Chapter Nine #3
He spread his hand to the back of her head and tugged her closer, dropping his mouth to hers.
The kiss was slow and thorough. The kiss of a couple who had indulged for the last few days and who had relearned every inch of what they liked.
It simultaneously made Angelica’s heart soar, and drop.
Because she knew the end was nigh. She pulled back.
They were entering Manhattan and the tall buildings soared into the sky around them.
Leo said, ‘There’s an event tomorrow evening at the Met museum.’
Angelica pulled back slightly. ‘Do you need refined elegance or distraction from your convenient wife?’
Leo felt a punch to his gut when Angelica said convenient wife, even though he knew she hadn’t meant it to be a dig in any way. But it just reminded him of how he’d commandeered her down the aisle, bent on revenge, and his conscience pricked.
‘You know you don’t have to do this, Angel. If you want to call an end to this at any time, you can.’
She tensed and drew back. ‘Are you saying you don’t want to be married any more?’
Leo felt another punch to his gut, one he didn’t want to investigate. ‘No, I’m perfectly happy with this arrangement for as long as you are. I’m conscious that you weren’t given a choice at the beginning and I don’t want you to feel like you still have no choice.’
She relaxed a little. ‘I’m happy to be here…for now.’
Leo looked at her. She was remarkable. To have gone through the mental torture that Aldo had put her through for years and then, just when she thought she was free, to find herself being marched down the aisle again.
And she’d taken it all on board with an equanimity and stoicism that shamed him.
Not to mention a wicked sense of humour—wearing clothes designed to shock and provoke.
He said, ‘I’m sorry that I didn’t know what you’d been through. I’d never have asked you to do the things you have if I’d known.’
She suddenly looked a little shy. ‘It hasn’t been all bad.’
An image presented itself in Leo’s mind, their intertwined bodies on the vast bed in the beautiful villa in the Caribbean. Pleasure coursing through his blood. Sweat cooling on their skin. And then, diving into the sea to cool off…
‘No,’ he agreed, feeling a little exposed. ‘It hasn’t been all bad, and I will make it up to you. You and your family won’t have to worry about—’
Angelica put a finger to his mouth. ‘You don’t owe us anything, Leo. I don’t regret knowing you. I’m here because I want to be.’
Before he could respond to that she said, ‘I think I’ll aim for refined elegance tomorrow evening. You don’t need anyone to deflect attention any more, you’re back.’
For the first time in Leo’s life, he felt a sense of kinship, of having someone by his side who cared about what happened. He’d thought he’d had it with Aldo but, in hindsight, Aldo had always gone his own way and Leo should have seen that for what it was much earlier.
The car came to a stop outside the building housing Leo’s office. ‘We’re here.’
Angelica suddenly looked a little concerned. ‘Are you sure it’s OK to just land me in with your philanthropy team? I’m sure they’re busy…’
Leo hid the little jolt he felt at her very natural and genuine concern for others.
To think he’d doubted her was another shameful stain on his conscience.
And yet selfishly he knew he wasn’t going to take the higher road and insist on ending this marriage…
If she was happy to stay for now, then he wasn’t about to let her out of his sight.
‘It’ll be fine, they’ll be only too happy to help. They’ve had nothing to do for the last three years and this project is one I’m willing to get behind too.’
Angelica stopped and looked up at him, eyes huge and green. ‘Oh, wow, Leo, that’s so kind.’
For a second Leo was oblivious to the busy Manhattan sidewalk, all he wanted to do was grab Angelica, bundle her back into the car, go straight to the apartment and recreate the magical sensual dream they’d just experienced for the last few days.
Gruffly, he said, ‘It’s really not kind at all. It’s the least I can do.’
Angelica was still buzzing later when she got back to the apartment ahead of Leo.
He was still in meetings. She’d seen him through the glass window, moving back and forth, gesticulating.
She’d seen how some of the women around the boardroom table were mesmerised.
And some of the men. She couldn’t blame them.
He’d spotted her and had come out for a moment.
He’d kissed her, in front of all of those people.
An automatic and easy gesture that had almost felled her.
She’d floated back down to the lobby, high on the new possibilities that her charity idea could actually work and on that kiss.
