"Why not?" Cesare asks immediately. "You should. You're a kept woman now after all." At least that's how Cesare sees it.

"And if you don't like them then you shouldn't wear them. I hold no delusions that you're wearing those shoes for my benefit." She likes them. Otherwise why else does she have them on? That was part of what made their relationship work while it did: he lavished her with gifts and she coyly pretended they were too much but wore them anyway because she loved them. That was what was happening, right?