Her scandalous baby bargain!

With her chances of finally having a family in jeopardy, Neha’s taking drastic action! Approaching billionaire Leonardo Brunetti with her outrageous request to father her child by IVF is step one. Step two? Ignoring her deep desire for the alluring Italian!

Leo is the ideal choice because he doesn’t do romantic attachments. His parents’ less than stellar example cemented that. And the last thing Neha needs is yet another man dictating her life. Her terms are straightforward, until Leo turns the tables by showing Neha how pleasurable indulging her desire can be...

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!

Also by Tara Pammi

Bought with the Italian’s Ring

Blackmailed by the Greek’s Vows

Sicilian’s Bride for a Price

Bound to the Desert King collection

Sheikh’s Baby of Revenge

Brides for Billionaires collection

Married for the Sheikh’s Duty

The Drakon Royals miniseries

Crowned for the Drakon Legacy

The Drakon Baby Bargain

His Drakon Runaway Bride

The Scandalous Brunetti Brothers

An Innocent to Tame the Italian

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.

A Deal to Carry the Italian’s Heir

Tara Pammi

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-08851-0

A DEAL TO CARRY THE ITALIAN’S HEIR

© 2019 Tara Pammi

Published in Great Britain 2019

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

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Version: 2020-03-02

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To my endlessly patient and brilliant editor: Laurie.

Thank you so much for your guidance

on a super-fun but complex Modern.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Note to Readers

Dedication

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

About the Publisher

CHAPTER ONE

“ARE WE REALLY supposed to think he’s given up his twisted revenge scheme?”

Leonardo Brunetti, CEO of Brunetti Finances Inc., asked the question of his younger brother, Massimo, about the man who had done too much damage over the last few months to both BFI and Massimo’s brainchild, Brunetti Cyber Securities.

Contracts had fallen through at the last minute, their father Silvio Brunetti’s embezzlement from BFI and his corruption—everything Leonardo had cleaned up in the last decade since he’d taken over as CEO of BFI—was being recycled in the news again and again, and even worse, Vincenzo Cavalli had hired a consortium of hackers from the dark net to hit Massimo and his wife Natalie’s multilayered security design for a billion-dollar contract for BCS.

They had almost lost that contract, too, except Natalie’s genius had saved it at the last minute. And now, Vincenzo had disappeared. They both knew better than to think the man was done, not after his brutal tactics to bring everything related to the Brunettis down.

“What happened to the financial trail that Natalie gave us?”

“The investigator found only one small nugget of information. That account has ties to Mario Fenelli.”

Mario Fenelli was one of the oldest members on the board of BFI, one of the old guard, a relic left over from when their father, Silvio, had ruled the board, and the staunchest, most vocal opponent of Leo.

While Leo, with his grandmother Greta’s and Massimo’s help, had cleaned up Silvio’s corruption and ousted him from the board, BFI’s founding board were members of Milan’s upper echelons of society. Old money, old power—men who didn’t want to give up what they had in the name of Leo’s financial reform and ethics that he’d brought to the firm.

Vincenzo’s actions had already had far-reaching consequences.

Contracts falling through, the cyber-attack on financial information of BFI’s clients, leaving BFI’s and BCS’s cybersecurity vulnerable, and then leaking the information to the board—Mario had been one step behind with his accusations that Leonardo was following in Silvio’s footsteps, creating an atmosphere of doubt and confusion among their clients, breathing rumors that Leo was just as corrupted.

It was because of the unprecedented growth and revenue BFI had seen under his leadership and the fact that the Brunettis—Greta, Leo, Massimo and their father, Silvio—still held the majority of stock in BFI that Leo hadn’t been forced to step down.

With the financial connection between Mario and Vincenzo, it was clear that Mario had been bought.

“Mario Fenelli is a greedy bastard,” said Massimo with a bite to his words.

“There has to be something in the old man’s history that we can use against him,” Leo said. “And if we can find Vincenzo through him, we can finally put an end to this.”

“Ms. Fernandez is here,” came his assistant’s voice through the intercom.

“Neha is here to see you?” said Massimo, his brow tied. Neha Fernandez, Leo’s oldest friend, was Mario’s stepdaughter. “You’re not involving her in this thing with Mario, are you?”

Leo wasn’t insulted by Massimo’s accusation. If he’d turned into the man that Silvio had brainwashed him to be, he wouldn’t have hesitated to use Neha.

Massimo and he had made a pact to run BFI with ethical and clean practices—basically, to be the opposite of what their father had been.

But Massimo had had the influence of a mother who had tried her hardest to fight their father’s corrosive and toxic influence on her weak son. A mother who’d strived to make sure that Massimo understood what was right and what was wrong. A mother who’d put up with an abusive husband because to leave would’ve been to give up on her son. Massimo’s ill health, while making him the subject of Silvio’s vicious rants, had also kept his father away.

Leo, on the other hand, had worshipped his father until he’d learned what Silvio was capable of. His mind had been filled with bitter poison against the woman who had walked out on her young son in the middle of the night by an infuriated Silvio.

“No, I’m not,” he finally said.

Neha was the one woman with whom Leo’s association spanned the longest. The one woman he respected and admired. The one woman he’d always been intensely attracted to but hadn’t pursued because he wasn’t a relationship kind of man.

The tentative friendship had built the first day when Mario, a new board member of BFI, had brought Neha with him on his trip to Milan, and Silvio had brought Leo.

While her mother and stepfather had postured about their wealth and connections, Neha—even then a quiet, sharp, pretty girl—had arrested his attention. She’d already been running her late father’s bakery single-handed, and had been full of ideas for new branches. Leo, meanwhile, had been roiling with anger and rage—he’d discovered that week that not only was BFI in ruins, but that Silvio had been abusing Massimo emotionally for years, and that the man he’d worshipped for all his life was nothing but a bully all around.

Neha had listened to him rage about his father, the devastation he’d felt. She’d clasped his hand shyly and said, “But all you have to do is tell your brother that you’re sorry. That you do care about him. That... You love him.” He’d vowed that when he returned home with Silvio, he’d do just that.

In the meantime, he’d distracted himself by offering Neha ideas about how to raise seed money to expand her business.

And through the meteoric rise of her fame, from winning a local English village baking show contest at sixteen to transforming a chain of baking goods she’d created into a multi-million-pound business, Neha had come to him for advice and Leo had given it to the best of his ability.

Mario had spotted the extraordinary talent and work ethic his stepdaughter had possessed even at that young age and monetized it so fast that within just a few years of Neha winning the contest and creating the first line of confectionary goods, Mario had launched her as a child prodigy that created delicious confections. He’d made her into an international brand, franchised her talents so far and so wide that So Sweet Inc. had become a world-renowned business.

“Why is she here, then?” Massimo asked, pulling Leo from the past to the present.

“She asked to see me. As soon as possible.”

Massimo waggled his brows, doing quite a good imitation of a schoolgirl. “Is it really business, though? I’ve always sensed something more between you two.”

