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
