Will this doctor’s passion trump vengeance? Find out in this billionaire boss novel from USA TODAY bestselling author Olivia Gates!

Rumors swirl around the world-famous surgeon who just added Dr. Liliana Accardi’s research lab to his vast empire. And from their first mesmerizing encounter, Antonio Balducci breaches all her defenses as he lures Lili into a passionate affair fueled by his own dark motives.

The gorgeous scientist is Antonio’s entry into the family he’s sworn to destroy. But his manipulations ensnare him. With his soul on fire for the woman he desires above all else, will Antonio’s love prove stronger than his hunger for retribution?

Antonio’s new plan had revolved around courting Liliana, breaking down her resistance in stages.

And with a single “okay,” she’d thrown everything out of whack. He felt like he’d been pushing with all his strength against an immovable object when suddenly all resistance was removed.

Then she’d thrown him for a loop again by whisking off his tie. As the silk had hissed as if relieved to part with his shirt, her eyes had been turbid with so many emotions. He thought he’d seen shyness, uncertainty, resignation, recklessness... and hunger.

Then, she touched him.

She slipped that small, delicate hand beneath the shirt that suddenly felt on fire and slid her burning palm over his flesh. Dipping low, as if she was searching out his heart.

* * *

Billionaire Boss, M.D. is part of The Billionaires of Black Castle series: Only their dark pasts could lead these men to the light of true love.

Dear Reader,

Since I started writing The Billionaires of Black Castle series, one of the brotherhood’s members has always been indispensable to his brothers, as the only one they’d trust their lives to, or the lives of their loved ones. Antonio Balducci was that surgical god who was the most sangfroid of the lot, and he was the only one who cared nothing about finding out his origins, or exacting vengeance on those who’d consigned him to the hell of The Organization.

But it turned out the cool, calm surface hid a volcano, and the secrets of his past had always eaten at him. He’d finally caved in and sought them out, and discovered a most horrible truth. He hadn’t been lost or kidnapped like his brothers—he’d been thrown away!

To punish those responsible for this unspeakable crime, he hatched an elaborate plan to infiltrate the family of Italian aristocrats that was closed off to all strangers and exact punishment from within. Liliana Accardi was to be his pass to his life’s most anticipated revenge and resolution... That was, until he shockingly fell in love with her...and it all went out of control with almost catastrophic results!

I really hope you enjoy Antonio and Liliana’s story as much as I enjoyed writing it!

I love to hear from readers, so please visit my website at www.oliviagates.com, email me at oliviagates@gmail.com and connect with me on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/oliviagatesauthor, on Goodreads www.Goodreads.com/author/show/405461.Olivia_Gates and on Twitter, @OliviaGates.

Thanks for reading!

Olivia Gates

Billionaire Boss, M.D.

Olivia Gates

www.millsandboon.co.uk

USA TODAY bestselling author OLIVIA GATES has written over forty books in action/adventure, thriller, medical, paranormal and contemporary romance. Her signature is her über-alpha male heroes. Whether they’re gods, black-ops agents, virtuoso surgeons or ruthless billionaires, they all fall in love once and for life with the only women who can match them and bring them to their knees. She loves to hear from readers always, so don’t hesitate to email her at oliviagates@gmail.com.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

Title Page

About the Author

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Extract

Copyright

One

“Lili...look alive! The boss man himself is about to arrive.”

Liliana Accardi swung away from the microscope to impale her coworker with a glare, his rhyming—whether he meant it or not—annoying her.

But it was just as well he’d interrupted her. Instead of the gray-scaled cells she was supposed to be studying, she’d been seeing only red. Ever since she’d heard the news that would end all her professional and scientific dreams. No way was she rushing off to go stand in line while said new “boss man” inspected them like a shepherd inspected his newly acquired flock.

Brian Saunders raised his hands in a “don’t kill the messenger” gesture. “I just think you should come, if only to get firsthand word on the direction of his management. Maybe he’ll allow you to carry on with your work, after all.”

“Yeah, sure. From what I’ve read about him since I started my morning with the delightful news of his takeover, Antonio Balducci rules his empire with a steel fist. He’ll never allow me independence.”

Brian spread his arms. “You know me, I never say never.” At her hardening glare, he grinned. “I’m in the same hijacked boat as you. I just decided to deal with my captivity and go on the journey with a different attitude.”

She huffed, deflating in her chair.

Brian was right. He was just another victim of the tsunami takeover. She should save her wrath for their new boss.

But Balducci wouldn’t be her boss for long. Not if he insisted on sweeping years’ worth of work and results under the rug and forcing them to dance to his profit-hungry tune.

Despite a medical degree, two master’s degrees and lucrative offers, she’d spent years at Biomedical Innovation Lab with a salary that barely paid the bills. All to do marginalized but necessary research.

Until Balducci Research and Development opened its bottomless maw and swallowed them whole. They now sloshed deep in its belly among other chomped-off acquisitions.

What most galled her was the humiliating speed with which everything had been initiated and finalized. The commercialized global whale, a major tentacle of the Black Castle Enterprises leviathan, had assimilated them in mere hours.

Antonio Balducci, the billionaire celebrity surgeon, had tossed a hundred million dollars their way—chump change for him—and once again proved that money was the most powerful incentive on earth.

“Uh-oh.” Brian took a step back as he spoke. “You’ve got that look on your face.”

She frowned. “What look?”

“The one you get when you’ve decided to go to war.”

She huffed a chuckle, half amused, half embarrassed. “I didn’t realize I was that easy to read. After all the years I spent battling my verbal incontinence, thanks for letting me know I’ve only developed the mental and emotional variety.”

An indulgent smile lit up Brian’s genial face. “You’re just straightforward and spontaneous.”

She rolled her eyes. “Which are the PC words for unrestrained and blunt.”

“And it’s something everyone is thankful for.”

She groaned. “You mean it’s not only you as my best friend who can see through me? Everyone else can read me like a ten-foot neon sign?”

Brian’s grin was appeasement itself. “And they love you for it. In a world full of pretense and games, you’re a rarity and an incredible relief. Not to mention extremely cute.”

“An outspoken five-year-old is cute. A transparent thirty-one-year-old is not.”

Brian wrapped an arm around her shoulder and gave her an affectionate squeeze. “You’ll be cute when you’re a hundred and thirty-one.” He pulled her up. “Now let’s go meet our new boss. I have a feeling this won’t be as bad as you think.”

Taking off her lab coat, she tossed him a challenging glance. “I bet you it’s worse.”

“You’re on.” He never could resist a challenge. “If I’m right, you go on a date with one of the restless bachelors that plague my serenely married existence.”

Unable to resist Brian’s infectious good cheer any longer, a smile spread Lili’s lips. All nine of Brian’s brothers and brothers-in-law were either single or divorced. He and his wife, Darla, were always trying to set them up.

“But if I’m right,” Lili said, “you strike me off your list of possible bachelordom cures. I’m the last woman on earth you should consider for such a task, anyway.”

“I know, because you’ll never get married. You’ve told me a hundred times.” He grinned knowingly. “All the women who turn out to be the best wives say that. Including Darla.”

Lili stifled a scoff. “You’re comparing me to Darla, the paragon of domesticity and motherhood, and a savvy businesswoman to boot, when I can barely manage a single life that consists of work, exercise, sleep, study, rinse and repeat?”

“Details, details.” Brian winked as he held the door open for her. “You could well be twins where it counts.”

She shook her head, but let him have the last word. She was nothing like Darla or any other woman born with the ability to conduct intimate relationships or nurture families. Like her mother. And she’d long been at peace with that.

