“You won’t stab me in the back during this…caper?”

“I wouldn’t call it a caper. Although it will require a bit of…finesse.”

“Meaning?”

This was the part she wouldn’t like. The part that would have been easy with another woman. But Julia wasn’t easy. She didn’t respond to his flirtation. Didn’t respond to Ferro’s charm. Charm he knew was lethal in most cases.

“We’ll have to make our merging look organic.”

“And how do you propose we do that?”

She wasn’t going to like his suggestion, but that, in some ways, made it even more perfect. The more flustered she was, the more control he would have.

“It would be completely expected for a couple to discuss a project and come to the conclusion that collaboration would be the best for all involved.”

Her blue eyes glittered. “Are you suggesting that we…that we feign some kind of personal involvement?”

“You’re sanitizing it,” he said, smiling. “I’m suggesting we pretend we’re heavily involved in a scorching affair.”

About the Author

MAISEY YATES was an avid Mills & Boon® Modern™ Romance reader before she began to write them. She still can’t quite believe she’s lucky enough to get to create her very own sexy alpha heroes and feisty heroines. Seeing her name on one of those lovely covers is a dream come true.

Maisey lives with her handsome, wonderful, diaper changing husband and three small children across the street from her extremely supportive parents and the home she grew up in, in the wilds of Southern Oregon, USA. She enjoys the contrast of living in a place where you might wake up to find a bear on your back porch and then heading into the home office to write stories that take place in exotic urban locales.

Recent titles by the same author:

HEIR TO A DARK INHERITANCE

(Secret Heirs of Powerful Men)

HEIR TO A DESERT LEGACY

(Secret Heirs of Powerful Men)

HER LITTLE WHITE LIE

AT HIS MAJESTY’S COMMAND

(The Call of Duty)

Did you know these are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

The Couple who Fooled the World

Maisey Yates

www.millsandboon.co.uk

MILLS & BOON

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CHAPTER ONE

“IN TERMS OF design and usability, the new operating system is leagues above the competition.” Julia Anderson turned and gestured to the high definition monitor behind her, the one that was currently projecting the interface of her computer screen to thousands in the audience, and millions watching on television and the internet worldwide. “It’s sleek, user friendly and aesthetically pleasing which, as we know, matters. Technology is not just about wires, it’s about people.”

She smiled for the cameras, knowing she looked good. Thank God she had a personal stylist, along with a hair and makeup team these days. On her own she was hopeless. She’d been told so many, many times. But with a legion of people making sure she looked presentable, she could face the world—and it was literally the world—with confidence.

“However, design isn’t everything.” She took another breath and looked down at her computer. “It has to be secure. The new firewall we have in place is more secure than anything else on the market. It’s able to identify and block even the most sophisticated threats so that your most sensitive data is protected.”

The screen in front of her flickered and a video popped up in the center, then enlarged to take up the entire monitor. She froze, all eyes on her, and on the gigantic display behind her that was showing the exact same thing she was currently looking down at.

“Secure? I don’t find it all that secure, Ms. Anderson. Maybe secure against the rare hacker who bothers to use An falas. Anyone running Datasphere software would be able to get right in.”

Heat prickled on her neck. Her face. Ferro Calvaresi was a pain in her butt that would not quit. Though, in fairness, she was also a pain in his. And they were a mutual pain in Scott Hamlin’s. Basically they were a circle of techie annoyances to each other, but this, this was going way too far.

His face, his gorgeous, infuriating, chiseled face, had effectively taken over her presentation, his smug smile a gigantic display of a weakness in her firewalls she hadn’t known about.

“Hardly just anyone running Datasphere, Mr. Calvaresi,” she said, trying to keep calm, aware that her humiliation was being broadcast everywhere. The launch of her new OS was the news of the day. The launch of every Anfalas product was the news of the day. And Ferro had just hijacked it. “You practically need a masters in technology to run Datasphere. On the other hand, Anfalas computers focus on the user.”

“And your user just got hacked. I wonder if you have any banking information on here I might access?”

She made an axing motion toward the guy running the feed between her computer and the screen and the screen behind her went dark, at the same time the audio for Ferro was cut. His voice was still coming out of her laptop, and his face was still visible to her.

“And you’re done here,” she said, glaring daggers at the computer screen.

She looked back up. “I apologize for the theatrics. You know how my competition can be. It’s entirely possible he’s trying to compensate for some shortcomings.” There was a wave of nervous laughter through the room.

The press were jostling in the front row, but they knew better than to start flinging questions at her before the designated time. She was strict about that. She liked to make her presentations uninterrupted.

Grrrrr.

A new computer was supplied for her and she continued on with her demonstration. Of course, the wind had been taken out of the sails of the security portion of her speech, so she opted to skip on to the ultra high definition features of her new monitors, and to demonstrate the music and photo editing software, the things that hit really bit with her target market.

And when she was done, she opted to dodge the press. She dashed off the stage, cursing and taking a water bottle from the cooler in the back, then jammed her sunglasses onto her face and took her black leather bag from her assistant.

“Car?” she asked.

“Out back. Press is being baited by a fake car out front.” Thad picked something off the shoulder of her black T-shirt. “Stray hair,” he said.

“Thanks.” For everything. She wanted to cling to her assistant and cry right then, but Thad would scold her for smudging her makeup, and she shouldn’t show that kind of weakness anyway. Because the weak were unceremoniously devoured, in life and in business, and she didn’t show vulnerability anymore for that very reason. She knew that all too well.

What she would do was go home to her mansion on the seaside, look out the window at the view and eat a gallon of ice cream. Oh, yes, calories, here she came. And then…oh and then she was going to plot her revenge against Ferro Freaking Calvaresi.

She pushed open the back door and got into the limo that was waiting, closing the door tightly behind her.

“Hi.”

Her head whipped to the side and her jaw went slack. There was Ferro and his mocking smile, in the very male flesh.

“What the—? What are you doing in my car?”

“It’s my car. These limos all look alike.”

“Well, what did you do with my car?”

“I sent your driver on. Told him you had a ride. And a meeting. With me.”

“Was that a meeting for me to punch you in the face for that stunt you just pulled?”

“Are we suddenly forgetting about what happened at my last product launch?”

Julia bit the inside of her cheek. “What?”

“All of the swag bags at the product reveal for Datasphere’s new smartphone had your OnePhone in it. And then you had that slogan projected on the wall…”

“OnePhone to rule them all.” She laughed. “It never gets old.”

“It’s old.”

“Disagree. But anyway, the fact is, your presentation wasn’t nearly as high profile as mine. A bunch of tech heads getting their specs fix. My presentations are events.”

