“You’ll go down in the annals of our family history as the one who saved us all, Lili.” At her incomprehension, he elaborated, “As you may know, our family businesses are intertwined, and over a year ago, some bad stock market decisions led to a domino effect in all our holdings. Dr. Balducci, through his Black Castle division, offered to bail us out, saving us from the impasse—that has since regretfully worsened—in return for acquiring our major ancestral assets.”
The other man nodded. “We two were the ones charged with conveying the family’s decision to turn down his offer. The damned family rules dictate those assets stay within the family at any cost. I can’t tell you how relieved everyone is now that we can finally accept his offer, since he will be family shortly.”
“If his offer is still on the table,” said the other man.
The first man winked at her. “If it isn’t, we’re sure you, dear Lili, can convince him to put it back there.”
As her father exclaimed that he’d never heard of this, Lili’s gaze sought out Antonio again, her mind spinning.
He’d never mentioned it. So maybe he hadn’t been involved and it had been his brokers trolling for acquisitions?
No, there was no way he wouldn’t be in charge of every offer issuing from his organization. So why hadn’t he told her about this aborted transaction involving her family? Could it have slipped his mind? That was again something she found impossible to believe. Nothing slipped Antonio’s mind.
Could part of his tension around her family be on account of the thwarted deal? And it continued in part because he didn’t know yet that it would go through? Did he know their engagement would provide a solution to this deadlock?
Whoa. It seemed she could still slide back into insecurity. She thought she’d stopped wondering why Antonio wanted to marry her, stopped looking for reasons besides that he loved her.
But this deal certainly couldn’t be even a contributing reason. The financial benefit would all be her family’s in their current bind. At best, the acquisitions could have only minor value to him compared with his other assets.
Dismissing her absurd thoughts, she concluded her side meeting, laughingly promising the two men to put in a good word for them with Antonio.
As she rejoined him, his mind seemed to be elsewhere as he received her, his gaze leaving her whenever anyone came to talk to them to fix on one certain part of the ballroom. She followed it and saw the same relatives who’d first made him tense up.
By the time he asked her if she didn’t mind leaving, she’d had enough tension for one night and eagerly agreed.
Her unease lingered until the moment they entered their hotel suite. Then he swept her up in his arms, threw her down on the bed and took her with an even more ferocious hunger than ever before. Flesh on flesh, he melted her disquiet and bound her deeper under his spell.
* * *
In the next week, her family members competed to invite them to their homes.
Antonio gave her carte blanche to accept all invitations, though it meant flying all over the country. His brotherhood family had taken up the slack in the arrangements for their wedding and kept them apprised of all developments, so they could afford the time to get to know hers better.
As the visits started, a new discomfort crept over her. Though he seemed willing to know everyone for her sake, and she was grateful since there were some members she liked and wished to know better, she soon noticed his focus was on one woman. One of those he’d tensed around during the reception. She’d become a common denominator in all the gatherings.
Sofia Accardi.
Sofia, her father’s third cousin, was in her late fifties, but looked like a great mid-forties. She oozed charisma and distinction and she seemed intensely interested in Antonio. Her children—her daughters especially—were present on most occasions, flocking around him like moths to the flame.
Then Sofia invited them to her home, despite it being in the midst of a major renovation. When Lili said they’d come later when the work was done, the woman was insistent. It was Antonio who ended the debate, accepting the invitation.
It was insidious—the feeling Lili had that Antonio had consented to every invitation so far only so it wouldn’t look strange when they accepted Sofia’s. The woman he’d remained stilted around all week.
Now as the day progressed at Sofia’s estate, everything Lili felt from Antonio intensified her suspicions.
Sofia did provoke something inside him. Something volcanic in intensity. Could it be...attraction? Lust? Worse?
Sofia, though older, was incredibly beautiful and voluptuous, a very sensual woman who was known as a man-eater, having gone through three husbands and uncounted lovers. Lili, in her relative inexperience, felt decidedly lacking compared to the woman who was more on his level than she would ever be.