So she was confident she’d win their bet, and at least one good thing would come out of their current mess. Brian would finally stop trying to shove her into his version of a fulfilling existence.

As she passed him on her way out of the lab, she swept it in one last regretful look.

If things went according to her projections, as she was certain they would, this would be the last time she saw it.

* * *

Their new boss was late.

As she sat in her usual seat halfway down the conference table, Lili fumed.

Either Balducci had met his demise—and they couldn’t possibly be that lucky—or he didn’t consider them worthy of his legendary punctuality. And that boded even worse for them than she’d expected.

Her bleary gaze scanned the room. All thirty of the BIL employees were there and unlike her, they’d all clearly run back home to dress for the occasion, leaving only her in an appropriately drab-as-her-mood outfit. Also unlike her, they seemed relieved, even excited at the takeover. Even hating this as much as she did, Lili realized why. She had been feeling the toll of the obstacles they’d had to tackle continuously to do what other better-funded labs did in a fraction of the time. But to her, setbacks, false starts and near misses were an expected part of scientific endeavor. It seemed her attitude hadn’t been shared by the others as she’d thought, and she was the only one with a purely negative stance on the takeover. And a hostile one toward the man behind it.

Everyone else was awed by the very mention of the legendary Dr. Antonio Balducci. The buzz she was sensing wasn’t only over any favorable expectations with him at the helm, but also over the opportunity of meeting him in the flesh. The ladies especially looked aflutter at the prospect. From her online research of him, she grudgingly conceded their reaction was the normal one, not hers.

Since she reserved her curiosity for scientific matters, she’d barely known a thing about him before she’d heard the news. After she had, she’d gone through the stages of shock, denial and fury, and through everything she could find on him on the net.

To her surprise, she found three parallels with him from the first thing she read. Like her, he was a doctor, and he’d been born to an Italian father and was an only child. But that was where their similarities ended.

He was an American now, naturalized three years ago, while she was an American through her mother. Both his parents were long dead, while her own mother had died only a year ago, and her father who had never existed in her life, had recently—and to her continuing surprise, very enthusiastically—reentered it.

Pulling her thoughts away from that development, she turned them to the man at hand.

Not much was known about Antonio Balducci’s early life. He was raised in Austria, his mother’s homeland, where he became fluent in six languages and where he lived until he graduated from medical school. It was only about eight years ago that information about him, staggering in quantity and quality, had started pouring in.

That was when he’d shot onto the world scene, an awe-inspiring figure whose success in every field he entered was phenomenal. Being a founding member of the global juggernaut Black Castle Enterprises was meticulously documented, as well as his founding of the conglomerate’s medical R & D business—the arm of his empire that had taken over her beloved lab.

Adding to his lure for the media was his effect on the females of the species. Women went nuts over him like they did over music and soccer legends like Presley and Beckham. If she’d thought his effect a media exaggeration, she was seeing empirical evidence of his irresistibility to women right before her eyes. And that was before he actually arrived.

But all that wasn’t what he was best known for. Most of his fame stemmed from being sought after by the world’s elite to perform or even consult on their rejuvenations. But his biggest achievement was being hailed as a trauma and reconstructive surgical god whose work bordered on magic.

She ground her teeth together. The only magic she thought Balducci practiced was the black kind. To her, he was the capricious force who was pulverizing everything she’d worked for, just because he could.

And the damned man dared be late for her destruction!

Suddenly conversation was cut off as if someone had hit Stop. She looked up and saw all eyes glued to the doorway behind her. That meant...

She swung around to catch the moment when the man who’d quashed her ambitions bulldozed into her territory. And it was her turn to feel she’d been caught in a stasis field.

As everything decelerated to a standstill, a mental protest went off inside her mind.

No one should be all that, and look like that, too. Is there no fairness in this world?

Gaping and unable to do anything about it, she stared at the figure in the doorway. In a slate-gray suit that molded to a body that belonged to a world-class athlete, not a surgeon and entrepreneur, Antonio Balducci dwarfed the room with his physical and personal presence.

While viewing his photos online, she’d dismissed the possibility that he looked that good in real life, believing he’d had his photos touched up or he’d achieved his perfection surgically.

But even across a packed room, she knew neither of that was true. If anything, the photos had downplayed his looks. And she could discern surgical interventions from a mile away and she had no doubt whatsoever that every one of Antonio Balducci’s jaw-dropping assets was authentic.

At forty, the man had skin that looked like an alloy of polished copper and bronze. The tensile medium was pulled tight over a masterpiece of bone structure. Her fingers itched to indulge in a much-neglected pastime and sketch its every detail: the leonine forehead, the patrician nose, the slashing cheekbones, the powerful jaw and cleft chin.

After transferring the framework of his unique face to paper, she’d linger over every hair framing his majestic head, the most robust mass of raven silk she’d ever seen. But among all those wonders, two things transfixed her. The wide, sculpted lips bowed in a mysterious quirk. And his eyes.

Apart from their amazing shape and startling blueness, it was what they conveyed that sent her heartbeat into disarray. Contrary to the opacity of his smile, his gaze radiated an amalgam of expressions. Amusement and austerity. Curiosity and superiority. Astuteness and calculation. And a dozen other things she couldn’t decide on.

Those were the eyes of a scientist. But equally they were the eyes of a conqueror.

Which probably summed him up just right.

As he walked into room, déjà vu struck her.

Among his photos, one in particular had arrested her. A rare shot of him and his partners in Black Castle Enterprises.

They’d been captured as they’d exited their opulent New York headquarters en masse. It was an unrehearsed shot that was far more hard-hitting than any posed shot could have been, and it had earned its photographer instant fame.

The photo had captured their essence in such starkness that when it was published, Black Castle stock prices spiked to unheard-of levels. The men looked like a pantheon of warrior gods who’d descended to earth in the guise of ultramodern businessmen. The array of sheer male power and beauty in that photo was breathtaking. It had clearly robbed the whole world of breath.

Yet even among those gods among men, Antonio had stood out.

Not only had his brand of gorgeousness thrummed the chords of her specific taste, something else had fascinated her on a fundamental level. Though they were all extraordinary, she’d felt he had an edge over the other men. Even in the remoteness of a photo she felt he had the coolest head, the most deliberate mind. Even in her fury, that had appealed to her so fiercely she’d found herself saving the photo for leisurely inspection at a later date, maybe even as material for a future illustration.

And here he was in the impossibly perfect flesh, the epitome of splendor and sangfroid.

She wouldn’t be surprised if he belonged to some next-step-in-evolution elite who’d eliminated all human frailties and imperfections and who operated on pure, merciless intellect.

He now stopped at the table and leaned his six-foot-plus frame to flatten his palms on its shining surface.

Seething with renewed resentment at his effect on her, she followed his serene gaze as it swept the room. From the chain reaction she felt going off around her, he seemed to be making eye contact with everyone. Everyone but her. His gaze skipped over her as if she were a blank space.

After the momentary consternation of being passed over, she was relieved. If his mere presence provoked those reactions in her, she didn’t want to find out what she’d feel if that all-seeing gaze bored into her.

Once he’d had them holding their breath, he inclined his head. “Thanks for accommodating me at such short notice. I’m glad you could all make it.”

Man, that voice. If everything about him weren’t too much already, that darkest vocal spell would have been bad enough on its own. Making it even worse was an ephemeral accent that intertwined through its meticulous articulation, deepening its impact.

As murmured responses rustled around the room, he straightened to his towering height.

“I don’t want to hold you up, especially those of you whose schedule is nine to five, so I’ll get right to the point of my visit.” A perfectly timed dramatic pause. “I hope you’re as optimistic as I am about the new state of affairs, and will find working under the Balducci umbrella a rewarding experience, scientifically and financially.”