Leo kept his expression implacable. Neha was forbidden to him, would always be. “It’s pathetic to see you act like a matchmaker just because you are blissfully in love.” He strode to the door and opened it. “Now, go back to Nat and leave me to my business.”

Mouth twitching mischievously, Massimo walked over to where Neha waited, and hugged her with all the easy energy of a man who didn’t have the complication of wanting her and keeping her at a distance, as Leo had done all these years.

Through the open doorway, Leo could only see the clean lines of Neha’s profile: her long neck, her brown hair tied back in a braid that highlighted those cheekbones, the elegant white sheath dress draped over her curvaceous body and the yellow pop of her pumps. It was her public persona. White dress, yellow pumps and a strand of pearls at her neck. Red lipstick that made her lush mouth look like one of her delicious creations. A dimple in one cheek and laughter in those light brown eyes.

All that creativity and passion wrapped in unruffled composure, all those voluptuous curves with the hidden sensuality buried in the elegant, girl-next-door package she presented to the world. That subtle lure of wanting to delve beneath the elegant persona she showed the world, to ruffle all that composure... It had started on the eve of her twenty-first birthday party.

Overnight, she had transformed from a shy, pretty teenager into a gorgeously sexy woman. The urge to undo all that elegance, to reach the woman beneath, was as fresh and urgent and intense as it had been that day. For a man who went after his goals with single-minded ruthlessness, Neha was the one thing Leonardo had had to deny himself.

Their relationship, as much as it had stayed inside the unsaid boundaries they’d both set, and as much as it defied the media’s incessant efforts to label, was important to him. Against all the odds for a man who had problems with trusting the opposite sex, Neha had become the one genuine friend he possessed.

He could never risk that.

Massimo asked her how long she meant to stay in Milan, because he wanted to introduce her to Natalie. Neha’s gaze flew to his.

Leo stilled; every bit of his attention arrested at something inexplicable that flashed in her eyes. He frowned.

She turned back to Massimo. And gave him a circular non-answer. Thanked Massimo with a graceful smile before saying goodbye.

Leo’s curiosity deepened as he drank the sight of her in with a greed he knew was useless to try to curb. She stood there, framed by the arch of his door, her lower lip caught beneath her two front teeth.

Afternoon sunlight from the high windows behind him gilded her in golden light, tracing the curvy contours of her body with the same delight and thoroughness that he wanted to. He’d seen her in a million variations of the same color scheme and makeup. And yet the white dress ending a couple of inches above her knees, the high-necked bodice that showed off the swell of her breasts, the tight dip of her waist...everything that was familiar about her spiked his awareness.

So thoroughly mesmerized was he that it took him a few moments to notice the hesitation in her gaze. The rigid set of her shoulders. The tension emanating from her.

“Neha...” he said softly, and she snapped into the present. “Do you plan to stand there for the rest of the day?”

She entered his office without answer, closed the door behind her, still not quite meeting his gaze.

In the wake of Massimo’s jokes, the silence was thick, awkward.

She walked toward the sitting area of his office, poured herself a glass of water from the carafe. Her knuckles showed white on the glass while her gaze stayed on the streets of Milan’s business district rendered colorful on a bright afternoon.

They had always been courteous to each other through the years, close without getting personal. He’d been there when she’d called her wedding off eight years ago—calm, quiet and yet somehow devastated. He’d never asked her why, only given his support when she’d asked for his help to curtail the media swarming in like locusts at the prospect of drama and tragedy beneath the elegant, sweet public persona of hers.

He’d never let on that she was the one woman he wanted with a desire that seemed to span years, when usually his lovers had a shelf life of maybe six months.

As she grew older, she’d become even more irresistible. More beautiful, more elegant, more composed, which taunted his base impulses because he wanted to see beneath that perfection. He wanted to see her undone. In his hands.

“Thank you for agreeing to see me on such short notice. I know how busy you are,” she finally said, turning to him.

“Why are you being so formal?” he countered. “Is everything all right?”

“Everything’s fine,” she said, raising her brown gaze to his, not quite smiling, not quite serious. She studied his features with something almost bordering on desperation, searching, as if she meant to see through to his soul. It was unnerving, and yet not...unwelcome.

“Sorry, I’m just... I don’t know where to begin.”

“Take your time, then.”

She put away the empty glass, dropped her white clutch down on the coffee table and then rubbed her palms up and down her hips. Inadvertently calling his gaze to the thoroughly feminine swell.

His gaze traveled from where her hands rested, up, up, up her hips, to the thrust and fall of her breasts, the pulse beating away at her neck to the plump, glossed lips, to collide with her stunned brown gaze.

A sudden shimmer of awareness—bright as a bolt of lightning in a dark sky, sizzled through the air around them. Condensing the expansive room, the world, to just the two of them. Her gaze dropped to his mouth, for an infinitesimal second, before she pulled it back up. The moment was weighted, tangible, as if she’d pressed her mouth to his. But it was enough.

Enough for him to know that the attraction he’d denied for years wasn’t just one-sided. Enough for his muscles to jerk and tighten in anticipation, in need. Enough for the rational side of him to issue warnings.

“I came to ask you something. Something very important.” The words rushed out of her. “It’s a big thing.”

“Bene,” he said, reaching for her, but she jerked back.

“No, it’s a huge thing. Don’t laugh at me, yeah? No, wait, I don’t care if you laugh at me. Just don’t dismiss it immediately, okay? Please, Leo.” Desperation filled her words. “I went through every means available to me and I come to you after a lot of thought. Please promise me you will consider it.”

“Neha...”

“I mean, you know me, yeah? For what? Sixteen... No, seventeen years! I’ve never done anything impulsive or rash or reckless. Head down, I worked just as hard as you. Harder even, because life’s not easy for women in the business world. I’ve never...” When her breath became shallow and her eyes filled with an alarming combination of panic and fear, he grabbed her hands and tugged her toward him.

“Calm down, bella,” he said, keeping his own tone steady.

She was the most levelheaded woman he knew. This panic, this anxiety...was bizarre. Alarm bells went off in his head. Was she in some kind of trouble? Not financial, because he would’ve heard of it. He had a huge stake in So Sweet Inc.

Was it...a man? The thought jarred him on too many levels.

“Make me that promise first,” she said in a demanding, petulant, possessive voice that was completely uncharacteristic of her.

“I can’t make a promise without knowing what you’re asking me for.” His words were clipped, curt, tangled up in his own reaction. It had always surprised him that after her broken engagement, Neha had never been involved again with another man. Or at least he hadn’t heard about it. He shouldn’t be this shocked that she was involved with a man now.

“All I’m asking is for you to consider my request first. I have gone over all of my other options. Coming to you is the right choice.” She sounded like she was convincing herself, too. “This is what I want.”

“Fine, bella. I promise to consider your request. Now, out with it. All the suspense is giving me a headache.”

“Whatever your answer, will you please keep this whole thing from Mario? This is personal, this is about my future.”

Leo nodded, shoving away the flicker of distaste.