“Only because you make a spectacle about every product you unveil.”

“It’s my signature, okay? People like it. It caters to my clientele. I’m a trend, Calvaresi. You should try it sometime.”

“A trend, huh? Why don’t you ask acid-washed jeans how that worked out?”

“I’m an evolving trend,” she bit out. “My products stay relevant.” She leaned back in the seat and the car started moving. “Where are we going?”

“My office.”

“I’m done working for the day,” she said.

“No, Julia, you aren’t. Not unless you want to miss out on the chance of a lifetime.”

“I just had the chance of a lifetime in there.” She looked down at her manicure. Her hands didn’t even look like hers anymore. No more chips and glitter. Her rough edges were being polished away nicely. Well, the rough edges of her looks. The social thing was a bit harder. She could cover the geek girl up with paint and cool clothes, but she was still there. She could just never show that poor, weak vulnerable girl to the world. Never again. “I get chances of a lifetime all the time.” She looked back up at him. “Chances most people never get. Why? Because I work hard. Because I’m a genius, yes. But the hard work, too. That means, if I pass up this chance of a lifetime, another one will happen before dinner.”

“I wouldn’t bet on it.”

“You seem so sure.”

Ferro leveled his dark gaze at her, a smile curving his lips. “You’ve been contacted by Barrows.”

“How did you know that?”

His smile widened. “I wasn’t sure until just now. But so have I. And so has Hamlin. We’ve all been tapped to design the new navigation system for their fleet of luxury cars.”

“Have we?” she asked, keeping her voice monotone. This offer had been about the biggest thing to hit since her One Phone had become the bestselling mobile device in the United States. A chance to have her devices in cars all over the world? A huge deal. Massive. And she was apparently dealing with stiff competition if she hoped to get it.

“We have. And if you want it, I can help you get it.”

“I don’t need your help.”

His expression didn’t falter. “You do. I’ve made you look incredibly vulnerable. A bit inexperienced and unprepared, even. You may need my help more than you realize.”

She gritted her teeth. It was the v word she hated most. “Catch.”

“What?”

“Catch, Calvaresi, what’s the catch?”

“You’ll be seeing a lot more of me,” he said, winning smile firmly in place. Ugh. He was so annoying. And hot. Which was even more annoying.

“Why? Because if you intend to pull more stuff like this, you can bet I won’t be happy about seeing more of you.”

“Most women are very happy to see more of me.”

“Most women don’t rival you for net worth and the position as head of the most profitable tech company in the world. Boom. Headshot.”

“Most women are also not such a spectacular pain in my ass. But I’m willing to let it go for the greater good.”

“Greater good?”

“I’ll be straight with you. I can’t land this account. Neither can you. I lack the…simplicity that your technology has.”

“You aren’t user friendly.”

“I haven’t dumbed anything down to create mass appeal unless necessary.”

“Snob.”

“Anyway,” he continued. “I lack the tech necessary to make the navigational devices simple and smooth for the average driver. You lack the sheer power I possess. You know my processors are superior to yours and they last longer. Hamlin, well, he can provide a mediocre version of my processor and your interface. Not as good on either end, but his processor is better than yours and his interface is better than mine.”

“And you know this how?”

“Corporate espionage, how else?”

“That’s not right.”

“As if you’ve never done it to me.”

She feigned a sneeze and looked out the window at the California scenery scrolling by. Rolling hills dotted with stucco walled-houses with red roofs and the jewel bright sea beyond. Even after seven years of living on the coast, the view took her breath away. It had been her new start to her brand-new life. A true reboot.

Thankfully it never got old since she needed a nice breathtaking view to distract her from Ferro and all of his questions and smiles and that spicy, masculine way he smelled.

Which was hard to ignore in the enclosed space of the limo. A lot of tech guys had a smell a bit like they’d been living in a cave. And some of them even had a permanent hunch from bending over the keyboard. Had she not hired an image consultant, she very well might have ended up that way herself. Because frankly, in her life, she’d become much more concerned with coding than how she looked to the world. When she’d tried on her own, she’d always come out looking ridiculous. Without a consultant, she was hopeless.

But Ferro wasn’t like that. He exuded a kind of easy charm and sex appeal that most people with his level of intelligence, including her, rarely bothered with.

Not that she could achieve sex appeal, even with professional help, even if she did bother, but it was a nice thought.

“I’ll take your silence as affirmation and move on,” he said, his tone dry. “I don’t want Hamlin to get the account, mainly because I want it. I’m sure you feel the same way about both of us.”

“Yes,” she said, still scanning the shoreline, keeping herself distracted. The limo wound up the side of a hill and she whipped around to look at Ferro. “I thought we were going to your office?”

“My home office.”

She frowned. “Why?”

“I’m not advertising any kind of alliance with you until I’ve had time to figure out how I want it to look.”

“For a man proposing a partnership of some kind you used the word I a lot.”

“Problem?” he asked, one dark eyebrow arched.

“There’s no I in team, Ferro, which you may have heard.”

“I hate clichés.”

“They’re cliché for a reason. Because they’re true.”

“Not necessarily,” he said.

The limo pulled around a corner and up to a security box with a facade in the same white stucco that was on the houses. It was shrouded by palm fronds and large, flowering plants so that it almost faded into the lush background.

Ferro leaned out the window of the limo and placed his thumb on a scanner. His driver did the same. “You, too,” he said.

“It won’t recognize me.”

“I know,” he said, “and you won’t be given clearance to use your print to open the gate. But I keep records.”

“Fingerprint records! Talk about paranoid.”

“Don’t I need to be?” he asked.

She shrugged and nodded in grudging agreement. Especially since she was one reason he should be paranoid. She wasn’t above snooping for secrets. But he did it to her, too, dammit. Fair was fair. Or two unfairs made it fair…or something.

“Now, you. Print,” he said.

She looked across the seat, across him and out the window. “You want me to just…lean over and do it?”

A flicker of amusement sparked in his eyes. “Yeah. Just lean over and do it.”

Her cheeks heated and she did her best not to make eye contact or show him that he’d disturbed her in any way. She was used to men. She worked with a lot of men, and she’d gotten to the point where their innuendos didn’t really bother her. Especially not when she had her armor on. The face she showed the world. The leather clad, boot-wearing, tough chick who took no prisoners in the boardroom.

That’s just who she would be now. Who she would remember she was now. He was trying to unnerve her. And she didn’t back down. Ever. Not for any man.

