# The Unwanted Conti Bride

Tara Pammi

‘I want to marry you.’If Sophia Rossi wants to save her father’s business, then merging the Rossi and Conti empires is the only way. Luca Conti broke her heart once before, but this time Sophia’s in the driving seat. Except Luca can still make her body tremble with just a look!Luca has spent years cultivating his ‘Conti Devil’ reputation to mask the darkness he inherited from his father; a façade that Sophia should be all-too familiar with. Still, the shrewd businessman can see the benefits of her proposal… He might not want her as his bride, but he’ll enjoy having her in his bed!

Luca bent toward her. She was diminutive to his own lean six-two. “What is it that suddenly interests you about me, Sophia? Have you finally decided you need another orgasm to sustain you for the next decade?”

Flames scorched her skin—that was how hot she felt. Yes floated to her lips, as if every cell inside her had conspired to form that word without her permission. This was easy for him—too easy—riling her up, sinking under her skin. Even knowing what he was, still she reacted like a moth to a flame.

“Not everything has to have a sexual connotation in life.”

He made to speak, but before he could she covered his mouth with her hand. Long, elegant fingers traced the tender skin of her wrist, leaving brands on her sensitive flesh. The center of her palm burned with the heat of his mouth. Slowly, as if savoring every second of touching her, he pulled her hand from his mouth. Of course life itself was a big joke to be enjoyed for Luca Conti.

“What did you think I was going to say, Sophia?”

She pursed her mouth tight and took a deep breath. “I have a proposal I’d like to make to you—one that is mutually beneficial to us both.”

“There is nothing you can offer me,” he said, his gaze flicking over her, dismissal and insult all wrapped up in that few seconds, “that I won’t get from another woman with a whisper, Sophia. Nothing remotely tempting.”

“You haven’t even heard it.”

“Not interested—”

“I want to marry you.”

The Legendary Conti Brothers

The Sinner and the Saint meet their match!

Known throughout the world as the Conti Sinner and the Conti Saint, these legendary Italian brothers have been the focused goal of many a gold-digger.

But hands off, ladies—that’s now finally at an end!

For rumours are that Leandro, the Conti Saint, has a seven-year-old secret … and Luca, the Conti Sinner, is engaged!

Don’t miss the chance to get your hands on this fabulous new duet by Tara Pammi!

The Surprise Conti Child June 2016

The Unwanted Conti Bride July 2016

The Unwanted Conti Bride

Tara Pammi


www.millsandboon.co.uk

TARA PAMMI can’t remember a moment when she wasn’t lost in a book—especially a romance, which was much more exciting than a mathematics textbook at school. Years later, Tara’s wild imagination and love for the written word revealed what she really wanted to do. Now she pairs alpha males who think they know everything with strong women who knock that theory and them off their feet!

Contents

COVER

INTRODUCTION

The Legendary Conti Brothers

TITLE PAGE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

EPILOGUE

EXTRACT

COPYRIGHT

CHAPTER ONE

TONIGHT, SOPHIA ROSSI decided with mounting desperation, her spirit animal would be a skunk.

Because desperation had a particularly pungent stink. It probably clung to her pores, spraying whiffs of it over pitying and curious bystanders, betraying her panic.

She had never belonged in the uber-rich Milanese society that her stepfather and mother dwelled in, was only a Rossi because Salvatore had adopted her after marrying her mother when Sophia had been thirteen. Facts of her life she’d never been allowed to forget by the crowd around her.

She’d somehow weathered the end of her engagement to Leandro Conti.

But this latest rumor—her supposed affair with her one real friend, Kairos Constantinou, who was Leandro’s sister’s new husband—had made her an object of gossip and even malice. If she’d known what a spectacle it made of her, she’d have refused Leandro’s invite to his brother Luca’s birthday party, which had been extended weeks ago. The invite was only driven by his guilt at breaking their engagement.

Her fingers tightening over the fragile champagne flute, she made a casual, painted-smile-in-place round around the curving, wide balcony of the Villa de Conti.

Somehow they’d made her into this temperamental shrew, this marriage-wrecking wanton that had become a liability to her family rather than an asset.

How had she, despite all her hard work, jeopardized the most important goal of her life—to support her stepfather, Salvatore, and rebuild Rossi Leather until her half brothers were old enough to take over?

Antonio Conti, the patriarch of the Conti family, reached her just as Sophia deflected another barbed insult. Glassy and brittle it might be, but she didn’t let the smile drop from her face.

Silver threaded abundantly through his black hair. Antonio reminded her of a wolf—cunning, wily and quick to gobble up unsuspecting prey.

“Tell me, Sophia,” he said, neatly cornering her near a white pillar, “whose idea was it to propose a marriage between my grandson and you?”

Swallowing her shock, Sophia stared at him. No one should have even guessed. “Our engagement is irrelevant now that Leandro is married.”

“Your stepfather is ambitious but not clever,” Antonio continued as if Sophia hadn’t even spoken. “Hardworking but no vision. Even knowing of my desperation to find a bride for my grandsons, Salvatore would have never thought to offer you.

“He has no use for women.”

The words were curt, even cruel in their efficient summation. But true.

Sophia had been trying for a decade to get Sal to see the value she could provide for the company, with zero progress. He gave her small projects, refused to listen to her ideas for Rossi Leather.

All he cared about was leaving a legacy for her half brothers, Bruno and Carlo.

“It was mine,” she admitted. What did she have to lose at this point? “There was advantage to your family and mine in that match.”

Sal could hold grudges on Leandro Conti and the Conti family for breaking the engagement, but Sophia was nothing if not practical.

Rossi Leather couldn’t tide over their latest financial setback by alienating the powerful Contis. Antonio still held much sway over the older generation in the leather industry and Leandro Conti, his eldest grandson and CEO of Conti Luxury Goods, held the younger, more heated generation.

Antonio’s second grandson, Luca Conti, however...had no clout or morals. Probably no talent. Just oodles of charm, sexuality and utter self-indulgence.

Even thinking about him made her cross. And bitter. And her knees weak.

She’d spent nights pacing her bedroom, sleepless, panicky, when the idea of marrying Leandro had presented itself to her. She’d made herself sick. She’d had nightmares about her past and present morphing into a distasteful, torturous future.

But the welfare of her family had precedence over naive decade-old dreams.

Antonio didn’t look surprised. But then he’d known to ask that question, hadn’t he? His silvery brows rose. “You’re a curiously resourceful young woman, Sophia.”

Sophia’s cheeks heated up. “Even for a half-Italian bastard girl with a broken engagement behind her, you mean?”

He continued looking at her.

If she hadn’t lost her finer sensibilities a long time ago, if she hadn’t developed elephant-thick skin, she’d have been insulted by the purely assessing look the old man cast her, from the top of her dark hair in an efficient knot to the soles of her black Conti pumps, her only nod to fashion, with leisurely stops at her face and several other areas of her body.

“I’m not a cow to be assessed,” she added with a glare. The flash of something in his gaze gave her the creeps. “I’m not in the market for an alliance anymore, either.” There was only so much she could stomach, apparently, even for her family. “Of any kind,” she added for good measure.

Amusement shifted the rigid lines of his face. Flashes of a similar set of features sent a flutter down her spine. “You’re not only dedicated to your family but you’re also sharp and fearless. I like you, Sophia.”

Rarely did the opposite sex, except for her ten-year old brothers, say something that wasn’t condescending or insulting to her. “I wish I could say the same. But I’ve seen you use everyone’s shortcomings to your own advantage, including Sal’s.”

His smile lingered. “Then why not advise your stepfather?”

She remained silent, frustration a quiet snarl inside her. Because Sal never listened to her. He loved her, but not enough to trust her judgment or intelligence when it came to Rossi Leather. All of which she was aware the cunning wolf knew.

