“Do you need help?” a maid asked him, her accent heavy.
Nate shook his head. He didn’t bother telling the girl that Ferrara was a grumpy dick in the morning and liked his coffee to be made in a very particular way. Nate didn’t trust her to get it right.
By the time he returned with Ferrara’s coffee, Roman Demidov had joined them. Ferrara accepted the coffee without as much as a glance at Nate, his attention on Demidov. They were talking business, so Nate went back to his seat and tried not to scowl into his own coffee.
“You’re very comfortable with each other already,” Luke said in a quiet voice, stirring his tea. “But if you want his attention, ask for it. Roman can get ridiculously busy and distracted by his work, too. The key is not to let work dominate your life.”
Nate sipped his coffee. “I don’t want his attention,” he said. He didn’t.
The look Luke shot him was so skeptical that Nate wished he could tell the guy that their supposed relationship was totally fake and having Satan’s attention was the worst thing anyone could wish for.
He said neither of those things.
“Don’t want to be too clingy?” Luke said with an understanding look. “I don’t think he minds. You were the first thing he looked at when he entered the room. I’m not sure he even noticed me.”
Nate made a noncommittal noise, marveling at Luke’s poor observational skills.
“You make a lovely couple.” Luke hesitated and then lowered his voice. “I honestly wasn’t sure about Roman inviting Ferrara here because of…”
Nate looked back at him, curious. “Because of his family?” he said, just as quietly.
Luke eyed him in an assessing manner. He must have found what he was looking for, because he eventually replied, “Yes. You’ve probably heard the rumors about Roman, right?”
Nate nodded. “Raffaele told me,” he said, managing not to trip over the name this time.
“That makes things easier, I guess,” Luke said with a rueful smile.
“You were against inviting Raffaele?”
“I was. It’s nothing personal, you understand. I just didn’t want to have anyone from Roman’s past in our home—and that part of his life is in the past. But Roman can be so stubborn. He eventually talked me into it.” He blushed slightly, and Nate got a sneaking suspicion what “talking into it” entailed.
“Why?” Nate said, looking at Luke curiously. Hopefully for once his “kind face” would do its job and make Luke confide in him.
Luke chewed on his bottom lip, something hesitant about his expression. “Roman has mostly shut down that side of his business,” he said at last, his tone careful. “But an old… business partner in Italy is giving him trouble over it. He doesn’t understand that no means no.”
Translation: Roman Demidov’s former criminal associates didn’t want to be former associates.
Nate frowned. “And why does he need F—Raffaele? Because of his family connections? But he’s estranged from his family.”
His face flashing with a conspiratorial smile, Luke said, “Is he, really?”
“Yes,” Nate said carefully. “Don’t you know that his family refused to pay ransom for him when someone kidnapped him a decade ago?”
Amusement flashed in Luke’s eyes. “That was very clever of him,” he said, glancing at Ferrara. “Even Roman thought the kidnapping was real. We know that it was staged only because we found about it when we went through my father’s files.”
Staged?
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” Nate said faintly.
Luke peered at him before his eyes widened in something like bewilderment. “Oh, you really had no idea? I thought he’d tell you… You need to talk to him about it, then. Secrets are bad for a relationship.”
Nate could only nod. He got to his feet, walked to Ferrara, and touched his arm. “I need to talk to you.”
A deep wrinkle appeared between Ferrara’s brows at the interruption. He looked at Nate’s hand for a moment before looking back at Nate’s face.
At last, he got to his feet and Nate quickly turned and headed out of the room before Ferrara could lay a hand on his nape. Nate led him to the library, shut the door and turned to him. “Luke implied that you aren’t actually estranged from your family and that your kidnapping was staged.”
Ferrara’s face remained impassive. “And? Whatever makes you think I owe you an explanation?”
Nate glared at him. “You’re the one who dragged me here to pretend to be your boyfriend,” he hissed out. “But when Luke just told me that, I had no idea what to say! Now he probably thinks I’m an idiot who has no clue about his own boyfriend’s family.”
The bastard shrugged. “I see no issue. That’s not something I would tell you even if our relationship were real.”
“Right. Because you have no idea how relationships work.”
Ferrara stepped closer, laid his fingers on Nate’s chin, and tipped his face up. Was that amusement in his eyes? “I think you’re forgetting something,” he said, his voice quiet. “We aren’t pretending to be in a serious relationship. We aren’t pretending to trust each other. I brought you here to make Demidov think I’m like him. That’s all. You aren’t my wife. Or husband. No one needs to know my full life story to suck my cock.”