She took a breath and leaned over, reaching past him. And came up short of the reader. She cleared her throat and edged a little closer, her arm skimming his chest. Her heart tripped and fell, sending a pang of something deeply disturbing through her body. Something that left her feeling a little breathless and shaky.

And there was the way he smelled again. Closer, she could identify the nuances to it. Spice from aftershave. Soap over skin. Clean, musky, masculine skin…

At least, that was her assumption of what the smell was. She wasn’t overly familiar with the scent of men’s skin, but that was not anything she should be thinking about. And she way shouldn’t be thinking about the way Ferro Calvaresi’s skin smelled.

Scan your thumb and run, you’re regressing!

Regressing to that sad, longing teenage girl she’d once been. Failing to fit in until she’d stopped trying. And then her parents had started trying for her and things had gotten really bad. And then she’d found out what could happen when you tried. When you were vulnerable and soft and trusting.

She shook off the memory, leaned in a bit more and tried to ignore it when the edge of her breast touched his biceps. She tried, also, to ignore the fact that her breath was jammed in her throat and she couldn’t inhale or exhale anymore.

She extended her hand and placed her thumb over the scanner, the trapped breath exiting in a gust when it beeped and she could get herself back over to her side of the limo, with a bit of healthy distance between Ferro and herself.

They continued up the driveway and another gate barred the way. The limo stopped and her heart fluttered against her breastbone like a caged bird. “Are you kidding me?”

He shrugged. “This one just uses a code.”

He keyed it in on the screen of his phone, a phone that she noticed wasn’t as sleek or fast as the one her company had just released, and the gate opened.

“Neat,” she said.

“Does your phone link up to home security?”

“No. But it has really cool gaming apps.”

“How is it that your phones are outselling mine?” he asked, dark brows locked together.

“Did you not just hear me say the words really cool and games? That’s how.”

“There is no practical use in that.”

“Right, and practicality is fine, but the vast majority of people do not have security that screams ‘I’m paranoid.’”

“And how is your security?” he asked.

“It screams ‘I’m paranoid.’ But I don’t need to control it from my phone.”

He lifted his phone. “Admit it, though, it’s very…cool.”

“All right, fine. It is.”

“This is all making my case very nicely for me.” The limo pulled up in front of a massive home, more reminiscent of an Italian palazzo than of the other homes that were set into the hill side.

“What case is that?”

Ferro opened his door and got out, then rounded to her side, opening the passenger door for her. He leaned in and she caught the scent of him again. Her heart tripped over itself again. And then he offered her his hand.

“Stuff it, Calvaresi, this is a business meeting.” She got out of the car, avoiding his touch, and leaned past him, closing the door herself. “If you wouldn’t do that for a male business rival, don’t do it for me.”

“I shall make a note of the fact that my touch disturbs you.”

“Disturbs me? Your touch nothings me. But I won’t have you engaging in subtle power plays here. Tell me what it is you want so I can get back in the limo and make my way back down Fort Ferro and back into civilization. I’m in serious need of some wine at this point in the day.”

“Then come in and have some,” he said. “Because this isn’t going to be a brief meeting.”

“Oh, no, it is, because I can already tell I’m not going to like what you have to say.”

“You won’t like it, but you aren’t stupid. That means you’ll listen.”

“Does it?”

“Yes. My case is this. You have something I need, I have something you need. The only way we’re going to get this deal is by joining forces.”

“I would rather be thrown into the fires of Mount Doom.”

“Noble. But it isn’t going to get you your deal. Working with me will.”

“Wrong. It will get me half a deal.”

“It’s better than no deal. And it’s better than Hamlin getting the deal.”

“And why am I more okay with you getting the deal than Hamlin?” she asked. She knew Scott Hamlin was a big-time jerk, she wasn’t unobservant and the word about him that she heard was never good. She’d hired people who’d come from Hamlin Tech for low level positions and their view of their ex-boss was never flattering. But then, she imagined people who were let go at Anfalas had bad things to say about her and her executives.

She’d scalped a few of Ferro’s employees, too, and the word tyrant came up once or twice. And, if she was asked to sum up Ferro Calvaresi, nice guy wouldn’t be her words of choice.

But, neither of them had ever been accused of sexually harassing employees or female tech bloggers, either. Hamlin was a chauvinist pig with a capital oink, in addition to being generally unscrupulous. And if there was one thing she could not stand it was jackass men who thought they were entitled to a woman’s body just because they were men, or because they paid her wages, or whatever lame excuse they came up with to justify their behavior.

So, yeah, for that? She wanted Hamlin to fry. But she wasn’t going to come off as too eager to Ferro, either.

“The fact that you have to ask proves that you aren’t very familiar with Hamlin.”

“I’m pretty familiar with you and I’m not especially fond of you.” She looked down at her watch. An extravagant, custom-made piece with her patented OnePhone interface built into it, and started the stopwatch. “You have one minute to convince me to go in, Calvaresi, or I walk.”

“Sorry, cara mia, I don’t work that way.”

“So you aren’t even going to try?”

“I only have one thing to say on the subject. Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.”

CHAPTER TWO

“IS THAT SUPPOSED to intrigue me?”

Annoyance coursed through Ferro’s veins and the blame rested squarely with Julia Anderson. But then, it often did. The woman was a menace.

And she was continuing the trend. No one spoke to him like this. No one treated him like this. But then, very few people were so close to being equal with him. Julia’s company had come up from nowhere five years ago and had fast gained worldwide popularity. Anfalas was dedicated to bringing the technology fantasies were made out of into reality.

Needless to say, her vision was a popular one. Creative vision combined with an aptitude for all things tech that came naturally to her in a way he hadn’t witnessed with anyone but…well, anyone but himself. It made her quite formidable.

Though she fancied herself more formidable than she was. She’d proven that without a doubt today. Acting as though she could turn his offer around on him? Assume the power in the situation?

Not likely.

“It was,” he said. “And it did.”

“Did it?” She crossed her arms beneath small, perfectly formed breasts and tilted her head to the side, blond hair cascading over her shoulder in a wave. She was dressed in all black, her signature look. Ridiculous when they lived on the California coast, but he imagined she thought it made her look like a badass.

In his estimation, it made her seem like a pale, spindly, wannabe-goth chick, but she hadn’t asked his opinion.

“There has to be a reason you’re breathing so hard,” he said. “It’s either interest in the project or in…me.” He flashed her his best smile, the one he knew for a fact made women melt in their overpriced shoes. He had the attraction game down to a fine art. He was an expert in enticement. Ironically the women he’d always worked to entice hadn’t truly needed it, but they liked to play like they did. Liked to be seduced. It made them feel desired, and when a man could make a woman feel desired…he ended up with all the power and no need to strong-arm.

