Chapter Four #2
‘Yes, well, you can never tell,’ Sammy continued, pausing only to stare around her at the lounge into which he had led her.
It was beyond luxurious, the sort of place where you just knew that nearly everyone was stupidly rich and probably famous.
‘Wow,’ she couldn’t help whispering as they came to a clutch of sofas.
‘Wow?’ Leo raised his eyebrows, amused at her lack of artifice.
She was feisty, outspoken, stubborn as the proverbial mule and would certainly prove to be a challenging assault on his well-ordered world over the next ten days, but no one could accuse her of being anything but glaringly honest in her responses.
‘I’ve never travelled like this in my life before,’ Sammy said truthfully. ‘In fact, I’ve only been on a plane twice in my entire life and it was nothing like this.’
‘You can take your coat off and sit down.’ Leo never paid a scrap of attention to the luxury that surrounded him wherever he went.
Now, he glanced around him at the subdued, well-bred, quiet lounge that screamed exclusivity.
Right about now, any of the women he was accustomed to dating would have stripped off her coat and would have been indulging in the sport of twisting and twirling and making sure that all eyes in the room were focused on her.
Sammy was still in her coat. It looked as though she might actually have pulled it more tightly around her.
‘You were telling me about your mother getting the wrong idea...’ He began removing his laptop from his leather case, absently glancing at the headlines of the newspaper neatly folded on the table in front of the chairs.
He looked up.
The coat was off, as was the scarf. She was bending slightly to unzip her boots.
When he looked at her he could clearly see the outline of her breasts as she leant down.
Her tee shirt was figure-hugging, the lightweight trousers lovingly contoured every rounded inch of her bottom and the surprising length of her slim legs.
She wasn’t looking at him. She was busy shoving the unsightly boots into a bag she had brought with her, replacing them with some cream shoes that complemented the outfit.
Nothing was revealing. There was nothing at all remotely attention-grabbing about what she was wearing. Yet she still managed to grab his attention and hold on to it.
Shoes on and outer layers removed and neatly folded and shoved into her carry-on, aside from the boots, which she had crammed into a canvas bag brought specially for that purpose, Sammy straightened and met his eyes.
For a few seconds she held her breath and wondered whether he would say anything about her outfit. When he didn’t, the disappointment felt disproportionate but she pinned a smile on her face anyway.
She brutally reminded herself that there was nothing between them so there was no reason for him to remark on anything she chose to wear.
As long as she played her part and gave no one any reason to suspect that there was anything amiss between them, especially when they reached their destination, then conversation would remain perfunctory.
‘Yes—’ she sat down and tucked her hair behind her ears ‘—I think that Mum’s a little vulnerable because she’s been ill.
She’s always been a strong woman and to have to accept that she wasn’t as strong as she thought she was hit her hard.
’ Sammy frowned. ‘It’s only recently occurred to me, from a couple of things that Mum’s said, that she was worried sick about leaving me single.
’ She laughed a little self-consciously.
‘She seemed to think that if anything happened to her, I might have needed the support of someone by my side.’
‘And you think that that worry might lead her to pin her hopes on this becoming more than just a fake engagement?’ Leo was trying hard to quell his surging libido, which had suddenly decided to put in an appearance.
He wondered why she dressed to hide her body when she had the sort of body that most men would drool over.
Unashamedly feminine and sexy in its femininity.
‘She actually told me that I should enjoy myself in Melbourne because I hadn’t had a break in a long time,’ Sammy confided.
‘And there’s no chance of that happening?’
Sammy opened her mouth to ask him how on earth she could possibly relax when she was going to be spending her time there in his company, pretending to be his fiancée.
But she stopped.
Why wouldn’t she be able to relax? He would. He would work and when he wasn’t working he certainly wouldn’t be stressing out because his nerves were all over the place when he was in her company. His stomach wouldn’t be doing somersaults when he was in her radius.
‘I’ve spent so long worrying over stuff that I’ve forgotten how to relax,’ she said vaguely, thinking on her feet.
‘Then I’ll have to change that.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Engaged people go places, explore, seek out exciting new adventures.’
‘Are you joking?’
