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  “You figured right.” Gio surprised Nick by sitting down across from him. He cleared his throat. “That deal will make a substantial difference in the profit margin. You did good.”

  Nick tensed at the praise. His family knew exactly how to soften someone up before cutting them down. He and Gio hadn’t spoken about anything personal since he’d returned to Cogent, but it appeared that was about to change. “And?”

  Gio ran a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry.”

  Nick sat forward. “What? You obviously have something you want to say to me.”

  Gio looked at him silently for a long moment. “I didn’t know what to do when Father died. I was angry with him when I discovered his mistress in Venice. At that time, I didn’t know about Gigi. I swear, Nick, that wouldn’t have been a secret I would have kept.”

  “Why did you keep any? Didn’t I have a right to know the truth?”

  “I thought I was protecting the family. I was wrong.” Gio punched his thigh in frustration. “I was wrong about a lot of things. Mother was devastated by the revelation that Father had another family. That was followed by a realization that he hadn’t been honest with anyone about the state of the company. Cogent was sinking. We were one contract away from closing our doors. I remember feeling like everything was spinning out of control. I thought if I could get Cogent back on track everything else would return to normal. I didn’t want you to know how bad things were. I see now that by keeping you out of the loop I blocked you from becoming an effective team member.”

  “You sound like you’re making a deathbed confession. I don’t buy it.”

  Gio accepted that with a nod. “I don’t expect you to trust me immediately. I thought the worst of you when you were determined to work here. Luke said you’re here seeking the truth. I don’t have all of the answers you’re looking for, but I have some. Whatever Mother has against Victor and Alessandro, it has something to do with Isola Santos.”

  “Our family’s private island?”

  “Yes. It should have gone to me, but Mother made sure it didn’t. She gave the deed for it back to our uncles and lied about it.”

  “Do you have proof of that?”

  “Victor told me the deed had been in Mother’s possession before Father died. Which made sense since it always goes to the oldest male child in the family.”

  “The uncles have lied about many things over the years. They never accepted her or us.”

  “I used to believe that, but not anymore. As soon as they knew I was interested in Isola Santos, they offered it to me. No, someone has been lying to us, but I don’t believe it was them.”

  Nick stood and shook his head.

  Gio stood also and continued. “None of this is easy for me to say. I love our mother, too. And she is ill, just not in the way she’d like us to believe.”

  “You’ve never told me any of this before. Why say it now?”

  Gio held out a hand for emphasis. “You and I have been at odds for a long time, but these past two weeks have proven it doesn’t have to be that way. We can be on the same team.” A sad expression entered his eyes and he lowered his hand. “You don’t believe me.”

  “I didn’t say that.” Nick sat immobile while his mind raced. Gio seemed forthright, open, and almost earnest in his desire for Nick to believe him. Which either meant what he said was true, or there was something Gio was afraid he would uncover.

  Gio went to his desk and returned with a folder. “Take this. It’s the Durkin file. I had planned to meet with him and Congressman Blasett next week to facilitate the site testing and formalize the government approval. Why don’t you lead that meeting? Rena has all my notes. She can bring you up to speed on everything we’ve done so far. If you need her, take her with you to his office. She knows all the players involved. This will free me up to check out a potential site in Canada.” He held the folder out to Nick. “Are you ready for the challenge?”

  Nick took the folder and met Gio’s eyes. This wasn’t how he’d imagined the morning going at all. “You’re asking me to work with Rena? Didn’t you warn me to stay away from her?”

  Gio laid a hand on Nick’s shoulder. “I overreacted to that stupid photo. You’ve known Rena as long as I have. If something was going to happen between the two of you, it would have happened a long time ago. I should have trusted you.”

  Nick frowned. Whether or not Gio was being entirely honest with him, Nick wasn’t about to lie to him. “Gio, I can’t guarantee . . .”

  Misreading what Nick was about to say, Gio gave him a supportive pat on the back. “You’ll do fine. Especially if you work with Rena on this. The framework for the deal has already been banged out on all sides. All you have to do is get it in writing.”

  Nick nodded and left Gio’s office with folder in hand. The deal wasn’t the part he was worried about.

  He stopped in front of Rena’s desk and said, “It looks like the two of us will be working together. I’m taking over the Durkin project. I realize tomorrow is Saturday, but I need to get up to speed on it as soon as possible. So, my place or yours?”

  Rena’s eyes rounded and she licked her bottom lip nervously. “I don’t think either is a good idea. How about here?”

  Giving in to temptation, Nick leaned down and growled into her ear, “I’ve pictured fucking you on your desk as many times as I have imagined you in my bed, or in my car, or against your office door. Location is not going to make this any easier.” The scent of her perfume was heaven to him. “I know you feel the same.”

  She didn’t deny it. How could she? Her own breathing revealed how his words were affecting her. She pulled her head back so she could meet his eyes. “Then the smart thing to do is to not meet at all. I can send you the information I have. It’s easy enough to do this online. We could even FaceTime if you’d like.”

  “Afraid?” he asked and loved how she shivered at his question.

  “No,” she denied hotly a second later.

  “Good, then meet me.”