“Well, it’s not interest in you, so we can check that off the list,” she said, her lips tight.

He’d honestly thought as much. Julia seemed to have a serious aversion to him. But he could use that against her just as effectively as he could use a feigned seduction. There was always an in with people. Always a vulnerability. A weakness.

Except with him. Not anymore. Eventually a weakness was hit at too many times and it healed over with scar tissue far too thick to penetrate again. Ironic, how a weakness could develop into the hardest point to breach. But it had happened in his life.

“So it must be interest in my plan. In which case, I would ask you to come inside where we might speak privately.”

“You have security that rivals the Pentagon, I’m pretty sure we’re private anywhere on your property.”

“I never take chances.”

“Is paranoia a cultural thing?”

“What?”

“Are all Italians similarly paranoid?”

“Perhaps if they grew up on the streets of Rome. That has a tendency to make you a little paranoid.” A little paranoid. A little lawless. It had a way of searing the conscience so that all the bad decisions just rolled off like water.

Well, not quite all of them. But that was all right, too. Because some lessons needed to be remembered.

“All right. Well. I can see how that might make you a bit more…cautious. More so than me because…the suburbs of Ohio aren’t exactly mean.”

“Now that we’ve gotten the basic information easily found in our bios out in the open, would you like to come in and hear what I have to say?”

She squinted, blue eyes glittering from behind a thick fringe of lashes. “Not especially. But I will.”

“So, I do intrigue you.”

“Don’t let it go to your head.”

“This way.” He put his hand on her lower back and he felt her tense beneath his touch. She was certainly jumpy around him. No melting. No lingering looks. The woman didn’t respond in the way other women did. It would make her more difficult to manipulate. More difficult, but not impossible.

“Would you do that to a male colleague?” she asked once they were through the double doors of his home and in the spacious antechamber.

“Can’t say that I would. But you are not a man, so stop asking me to treat you like one.”

“I want to be treated like an equal.”

“Was that somehow not treating you like an equal?”

“I…well…you were treating me differently.”

“Different is unequal in some way?”

“Did you ask me here to debate gender politics or are you going to show me to your study and give me your spiel?”

“The latter.” He walked down the marble halls, appreciating the opulence of his home with each step he took. Appreciating that it was his.

He’d spent too many nights on cold cobblestone not to appreciate it. And too many other nights in soft beds that belonged to other people. And honestly, in the end, he wasn’t certain the cobblestone wasn’t the better option.

The hall opened up into another room with a broad arched doorway, one that reminded him of old buildings in Italy. Places that were far too grand to allow him admittance. So he’d built them for himself, now that he could afford them.

Antique furniture that cost more simply because it was old decorated the room, another possession he’d acquired simply because he could. Same with the marble busts and old vases. Things he’d bought because, before, they were things that museum docents and shopkeepers wouldn’t even let him look at.

Now he owned them. Now he owned whatever he wanted. The cost of it had been high enough that he felt entitled to reminders.

Julia sat in the biggest chair in the room, maroon and wingback. She crossed one slim, leather clad leg over the other and leaned back, tapping her patent black stiletto heel on the hard floor.

“Spill it, Calvaresi.”

“I want to partner with you and present our plan to Barrows. We can land the account together. And, I have it on good authority, we will easily remove Hamlin from the equation forever if we play our cards right.”

“What?”

“To which piece of the statement?”

“All of it. But start with Hamlin.”

“He’s on the downward slide. He’s in so much debt that the only thing that could possibly save Hamlin Tech at this point is a major new account. Barrows. If we don’t partner on it, odds are, he gets it. And the bigger picture here, Julia, is not so much you or I getting the account as it is being able to get rid of a key player in our industry.”

“That’s…well, it’s dastardly, is what it is.”

“I’d twirl my mustache if I had one,” he said, his tone dry.

“I’m serious, why bother to take Hamlin out?”

“Is it your goal to be more successful than him? To steal his customers and cut into his market share?”

“Yes,” she said.

“Well, it’s my goal, too. It’s my goal to do it to you, too, but I can put that on hold because I see an opportunity here. Frankly Hamlin is a bastard, and while I’m not the nicest guy I don’t have sweatshops throughout Asia, or harass my female employees.”

“So you’re just going to play like you’re swooping in and saving the world from Hamlin Tech and all the evil it commits?”

“No,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest, “but it’s another reason he’s an enticing target. The main reason is that I want to be the last man standing.”

“And why should I enable you to get one step closer to your goal?”

“Because it takes you one step closer, too.”

“So we charge in together, then when the enemy is destroyed we turn our weapons on to each other?” She uncrossed her legs and tilted her head to the side, finely groomed eyebrows arched.

“Exactly. Is that a problem?”

“I’m not sure.” She folded her hands on her lap and leaned forward, resting her chin on them. She was an interesting woman. All limbs and pale skin and hair, brimming with a kind of uncontainable energy that always seemed to vibrate beneath the surface.

“As long as we’re working together, we’re working together.”

She sucked her bottom lip between her teeth and Ferro felt a strange, answering jolt in his gut. She was a lovely thing. The sort who had no idea just how lovely. She would need a lot of flattering words, a lot of touch, nonsexual touch, in order to open up. In order to enjoy an encounter with a man.

He mentally castigated himself for the direction of his thoughts. This wasn’t the time. And assessing women like that, figuring out what they really wanted, how he might go about fulfilling that, wasn’t part of his life anymore.

He hadn’t looked at a woman like that in years and he wasn’t sure why he did it now. He wasn’t after a girlfriend, mistress or woman-for-hire which meant there was no point. It wasn’t that he didn’t feel attraction, simply that it registered in his body and nowhere else.

Maybe because she was a puzzle. Something about her didn’t fit. The energy, for one. She worked so hard to play it down, but she could hardly sit still. Then there was the don’t-touch-me black clothes. He imagined they were meant to make her look confident, but in his mind, it only betrayed the fact that she wasn’t. She was wearing armor that was far too easy to recognize as such.

But no matter how intriguing, he wasn’t going there with her. He would not revert to the man he’d been trained to be. He’d escaped that. He used it when it suited him, not when it didn’t. He wasn’t on a leash anymore.

“Meaning you won’t stab me in the back during this…caper?”

“I wouldn’t call it a caper. Although, it will require a bit of…finesse.”

“Meaning?”

This was the part she wouldn’t like. The part that would have been easy with another woman. But Julia wasn’t easy. She didn’t respond to his flirtation. Didn’t respond to his charm. Charm he knew was lethal in most cases.