He spread a prompting smile around the room and Lili saw everyone grin back at him like hypnotized fools.

Without taking his eyes off the assembly, he gestured to someone she realized had been behind him all along. The shorter man in turn directed four people behind him to come forward. They had piles of folders, which they passed around the room. When it was her turn to receive one, she stared down at the inch-thick glossy volume graced with Balducci’s distinctive serpent logo.

“In your hands is comprehensive info on Balducci’s operations,” he explained. “As well as the mission statement for its new merger with your facility.” Merger, huh? Big of him to call his incursion that. “Until you read everything in detail, let me give you a brief summation.

“I founded Balducci R & D to furnish the world with visionary medical solutions. A dynamic, adventurous and fast-paced researching, manufacturing and distribution organization specializing in state-of-the-art products and technologies in a number of leading medical fields. My aim remains to provide the medical community with unparalleled clinical products that set the trend in medicine. For six years, Balducci has been the primary supplier, to hospitals, clinics and research institutions, of advanced medical solutions in a variety of fields. With a constantly growing global team of the best the world has to offer in their disciplines, which I’m proud for you to be a part of now, we provide exceptional value, service and support much above the industry standard. And we achieve the highest customer retention rates in every market we currently dominate. But there are new frontiers I aim to conquer.” Yeah, just what she’d figured. “And this is where you come in.”

Everyone sat up, taking even closer notice. The man really had masterful timing and delivery.

When he’d made sure everyone was hanging on his every breath, he went on, “I don’t need to tell you that your team is composed of some of the most avant-garde researchers of our time. I have no doubt you’re well aware of your individual and collective worth. I certainly am best equipped to know it. I’m still suffering from the very sizable hole in my assets it took to acquire your services.”

As chuckles of pleasure spread through the room, Lili’s hackles rose higher. What was wrong with her colleagues? They were proud they had a price? Sure, he pretended “acquiring their services” had taken a toll on him, but they all knew this was untrue. The man was worth over a dozen billion dollars!

Then he spoke again, dousing her new spurt of irritation.

“The methods and results you’ve contributed to the medical community working with limited funding and resources is nothing short of astounding. Each and every one of you is exactly the kind of unique-approach, enterprising scientist that Balducci covets. As you’ll see from the documents you have in your possession now, each of you has been assigned to a project I believe you’re most suited for, where you’ll have anything you could possibly want to make progress in it, and hopefully reach a breakthrough. And let me be clear. By anything, I do mean anything. My assistants will be available to provide any of your needs. But my own door is always open if what you need is too ambitious, as I hope all your work with me will be.”

By the time he finished, she was gaping again.

The man was overpowering. Velvet over steel over an enigma. Not only the most magnificent male she’d ever seen, but the most persuasive, too.

What he’d outlined was every scientist’s fairy tale come true. Unlimited resources to be as adventurous as they wished, caring only about the work, while funding and feasibility were being taken care of by dedicated experts with access to bottomless pockets and powered by limitless ambition. His.

He’d almost convinced even her. Almost.

But if she had to fight his hypnosis with all she had, she had no doubt the others were already in his thrall. A darting glance noted the glassy eyes of those who no longer questioned that his decreed path was the one to tread. Even Brian had a budding hero-worship expression on his face.

“That would all be well and good, if you were offering to fund our projects, not yours.”

It wasn’t until everyone swung to gape at her as if she’d thrown a grenade on the table that she realized she’d spoken.

And she did it again, without intending to.

“In your R & D career, you’ve consistently ignored basic research, what has produced centuries of history-changing breakthroughs, spawned whole industries and disciplines in medicine. You’ve also ignored the kind of research we do, of untrendy ailments that don’t provoke public or market interest. You’ve overlooked necessary research for a jumble of popular, feel-good, cash-cow fields like the cosmetic and weight-loss industries.”

The elusive smile that had been hovering on his lips suddenly froze.

All her blood followed suit.

Her heart thudding, she wished for some cosmic rewind button so she could erase what she’d just said.

Why had she spoken at all? She’d already found out her worst-case scenario would come to pass and they’d be herded wherever he wished. She didn’t do posturing confrontations. She knew her power, or rather, lack thereof. So why hadn’t she kept her big mouth shut and just tendered her resignation in silence?

Before she could draw another breath into her constricted lungs, he turned his head in her direction and impaled her on the lasers he had for eyes.

And all she could think was...uh-oh.

Two

Lili’s heart plummeted as the world emptied of everything but this overwhelming entity who had her in his crosshairs.

Before she obeyed the flight mechanisms that screamed for her to run, tossing a “Don’t bother firing me, I quit” over her shoulder, Antonio Balducci started talking, pinning her down even more.

“As my reconstructive surgeries do incorporate an aesthetic element, I do invest in the development and manufacture of all aesthetic disciplines and products.”

His voice. That perfectly modulated melody of cultured lethality. A glacial sound of hair-raising beauty. Pouring all over her like a freezing/searing deluge.

Oh, crap. She hadn’t thought this through. Hadn’t thought at all. That bitter outburst had just...well, burst out of her. What if he got verbally combative?

She’d flay him right back, that was what. Before she ran.

But before she snatched the next breath, still transfixing her with that impossibly blue stare, he went on, serene and far more menacing because of it, “As you’ll see from the info I provided, only twenty percent of my operations focus on the ‘popular, feel-good, cash-cow’ side of my specialty.”

Whoa. He was quoting what she’d said. When she’d thought he’d only realized she’d been talking—and criticizing him openly—just before her tirade ended.

But he hadn’t only heard her, he’d memorized what she’d said. He’d even sounded like her when he’d quoted her. She had a feeling he could recite everything she’d said word for word. Which shouldn’t surprise her. It only substantiated her theory of him being some sort of post–human being.

His eyes bored into her, making her feel he’d drilled a hole into her skull and was probing her brain. “The remaining eighty percent of my operations revolve around the more relevant sides of my field of interest, and those of others. Problem is those don’t generate media coverage or capture the market’s imagination. This is just the state of the world. I didn’t invent it.”

“No, you just exploit it.”

At her volley, he tilted his head, as if plunging deeper into her mind. Then those chiseled lips twitched and her stuttering heart burst into a stumbling gallop.

“The pursuit of luxury products tends to trump necessary ones and ‘cash cows’ are such for a reason. Alas, human beings will be human beings. I assure you, I have no role in their condition. So what would you have me do? Not provide them with what they wish for? Judge their foibles and let someone else reap the benefits of catering to them? Benefits I eventually put to uses you might deem to approve of?”

Was he teasing her? Nah. He couldn’t be.

“And aesthetic concerns are not frivolous luxuries. No matter how you view them, they do greatly affect people’s psychological and mental health. I don’t morally grade what people need or consider worth paying for. Who’s to say that products that reverse the signs of aging aren’t as important to a substantial percentage of people as depression treatment? And would you view me and my business any kinder if you knew I also research the latter? And am involved in actual aging reversal research, too?”

Okay, he was teasing her. Poking fun at her, more like, making her criticism sound misinformed and holier-than-thou, or at the very least naive. And seeming to draw appreciation from everyone in the room while at it, adding to the unhealthy awe he’d already garnered.

He only made her feel like a hedgehog with its bristles standing on end. Mostly because she found her own lips twitching, too.

So, the man had a sense of humor. Had he come complete with it, or had he had it grafted as another weapon in his overflowing arsenal? Or did he realize the benefits of manipulating lesser beings with the illusion of ease and indulgence, and had a subroutine written into his program that he could activate at will?