It was about a man.

Why else would she not want her mom or stepfather to know? Was he good enough for her? Had he already deceived her? Did she know what kind of fortune hunters her wealth could attract?

She slumped down onto the sofa with a harsh exhale. The afternoon light caught glints of copper and gold in the thick, silky strands of her hair. Fingers, clasped tightly together, rested in her lap. “I thought it through, looked at it from all sides, and I’ve decided that this is the right thing for me. For my life. For the life I want.” She licked her lips, a fine line of sweat beading about her upper lip. Then she looked up with the defiant tilt of her chin. “I’m going to have a child.”

It was the last thing he’d expected for her to say. For a few seconds, he stared at her, his brain trying to catch up.

She was pregnant? Had the man ditched her?

“What is it that you want from me, then?” he said, shock making his question curt.

Her teeth dug into that plump lower lip, her tongue flicked over it, demanding, and getting an unbidden reaction from his tense body. She tucked a wayward lock from her braid behind her ear, each movement so feminine, so utterly taunting.

“Out with it, Neha,” he said, corralling his own rioting reactions with a ruthless warning. He’d wasted enough time indulging an unlikely scenario between them that he would never turn into a reality.

She stood up and met his gaze head-on. “I would like you to father my child.”

CHAPTER TWO

IF ALL HER hopes and dreams hadn’t been hanging on his response, Neha would have laughed at the astonishment on Leonardo’s face. Like a typical man, he looked baffled by the concept of pregnancy. Or was it the forthrightness of her strange request?

Unlike any other man, however, he recovered fast and pinned her with his penetrating gaze.

“You’re not pregnant already?”

“What? No!” She looked away, refusing to let her imagination conjure a quality to his question that wasn’t there. “Of course I’m not pregnant. I haven’t been with a man since...” She flushed at the sudden gleam of male interest in his eyes.

Clearing her throat, she slowly unlaced her fingers, forced herself to look up at him. “I’m not pregnant. But I want to be. That’s why I’m asking you to... Be the father. To my child. So that I can be a mum. I want to build the family that I’ve always wanted. So that I can be...happy,” she finished softly.

She grabbed her clutch and pulled a tissue out of it. Just to have something to do. He kept looking down at her, unblinking. Not betraying his thoughts. A stranger for all that she’d known him for so long.

Lord, she’d appeared on network shows, giving speeches at conferences with CEOs and entrepreneurs, and this, the most important thing of her life... She was making a total mess of this.

Even the practice sessions she’d done in front of the mirror in her bedroom didn’t help. Because she couldn’t recreate the most important facet of their relationship by herself in front of the mirror.

This pent-up, unwise attraction of hers that had taken root years ago. Leonardo was the one man who teased and taunted her dreams for so long, who made her want to break down hard-won defenses she’d built, for one taste of that carved, sinful mouth.

It didn’t matter...it didn’t seem to matter to her body how many times she told herself that Leonardo was out of reach.

For one thing, even if she could come out and ask him outright if he was attracted to her—and he amazingly said yes, Neha couldn’t take him on because he was too...important to her.

For another, she knew what Leonardo thought of women in general and how far down his priorities romantic relationships were. He didn’t believe in love and marriage any more than she believed that another man like her papa had been—loving, warm, unconditional in his love for her—existed.

In short, Leonardo was the last man on earth for a woman to build her future around. Not that he wasn’t a good man. He was the alpha in any situation—a protector at heart—and he extended that protection and care to maybe two other people in the world.

She desperately wanted to be counted among them.

That first day when they’d met she’d still been grieving over her papa, and he’d been...ragingly angry about how his father had emotionally abused Massimo for so long. That regret and pain in his eyes that he hadn’t protected Massimo... Neha had never forgotten that.

For a gorgeously striking young man with the world at his feet, there had been such dissolution in his eyes when he had to face the stark reality that his father was a brute who crushed weaker people. That he’d worshipped a man who was so far from being a hero that he’d have to question everything he knew of himself.

Wondering how many lies the foundation of his life had been built on.

It was the only time Neha had seen that vulnerability in him. The only time she’d seen beneath the ruthlessness, the arrogance, the aura of power that surrounded Leonardo Brunetti.

Once their careers had taken off, they had met a few times each year. In the beginning it had been accidental—bumping into each other at some conference, traveling at the same time. She’d started using him as a sounding board for her own business ideas. As the years went by, he’d started asking her to dinner every time he was in London. She’d begun stopping in Milan whenever she had the chance.

She had obsessively followed his relationships from that first day on social media, and in glossy magazines, feeding her addiction about his life, wondering if between all the women he seemed to sleep with and dump eventually, he remembered her existence. But whoever the current woman in his life, Leonardo Brunetti, CEO of BFI, would meet his close friend Neha Fernandez, CEO of So Sweet Inc., on his every trip to London.

For a confirmed bachelor, who couldn’t be pinned down by even the most beautiful woman on earth, Neha had become a permanent fixture in his life.

Their friendship had deepened while morphing into a legend with the media. Their relationship had been analyzed and criticized and praised and “shipped” by some of Neha’s fans.

And she was putting all that on the line. But her resolve didn’t falter.

“You want me to...make you pregnant, so that you can have a baby, which in turn will make you...happy?” Leo finally said, every word enunciated in a biting tone.

She held her composure, barely.

“That is the request you want me to consider before I reject it outright, sì?”

“Yes,” she replied, squaring her shoulders.

A violent energy imbued his movements as he raked a hand through his hair and stepped away from her. “An innocent life is not a thing you go looking for because you’re bored, or because you’re unhappy, or because it’s the latest celebrity bandwagon to jump on—”

“You’ve got every right to question the sanity of my decision. Every right to be shocked,” Neha cut in, determined to make her point. His concern for a hypothetical child told her how right she was in her choice.

When it came to protecting an innocent life, Leonardo would always be a protector at heart.

“But don’t think I came to this decision lightly. Or that it’s some biological-clock-induced crisis I’m acting on without thought. And you know me better than to think it’s for a publicity stunt.” Her voice rose on the last and she took a deep breath to calm down. “I’ve always wanted a family. A man I’d respect and love, children, a house with a backyard and a huge kitchen while I do my best to be a good mum and run a bakery.” A lump sat in her throat.

“Sometimes I wonder if I fell so fast and hard for John because he came with a ready-made family. His daughters, so young, needed a mum and I bought into the fantasy without knowing what kind of a man he was. The dream of fitting into that family blinded me to what I should’ve seen from that first day.” She took a deep breath. “My dream has become impossible to achieve. One—” a bitter laugh fell from her mouth “—I can’t afford for all the millions I’ve made.” She’d morphed from a young girl, full of dreams, to a cautious, burned-out shadow of herself.

The anxiety attack had come out of nowhere but had been years in the making. Once she’d gotten over the shock and fear, she’d seen it for what it could be—a much needed wake-up call to fix her life.

It had given her the kick she’d needed to do something about getting the life she wanted.

