room.
“I apologize for our lateness, Mr. Belluci,” the woman says, coming around to shake his hand. “Thank you again for agreeing to this.”
“It’s no problem at all,” he says, donning the plastic smile he reserves for the press. “We only just got started.”
Gabriel’s motives for the snazzy lunch become all too clear. It’s a publicity move. He’s farming out our “wholesome” family for his image, and rather than seek my approval he decided it would be best to ambush me. I’m furious—furious because they’re here, but also that they interrupted the first honest conversation I’ve had with Gabriel in days. I have half a mind to storm out right now, to make a big scene and embarrass the hell out of him.
Only that wouldn’t look good for me either. And considering that the truth of our relationship is far darker and more twisted than what he hopes to portray, I don’t want to do anything that might draw unnecessary attention to it, for Harry’s sake.
I chew the bite of food in my mouth with extra ferocity, glaring at Gabriel as the two intruders set up the camera. He looks back calmly, as though completely unaffected.
I will stay, I decide. And I will play along, but only because I’m going to rip Gabriel a new one later and he will owe me big time after this. Plus, the idea of sabotaging Gabriel feels ... weird. Uncomfortable. Like putting on a wet pair of jeans. Despite everything, I want to help him for some reason.
I lift my mouth into a gentle smile. “This is delicious,” I say. “What do you think, Harry?”
Gabriel lifts a chunk of food to Harry’s mouth and he gobbles it down, giggling when he hears his name. “Yummy!”
Gabriel’s expression relaxes a little, as though relieved. I wonder if he weighed the odds in his head and knew it was entirely possible that I would storm out the second the reporters arrived. He knows me too well.
We spend the rest of our lunch as a perfect family unit while the camera rolls. Afterward, the reporter sits us down on the couch for a brief interview.
The questions are pure fluff—how did we meet, what’s Gabriel like as a father, are there wedding bells in the future—and Gabriel provides equally fluffy answers.
He tells the story of how we met like it’s a fairy tale. “I spotted her in the crowd in one of my clubs. She was wearing this shimmering silver dress, and I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. We spent the whole night together but got separated before I could ask for her number.”
Got separated before he could ask for my number? I try not to roll my eyes at that one. He fucked me in a VIP booth and then told me to hit the road. The way he tells it, I ran out of there without leaving so much as a glass slipper behind.
Gabriel squeezes my hand, gazing at me lovingly. “Then she marched into my office two years later, demanding an interview.”
My heart melts. I try to remind myself that this is an act, that he’s putting it on for the camera, but it’s hard when those chocolate eyes are gazing deep into mine, and his left cheek is dimpled, and there’s a stray lock of black hair dipping over his eyes.
As for what he’s like as a father and if there are wedding bells in the future? I field those ones. Well of course he’s doting and sweet and—giggle—I don’t know, maybe.
I think about marrying Gabriel for real and I decide it is the most ridiculous suggestion I’ve ever heard.
18
Gabriel
“I’m putting Harry down for a nap,” Alexis announces as we get out of the car. It is the first thing she has said to me since we left the penthouse. “After that, we need to talk.”
“I’ll help,” I say.
“You’ll help?” Alexis spins her head dramatically from left to right, as though searching for something. “Why? I don’t see any cameras. Unless you’ve just hidden them well.”
She storms into the mansion without giving me a chance to reply, and I have half a mind to demand she stop so I can deal with her disrespect. It would be better if Harry wasn’t around for the oncoming confrontation though, so I let her go.
The guards on the portico smile a little as Alexis passes, having obviously found her comment amusing. When they see me looking at them, their smiles drop and they stand a little straighter.
I