Page 32 of His Two Hidden Masks

“I know.”

I wondered what would have happened if I had called Leo the night before, instead of wandering the streets of Venice. I would have talked to him until I fell asleep, and I would have answered when my father knocked on my bedroom door to tell me the date of the board meeting had changed.

But I hadn’t been in my bed. I’d woken up alone in the Mia Sorella. My decision to walk alone that night may have been the first ball drop in a Rube Goldberg machine that ended with my life in shambles.

I glanced back at the Mia Sorella, my eyes lingering on the ballroom windows. The meeting had ended, but my father stood with his back to the outside. James stepped into view in front of him. He was talking to Papa, but his gaze was fixed over his shoulder. I stopped walking.

“Bella,” Leo said, tugging on my hand.

“Sorry,” I said, turning away from the Mia Sorella, turning away from James. “I got distracted.” I had a delicious thought. If James could see me, maybe he would wonder who I was with. Let him, I thought. Let him wonder.

“So is your big mistake upstairs in the Mia Sorella?” Leo said. We wove through the packs of tourists in Campo Polo, heading toward the narrow and winding street that led to San Marco and the Lido Glass Factory.

“Yes,” I said softly.

“And are you going to see him again, amore?” Leo asked, eyebrows raised. “You seem flustered.”

“I am not flustered.”

“All right.”

“I am not flustered.”

“I believe the lady doth protest too much.”

“Oh, stop,” I said, playfully swatting his arm. “Last night, I went for a walk. I met someone. We had sex in the Lover’s Suite at the Mia Sorella. And that someone just happens to be James Street, who is apparently acquiring my family’s company.”

“Alle-fucking-luia,” Leo said, shouting skyward. “Sorry I overreacted. Notalleluiaabout the acquisition. I’m happy about the sex part.”

“I know.”

“You will have to unpack the whole boardroom fiasco, but now I want details on the sex. It’s much more interesting. Keep going. You met him. He was beautiful.”

“So beautiful.”

“So beautiful, I love this. And then you fucked.”

“Many, many times.”

“I’m dying.”

“The Lover’s Suite in the Mia Sorella.”

“Stop,” Leo said. “Just stop.”

“And then this morning he was in the conference room talking to my father and sitting next to Roberto.”

“I would have paid money to see this. You know that, right?”

“He pretended not to know me.”

Leo shrugged. “Not a bad thing, maybe.”

“And then he asked me to meet him again tonight.”

We stopped walking and leaned on the rail of small bridge steps away from a shop that specialized in Venetian masks. Rows of gold and silver faces grinned and watched us from the window. A steady flow of tourists walked past us, a bell ringing every time they opened the shop door.

“Well, will you?” said Leo.

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