“You never told me why you called off the wedding,” inserted Leo, pulling her away from the whirlpool of her troubled thoughts.

Everything in her protested at having to share the shame of her naiveté, of her desperation.

But telling him why she’d called off her wedding was important now. For the most important decision she’d ever taken in her life. She had to strip her armor and bare herself. To a man who’d never be vulnerable in front of her, or anyone else, for anything in the world.

“John told me the night before the wedding that Mario had been pulling his strings all along.”

Leonardo’s pithy curse did nothing to salvage the pain of that meeting. The wound it had left in her. “What did the bastard tell you?”

His anger on her behalf sent heat prickling behind her eyes. Made her weak. And she’d promised herself that she would never be weak again. That she would never tangle herself up in fantasy so badly that she couldn’t see the truth in front of her.

“Exactly five weeks to the day before I met John, Mario and I had a huge row.

“The company’s IP hadn’t been public yet. That first chain of bakeries we opened...it had become such a success in such a small span of time that I couldn’t believe it. Mario’s investment had come at the exact time. After the third bakery I’d opened, I was stretched to the max financially. I couldn’t believe that he shared the same vision that I had had. It snowballed into a monster I couldn’t keep grasp of soon after.

“Before I knew it, we were franchising my brand. New lines of goods were launched, only half of which I had designed. I signed with an agent, who in hindsight never shared my vision. I started to appear on network shows and then we released a line of baking tools. More and more things that I hadn’t approved of. There were days when I hardly had any time out of meetings. But business was booming, and Mum was deliriously happy for me and so I let Mario steer the ship.

“I didn’t quite have the guts to face up to him when I couldn’t exactly pinpoint the source of my own frustration.

“Then I got a call from the CEO of a small American bakery goods company. He’d seen me on one of my shows and asked me to come take over his company’s European branch. Offered me carte blanche—the vision, the line of the goods, a new bakery chain, everything would be up to me. It was exactly the break I needed from...” She looked away from him, refusing to share the complex relationship she had with her mum. “Anyway, it was the perfect time for me to start it.

“I gave myself six weeks to start tying up things with So Sweet Inc. before I accepted the offer. One week in, John joined my division. I found out later that Mario had appointed him to work exclusively with me. He seemed to be the perfect man—funny, kind, a wonderful father to his girls, and he believed in love. He wanted to settle down, get married and have more kids. Tailor-made for me because Mario had designed him like that.

“He’d been coaching him, pulling his strings, playing with my dreams and fears all along. John proposed within a month and I was more than happy to say no to the American’s offer, to put everything I wanted on the line for the life we’d build. Mario got what he wanted.

“But the deceit turned too much for John. He came up to my suite the night before our wedding and came clean. Apparently, he’d been in dire need of funds since his wife had passed away and the medical bills had piled up. Mario offered him the position of chief of division if he played the part of my husband.”

Leo cursed again. “Why the hell didn’t you confront Mario? Why continue to work with him?”

“Mario and I had a nasty argument after everyone left. I told him I was walking away from So Sweet Inc. after his manipulations.”

She looked away, the pain of the blow that had come after still echoing within.

Her mum had refused to walk away from Mario. She hadn’t seen what was wrong with what Mario had done with John to keep Neha home. “It’s not easy to break those ties,” she added softly.

“I’m the last man a woman with your...dreams should proposition.”

Neha moved to stand in front of him, letting him see her conviction. “I’m not that naive to think a man and love are needed for happiness. I don’t think I can even trust a man to have my best interests at heart anymore.

“Success is a double-edged weapon, yeah? I’ve enjoyed all the perks it’s given me. But I’m ready for the next stage. I want to share my life with a child. I want to give him or her my love, nurture it, build a relationship like the one I used to have with my papa. I want more than I have now and I’m going after it the best way I know.”

The space around them reverberated with pain and hope and sincerity.

He sat down on the opposite sofa, his right ankle propped on his left knee, his face thoughtful. “Why not an anonymous donor?”

Even having been prepared for that question, the quality of his tone sidetracked her. Distrust? Suspicion?

“Why me? What do you want from me?”

Neha forgot all her resolution to present a rational, cohesive argument. “For goodness’ sake, Leo, you can’t think I’m out to trap you.

“I might not be the heir of some centuries-long aristocratic Italian family, but I’ve got a fortune of my own. You know I’ve invested wisely. I can stop working tomorrow to have the baby and live comfortably for the rest of our lives.

“Granted, I won’t be able to fly to Milan on a private jet or afford a chauffeur-driven car or live in a mansion in the middle of London, but I never needed those things.”

“So you’re not after my wealth. What do you think is the one thing that most women that I have had a relationship with hope for?”

Sheer outrage filled her. “You think I want to marry you?”

He shrugged. The man’s arrogance apparently knew no bounds.

“Your romantic relationships are designed to last no more than three months at the most. Massimo cares more for those hounds of his than you do women. You think I want a piece of that?

“And not every woman’s dying to marry you, Leo. I definitely remember the scientist, and who’s the other one...? The CEO who publicly quoted her outrage when the trashy article implied that you’d dumped her,” she finished with savage satisfaction.

His blue gaze danced with amusement. “A good thing you keep such good track of my love life, bella.”

So he knew she was obsessed with his love life. So what?

Rugged masculinity, charming smile, unlimited wealth and power and a smoldering sex appeal meant half the women on the planet were obsessed with Leonardo Brunetti.

“So we’ve crossed off my wealth and my suitability as a husband. Maybe all this is a ruse to gauge my interest in you. To lure me into bed with you.”

Lure me into bed with you...

A veritable cornucopia of images downloaded into her brain. Bare limbs all tangled up on pristine white sheets, of him bending that arrogant head to taste her lips, of him driving that rip-cord-lean body into her over and over again, of touching him intimately, of kissing that hard chest and lower, driving him crazy... Her skin prickled, her breasts swelling with an unspoken ache.

She couldn’t look away from him, from the dawning desire in his eyes, from the acknowledgment curving his sinful, arrogant mouth, from the heat radiating from his powerful body. Her chest rose and fell as she forced herself to breathe in a long gulp. “If a red-hot affair’s what I really wanted, I would’ve proposed that.”

His eyes gleamed with a fire she’d never seen before. “Would you, truly?”

“No,” Neha said, swallowing the yes that rose to her lips.

A flicker of disappointment in his eyes.

How had they arrived here, of all places? How did such a small thing that Leonardo was attracted to her send her sensible nature off running into the clouds?

For years she’d kept a lid on all her fantasies starring him, locked away all the feelings he’d evoked in her again and again, and now, when it came to the most important thing in her life, she wasn’t going to let them create an obstacle for her.

“Don’t mock this. Please.”

“Why ask me and put yourself in this vulnerable position?”

When she’d ever been anything but...with him especially.

The ugly truth of her burnout, her inability to walk away from So Sweet Inc. all these years, the shame of her complex relationship with her mum... All these were vulnerabilities she loathed baring in front of him.

