Pretending with the Greek Billionaire(56)

“You’ve made some poor choices in your life, Luca, but even I thought you to be better than this. When will you ever learn that the only way to get ahead in life is to work for it? You can’t lie or buy your way into success. You are never going to make anything of yourself this way. And to drag this young woman down into your deceptions with you, though I’m no longer sure considering the behavior I’ve seen who did the dragging, not to mention using a bunch of innocent children, is nothing short of shameful—”

“That is enough!” Constance slammed her napkin onto the table and Luca and Augustine both looked at her with what he was sure were twin expressions of shock. Mirrored by most of the people in the restaurant. The phones started coming out and Luca was sure within moments their little scene would be all over the internet. Ah well. No help for it. And frankly, the fact that she was defending him was something he was happy to share. No one had ever done such a thing for him before.

He had seen her irritated, even angry, but he’d never seen Constance in full-blown fury. She was magnificent with her flashing eyes and heated cheeks, her chest out and back straight, ready for battle. This might even be fun to watch, especially since it wasn’t aimed at him.

He’d listened to his father’s tirade with growing anger and a sinking heart, but while things between he and Constance had recently grown a great deal more complicated than he expected, his father wasn’t really wrong. How do you argue with that?

Constance was apparently going to try. She stood up, her whole body radiating fury.

“Mr. Vasilakis, I don’t know where you get your information, but I assure you nothing about my relationship with your son is false. Yes, it’s true that we’d only met that day of the first picture and, yes, we became engaged immediately after. It might have been a whirlwind and it might have been unexpected, for us as well as anyone else, but that does not make it any less real. He proposed, I said yes, he bought me a beautiful ring I will cherish for the rest of my life, and I’ve been sharing his home, and his bed, ever since.”

Luca tried not to look too surprised. She wasn’t lying, but she was gilding the truth a bit. He’d never have expected it from his oh-so-proper-Constance.

“To suggest that he has paid me to do any of this is incredibly offensive and you owe me an apology. And you owe your son one as well. Luca might be a bit impetuous and yes, at times he can be irresponsible and maybe even immature…”

Luca’s eyes narrowed, wondering where she was going with all that.

“But he is also good, and kind, and loving. He is amazing with my girls. They adore him. If you don’t believe that, come see it for yourself instead of sending your flunkies out to Google lies from the internet. Don’t you dare accuse him of wrongdoing or berate him like he is some misbehaving child. Luca is a wonderful, decent man who deserves a hell of a lot more credit than anyone ever gives him, and I will not sit by while you belittle and criticize him.”

Augustine stared in stunned silence at her and she seemed to realize what she’d just done. Her shoulders slumped a bit, the righteous indignation bleeding out of her bit by bit. She turned to Luca with wide, worried eyes.

He stood and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her against him so he could kiss her temple.

“I’m sorry,” she mouthed to him.

“Shhh,” he whispered in her ear. “It’s okay. You were incredible.”

She looked up at him and he gave her a gentle kiss, briefly resting his forehead against hers.

“Thank you,” he whispered, stroking her face. Then he turned to his father, keeping his arm firmly around her. “You may think whatever you like about me, Father. But Constance is off limits. Short of inviting you into our bedroom, there is no way for me to prove anything to you and I have no desire to try. I think we’ve listened to enough for one day.”

He slapped enough euros on the table to cover their bill and took Constance’s hand.

“If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take my fiancée home.”

His father stood as they left, but he didn’t say anything to call them back. If Luca wasn’t mistaken, and he could have been since he’d never seen anything like it before, there might have been a look of grudging respect and approval on his old man’s face.

Maybe miracles did happen.

They pushed through the doors of the restaurant and were met with a mob of flashing cameras. Constance buried her face against his chest and he wrapped his arm more firmly about her. Reporters started screaming questions at them.

What did you discuss with your father?