Paige heard a hmm as he laid down and another one as he sat up, and she imagined him pulling off his shirt and dropping it on the floor. Paige swallowed.

When he settled again, she almost laughed at the thought he couldn't get comfortable on the ground. What with the way he kept turning this way and that, trying to get comfortable. She doubted he had ever slept on the floor before now.

Finally, having mercy on him as none of them would get any sleep done if he kept moving about restlessly Paige said, "Why don't you come up on the bed, am sure it's a big bed and can contain the two of us."

His movements stopped abruptly, and the next thing she heard was, "Are you sure?" In a deep, dark, drawl.

"Yeah, it's not like you are going to pounce on me or anything?" Paige finished with a small laugh. Feeling stupid for having mentioned that last part.

Silence greeted her after that statement, and she heard him lifting from the floor. He muttered a thank you and climbed into bed. His size and presence feeling everywhere and the bed which Paige thought was as big as a football pitch became as small as a cradle to her. She risked a glance at him and noticed he hadn't his polo on. And sleeping with a half naked man she was in love with would be a disaster. She might do something stupid like stare at him all night.

******

Leo couldn't sleep, and so was Paige. He was beginning to notice her in the most unusual way. Like her heavy breathing and the way she kept shifting on the bed, so their bodies wouldn't touch. He guess she didn't like sharing the bed after all.

There are many ways to remedy this. He could sleep on the sofa, but the thought of his legs hanging out ninety percent of the time had him canceling the idea, and the floor had already been tried. Also, he could go to another room and leave the bed for her but if he did that. And it was somehow reported to his parents he had asked for another room to be cleaned out for him everyone would know he and Paige weren't really dating. Then all his efforts would have been in vain. No, he would stay here even if it killed him.

Sighing, Leo put his arm behind his head, trying to think of something distracting and not his beautiful assistant shifting every once in a while. He succeeded and his mind drifted off to her performance today, and he was glad the escort he hired didn't show up.

The woman would have let something slip under the attack tonight. Because she didn't know him, like Paige did.

Paige knew him in and out, at least to the extent a personal assistant was supposed to. However, with everything that had happened recently he realized he barely knew her.

With their relationship as a boss and employee, that sort of thing was not warranted. But now there was a little breach in it. He was finding out interesting things about his personal assistant he didn't think was possible before like the fact she was a writer. Was that even true or did she make it up? Leo turned to her.

"About tonight, when you said you were a writer, are you really one?"

Leo expected her to remain the way she was, backing him, but to his surprise she turned and for the first time since he climbed into the bed that night he couldn't keep his gaze still as it strayed to her creamy neck and then dipped lower. She must have noticed it because her face heated up, and she reached for the covers and held it to herself.

Leo's mouth curved to the side in clean amusement. Was she shy?

They were on their sides now, facing each other. Paige clutching a white cover and trying to avoid his gaze, which he purposefully kept on her. Good lord, she was shy. Leo found it hard relating the woman he was with to the one who had hugged him in a club, of course she had been drunk. But Leo was of the opinion everyone should be held accountable for what they did while drunk.

"I..." she swallowed and wet her lips. I'm really a writer," eyes wide "why did you ask?"

Leo followed that action trying to read her face in that moon filled room, but her army of lashes came veiling everything, and he saw nothing.

Clearing his throat, he muttered, "Nothing really."

He turned away from her then because he was remembering that night in the club when she had spontaneously hugged him, the feel of her skin pressed against his hard body. At the time he had thought little about it because his mind had been preoccupied and her friend kept staring at him strangely in a way he did not understand, but now the thought had filtered through his brain and the culprit was lying right next to him, he found it was all he could think about.

It was strange, but Leo didn't feel like sleeping again. He wanted to talk to her, but didn't know how to bring it up. Or what to ask. And so just before she turned, he blurted out tactlessly, "Tell me something about yourself, something I don't already know." He hurriedly added.

"But I thought we have talked about this today."

There was an alarm in her voice which Leo didn't like as though she didn't want anyone to be too interested in her which only pushed him to want to know more. He had noticed it when he asked about her family.

The reluctance in her to tell him, and also the way she looked at him after she finished telling him her story, as though she expected him to turn up his nose at her or denounce her or something.

One didn't get to act like that unless it steamed from somewhere.

Leo couldn't believe she had lived through that kind of hardship and turned out to become the smart, intelligent driven woman she was now. He admired that about her, but did the woman even know she had done something great with her life.

"Well? Are you going to say something? Paige?" He called when she did not answer him.

"I don't know what to say?"

Came her reply. Which Leo thought was what she told anyone who bothered to ask her about her life and from what he understood they always dropped the question after here. Leo decided to stop beating around the bush and ask what he wanted to know.

"Tell me about your last relationship?"

A hushed silence descended and had he not been looking at her, Leo would have thought she had dissolved into a pile of flour or something like that for she had gone positively silent like she was pretending she wasn't there.

Leo sighed. "If there is something to be ashamed of I can..."

"Something to be ashamed of?" She turned to him with a fire in her eyes that drew Leo back. "He left me because he thought I was worthless and wasn't good enough for a rich bloke like him!" Her eyes rested at him as though she was accusing him, and Leo finally saw something.

Then, horrified at what she had just said, she covered her mouth with both her palms. Swinging off the bed. "I can't stay here, oh my God, this is too embarrassing."

And before Leo could ask her why, she was already striding towards the door.

Leo swung off the bed and hurried after her. Cutting her off just before she reached the door. He turned her around holding her shoulders, and she fought to get away from his grasp hysteria which only caused him to tighten his grip.

"Look at me, look at me Paige!" He demanded. A little shake, and he got her attention, and she stared up at him with her baby blue eyes. "You can't go out there," he pointed at the door. "Some of my family might still be awake, and..." his voice softened. He didn't know why, but he wanted to settle her anxiety. "I don't think you are worthless."

"You don't?" Leo saw the fire in her visibly die down, and she turned back to the assistant he was used to. Staring at him as though he was everything she had ever wished for and more.

Leo swallowed and stared hard at her, noticing the hope in the depth of her baby blue eyes. Whoever had said those words to her had hurt her self-esteem to a very low ebb. He wasn't even sure it can be rectified.

Leo sighed, which brought Paige's wavering eyes to him. "No Paige I don't think you are worthless, but what I do think is that you are worth every penny in the world. A smart woman and have done very well for yourself, and I admire that."

Her plump lips quivered, and she pressed it together and settled it in a smile. "You mean that? Or you're just saying that because it is the right thing to do?"

Putting a hand under her chin, Leo lifted her face. "I mean that."

Removing his hand almost immediately, he put it into his pants pocket when he noticed the widening gesture of her eyes. Telling himself he was doing her a favor just as she was helping him by being his fake fiancée.

He watched her blush and pull her hair behind her ear. A gesture she does whenever she was nervous about something.

"Well, if that's the case thank you. And...." Her head lowered. "Sorry about my little outburst. I did tell you what it is all about but I am afraid I can't."

"I understand," Leo intoned darkly. He understood all too clearly everyone had a demon of their own.

When his eyes returned to her, she was staring at him with those wide blue eyes again. "I hope I haven't lost my job."

The suddenness of that question, the situation and way she said it brought a reluctant smile across Leo's face, and he wanted to reassure her. If not for anything, at least to get that baby blue eyes away from him. "Whatever you do here as my fake fiancée would not affect your job as my personal assistant," he told her.

"Really that's great," she muttered, smiling.

She thanked him and walked back to the bed. Leaving Leo to stare after her like a puzzle he couldn't figure out.