Imagining for a moment—dangerously—that this could somehow be real.
A real marriage. A real relationship. A partnership.
But it wasn’t. They were just playacting for a little longer.
Michael, the apartment manager, was there, welcoming her back, only reinforcing that fantasy. He said, ‘I’m going to go now. I’ve left the supplies Mr Falzone asked for in the kitchen.’
‘Supplies?’
Michael nodded. ‘I believe he’s going to cook this evening?’
Angelica held her tongue and then said a little bemusedly, ‘OK, thank you.’
When Michael had left, Angelica went into the kitchen and saw vegetables in bowls. There was meat in the fridge. And wine. Angelica groaned softly. Leo was going to cook? Was he deliberately trying to make her fall for him again?
That evening Angelica was doing her best to remain as detached as possible but it was the hardest thing she’d ever done.
Leo had returned to the apartment and after disappearing to the gym for an hour or so, he’d returned and was now freshly showered and wearing soft jeans and a loose shirt, sleeves rolled up, and preparing the ingredients for a stew with professional-chef levels of competence.
Angelica was dressed in sweats and a baggy top, hair up.
Leo looked at her. ‘Would you have preferred to go out to eat?’
‘Not at all, this is far more entertaining.’
He looked a little embarrassed. ‘I have to admit I find it relaxing.’
He’d poured her a glass of wine and she took a sip. He glanced at her. ‘So tell me about the meeting with the team.’
Angelica couldn’t help grinning. ‘It was amazing. I mean, it was also a little scary, because, in order to really go for it, it’s going to take an incredible amount of work and money…
but if we can set it up properly, this could be a real game-changer for young kids and teens locked into criminal gangs, all over the world.
A real lasting way out, not just being moved to a different part of the country you live in. ’
She went on, ‘For really young kids, born into mob families, it would have to involve a parent who might want to leave also, or being put into foster homes…and that’ll take an enormous amount of resources.
The government in Italy are already involved in a project to remove children from dangerous situations and so there’s always a possibility of working with them. ’
‘Sounds like you made a lot of headway.’
‘Well, thank you for letting me use your resources to see if it’s a possibility.’
He looked at her. ‘They’re your resources too, Angel…’
She squirmed a little. ‘Yes, but…we won’t be married for long so…’ She trailed off, not even sure if she wanted to be broaching this.
But Leo was shaking his head. ‘Even if we’re not married, I’d like to be the first investor of this project so you won’t have to look elsewhere for initial funding or support.’
‘You really don’t have to do this out of a sense of—’
He held up a hand. ‘Don’t even say it. I’m doing this because it’s a cause I believe in. I came from that background too, remember? Of course I’d love to see more kids and teens be offered a chance of another life.’
‘I… OK.’ Angelica felt inordinately grateful. ‘That’s very generous of you.’
Leo made a face. ‘Aldo didn’t exactly do much in the way of philanthropy while he was in charge, so it’ll be good to have a worthwhile project to invest in.’
Of course Leo was thinking of the optics too, not just of easing his conscience where Angelica was concerned.
That actually made her feel both better and worse at the same time.
She shook her head at herself—she was being ridiculous.
‘Well, thank you, we’ll only go ahead with it if we think we can make it work, without putting people in danger if they leave those situations. That’s the last thing we’d want.’
He looked at her. ‘I’m sure you can make it work.’
Angelica felt a warm glow in her chest. It had been a long time since she’d shared aspirations and dreams with anyone.
‘How are your mother and brother?’
‘They’re good. I’d like to see them again soon.’
‘I have an invitation to a charity ball in Venice in a couple of days—you could come back to Europe with me and go see them then?’
Venice. The place where she’d first fallen for Leo and where he’d broken her heart.
She hadn’t been back there since. She had a feeling of foreboding that if she said yes, then maybe they’d have come full circle and both realise it was time to move on.
She knew she couldn’t keep going like this indefinitely.
Each day it was getting harder not to drown in her own emotions.
‘OK, that sounds good,’ she said as lightly as she could.
Leo continued chopping and slicing his ingredients for his stew and, to save herself the mental torture of witnessing this far too appealing domestic side of Leo, Angelica muttered something about video-calling with her mother and brother and left the kitchen.