At lunchtime, Summer emerged from the Jarrett Group building and saw Leonardo leaning against his car, which was parked up not far away. Wearing a perfectly pressed black suit without a tie and a white shirt unbuttoned to the sternum, he looked wild and sexy.
Summer instinctively stopped in her tracks. He had spotted her and straightened his posture, but there was no further movement, not even a word. His eyes were focused in her direction, telling her to go over quickly. She bit her lip before raising her chin and walking toward him. As she approached Leonardo, she crossed her hands in front of her chest with a why-the-hell-are-you-here kind of look.
“What a coincidence, Mr. CEO!”
She said it in a composed manner, but deep inside, she was fretting like hell. It was her first open confrontation with him since his identity reverted from “Douglas” to Leonardo. She feared Leonardo most of the time; it was a natural reaction when one faced an extremely strong person.
“What did you just call me?” Leonardo frowned.
“The real CEO and the man behind Tip Top Entertainment.” Summer wore a faint smile. “Thank you for the job interview offer last time.”
He squinted. His face had little emotion, and there was just a hint of displeasure in his voice. “Who told you that?”
“Does it matter?” Summer’s expression darkened as she cocked a brow. “Since you’ve chosen to keep me in the dark, you should have prepared for when I would find out the truth one day.”
“So? What are you going to do to me?” There were no signs of anger. His matter-of-course attitude was getting in her hair.
Yet, what could she do? Even though Leonardo had lied to her, she could do nothing about it. Still, the difficult feeling stayed. She could not possibly live with him and pretend nothing had happened. She had dived in headfirst last night, but she did not regret it.
Summer bit her lip and turned to walk away. Looking at her from behind for a few seconds, Leonardo followed her. They entered a restaurant in tandem, and as Summer sat down at a table, Leonardo did the same.
“Why are you following me?”
She sounded irritated, but Leonardo looked seriously at her.
“You haven’t answered my question. What are you going to do to me?”
“What can I do to you?”
“You can do whatever you want.”
Give it a rest. Summer could not with him already.
“Just leave me alone.”
She was pissed when she saw Leonardo, kicking herself for being so stupid. Leonardo had been manipulating her right from the beginning. He knew her every move and her everything, but she knew nothing about him.
When he was still “Douglas”, no matter how she felt about him, she could still manage to take everything coolly. In contrast, once he reverted to Leonardo, their relationship became open and her feelings for him grew. She had started to demand an equal relationship.
“I can’t do that,” Leonardo replied.
“You…” She wanted to lash out at him but changed her mind. She, instead, tried to sound him out. “Why are you so hell-bent on forcing my grandpa to come home?”
Leonardo looked at her with his piercing dark eyes. It unnerved her, and she reached for her glass of water. Just then, he gave his reply, “Take a guess.”
It transfixed her for a second. She smirked, not really caring about his answer. She knew he had no intention of telling her. Leonardo treated her nicely because she was his wife or maybe he was interested in her, or even maybe because she was from the Jarrett family. At that moment, it suddenly dawned on Summer that Leonardo honored his marriage arrangement with Vicky only because of the Jarrett family. Not that the Emerson family did not care about the woman Leonardo was going to marry, but it was Leonardo who could not care less as long as it was a daughter from the Jarrett family. Whether it was Vicky or Summer, it did not matter to him.
The depressing thought had taken her appetite away. When the food was served, she just nipped at it before she put down her chopsticks.
Leonardo glanced at her, fetching her some food. “You must have been tired since last night. You should eat more.”
“I have no appetite!” She blushed.
“Is it due to a lack of sleep?” He sounded concerned. “Go home after this. It’s not like you’re happy working in Jarrett Group.”
Summer was startled; someone rarely cared if she was happy. Leonardo treated her really well when he treated her nicely. Someone speculated that women were the cause of Rome’s downfall, but to Summer, a man like Leonardo, who fell over backward to make a woman happy, was intoxicating.
…
It was truly a small world. After lunch, they bumped into Vicky outside.
“It looks like you’re really close to Summer, Mr. Emerson. You seem to see her at lunch every other day. Does my brother-in-law know about this?” Vicky asked.
“Of course, I can’t let him know about this.” Leonardo squinted, knocking her down with a feather.
Summer secretly pinched Leonardo on the back of his hand, telling him to watch his mouth. Instead of heeding her warning, he grabbed her hand in his.
“Summer, I have to make a move. I’ll come and pick you up in the evening.”
The expression on Summer’s face told him to get the heck out of there quickly, yet he was still there. Just as she wondered why, Leonardo suddenly looked down at her, his face inches away from hers.
“Summer, how about a goodbye kiss?”
He then planted a kiss on her cheek before he set off, all smiles. That was the most jerk-like smile Summer had ever seen.
Despite her own promiscuous lifestyle, the open teasing and kissing between Summer and “Douglas” still blew Vicky’s mind away. They did not even bother to do it discreetly.
“Summer, you’re…” For a moment, she could not find the words to respond. After a few seconds, she managed. “Shameless!”
Despite wearing taller high heels, Vicky still stood a couple of inches shorter than Summer did. The only thing about her that was higher than Summer was probably her holier-than-thou attitude.
Summer looked down at her. “Not as shameless as you are.”