If Leonardo was a father in the true sense of the word...
Mario’s shadow wouldn’t touch her child. He or she would have Leo’s guidance and support, Natalie and Massimo’s affection, be a part of a family. Everything she’d always wanted would be her child’s.
The prospect of his involvement was such a tempting offer that Neha had to force herself to think of other implications. “Our relationship—”
“Will be defined by the fact that we want what’s best for our child.”
She nodded, the confidence in his tone building her own. They were rational adults, they knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses—they could handle this rationally.
“You said conditions. What else?”
“I want you to postpone the announcement about your retirement. And, if required, your retirement itself. By a few months.”
“No, absolutely not.”
Her refusal rang around the room. It knocked Leo off axis to see the sudden fear and distrust in her eyes. Addressed toward him when he’d only ever seen respect.
“Neha,” he started softly, reminding himself that, for whatever reason, she was fragile right now, “hear me out.”
She stayed at the window, the waning sunlight from the skylight gilding her body in a golden outline.
Even in the tense situation, he felt the tug of awareness on his senses that she so easily provoked.
The loose white sheer tunic had a low neckline that presented him tantalizing glimpses of the upper curves of her lush breasts. The sheer fabric showed silky brown skin, and the shadow of her orange bikini, skimming the tops of her long, toned thighs. Pink nails peeked through the sandals she wore, completing a picture of such sheer sensuality that she took his breath away.
From the moment he’d found her standing inside his bedroom—staring at his bed—he’d had the most overwhelming urge to pull that tunic up and away from her body until he could feast on the sexy curves underneath. With his eyes, hands and mouth.
Damp hair stuck to her scalp, highlighting the classical bone structure of her face. He wanted to run his hands all over her, learn if she was as soft and silky as he imagined.
She stood up from the sofa, walked to the door and back, to the windows and then back again, every step conveying restless energy. Without that elegant facade she put on like a second skin, he could see now what Massimo had seen. Shadows hung like dark bruises under her eyes and there was a pinched look to her mouth.
When he went to her, she turned, her entire body trembling. He wrapped his hands over her palms, keeping the distance between them. 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