’m interested in a girlfriend or a partner or a future wife. Because I’m not. I have no interest or any inclination toward love.”

“How long would it last?”

He laughed then, and when she made a moue of her lovely mouth and made to pull away, he stopped her, all the while gentling his grip on her arm. She was so fragile in his hands. And more than just her wrist.

“Such anger, bella ? I wonder that I know you at all, mouse.”

Her catlike eyes flashed at him. “You’re mocking me.”

“I’ve...never been asked to fill out a questionnaire before I embarked on an affair.”

Her eyes searched between his and then zoomed down to his mouth with a helpless eagerness that made him want to groan out loud. “And I’ve never just jumped into an affair with a man like...you.”

“A man like me?”

“So out of my league. Who radiates confidence and sexuality and...”

Her open admission sent lust spiraling through him. She was new to this and that meant it could go wrong in so many ways , that rational voice he lived by whispered. “I wish I could put a shelf life on it. But I have no idea how long it would last. You might grow bored long before I do.”

“Maybe in an alternate universe,” she said, her own fingers coming to grasp the base of his palm in a tentative touch. He felt the contact shiver down his spine, wondering if he was so deprived of all touch or if it was just hers that had him reacting like this. Wondering if there would come a day when she realized the hold she could have over him.

“I guess the timing is convenient,” she said, her voice gone husky.

“How?”

“The fake engagement, the forced proximity is a good cover to get it out of our systems.” When he stared at her, she blushed. “That’s the technical term.”

He had never in his life discussed the terms of a maybe affair and the naiveté, the sheer lack of worldliness with which she asked the questions, told Andrea why his mother had been so outraged. Releasing her wrist, he moved away from her. “I tend to take people at face value. And yet, I cannot forget that you’ve just been through a painful, life-changing experience. And, by your own admission, you’re not even sure what this is. What did you call me earlier? A giant blanket?”

“As much as I can cuddle a grumbly, grouchy bear,” she said, coming up to the other side of the desk, her eyes wide in her face. When she gripped the edges of his desk and leaned over it, want made every inch of him curl tight.

He watched her, feeling a slow hum of pleasure through his veins at her aching beauty. Emotions flickered through her eyes. When the silence lengthened and he still didn’t say anything, her mouth pinched down at the middle. “You’re changing your mind about this. About wanting me.”

He rubbed a hand over his face, feeling all of his thirty-four years in his bones. “No, I know I want you, Monica. And I know all the ways I want you. I cannot stop thinking of how many of my own rules I’m breaking by even admitting how much I want you.”

“And if I said I was sure, Andrea? If I want to do this with you no matter what?”

“It is a lot. I should’ve never told you—”

“Then why did you?” she demanded, pushing her upper body over the desk like a bow bending toward him.

“Because I lost control. Your sweet admission made me forget how complicated all of this already is. When I invited you in here, all I meant to do was suggest the fake relationship. Not propose an affair.”

“I know that. I started this. I was the one who said it first.”

He stared at her, willing her to leave it, willing her to go.

“Do I need to sign a contract that says I won’t ask for more than you give, or cling to you when it’s done or that I’m old enough, wise enough and savvy enough to have sex with Andrea Valentini for pleasure without making it too much in my puny head?”

He let out a pithy curse.

She nodded, as if he had given her answers to all her questions. Then she wrapped her arms around herself again, as if she was pulling her dignity around her, and turned to leave. She was almost at the double doors when she turned back and said, “What time do we have to leave for the gala?”

“Monica—”

“We’re not losing that contract. I’m not going to stop working for you because of something that didn’t even happen, because of what that jackass did to me. And we’re not going to let your reputation get tarnished.” There was steel hidden in her quivering voice and it made him want her a little more.

She rubbed a palm over her flat belly and then glanced down at herself with a frown. “I need better clothes and shoes and maybe a little help with makeup.”

“You’re the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever met. And believe me, I have met some.”

“Ri-i-i-ght,” she said, stretching the word out. “I keep forgetting you had a playboy phase.” Then as quickly as it came, the teasing left her eyes. “I don’t want to let you down, Andrea.”

“You won’t.”

“I don’t want to let myself down, either. After everything with Francesco... I need a little boost of confidence. As the fake fiancée of the CEO of Valentini Luxury Goods, I’m allowed a little trip to the designer freebies showroom, aren’t I? I’ve heard so many stories about it and I’ve been dying to go.”

“Why didn’t you just ask?” he said, then scoffed. “Right, the list of obligations and all that.”

She nearly danced on the balls of her feet. “Can I, please?”

“Si.”

“And just for the gala, can I have a stylist, and a makeup artist to help me get ready?”

“ Si . Mama will arrange it for you.”

“And who do I see for a little insight into how to seduce the man who’s brilliant and ruthless and so gorgeous that he makes my knees quake even when he glares at me and calls me a damned headache?”

His mouth twitched and Andrea had to fight the insane urge to jump over the desk and tackle her to the floor. He would rip that ridiculous thing she called a top off her and bury his lips against her golden-brown flesh, dig his teeth into the curve of her breast, flick his mouth against the bold nipple that poked against the fabric even now, until she arched into him completely. Until she was begging for his mouth somewhere else.

The urge was overwhelming in its intensity.

Instead, he simply took in the breathtaking beauty of her, savored the thundering of his own pulse thrumming with a rich awareness he hadn’t known in years.

He wanted to say yes to this, too. He wanted to say yes to anything she’d ask of him, if she asked him in that tone.

The little mouse was getting so bold. And it sent a thrill through him. Maybe he would never take her to bed, but Cristo , he felt like a new man when she flirted with him, when she crossed that edge of caution just for him, when she glared at him.

“You’re growing bold.”

She waved her fingers in the air, her eyes dancing with a wicked pleasure he’d never seen in her. Energy seemed to radiate from her, and he wondered if he was shortchanging her. If he was projecting the vague unease he felt at the back of his mind onto her. “Just flexing my newfound claws.”

And then she was out the door.

For a long while Andrea stayed in his chair, wondering what he’d unleashed between them. And yet, there was not even a hint of regret to be found anywhere within him.