But Leo would not settle for half-truths. That he was a man who’d do anything to protect the people he cared about also meant that he’d strip her bare and leave her defenseless if she wasn’t careful.

“You’re the one man that Mario’s always been wary of,” she said. “My mum...she’s the tether that keeps me tied to Mario and So Sweet Inc.

“In all these years, I haven’t been able to figure out how to save my relationship with her, and walk away from his toxic presence. Mario rules my life—my day, my social life, my vision, my work, even how I dress and what I say outside the walls of the office...”

She rubbed her fingers over her temple, even talking about it bringing on a pounding behind her eyes. That powerlessness gave birth to anxiety that could choke her breath.

Hand on her tummy, she forced herself to breathe deeply, to anchor herself on one point in the room to focus on. To fight the wave that could overwhelm her so easily.

His hands as they poured a glass of water for her...she focused on them. Large, square tipped, and yet she knew, if he touched her, they’d be gentle.

And just like that, the encroaching darkness got pushed back. Knowing that she could control it, knowing what triggered it, made it less scary than that terrifying first time.

Knowing that she was taking the right steps to wrest her life back under her control, knowing that she was building a future she wanted helped.

“This last year...it’s become imperative that I have to prioritize what’s important to me.

“The pace that Mario sets for me, I can’t continue and be sane. The entire board is in his pocket, even though I’m the CEO. Even though I own the IP to that first line of products that launched So Sweet.

“If I have a child with an anonymous donor, not only am I leaving myself more vulnerable to Mario’s passive-aggressive tactics, but my child becomes a new weapon to manipulate me.

“Because, believe me—” a hysterical laugh left her mouth as she imagined the aftermath of the bomb she was going to drop on Mario soon “—he’s going to try and come at me with everything he’s got over the next few months. I refuse to let my child become a pawn.”

“Are you sure you’re not overestimating the threat he might pose?”

“Said every man who claims he’s a friend to a woman in distress.” The bitter words rushed out of her on a wave.

Leo raised his brows and waited.

Neha flushed at the infinite patience reflected in his gaze. “I’m sorry. That was uncalled for.”

Leo waved it away. “I shouldn’t have doubted you. You would not concoct fantastic scenarios.”

His fingers landed on her shoulder and squeezed, concern expressed in an ephemeral second and then gone. As if he couldn’t let the contact deepen. As if he couldn’t linger even for a moment.

“There is more, sì?”

She nodded, not surprised at the depth of his perception. “I plan to retire soon. I have a legal team going over a million little things so that it can be a painless process. I plan to make a public announcement in a week or two.”

“What?” He sat forward in his seat. “That soon? Don’t make an emotional decision.”

“I’m not.”

“If this is about being a good mother—” admiration glinted in his eyes “—I have no doubt you can do both, Neha. And well.”

Her entire being warmed at his words. It felt immensely good to hear another person talk about her future with a child in it as a real possibility. “Thank you for the vote of confidence. I want to be a hands-on mum. But this pace I’ve been working at for the last decade, I can’t continue like that. Not if I want to have a healthy life, be a happy, strong mum to my child.

“Not if I don’t want to end up...” She swallowed away the darkest of her fears. “If the child is yours, Mario won’t dare to cast his shadow near him or her.

“So what I need is for you to create an illusion of standing beside me while I build the life I want.

“Can you do that, Leo? For me?”

Neha’s laughter—loud, full-bodied—hit Leo like a sound specifically created to awaken every nerve ending he possessed. His hand stilled with his coffee cup halfway to his mouth. He had convinced her to stay at his family’s villa by Lake Como for the weekend because he’d wanted to keep an eye on her.

It was a familiar sound—a glimpse into the funny, witty woman beneath the elegant facade. But so out of context here, in his home, where he had never invited a woman. Silvio’s multiple affairs, paraded shamelessly in front of Massimo’s mother, had been enough drama to last a lifetime.

He hadn’t sought her out in the two days she’d been here, leaving her in Nat’s capable and kind hands.

Ignoring his nonna’s complaints about the upcoming celebrations for her eightieth birthday in two weeks, he stood up and walked across the vast balcony.

A weak November sun cast a soft, golden glow around the gardens surrounding the villa that were his pride and joy. The villa had been a stalwart presence in his life when he’d been devastated as a young boy—confused, distraught and lost. The centuries-old legacy, the Brunetti name, thousands of people who’d always depended on the finance giant BFI for their livelihood, the tens of thousands of people who’d put their hard-earned income into the Brunettis’ hands for safekeeping, an anchor that had kept him going straight.

But it was the gardens that had given him a sense of belonging.

He’d always been able to will the most reluctant, the most stubborn, flower into full bloom with his hands. For a long time, he’d believed this was his contribution to the Brunetti legacy. Well, this and the fact that BFI had flourished under his leadership for the last two decades.

Vaguely, he remembered following a fragile, delicately built woman around the same gardens with a plastic pail and spade in hand. With a sense of delight that hovered at the edge of his subconscious mind. Soft laughter, sweet words...a memory buried in the recesses of his mind.

Another laugh from Neha pulled his thoughts from murky, unreliable memories. More than relieved to leave the past behind, he studied the woman who continued to intrigue him. The same woman who’d rendered him sleepless for the two days that she’d spent under his roof. Roused protective instincts he’d never even known before.

Neha stood on the sloping path that led to Massimo’s custom-built lab. Peach-colored trousers hugged her hips and buttocks, the fitted white shirt displaying the outline of her breasts perfectly. Hair high up in a ponytail that swung playfully as she walked, her smile glorious amid the riotous colors of the gardens.

I want you to father my child.

Even now, the fierceness of her expression when she spoke of a child that hadn’t even been conceived amazed him. Then there was the very existence of another image in his head—unbidden—of a boy or a girl he’d try to guide and protect while Neha nurtured with unconditional love.

“She looks much happier just after two days of being here,” said Massimo, joining him.

“You think so?” Leo had noticed something off with her but had put it down to the strangeness of her request. It wasn’t every day she walked up to a man and asked him to father her child.

“You didn’t notice?” Massimo wasn’t being facetious for once.

“Tell me what you noticed,” Leo invited him.

Massimo cast Leo a curious look but obliged. “She has such dark circles under her eyes her makeup can’t hide it. I haven’t seen her in...eighteen months, but she’s clearly lost weight. I know these ridiculous magazines call her fat and plump—”

“Her brand is successful because, like her products, she’s authentic, real. She eats like a real person and has curves like a real woman.” Leo heard the vehemence in his voice only after the words were out.

Massimo raised a brow. “It isn’t just her physical appearance, though. She doesn’t have that glow that lights her up from the inside, that genuine quality of hers. Instead, there’s a fragility I’ve never associated with her.” Massimo’s tone became softer, gilded with worry. “I remember Mama like that, before she left. As if she were at the end of her rope.”

Success is a yoke that can stifle every other joy.

“But the two days here seem to have made a world of difference,” Massimo added.

