Page 48 of Seduced by Her Billionaire Fake Fiancé

“With all due respect, no. Why? What were we to each other then? Business partners with a ruse to fool your father. Why should I have gone into all the gory details of my personal life with you?”

“Because,” she replied, witheringly. “How can you not see that you’ve put me—and her—in an awkward position?”

“Esther is nothing to me,” he replied angrily. “And you are—,”

“Yes?” She crossed her arms over her chest, shivering despite his blazer, or perhaps because of it, and the way it was enveloping her in his masculine, addictive fragrance.

“This isn’t real,” he reminded her, angrily. But angry with himself, or her? “This is all make believe. So why the hell are you acting as if I’ve killed your childhood pet or something?”

She spun away from him, incapable of answering that, even to herself.

“Ah,” she latched onto another sore point. “As if I could forget it’s all fake when you have such good friends around to remind me.”

“I didn’t expect Carlo to do that.”

She made a harumphing noise.

He caught her arm, turned her around. She jerked out of his grip but stayed facing him, staring with anger at his features. Outwardly, Andie was angry but inside her emotions were rioting beyond recognition.

“He was hurt that this happened so abruptly. After Antonio died, he’s become like a de facto brother to me. I couldn’t hurt him. Not after everything…he lost.” His Adam’s apple shifted as he swallowed. “I explained it to him, and him alone. No one in my family knows. Nobody else.”

She didn’t answer. She couldn’t. It was a reasonable thing to have done, all things considered.

“Andie, when I called Esther to end things between us—,”

Andie’s gaze jerked back to his face. He frowned, searching for words.

“Shewasupset.” His brows drew closer. “I believe it was pride, not anything more substantial. Esther has had a string of short-term affairs, by her own insistence. But nonetheless, I felt…a sense of responsibility for having done anything that might have upset her. She is one of my sister’s friends, after all. And so when I was in Italy, last week, I had dinner with her.”

Andie had to swallow a gasp; she was shocked by how much that hurt. Shocked by the way her stomach seemed to drop away, and her ears began to gush with blood.

“It was amicable. She assured me she’d already moved on, laughed at me for thinking there were any hard feelings.”

Andie’s lips moved but no sound came out.

“We had dinner. That’s all. I didn’t touch her. We didn’t kiss. Nothing. I have not been intimate with her since I met you.”

But Andie was finding it hard to breathe and the last thing she wanted was for Max to see that, to understand something she herself couldn’t rationalize.

“I don’t care,” she said, numb, shrugging out of his jacket and handing it to him. He took it on autopilot. “It doesn’t matter.”

His frown dug a groove in one cheek.

“None of this is real, right? Just like you said. I’m just some other woman you’ve had meaningless sex with.”

He moved closer then, fast, like a flash of lightning, grabbing her arms and holding her against him.

And just like before, the spark of anger that ignited between them felt so damned good, so just exactly like what she needed that she kept pushing, delighting in finding an outlet for her feelings.

“It didn’t mean anything to me either, Max. Just in case you’re worried that I’m going to be upset when you end things with me.”

“This is different, and you know it.”

“Because there’s nothing to end,” she pointed out. “We’re just two people who made a deal that one day we’ll step back from. This,” she pushed at his chest, but he didn’t move. “Is simply a thing that happened.”

He ground his teeth together. “How much have you had to drink?”

“Not enough to be saying things I don’t feel,” she responded sharply.

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