“Among the commendable-by-your-standards investments I can afford to make with the profits of not-so-commendable ones, there are ones in my own field. Restoring functionality, for instance. Thanks to the money-generating machines, I can invest heavily into integrated prosthetics, microsurgery appliances and research, scar prevention and treatment, and lately, muscle and nerve tissue regeneration. That endeavor will be the main focus of this facility in our collaboration. I’m not even putting a limit to the budget for this one. Whatever it takes to reach a breakthrough, I’ll provide the resources.”

Then just as he’d given her his undiluted attention, he took it away, making her feel as if he’d taken the chair and the ground beneath it right out from under her.

Before she realized she had a response to his rebuttal, she found herself sitting up, her pose confrontational, her tone even more challenging. “Well, it’s all quite laudable, I’m sure, that—while not advancing basic science as only someone of your clout and resources can—you invest in advancing your field. But ‘this facility’ already has its own array of ‘commendable’ projects under way, and it would be a loss that can’t be measured in money if we shelved them to head in the direction where you point us. Just because you acquired our services doesn’t mean you can cancel all our efforts, or should dictate which breakthrough is worth benefiting from our expertise backed by your unlimited funds and clout.”

This time everyone in the room turned to stab her on the pointy edge of their disapproval. The canny man had already won them over to his side, promising them shiny new projects, not to mention endless means to frolic in the land of scientific possibilities to their hearts’ content.

This time, Balducci didn’t give her the courtesy of a response. His argument had been designed to win her over, or at least chastise her. From her renewed attack he must have decided further response wouldn’t make a difference. As the epitome of pragmatism someone of his success must be, he’d decided she wasn’t worth the extra effort. He wouldn’t waste more time on a dissenting cog now that he was certain he had the rest of the machine wagging its components awaiting his directives.

Turning his attention to the rest, he directed everyone to read the folder carefully. Everyone’s roles and projects for the next year were spelled out to the last detail. Tomorrow would be the first working day under the new management, and he would be available at the provided email or phone number for any questions, concerns or minor adjustments. Any major suggestions would be discussed in the next general meeting. He closed by thanking everyone in such a way as to have them swooning all over again before he dismissed the assembly.

Everyone rose to shuffle around him, waiting their turn to catch his eye or shake his hand. Lili cursed them for the limpets they’d turned into, and cursed him for turning them into such. Still, she was thankful for the milling crowd that gave her the cover under which to escape. Snatching her bag up, leaving the folder behind, she rose. Head down, giving him the widest berth she could, she made a beeline for the door. To her dismay, he was making short work of everyone, and those he’d dismissed were already squeezing out of the room, hindering her escape. She barely curbed the urge to push through them and forced herself to take her turn walking out. Still she bristled at the censure and pity in their oblique gazes, but mostly at his disconcerting vibe at her back.

In minutes, she burst out into LA’s summer afternoon. She usually hated the transition from the beloved seclusion of her lab and the building’s controlled climate to the hot, humid bustle of the sprawling city. But now she was relieved to be out of what had become a place she’d hate to set foot in again. The place that was now Antonio Balducci’s.

She’d reached her Mazda in the parking lot when she felt as if an arrow had lodged between her shoulder blades.

It was his voice. Calling her.

What the hell!

Though her hand froze in midair with the remote, her thoughts streaked ahead. Did she dread him so much, like a kid dreads the headmaster singling her out, that she was imagining it? Even if he had called her, he must be here only to get his car, too.

In the next millisecond her analytical mind negated that theory. Antonio Balducci wouldn’t use public parking. He wouldn’t have driven himself here in the first place. One of those people who followed in his wake like efficient phantoms must be his chauffeur. He couldn’t have just stumbled on her. Which meant he must have pursued her specifically, and very quickly. Which made even less sense than any other theory.

As her mind burned rubber, his voice carried to her on the warm, moist breeze again, the very sound of forbearance.

“Dr. Accardi, I’d appreciate a word.”

She swung around, her face scrunching against the declining sun in a scowl. “What for?”

She groaned at how petulant and aggressive she sounded. But this guy tripped all her wires. Watching him approach her like a sleek panther sent them haywire. He was so big he made the parking lot claustrophobic, so unhurried he made her feel cornered, so unearthly gorgeous he made her every nerve ache.

When he stopped two feet away, he siphoned the air from the world. Harsh sunlight struck deepest blue and indigo off his raven hair—which she realized had a smattering of silver at the temples—and threw his every feature in sharp relief, intensifying his beauty. She was sure she looked horrible in such unforgiving lighting, but Dr. Paragon here? He was even more perfect at such total exposure.

As the word exposure dragged her mind places it didn’t want to go, she yanked it back and squinted way up at him even from her five-foot-eight height. She mentally kicked herself for not having her sunglasses as a barrier to hide behind, as protection against his all-seeing gaze. But since she always went home long after sundown, frequently not at all, she rarely packed them. As if they would have been an extra burden in her mobile home of a tote bag. But that was what she was—always ready for all possibilities in her work, and the personification of unpreparedness in her personal life. Which she now was in such a close encounter with the monolith before her.

Just as she thought he’d stare down at her until he melted her at his feet, he raised his hand, making her notice the folder he’d been holding all the time.

“I brought you this,” he said. “You must have forgotten it.”

He followed her to give her the folder she’d left behind?

Her mind raced to decipher him and his actions as her senses crackled with his nearness. When she spoke, she sounded exasperated, even if she was more so with herself. “No, I haven’t forgotten it.”

“So you left it on purpose.”

“Apart from omission or commission, are there any other reasons I could have left it behind?”

One corner of his lips lifted in acknowledgment of her chastising logic, intensifying his already staggering effect. She hated to think how he’d look outright smiling or laughing.

“My apologies for the redundant comment. Will asking about the reason you did leave it meet with the same exasperation?”

She exhaled, trying to find the civil, easygoing person inside her who was generally in the driver’s seat...and failing. “From what I read about you, and from the evidence of your achievements and power, you possess an unchartable IQ. I’m sure you need none of it to work out the reason I did.”

“Indeed. Your motivation is quite clear. It was a material rejection to underscore your verbal one. I had just hoped it was a simple oversight on your part.”

“And since you now know it wasn’t, if this will be all...”

His forward movement cut off her backward one, along with her air supply again. “Actually, it won’t be all. Bringing you the folder was incidental to the main reason I sought you out.” He employed another of those pauses he used like weapons, making her bate whatever breath was left in her lungs. “I’d like to further discuss your objections to my policies.”

She gaped up at him. That was the last thing she would have thought he’d say, or want. Not that she could actually think with him so near. She could only react.

Not finding any appropriate reaction, the first thing that surfaced in her mind was another accusation. “You said you didn’t want to hold us up.”

He gave a conceding tilt of his head that made his hair rearrange itself into another pattern of perfection. She could swear she heard the silk swish and sigh.

“I did make it clear I meant those who have a nine-to-five schedule. You’re not one of those. In fact, you’re the only one who almost makes this place your home.”

She stared into his spellbinding eyes as he stared back with the same intentness.

How did he know that?

How? Because the man had a level of intelligence and efficiency she’d never before encountered. It stood to reason he’d researched the staff before he’d acquired them. Though she’d thought they’d be too insignificant for him individually, she had to revise that opinion. To reach his level of success he couldn’t be a detached leader who left details to others. He had to be hands-on. Nothing and no one was too trivial or below his notice.

She wouldn’t be surprised if he had invasive info on everyone who held or would hold any position in his businesses...and had memorized it, too. Thinking that disconcerted her on a primal level. Even if there wasn’t much about her to know, just that he did know it put her at an even bigger disadvantage, if that was even possible.

