He frowned as she moved toward the bedroom. ‘Where are you going?’
‘To pack,’ she said wearily. Anywhere really where he wouldn’t see the tears glittering behind her eyes.
‘You’re angry.’
‘Yes. But it’s with myself, so don’t worry about it. I’m the one who should have known better.’
‘Poppy, listen.’ He grabbed her again and swung her around to face him. ‘You can hardly blame me for thinking what I just did. You said yourself that this is like a fairy tale. You wanted me to pinch you, remember?’
‘I remember.’ She gave him a smile but everything inside her had already closed down and moved on. Now all she had to do was fetch her bags. ‘Excuse me.’
‘Don’t be unreasonable about this.’
Poppy threw her own clothes into her duffle bag, hurt now morphing into anger. Don’t be unreasonable?
‘I mean, you were the one who came into my office that Sunday morning in your sexy jeans and tight sweater and telling my grandfather you could handle me. Can you really blame me if I briefly wondered if you had been hoping something like this would happen?’
‘Not at all,’ she said blithely. ‘In fact, you’re right. I was hoping your grandfather would walk in and think we were a couple so we could pretend to be one, and eventually you would fall in love with me so we could live happily ever after in a penthouse in the sky. A great plan don’t you think?’
A muscle ticked in his jaw. ‘I’m sorry. I was wrong to say what I did.’
‘Yes you were.’ She stood before him, her duffle bag in her hand. ‘But you thought it and the truth is...’ Poppy swallowed heavily. ‘The truth is you don’t want more from me than a temporary affair anyway. So in the end it’s irrelevant.’
He raked a hand through his hair. ‘Are you saying you do?’
‘No.’ She stared at him. His words, his very aloofness, confirmed everything she already knew. He didn’t want her. Not really. Not in the way she wanted him. ‘But I will ask for my third wish.’
His gaze turned wary. ‘What is it?’
‘That we never see each other again.’
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
‘YOU ARE HEADING back to London, I see?’
Sebastiano didn’t look up as his grandfather entered the library, just continued to stare at the photo in his hand before he set it aside. ‘Yes. It was a good idea to spend the week in the Rome office. I feel as if I’ve got a handle on everything that needs to be done now.’ He set his laptop in his carry-on bag. He’d do more work on the plane, though God knew he was so tired he might just crash instead. And wouldn’t that be a godsend? The blissful oblivion of sleep.
‘And will you be seeing Poppy in London?’
‘No.’ He knew his grandfather had sensed something wrong between them when she had bid them a teary goodbye last Monday night, but they’d respected his unwillingness to talk about it, as they had done in the past.
‘Why not?’
The frown on his grandfather’s face told a thousand stories. The most blatant being that Sebastiano had disappointed him. Again.
‘Because Poppy was never a long-term proposition,’ he grated, knowing it was the truth. He was a loner. It was how he had conditioned himself since his parents’ deaths. Poppy leaving when she did had been a good thing. Hurting her hadn’t but—he didn’t want to think about how that made him feel.
‘Proposition?’ His grandfather frowned. ‘What kind of a word is this to use about a woman like Poppy?’
Sebastiano swore under his breath. ‘Look I have an admission to make.’ He held his grandfather’s gaze. ‘It doesn’t make me feel particularly proud of myself, but it’s done and I can’t change it.’ He grimaced. ‘I lied to you about my relationship with Poppy to force you to retire and hand me CE. So, if you want to reverse your decision and pass the job onto someone else—the CFO?—I won’t argue.’
‘Stefan is not the right man for the job. And he is not family.’
‘You’re going to have to move with the times at some point, Nonno.’ He ran a hand through his hair, his chest tight. ‘I’ll support whatever decision you want to make.’
‘You are the only man for the job. You always were.’
Sebastiano grimaced. ‘You mean my father was.’