  “Fine,” she said and reached for a sticky note. As she spoke, she wrote an address on the paper. “This is the coffee shop around the corner from my house. It has tables where we can sit and talk. Espresso Express. I’ll meet you there at ten. By then the rush is over and we can talk without being disturbed.” She handed the paper to him primly.

  He pocketed the paper. “You always were good at playing it safe.”

  Her eyes held a mix of heat and defiance. “And you always do whatever you want.”

  He took her chin in his hand with a less-than-gentle grip. “That’s how you see me?”

  She broke off their connection with a flip of her chin. “Count me out of whatever game you’re playing. I’ll work with you because I want you to succeed here, but if you’re interested in anything else, call your secretary. Unless you’re already sick of tapping that well.”

  “Tapping that well?” He threw his head back and laughed. “I love it. And you know what else I love? You, jealous. That haughty, dismissive tone is hot.” His expression turned more serious. “For the record, I haven’t tapped anyone’s well for months.”

  He walked to the door of her office, turned, and put a hand to his throat. “Parched.”

  She crumpled up a piece of paper and threw it at him. “Get out of here.”

  He turned around to look at her one more time from the doorway. “Tomorrow at ten.”

  As he walked away, the confusion he felt while talking to his brother melted away. When it came to family matters, he didn’t know who to believe yet. Normally, that would have soured his mood. However, he was about to spend a day with Rena.

  He smiled.

  They could start with business. In fact, it was important that they did. He needed to be ready for the Durkin meeting the following week.

  But after that . . .

  Whatever happens—happens.

  Chapter Seven

  The next morning, Rena used the short walk to the coffee shop to get her hea
d together. Nick liked to shock people. That’s all his suggestive comments yesterday had been about. He wanted to see if he could get under her skin. And he’d succeeded.

  Just as he always had.

  If she had been looking for confirmation that meeting him was a bad idea, she’d only have to call any of her friends or family. Kane believed Nick wasn’t at Cogent for good reasons. Her friends had always considered her crush on him to be one of her few flaws. They called him a narcissistic playboy. Not that that would have stopped any of them from sleeping with him if he’d shown any interest in them.

  Which thankfully he hadn’t. Rena liked to believe that was out of respect for her.

  Despite all of Nick’s outrageous flirtations and daredevil stunts, she’d never seen him deliberately hurt anyone. She’d never caught him in a lie or been confused about his motives. He was impulsive, brash, and irreverent when it came to authority. He knew exactly how to get a rise out of someone and wasn’t above making sport of it. But she had also seen tenderness in him.

  She thought back to her sixteenth birthday party. Her parents had planned it for months. They’d invited their friends and colleagues. Rather than the pool party she’d requested, it was to be a formal event—one she’d vented about in front of Nick and his brothers while they were all on a ski trip. She didn’t want tea and flowers; she wanted music and Slip ’N Slides. Kane had explained that she was growing up and that those types of parties were for children. Gio had agreed. Luke had tried to make her see the importance of the landmark birthday from her parents’ point of view. Max had bet that complaining wouldn’t change anything since the invitations had already been sent out.

  Nick hadn’t said a word.

  On the day of her party, a caravan of trucks had pulled up in their long circular driveway. Before her parents had been able to stop it, an entire petting zoo had begun to unload on their front lawn. The drivers had been adamant they had the right address. Her father had been furious. Her mother had been frantic to get the animals off her lawn before the guests inside saw them.

  That chaos had allowed another vehicle to pull up to the rear of the house. Three young men had unloaded speakers and inflated the tallest Slip ’N Slide she’d ever seen, along with a couple of changing tents and an assortment of bathing suits. The petting zoo had been instantly forgotten by her crowd as they’d cheered in surprise and changed into swimwear.

  Still in her formal dress, Rena had been both horrified and moved by the gesture. Someone had given her exactly what she’d wanted that day. Although she’d desperately wanted to run outside and join her friends, she’d also been afraid to disappoint her parents. So she’d hung back, frozen by her own sense of right and wrong.

  Nick had come to stand beside her as she’d looked out the window at her friends. He’d come back from college for her birthday. That alone was something she’d never forget. But he’d also said, “Don’t let anyone guilt you into being someone you’re not. This is your chance. Go. Everyone is so angry with me, no one will care if you have a little fun.” He’d looked over his shoulder and laughed. “In fact, I believe your father just found me out because he’s heading this way and he does not look happy. I’d better go.”

  She’d caught his arm and asked, “You did this? For me? Why?”

  He’d given her a wink that had melted her heart. “It’s what you wanted, wasn’t it?”

  Then he’d wisely bolted before her father had had a chance to corner him. Gio hadn’t been as lucky. Rena sighed as she remembered how she’d never changed out of her dress. She’d spent the next hour apologizing to her father and calming her mother. She’d dutifully returned to the tea and endured another hour of her parents’ guests while her friends had enjoyed the waterslide.

  Even though the party had gone down in her family’s history as the event Nick Andrade had ruined, it was on that day that Rena had fallen helplessly and irreversibly in puppy love with him. The gesture had been as brash as Robin Hood’s act of rebellion, and as romantic as any made by a fairy-tale prince. She’d spent many nights dreaming of being swept off her feet by Nick.