But not in this one. Interesting. It made her so very interesting. It always had. No one else went toe-to-toe with him. No one, not even Scott Hamlin, would dare pull such public stunts the way she did. She’d pushed him to start doing the same. She’d forced him to act. So very interesting to meet someone who had that kind of power.

But it was in his control now.

“We’ll have to make it look like our…merging—”

“This is not a merger,” she bit out.

“For the project,” he said.

“Fine,” she said, barely civil. “Go on.”

“We’ll have to make our merging look organic.”

“And how do you propose we do that?”

In some ways, the fact that she wasn’t going to like his suggestion made it even more perfect. Anything he could do to tip the balance of power further to his favor was only good. And the more flustered she was, the more control he would have. “It would be completely expected for a couple to discuss a project and come to the conclusion that collaboration would be the best for all involved.”

Her blue eyes glittered. “Are you suggesting that we…that we feign some kind of personal involvement?”

“You’re sanitizing it,” he said, smiling. “I’m suggesting we pretend we’re heavily involved in a scorching affair.”

Julia exploded from the chair and started pacing the room. “That’s insane. As if I would ever…As if you would…As if…As if!”

“You find the idea so offensive?” He crossed the room and sat in the chair she’d just been occupying.

“I find it unbelievable. After the stunt you pulled today do you really think anyone would believe that you and I…”

“There’s a fine line between hate and lust, cara mia.”

“Maybe if you have a disconnect between your brain and your nether regions.”

“And many people do.”

She looked down, then back up, hands planted on her hips. “That’s crazy.”

“Do you have a better idea? Why should Barrows have any confidence in our ability to work together if we present a proposal out of the blue?”

She flung her hands wide. “Because we’re awesome!”

“Awesome doesn’t score points in business, Julia, and this is where being like me has an advantage over being like you.”

“Like me as in young, extremely smart, creative and—”

“Green. Untried. Untrained.”

“And what about you, Ferro Calvaresi, graduate of the school of hard knocks?”

No, she wasn’t a woman to win over with seduction. But when she was challenged? She couldn’t resist fighting back. “Hard knocks? Have you been reading my unauthorized bio?”

Color stained her cheeks, crimson against the pale white of her skin. “No. It’s a common expression.”

“And it’s also in the front jacket of the book. My rise to success from the seedy underbelly of Rome. Fantastic reading. If you like a fairy tale.”

It was almost amusing that she, along with the rest of the world, had jumped at the chance to read about his sordid past. And it was sordid, no mistake, no denying. A good thing for him, the book only scratched the surface. Sure there were whispers, whispers that were close to the truth, but no one really knew.

“I have no idea what book you’re talking about.”

“I think you do, but you can have your lie.”

She was all but bouncing in place now, her knee flexing in time with something in her head. Probably the horrible names she was silently calling him. “Fine. I read it. Know your enemy and all. The Art of War. See? I’m on top of stuff.”

“It’s like your mommy and daddy got you a CEO boxed set for Christmas. Did you also get a world’s best boss mug and a zen garden?”

“Make your point, or I walk,” she bit out.

“My point is that you’ve had success easy and young.” She bit her lip, like she was holding back words she wanted desperately to speak. Words that would be designed to castrate him, of that he had no doubt. “Because of that success, you’ve never had to deal with the realities of setbacks. Of how business works. Of the nuances of it. You didn’t have to court the press, they came to you. You haven’t had to turn scandal around and make it work to your advantage. Haven’t had to twist lies around so that they’re close enough to the truth no one will examine it all too closely, but I have. I know what we’re dealing with here. I know the manner of man Scott Hamlin really is, and I won’t hesitate to take him out completely.”

“You say that like I don’t know that manner of man,” she said, her tone frosty. “I’m a woman in a man’s world. Tech is a boys’ club, Calvaresi. There’s practically a No Girls Allowed sign on the door. I’ve been dealing with men all my life who want to take from me, who think they can just take from women. I do know about men like Hamlin. And you’re right. He deserves nothing less than total professional destruction.”

“He would do nothing less to us. He’s tried to, or didn’t you know?”

“What?”

“You look shocked.”

“I am. He’s never tried to do anything to me.”

“You think not? Well, he’s the man who’s seventy percent responsible for my unauthorized bio, which you are familiar with. And he’s also responsible for the IRS rechecking all of your returns last year.”

“How did you know about that?”

“It’s getting tiresome but I’ll say it again. Corporate espionage.” He watched her expression change, watched her skin turn a deeper pink. He really had made her angry now.

“Who do you have in my company?”

“Who says I have anyone in there? Now.”

“Ferro…”

“I never confirm anything. I don’t deny it, either, so you might as well not waste your time trying to get either from me.”

“Fine. So you say he’s trying to take us down.”

“Yes. And if you were more scandalous he may have succeeded.”

She frowned. “Excuse me? You’re extremely scandalous and he didn’t succeed with you.”

Ferro shrugged. “Because I know how to play it.”

“Is this where ‘neither confirm nor deny’ comes in?”

“Absolutely. My point is, Julia, you need to play this my way. Because while I appreciate that you’re a tech wunderkind—”

“I’m twenty-five. I’m not that young.”

Nearly ten years his junior, and even younger when it came to life experience. Julia didn’t look tired yet. But she would. Life had a way of doing that to people. Especially people thrust into the spotlight.

Lucky for him, in many ways, he’d come in worn down and tired. And at least now he had a bed that belonged to him.

“You are young,” he said. “And the fact that you don’t realize it only highlights that fact. And while that is its own kind of amazing, its own achievement, it is not what I have. Maturity.”

“You? Ferro Calvaresi? You’re playing the maturity card? You just…hijacked my presentation like a…a…pillaging tech pirate and now you’re trying to tell me you’re mature?”

He gave her his most practiced smile, smooth, genuine, a smile no one could find fault with. A smile he never felt at all. “I show the world what I choose to show the world.”

“You think I don’t?”

“I think your armor is thin, cara.”

He expected her to make some sort of snitty denial. Say she didn’t wear armor. She didn’t, and that was to her credit.

“You tell me then,” she said, slowly crossing her arms beneath her breasts, her blue eyes never wavering from his, “what do you think we need to do?”

“We need to make the world believe that all of our hostility has melted away into an attraction, an attachment, that we can’t deny. We need to make them think we’ve fallen head over heels into, if not love, bed.”

“And you think that will work?” She was blushing. He couldn’t remember ever seeing a woman blush. Or anyone for that matter. Everyone he’d ever known had seemed born jaded.

He hadn’t been. He could remember a time when he’d been young. When he’d felt hope. Optimism. Passion.

