Page 56 of His Fantasy Bride (Things To Do Before You Die)

He shrugged. “I thought it would be a fitting way to say my good-byes. To see you act one more time.”

“Oh.” He was definitely bitter. She should have expected that. She stared at the room, finding it hard to believe that the last time she’d been here, she’d given him a blow job, and he’d returned the favor. It seemed a life time ago.

He didn’t ask her to sit, and she shuffled her feet. Now that she was in here, she didn’t know how to start. For once she hadn’t rehearsed her lines. “I…” She rubbed her finger over her forehead trying to get her thoughts together. “I just wanted to come and say I was sorry.”

He watched her out of cool eyes, arms folded across his chest as if to ward her off. “For what, exactly, are you apologizing? Your boyfriend didn’t seem keen to explain.”

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Then who is he.”

“My cousin.”

Shock flashed across his face. “You’re a Scarlesi?”

“Yes.” She shrugged. “No.”

“Which is it?”

“My father married Luca’s aunt when I was seven. So I’m not a blood relative. But Theresa is like a sister to me.”

“No wonder she looked so surprised when I told her my name.” He shook his head. “Cristo.You must have thought me a fool.”

She took a step toward him and then stopped. “No. Never.”

He stood for a moment considering her, then waved a hand at the closest chair. “Sit down. I want to know everything.”

But now that she had said her apology, she wanted out of there. She wanted to go home and lick her wounds in private, work out how she went on from here. “Is there any point?”

“Not really. Just call it curiosity. I would like to know how I was so easily duped.”

She was guessing his pride had been hit the most and that his feelings had never been particularly deep. She’d hurt him when she disappeared. Hurt his pride. But she did owe him, and nothing she said could harm Luca or his company.

She sank down onto the chair and pushed her hair behind her ears. “What do you want to know?”

He took the seat opposite. “Why not start at the beginning. How much did your cousin pay you to arrange to meet me?”

“One hundred and fifty thousand pounds.”

Shock flared in his eyes, and she suspected he’d still harbored hopes that he was wrong. Well, she wasn’t going to lie anymore.

“Obviously your skills as an actress don’t come cheap. And how did you do it? How did you turn yourself into my dream woman?”

She shrugged. “Luca had a file. He’d intended to do this all along—said your company was vulnerable at that time—but the woman he’d employed walked out on him. So he suggested I do the…job instead.”

“And you jumped at the chance.”

“Not exactly. Luca showed me a file on you. It gave details of all the women you’d dated. And I fit the profile. In looks at least.”

“So what sort of women do I usually date?”

“Nice ones.”

“So you turned yourself into the woman of my dreams, arranged to meet me, and sent back everything I said to your cousin to be used against me.”

“I never sent anything back. Not once I’d met you. It was clear that you weren’t the bad guy Luca had made you out to be.”

“So why didn’t you just back off? Leave.”

---