The Real Romero(45)

                The average man would also be highly likely to underestimate the impact of disappointment on a sick and elderly person. Who knew how Antonia, Lucas’s mother, would react if she discovered the depth of the lies told to her? Stress killed. Everyone knew that. Whereas, if she were to see for herself just how unsuited Lucas was to her, Milly, then the termination of their so-called relationship would be no big deal. And unsuitable they most certainly were, especially after what he had just told her...

                And, face it, there were all those other perks that would certainly make the horror story called her present situation so much easier to bear: job secured, accommodation secured, no nasty landlord banging on her door demanding to know when his rent would be paid.

                She would be able to put her grandmother’s mind at ease that her life was back to normal and it would be.

                ‘I guess your mother was disappointed that you weren’t prepared to tie the knot with your girlfriend. I guess she doesn’t know about your hang-ups.’ She turned to him, wanting to hear just a little more about her competition, because now that they were en route to unchartered territory she could feel butterflies beginning to take up residence in her tummy.

                ‘My hang-ups. You really have a way with words. You conversationally go where no other woman has gone before. My mother may want me to settle down,’ he said drily, ‘But even she sussed that Isobel wasn’t going to be the perfect candidate for the position of stay-at-home wife.’

                ‘Because...?’

                ‘Because Isobel was more jet-setter than home-maker. I think it goes with the territory of being a supermodel. Something about being treated like a goddess when, in fact, you’re no more than a pretty face.’

                ‘Jet-setter...’

                ‘Glitz, glamour and an unnatural love of having cameras focused on her.’

                ‘The sort of girl you tend to go out with.’

                ‘Why the hundred and one questions, Milly?’

                ‘Because I’m nervous,’ she confessed. The way he described his ex was a fine example of a man who attached himself to just the sort of woman he was in no danger of wanting to commit to. Casual sex. She shouldn’t even bother to speculate on his motivations or lack of motivations when it came to women.

                ‘Think of the wonderful payback and your nerves will disappear. Trust me.’

                Milly scowled because, however wonderful those paybacks were, they weren’t the reason she had agreed to engage in this little game of fiction and, the closer the plane got to their destination, the more she wondered whether her impulse to do what had felt right at the time really was such a clever idea.

                Her impulses had been known to let her down.

                ‘I didn’t agree because of the...paybacks.’

                Lucas’s eyebrows shot up and he gave her a slow, disbelieving smile.

                ‘You’re so suspicious,’ Milly muttered.

                ‘You’re telling me that your sole reason for agreeing to pretend to be my soon-to-be-departed fiancée is because you felt sorry for my mother, a woman you’ve never met in your life?’

                ‘Mostly. Yes.’

                ‘Nice word, mostly. Open to all sorts of conflicting interpretations.’