Page 85 of The Sexy Billionaire

“Have I turned into a poor little rich girl, not knowing which house to go to?” I say, bursting out laughing, my brother joining in with me. The tension from earlier slowly releases from my muscles with each chuckle.

“It’s kind of what it’s sounding like.”

I let out a heavy sigh. “Where do you think I should go?”

He shrugs his shoulders. “The plane is going to Rome, so why not start there and then see where it takes you?”

“Guess I’m going to Rome, then.”

23

PAIGE

“Ican’t believe we are going to Rome in a private jet,” Savannah squeals as we board Gio’s plane.

“You made it,” Natalia says the second she sees us board, and she gets up to give us both a hug. “We are going to have so much fun.”

Gio is sitting at the back of the plane on his phone, staring at his laptop. He looks busy, but he glances up at us and nods before going back to his work.

“Would you ladies like champagne?” the flight attendant asks as we take our seats, placing a glass of champagne next to each of us.

“I want to raise a glass to you both, to thank you for welcoming me into your lives and I can’t wait to show you both my world,” Natalia exclaims as she raises her glass and we all cheers.

“As long as you introduce me to some Italian stallions, then I’m all for it,” Savannah adds.

“Don’t you worry, when the Italian men see you, they will fall to their knees and offer you anything you want.” Natalia grins.

“I’m liking the sound of Italy more and more.” Savannah chuckles as we sit back and fall into a natural rhythm of chatting. Smith messaged me this morning to let me know that Michael had been asked to present himself at the closest police station in violation of the protection order and that he would keep me in the loop regarding it. Honestly, I’m so happy that I’ll be gone for all of that.

After flying for a couple of hours, we’ve been fed and drunk copious amounts of champagne, and Natalia and Savannah have both fallen asleep. I can’t sleep on planes, even private ones, so I get up and head to the back where Giorgio is, and I take a seat beside him.

“You seem to be having fun,” Giorgio says, looking up from his computer.

“Those two together are trouble, I already know it.” I chuckle.

“I can see it. Thanks again for being so nice to Natalia, it’s hard for her to make female friends without them wanting something from her or her family,” he explains.

That sucks for her. Natalia is awesome. Even if I’ve only known her a little while, I know she’s such a nice, caring person, someone I would love to be friends with, plus neither Sav nor I want anything from her other than her friendship.

“We both love her. She’s going to be a great tour guide around Rome.”

He raises a brow. “That should be interesting.” He smirks.

I’m sure it will include stops at designer stores and bars, which is fine by me.

“How are you?” he asks, his eyes falling onto the bruise on my cheek.

“Okay, as I can be.”

He nods in understanding.

“Did you pay Michael a visit the other day?” I question him. It was surprising hearing Michael tell me that Gio paid him avisit and gave him a black eye; I would never have thought he was capable of doing that.

“Yes, I offered him a million dollars to leave you alone.”

A gasp falls from my lips. He did what? A million dollars, who has that kind of money to offer someone?

“He wasn’t interested in the money. He was hell-bent on revenge. That’s when I knew he was insane, a normal person wouldn’t turn down that kind of money, no matter what,” Gio adds.

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