“I can give you a way to help Salvatore, Sophia. Without throwing yourself at a married man.”

Stinging anger burned Sophia’s cheeks but she stayed still. He’d baited her well and he knew it. She was going to throttle whoever had started that distasteful rumor.

“I will pour capital into Salvatore’s business,” Antonio continued, “create new contracts for him, bring him back into the old class, so to speak. After his string of poor business decisions, he certainly needs the help.”

“I’m not for sale,” Sophia retorted, a slow panic building inside. She felt like a donkey with a carrot visible but just out of reach. “I suggested marriage to Leandro as a way to help Sal, but I’d have kept every vow I made to him. I would’ve been a good wife.”

“You believe I did not realize that? You believe I would let Salvatore...persuade me into letting you marry my grandson without learning all about you? It is exactly why I make this proposal.”

Her pulse sped up. “What is your proposal?” she forced herself to say.

“I do have another grandson, si? Bring Luca to the altar, marry him and I will take a firm handle on Rossi financial matters. Your mother, your brothers, their futures will never be in peril.”

“No!” Her sharp reply turned heads toward them.

Marry Luca, the Conti Devil?

The very idea was like walking on shards of glass for the rest of her life. Bare feet and with a lead weight over her head. “I don’t want to spend an evening with the Conti Devil, much less marry him.”

As though invoked by their discussion, Luca Conti appeared in the midst of the perfectly manicured lawn before them, a tall, gorgeous blonde following him like a faithful puppy.

A woman on his arm, as always.

The rage in those languid, smoky eyes the night of her engagement to his brother had haunted her. But he’d avoided her as she’d done for a decade.

His dark, wavy hair was in that same stylish cut. Low on the sides and piled high on his head, making his angular face even narrower. Sophistication and grace oozed from his every stride. But any kind of austerity ended with his hair.

Because Luca Conti was the most beautiful man she’d ever seen.

His face, now visible only in flashes as he moved through the crowd with that loose-limbed stride had such perfect lines that her breath caught even from this distance.

Broad shoulders lovingly hugged by gray silk, narrowing to a tapered waist and muscular thighs honed to pure steel by hours and hours of swimming. He moved sinuously through the crowd, the tall woman a beautiful accessory around his lean and wiry body, a little on the thin side.

But who could remember all that after one glance at his face?

Wide-set, jet-black eyes, with dark blue smudges underneath, always the shadows underneath his eyes as if the man never slept, a steel blade of a nose and a wide mouth made of plump, lush lips that invited one, two...oh, a hundred glances.

Collagen had nothing on this man’s mouth...

A mouth that invited sin with one word... A mouth he knew how to use every which way...

Sharp cheekbones created planes and grooves, in concert with the high forehead, as if every inch of it had been painstakingly designed and carved to render him breathtaking.

Those features should have been effeminate, too beautiful, yet something in his gaze, in his will, immediately imposed his fierce masculinity on the onlooker, as if the space around him had to become an extension of him.

And the devil was aware of his exquisite beauty, and the effect it had on the female sex, whether they were seventeen or seventy.

It was clear, from even up there, that Luca was sloshed if not drunk and so was the disreputable beauty, who also happened to be the Italian Finance minister’s almost ex-wife, Mariana.

Had she thrown away her powerful husband for Luca? Did she know that Luca would dispose of her like a toddler did last week’s toys?

Sophia could almost, only almost, feel pity for the woman.

The hiss of a curse falling from Antonio’s mouth by her side punctured her obsessively greedy perusal.

Luca, as usual, was creating a ruckus. Heads turned toward him, including Kairos and Valentina. A stiff-lipped Leandro cast a hand on Luca to stop him but his younger brother pushed it away.

Whispers abounded, like the drone of insects.

As indulgent as his family and friends were of his usual escapades, it seemed an open lovers’ spat—for Luca and the lady’s argument was becoming clear now—with another man’s wife was too scandalous for them to overlook.

“This is the man you want me to wed? The man who shamelessly shows off his affair with another man’s wife with no thought to his family or hers? The man who thinks every woman is a challenge to be conquered, a bet to win?” The memory of her own humiliation at his hands was like acid in her throat. “One who tramples hearts like they were little pieces of glass? I wouldn’t touch Luca if he were the last man on earth.”

Antonio turned toward her slowly, as if that small movement cost him a great effort. One look into his eyes and Sophia knew he was going in for the kill. Now she was the deer caught in the wolf’s sights.

“Are you aware, Sophia, that the bank is ready to call Salvatore’s loan in? Or that he has no way to meet the next production per schedule?”

Her heart sank to her toes. “That’s not true. He applied for an extension—”

“And was denied.”

Sunken eyes peered at her with a cunning that sent chills down her spine. He’d done this, she knew.

Oh, Salvatore had paved the way to their financial ruin with his own faulty decisions but this latest setback—the bank’s refusal for an extension—was Antonio’s doing.

Apparently, Antonio was just as desperate as she was. “Even if I were to agree to your outrageous proposal—” her entire life tied to that reckless playboy who had made her so weak once “—how do you think I can accomplish this? Even I, desperate that I am, can’t drag a man to the altar. And definitely not the Conti Devil, who cares for nothing except his own pursuits.”

Drunk as he was, Luca had somehow managed to steer the clinging woman away from the crowd. But her husky laughter and frantic begging in Italian could be heard from where they were standing, behind and beneath the balcony.

Heat tightened Sophia’s cheeks as she understood the gist of the woman’s phrases in Italian. Instead of distaste and fury, she felt pity.

The woman was in love with Luca.

Antonio dragged his gaze away from Luca, his mouth a tight line. His frail body seemed to vibrate with distaste, rage and, Sophia sensed with mounting shock, grief. Antonio Conti was grief-stricken over his grandson Luca. Why?

The image of the manipulative old man shifted in her mind, even as he took a deep breath, as if to push away the emotion. “No, my grandson cares for nothing in this world. His parents are long dead and Leandro, too, has washed his hands of Luca now.

“But to protect Valentina and her happiness, Luca will do anything. He will make a bargain with anyone to keep her birth a secret from the world.”

Sophia gasped, unable to believe what she was hearing. “Her birth? This is not right. I want no part of it—”

“Valentina is not my son’s daughter. She is the product of an affair their mother had with her driver. And if this comes out, it will ruin Valentina’s standing in society and even her marriage to your friend Kairos.

“So use it to bind Luca to you. He will bend for Valentina’s happiness.”

No words came to her as Sophia stared at Antonio.

The idea of blackmailing the Conti Devil didn’t bother her so much as using Valentina’s secret. Dear God, she didn’t want to hurt anyone.

An acidic taste lingered in her mouth. “There are too many innocent people involved in this. I won’t hurt one of them just because—”

“Just because Salvatore might lose the company? Just because your mother and brothers might have to leave their estate, give up their cars, their place in this society? And what will you do, Sophia? Take up the project manager job your Greek friend offers you to support them? Quietly stand by as Salvatore watches chunks of his company broken down and auctioned off?”

“Why me? Why can’t you find a willing woman and force him to marry her? Why—”

“Because you’re tough and you do what needs to be done. You don’t have silly ideas of love in your head. Only you will do for the Conti Devil.”

* * *

Only you...

Antonio Conti’s words reverberated through Sophia.

Oh, how she wished she’d not come tonight... Now she had a possible way to dig their finances out of the ruin but it would only be achieved by selling her soul to the devil...

She wasn’t considering it, Sophia told herself, as she walked through the unending corridor of Villa de Conti. The black-and-white-checkered floor gave the mounting nausea within a physical bent.

Surely Antonio deluded himself that his devil-may-care, womanizing grandson could care about his sister. But she had to try. She had to see if there was a chance of salvaging their finances, if there was even a small sliver of hope that her mother, Salvatore and the twins wouldn’t be driven to the road.

