Page 9 of The Sexy Billionaire

“You’re sick, Michael. You have a problem. I loved you. You were my world and I’m realizing I never was yours,” I say as the truth finally sets in. There was only ever one of us in this marriage, and it was me. My shoulders fall as the heaviness of that truth weighs me down. “I’m done, we’re done,” I tell him, then turn on my heel, grab my bag, and walk out of the kitchen.

“Paige, wait, please, let me fix this,” he says, grabbing me.

I slap his hands away from me. “Don’t touch me,” I scream at him. “You will never touch me again.” And with that, I storm out of the restaurant and into the alley. I hail the first taxi I can find and head home.

Do I even know where home is anymore?

4

GIORGIO

“Just breathe,” my brother reassures me. “If you’re this stressed out at your engagement party, what are you going to be like at the wedding?”

I turn and glare at my younger brother, Luca. “Fuck you.”

This makes him laugh.

The audacity of the man to tell me to breathe when he did the runaway groom years ago and hid in the Scottish Highlands to escape his reality. He’s happily married to Lilly, the beautiful woman he met while hiding out in Scotland, but that’s beside the point. When they got engaged, their party was an intimate gathering of friends and family, something that I wished I could have done. Instead, I have five hundred well-wishers at mine.Do I know all five hundred?No, of course not, but as the heir to the family name, there was going to be no other option than to have an extravaganza complete with heads of state, royal family friends, celebrities, and other distinguished guests.

“I want this circus to be over with,” I moan to my brother.

I think I know maybe eighty people here, unlike my fiancée, Giada, who knows everyone, and if she doesn’t, she soon will. Guess it comes with the territory of being Italy’s sweetheart,the beautiful woman that’s beamed onto our nation’s television screens every night starring in a successful drama; everyone loves her. If I’m honest, I’ve never watched the show, I don’t understand what the fuss is all about.

The who’s who of Italian television is here tonight celebrating her—I mean us.Our engagement is so big that Italian Vogue is photographing the entire event. They are doing an article leading up to what they’re calling the society wedding of the year with a six-page spread in the magazine. I don’t think anyone cares what I’m wearing tonight.Armani, if you’re wondering,but what I do know is my fiancée cares and at the end of the day, that is all that matters.

My brother’s brows pull together, listening to my complaints. “You can’t say that at your engagement party. It’s supposed to be the happiest moment of your life. You’re celebrating that you’ve found your soulmate.”

Soulmate? Giada is great, but soulmate? Do they even exist? Maybe for other people, but not me.

Luca pauses as he notices that I don’t answer right away. He steps closer to me and leans in. “She’s your soulmate, right?”

I roll my eyes at my younger brother. “You’re the romantic, Luca.”

He frowns at me, not understanding that not everyone has what he has.

“She understands my life, and doesn’t want to change me, so I’m guessing that’s the same,” I try explaining to him.

He winces at my words. I never thought I would be marrying an actress, their need for the spotlight was previously a turnoff for me. I like living my life quietly, discreetly. I don’t strive for the glitz and glamor. Underneath the designer clothes, I’m a simple man who likes his home comforts, his small group of friends, and who just happened to be born into an unordinary family. It’s something I’ve always struggled with—the limelight,the pressure of being the first-born son. Luca is better suited for the role than I ever could have been.If only he was born first.

Having grown up in this world, I’m not fooled by the illusion it creates and the people it lures. I’ve met plenty of inauthentic people over the years, which has made me retreat into my hermit shell even more than I already do. Giada was born for all this and has worked hard to achieve the success she already has. I’m not sure how she’s going to fare when she must give up her old life on television for her new life as a socialite once we are married. The attention will be different to what she’s used to. Giada promised after she accepted my ring that she will look at starting a family in the next two years. My parents would like to have grandchildren soon. And honestly, the thought of becoming a father fills me with excitement, which is surprising, as children used to irritate me. I never thought it would happen, but now that I’m building a future with someone, the idea of little versions of us running around sounds nice, especially if Luca and Lilly start having children, too, and the cousins can grow up together.