Again, true. Each hour Neha spent here in the villa seemed to restore a little bit of sparkle to her eyes. That innate joy.

“She wants to have a child. With me.” The words came easy because somewhere in the last two days he’d come to a decision.

Massimo’s sharp inhale jarred alongside his own steady breathing. “I didn’t know you two were involved.”

“We aren’t. Until now.”

“You’re considering this,” Massimo said, astonishment ringing his tone.

Leo’s smile dimmed, his chest tightening with an ache that was years old, that he wanted to shove aside as he’d always done. But today, he couldn’t. As much as he wanted to leave it there to rot, the past had a way of shaping the future. He couldn’t make a decision without making sure no innocent, and there could be two if he agreed, got hurt.

“Go ahead, play the devil’s advocate,” he said, inviting his brother’s opinion on a matter he didn’t discuss with anyone.

Massimo turned around and leaned against the balcony. Studied Leo for long moments. “You’re considering having a child with a woman who’s the one constant in your life, a woman you respect and admire, a woman who’s the real thing. I think it’s fantastico.”

Leo tried to swallow the shock that filled his throat.

“Shades of Silvio’s ruthlessness and abusive mentality could be in both of us. That does not mean we’ll prey on innocents,” said Massimo, who preferred computers to people, perceptive when it came to this.

“You had a mother to teach you right and wrong,” Leo whispered, the words coming from a dark place he’d shoved deep inside himself. From a hurt so deep he’d tried his damnedest to bury it. “A mother who taught you that it wasn’t weak to...feel.”

What he’d had instead was a father who had filled his formative years with poison against the woman who had walked out on both of them. Greta wasn’t cruel but she hadn’t ever been comforting to her grandsons, either. At least, not until she had married her second husband, Carlo, the first person who’d tried his best to teach them what it meant to be a good man.

But Leo had already grown up by then. Had been filled to the brim with bitterness against a woman whose face he didn’t even remember.

“But I almost lost Nat with my own hang-ups, sì?” Massimo’s gaze gentled. “You reached out to me when you discovered what a brute Silvio was, even though he taught you nothing of what makes family. You made him back off, you encouraged me to follow my passion. You believed in me and brought millions in seed capital when I’d have sold those designs for peanuts. There’s a reason a smart, levelheaded woman like Neha picked you.”

Leo had no words to express the gratitude and the indefinable emotion that pressed down on his chest. He hadn’t needed Massimo’s reassurance, but it felt immensely good to have it all the same.

“The only thing I would worry about in this whole scenario is...how the both of you will make it work.” Massimo grinned. “Nat and I will watch from the sidelines, popcorn in hands. She’s going to love seeing Neha bring you down a notch.”

Leo smiled. His sister-in-law was determined to see him defeated. In something, anything. “All Neha literally wants is to put me to stud, Massimo.”

Massimo burst out laughing, then sobered up when he realized Leo was serious. “What?”

“She wants the child because if I’m the father, Mario will think twice before he comes near the child. He’s got her all twisted inside out. She doesn’t want a coparent. Much less a relationship.”

“You’re okay with that?”

Leo didn’t answer, his gaze caught on the beautiful woman who had turned his life upside down with a simple request.

He was going to be a father, yes, but he wasn’t going to do it all by her rules.

Neither was he going to be tempted into a relationship with a woman he’d share a child with, with his history of relationships. Agreeing to Neha’s request meant he could never satisfy the deep hunger she evoked in him.

CHAPTER THREE

NEHA KNOCKED ON the thick wooden door. When there was no answer, she turned the gleaming metal handle and stepped into Leonardo’s bedroom. Uninvited.

The suite was twice the size of hers. Hers was thoroughly feminine with soft pink walls and bedspreads; this was a thoroughly masculine domain.

A dark oak desk sat in one corner of the room with a large monitor and papers neatly filed while comfy sofas and a recliner made up a cozy sitting area around a giant fireplace. Original, priceless artwork hung on the cream walls, a casual display of the Brunetti wealth—an overarching theme over the entire villa.

Dusk hadn’t fallen completely yet and the high windows filled the room with an orange glow. One portrait hung on the wall—Silvio sitting in a vintage armchair while Leo, no more than six or seven, stood next to his father, dressed in a matching three-piece dark gray suit, his thick curly hair slicked back, his baby-blue gaze full of grief and an ache he hadn’t learned to hide yet.

A jarring contrast to the powerful, impenetrable man he was today. Neha traced her finger over the little boy’s face, a host of emotions running through her.

She called out Leo’s name a couple of times and heard nothing back. Drawing a deep breath, she ventured farther in. There wasn’t so much sunlight in the bedroom and there was a coolness to the room, the air filled with that masculine tone she associated with him. The walls were a light gray with light blocking shades on the windows while a massive king bed sat against a high-ceilinged wall.

A huge upholstered headboard and pristine white sheets made the bed look like an ocean of welcoming comfort and warmth.

She could picture Leonardo sprawled in the middle of that bed, taut muscles relaxing after a long day, languid mouth stretched into an inviting smile, waiting for her. Her breaths came shallow, her fingers reaching out as if she could...

Leo walked in through a large door she hadn’t noticed, rows and rows of expensive, tailored clothes behind him.

Any sense she did possess before, any air left in her lungs, rushed out.

His magnificent chest was bare, tailored black trousers hung low on his hips. His jet-black hair, thick and wavy, was damp from the shower.

Neha couldn’t even pretend to look away. Every inch of him was chiseled to perfection like one of the life-size statues littered throughout the estate. She knew he worked out with that same ruthless discipline he applied to everything else in life, but dear God, she could spend hours just looking at his body, imagining all the things she would love to do to it.

Miles and miles of tautly stretched skin beckoned her touch. The broad sweep of his shoulders, the jut of his collarbones, the solid musculature of his chest, the slab of rock-hard abdomen...he was intensely male, an utter contrast to her soft curves.

His chest was liberally sprinkled with hair, and she imagined the sensation of that rough hair abrading her silky skin, over her sensitive nipples... An ache filled her breasts, narrowing down into her lower belly.

Every inch of him was defined and all she wanted to do was test the give of all that toned muscle with her teeth.

A single drop of water plunked onto his chest from his wet hair and she followed its trail from one neatly defined pectoral to the dip, through the tight planes of his abdomen and into the line of hair below his navel and into the band of his trousers.

“Should I wait a little longer before I put on the shirt?”

His voice—ringing with a husky wickedness—jerked Neha out of her greedy feasting. Heat rushed up her neck and into her cheeks.

Blue eyes danced with a roguish glint she’d never seen in him before. His sculpted mouth was turned up at the corners, his smile—a rare, genuine flash of teeth digging a groove in one cheek—a beautiful thing that could pull her out of the darkest of pits any day.

She looked away and then back, utterly incapable of coming up with a reply that wasn’t a yes, please. He was flirting with her and how she wanted to retort in kind. But it could lead everywhere and nowhere...

“Massimo said you’re leaving for Milan again. That you’re off to Paris from there. I didn’t want to miss seeing you,” she babbled, trying to gather a little sense. “We hadn’t talked again and I thought I should...”