She reached a wide, circular veranda at the back of the villa.

Jacket discarded, shirt open to reveal a dark olive chest, cuffs folded back, Luca stood leaning against the wall. A foot propped up against it, eyes closed, face turned to the sky. The curving shadows his long eyelashes cast on his cheekbones were like scythes.

Scythes and blades. Her usually nonviolent thoughts revolved around weapons when it came to Luca.

Moonlight caressed the planes of his face, shadows diluting the magnificent symmetry of his features. Rendering him a little less gorgeous.

A little less captivating.

A little less devilish.

Almost vulnerable and...strangely lonely.

Slowly, Sophia became aware of her own reaction. Damp palms. Skittering heartbeat. Pit in her stomach. Even after a decade, her body went into some kind of meltdown mode near him.

She must have made a sound because his eyes opened slowly. Only his eyes were visible in the silvery light. They fell on her, widened for an infinitesimal fraction of a second, searched her face and then assumed that laid-back, casual, infuriatingly annoying expression that she hated.

“Sophia Rossi, of steel balls and tough skin and icy heart.” Whatever alcohol he’d imbibed, his speech didn’t slur. Mocking and precise, it arrowed past her defenses. “Did you lose your way, cara?”

His sultry voice thickened the air around them so much that Sophia wondered if she could breathe through it. “Stop calling me...” No, that was way too personal. If she was going to do this, Sophia had to enclose herself in steel, lock away even the slightest vulnerability she had, not that she had any. She’d do this for her family, but she wasn’t going to be the Conti Devil’s amusement. Not this time.

He pushed himself from the wall while she formed and disposed words. When she looked up again, he’d moved close enough for her to smell the crisply masculine scent of him. The light from the hall caressed his features.

Breath was lost. Nerves fluttered. A sigh built and ballooned inside her chest. That small scar under his chin. The sweeping arch of his eyebrows. The razor-sharp lines of his cheekbones. Darkly angelic features that masked a cruel devil.

Jet-black eyes glinted with sardonic amusement at her mute appraisal. He propped a bent hand on the wall she was leaning against, sticking his other hip out. A pose full of grace and languor. Of feigned interest and wretched playfulness. “Tell me, how did you end up in the farthest reaches of the house, away from all the wheelings and dealings of your business friends? Did Little Bo Peep lose track of her sheep and wander into big bad wolf’s way?”

Sophia tried to command every cell in her body to keep it together, wrenched herself into a tight ball so that all that touched her was the man’s whispery breath. “You’re getting your fairy tales mixed up.”

“But my point got through to you, si?” He ran the heel of his hand over his tired-looking eyes while Sophia stared hungrily, cataloging every gesture, every shift. “What do you want, Sophia?”

“Your...situation looked like it needed rescuing.”

The slight tug of his mouth transformed into that full-blown grin that always seemed to be waiting for an invite. Evenly set teeth gleamed in an altogether wicked face. “Ahh...and so Sophia Rossi, the righteous and the pure, decided to come to my aid.”

“Where is your lover? I can have one of our chauffeurs drive her home.”

His gaze held hers, a thousand whispers in it. “She’s in my bed, thoroughly lost to the world.” It dipped to her mouth. Snaky tendrils of heat erupted over her skin. “I believe I wore her out.”

Nausea hit Sophia with the force of a gardening hose, the images of a sweaty and ravished Mariana burning her retinas as if she could see the leggy blonde amidst a cloud of soft, white sheets.

Luca’s bedroom—pure white sheets, gleaming black marble, black-and-white portraits all around... It was like being transported into your worst nightmare and your darkest fantasy, all rolled into one. While being naked and blindfolded and without any defense.

She let all the disgust she felt seep to the surface and stepped back.

“Don’t you think this is too far even for you? They are not even divorced yet. And you’re advertising it for all and sundry to see.”

“But that’s the fun, si? Tangling with the dangerous? Riling up her husband into one of his awful tempers?”

“And then you walk away?” Like you did from me. “Her life will be in ruins in terms of the society, while you latch on to the next willing v—”

His mouth curved into a snarl and his hand covered her mouth. Opal fire burned in his eyes. “Is that what you tell yourself, cara? That you were a victim all those years ago? Have you convinced yourself that I forced you?”

She pushed away his hand and glared at him, all the while pretending that her lips still didn’t tingle from the heat of his touch. That she didn’t burn at the memory... “I didn’t mean that you take them without their... Damn it, Luca, you and I both know he will ruin her over this.”

“Maybe ruin is exactly what Mariana wants. Maybe to be utterly debauched by me is her only salvation.” The words were silky, casual, and yet...for the first time in her life, Sophia saw more than the hauntingly beautiful face, the wicked grin, even the seductive charm. “You would not understand her, Sophia.”

“I just don’t think—”

Sophia watched that lazy face swallow away that fury, saw the emotion blank out of his eyes as easily as if someone had taken an eraser and wiped it away. “I don’t give a damn about your opinions, so, per carita, stop expressing them.” He bent toward her, diminutive as she was to his own lean six-two. “What is it that suddenly interests you about me, Sophia? Have you finally decided you need another orgasm to sustain you for the next decade?”

Flames scorched her skin; that was how hot she felt. Yes floated to her lips, as if every cell in her had conspired to form that word without her permission.

This was easy for him, too easy—riling her up, sinking under her skin. Even knowing what he was, still she reacted like a moth venturing to a flame. “Not everything has to have a sexual connotation in life.”

“Says the woman who needs to be utterly and thoroughly—”

This time her hand clamped his mouth. Sophia glared at him. His breath kissed her sensitive palm.

Long, elegant fingers traced the tender skin of her wrists, leaving brands on her sensitive flesh. Slowly, as if savoring every second of touching her, he pulled her hand. “What did you think I was going to say, Sophia?”

She pursed her mouth and took a deep breath. “I have a proposal I’d like to make to you, one that is mutually beneficial.”

“There is nothing that you can offer me—” his gaze flicked over her, dismissal and insult in that look “—that I won’t get from another woman, Sophia.”

“You haven’t even heard it.”

“Not interested—”

“I want to marry you.”

CHAPTER TWO

NOT “WILL YOU marry me, Luca?”

Not “I think it makes sense for me to marry you now even though I’ve hated you for a decade and chose your brother over you just a few months ago.”

Not “I need you to save my stepfather from sure financial ruin, so, please, oh, please, won’t you make me your wife?”

No, Sophia Rossi proposed marriage as she did everything else.

Like a charging bull and with the confidence that she could bend, twist or generally command him into doing her bidding. Probably with an adoring smile on his face, and the marble digging into his knees if she could manage it.

Dio, where did the woman’s strength come from?

Luca Conti swallowed his astonishment. Her loyalty in considering this for her family’s sake, when he knew how much she hated him—and with good reason—was admirable. He ignored the thudding slam of his heart against his rib cage—she was a weakness and a regret he’d never quite forgotten—and gave free rein to the riding emotion.

Amusement. Sheer hilarity.

It burst out of him like an engulfing wave of the ocean, like a rising crescendo of music, punching the air out of his throat with its force. There was a knot in his gut. Hand shaking, he wiped his wet cheeks.

What merciful God had granted him this wonderful moment?

For reasons all too Freudian, Luca hated his birthday. Loathed, despised with the hatred of a thousand exploding supernovas. But his self-loathing, as brightly as it flared from time to time, to his brother Leandro’s eternal gratitude, had never overtaken his respect for life.

Over the years he had become better at handling his birthday. There was even a memorable threesome sprinkled through a couple of them. But not one of those miserable thirty birthdays had presented him with a gift like this one.

Just months ago Sophia had chosen Leandro over him to marry.

