and needed some initial investors. She’d put all of the inheritance she’d gotten from her parents into it, and in a calculated move on Raul’s part she’d convinced her grandparents to mortgage the market and invest, as well. Raul took all the money and disappeared overnight.
The ensuing investigation into Raul’s disappearance had been an upheaval in their lives. It had taken almost two years to get it sorted out and at the end with lawyers’ fees and private investigator charges her grandparents had no money left. They were forced to sell the marketplace and become renters. Raul was eventually caught and brought to justice, but their money was never repaid.
It had been one of the most humiliating times of her life and she’d been very glad to escape Miami to Fordham where she knew no one. She’d started over and been very careful since then not to let her emotions get the better of her.
“You are very right,” she said. She took another sip of her mojito. The smooth rum and mint drink was soothing. Justin watched her each time she swallowed and she knew she’d been distracting him all evening.
She liked the feeling of power it gave her to know that she could manipulate him. She wondered if that was what Raul had felt as he’d slowly drawn her into his web. Had it been the power? She hadn’t thought of that in years, but her experiences with men had taught her that in all relationships—personal and business—it all came down to who had something the other wanted. And right now, she had something that Justin wanted a lot.
“I know,” he said. He was cocky and she had to admit that it was a trait she was beginning to enjoy in him.
He seemed so in control. She’d been told she gave that impression, as well, but she knew underneath her professional persona she was usually a mess. Was it the same for him? But she couldn’t detect any chinks in his armor. She was starting to realize that even distracted he was going to be a tough opponent.
She leaned forward to place her drink on the table and noticed his eyes tracked down toward her breasts. She shifted her shoulders so the fabric of her dress drew the material taut over her curves and then sat back.
“Have you thought of selling the property back to my grandparents? I think that would be the easiest solution.” Then she could conclude this business in Miami and take the first flight back to New York and her nice, safe, regular life. A place where the businessmen she encountered looked dull and gray like a Manhattan winter instead of like Justin, who was tan, vibrant and hot … just like Miami.
“I don’t think so,” he said, looking back up at her eyes. “Your grandparents don’t …”
“What?”
“They don’t have the resources to make the property profitable the way that the Luna Azul Company does. I mean, they would probably fix up their market but it is going to take a lot of capital to revamp the entire area. And that is the only way you are going to keep your current clientele and get new customers.”
He had a point but she didn’t like the thought of an outsider owning the market. It also irked her that this situation was entirely her fault. If she hadn’t fallen for Raul so many years ago, her beloved abuelito wouldn’t have to deal with the Stern brothers on their terms.
“Granted but if you take away the local feel of the marketplace, you will lose money.”
“That’s where you come in. I liked your idea of forming a committee. I wish I’d thought of it sooner,” Justin said. “But enough business. I want to know the woman behind the suit. I like your dress by the way.”
She tossed her hair and made herself let go of the work part of being with Justin. There was nothing to be accomplished tonight. He’d either come around to her way of thinking or he’d find out how many complications she could put in the way of his business deals.
“I noticed you liking it.”
“Good. Are you finished with your drink?”
“Why?”
“I want to take you for a walk along the beach.” “I’d like that,” she said, getting to her feet. “I miss the beach.”
“I live right on it. That was one thing that motivated me to come back home after Harvard. I like living somewhere so temperate.”
“What else?” she asked. She suspected that family must be important to him. That was at odds with what she usually encountered in type-A, driven business executives, but then Justin didn’t exactly fit the mold of what she expected from guys to begin with.
“Why are you really here?” she asked as they stepped out into the warm early-evening.
“I told you I like to know my opponents,” he said.
“I can see that,” she said. She did as well. Normally when she was negotiating something for her company she spent a lot of time researching the players involved in the deal. Winning almost always came down to who had the most information. “You were trying to throw me off my game a little, right?”
“In part,” he admitted. “But honestly, you aren’t what I was expecting from the Gonzalezes’ lawyer.”
“Because I’m a girl?” she asked using his term. “You know that calling me a girl wasn’t exactly flattering?”
“I didn’t mean it that way,” he said. “It’s because you’re so sexy. I can handle going up against a girl but when she is making me think of long, hot nights instead of business—well I figured turnabout was fair play and I should do something unexpected like ask you out.”
She bit her lower lip. He was a very frank man, which shouldn’t surprise her. From the moment they’d met he’d been that way. He was the kind of man who shot from the hip and didn’t worry about the consequences.
And she was a woman who’d been damned by the consequences of her reckless heart before. She had to remember that her grandparents were in this situation with the Luna Azul Company specifically because she’d followed her heart and they had paid the price.
“I’m not looking for a relationship,” she said. “I am focused on my career.”
“I can see that,” he said. “But unless you’re into lying to yourself, you’ll admit that there is something between
us.”
She could admit that. There was a powerful attraction between them. Something that was more intense than anything she’d ever experienced before. She wanted to blame it on Miami and her old self, but she knew that it was Justin. If she’d been here with any other man she wouldn’t have felt like this.
That was enough to make her pause. Justin was different and that very difference was enough to make him dangerous.
“Lust,” she said. “And that is nothing more than a chimera.”
“An illusion? I don’t think so. Lust is our primal instincts telling us to pay attention. You could be a potential mate for me,” he said.
She stopped walking on the wooden boardwalk and turned to face him. He’d put on a pair of aviator-style sunglasses and with his jacket slung over his shoulder he looked like he’d stepped off a yacht. He seemed like a man who was used to getting everything he wanted.
