<div class="floatleft">(https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/429993_455779984471363_2090031856_n.jpg)</div>"<em>Benvenuti a Milano, dove attende un mondo di piacere</em>"<br/><br/>She was sweet, even if it was entirely engineered. It is an inevitable compromise with creating a spectacle, especially the kind he had walked into. Photographers were pouncing on each other to scrounge a candid, security personnel in awkward poses trying to keep the perimeter in check, entitled CEOs clicking their heels impatiently and as good as screaming their hate for him being the center of attention.<br/><br/>And there were women. There always was. Curvy redheads, leggy blondes, sultry brunettes and exotic goddesses all paid to make him feel wanted. He offered a smile and the shutterbugs flew into a frenzy.<br/><br/>"<em>Spero di poter condividere con voi un po '</em>." her cheeks swam in crimson during a kiss to her knuckles. He was aware his signing was a coup for<em>Gerogio Armani</em>, but the extent to which his employers stooped to make him comfortable was rather amusing. Perhaps it was his own fault. He had neglected to inform them of his distaste for such concocted grandeur. Manuel Ephende was not like the other models on the circuit.<br/><br/>But he paid his dues for looking pretty and choosing to earn money from it. His eyes were blurry by the time he had acquiesced the barely-better-than-paparazzi mob. His hand ached from the countless greetings he had to endure. General manager of marketing, head strategist for advertising, talent management counsel, chief of public affairs...<br/><br/>"That will be all. This way, if you please, Sir" ushered his chauffeur in a mellifluous french accent. She had kind eyes, which danced with mischief nonetheless. And he believed he knew the reason for the grin that she did not want to part with. "You noticed the crack in my smile, didn't you?"<br/><br/>She was beside a Rolls-Royce Wraith, as sleek as her. Almost. "I'm sure others have seen you stutter, Mr Ephende"<br/><br/><div class="floatright">(http://media.emirates247.com/images/2014/06/hopo129.jpg)</div>"Only rarely, I assure you," he presented his hand to her as invitation into the cab. "I wouldn't dream of becoming a chore for a woman such as you. Not when I can get my hands on this beauty"<br/><br/>Her arguments were adorable even as her eyes flashed conviction towards a different end. His own brown orbs answered and acquiescence simply materialized. They trundled through the hubbub of the city and escaped into the countryside. A leisurely dot skimming along the motorway with the ocean sprawled on one side and the mountains crunched into the other. His villa loomed up ahead, sat along the edge of a cliff and swathed in greenery. Periwinkle blue glinting from above and to the east as the world seemed to jump from his the magnificent abode.<br/><br/>The Wraith purred, awaiting the smallest inkling of his command. A lazy left, a sudden spurt or even a screeching halt. He found the precision engineering quite approving.  Such power, such beauty, all to service his whimsy. Judging by his conversation with Natalie, she wasn't much different either. She about as many qualms accompanying him home as she did in hiding her desire for him. It was a rigged game when one had as many cards as Manuel did.<br/><br/>Milan was not a world of pleasure, that was what he had left back home. But he had to survive somehow. Their kiss was electric, but something bothered him. Why was there laughter coming from upstairs? She soon grew tired of his suit and by the time they had reached the top of the stairs it was long forgotten. He slammed her back into the bedroom door and it gaped open, making her scream. She wasn't the only one though.