To see the one woman he had given up years ago—granted, after thoroughly breaking her heart—as his brother’s wife every day would have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. In other words, destination Hell on a direct flight.

He would have had to let the engagement go forward. The wedding itself, probably not.

He’d have seduced her, for sure. He’d have had to do it before the wedding, he remembered telling himself in a drunken haze. Luckily, his—now—sister-in-law Alex had shown up, turned Leandro’s life inside out and spun Luca away from that necessary but destructive course.

And here Sophia was now...proposing marriage to him this time. The woman had balls. He loved her for that if nothing else. “I believe this is the best birthday present I’ve ever received, bella. How the mighty fall. Wait till I—”

He heard the outraged snarl before a filthy word fell from her stiff-lined mouth, and it was like a violin had joined the piano in his head. “If you tell anyone, I’ll cut off—”

He burst out laughing again.

“Go to hell,” she whispered, her petite frame radiating fury. Most of it self-directed, he knew, for Sophia hated betraying any emotion that made her weak.

He caught her wrist and pulled her inside the large, and thankfully empty, lounge behind them. Backing her into the wall, he pulled her arms above her.

The disdain in her eyes, the arrogant jut of her chin... It was like pouring petrol over a spark. Jerked at every primal instinct he had carefully banished from his life. Her breasts heaved as she fought him, as if they too fought against being confined.

“You thought you would propose marriage and walk away? You did not think I would find it entertaining?”

“You’re a remorseless bastard.” It was the first time she’d hinted at their past.

Regret was a faint pang in Luca’s chest. Only faint.

Did he regret that he had hurt her ten years ago? Si.

So much that if given the chance he wouldn’t do it again? Non.

He was far too selfish to willingly deny himself the true joy he’d found with her in those few weeks. “And you love playing the uptight shrew far too much.”

Outrage, and most improbably, hurt, transformed her muddy brown eyes into a thousand hues of golds and bronzes.

Her stubborn, too-prominent nose flared. Incongruously wide mouth in a small face flushed a deep pink. The hourglass figure swathed in the most horrific black dress rubbed against him, bringing him to painful arousal.

In front of his eyes, she became something else.

She became the Sophia he’d known once and hadn’t been able to resist, the Sophia he’d kissed with wonder, the Sophia she’d been before he had beat all the softness out of her.

She grunted and gave herself away, seconds before she raised her knee to his groin.

“How would this marriage of ours...prosper and proliferate if you turn me into a castrato, Sophia?”

Dancing his lower body away from her kick, he used the momentum to slam her harder into his hip. Her soft belly pressed and flushed into the lines of his body, his hip bone digging into it, as if it meant to make a groove for itself against her.

A softer gasp escaped her this time, throaty and wrenched away from the part of her she hid so well. So well that he had often wondered if he had known her so intimately once. That short huff for breath stroked Luca’s nerves. Like strings of a violin...

Thick, wavy locks of hair fell from the ugly knot at the back of her head, touching the strong planes of her face with softness. The floral scent of her shampoo, something so incongruous with the woman she was, or pretended to be, fluttered under his nose. Luca pressed his nose into the thick, wavy mass. Kneaded the tense planes of her upper back as if he could calm himself by calming her.

He had never forgotten his amazement at the fire that had flared between them, how easily his plan had gone utterly wrong ten years ago. How, even for his jaded palate, Sophia had proved to be too much of a temptation.

Dio, suggesting marriage to him, of all men... Hadn’t she learned her lesson? Why was she tempting the devil in him?

He was tempted. What man wouldn’t want to muss up those ugly dresses and that shrewish facade and want to find the soft woman beneath? What man wouldn’t want a claim on that kind of loyalty, on that steely core of her?

He set her away from him, none too gently. Lust riding him hard, he drew one rattling breath after another.

He controlled the pursuit of pleasure and the pleasure itself. Without shame or scruples, he used his charm, his looks, to draw women to him, amused himself for a time and then walked away.

He’d carefully built his life to be that and nothing more. He’d trampled her innocence even when he’d intended to do the right thing once. But in the end, he’d left. He would walk away again.

After having a small taste. She really expected it of him—to behave abominably, to torture her with his lascivious words and deeds. He couldn’t disappoint her.

His humor restored, he eased his grip on her. Instantly she shoved at him. He didn’t budge. “I can think of an infinitely more pleasurable and mature way to vent your frustration.”

“It’s hard to be mature when you laugh in my face like this.”

“Your dignity is that fragile? The Sophia I keep hearing about in boardrooms and business mergers is apparently nothing short of Goddess Diana.”

He curved his mouth into his trademark smile. Her glare didn’t dim one bit. If anything, she stiffened even more.

Dio, when was the last time he had had such fun? And they hadn’t even shed their clothes yet. “I was right, it is I that gets under your skin.”

Her eyelids fell slowly. A second to restore her quaking defenses. Right on cue, she looked up, her fiery glare renewed. “I forgot that it’s all a big joke to you.”

“Being a debauched playboy who cares for nothing is hard work.”

“I was stupid to think we could have a mature conversation. All you—”

“Then persuade me.”

“What?”

Surprise in her gaze filled him with a strange satisfaction. Shocking, needling, generally startling Sophia out of that hard shell could become addictive. “Persuade me. Indulge me. Make me an irresistible offer.”

* * *

Make herself irresistible to the most beautiful man on the face of the planet? A man who held nothing sacred?

“I have a better chance of finding treasure in my backyard,” she said softly. Wistfulness snuck into her voice and she cringed.

“Kiss me, then.”

“What?” She rubbed her temples, dismayed at how he reduced her to a mumbling idiot.

“Put your lips on mine and pucker them up. Your hands can go on my shoulders or my hips or if you’re feeling bold, you can grab my ass—”

“What? Why?” Years of oratory at debate club evaporated, her brain only offering whats and whys.

“That should be the first step for a couple considering marriage, si? I could never marry a woman who didn’t know how to kiss.”

Don’t. Look. At. His. Mouth. “It’s obvious you’re only torturing me and will never really consider it and you...” She looked and the contoured lushness of it made her lick her own lips, which made him grin and prompted her to raise her gaze. “Your lover is lying in your bed and you’re—”

“If you’d been paying attention and not mooning over me—” Sophia fisted her hands, just fighting the urge to wipe that satisfied smile off his face, for he was right, damned devil “—then you would know that Mariana and I are over.”

“You just said you wore her out!” Her brow cleared. “You said that just to rile me up, didn’t you? There was hardly any time between when you left and I found you for you to...to—” She couldn’t believe what her logic led her to say. If only she could stop blushing! “—wear her out.”

“I actually don’t need that much time to get my lover off—”

“Where is she?” Sophia cut him off.

“She’s a lightweight and I kept plying her with drinks. Her husband’s divorcing her, which is what she wanted, but she’s a little emotional about it. I couldn’t just...throw her out of the party when she was in such a state.”

“No, of course, not. They all adore you even when you’re done with them.”

* * *

Except her, Luca thought with something akin to a pang in his chest.

“You’re free to adore me, too, cara. No one will have to know.”

She snorted. That inelegant movement of that sharp, stubborn nose made him chuckle. “God, really, you don’t need any more admirers, secret or otherwise. And I’m not kissing you.”

Pink and wide, her mouth was like a long bow, the only feature in her face that was soft and vulnerable. A pillow of lushness. It betrayed that tough-as-nails, no-nonsense persona of hers.

He desperately wanted to feel it under his own, wanted to taste all that pent-up passion. One kiss wouldn’t hurt. She was the one who’d cornered him, the one throwing outrageous ideas at him, the one looking all delectably confined and uptight in that dress. “How do you expect me to believe you’re not playing a joke on me with this proposal? Maybe this is revenge? Maybe you intend to make me fall in love with you, and then leave me at the altar pining for you? Maybe...”

