She blinked, his clear sentence apparently not making any sense to her. ‘It’s one of my family’s business interests. Why would you want to assume a majority ownership?’
It was like waving a red rag in front of a charging bull.
‘Because it was my family’s company also,’ he said with deceptive calm. ‘And I will not rest until it is back in my hands.’
* * *
The words hung in the air like little daggers, but they made absolutely no sense. None of this made any sense.
He’d come to her house and, true, she hadn’t exactly interrogated him about what he’d wanted but...how could she have known anything like this had brought him to her?
‘I presumed you just wanted to talk about our grandfathers!’ she said with a shake of her head. ‘This can’t be real.’
His eyes narrowed and a burst of adrenalin fired in her gut as she recognised in this man a latent power and determination that had been absent for the rest of the evening. He’d been charming and humorous and now she could see that there was a whole other side to him.
‘I have acquired thirty-five per cent of the company,’ he said, the words soft yet laced with iron-hard determination. ‘Your father and brother will never part with their stake, but that does not matter. Not when your shares will give me the majority. I want them.’
‘Why?’ She pressed her hands to her hips, turning away from the contract, then immediately wished she hadn’t. Because he was wearing a suit and she was dressed in a silk robe and her body hadn’t quite caught up with the fact that he was there for business. That she’d slept with a man, given her virginity to a man, who only wanted her shares in a family company. God knew she didn’t want them—how often had she wished that her father hadn’t gifted such a valuable portfolio on her eighteenth birthday? She’d always felt he was making up for lost time, trying to show her with money how valued and loved she was—but money was the last thing she ever wanted.
The assets she had made her feel even more vulnerable and exposed in that superficial world. With her mother’s looks and a fortune at her fingertips—it had been a fast track to attracting all the wrong people.
It still was, apparently.
‘Our grandfathers were best friends from the time they were boys.’ He spoke slowly, as though she didn’t have a tight grasp on English. That exasperated her further.
‘I don’t need to know the history,’ she snapped. ‘I need to know why these shares matter so much to you that you were willing to come to my home and...and...seduce me, just to get your hands on them.’
At that, he had the decency to look surprised. ‘One thing had nothing to do with the other,’ he said slowly and reached a hand out for her, a hand of comfort and reassurance, but she batted it away angrily.
‘No.’ She took a step back; her hip connected with the table. ‘The part of the evening where you get to touch me is absolutely at an end.’
He compressed his lips in exasperation. ‘I didn’t come here intending to sleep with you. But you were so... It just happened,’ he said with a shake of his head. ‘I didn’t plan it.’
‘Oh, yes.’ She rolled her eyes, shaking with pent-up rage and deep-down hurt. ‘It was just convenient that I happened to fall into bed with you, right before you blindsided me by asking me for something worth millions of pounds.’
‘You’ll see on the contracts that I’m prepared to pay double their value,’ he said silkily.
She put her hands on her hips then wished she hadn’t. The gesture drew the robe across her front and his attention dropped to her silk-covered breasts, and nipples that were still tight and heavy with arousal.
‘I don’t need your money,’ she spat. ‘You think any amount would induce me to sell the shares to you?’
‘Our grandfathers had a fight. No, it was more than that. It was war,’ he said, returning to the original point. ‘They’d started Prim’Aqua by joining together two shipping companies they’d inherited from their fathers, and it became the most powerful water-based logistics and transportation company in the world. Both of our families owe their prosperity to Prim’Aqua.’
‘Fine, if you say so,’ she snapped, moving towards the door. ‘But it’s my father’s company now.’
‘Your grandfather fooled my grandfather into signing it over—my grandfather trusted him implicitly and signed the deeds without reading.’
‘More fool him,’ she muttered.
His expression tightened. ‘It was a mistake on his part to trust a diSalvo—and that is a lesson I will never forget.’ His eyes glittered black when they met hers. ‘But I can rectify this, if you will only be reasonable.’
‘You dare ask me to be reasonable when you’ve just insulted my whole family? And me?’
‘You come from a family of thieves and bastards, Amelia.’
She stared at him; it felt as if he’d morphed into some kind of alien. It took her several seconds to be able to find her tongue and push it into service.
‘My God, get the hell out of this house,’ she demanded, the words only slightly shaky. ‘How dare you think I would give you anything? How can you speak of my family with such obvious disgust when you’ve literally come straight from my bed?’
‘Sleeping with you has nothing to do with why I’m here. I did not plan for that to happen, and it is not going to derail me from my course.’ His eyes narrowed warningly. ‘Nothing will, Amelia.’
The light in the house was so bright, and she could see him clearly now. His ruthless determination was a physical force in the room, a dark shape she would never be able to grapple with.
Her skin paled, her heart lurched. ‘You’re a real piece of work, aren’t you?’
He angled his head away from her and in profile his face was powerful, as if carved from stone, and a muscle jerked in his jaw, throbbing hard as he reined in his temper.
‘You have no interest in the shares I want.’
‘How do you know that?’ she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest.
He turned to face her, his eyes pinning her to the wall. Oh, God, just like the wall he’d held her against when he’d thrust inside her. Her heart gave a strange little double-beat as memories threatened to swallow her whole.
‘Since you inherited your stock portfolio, you have attended precisely zero board or shareholder meetings. You do not appear at corporate events...you do not have a bio on the website. You are absent in every way.’
‘So?’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Ever heard of a silent partner?’
‘It is not the same thing. You have holed yourself up here, as far as you can get from the seat of power in diSalvo Industries. You do not want to use your shares to control the company—’
‘And is that any wonder? When getting involved in my family’s business would mean running up against vultures like you?’
His nostrils flared as he expelled a rapid breath. ‘You think I am a vulture for wanting to take back what was stolen from me? Prim’Aqua is my birthright...’
‘As much as it is mine and Carlo’s,’ she interrupted firmly, her cheeks flushing pink. ‘You have as large a stake in the company as I do. And larger than my brother’s too. So what’s your problem?’
‘I do not want your family having any part of it,’ he said with icy simplicity. ‘Your grandfather stole it and I intend to take it back.’ He softened his voice slightly. ‘Only I am not