The Moretti Seduction by Katherine Garbera

you.”
    “My pleasure. They are waiting for you in the lobby of the factory, Antonio.”
    “ Grazie, Angelina.”
    They left the boardroom together and Nathalie tried to force her mind to accept that nothing had changed between the two of them, but it had. The awkward silence between them underscored that for her.
    “Antonio?”
    “ Sì, Nathalie?”
    “I don’t want this to interfere with our negotiations.”
    “It won’t. I’m still going to be hard on you.”
    She had no doubt about that. Had she meant her words more for herself? Did she really need a reminder that she had made a mistake?
    Had she?
    Antonio hadn’t been uninvolved and unless he was more of a playboy than his reputation indicated, she had to assume he felt something for her.
    Did she use that to her advantage?
    He paused to put on a pair of sunglasses and she wished she’d brought hers, for the midday sun in Milan was bright on this spring morning. He put his hand at the small of her back as they walked across the courtyard and she realized he’d fallen back into the mode that she needed to.
    “I will send you an offer when I get back to Paris. It will expire in a week, Antonio. After that time we will no longer need to be in contact for the sake of our companies.”
    “What if I accept the offer you send?”
    “I’m assuming you will,” she said, not thinking about defeat. She had nothing to lose. But those words didn’t ring true for her anymore. She did have something very personal to lose.
    “Good. Will you join me for dinner tonight?”
    “Um…”
    “Not to discuss anything about Vallerio Incorporated. As a date.”
    “I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to be dating.”
    “Too bad. I don’t care what other people think and you didn’t strike me as the kind of woman who’d let that stop her either.”
    “I’m not going to go out with you because you dared me to.”
    “You’re not? What would it take?” he asked.
    The sincerity in his voice made her stop walking and all she could was look up at him. “I guess if you promised we’d go somewhere private, then I’d say yes.”
    “Consider it done. I’ll pick you up at the hotel—”
    She shook her head. “That won’t work. I know we aren’t teenagers and sneaking around might not be what you want.”
    “I like it,” he said. “Right now being seen in public isn’t in our best interest, for either of us. Tell me what you had in mind.”
    “I’ll meet you in front of Duomo and we can go wherever you have planned.”
    “Okay. Be there at nine,” he said. “Dress casual.”
    “Fine,” she said, taking a step away from him. But his hand on the back of her neck stopped her. It was a light touch, a casual caress, but she shivered from it.
    “If our families weren’t waiting behind that glass door,” he said softly, “I’d take you in my arms and kiss you again.”
    “I might let you,” she said, just to let him know she wasn’t passive. She walked away, anticipating the coming night as she’d looked forward to nothing else in the last few years.

    Antonio stood to the back of the group as Dom led the tour through the factory. He’d heard the stories before and seen the model of the car they were already producing a million times before. This car—the Vallerio Roadster—was the cornerstone of the Moretti plan to retake their place in the car-making world.
    He was more interested in planning his total conquest of Nathalie. He knew he’d made a lot of headway this afternoon in breaking down barriers between them. Tonight he’d do the rest of what he needed to.
    He felt a twinge of something that might be guilt as he thought about using her, but it was the only way he knew how to take control of his feelings for her. He had to make their relationship about the Moretti-Vallerio feud. Otherwise he’d never be able to keep himself on track.
    And that was the one thing he had to do.
    He wasn’t about to let all of the work he, Marco and Dom had