He waited silently. And that bubble of intimacy pulled her, deeper and deeper.

“I’ll wait outside. Can we talk while you walk to the helicopter?”

He leaned against the big bed, his shirt thrown casually onto it. His glorious chest still bare. “I wasn’t going to leave without talking to you.”

“Oh, okay,” she said, suddenly feeling superconscious of her own attire. The see-through cover-up she’d pulled on in a hurry stuck to her damp skin while barely skimming the tops of her thighs. She pulled the sheer fabric away from her skin and his attention, arrested on every breath and movement of hers, made her shaky all over.

“I just wanted to reiterate that—”

“I have made a decision.”

She swayed, her knees refusing to prop her up. He reached for her immediately, his long fingers grasping her elbow in a firm grip.

“I’m fine,” she said, snatching back her arm. Forcing herself to breathe in long, deep gulps. “I’ll let you finish dressing.” She’d barged into his room and now she couldn’t wait to escape. If he said no...

“I’d prefer to talk here,” he said, pushing off from the bed. “And I’ll put on the shirt if it makes you uncomfortable.”

“Not uncomfortable, no. After all, it’s your bedroom. Just distracting,” she said in a half-snorting, high voice, panic letting her thoughts out in a rush.

His laughter was delicious, sexy, rubbing against her skin, winding her up. Heat washed over every inch of her, the very idea of licking up that hard chest sending a rush of desire through her.

“As you wish,” he said with a devilish smile, and reached for his white shirt.

Neha watched, shameless and bold and greedy, as he raised his arms and let the shirtsleeves slide down his corded arms. A mole on the underside of his right bicep, a small scar under his left pectoral—details she didn’t need to know about him and would never forget.

She followed him into the seating area, too agitated to sit.

He took mercy on her and said, “We need to set expectations.”

She nodded. “I’ll sign any document you put in front of me that I’ll never seek financial assistance. I’ll never hint, twist or manipulate you for marriage. Or demand that you be involved in the child’s life. I—”

He leaned forward in the sofa, all the humor gone from his face. “That’s not what I meant.”

“I just want to make it clear that I won’t be a headache for you, Leo.”

He pressed a finger to his forehead, as if he was exercising patience he didn’t have. “In doing so, you’re insulting me.”

“What? How?”

“You want me to father a child, face off Mario, all the while offering no emotional or financial or even moral support?” His taut expression highlighted the rugged beauty of his features. “That makes me such a shining example of what a man should be, sì?”

“I’m not sure I follow.”

He sighed. “It’s a little...disturbing to be thought a man who thinks nothing of fathering a child as a favor and moves on.”

Shock rendered Neha silent for long minutes. That was the last objection she’d expected. “You told me once that you innately don’t trust women, and when I said that that was horribly sexist, you said you didn’t have the slightest inclination to examine it, much less fix it.

“You said...love was for fools who willingly bought into a bunch of compromises and then glorified it. You told that reporter you were ecstatic to let Massimo propagate the great Brunetti line further.

“I assumed from our long association that being tied down isn’t in your future plans.”

He ran a hand over his jaw. “Being tied down to a woman is one thing, a child, completely another.”

“What does that mean?”

“If I father a child, I will damn well be involved in that child’s life. Our long association should have told you that.”

His softly spoken words packed a punch. Neha swallowed the defense that rose to her lips, slowly realizing that this wasn’t about her.

It was about him, his...feelings. And he was right—in all the myriad scenarios she’d foreseen she hadn’t considered his feelings at all. “It wasn’t meant as a statement on what kind of a man you are.

“I chose you because you’re the one man I know who’d do anything to protect an innocent in your sphere.”

His gaze held hers, as if to see through to the truth of that.

After a long time, he nodded and she let a breath out. “What does this mean, then?”

“The child and its well-being is the most important thing in all of this, sì?”

“I’ll love my child more than anything in the world. I’d do anything for her or him.”

The hardness edged away from his eyes. “That’s the only reason I’ve come this far, bella. But you need to accept that I will never be an absent parent or a stranger.

“I know what goes through a child’s mind when a parent abandons him or her. I can imagine what this child will hear from friends, well-wishers, every cruel, hard word and taunt. I will not willingly put any child of mine through that.”

He had every scenario their child would face covered so thoroughly that Neha stared.

How could she have forgotten that Leonardo’s mother had left in the middle of one night, leaving her five-year-old son to his father? How could she have forgotten the fact that she knew better than anyone what a wound that had left in Leo’s life?

If Leonardo was a father in the true sense of the word...

Mario’s shadow wouldn’t touch her child. He or she would have Leo’s guidance and support, Natalie and Massimo’s affection, be a part of a family. Everything she’d always wanted would be her child’s.

The prospect of his involvement was such a tempting offer that Neha had to force herself to think of other implications. “Our relationship—”

“Will be defined by the fact that we want what’s best for our child.”

She nodded, the confidence in his tone building her own. They were rational adults, they knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses—they could handle this rationally.

“You said conditions. What else?”

“I want you to postpone the announcement about your retirement. And, if required, your retirement itself. By a few months.”

“No, absolutely not.”

Her refusal rang around the room. It knocked Leo off axis to see the sudden fear and distrust in her eyes. Addressed toward him when he’d only ever seen respect.

“Neha,” he started softly, reminding himself that, for whatever reason, she was fragile right now, “hear me out.”

She stayed at the window, the waning sunlight from the skylight gilding her body in a golden outline.

Even in the tense situation, he felt the tug of awareness on his senses that she so easily provoked.

The loose white sheer tunic had a low neckline that presented him tantalizing glimpses of the upper curves of her lush breasts. The sheer fabric showed silky brown skin, and the shadow of her orange bikini, skimming the tops of her long, toned thighs. Pink nails peeked through the sandals she wore, completing a picture of such sheer sensuality that she took his breath away.

From the moment he’d found her standing inside his bedroom—staring at his bed—he’d had the most overwhelming urge to pull that tunic up and away from her body until he could feast on the sexy curves underneath. With his eyes, hands and mouth.

Damp hair stuck to her scalp, highlighting the classical bone structure of her face. He wanted to run his hands all over her, learn if she was as soft and silky as he imagined.

She stood up from the sofa, walked to the door and back, to the windows and then back again, every step conveying restless energy. Without that elegant facade she put on like a second skin, he could see now what Massimo had seen. Shadows hung like dark bruises under her eyes and there was a pinched look to her mouth.

When he went to her, she turned, her entire body trembling. He wrapped his hands over her palms, keeping the distance between them. She smelled like vanilla and sunlight and an intoxicating mixture of both. Against his abrasive fingers, she was silky soft. “Neha, look at me. I would not ask something of you unless it was important.”

Her expression cleared. “You’re right.” She sat down on the coffee table, her knees tucked between his own. “Tell me.”