He’d learned. He’d learned that there were no bonus points for getting through life without mud on your hands. Sometimes you had to get dirty climbing out of the gutter, but at least you were out, even if the filth clung to your skin for the rest of your life. Even if it made you hard and old before your time.

“I know it will.”

“How?”

“The press, the public, are predictable. We show up at a public event, we’ll make headlines around the world. The seed will be planted, when we pitch our design to Barrows, it all suddenly makes sense.”

She flicked her hair back over her shoulder and shifted her weight, one stiletto clad foot out in front of her. “But won’t Hamlin see it coming?”

“Not necessarily. I said it would make sense. I didn’t say it would be predictable. I’m banking on his own ignorance to be his downfall in this. He would never partner with a woman. He’ll assume I won’t, either.”

She chewed her bottom lip, another show of that insecurity she kept concealed by all her hard black clothing. If this were a seduction, he would touch her face now. Just her cheek. Tell her it would be all right. She would respond to that.

He gritted his teeth. “Well? You were quick to remind me you had limited time, Julia. I am a man with many commitments and I can’t stand around waiting for you to make a decision that should be a very easy one to make.”

She extended her hand and he gripped it. She was so petite, fine-boned, her fingers long, slender and clinging to his with a firmness that surprised him. She was indeed a businesswoman.

“You have yourself a deal, Calvaresi.”

“Gratified to hear it, Anderson.”

“We work together on this project,” she said. “No touching that isn’t strictly necessary, no funny ideas about things heating up behind the scenes, and no espionage.”

The espionage happening in her company was well in place, information already being fed to him on a regular basis. And he was sure she’d done the same to him. Fair play during their normal operations.

This agreement changed things. But he imagined as long as he didn’t look at it during the duration of their agreement, it would count as him following the rules. Or maybe not. But he’d never been one for rules. “I think I can handle all of the above.”

“And when it’s over, it’s over. If I have a chance to get you in my crosshairs even thirty seconds after our work together is done, I’ll do it and I’ll pull the metaphorical trigger without hesitation.”

“Back at you,” he said, releasing his hold and dropping his hand back at his side, ignoring the slight burning sensation that skated over his skin.

“Until then, I suppose we have to play nice.”

Ferro smiled, and he watched the color in Julia’s cheeks darken again. “Now that, I can’t promise. I’m not all that nice.”

CHAPTER THREE

“ARE YOU BUSY tonight?”

Julia frowned as she heard the voice that was coming over her personal cell phone. “How did you get this—oh, never mind. Let me guess, you crawled through the ducting in the building and rappelled down over my desk and hunted until you found my phone, then you stole the number and went back the way you came.”

“No. What a waste of energy. I called and got it from your assistant.”

Julia glared daggers at Thad through the wall. “Why would he do that?”

“He assumed that a call from me would be important. And since I am now your lover—” the way he said the word made Julia’s skin feel prickly “—I will of course need to contact you day and night.”

She hated that he was right. She hated that she’d agreed to all this in the first place, but she really, really wanted the Barrows deal and if she had to make a deal with the devil to get it, well, she was willing.

Not happily willing, but willing. Once the account was landed, Ferro wouldn’t be her problem. It wasn’t as though they’d be working closely together on the creation of the navigation system, not after the initial design phase.

She could survive him. She could deal. At least in this she had control. It wasn’t like being dressed up in the world’s most horrific prom dress and being sent off with a guy who was being paid to be your date. No, she had a stake in this. She had power. This was all about the big picture and, regardless of what he thought, she understood business.

“Right, right. And why did you need to know if I was busy?”

“I was wondering if you might like to go to a movie premiere with me.”

“A premiere? For what?”

“Cold Planet is coming out tonight, and I have an invitation for Ferro Calvaresi and Guest.”

For a second, she forgot to play cool. She forgot who she was talking to. “No way! That movie looks amazing.”

“You think?”

“It’s like every sci-fi dream from my childhood come to life on the big screen!” It was too late to pull back her overenthusiastic words. She was always doing things like this to herself, even now that she’d been coached on how to behave in public by professionals.

Normal people didn’t get so excited about movies. Geeks did. It made people uncomfortable, and no one else was really that interested. That was what her mother had told her. Daily. From the time she was a five-year-old girl who talked about how she wanted to make the navigation controls on a spaceship from a futuristic movie and put them into cars someday.

She’d been embarrassing for her parents. Rattling on about strange subjects constantly, no filter for her excitement and enthusiasm. Making her normal had been her mother’s lifelong goal. She’d wanted it enough that she’d bought Julia a prom date when she’d been sixteen.

That had been the end of it. The end of trying to be normal. But she’d learned something even more important that night. There was no protection in normal. But showing who you were? Making yourself vulnerable? That was the biggest mistake of all.

She’d come out of that night, that horrible night, stronger. And when she’d taken off that ridiculous pink dress, the one she’d spent hours choosing, she’d put armor on instead. Armor she’d been wearing ever since. On that, Ferro was right. She didn’t really like that Ferro was right.

Still, even with the armor she had some rough edges to smooth out. She tried hard not to wave that geek flag too high. Not anymore. She had a public face that was so much more socially acceptable, and it helped her get by in the media without having to take too many pot shots.

Which was fine with her. She’d had quite enough growing up.

Stupid bitch, I was doing you a favor. No other guy will ever touch you.

She shook off the memory. It didn’t matter. Those words, the touch of his hands, the way they seemed to linger, didn’t matter. She’d moved on. Moved forward. She’d kept her head down and worked hard, free from caring what anyone thought, not after all that.

It was why she’d succeeded. And with all her money, she’d hired her consultants, consultants who’d helped make her look like a kick-ass video game heroine, who’d helped her learn to speak with poise and confidence.

She wasn’t vulnerable now. And while Giddy Excited Julia was allowed to jump around inside of her over movies and games, she was not allowed out to play.

“Well,” he said, “I happened to have provided some of the software used for the highly sophisticated special effects, which landed me with the invite.”

She closed the door on her memories and focused on the presents. “Right, I was a little jealous about that.”

“But you don’t have the tech for this sort of thing.”

“No. I make technology for regular people,” she said, swiveling her chair in a circle. “Anyway, I really get to come?” She would go chained to Ferro’s leg if she had to. It was way too fun to pass up. She would go even if they weren’t partnering on the Barrows deal together.

“Yes. Formal dress. Though, it is a sci-fi film, if you wanted to do a gold bikini and a slave collar, I think that would be acceptable attire.”

