Page 11 of Seduced by Her Billionaire Fake Fiancé

“With your father.”

She expelled a breath. “Fine. My best friend is Sophie, she lives in the city. Hobbies? I like to make pottery, and I listen to true crime podcasts when I go running in the morning. I don’t know why but I find them totally absorbing. I love anything French—food, wine, the country itself. I go there whenever I can.”

He pulled a face. “Not Italy?”

“Italy’s beautiful too, but France is special to me.”

He shrugged one shoulder. What did it matter to him if his fake fiancée wasn’t interested in his birth country?

“Boyfriends?”

“No one significant,” she said primly. “Your turn.”

He contemplated pushing her more on the final score, but she had told him enough, by the sounds of it, to make this plausible. If there were no significant boyfriends or breakups, her past relationships weren’t likely to be a matter of conversation.

“I’m twenty-nine, the eldest of three siblings. I have a brother, Leandro, and a sister, Emilia. My parents handed control of the company over to us five years ago, mainly because I had been pushing for that since I was about fifteen.”

He got the feeling she was doing everything she could to avoid smiling, to avoid giving him the satisfaction of thinking he’d amused her.

“Why?”

“What do you mean?” Wasn’t that obvious?

“Were they mismanaging things in some way?”

He frowned. “My father does things differently than me,” he said with a shrug. “But mainly, it was because we wanted it, desperately. We were hungry, they no longer were.”

“And your vendetta with the Santoros?”

Anger fired in his gut. “A guiding principle.”

“Has anyone ever told you that this kind of hate and resentment only hurts you in the long run?”

His laugh was a dismissive bark. “Yes. I’ve heard it. I don’t agree with it.”

She opened her mouth, but he forestalled whatever internet wisdom was to follow. “Don’t let it bother you—my life is not your concern.”

She flinched again, just a little, but he saw it. His body was hyper aware of hers.

“Friends, hobbies, lovers?” She pushed through gritted teeth.

“I’m close to my siblings. I trust them. I have no time for hobbies. Lovers—several, no one currently who would put this ruse at risk.”

Her throat shifted as she swallowed and his fingers tingled with a desire to reach out and touch the pulse point there, to feel it and count for himself her heart rate. Was it racing?

And if it were, did that have anything to do with him? Or was it simply a function of what they were about to do?

“Your ex-fiancé?”

Something shifted in his expression. “What about her?”

“Who was she?”

“Irrelevant.”

“As if.” Andie rolled her eyes in a way that was frustrating and beguiling. “If this engagement were real, I’d know all about her.”

“But it’s not, and no one will be crass enough to bring her up with you.”

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