“Nothing to go back home to?”

His quiet question surprised an unfiltered answer from her. “There never really was.”

Her dismay deepened at the contemplative cast that came over his gaze. She’d exposed herself even more, and she held him accountable for it, him with his damned hypnotic power.

But her consternation was swept away by the surge of memories. Memories of growing up with only her mother, who moved her around so much following her medical career she’d never stayed long enough in one place to form real friendships. Only when Lili had entered medical school herself had her mother finally settled in LA, just before she fell prey to early-onset Alzheimer’s. Lili had gone back to live with her, before being forced to put her in a home for four years before her death a year ago. Her mother’s house remained a place to crash when she wasn’t working. Being a workaholic was what saved her from feeling lonely. It was the only other thing she’d inherited from her mother. Hopefully. Home had always been wherever she worked. This lab had been her home for the past three years. Her haven. Until he happened.

“There you go again.”

“There I go what again?”

His lips spread wider. The ground beneath her tilted. “Using me as target practice for your poison-laced glances.”

Choking on the heart that his smile yanked into her throat, she shrugged. “They’re just dipped in heavy tranquilizers. Or loaded with fifty thousand volts.”

At that, he did something she’d dreaded in theory, but had thought would never come to pass in reality. Not in her presence.

He threw his head back and laughed.

And his laughter was...horrible. It did terrible things to her insides, had her hormones rushing in torrents in her system.

Great. Just great. Just when she discovered she had those kinds of hormones after all, they had to be activated by him of all men. And in broad daylight. When he was laughing his magnificent head off at her, no less.

To make things worse, one big, elegant hand rose to wipe his left cheek. He’d laughed so hard, it had wrung a tear from his eye. Fantastic.

But what was really worth marveling at was how moisture smeared his hewn flesh. Her thoughts caught fire imagining him drenched in exertion, during or after he’d—

Shaking away the sensual images only lodged them deeper into her brain. Her tongue tingled with until-now unknown urges—the sudden longing to drag him down to her, so she could trace that cheekbone, taste his virility. Only his hand combing back the hair that had fallen over his forehead distracted her from those idiotic impulses. The hand of the virtuoso surgeon he was, powerful, graceful, skillful...in every possible way, no doubt—

For God’s sake, stop. Stop noticing his every detail and getting arrhythmia over each one!

But in the absence of others, she had no buffer against his sheer charisma and sensual power—both of which she was certain he didn’t even mean to exercise on her. A man like him must have them on all the time on auto. She’d never even thought men like him existed outside of legends and fairy tales.

After she’d become a jumbled mess, he sobered, the wattage of his smile dazzling her.

“So you don’t want me dead, just incapacitated.”

She fidgeted, her tote getting heavier by the second. “Ideally, long enough to remove you from my path. I want you gone from my world, not the one at large.”

“That’s big of you.”

Nerves jangling at the outright teasing she could no longer mistake, she sighed. “When it doesn’t come to my lab—yours now—I do recognize that, even if it’s to your humongous advantage, you are a formidable force for good.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Considering your views of me back there it’s unexpected to hear you admit that.”

“I’m a surprise a second. To myself most of all today. I sure didn’t mean to say any of the things I said back there.”

“So you didn’t mean them?”

“I said I didn’t mean to say them.”

“So you did mean them.”

“Can’t mean anything more, in the context of my own concerns.” She shot him a defiant glance, this man who’d detained her because he could do anything he wanted and have the world bend over backward to accommodate him. “You’re sadly misguided if you think you’ll get an apology or a retraction.”

“You’ve given me both when you deigned to recognize my worth to the world.”

“Still doesn’t change the fact that I wish I had the power to make you disappear.”

He shook his head, his grin widening, wreaking more havoc with her already compromised nerves.

“What do you find so funny now?” she mumbled sullenly.

“Not funny, delightful. You’re definitely not the first person to wish to eliminate me, but you’re the first to tell me so to my face.”

“Hey, watch your terminology. You go around using words like poison-laced and eliminate, and if something ever befalls you, I’m a prime suspect. I only wish to be rid of your disruption. All I want is to go back to work tomorrow to the news that you’ve withdrawn your bid and let us be.”

“And if a way presented itself for you to make this happen?”

“I wouldn’t hesitate.”

He gave another chuckle. “It doesn’t seem you were handed discretion at the cosmic assembly line. Are you this blunt with everyone?”

Noticing the watchfulness that entered his gaze at this question, getting the feeling that he somehow didn’t relish the idea, she shrugged a shoulder. “Not since I was a kid. Or at least I thought so, until just before you arrived and Brian told me I’m transparent. I thought it was only my expressions that everyone could read, that I wasn’t as incontinent verbally, then you started your hypnotic session and I felt my colleagues being assimilated into your hive mind, and I...well, any tact I thought I cultivated evaporated.”

“You don’t like this about yourself.” It was a statement, not a question. “You should. In fact, you should continue being as outspoken about the grievance you have with me. I have a feeling it goes beyond objecting to the change in course I’m proposing.”

She almost snorted. “Proposing? You mean dictating. And you think that’s not enough for me to consider you and your takeover the worst thing that could happen to this place?”

“I didn’t get the impression anyone else shared that unfavorable opinion.”

This time, she did snort. “Of course, you didn’t. You must be surprised there was even one dissenting voice.” Her blood frothed again at how her colleagues had succumbed to him without even a fight. “You know very well the effect you have on people.”

“I only noticed the inflammatory one I had on you.”

“Yeah, well, I guess I’m the mad scientist type.”

“Aren’t you all supposed to be that?”

She exhaled. “I thought so. But the promise of open-ended coddling proved irresistible to my colleagues.”

“But not to you.”

Her shoulders hunched with futility. “Yeah.”

The blue of his eyes seemed to intensify. “Why? What makes you so resistant? Why is the promise of everything you’ve ever dreamed of at your fingertips not as alluring to you?”

“I told you why in agonizing detail and you already know I hate redundancy. Especially after you took such pleasure in deconstructing my argument and having the last word.”

“I don’t remember I had the last word.”

“You didn’t bother to have it. You just ignored mine.”

“I chose not to engage you again in front of everyone, decided to do so in private. As I am doing now.”

“You shouldn’t have. I have nothing more to say.”

“So do you only take exception to leaving your own project behind?”

“I take exception to being forced to.”

“Your results won’t evaporate if you shelve them for a while.”

“I see no reason to while I’m making progress.”

“There are many reasons, scientific and financial. You’ll also gain expertise working on my projects, your own work would eventually benefit.”

“If you think I need expertise you shouldn’t want me working on your projects.”

“I meant added expertise. I wouldn’t have paid all that money if I thought you were anything but the best.”

She waved his placating response away. “You didn’t pay anything for me. That hundred million—”

“Two hundred million. Half of which is funding for phase one of all the projects I have planned for you.”

She forced her open mouth closed. “What’s a hundred million dollars more, huh? But whatever you paid was for our collective services and obedience, probably for the rest of our lives. Now that you’ve found one troublemaking apple in your bushel, you can always toss it out.”

“I have no intention of tossing you out.”

“Well, I intend to jump out of the cart myself.”

His eyes narrowed. “You’re contemplating quitting?”

“I’m done contemplating.”

His expression went blank. But though there was nothing to read in it anymore, she felt she was getting the first real glimpse of what he hid beneath the polished exterior of the genius surgeon and suave businessman. Something lurked below his placid surface, something more sharp-edged than his state-of-the-art scalpels. Someone utterly ruthless. No, more. Someone lethal.

