He picked up his phone and put it back in his pocket. “You can shut your mouth now, son. It isn’t that big a deal. Just don’t come banging down my door again asking when Gia is going to make her decision. She’ll make it when she’s ready, and the rest of us just have to hold our breath and keep our fingers crossed.”
I shut my mouth with a click and pulled myself upright, but I couldn’t stop reeling from the bomb he just dropped on me. Was this the man I had to compete with? What chance did I stand? I might as well leave the estate right now and clear the way for him to marry Gia.
I couldn’t do that. I wouldn’t do that. As long as I held out any hope, I had to stay near her. She didn’t go through with all those beautiful playtimes out in the grounds for nothing.
I took another look at Leo. Was she doing it with him too? Why shouldn’t she? He must have charmed the panties off her when he finally proposed and told her how he felt.
The image of them kissing and more flashed in my mind. He might have touched her and done it with her right here in this office.
That picture should have made me jealous, but it only turned me on. Was that why she asked about me sharing her with another guy? Was she thinking about Leo?
Let him watch. Do you want me to fuck you right here in front of him? You want to show off for Leo? Do you want him to watch me fuck you right here against this tree? You want him to see how turned on you are, don’t you?
Maybe she took those words literally… or maybe he did. Maybe he got turned on watching me fuck her… or maybe she got turned on by the thought of him watching me fuck her.
A knock on Leo’s office door startled me out of my thoughts. The door eased open before either of us could say anything.
Romeo stuck his head around the door and peeked inside. “I heard voices in here. Do you mind if I come in?”
Leo narrowed his eyes at him. “What do you want?”
“I want to talk to you.” Romeo tiptoed into the room, shut the door behind him, and advanced to stand next to me.
Romeo tried to smile at me, but I only glared at him. What the fuck did this asshole want now?
“What’s up?” Leo snapped. “I’m kinda busy here.”
“Oh, right!” Romeo babbled. He rubbed his hands down his pants and fidgeted a few more times. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. I’d never seen him this nervous. “I just wanted to talk to you about something if you have a minute. It’s… it’s kind of important. I would have told you before, but with Gia around all the time, I wasn’t sure when I could see you alone.”
“I’m not alone.” Leo waved to me. “As you can see.”
“Right.” Romeo rubbed his hands together and glanced over his shoulder toward the door. “Well, if you want to do it another time, we could…”
“Just say it,” Leo snapped. “What did you want to talk to me about? If you don’t want to talk in front of Cesare, just say so, and he can go somewhere else.”
“No, no,” Romeo jabbered. “I don’t mind. I mean, he should probably hear this too.”
Leo scowled even worse. “Is this something about Gia? Please tell me you’re withdrawing your proposal so the rest of us can go back to living without you slithering around.”
I laughed out loud. That would be perfect if he did withdraw it.
Romeo spun around to stare at me and then squirmed again. “Actually, I do.”
Leo and I froze staring at him. “Come again?” Leo asked.
“It’s like this,” Romeo blurted. “My father… and my brothers… they have this plan. I didn’t know about this before yesterday. I swear it. I really did want to marry Gia. I still do, but under the circumstances…”
“What plan?” Leo cut in. “What are your father and brothers planning?”
“They hijacked my plan to marry Gia. They didn’t tell me until they were about to drive away yesterday after meeting with you. My father told me he plans to steal all Gia’s inheritance, dump her in the gutter, and leave her destitute to get his revenge on Don Alonzo. I didn’t know anything about this when I proposed. You have to believe me. That’s the only reason my father agreed to let me go through with this proposal.”
Leo and I gaped at him, and for the second time, all the circuitry in my brain seemed to shut down. He couldn’t be saying this. No way.
“You have to believe me. I really did want to marry her. That’s why I have to leave. I have to withdraw my proposal and go home. That’s the only way to stop their plan. I couldn’t live with myself if I went through with it and anything bad happened to her.” He looked down at his hands. “I didn’t expect to feel this way about her… but I guess you two are the wrong people to be telling about that.”
Leo collapsed into the chair behind his desk, swiveled sideways, and stared off into space. Romeo blinked at him and then turned to me.
“I’m serious,” he told me. “You’ll make a much better husband for her. I don’t know what I was thinking proposing to her. No, I mean, I know what I was thinking. I was thinking I could bridge the gap and maybe bring our families together. Besides, she’s… well, she’s magic, isn’t she? I thought… I thought I could make it work, but I was wrong.”