Brown eyes glittering, wide mouth mobile, she laughed. It was a full-throttled laugh, deep and husky. The kind that came all the way from your stomach, burned through your lungs, leaving you a little dizzy. Her body shook all over.

The sound stole into Luca, filling every hungry crevice inside him. It was one that could cut through the darkest space, filling it with light. “What is so funny?”

“You, falling in love. With me.”

He said it softly. “The whole world assumes Sophia Rossi is tough, brave, the conqueror of every challenge. Decimator of men. Only I know what a coward you are.”

It fell in the space between them like a weapon, and he waited, breath balling up in his lungs. Anger and apprehension vied in her face until she covered the distance between them. He didn’t know if she was going to slap him or kiss him or castrate him. No woman could create that mystery except Sophia. No woman had ever filled his veins with this heady anticipation.

Fingers on the lapels of his shirt, she jerked him close. “No one calls me a coward, you manipulative bastard.”

Throaty and tart, growly and yet with a deep vein of need pulsing beneath, it was Sophia to the end. Brave Sophia accepting facts and meeting them head-on. Dutiful Sophia kissing the man she hated just to hear him out.

Short and curvy, she barely came up to his chest. Hands on his shoulders, she pulled herself up, as if to elongate herself. Like a vine clinging to a cement wall.

That pressed every inch of her to him. Lush breasts, followed by such a thin waist that he wondered how it held up those glorious curves, then flaring into rounded hips, hips a man would anchor himself on while he thrust inside her. Shapely thighs that would clutch a man tight as he jerked in pleasure within her velvet heat.

Again and again, until he forgot what or who he was.

Such heat rolled over his skin that Luca’s fingers dug into her soft flesh.

With a protesting moan, she stilled her mouth on his. The tips of their noses collided and a soft sigh left her. Hot breath kissed his hungry lips. Then she moved that mouth again. Testing and trying. This way and that. Halting thoughtfully and then hurrying along urgently when she liked the fit.

Brown eyes met his. And the world stilled. Time and space narrowed to this minute, this space around them. Never breaking his gaze, she slanted her head and dragged a kiss from one corner of his mouth to the other.

She took control of the kiss like she did everything else.

And Luca let her take over. Let the scent and taste of her fill every hungry crevice. Let her imprint herself on him.

Flames of fire raced along his veins when she licked the seam of his lips and probed for entry. Desperate, Luca opened his mouth under hers. The throaty sound of her gasp shivered down his spine. Never had he been waiting like this for pleasure. Never had he been the recipient.

Suppressing every instinct to take over the reins of the kiss—he’d never waited to be pleasured—he let her seduce him. She obliged, stroking the inside of his mouth with bold flicks, teasing and incinerating. Took his mouth with a carnality that left him shaking to the very marrow.

Christo, he’d never been so aroused by just a kiss.

* * *

The sound of footsteps behind them brought Sophia back to earth with a thud.

Her mouth stung with the taste of Luca, her body thrumming with unsatisfied desire. The crisp hair on his wrists teased her palms.

But she felt anything but exultant. She wanted to cry. She wanted to ask him to take her to his bedroom, turn off the lights and—no, not his bedroom. Not the place where he’d probably made love to a horde of lovers, each more stunning and thin and wispier than the next. Maybe they could slip away into that veranda, hide under the moonlight and he could kiss her a little more.

She could pretend that he’d never broken her heart and that he wanted her just as much as she did him.

Because when Luca kissed her, Sophia was always carried off to some faraway land. A land where she could be strong enough to be weak, where she could let someone care for her, where she didn’t worry about her family, where she was not mocked for who she was.

Where a man like Luca didn’t have to be induced into seducing a woman like her...

She hid her face in his chest. His heartbeat thundered against her cheek. He was warm and male, both exciting and comforting, something she hadn’t realized until this moment she missed.

Sophia couldn’t dredge up anger for that kiss. Toward him or herself.

His fingers wandered up and down her hips, questing and caressing. “I’d rather we kissed again, but I keep my word.” Deep and hoarse, his voice pinged over her heated skin. “So tell me, why do you wish to...”

Suddenly, a hand on her shoulder pulled her from his arms, turned her around.

“Tina, non!” she heard Luca shout dimly.

Sophia didn’t see it coming. Someone slapped her. Hard.

Her head went back, pain radiating up her jaw and through her ear. Tears blurred her vision and she blinked to clear them away. Pulling in a shuddering breath, she looked up.

Valentina—Luca’s sister and Kairos’s wife, stood before her, her lithe, willowy body shaking with rage. Her entire face was mobile with emotion, turning her into a volatile beauty. “You...you tart!”

Sophia raised a brow, refusing to show her dismay. “Tart, really?”

Her composure seemed to only rile the younger woman more. “You’re determined to go through all the men in my family, aren’t you? First Kairos, and now Luca? And to think I felt sorry for you when Leandro broke your engagement.”

“Basta, Tina!” Luca again. His arm around Sophia’s shoulders, he was a wall of lean strength against her. A dark scowl framed his features, his fingers rubbing against her arm in unconscious comfort.

Against every rational warning, Sophia felt her body leaning into his.

“You know the rumors about Kairos and her?” Tina screeched, her eyes filling with tears.

“If there’s truth to them, confront your husband, Tina.”

“Fall into her clutches, then. Maybe she will leave my husband alone.” Her black gaze raked over Sophia in a sneer. “Although I do not see the appeal.”

Valentina left with the same fierceness as she had come in. Like a storm, leaving a minefield of awkward silence behind.

Sophia untangled herself from Luca’s side and ran her fingers tentatively over her cheek. She thought she might be a little sick but it could be because of how much dessert she’d eaten in her anxiety tonight after the strict diet of the last two weeks.

Luca pulled her to him; she tried to swat him away.

He won in the fight for possession of her. She swallowed hard. Fingers on her chin, he examined her cheek. “I apologize. She had no right to behave like that.” His mouth became a hard line. All the charm, the wicked laughter, was gone.

She waited for the inevitable question about her and Kairos, but it never came. But then, the one thing Luca had never been was a hypocrite.

“Marriage to Kairos is not good for her.”

She frowned but he didn’t elaborate. “Kairos can be hard to—” he raised a brow and she realized she’d jumped to her supposed lover’s defense “—understand.”

“You feel sorry for her?” he said, amazement in his eyes.

Sophia shrugged. Despite the sting in her cheek and the burn in her stomach at the comment on her looks, something inside Sophia recoiled at the vulnerability in Valentina’s eyes. A palette of emotions for Kairos, who was as hard-hearted as hell, to see. And everything was acted upon, too...

No man was worth that self-doubt, that haunting sense of inadequacy, Sophia wanted to tell Valentina.

Swift anger rose through her at Kairos; he was supposed to be her friend. Couldn’t he have reassured Valentina instead of using Sophia to keep his own wife at a distance?

“It’s obvious that what I suggested is a disastrous idea.” She chanced a glance at Luca, greedy to the last second. She’d make sure it was another decade before she saw him again. Something in her clenched tight. “Forget what I suggested.”

Without waiting for his answer, Sophia turned and walked away.

And in that moment she hated all men.

Antonio, for planting that horrible idea in her head, for using her desperation to promote his own agenda.

Kairos, for using their friendship as a barrier against his own wife.

Salvatore, for never giving her a chance in the company, even though he called her his daughter.

And the man behind her, more than anyone else, for kissing her like he meant it. Now and ten years ago. For making her want him so much, for making her weak and foolish, for making her imagine, even for a second, that she was all the things she could never be.

CHAPTER THREE

LUCA SPENT THAT Monday morning with Huang from the design team of Conti Luxury Goods, studying the prototype for new heels that would be released the coming spring.