‘Why would I be joking, Sammy? We have to be convincing and if we spend our free time on opposite sides of the city it won’t be long before Jamieson smells a rat.’
‘But she’s not going to be following us everywhere, is she?’
‘Quite frankly,’ Leo said with genuine honesty, ‘I wouldn’t put it past the woman.
Think about it. If she loses custody of Adele, she loses access to my money.
I owe her nothing. She’s not related to me or to my father in any way whatsoever.
As long as she can hang on to the child, she is guaranteed an income because neither my father nor, frankly, myself, would want Adele to suffer financial hardship.
The tie with my father may not be secured with blood but it’s there.
So, that being the case, she’ll do anything in her power to discredit me and what’s the fastest way of discrediting me?
By convincing a judge that I’m not the reliable, happily soon-to-be married man I claim to be. ’
‘I suppose so.’
‘So you’ll get the break your mother wants you to have,’ he told her with silky assurance.
‘Now—’ he indicated the long counter brimming with delicious snacks ‘—why don’t you go and help yourself?
If I’m to have to focus on the custody battle while maintaining our happily engaged facade by mixing in some fun in the sun for the next week and a half, I might as well do as much work as I can while I’m still here. ’
* * *
Despite what Leo had said about making sure that they stuck to their brief as the loved-up engaged couple, Sammy privately didn’t think that anyone in Melbourne would give a hoot whether they looked loved-up or not.
And whilst she had heard all sorts of rumours about Gail and her horrendous ways, she honestly couldn’t picture the woman creeping around behind them wherever they went, in disguise, with the specific aim of trying to prove them liars.
Exhausted after twenty-two hours of flying, she was dazed as she emerged from the plane.
He’d bought every seat in the first-class cabin because sharing space wasn’t his ‘thing’ and it was less hassle than organising his company Gulfstream—and, besides, arriving in full view on a chartered airline worked.
It was jaw-dropping extravagance but she had soon discovered that being up in the air for hours and hours and hours on end took its toll, however luxurious the seating arrangements.
Accustomed to functioning wherever he happened to be, and adept at working in the confines of a plane, Leo had not been disconcerted at all. He had pulled out his computer and had spent the majority of the flight working.
At some point, with neither her book or the range of movies netting her attention, she had turned to him and said airily, ‘Do you ever get bored?’
‘When it comes to work—’ he had turned the full wattage of his attention onto her and she had felt, suddenly and inexplicably, like a flower, wilting in the shadows, exposed to the full force of the sun’s rays ‘—I have an inexhaustible supply of energy. I also have to wrap up some pretty important deals before we reach Melbourne. Like I said, fun in the sun is the equivalent of taking time out and taking time out isn’t something I can afford to do. ’
‘When was the last time you had a holiday?’
‘You’re beginning to sound like my father,’ Leo had said wryly. ‘Please do me a favour and spare me the long lectures about high blood pressure, premature heart attacks and stress.’
‘I wasn’t going to start lecturing you about anything,’ Sammy had informed him. ‘I was just curious and you don’t have to think that you have to spend all your spare time with me. In fact, does Ms Jamieson even know exactly when we’re due over?’
‘You can’t imagine that I would make this trip on the off-chance of finding her, do you? I have meetings arranged in advance with her lawyer and I have a team of people at my end, waiting and ready to go. I’ve made very sure to cage her in. Wouldn’t want her to consider bolting.’
For a brief moment, Sammy had almost felt sorry for the woman. She had certainly understood in that moment why his father had had such an unshakeable faith in him securing the outcome that was desired.
He exuded absolute mastery.
But she had still privately thought that, whilst it sometimes paid to be cautious, he was being overcautious when it came to maintaining their charade.
Blistering heat greeted them as they emerged into the soaring summer temperatures.
The sky was flamboyantly blue and cloudless and the strength of the heat was formidable.
In her tee shirt and slacks, which she had traded on the plane for a set of silk pyjamas, she still felt her skin begin to perspire almost immediately.
She knew that they would be met by a chauffeur. She hadn’t known that, along with the chauffeur who was dutifully waiting for them, there would also be a little cluster of paparazzi.