“Har, har, Calvaresi. Anyway, that’s Star Wars. Cold Planet is an entirely different mythology. It’s based off of this first-person shooter game and…” She clamped her mouth shut. She was doing it again. “And I’m hardly going to a public event in a costume.”

“You’ll have to tell me more about mythologies at the premiere.”

She was sure he was making fun of her. She basically deserved it at this point. It was one thing to get in front of a room full of people and make a scripted speech, but still, even still, social interaction had the potential to be painfully awkward. She was out of practice. If she’d ever been in-practice.

“Sure,” she said. “What time?”

“I’ll pick you up at five. We have to walk the carpet, then we get to view the movie.”

“Wow.” So a lot more social interaction on the docket. Goody. “Neat.”

“You sound thrilled.”

“About the movie, yes.”

“Great, see you at five.” He hung up and she leaned back in her chair. Then she scrambled forward and hit the intercom on her phone. “Thad.”

“Yes?” Her assistant’s voice came through the speaker.

“I need a dress. A hot one. Get Ally on it, please. And I need to get my hair done.”

“Formal? And by when?”

“Yes, and I need to be waiting out front of the building at four-fifty.”

Thad sighed heavily. She knew she was asking the next-to impossible, but she also knew if anyone could get it arranged, it was him. “As you wish.”

“Great. Thank you. You rock. I have to go.” She pushed the off button and rested her chin on her desk, her hands on her lap. Then She took a breath and straightened. She was going to be fine. She wasn’t going to think about how ill-equipped she was to show up at a Hollywood premiere on the arm of a man like Ferro. She wasn’t going to think about how likely it was that she would drop a shrimp cocktail into her cleavage during the party.

No. She was going to sit back and let the professionals she hired to make her camera-ready do what they did best. If nothing else, she would look good. She would look strong.

Money might not buy happiness, but it bought an image that made it possible for her to go out in public.

And yes, she was Ferro’s date. But it wasn’t a date-date. Thank God. The last time she’d had a date it had been an unmitigated disaster. And that guy hadn’t been Ferro sex-on-a-cracker Calvaresi.

Not that she was all that familiar with sex. On a cracker or otherwise. But Ferro was. Her face got hot when she thought of some of the more revealing parts of Ferro’s unauthorized bio. Yes, she’d read it. And it made it hard to look the man in the eye.

He wasn’t just hot. He was the kind of man who made women lose their minds. Who inspired respectable members of society to throw off the bonds of convention and flaunt him at social gatherings. He’d been the much-younger stud of a few women back in his home country, setting off scandalous headlines and dissolving marriages.

Of course, that was assuming that version of his life was true. And that was assuming a lot. And as Ferro had said, he never confirmed or denied.

She took another fortifying breath. Great. Fine. She could do this. Tonight, she was going to be yet another rumor to add to Ferro’s list. And she wouldn’t confirm or deny.

When Ferro’s limo pulled up to the curb in front of Julia’s high-rise, he was genuinely stunned by her appearance. She was utterly captivating in a long black dress—the woman didn’t seem to own another color—that skimmed the gray sidewalk. The sleeves were long and full, like a kimono, and the neck high, revealing very little of her pale skin.

Her blond hair was pulled back in a low, messy bun, her makeup done all in shades of pale pink and gold. Her lips were painted the lightest rose, and it created the strangest curiosity in him. A fascination with what they might look like darker, flushed with arousal. Strange because he never felt curious about those things. He knew all about sex. There was no mystery left.

He’d opened the door and let her into the limo, and then both of them had spent the drive down the interstate on their mobile devices, finishing up the day’s interrupted work.

When they pulled up to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, the streets were already blocked off. Ferro’s limo was given immediate access, and they were let out near the end of the red carpet. This sort of thing had never been his favorite aspect of fame. The fortune was his biggest draw. These events did very little for him. Giving fake smiles to even faker people ranked low on his list of things he’d like to do with his Friday night.

Julia had the most purposeful look of boredom on her face he’d ever seen. Like she was forcing her lips to stay pulled together, forcing herself not to smile. She was stiff, walking with her head held high, her posture overly straight.

But beneath all of that, she was vibrating under the surface. Energy was pouring from her in waves, though he knew no one standing far away from her would ever be able to tell. But he could feel her shaking.

She seemed to like a spectacle, her presentations were so ostentatious it was unreal, but then, she was in control of them. The press played by her rules in those situations. Perhaps that was the cause of her unease now. It wasn’t her security keeping the fans at bay. The press weren’t being held to her guidelines.

He pulled her to him, lacing his fingers through hers. “We’re ready to walk the carpet.” He could feel her fingers trembling in his. “Relax,” he said. “We aren’t the A list. We won’t be mobbed.”

“I’ve seen pictures snapped of you while you were getting coffee at Roasted. You’re mobbed frequently.”

“Yes, but not when there are movie stars around. Come on. Anyway, if we are mobbed, our purposes will be served even better.” He tugged her along and when they stepped onto the carpet, he turned his smile on full.

Julia did the same, waving at the crowd lining the velvet rope that partitioned the masses from the golden few, hand-selected to enter into the realm of the elite. Very often Ferro felt like he still had more in common with those behind the rope.

She walked a bit ahead of him, her steps nervous and quick, and that was when he noticed the back of her dress, or rather, the lack of it, for the first time. It was cut low and wide, a swath of white skin on show from her shoulder blades down to the indent of her back, just above the curve of her butt.

It was the shock of it that made him want to touch. He was sure of that. He was a man far too jaded by his past to be aroused by a wedge of skin. Far too jaded to allow himself to be aroused at all, unless it was late at night and he needed a sleep aid. And yet, he found that he was. That fascinated him nearly as much as her exposed skin.

“Slow down,” he said, pulling her back to his side.

“Sorry,” she said, a smile still plastered on her face. “Nervous.”

“Don’t be. Just remember, they’re all here to see you. You’re the one in the enviable position. You’re beautiful. Successful. Everyone out there would love to be here. They would trade places with you in a heartbeat.” The words came, easy and without much thought or sincerity. He was good at giving compliments. At giving women exactly what they desired.

At keeping his mind somewhere else entirely, even while he gave all of his body. A perfect disconnect.

Her smile altered subtly, became more genuine. “That was a nice thing to say.”

“It’s true,” he said, without pausing to think if it really was.

“Ferro! Julia!”

Julia’s head whipped around in the direction of her name. She noticed that Ferro kept his movements much less spastic, kept his emotions better hidden. But she was having a much harder time with it. She’d trained herself to keep her reactions and emotions much more veiled than this, but she’d never been to a movie premiere before. And this movie premiere was a fangirl paradise, which, she admittedly was.