Huang and he had worked together for almost ten years now, since Leandro had convinced Luca to take a small part in Conti Luxury Goods. Luca interacted only with Huang, and Huang worked with the rest of the design team.

He picked up a royal blue pump, tracing the aerodynamic sole with his fingers. The success of these pieces didn’t worry him. As always, anything he designed, from pumps to handbags, became instantly covetous among the fanatically fashionable.

Seeing something raw and shapeless transform into something so pleasing, that was success to him. But this particular design run had come to fruition and he felt the loss of it keenly. It had been quite a challenge—the design of the new heel. Now the production team would take over.

Familiar restlessness slithered through his veins. What to work on next? Sophia’s outrageous proposal from Friday night winked at him.

Dio, but that had challenge and fun and all kinds of things written into it. She hated him—had every right to, but she was still attracted to him. When his looks tripped Sophia into that kind of a kiss, he couldn’t quite hate them. It should have been one of a hundred kisses, she one of numerous, interchangeable faces he filled his life with and yet, the taste of her lips lingered, the passion with which she had taken him lingered, filling him with a restless craving for more.

Since he had no intention of following that up with Sophia, he needed a woman. To forget her and her kisses and that he had no place in her life. Soon.

He was at the door when Huang said, “You’re not going to wait?”

“For what?”

“You don’t even know, do you? Your brother—” Huang’s smile dimmed for the rift between Leandro and him, the first in their life, was fodder for office gossip “—is at the board meeting today. The one that’s going on now.”

“Well, he’s the CEO of CLG, Huang.” His mind ran over the next few days. He couldn’t disappear without checking on Tina first.

“There are rumors that he’s making a big announcement today.”

Luca stilled.

His brother claimed to have changed, that he regretted ruthlessly arranging Tina’s marriage to Kairos, pulling such deception over their sister, even if he intended it for her own good. But Leandro did nothing without reason. Needing to control everyone and everything around him was an itch in his brother’s blood.

A lot of fates depended on Leandro’s decision. Including Salvatore’s. And Sophia’s.

Her problems are not yours.

No warning could curb his thoughts, though. The poor state of the Rossi finances was common knowledge now. What would be her next move? Who would she propose marriage to next?

Curiosity was wildfire in his gut, eating away at that restlessness that never deserted him. Her expression when she had walked away, defeated yet resolute, stayed with him.

If nothing, it would be amusing to see what Sophia would do next. So Luca waited, for Sophia was a breath of fresh air, cold and yet invigorating, in his predestined life.

* * *

Leandro was stepping down as the CEO of the CLG Board.

Two hours and a million thoughts later, Luca still hadn’t recovered from the shock. For years Leandro’s life had been CLG. Kairos, his brother-in-law, would be the front-runner for CEO.

What use would his sister, Tina,then be to the ruthlessly ambitious Kairos once he had that?

His thoughts in a tangle, Luca walked past the alarmed secretary and pushed the door open to his brother’s office.

Kairos was in Leandro’s office, his hands on Sophia’s shoulders.

Jealousy twisted Luca’s gut, his blood singing with that same possessive fury again. Dio, only Sophia reduced him to this. Willing control over his emotions, he stayed by the door. The question he’d refused to ask, because he’d believed that Sophia was above such disgusting behavior as him, even after Tina’s accusations gnawed at him now.

How well did Sophia know him?

Sophia’s quick shake to Kairos’s whisper, the intimacy their very stance betrayed...suggested something more than an affair, something far more dangerous.

He couldn’t be the only man in the world who realized Sophia’s worth, the only man who wanted to claim her in every way. Did Kairos want more, too?

Even if they weren’t having an affair, it was clear Sophia had something with Kairos that Tina could never reach.

He’d hated this match between Tina and Kairos from the beginning, but seeing the stars in his sister’s eyes, he had stayed out of it. Even now, every instinct in him wanted to let Kairos have the CEO position he’d pursued with such cunning and ruthlessness, to let their marriage reach that destructive conclusion.

Only the tears he’d seen in Tina’s eyes at that party stayed his hand now.

It had been Leandro who had brought Tina to live with them after their mother’s death but it was Luca who’d made her laugh. Luca who’d gained her trust first; Luca she laughed with over all these years.

With her smile and generous heart, Tina loved Luca unconditionally, provided as much an anchor in his life as Leandro had.

Smarting at the direction of his thoughts, Luca ran a hand through his hair.

If there was a chance that Tina’s marriage to Kairos could be saved, he had to take it. He had to trust in Leandro’s belief that Kairos was the right man for Tina.

And to give Tina a running chance, he’d take away what stood between his sister and Kairos—the CEO position of CLG and Sophia Rossi. Luca’s seat on the board, which he’d have to claim for the first time in his life, would see to the first.

The second...

The solution that appeared released a panic in his gut, as if a noose were tightening around his neck.

Of all the women in the world, Sophia was the last woman he should be contemplating marriage to. She had proved to be dangerous to his peace of mind even as a chubby, composed nineteen-year-old. Now she was a force to be reckoned with.

“Can we borrow...your office, Kairos?” Luca interrupted the sweetly nauseating scene. “Sophia and I have something important to discuss.”

“I won’t let you bully Sophia.”

“How about you show that concern for my sister? Your wife, remember?” Luca retorted.

Another squeeze of Sophia’s shoulders and Kairos left.

“That looked like a very cozy scene, very tender,” Luca said, leaning against the closed door, batting away at the ugly emotion festering in his gut. “I gather he knows what Tina did.”

He saw her spine stiffen, making her look like an angry crow in her black dress. “I didn’t tell him. And I came by to tell him that he should clear this misunderstanding with Valentina.”

As always, the black linen was unadorned with the skirt falling demurely past her knees, high necked and severely cut. Yet the very cut and the way it enfolded all of her emphasized the very voluptuousness of the woman’s curves. If her intentions were to cover up that exquisitely luscious body with those painfully severe dresses, then she was an abysmal failure.

The only thing her horribly dowdy dresses showed was her rejection of style and fashion. Of her femininity. That she found herself not worthy enough of even trying.

He wanted to tear the ugly fabric off her and dress her in slithery silks, discover that satiny soft skin that he’d tasted once thoroughly, make her—

“Luca?”

Christo, two minutes in the same room and he could imagine only one scenario. The easy way she unmanned his control made Luca’s tone uncharacteristically harsh and bitter. “How did he receive your mutually beneficial proposal? Should I be flattered that you asked me first?” Disgustingly shameful words, he realized the moment he spoke.

She stilled, dismay pouring out of her entire frame. That she was hurt by his callous remark, that she could be pushed to some reaction by him, any reaction, elated Luca. He was truly a twisted devil.

“No,” she said, boldly meeting his eyes, only the shadows in her own betraying her emotions, “you’re the only one I’ve proposed marriage to. And before you ask another disgustingly hypocritical question, no, I’ve not propositioned Kairos into some sort of illicit affair, either.

“I do not sleep with married men. Much less a close married friend. Much less a man who already asked me to marry him and I refused.”

Shock stole coherence from Luca. Suddenly, he saw it.

Ruthlessly ambitious, Kairos had first wanted Sophia and Rossi Leather. When she’d refused, he’d set his sights on Tina and the Conti Board instead, with Leandro’s blessing.

And now his dear brother-in-law probably wanted to eat his cake, too...

Dio, now he couldn’t undo knowing that Tina’s marriage was in trouble.

Sophia hitched her handbag over her shoulder, knuckles white, and glanced at her watch. “If you’ll excuse me, I have several other men I have to proposition, blackmail, extort so that I can save my family’s livelihood. If you’ve had enough fun at my expense, I’d like to get started.”

“I want to talk about your proposal.”

Her hands stilled on her desk. “No.” Fury bristled from her. “I used to think you still possessed some notion of decency. But no. You are every horrible thing I thought of you all these years.”

