“That’s…well, it’s dastardly, is what it is.”
“I’d twirl my mustache if I had one,” he said, his tone dry.
“I’m serious, why bother to take Hamlin out?”
“Is it your goal to be more successful than him? To steal his customers and cut into his market share?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Well, it’s my goal, too. It’s my goal to do it to you, too, but I can put that on hold because I see an opportunity here. Frankly Hamlin is a bastard, and while I’m not the nicest guy I don’t have sweatshops throughout Asia, or harass my female employees.”
“So you’re just going to play like you’re swooping in and saving the world from Hamlin Tech and all the evil it commits?”
“No,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest, “but it’s another reason he’s an enticing target. The main reason is that I want to be the last man standing.”
“And why should I enable you to get one step closer to your goal?”
“Because it takes you one step closer, too.”
“So we charge in together, then when the enemy is destroyed we turn our weapons on to each other?” She uncrossed her legs and tilted her head to the side, finely groomed eyebrows arched.
“Exactly. Is that a problem?”
“I’m not sure.” She folded her hands on her lap and leaned forward, resting her chin on them. She was an interesting woman. All limbs and pale skin and hair, brimming with a kind of uncontainable energy that always seemed to vibrate beneath the surface.
“As long as we’re working together, we’re working together.”
She sucked her bottom lip between her teeth and Ferro felt a strange, answering jolt in his gut. She was a lovely thing. The sort who had no idea just how lovely. She would need a lot of flattering words, a lot of touch, nonsexual touch, in order to open up. In order to enjoy an encounter with a man.
He mentally castigated himself for the direction of his thoughts. This wasn’t the time. And assessing women like that, figuring out what they really wanted, how he might go about fulfilling that, wasn’t part of his life anymore.
He hadn’t looked at a woman like that in years and he wasn’t sure why he did it now. He wasn’t after a girlfriend, mistress or woman-for-hire which meant there was no point. It wasn’t that he didn’t feel attraction, simply that it registered in his body and nowhere else.
Maybe because she was a puzzle. Something about her didn’t fit. The energy, for one. She worked so hard to play it down, but she could hardly sit still. Then there was the don’t-touch-me black clothes. He imagined they were meant to make her look confident, but in his mind, it only betrayed the fact that she wasn’t. She was wearing armor that was far too easy to recognize as such.
But no matter how intriguing, he wasn’t going there with her. He would not revert to the man he’d been trained to be. He’d escaped that. He used it when it suited him, not when it didn’t. He wasn’t on a leash anymore.
“Meaning you won’t stab me in the back during this…caper?”
“I wouldn’t call it a caper. Although, it will require a bit of…finesse.”
“Meaning?”
This was the part she wouldn’t like. The part that would have been easy with another woman. But Julia wasn’t easy. She didn’t respond to his flirtation. Didn’t respond to his charm. Charm he knew was lethal in most cases.
But not in this one. Interesting. It made her so very interesting. It always had. No one else went toe-to-toe with him. No one, not even Scott Hamlin, would dare pull such public stunts the way she did. She’d pushed him to start doing the same. She’d forced him to act. So very interesting to meet someone who had that kind of power.
But it was in his control now.
“We’ll have to make it look like our…merging—”
“This is not a merger,” she bit out.
“For the project,” he said.
“Fine,” she said, barely civil. “Go on.”
“We’ll have to make our merging look organic.”
“And how do you propose we do that?”
In some ways, the fact that she wasn’t going to like his suggestion made it even more perfect. Anything he could do to tip the balance of power further to his favor was only good. And the more flustered she was, the more control he would have. “It would be completely expected for a couple to discuss a project and come to the conclusion that collaboration would be the best for all involved.”
Her blue eyes glittered. “Are you suggesting that we…that we feign some kind of personal involvement?”
“You’re sanitizing it,” he said, smiling. “I’m suggesting we pretend we’re heavily involved in a scorching affair.”
Julia exploded from the chair and started pacing the room. “That’s insane. As if I would ever…As if you would…As if…As if!”
“You find the idea so offensive?” He crossed the room and sat in the chair she’d just been occupying.
“I find it unbelievable. After the stunt you pulled today do you really think anyone would believe that you and I…”
“There’s a fine line between hate and lust, cara mia.”
“Maybe if you have a disconnect between your brain and your nether regions.”
“And many people do.”
She looked down, then back up, hands planted on her hips. “That’s crazy.”
“Do you have a better idea? Why should Barrows have any confidence in our ability to work together if we present a proposal out of the blue?”
She flung her hands wide. “Because we’re awesome!”
“Awesome doesn’t score points in business, Julia, and this is where being like me has an advantage over being like you.”
“Like me as in young, extremely smart, creative and—”
“Green. Untried. Untrained.”
“And what about you, Ferro Calvaresi, graduate of the school of hard knocks?”
No, she wasn’t a woman to win over with seduction. But when she was challenged? She couldn’t resist fighting back. “Hard knocks? Have you been reading my unauthorized bio?”
Color stained her cheeks, crimson against the pale white of her skin. “No. It’s a common expression.”
“And it’s also in the front jacket of the book. My rise to success from the seedy underbelly of Rome. Fantastic reading. If you like a fairy tale.”
It was almost amusing that she, along with the rest of the world, had jumped at the chance to read about his sordid past. And it was sordid, no mistake, no denying. A good thing for him, the book only scratched the surface. Sure there were whispers, whispers that were close to the truth, but no one really knew.
“I have no idea what book you’re talking about.”
“I think you do, but you can have your lie.”
She was all but bouncing in place now, her knee flexing in time with something in her head. Probably the horrible names she was silently calling him. “Fine. I read it. Know your enemy and all. The Art of War. See? I’m on top of stuff.”
“It’s like your mommy and daddy got you a CEO boxed set for Christmas. Did you also get a world’s best boss mug and a zen garden?”
“Make