Page 11 of The Roman's Woman (A Singular Obsession)

That, and she thought he was poor. That had been obvious when she tried to treat him at dinner and offered to buy his train ticket. It was the first time in his life that he had the opportunity to get to know a woman without her being aware of his wealth and status. Even as a student abroad, he’d never considered hiding the fact he came from money.

Things were different now. Since his divorce, he was suspicious of women and their motives. But this was a novel situation. Sophia thought he was poor and she liked him, anyway. Or, at least she seemed to. She had even downplayed her efforts to pay his way in an effort to spare his masculinity.

The fact he insisted on paying had been suspicious. He had no idea what a street performer earned, but it couldn't be much. However, he couldn't let her spend her money on him. Thanks to his intimate knowledge of her lab’s finances, he knew what her salary was. In fact, in the near future, her salary was going to be paid by the Morgese Foundation grant. For someone in research it was above average, but nothing near what he earned. Her annual salary couldn’t touch what he made in a week. Maybe even a day, if he was being honest about the numbers.

He glanced down at the manila envelope she’d given him as he stepped in the elevator of his building. It had to be at least thirty pages of questions. No wonder the real Giovanni hadn’t touched it when it had been mailed to him. Whatever else this Kelly person was, she was too damn thorough. Enough to be shooting herself in the foot by making the survey so long.

He was going to have to track down this Giovanni and make sure the questionnaire was completed. It was the least he could do for his small deception.

Not small. Huge.

Releasing a pent up breath, he entered the luxury apartment his family kept in the city. He would tell Sophia the truth as soon as he saw her tomorrow morning. In the meantime, he had a few calls to make.

****

Breakfast with his aunt Perla had been a serious test of his endurance. His mother’s younger sister was sweet, but essentially a weak-willed person. She had been fortunate to marry a man of an equally amiable character, one who didn’t run roughshod over her. Unfortunately her good karma ended there. Her son, his cousin Lucca, had grown up to be a self-indulgent and selfish young man.

In her efforts to make up for the loss of his father, his aunt had spoiled Lucca, giving him anything he wanted and covering for him whenever he was into trouble. She was always there to bail him out and would continue to do so, even now as the youthful transgressions were escalating into actual crimes. The fight at the club would have landed a less connected man in jail.

Gio had explained the true circumstances of the bar brawl to Perla, but she would hear none of it. She bought Lucca’s story of being an innocent bystander who was dragged into a fight by circumstance. And she was unaware of Lucca’s damning contribution to his tabloid woes.

Determined to put a stop to his cousin’s downward slide, Gio was using the only weapon in his arsenal: money.

When his uncle Cosimo had died, he’d left his family deeply in debt. There had been nothing left, and his aunt was in danger of losing her townhouse and everything in it. Even her car had been repossessed.

Though he’d been a young man at the time, Gio had just been appointed CEO of the Morgese bank, replacing his father Salvatore. His father had been a decent, if somewhat middling manager, but the recession had hit all the financial institutions hard. The situation had been pretty grim until Salvatore had made the controversial decision to step aside and let his son take the helm.

Unlike his father, Gio was gifted at making money. His shrewd investment savvy, combined with a thorough restructuring of the bank’s assets, had put it back on sound financial footing. Since then it had thrived, and Gio had become renowned in financial circles. Not long after, he established a family trust for all his relatives, his aunt Perla and Lucca included. They had all profited from his hard work, but the life of leisure he enabled for them had some drawbacks.

That was why he’d decided to act. From now on, Gio was taking over the management of Perla’s expenses, from rent to food shopping. She would have a small line of credit that would let her shop for herself or eat out whenever she wanted. The older woman normally lived frugally anyway, more than any of his other relatives. Lucca was the one serious drain on her finances.

Knowing his aunt, she would still give her wastrel son what cash she had. But it wouldn’t be enough for Lucca to run wild in the fast lane anymore. Gio could only hope losing his trust fund would be enough to shock some sense into his young cousin once and for all.

His head was full of these troubling thoughts, but they fell away when he reached Sophia’s hotel and saw her waiting for him outside. She was wearing yet another boxy t-shirt and shorts that fell above the knee. There was no hint of the outrageously curvy body underneath.

So the outfit from yesterday was not a fluke.His hot doctor was surprisingly modest. Or perhaps it was something more…

It seemed strange that someone as accomplished as Sophia Márquez might be self-conscious about her body, but that was what he was seeing signs of. All throughout dinner and on their walk yesterday, she had kept fiddling with her clothes, tugging her shorts down and adjusting the neckline of her t-shirt.

However, he didn’t mind the conservative clothing. If she wore something like the white dress out in the streets, she might cause a riot. His countrymen weren’t subtle when it came to beautiful women. And he didn’t want to spend the rest of the day fending off other men. As it was, Sophia was like a carefully concealed present, a gift just waiting to be unwrapped.

While he watched, she pulled out her phone. A flicker of annoyance crossed her lovely face before she pushed a button and shoved it back in her purse.

“Hi,” he called out, catching her attention.

She turned toward him, a bright smile lighting her face. It rivaled the sunshine. Suddenly acid pooled in his stomach, and he clenched his teeth behind his smiling lips.

He had promised himself so many times last night that the second he saw her this morning he would tell her the truth, but he couldn’t do it right now. He didn’t want that sunny smile to fade away yet. After lunch was a better time. Or even after dinner. There were so many things he wanted to show her first.

Definitely after dinner, he thought as they chatted aimlessly in front of the hotel.

“How did it go with your aunt?” she asked as he led her down the street, toward the center of the historic district.

He shrugged. “As well as can be expected.”

“What did you need to talk to her about? Or is that too intrusive?” she asked.

His shoulders dropped.

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