“I’m serious, Sophia.”

Something shone in her eyes. He’d never met a woman who worked as hard as Sophia did, one who dusted herself off even after being denied every opportunity she deserved.

Such strength, such endurance and yet he knew, like no one else did, that she was vulnerable, too. Was it any wonder she fascinated him?

* * *

Sophia stared at Luca, trying to gauge his mood. Trying to banish the taste of him from her mouth.

Even as she knew that she had a better chance of forgetting how to breathe. For a week, she’d lain flushed and restless in her bed, touching her lips, as if she could invoke that feeling again.

Ran a hand over her breasts and down low, where she’d been already damp. Just imagining his fingers down there, his mouth on her heavy breasts, she’d been aching all night. Reaching for something only he could give and she could never ever want again.

Today, he was wearing a V-necked gray sweater and black jeans. With a bristly beard and dark shadows beneath his eyes, he looked exactly the man he was—a recklessly gorgeous playboy with a long night behind him.

“Sophia?”

She came to with a startle, her cheeks on fire. He was serious? He wanted to hear her proposal? “I’ve heard that Leandro and you are on the outs now?”

“Si.” One long finger traced the edge of the desk, and Sophia could tell this was something that bothered him—this rift with his brother.

“With Leandro stepping down, your vote could become the deciding factor on a lot of things.”

“Like whether Rossi Leather should be cut for pieces and distributed among everyone.”

She nodded, hiding her shock. For a self-indulgent, indolent playboy, Luca grasped the situation far too quickly. “You enjoy the extravagant lifestyle being a Conti affords you. I mean, you’re used to those custom designed Armani suits, that flat in downtown Milan, that Maserati and all those women, yes?” she said spitefully, knowing full well that Luca could be a pauper and women would still strip for him in the middle of a birthday party.

He sighed, even as deep amusement glinted in his eyes. “You know I do. I dread losing any of it. I didn’t realize Leandro was serious about letting it all go to hell.”

“If you give me the required rights, I will do everything Leandro has done for you all these years. Represent you on the board and take care of your interests in CLG. You won’t have to lift a finger.”

“I see you’ve used your superior knowledge of my likes and tastes to reel me in.” If there was any justice in the world, her glare should have turned him into dust.

“What do you get in return?”

“If we marry, my stepfather could be convinced to bring Rossi’s under the umbrella of CLG. He’s been resisting it because he thinks his legacy would be swallowed up.”

“Dio, controlling old men and their obsession with their legacies. So this agenda is not driven by Kairos, then.”

“What?”

He shrugged. “You have to admit it’s a good theory. Kairos decides you’ll marry me, can have me by the balls and consequently, has my vote in his bid to be CEO.”

“That is too ruthless even for him. Not forgetting the obvious flaw in the plan that I, of all women, could have your ba—” She gasped; it was like there was her own personal furnace inside her, and the rogue grinned as she cleared her throat. “Could have you under my control, in any manner.”

“I could never marry a woman who lacks in feminine wiles.”

She gritted her teeth. He had to pick the most uncomfortable aspect of that. “Another fantastic reason for why it’s a crazy idea.”

He gave her a considering look. “If you have such faith in that bastard Kairos, then why not accept his help?”

“Luca, what is your problem with Kairos?”

“He’s too hungry for power. Which means he’ll do anything in his hunt for it.”

“Yes, how infinitely atrocious that Kairos is so ambitious when he could be chasing woman after woman in eternal pursuit of pleasure.”

“Why isn’t he helping you with Rossi’s?”

“He offered but I don’t like his solution. Everyone, including Kairos, has an agenda for Rossi Leather without considering what’s actually best for the company or my family. And the problems we have aren’t going to be solved by a simple influx of cash. Salvatore will bring us back here into this same situation in a year again. No one can help us.”

Not even Antonio.

The minute she didn’t toe the line—which would probably include some impossible task like domesticating the devil in front of her—Antonio would tighten the screws on her. Threaten their company or withdraw his support.

“The only way to ensure we don’t fall into this hole again,” she said, with a mounting sense of defeat, “is if I take the reins myself.”

“You think Leandro would have recognized how smart and efficient you are and given you the reins. That’s why you were so eager to marry him.”

“He always struck me as a fair, principled man.”

Her unshakeable trust, the admiration in Leandro’s implacable nature, rubbed Luca raw.

He had never bemoaned the fact that only he, and not Leandro, had inherited every despicable thing from their father—his good looks, his brilliance and maybe his madness. But in that moment he envied his brother the freedom to be his own man, the right to his own mind that made Sophia admire him so much.

“You would have married him, shared his bed?” Fury threaded his tone, which shocked her as much as him. “After the history we have?”

Color mounted her cheeks. “Rossi’s needs a complete rehaul, five years to build it to a stable position again. Leandro would have given me that chance.”

Her stepfather’s damned company... It always came back to that. “I’ve no doubt that you will do it in three. You’ll make Rossi’s better than it has ever been.”

Shock rooted Sophia to the floor, a faint whooshing in her ears making her dizzy. She ran a shaking hand over her brow. “What?”

“Dio, you sang this same song even a decade ago. You went into raptures, non, you almost climaxed with anticipation every time you talked about your plans for your Rossi Leather. Extension, branching away from leather production completely, focusing on accessory design... Just do it already, Sophia.”

He stared at her, brows raised in question while Sophia processed those words slowly. Dear God, he remembered all of her naive, hopeful, detailed plans for Rossi’s.

Heat pricked her eyes. Her head hurt as if under some great liquid weight; even her nose felt thick. Or rough. Or something very close to tears.

Did he know what a gift he gave her?

He didn’t give the compliment grudgingly like Kairos, who recognized talent and hunted it with a ruthless will. He didn’t give the compliment insidiously, as if her intellect and smart business sense were odd, distorting it into some sort of stain on her femininity. As if somehow they minimized her as a woman.

He didn’t give it to placate her, like her mother. Even her mother, she knew, wished Sophia was different. Wished Sophia made it easy on herself; wished Sophia didn’t feel like she had to prove herself in a man’s world.

Wished Sophia wasn’t still fighting, even after all these years.

No, Luca stated it as a matter of fact. With the same tone as if to say: people need oxygen to live.

Given the chance, Sophia Rossi could make Rossi’s better than it has ever been before.

Simply that.

Just that.

Joy bloomed from her chest, spreading like warm honey through every cell, stretching her mouth into a wide smile.

He came to stand before her, and for once, Sophia couldn’t step back. It seemed as if he had thoroughly bypassed all her defense mechanisms. “Sophia?”

“Hmmm?”

“You have a blank look in your eyes, and I’m not sure you’ve breathed in the last ten seconds. Also...you’re smiling at me like I’m your favorite person in the world. Dio, you’re not dying, are you?” He tilted her chin up, raked her face over with that searing gaze. “Now that I think about it, you look like you’ve lost weight and there are dark shadows under your eyes.”

Her hands drifted to her hips and his gaze followed it eagerly. She pulled them up as if burned. The scent of him stroked over her senses. Just a little dip at her waist and her breasts would graze his chest. Her legs would tangle with his. And then she could—

“This is not some pathetic, last-minute attempt to have some good sex before you die, is it?” Something glittered in his gaze as he gently ran a finger over her cheek. “Because, cara mia, we don’t have to marry for that. All you have to do is ask and I will gladly show you how fun it is on this side.”

When was the last time she’d had fun? “I’m not dying.”

“As much as that would solve a lot of problems for me, that is good to know. Now, I will give you three months of marriage.”

Sophia couldn’t believe he was agreeing to a proposal she’d made in sheer desperation. He seemed to decide as easily as he’d decide which party to go to. Or which woman to take home on a given night. Worse, she couldn’t believe the way every cell in her leaped at the chance to be near him. Three months as his wife... Lord, it was both her salvation and utter ruin. “Why are you helping?”

