In three long strides, Leo covered their distance and grabbed her hand.

"Stay away from Alberto if you know what's good for you, he is something of a playboy, and trust me you don't want to get yourself tangled with him."

"And you are not?"
The words spoken so softly caused Leo to stop in his tracks and turn a look at Paige.

Paige cowered back in fear. Remembering that though she was here as his fake fiancée the man in front of her was still her boss and she shouldn't have spoken to him like that, so she hurried and said, "I'm sorry if I was too direct I didn't think you would mind."

"No need to apologize," Leo murmured and put his hand under her chin raising her face. "It is as I already told you, whatever you do here as my fake fiancée will not affect your work."

Such promises Leo wondered if it was because of her or would he had made such a promise to another.

Paige blushed. "Even though, I shouldn't have..."

"That's enough." Leo's eyes flashed steel. "Don't try to be like the other women I know. You are honest and straight to the point, and I like that."

Because Leonardo had never complimented her, at least not like this, Paige's eyes shone like the morning sun, and she bit her lips. "You mean that?"

Seeing the girl's bright eye and the flush the compliment had brought to her cheeks, Leo sighed and changed the topic not willing to explain himself. "I shouldn't have left you here on your own to be preyed on."

"I insisted, and for your information, I wasn't being preyed on." Her lower lip jutted out in charming defiance.

Leo's eyes fell heavily on the girl's expression, and he knew what she said was the truth, but that was not how he remembered it.

At the time she had been looking earnestly at Alberto with her big blue eyes and looking as though she was hanging on every word that came from Alberto's lips.
It wouldn't have bothered him as much as it did had his uncle not commented that his fiancée might be taking a liking to his cousin.

Paige was there as his fake fiancée and as such all her interest and affections should be directed towards him first.

That was the excuse he gave himself as the reason he was boiling. But secretly the main reason he was gutted was that he had never seen Paige so relaxed with him as she was with Alberto, and she has only known Alberto one day or so, but she had known him for Ten months!

With him, there was always a barrier. Not that he cared much about it, but seeing her with Alberto in that carefree way. So casual and free in a way she had never been with him. He became jealous,
because envied that normalcy and wanted it for himself. It's no wonder he came running there to snatch her away from Alberto.

Now he had succeeded in separating them, he should feel happy, but he was not. The girl won't look at him unless talked to. Aside from that, she had been trying her best to avoid his gaze. Had he not been looking at her, he wouldn't have known.

It made him want to do something outrageous just to get the girl's eyes on him, which was ridiculous because he wasn't a rash man.

Leo swallowed and touched her on the arm, and she stiffened. Leo clenched his hands. "Come, I will teach you how to play golf. It is the least I can do after all I have promised you."

"No, you don't have to."

"I insist." Leo pressed and went behind her and showed her how to hold the club over the ball and swing. The white ball roll high in the air and flew ahead.

Together they swung the second and third ball. When Paige executed the fourth ball, she turned to him with happiness written all over her face, and he smiled at her like a proud parent.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed the others leaving. "We should be on our way too."

Paige turned to him with a pout on her face and begged for one more turn. Leo's heart skipped. Seeing the happiness on the girl's face, he didn't have the heart to tell her no.

After that, she begged for one more turn and another and another until the distress in Leo started to show. "Paige, we really must go."

She did as if she was going to place her hand in his outstretched hand, but twisted, and ran.

For a few seconds, surprise rooted Leo's feet to the ground. When he finally got himself, he didn't know what possessed him, and he chased after her.

When he caught up to her. He scooped her up in his arms, and she laughed. A warm, joyous laugh. "Are you always this stubborn?"

"Sometimes." After that statement, she froze in his hands. That was when they both realized what he has done. Leo brought her down to the ground and once again that awkwardness appeared as she refused to meet his eyes.

Silently they walked back to the golf cart.

************
The sun's last lingering light had gone, but the moon was up, creating a scene of celestial splendor with gutsy stars piercing the blue as the sky darkened further over the gardens, fountain and casting a shadow over the Palazzo ahead.

Moonlight shone on the garden, whose plants were mainly evergreens, manicured into geometric hedges and topiaries. The night air still, and quiet aside from the occasional ruckus of insects and the falling sound of trickling water.

At one corner sat a long wooden chaise lounge, which was positioned to face the fountain whose glory of water poured from the mouth of a lion into a circular pool.
Paige wrapped her hands around her arms and pulled her legs on top of the wooden chair.

Sighing softly, she snuggled closer to the arm of the chair. Her mind bringing her back to the events of the day.

Why was she always contradicting herself? She said she loved Leo, but every opportunity she got with him, she kept shying away. Leo had clearly been different with her today, and yet she had acted weirdly around him all because Alberto said he liked her, a statement that has yet to be proven.

Now she regretted her actions, because immediately after the golf course Leo had disappeared without a trace, and she was left to wallow in her disappointment and loneliness.

Paige had tried to chat Naomi up, but Naomi had not been responding, and when she tried to call Finn, she learned he had gone for a convention, and he said he would call her when he got the chance.

Paige sighed at the boredom that consumed her and stared at the fountain, telling herself if she got another chance with Leo she would use it wisely.

Closing her eyes to the gentle breeze, she inhaled it greedily into her body. Not less than twenty seconds later she heard the sound of footsteps approaching, and before she could turn her head and investigate, the intruder spoke.

"I heard the tale you invented for my sister as the way I proposed."

It was Leo
Before he could say any more Paige rushed to say, "I know I exaggerated a bit too much." Sighing at the end of that speech.

"You don't think it's possible for someone to do that?" He asked, rounding the corner to come stand in front of her.

Paige felt a trifle conscious as she had her two legs up on the chaise and since she was wearing a particularly short yellow floral gown, most of her legs were on display.

Quietly and carefully without attracting any attention, she dragged her gown down to cover a bit more of her legs, and he followed that action lazily with his eyes before it came to rest on her face and Paige felt the ridiculous need to blush. She bit her lips and held her sweater tighter.

"I know it possible for men to say some love words before they propose to the girl they like, but to woo for three days is something out of the ordinary. It's just the thing I planned for one of my characters to do."

"Mmm, then that character would be a lot like me. And I think it's possible for a man to woo a woman for three days it all depends on the woman," he murmured and sat down beside her on the chaise his long slim legs thrust out in front of him.
He occupied too much space. His presence was overwhelming.

The sweet smell of his cologne, mixed with the fresh scent of bathwater wafted through her nose, encompassing her. He smelled manly and good, and Paige wanted to snuggle in his arms.

In the semi-darkness, Paige silently turned her head to stare at Leo's side profile illuminated by speckles of moonlight. He had his short brown hair sleeked back to reveal the sharp angles of his face, the top buttons of his shirt undone, and tucked into a pair of black pants that hugged his thighs. One big arm casually reclining over the back of the chaise lounge.

He exuded masculinity with every pore.
Because Paige had been staring at him with such thoroughness, she didn't register the words he had said but knew without doubts he had spoken.

So she blinked and asked, "What?"
He shook his dark head. "Allow me to demonstrate." He took her hands and pulled her close to his body. Paige had no time to prepare for that onslaught as her soft pliant body yielded with his hard masculine one, and she sucked in a breath through her teeth as spams of uncontrolled, raging fire spiraled down her body in an agonizing slowness causing Paige to clench her thigh together as she felt a tension in her lower abdomen.