Page 37 of Cinderella's Fling with the Off-Limits Billionaire

She opened the pouch, then tipped the contents into the palm of her hand. A delicate necklace with diamonds glittered back at her.

“They can’t be real?” She murmured, lifting it up and finding her mouth dry, her throat thick.

“Can’t they?”

“Leandro,” she said, scandalized. “It’s way too much.”

“No,” he shook his head, taking the necklace from her and coming to stand behind her. “It is something you deserve.”

“But it’s too much.”

“I saw it and thought of you. The sparkles. And when I am gone, and you have all but forgotten my name, you can wear this and remember.”

When I am gone.

A hollowness filled her chest. She blinked quickly, surprised by the sting of emotion in her eyes. She lifted her fingers, feeling the delicate thread of diamonds.

When Jay had first met her, he’d been extravagant too, but somehow, it had been so different. He’d given with the expectation of receiving in return, of making Skye submissive to him in some way. Leandro gave because he wanted to gift, he gave without any promises. Except that he would leave. That nothing between them changed.

“Is this what it’s like for you?” She asked, turning around to face him, finding them standing toe to toe.

He was so close. When their eyes met, she felt a rush of need, of awareness and passion.

“Relationships?”

She nodded.

He didn’t answer straight away; he looked thoughtful.

“I mean the gifts,” she explained, when the silence grew uncomfortable for Skye. “Do you shower the women you sleep with in diamonds as a matter of course?”

“There is no matter of course,” he said without giving anything away. “Everyone is different.”

“So there’s no third date necklace pre-requisite?” She asked in a light-hearted voice to disguise how much she wanted to know the truth.

“Nothing so prescriptive,” he assured her, as though that would make all the difference. It didn’t tell her anything though.

“Then what is it usually like for you?”

“What do you want to know, Skye?”

Everything.

“I’ve never dated anyone like you before,” she said. “You inhabit a completely different world to me. You’re so wealthy, powerful, you can have anything you want at the drop of a hat. Is that what the women you date are like too?”

His expression was hard to interpret. He wasn’t comfortable with the conversation. Because it was too personal? Or because he was worried about offending her?

“I’m not bothered,” she assured him, wondering why that didn’t feel completely true. “We both came into this with history. And besides, we know where it’s going. In a few days, you’ll be gone.”

His eyes locked to hers, as if he was looking right through her.

“Generally, I suppose, I date women who live in a similar way to me, si.”

“I see.”

“It’s just how it happened. It’s who I’m exposed to, who I spend time with.”

“Has there been anyone significant?”

---