Back before she’d decided being herself wasn’t worth the pain, she would have been lining the streets with the crowd. Probably wearing some kind of Space Fleet Academy uniform.

The flashbulbs were directed at them now and she just smiled and hoped, feverishly, that she didn’t have leftovers from lunch in her teeth or a false eyelash stuck to her cheek or anything similarly horrifying.

Ferro, for his part, was immaculate in his dark suit and tie, short hair in perfect order. The man simply never looked anything less than composed and pressed. She’d bet he didn’t go home and put on a gigantic sweater and yoga pants after a long day of work. He probably wore a black silk robe and…nothing underneath.

She nearly choked.

“Are you on a date?” one of the reporters shouted over The din.

Ferro simply smiled and said, “If you have to ask, perhaps I’m doing it wrong.”

Jeez. The man oozed charm. She’d never seen him not at ease. Even when she’d pulled off her great OnePhone caper and messed with his product launch, his public face had remained completely smooth.

“Julia, any comments?”

“We better be. I don’t want to have to pay for my own dinner.” That earned her some laughter and she was gratified that she’d managed a witty response. Especially since half of her brainpower was being used up to focus on the heat that was coursing from her palm, where Ferro was holding her hand, up her arm, to her breasts, making her nipples, of all things, tingle a little bit.

Ferro waved and she did the same, and they walked on, into the ornate theater where they were ushered to their seats. Ferro released her as soon as they were in the dark.

And again, Julia felt like she was in danger of getting whiplash from the recognizable faces surrounding them. “I think that’s—”

“Don’t stare, Julia, it’s rude.”

She shot Ferro a deadly glare he probably couldn’t see in the darkness. “Sorry. I forgot we were being blasé.” And she shouldn’t have forgotten. Anything else was way too revealing and embarrassing.

“You’ll get to the point where you don’t have to remember. Trust me.”

“You think?” she asked, looking sideways at him in the dark.

“I know. You’re lucky life hasn’t knocked it out of you yet.”

She leaned back in her chair. “You have no idea what life has taken from me,” she said. For the second time in the same day, she thought back to that long-ago prom night. Why was she thinking about it so much? She never thought about it. She’d moved on from it. She was fine. Bruises healed. And the stuff that didn’t? It had helped her realize that you had to be strong. It had been when she’d stopped trying to fit in, when she’d stopped being so afraid to be unusual. She’d just started owning it then. And it had been the key to her success.

She wasn’t sending out any thank-you cards to the jackass who’d assaulted her, but she wasn’t wallowing, either.

“I’d venture to say you know less about mine than you think you do, Julia,” he said, his words darker than the theater.

“I read the bio,” she said.

He chuckled, a sound that lacked humor and warmth. “As I said, you know less about me than you think. Just because it’s in print, doesn’t mean it’s the whole truth.”

The End of the Tech World As We Know It?

The headline screamed up at Julia from the newspaper, just delivered to her tablet. Ferro was already in her office, sitting in the chair in front of her desk like he had every right to be there.

“Not exactly the headline we anticipated,” he said.

“Ya think?” She skimmed the article, her stomach sinking. “Either a sharp blow to progress or a cheap publicity stunt,” she read out loud.

“Because if we’re sleeping together we won’t be competing, and if we aren’t competing, will we be on our game?”

“I have a lot of words rolling around in my head right now and they’re all filthy,” she said, standing up and pacing up and down in front of her office window. “What are we going to do? It’s everywhere. It’s trending on Twitter. There’s a Facebook page, Calvaresi, a freaking Facebook page devoted to…what are they calling us?” She leaned in and skimmed the article again. “JulErro. For the love of Darth.”

“And for everyone rooting for this little enemies-to-lovers tale…”

“There are just as many rooting for us to go down in flames. This…this is a lot bigger than we anticipated, isn’t it?”

Ferro wished he could say he’d anticipated just this, but the simple fact was, social media was hard to anticipate. The press was one thing, the civilian-run news machine? Something else entirely. And the simple truth was, this had gone way outside the tech world, thanks to the internet, which was run by the masses. Who were entirely unpredictable.

“Yes,” he said. “It is.”

The feeling of claustrophobia he felt now, the feeling of being trapped, he didn’t like it. A trap of his own making. And it wasn’t the first one he’d ever been in. He knew all about this. About going so far down a road there was no way to turn back. That you just had to push through, keep going, because you’d gone too damn far.

“Fine,” she said, continuing to pace. “We continue on, and we make it the biggest spectacle ever. And when we blow it up, we make it huge. The biggest media explosion ever. And we’ll always be more interesting after this. Think about it, when you hijack another one of my presentations, just think how newsworthy it will be when we’re exes? Hypothetically. Don’t hijack one of my presentations again.”

Julia might be wearing armor, but she was a tough woman. Smart. Brilliant even. “Of course,” he said, “we’ll be expected to spend a lot of time together. A lot. The visibility is too high. We’re going to have to give them something to talk about, because if we don’t…if we get caught in this…”

“We’re in trouble.”

“Putting it mildly.”

“Okay…okay…what’s the plan then?”

“There’s a charity event tonight. I was planning on skipping it and writing a check, but I think we should make an appearance, don’t you? As a couple.”

Julia looked like she was going to say something, but she hesitated.

“Come on, Julia,” he said. “Don’t wimp out now.”

“I’m not wimping out!”

“Then why do you look like a deer caught in the headlights?”

“Because the other day we were sworn enemies and if I never had to see you in person it suited me just fine. Now…two outings with you in a row? I could live without that.”

“Maybe this is why tech, and business in general, is traditionally a man’s game,” he said, not meaning a word he was saying but knowing it would give Julia the kick she needed. “Maybe it’s because women are too ruled by emotion.”

He knew it wasn’t true. Because he’d been…he didn’t even know what to call it. Shaped, molded, by women who hadn’t cared what their actions meant to the emotions of a teenage boy. He’d spent years surrounded by women who saw people only as pawns. People of both genders were more than capable of acting based on selfish desire. Of using people to meet their ends.

But his words would push Julia. He knew it. Knew it was a hot button for her.

“Are you saying I can’t do this?” she asked.

“You’re the one who looks like she has a problem. I’m willing to make this work. Are you? Or are you just giving me lip service here?”

She narrowed her eyes. “I’m going to ignore the potential double entendre there.”

“If it suits you.”

“Fine. You have yourself a date for tonight. Ferro?”

“Yes?”

“Uh…what’s the charity?” He had a feeling that wasn’t the question she’d intended to ask.

“For homeless youths.”

“Great. I’ll bring my checkbook.”

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