Which was stupid. Whatever else he was, this man was a healer. He didn’t end lives, he saved them. All these feverish thoughts must be the sun frying her brain. Or was it such intense and close exposure to him?

Then he spoke again, sending her every hair standing on end. “It’s clear contemplation has nothing to do with your decision. I wouldn’t even call such a knee-jerk reaction one.”

He again sounded like when he’d been addressing their assembly, making her realize how deliberate and calculated he had been in comparison to how he’d been talking to her now. He had been out to subdue and mesmerize everyone. He was trying to make her bow to his will now.

Well, he should have realized by now that his tried and true methods only backfired with her.

Bent on walking away this time, she stood as tall as she could. “Call it what you like. I quit, Dr. Balducci. I’m sure my loss will be nothing more than a negligible annoyance, since BIL is chock-full of those who will ecstatically do your bidding.”

“You can’t quit, Dr. Accardi.”

“Because the lump sum you paid included my price? Just a sec...” She took the bag off her shoulder, rummaged for her wallet, pulled the money she found and stuck the bills out to him.

“What’s that supposed to be?”

Extending her hand as close as she dared get to him, she met his glowering with her own. “I don’t know what the going rate per head was, but taking into account the premises and everything else, I’m sure I didn’t cost you more than that.”

His eyes fell to the notes before he raised them to her, full of mockery. “I assure you, you cost me much more than that.”

She refused to lower her hand. “You let me know exactly what I cost you, and I’ll pay for my freedom in installments. Consider this the first one.”

As he realized she wasn’t joking, his gaze clashed with hers as if to make her cower before him. She was sure such a glare had brought many adversaries to their knees. Tough, it was going to let him down this time. Even if she felt he’d set her on fire if she held his stare any longer.

A second before she averted her own eyes, he suddenly looked down at the money. He plucked three hundred-dollar bills from the bunch before he raised his eyes again and almost knocked her flat on her back with the mischief filling them.

“Now you really can’t quit.”

She gaped at his wicked grin. “What?”

“You just paid me for shares in your facility. Now you have to stay and run the place with me. Or for me.”

Before another thought could fire in her stalled brain, he turned and strode away.

Out of nowhere, a sleek black limo slithered soundlessly up to him.

Before he got in, he turned to her with a mock salute and said, “See you tomorrow, partner.”

Three

Antonio caught himself grinning again and again all the way back to his mansion in Holmby Hills.

Shaking his head for the umpteenth time since he’d left Liliana Accardi gaping at him as if he’d grown a spiked tail and leather wings and taken flight, he again wondered what the hell had happened in that parking lot. Actually, what the hell had happened since she’d blasted him in that meeting room.

This wasn’t what he’d envisioned at all. Not after everything had gone according to plan. At first.

He’d made the bid on the lab, knowing he’d find no resistance. He’d finalized everything in record time before moving to the next phase—conquering his new subordinates. He’d done that, too, with more acceptance than his best projections, thanks to his long-perfected methods of making people do his bidding.

He’d started practicing his influence from childhood when he’d been in the clutches of The Organization, which had taken him and hundreds of children to turn them into lethal mercenaries. Even among his brotherhood, as unyielding as they were, he’d enjoyed a unique position of power. While Phantom—Numair now—had been the leader everyone deferred to, it had been Antonio everyone trusted to have the most levelheaded opinion. When he’d become their medical expert, they’d trusted him with their very lives.

He’d taken that skill into the outside world after they’d escaped The Organization. Normal people had been no match for the sway he’d honed with some of the world’s most shrewd and lethal people. He’d plowed through the worlds of medicine and business like a laser, being described by rivals and allies alike as irresistible and unstoppable. Not that he reached his goals through aggression or intimidation. He relied on persuasion and manipulation, so no one had a reason to fight him and every reason to succumb to him.

Among his brothers, he was the one who had an equally close and friction-free relationship with all. Yet he’d allowed not even them beyond the serene facade he’d refined.

They believed it was Wildcard—or Ivan Konstantinov as he now called himself—who knew Antonio fully, as he’d been closest to him since childhood. But Antonio hadn’t even let Ivan in on everything he’d been through or everything he was. He hadn’t told Ivan anything he was doing or planning now.

While the others had searched for their families, sought reunion with them and/or revenge on those who’d stolen them away, Ivan, who’d come to The Organization old enough to know his family, had elected not to contact his family once he’d been out. Antonio had elected not to bother with either finding his origins or seeking revenge. Or so he’d told his brothers. In reality, he’d found out everything about his family.

What he’d learned had made him think The Organization had done him a favor by abducting him. His Italian aristocracy family put its members through hell for appearances’ sake, which they enforced at any expense, even abandoning or destroying any of them who threatened their traditions and standing.

As they had him.

His mother’s pregnancy when she was seventeen had threatened their image. Her inappropriate lover had been dealt with, while she’d been taken away to avoid the scandal. The same day she’d given birth to him, he’d been given to an orphanage, from which he’d been culled by The Organization less than four years later. Up until that day he’d lived hoping his “real family” would find him.

It turned out he’d been better off with The Organization than in the Accardis’ sterile, cold-blooded environment where relationships were warped and members turned into shells of human beings. At least The Organization had let him pursue his true inclinations, what had made him who he was. It had been there he’d forged stronger-than-blood ties with his brothers, nothing like the pathological ones his family shared.

He’d at first decided to ignore the existence of the family that had wronged him so irretrievably. But after three of his brothers had found their roots and reunited with their own families, he’d begun to feel restless until he’d realized that he was being eaten alive with the need to even the score.

And to do that, he had to destroy the Accardis. Starting with his mother.

Agreeing to or at least accepting her family’s crime, she hadn’t attempted to search for him, had moved on instead and gotten married three times. She’d had legitimate offspring with each of her husbands as well as adopted children. The oldest was a man five years younger than him, the youngest a girl of twelve, making his crop of half siblings no less than six.

He’d planned to infiltrate the family anonymously, to exact up close and personal retribution on those who’d had a hand in his abandonment.

But the elitist snobs hadn’t opened up to him, not even with the bait of vital financial relief. Getting close to this family could be through the only way they allowed.

Through blood. Through a member.

After a thorough analysis of the extended family, he’d zeroed in on one member. Liliana Accardi.

Liliana was the daughter of Alberto Accardi, his mother’s third cousin. Her American mother had escaped Italy and the poisonous Accardi family when Liliana was only one and run back to the States. But after her mother’s death last year, the only child, family-less Liliana had started to reestablish relations with her father. The man who hadn’t bothered to see his daughter after he’d granted her mother a lucrative divorce was now eager to welcome her into his life. Surprisingly, the rest of the Accardis seemed as enthusiastic to invite her into the family. That had added to her potential use to Antonio.

Being a fellow doctor was another thing that had made her his best choice. And the fact that she’d graduated at the top of her class, but had ended up in a minor nonprofit lab battling impossible odds. Her quixotic tendencies had only made him consider her an even easier target. Everything else about her from looks to personal history had made her the most surefire as well as most tolerable vehicle for his needs.

He’d decided to approach her in a professional setting, bait her, snare her, then through her, enter the family, exact punishment from within, then walk away when they’d all paid, each to the exact measure he’d decide they deserved.

As for Liliana, she’d been wronged, too, if on an infinitely smaller scale. Though he’d despised her for seeking the family who’d driven her mother away and made Liliana grow up alone, to court their favor and inclusion, he’d intended to be lenient with her. If she provided him with a smooth ride to his life’s most anticipated surgery, that of excising the petrified heart of the family who’d thrown him away like so much garbage.

