He’d flicked a switch in his innocent wife’s head that night. Awakened her to what true chemistry looked like with a kiss that had gotten a lot more intense than he’d intended. And although he couldn’t deny he was curious, too, wouldn’t be human if he didn’t wonder what peeling back his beautiful wife’s layers would reveal, it wasn’t going to happen.
Theirs was a marriage of convenience. A business transaction, albeit a slightly more complex one than usual. If that wasn’t enough of a deterrent not to take her to bed, the fact that she was a virgin was. He would lay odds of a million to one that his wife was untouched. As such, she was off-limits to him. Virgins were, as a matter of policy, not to be played with.
As Franco had done the night of the Curious party.
A grimace twisted his mouth at the unfinished business he and the actor had. Franco had been like a big cat that night, swiping at Nate’s possession with a paw to rile him. The depths to which he had wanted to take him apart for scaring Mina so badly shocked him. It was another reason to stay away from his wife—this intense sense of protectiveness he had toward her. Had had from the beginning.
Mina was too unsullied to exist in his world where relationships were transactional. Where the women in his bed were those who knew their tenure there was temporary. Exceedingly temporary. A hot weekend in Rio...a night out at a five-hundred-dollar-a-plate dinner in Manhattan in the name of a good deed...a chance for their name to end up in the society column... It was symbiotic at best. No false expectations; merely the pursuit of mutual pleasure.
Mina was a whole other story. A female of the most dangerous variety, whose innocence and vulnerability demanded everything from a man or nothing at all. He fell into the latter category because creating ties wasn’t in his DNA.
He wasn’t even willing to invest in his own family. In his half sister Natalia, whose intense vulnerability after she’d been kidnapped and held for ransom while on a gap year in South America had, until recently, kept her housebound. In Dario and Dante, his twin brothers, whose feud had torn the Di Sione family apart. In Matteo, his youngest brother, who had built his wildly successful hedge fund on calculated risks.
Investing in other people simply wasn’t part of his portfolio. It came with too much fine print.
Mina, curled up in the seat beside him asleep, stirred, her tousled dark hair and voluptuous curves drawing his eye. It was not a stretch to imagine what she’d look like in his bed as he lavished attention on her from the top of her beautiful head to her equally perfect feet with a long stop in between to idolize the sensational curve of her behind.
The predatory male in him liked the idea of being the first to touch all of that forbidden beauty. The realist knew he could never satisfy the clauses that came with it.
Mina opened her eyes, brown orbs fully alert, as if she’d just been catnapping. He wiped his face clean of his wayward thoughts, but wasn’t fast enough. A deep red stain spread across her sleep-flushed cheeks. “What time is it?”
He cursed himself inwardly at the slip. “We have another hour and a half left. I’ll brief you on the agenda when you’ve had a chance to freshen up.”
She nodded, rolled to her feet and headed for the bathroom with the haste of a woman who knew what was good for her.
* * *
Dio mio. Mina splashed water on her face in the tiny washroom, attempting to wake up her sluggish brain, which seemed to be caught in a time zone somewhere between here and Capri.
She had to stop fantasizing about what it would be like to be with her husband. It was never going to happen. Nate had made that clear. But then he went and did something like that. Looked at her like he wanted to inhale her, and all their rules went up in flames.
Grabbing a towel, she dried her face and applied a coat of lip gloss to her mouth, her only concession to makeup while traveling. Telling herself sternly to focus, she made her way back into the cabin, pulled a notepad and pen out of her bag and sat down beside Nate.
“We have two goals in Hong Kong.” he began. “The first is to meet with a Michelin-starred chef named Sheng Zhu about a potential in-house restaurant he’s proposing for the Grand. It would be a huge coup for the hotel to have him. Mingmei, my manager at the Grand, has been handling the negotiations, but wanted me in attendance to sign the final deal.”
Mingmei, his former lover. She ignored the twinge of jealousy that stirred. He had only kissed her to demonstrate a point, for heaven’s sake. Nothing more. “Didn’t he win one of those top chef shows?”
He nodded. “Unfortunately, he also has a big personality to go with the name. The question is—is he worth the risk? Mingmei thinks he is.”
“And the second goal?”
“We’ll meet with Mingmei and her team for some general updates on the business this afternoon. Present the global marketing and business plans to the executive team. I’m going to have lunch with a key investor who lives locally to discuss a project. I’ll have you take Mingmei through the marketing plan since you know it while I’m tied up. That’ll save some time.”
By the time Nate finished briefing her and walking her through Sheng Zhu’s proposal, they had landed at Hong Kong International Airport. The car Mingmei had sent for them was waiting at the exit, Mingmei herself standing on the sidewalk when the limousine pulled up in front of the red awning of the gold-accented Grand Hotel.
Tall and slim as a wand, the impossibly beautiful Mingmei Gao, as Nate’s manager introduced herself, pressed a warm kiss to both Nate’s cheeks. Her long, straight jet-black hair, her dark eyes with pencil-thin brows and perfectly shaped red-lipped mouth conspired to make Mina feel a bit lacking in comparison.
The thorough, unabashed appraisal Mingmei gave her cataloged her assets from head to foot. “Welcome to the Grand Hotel Hong Kong,” she murmured in impeccable, lightly accented English. “Congratulations on your and Nate’s marriage. I hope you’ll both be very happy.”
If Nate’s former lover felt any emotion at all toward her husband, as Susana had hinted was the case, she hid it behind her perfectly composed facade.
“Thank you,” Mina replied. “It’s been a bit of a...whirlwind.”
“So much of a whirlwind you haven’t taken the time to organize a honeymoon, according to Josephine.” Mingmei directed the chiding comment at Nate. “I took the liberty of planning something special for you the night before you leave.”
“Special?”
Mingmei’s mouth curved. “I have the honeymoon suite for you, of course. The occupants were more than happy to move to the presidential suite.”
“That really wasn’t necessary.”
“Of course it is. Let me show you up.”
Another glass elevator, a signature of the Grand, sent them swishing up to the fifty-second floor. Mingmei ushered them into the large, opulent suite, its muted, ambient lighting setting off the luxurious interior done in rich jewel tones. The view of Hong Kong through the floor-to-ceiling windows was breathtaking. But Mina’s gaze was fixed on the massive, king-size bed that dominated the adjoining room, rose petals strewn across its ruby-red silk coverlet.
There was only one bed.
Nate turned to Mingmei, a wry look on his face. “You’ve outdone yourself. Really you didn’t need to do this. We can have a regular suite.”
Mingmei gave him a pointed look. “You may not be a romantic, but I’m sure Mina appreciates the room.”
Mina forced a smile to her frozen face. “Sì. It’s...amazing. Mille grazie.”
Mingmei smiled. “I’ll leave you to freshen up. I’ll meet you in the