I take a sip of my wine while we wait for my fiancée to make her grand entrance. “My relationship is different to yours, Luca.”

How did two people who are complete opposites like Giada and I meet? I can thank my sister Allegra for introducing Giada to me; she suggested I take her to a society dinner as my date to shut our parents up about my love life; they have been hounding me about my marriage prospects ever since Luca met Lilly.Thanks, brother.They had been setting me up on near-weekly dates with their friends’ daughters; some of them were not good matches.

I sat on the sidelines watching my brother stubbornly deny his love for Lilly, all because of pride and a broken heart.A bit like you and Paige.No.I will not be thinking about her at my engagement party.Then I watched my brother literallyraise hell when Lilly was kidnapped by the Russian mafia. He moved heaven and earth to get her back because the thought of living another day without her in it ruined him. Not gonna lie, it melted my ice-cold heart,a little.I saw the pain that he went through, thinking he had lost the love of his life. I’d never experienced that kind of love before.Yes, you have, but you lost it.I was young. I shake those wayward thoughts from my mind. During Luca’s darkest days fighting for Lilly, watching him struggle to survive, I didn’t know if I ever wanted to love someone that much—again. Remembering thefeeling of having yourheart ripped out while you’re still alive feels like, the agony is unbearable. But your heart heals, not perfectly, a little jagged, but eventually you learn to live with the scars. Deep down inside, I’m jealous of my brother. I want what he has found with Lilly. Guess that’s what he means by soulmates.

It may not have been love at first sight, like my brother.I don’t live in a fairy tale, but what we have suits us. It’s not that I don’t have feelings for Giada, I do, and my feelings are slowly blossoming the more time I’m spending with her, but is it love?No.If I’m honest, we’ve only been together five months. As harsh as it sounds, I looked at my proposal as a business arrangement because, really, that’s all marriage is two people merging their lives together.

It was Giada’s independence that swayed it for me, it’s refreshing. I’m busy working in the family business as well as coordinating all our philanthropic endeavors. I don’t have time for a needy partner who wants me to call them every day,I’ve had those before and it’s not fun.Is that selfish? Probably. My workload is never-ending, but I love it like that. I’m making a difference in the world and that should count for something. She is also fantastic at walking a red carpet and working a room at a black-tie event, something that is a constant in my life. She’s able to talk to anyone on an array of different topics at thoseevents, which takes the stress off me. I’ve taken some women that have been nothing more than glorified arm candy and they were happy being that. They liked being seen and not heard, but after a couple of dates, it’s not sustainable for any kind of long-term future. So, when Giada came along to these events with her alluring confidence, it made things easier for me.Is it wrong to think like that?I don’t know, but isn’t companionship supposed to be two people working together to make their lives easier? Maybe that’s not a traditional way to think, but passion only lasts for so long before the reality of spending the rest of your life with this person sinks in. And if you are not compatible in other areas besides passion, how will it work? I don’t have a normal nine-to-five job; my life is constantly surrounded by people either wanting something from me or talking about me. I need someone who can handle the personal scrutiny of my family, as well as the public one that my family name brings.

That’s why Giada is the right woman for me. She doesn’t want to change me,unlike some. She’s comfortable in this world, she doesn’t care what some gossip columnist writes about her or what some troll on social media says. She courts the cameras, loves the attention, and is happy to bask in it, which means I don’t have to. Also, she was insistent on keeping her apartment as she likes her own space to be creative. She isn’t offended if I don’t want to go to an event with her, because she has a long list of friends who are only too happy to go. How could I not fall for all that?

“I know it is, it’s just … I don’t want you to be getting married for the wrong reasons,” my brother confesses.

Giada and I may not look gooey-eyed at each other like Luca and Lilly do, but that doesn’t mean we won’t eventually. Luca and Lilly’s relationship was dramatic, chaotic, and passionate; not everyone likes nor wants that for theirs.

“I like Giada in my way, why is that not enough?” I ask him.

---