He’d had no doubt she’d fall at his feet like all subordinates, like all women. The plan was simple. He’d make a proposal she’d grab at. After all, it would make a much more convincing entry into her family if she was delirious at her phenomenal luck. Then when he broke it off, if she’d benefited him—and if she didn’t turn out to be another soulless Accardi or a greedy female—he’d compensate her handsomely.

Then he’d entered that meeting room, delivered his opening speech, and though he’d had the expected deference and delight from everyone else, he’d gotten none of the usual fluttering anticipation and adulation from her. Instead, she’d left him in no doubt of her reaction to his takeover, nor of her opinion of him.

From then on, everything had gone off the rails.

After his first surprise at her impassioned attack on his methods, history and person, he’d tried to overpower her, herd her back to his scripted pathway. Just as he’d thought he’d put her in the place where he needed her to stay, she’d retaliated with a more incontrovertible accusation.

Everything in him had surged to engage her full-on. But that would have been fodder for gossip and would have put him in a defensive position—something he’d never let himself be in. That had been when he’d realized he’d miscalculated.

The woman he’d thought would fall into his palm like a ripe plum had turned out to be a prickly pear.

A change of strategy had been in order.

But for the first time in memory, he couldn’t come up with a course of action but to dismiss her. So he’d let her final words hang there in the conference room without a rebuttal from him. That confrontation had ended with the score of Liliana Accardi one, him nothing.

He had decided to resume her conquest the next day, after he’d upgraded his plan. But he’d itched with impatience, all his senses trained on her, the only one of the staff to avoid him. He’d pretended he hadn’t noticed her as she’d kept her distance on her way out, when in truth he’d noticed nothing but her.

At one point, when she’d been closest to him, his resolve to ignore her had almost broken down. But he’d managed to let her walk out without doing something stupid.

Then he’d noticed the folder.

He’d realized adjusting his plan might be for nothing. This contrary woman might not be giving him another day. She’d forced him to pursue her there and then.

He’d still been certain that once he had her one-on-one, he’d bring her back in line. But the more he’d tried, the more she’d forced him to improvise, and the more he had, the further away from his desired results he’d gotten.

Not only hadn’t he managed to overwhelm her, she’d taken him by surprise again and again. He’d found himself reacting without the least premeditation, something he never did. Then he’d found himself guffawing like a fool. He hadn’t meant to laugh, but her unfiltered responses had been so unexpected and droll, she’d been the one to overpower his control and intent.

Not that his unprecedented spontaneity had earned him any leniency. Her disapproval and resistance had only increased until she’d swung the wrecking ball of her “I quit” right into him.

And she’d meant it. He’d been certain she had.

Just as he’d thought he was down to coercion, she’d done that most ridiculous thing, offering him the money she had on her. After his initial perplexity, it had been like a light had burst inside him, illuminating the tunnel of dwindling options she’d squeezed him in. How to end this impasse on a high note. His solution, not to mention its effect on her when he’d declared it, had brightened his mood in a way he hadn’t felt in...ever.

Suddenly, the grin stretching his lips since he’d left her in that parking lot froze.

He might have decided to change the dynamics of dealing with her, but if he’d learned anything about Liliana Accardi so far, it was that she cared nothing about his power or wealth or what she could gain from them. To her, he was nothing but the invader who’d stormed into and defiled what she considered her home.

His parting shot might have been the worst thing he could have said. That defiant creature could now be working herself into a lather, more determined than ever not to return to the lab.

When the limo stopped, his mood was blacker than it had ever been, even during his worst days in The Organization.

Seething in uncharacteristic exasperation, he heaved out of the car and strode inside his mansion, thunderclouds roiling through his veins.

Damn that Liliana Accardi.

He’d picked her as the easy-to-tame lab rat, and she’d turned out to be an impossible-to-curb hellcat.

He had no time for a struggle with her. She wasn’t even his target, just a means to an end. But instead of a solution, she’d turned out to be an insoluble problem.

If she insisted on defying him, he’d let her quit. But he’d make sure she’d find no other job in the country. Hell, on earth. She’d either work for him or she could go flip burgers. He’d put her in her place, doing exactly what he thought her good for. Then he’d search for a more amenable member of the Accardis as his bridge into that accursed family.

It was only an hour later, under the beating needles of a punishing jet shower, when he found himself stroking a painfully hard erection to an explosive climax to the memory of the mutinous passion in Liliana’s eyes, that he realized his plan was inapplicable.

Logic said he should consider her a lost cause. But this volcanic lust she’d provoked in him—more inexplicable because it was for her being, not her body, which he hadn’t even properly seen—made it impossible for him to walk away from her or let her walk away from him. It was the last thing he’d thought would happen, but he wanted that aggravating, uncontrollable rebel.

It no longer mattered to him why he’d wanted to tame and acquire her in the first place. All that mattered to him now was that he did. For his own pleasure.

He’d never done anything for his own pleasure.

High time he did. And Liliana Accardi, that intractable creature, the first one to ever defy and spurn him, was the perfect place to start.

* * *

Lili ended the phone call with Brian and pinched the bridge of her nose, hard.

She didn’t need this. Not after the night she’d had.

After Antonio Balducci had left her feeling punch-drunk, she’d driven home, garnering way more honks from disgruntled drivers than she usually did. She’d never gotten used to driving in LA. Never gotten used to living in that house. All she could think of was it was time to let it all go. Let her mother’s memory and everything she’d built in this city go.

That was all she could think when she could focus on anything but Antonio Balducci. When every word he’d said to her, every look, every inflection of his voice and peal of his laughter hadn’t been revolving in her mind like a mini tornado.

She’d arrived at the house exhausted in a way she hadn’t been since her mother’s final days. But her fatigue hadn’t been soaked with despondence, but with jittery restlessness.

Antonio had messed her up but good. And he’d known it. He’d almost skipped away knowing he’d shut her up and had the last word this time.

If she’d surprised him with her resistance, he’d shocked her with his response.

See you tomorrow, partner.

Indeed!

When she’d finally fallen asleep, she’d fallen into a turbulent realm filled with heart-hammering glimpses and whispers and touches. All of him.

She’d woken up burning and wet, sure he’d meant to invade her dreams. She’d never squirmed for release like that, but had drawn the line at seeking it. He could rule her subconscious, but she was damned if she’d consciously give him that power over her, even if only she would know about it.

At least that was what she’d told herself until she’d sought the relief of a hot bath and ended up bringing herself to an unprecedented orgasm to his memory.

Damn him.

She’d been still trembling with aftershocks when Brian had called her. Antonio had asked him to let her know their first management meeting was at two sharp.

At Brian’s rabid curiosity, she’d said Antonio was just messing with her, as punishment for daring not to prostrate herself at his feet, like they’d all done. She doubted Brian bought that. Even when she believed it to be the truth.

She’d underestimated Antonio’s need for control. He’d pursued her to lasso her back when she’d dared be the only one who didn’t roll over and expose her belly. She’d struggled against his inexorable influence, trying to make him consider her a troublemaker not worth the effort it would take to subjugate her, to maintain his no doubt pristine dominance record. That had only backfired, judging by his parting shot.

Even then, she’d really thought she didn’t have to worry about him anymore. He might be obsessive when it came to getting his way, but she was certain he was too busy to bother with his employees again, especially rebellious ones. She’d thought he’d walk away and forget all about her, or remember her only as a weird creature who’d afforded him passing amusement. She’d been secure—and oppressively let down—that she’d never see him again.

Then Brian had called.

Antonio hadn’t been joking. Or maybe he had been, and he hadn’t finished yanking her chain yet. It appeared she entertained him, and it was equally obvious he hadn’t had enough of her diversion yet.