“You already know a little about the cyber-attacks on BCS, right?” He waited for her to follow along. “But the cyber-attacks on Massimo’s firm were just the tip of the iceberg.

“We had three deals in our pocket that fell through. Sylvio’s colorful, abusive past keeps being recycled by the media and the press, dragging news of his embezzlement, and how he evaded incarceration because I bribed the pertinent officials.

“Alessandra’s personal life, her past, her family—they keep getting exposure in trashy tabloids,” he said, mentioning his grandmother’s stepdaughter. Neha had met the beautiful top supermodel Alessandra Giovanni a couple of times during her long acquaintance with Leo. And for all her harshness and rough edges, Greta was a different woman with her second husband’s daughter. Carlo had been gone for a long time, but Alex had become a part of the family.

“But Alex isn’t even a Brunetti,” Neha said, frowning.

“Massimo and I think she’s been attacked because Greta is close to her. All of us have been featured in the news cycles over the past few months—always some sort of scandal or sensationalism attached to our names. Reputations have crumbled, businesses been ruined, for less in the finance industry.”

“So everything is connected?”

He nodded. “Natalie was hired to bring down Massimo’s security design. The clients’ information was left vulnerable to attack, but she didn’t steal it.”

“That’s how Massimo met her?”

“Sì. And thanks to the fact that she’s crazy about Massimo, she’s given us a name. Vincenzo Cavalli. He’s bent upon a revenge scheme, determined to cause as much harm as possible to the Brunettis.

“When Massimo’s design was hit, only four of us knew. Massimo, me, Natalie—who’d attacked the system—and the man who’d orchestrated it.

“Yet somehow Mario leaked the news of the attack to the BFI board. He’s been riling them up, calling for my resignation. That I’m not unlike my father, that in the end, I will bring ruin to BFI like Silvio had done once. Most of the board members remember the destruction Silvio caused.”

A shadow of fear crossed Neha’s eyes. “So Mario is involved with this man?”

“We found a financial trail between him and Vincenzo. Mario’s as power hungry as it gets. He saw a chance to push me out of the CEO position and he’s taken it.”

“But what does my retirement have to do with it?”

“You are Mario’s golden goose. Your retirement is my currency against him.”

Her fingers were tangled so tight in her lap that they showed white. “Currency in what way?”

“Will you promise to not freak out first?”

“I’m still here, aren’t I?” she said, some of the fight back in her eyes.

“We will pretend to be a real couple, make all those predictions that have been flying about us real. If I know how Mario’s mind works, he will hate us taking our relationship to the next level. He won’t like it that there could be another man—especially a man like me, arrogant and powerful as you said—who could control you.

“Everything you’ve told me about how he has tried to manipulate you all these years tells me that he will do anything I ask to make sure he doesn’t lose you.”

“So you’ll use me like a puppet between you two?”

“To create an illusion that I have control over you, yes. To put pressure on him. If that doesn’t work, then yes, I’ll hint that I’m pushing you toward retirement.”

She shook her head, shadows in her gaze. “I can’t postpone it. It’s not something I decided easily.”

“I know that.”

“I don’t think you do. I don’t trust you with this, Leo.”

He sat back slowly, trying to digest the shock those words caused. Disturbing him on more levels than he liked to admit to himself. “Then none of this will work.”

“You don’t take this retirement thing seriously. You think this is some sort of temporary insanity phase. How can I believe that you’ll put my well-being before your need to crush Mario or your need to stop this... Cavalli guy?”

True, he had mostly discounted her claims about wanting to walk away from an empire that had been built over two decades. He’d thought it was her need-to-be-in-control nature that was making plans for the future that weren’t quite necessary. But Leo had always been willing to admit to his faults. “Yes, I did think that. But I would never do anything to harm you. Especially now, when our future will be tied together forever, when I’m agreeing to have a child with you.

“All I want to do is put the pressure back on Mario, get him to spill about Vincenzo before he does irreparable damage to my family.

“The fact that you and I will have a child together is going to make Mario nuts.”

“Do you want to risk infuriating him with the decision to retire on top of that right now?”

“He’s not going to like it,” she said softly, running her hands over her neck. “Mario’s going to be apoplectic at our...new relationship.”

Leo took her hand in his and squeezed, willing her to trust him. All he wanted to do was kiss that tension off her mouth, to hold her until he could feel those lush curves against his, until he could calm her down like she had done him so long ago. But...if he did that, it wouldn’t stop there.

He would seduce her, and he knew without being arrogant that she would reciprocate.

And then what? What would happen when he lost interest and moved on? When hers was the face he’d have to disappoint?

Neha pulled her hand back slowly. He didn’t miss that she rubbed that palm against her hip. Or that she remained wary of the distance between them. “Okay. I agree to your plan.”

“Good,” he said. He could always count on her to be logical and rational. “What’s next for your plan, then?”

“You have to have blood work done. Mine’s done. I’ll have a couple of appointments with the IVF specialist first and then we can decide the logistics of when and where...”

Embarrassment dusted her brown cheeks a slight pink, but Leo refused to break eye contact. There was something incredibly satisfying to his male pride to see her blush like that. To see that composure of hers falter at such an intimate subject at least.

“When and where I make my contribution. Does that work?”

He smiled when she nodded.

“I don’t know much about it, but you have to take hormone injections, sì?”

“Yes. It’s a...little bit invasive and painful but I want to do this.”

“I’ve never doubted your resolve, cara. You will call me if it gets too much or if you need a supporting presence there.”

“Will I?” she said, a naughty smile dawning in her eyes, unfurling a beauty that made his body hum with desire, ache for contact. “Don’t get all arrogant and commanding on me, Brunetti.”

“Don’t forget this is a partnership, Fernandez,” he replied in the way they used to tease each other a long time ago. Dio, the woman had always been so strong. And it was the strength that attracted him, that will to keep going on in the face of adversity. “Everything will be all right, Neha. I’m glad you came to me.”

“I hope so. I...”

Eyes wide, breath hitching loud enough for him to hear, she came at him. And hugged him. Hard. The press of her body against his was a pleasure of mere seconds, gone before he could revel in it. The scent and warmth of her fleeting heaven. Her hands on his shoulders, she kissed his cheek, and a shiver of anticipation built inside him. Anticipation that would never deepen into more. “I don’t know how to thank you,” she said, pulling back. “I promise you, Leo. You’ll never regret it.”

Leo pulled her arms from around his neck and took a step back. Putting distance between her and him. Giving his discipline a fighting chance.

Every muscle in his body flooded with the awareness that here was a woman who was his match in every way. A woman who’d never ask him for more than he could give, a woman who would be the absolute best mother to any child they had, a woman that would always make him laugh and want.

Awkwardness flashed in her eyes before she fiddled with her clutch again.

As he watched her walk out of his bedroom, Leo stayed leaning against the bed. He turned his neck around, tension clinging to his frame.

Cristo, now even his bedroom smelled of her.

The rest of the day, he wondered if he would come to regret his decision. Because he had tied himself irrevocably to the woman he desperately wanted and could not have.

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