“One, I want to throw a small hitch in my brother-in-law’s plans. Two, I hate working, as you neatly pointed out.”

Her heart sank to the floor. “You’re doing this to drive a wedge between Kairos and me? I told you I’m not sleeping with him.”

“A little distance wouldn’t hurt, then. Especially if it is provided by me. Leandro has washed his hands of me. I’ll have to claim my seat on the board. And like you said, who better than my own wife to watch out for my interests and work in my stead? We both get what we want.”

“What is it that you’re promising exactly?”

“You can’t turn Rossi’s around in three months but it’s a start in digging it out of that hole, si?” He tucked an errant curl behind her cheek, a wicked smile on his mouth. “I want to give you what you want, Sophia. And a couple of things you are too stubborn to ask for.”

Her cheeks heated up. If it beat any faster, her heart was going to burst out of her chest. Her gaze lowered to his mouth, cinders lighting up her blood. Don’t. Ask. Don’t—“Your arrogance in yourself is breathtaking.”

“Arrogance, bella mia? I state fact. You know where you’re going to end up.”

Memories and sensations rushed through her—rough breaths, the slide of hot, damp skin like velvet over hers, pain giving way to incredible pleasure...every other sense amplified in the darkness that she’d insisted on...

Heat poured through her, like lava spewing out. Her skin felt tight, parched, her pulse ringing through her. “No... I don’t want to sleep with you ever again.”

“Who mentioned anything about sleep? Just don’t fall in love with me,” he added with a grin.

“I’m not a naive idiot anymore,” Sophia replied, confident that she’d avoid that trap.

Luca was irresistible but she was walking into this with her eyes wide open.

Love wasn’t for her; he’d helped her see that firsthand. She’d hated the loss of control over her own happiness, over her mood, over her sense of self-worth. In a moment Luca had stripped her of everything.

She despised the hollow feeling it had left in her gut. The haunting ache that she lacked something. She never wanted to be that vulnerable ever again.

He reached the door, turned the handle and looked back at her. “Do you have protection?”

He couldn’t mean what she thought he did. No way. “Like a bodyguard?”

He grinned and Sophia wanted to wipe that grin off his pretty face with her bare hands. “No, like a contraceptive.”

“That’s none of your...” He moved so fast and so smoothly that Sophia blinked. The heat from his body was a tantalizing caress on her skin, beckoning her closer. She answered only to stop him from coming closer. “Yes, fine. I’m on the pill. Not that it’s relevant to you.”

He pushed a tendril of hair away from her temple. That stubborn lock that never stayed back. “Good.” His warm breath raised the little hairs on her neck.

Knowing that he was saying it to shock her didn’t stop a pulse of throbbing need between her legs. It took every ounce of her energy not to press her thighs close. She needed something distasteful, something to snap herself out of that sensual web he weaved... “You... I... You’ve had numerous lovers. I won’t just—”

The glittering hunger in his eyes told her she’d already betrayed herself by talking as though she was considering it. Damn! “I’m clean.”

Like a dream, feverish and hot and full of some elusive subtext, he left.

Sophia stared at the door for a long time, her knees shaking. Covering her face with her hands, she sank back against the desk.

Luca Conti was going to marry her. Of all the men in the world, that unpredictable, recklessly indulgent playboy was giving her the chance no one else would. It was going to tangle up everything with everyone horribly. Three months of her life would change the course of the rest of her life. Even after his reckless cruelty ten years ago, she was still affected by him.

But Sophia could only obsess over one thing.

That, for three months, she could kiss him all she wanted.

CHAPTER FOUR

LUCA HAD KNOWN rejection from his mother when he’d been seven. He’d suffered debilitating headaches, insomnia and worse before he hit puberty.

The first time he’d had sex, he had been seventeen, with a woman a decade older. He hadn’t really wanted the sex; he’d wanted to be held by the woman, to be less lonely for one night. Messed up as he’d been, he’d still realized what he’d done.

He’d whored himself—his looks, his charm, his body, for a bit of affection.

One didn’t need a degree in psychiatry to realize that.

When Leandro had finally discovered him—his brother had always come after him no matter the time of the day, no matter how devious Luca tried to be—sitting on the floor of the hotel room with his head in his hands, and looked at him with nothing but understanding and patience and that all-consuming love that his brother used to justify arranging his siblings’ lives, Luca had thrown up all over the floor. And promised himself never again.

Never again would he sink that low.

Never again would he succumb to that cavernous craving within.

Never again would he be without control.

For the most part, he was sure he’d succeeded.

Instead of fighting the sudden bouts of insomnia and crazy energy, he poured himself into everything and anything he could get his hands on. He studied like a madman, inhaling and conquering every subject he touched. He’d become a human sponge.

Leandro would sigh and smile when Luca said he wanted to try something new.

Arts and history. Mathematics and astronomy. He’d dabbled in all of them, but moved on, nothing calming the restlessness within. Only music—the relentless, endless chords churning in his head released onto paper, played until he achieved every single note—could soothe it.

It was both his release and his curse. He’d fashioned a wooden doll for Tina after she’d come to live with them, and realized he loved creating things, designing things, too. So he’d started working with Lin Huang, the creative head of Conti Luxury Goods’ design department.

Through the years he’d achieved a kind of balance, a normal—for him. He wrote music for hours on end when in that grip, worked at CLG and other projects of his own, surviving on an hour or more of sleep for days. Then he had those carefree days where he got drunk, partied, took endless women to his bed. And had uproarious fun at the expense of others.

Fortunately for him, he’d discovered he liked sex, just for itself. That he could enjoy it without whoring himself for something else. He’d slipped up only once from the happy path he was forging for himself.

Ten years ago, with Sophia. She’d been the first real thing in his life and he had let himself be carried away.

Sophia was the only one who’d ever made him forget himself, who had shredded his control so effortlessly.

For all his reputation as a self-indulgent playboy, control was tantamount to his peace of mind. It was something Leandro and he had rigorously worked on in those initial months after their mother had left. He’d spent hours on the mat mastering several martial arts disciplines.

He had an example from his father’s life. He knew that like everything else he’d inherited from him, he could carry a speck of that madness—that devious, manipulative, cruel streak, too.

Control was everything to him.

Stepping out of the shower, Luca walked to the mirror and rubbed it to clear the steam. Hands on the marble sink, he stared at himself.

He looked past the compelling perfection of his features—a face he’d hated for so long—past the now bone-deep mask he showed the world. He had never lied to himself. Self-delusion would have been a welcome friend in all those miserable years.

He was doing this because of Sophia.

He was doing this because he wanted these three months with her.

He wanted to be near her, inside her. He wanted to unravel all the fiery passion she kept locked away.

He wanted to free her from the cage she put herself in; a cage, he was sure, he’d driven her into building.

But this time Sophia knew the score, knew what he was incapable of. She wasn’t an innocent who mistook attraction, pure lust for anything else. This was not a marriage like his parents’.

Sophia wasn’t some innocent, painfully naive young girl Antonio had handpicked like some sacrificial offering to his father’s madness, to further the Conti legacy like his mother had been.

Sophia would never let herself be intimidated or drowned in Luca’s personality.

The panic in him calming, Luca breathed out. Excitement filled his veins now.

For the first and only time in his life, the self-indulgent, profligate playboy he’d made himself to be was going to take what he truly wanted. And revel in it.

That he would set Sophia up for the rest of her life and do his part to protect Tina’s marriage, that was the bonus.

* * *

Meet me @ Palazzo Reale Monday 10AM.

Don’t wear black. J

The texts came on Saturday night at seven, a whole week after Luca had cornered Sophia at CLG offices. They also sent her soup down the wrong pipe at the dinner table.