Problem was, she had to oblige him.

He was the one to give her the end-of-service releases, recommendations and payments. As much as she would have loved to not look back, she needed all that to be able to leave and survive until she found a new job.

After dressing in her most funereal outfit, she pulled her unruly hair—which seemed to have more red in its auburn depths to go with her mood—in a severe bun. Forgoing even the little makeup she usually wore, she winced at her reflection.

Now that she was aware how she looked to others, she could see that everything she felt was emblazoned on her face. Aversion, aggression, anticipation and, dammit, arousal.

She shouldn’t have given in to the urge to seek release. It had done nothing but inflame her more. Her body throbbed like an exposed nerve, every movement triggering an avalanche of responses. Now sexual awareness was stamped all over her.

Hoping the drive to the lab would dampen her condition, she cursed herself, Antonio and the whole world and headed there. It felt like she was about to sever a chunk of herself and leave it behind. But she had to do it.

She’d try to continue her work elsewhere. If she couldn’t, whatever she decided to do then would be her choice, not his. That it would be a choice he’d forced her into would still be better than being forced to do what he wanted now.

Arriving at the lab, she realized from everyone’s unusually zippy behavior that he was there. Probably setting up his boss area for whenever he came to inspect. No doubt he was also expecting her to obey his directive. The rat had gotten to her through her best friend so he’d corner her.

Well, it hadn’t worked. It was 4:00 p.m. already, and when he got the confrontation he wished for after she’d gathered her stuff, she’d make sure it would be their last face-off.

As she headed to her lab, she noticed everyone was looking at her differently, with incredulousness and something else...a new kind of courtesy, perhaps? The only explanation was that he’d taken his joke too far, had told everyone what he’d told her yesterday.

Annoyance with all of them, especially with him, mushroomed as she pushed into her lab...and felt as if her brain had hit a brick wall.

Antonio sat at her desk. His gaze collided with hers at once, as if he’d been waiting for her to walk in.

“Is this how late you’ll be coming in from now on?”

Every nerve in her body fired at the combo of his jaw-dropping beauty and his teasing remonstration.

Before she could consider a comeback, he uncoiled to his formidable height, approached in that indolent predator’s prowl, his lips twisting. “I didn’t expect you to change to partner mode that quickly. But then you never do anything I expect. I like it. Immensely.”

Forcing herself to move as he came to a stop before her, she unhooked her backpack and circumvented him. Without looking back at him, she started emptying her station, every nerve jangling in alarm as he came closer.

“Are you doing what I think you’re doing?” When she didn’t answer him, he harrumphed. “I enjoy your unexpectedness up to a point. That point is when you use it to deprive me of it. This, Dr. Accardi, I won’t sanction.”

Packing her last article, she yanked the zipper closed, then looked up. Though she’d braced herself, she felt gut-punched to behold his gorgeousness up close, now smoldering hotter with disapproving authority. Forcing steadiness into her stance, she pulled an envelope from her backpack’s outer pocket, and thrust it out at him.

It was déjà vu when he glowered at it, but when he raised his eyes, there was no questioning. He knew what that was.

“I’m not accepting your resignation, Dr. Accardi.” His lips crooked into that smile that had her insides liquefying. “Not to mention it would take far more than a piece of paper now to terminate our partnership.”

Grinding her teeth at the throbbing between her legs, she thrust her other hand palm-up at him. This time, he raised a questioning eyebrow, making her want to yank that regal head down and bite that perfect wing of provocation.

“My three hundred dollars, please.”

“Buying back your shares?” At her nod, he laughed, and her legs almost gave out. “You think your money spent a whole night with me and remained the same?”

Images bombarded her, of spending a whole night with him and being changed forever. Even if he hadn’t meant for her to think that, she did. The man was sex personified. She had to face the fact that she’d walk out of here, never to see him again, and would forever pleasure herself to his memory.

Gritting her teeth, she kept her hand outstretched. “My money, please. This is no longer remotely funny.”

“It’s the most fun I’ve ever had. And I don’t have your money on me. I don’t walk around with three hundred thousand dollars in my pockets.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Not even you can multiply stock by a factor of a thousand overnight!”

“You’d be very impressed by what I can do over the course of one night.” Her blood boiled over before he added, “But you’re right. I was exaggerating. Your money is now around thirty thousand dollars. Still don’t have that much on me.”

“Keep it, capital and investment. Consider it my contribution to whatever good science you develop.”

She had to get away from him. If she succumbed to him in any way, the damages he’d cause her would be worse than his wiping out three years of her work. This man could end her peace of mind. Could turn her into one of those women who groveled at his feet. It was getting harder with every breath to resist his spell and it wouldn’t take him long to cast it fully over her. And while others seemed thrilled to be enthralled, it would destroy her.

But when she tried to walk around him, he blocked her, mischief frolicking in his eyes.

Stopping, she clutched her backpack harder. “Listen, Dr. Balducci. Enough, okay? I don’t want to work for you, and I sure as hell am not your partner. Accept my resignation and give me what I ask for in this letter. I only ask for my rights.”

“I don’t care what you think your rights are.” He silenced her protest by stepping closer, until the heat of his body and breath singed her. “I don’t need to read this letter to know that you make a habit of shortchanging yourself. I, on the other hand, offer you what you really deserve.”

That had her heart stuttering. “I only deserve to be left alone to continue my work. I never asked for anything more.”

“And if I consider granting you this?”

And that had her heart skipping like a pebble over water. “Y-you would?”

“I would. On the condition that you become my partner.”

She coughed a mirthless laugh. “I’m not even partner material for an ice-cream stand. I know nothing about running a business. If you’re doing this to stop me from leaving for some reason only you’ll ever know, I assure you, you don’t need to bribe me with any bogus executive position I have no wish for and would be useless at. I’m probably the only person you’ll ever meet who considers such a promotion a terrible fate and not a reward. But I’ll gladly stay if you let me continue my work.”

“So you’re fine with me as your boss? You’d stay in spite of all your vigorous objections to me and my methods?”

“As long as you leave me alone, professionally and personally, I don’t care if you’re developing immunizations to sunlight for vampires and to silver for werewolves.”

His lips split in such an exuberant smile, dazzling her with a flash of white teeth and searing charisma.

She was trying not to hyperventilate when he made it impossible, reaching out and slipping the backpack off her shoulder, his long, strong, capable fingers sliding against her flesh, making her core clench with violent need.

“Until we come to a new agreement,” he said, “put your personal effects back where they belong.”

She clung to the backpack as if to a life raft. “What new agreement? We didn’t have an old one.”

“Then we’ll make a brand-new one from scratch.”

With the utmost gentleness, he insisted on tugging the backpack out of her white-knuckled grip.

Letting it go felt as if she were lowering her last shield against him.

After placing it on her workstation, he faced her with a grin that had her swaying like a building in an earthquake. He leaned his hip on the desk, folded his arms over his expansive chest.

“Now that that’s taken care of, there’s something else I require.”

“What’s that?” she croaked.

“You. For dinner.”

Four

“You want to have me for dinner?”

Lili hated that she’d squeaked. This man kept yanking at her composure. It was a matter of time before he snapped it.

“I meant I want to take you to dinner.”

Her insides tightened more at his forbearing tone. “My IQ might be selective, but even I got that. Don’t be—”

“—redundant? Yes, I know how you hate that.” His gaze took on a new level of intensity. “But the other meaning is also right. Though I’d rather have you for dessert.”

More convinced he’d decided to go all out having fun at her expense, she hissed, “Spare me the clichés, Dr. Balducci. And stop looking at me like that.”

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