  But childhood fantasies must all eventually be put to rest.

  Very few children actually grow up to be the astronauts their parents told them they could be.

  And adolescent crushes naturally fall to the wayside for more realistic relationships.

  I’m not a princess in a tower waiting to be saved.

  I’m a grown woman, perfectly capable of making my own decisions and living a life without regrets.

  Except one: I wish I’d been brave enough to join my friends outside instead of doing the right thing.

  Which doesn’t mean I’m going to sleep with Nick. I haven’t completely lost my mind. All I’ve agreed to is coffee in a busy coffee shop. She glanced down at her outfit. Okay, and I may have also chosen to wear the short red dress my friends say I look amazing in.

  She stopped.

  Oh, shit. I forgot to bring my laptop and notes. Now I’m going to be late.

  She turned on her heel, headed back to her town house, and ran up to her office. As she slung her computer bag over her shoulder and closed the door to her home, she lectured herself.

  This is a business meeting.

  Nothing more.

  He’ll say something to try to make me blush.

  I’ll brush it off.

  And that’ll be it.

  Moments later she paused outside the door of Espresso Express to take a few calming breaths. She’d rushed to get there, and she told herself that that was the only reason her heart was beating wildly in her chest.

  She frowned when she saw the sign on the door of the shop announcing it was closed. She’d never known it to close, especially not on a weekend morning. Disappointment filled her. Nick had probably come and gone already.

  I made myself crazy for nothing.

  Just as she was preparing to turn away and call Nick, the door to the shop opened. Nick stood there, dressed casually in jeans and a polo shirt, as if nothing were out of the norm. “Are you coming in?”

  Rena hugged her computer bag to her side. “Isn’t it closed?”

  “For everyone but us.”

  Rena peered past him into the coffee shop. “You paid them to close for the day?”

  A roguish smile spread across his face. “Due to the nature of our meeting I thought a little privacy was warranted.”

  “Is anyone else in there? The owners? That tall kid who always messes up my bagel orders?”

  “They set up and left. Trust me, they didn’t mind. I promised them some new espresso machines. And Carl is studying for his exams. He was happy to have the day off with pay.”

  When someone walked up to see why the shop was closed, Nick pulled her inside and shut the door behind her. He also closed the blinds, leaving the interior dimly lit despite the time of day. “We’re finally alone.”

  Rena folded her arms over her chest. “This wasn’t what I had planned at all and you know it.”

  Nick guided her farther into the shop with a hand on her lower back. “You said it yourself—I do what I want. And I want you, Rena.”

  Rena froze. He lowered his head and spoke softly in her ear as his hand splayed across her lower back in an almost reassuring caress. “Tell me you’re scared.” He turned her so she was facing him. “But don’t tell me you don’t want this as much as I do, because I’d never believe you.”

  Rena met his eyes angrily and licked her bottom lip. “You’re that sure of yourself?”

  He followed the path of her tongue with his thumb. “I lay awake at night thinking about how you’d feel beneath me, on top of me, wrapped around me in every way you could be. I want to hear you call out my name when you come. I want to sink into your pussy and pound away until I lose myself inside you. I see the way you look at me. You want it just as badly.”

  Rena was only partially aware her computer bag was slipping off her shoulder until Nick stopped it from hitting the floor
. He placed it on the table beside them and returned his attention to her. “Well, Rena? What’s it going to be?”

  Images of a younger her, sadly standing in a dress by a window, flickered through Rena’s mind. The childhood feelings she’d had for him rushed forward to embrace the mature ache she knew only he could appease.

  For once, she didn’t want to do the right thing.

  She wanted to do the wrong one—again and again, on every table in the shop and every inch of the counter behind them. She took his face between her hands, went up onto her tiptoes, and pulled him down to meet her lips.

  With a groan, he gathered her to him, meeting her passion with his own. He ran his hands down her sides and along the outside of her thighs. As they came up, he raised the hem of her dress with them, bunching it around her waist. With two strong hands he cupped her ass and lifted her slightly so he could grind her against his hard cock.

  Rena had kissed her share of men, but she’d never experienced anything like this. Nick claimed her mouth with his, thrusting his tongue inside with a confidence and skill. Although she’d initiated the contact, he’d taken the lead and brought an intimacy and heat to the caress that trumped all that had come before.

  This was no gentle request. This was a claiming, and one that she was more than willing to give herself to.

  His mouth left hers and trailed hot kisses from her ear to her shoulder. His breath tickled, heated, and drove her out of her mind as his hands expertly removed her dress. With a flip it was over her head and she was in his arms in nothing but her panties, bra, and sandals.

  With a flick of his wrist, her bra fell to the floor. His mouth closed over one of her nipples, expertly lapping and teasing it as his hand eased her panties down her legs. She stepped out of them, half in a daze of pleasure, while his mouth trailed lower, kissing a path down her body. Every one of his touches sent shivers through her, until his teeth grazed her neatly trimmed sex.

  He slowly kissed his way back up to her other breast, and this hot repeat assault had her clinging to his shoulders. This time he suckled between gentle nips and Rena gasped aloud.