“IS THAT SUPPOSED to intrigue me?”
Annoyance coursed through Ferro’s veins and the blame rested squarely with Julia Anderson. But then, it often did. The woman was a menace.
And she was continuing the trend. No one spoke to him like this. No one treated him like this. But then, very few people were so close to being equal with him. Julia’s company had come up from nowhere five years ago and had fast gained worldwide popularity. Anfalas was dedicated to bringing the technology fantasies were made out of into reality.
Needless to say, her vision was a popular one. Creative vision combined with an aptitude for all things tech that came naturally to her in a way he hadn’t witnessed with anyone but…well, anyone but himself. It made her quite formidable.
Though she fancied herself more formidable than she was. She’d proven that without a doubt today. Acting as though she could turn his offer around on him? Assume the power in the situation?
Not likely.
“It was,” he said. “And it did.”
“Did it?” She crossed her arms beneath small, perfectly formed breasts and tilted her head to the side, blond hair cascading over her shoulder in a wave. She was dressed in all black, her signature look. Ridiculous when they lived on the California coast, but he imagined she thought it made her look like a badass.
In his estimation, it made her seem like a pale, spindly, wannabe-goth chick, but she hadn’t asked his opinion.
“There has to be a reason you’re breathing so hard,” he said. “It’s either interest in the project or in…me.” He flashed her his best smile, the one he knew for a fact made women melt in their overpriced shoes. He had the attraction game down to a fine art. He was an expert in enticement. Ironically the women he’d always worked to entice hadn’t truly needed it, but they liked to play like they did. Liked to be seduced. It made them feel desired, and when a man could make a woman feel desired…he ended up with all the power and no need to strong-arm.
“Well, it’s not interest in you, so we can check that off the list,” she said, her lips tight.
He’d honestly thought as much. Julia seemed to have a serious aversion to him. But he could use that against her just as effectively as he could use a feigned seduction. There was always an in with people. Always a vulnerability. A weakness.
Except with him. Not anymore. Eventually a weakness was hit at too many times and it healed over with scar tissue far too thick to penetrate again. Ironic, how a weakness could develop into the hardest point to breach. But it had happened in his life.
“So it must be interest in my plan. In which case, I would ask you to come inside where we might speak privately.”
“You have security that rivals the Pentagon, I’m pretty sure we’re private anywhere on your property.”
“I never take chances.”
“Is paranoia a cultural thing?”
“What?”
“Are all Italians similarly paranoid?”
“Perhaps if they grew up on the streets of Rome. That has a tendency to make you a little paranoid.” A little paranoid. A little lawless. It had a way of searing the conscience so that all the bad decisions just rolled off like water.
Well, not quite all of them. But that was all right, too. Because some lessons needed to be remembered.
“All right. Well. I can see how that might make you a bit more…cautious. More so than me because…the suburbs of Ohio aren’t exactly mean.”
“Now that we’ve gotten the basic information easily found in our bios out in the open, would you like to come in and hear what I have to say?”
She squinted, blue eyes glittering from behind a thick fringe of lashes. “Not especially. But I will.”
“So, I do intrigue you.”
“Don’t let it go to your head.”
“This way.” He put his hand on her lower back and he felt her tense beneath his touch. She was certainly jumpy around him. No melting. No lingering looks. The woman didn’t respond in the way other women did. It would make her more difficult to manipulate. More difficult, but not impossible.
“Would you do that to a male colleague?” she asked once they were through the double doors of his home and in the spacious antechamber.
“Can’t say that I would. But you are not a man, so stop asking me to treat you like one.”
“I want to be treated like an equal.”
“Was that somehow not treating you like an equal?”
“I…well…you were treating me differently.”
“Different is unequal in some way?”
“Did you ask me here to debate gender politics or are you going to show me to your study and give me your spiel?”
“The latter.” He walked down the marble halls, appreciating the opulence of his home with each step he took. Appreciating that it was his.
He’d spent too many nights on cold cobblestone not to appreciate it. And too many other nights in soft beds that belonged to other people. And honestly, in the end, he wasn’t certain the cobblestone wasn’t the better option.
The hall opened up into another room with a broad arched doorway, one that reminded him of old buildings in Italy. Places that were far too grand to allow him admittance. So he’d built them for himself, now that he could afford them.
Antique furniture that cost more simply because it was old decorated the room, another possession he’d acquired simply because he could. Same with the marble busts and old vases. Things he’d bought because, before, they were things that museum docents and shopkeepers wouldn’t even let him look at.
Now he owned them. Now he owned whatever he wanted. The cost of it had been high enough that he felt entitled to reminders.
Julia sat in the biggest chair in the room, maroon and wingback. She crossed one slim, leather clad leg over the other and leaned back, tapping her patent black stiletto heel on the hard floor.
“Spill it, Calvaresi.”
“I want to partner with you and present our plan to Barrows. We can land the account together. And, I have it on good authority, we will easily remove Hamlin from the equation forever if we play our cards right.”
“What?”
“To which piece of the statement?”
“All of it. But start with Hamlin.”
“He’s on the downward slide. He’s in so much debt that the only thing that could possibly save Hamlin Tech at this point is a major new account. Barrows. If we don’t partner on it, odds are, he gets it. And the bigger picture here, Julia, is not so much you or I getting the account as it is being able to get rid of a key player in our industry.”
“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 your point, or I walk,” she bit out.
“My point is that you’ve had success easy and young.” She bit her lip, like she was holding back words she wanted desperately to speak. Words that would be designed to castrate him, of that he had no doubt. “Because of that success, you’ve never had to deal with the realities of setbacks. Of how business works. Of the nuances of it. You didn’t have to court the press, they came to you. You haven’t had to turn scandal around and make it work to your advantage. Haven’t had to twist lies around so that they’re close enough to the truth no one will examine it all too closely, but I have. I know what we’re dealing with here. I know the manner of man Scott Hamlin really is, and I won’t hesitate to take him out completely.”
“You say that like I don’t know that manner of man,” she said, her tone frosty. “I’m a woman in a man’s world. Tech is a boys’ club, Calvaresi. There’s practically a No Girls Allowed sign on the door. I’ve been dealing with men all my life who want to take from me, who think they can just take from women. I do know about men like Hamlin. And you’re right. He deserves nothing less than total professional destruction.”
“He would do nothing less to us. He’s tried to, or didn’t you know?”
“What?”
“You look shocked.”
“I am. He’s never tried to do anything to me.”
“You think not? Well, he’s the man who’s seventy percent responsible for my unauthorized bio, which you are familiar with. And he’s also responsible for the IRS rechecking all of your returns last year.”
“How did you know about that?”
“It’s getting tiresome but I’ll say it again. Corporate espionage.” He watched her expression change, watched her skin turn a deeper pink. He really had made her angry now.
“Who do you have in my company?”
“Who says I have anyone in there? Now.”
“Ferro…”
“I never confirm anything. I don’t deny it, either, so you might as well not waste your time trying to get either from me.”
“Fine. So you say he’s trying to take us down.”
“Yes. And if you were more scandalous he may have succeeded.”
She frowned. “Excuse me? You’re extremely scandalous and he didn’t succeed with you.”
Ferro shrugged. “Because I know how to play it.”
“Is this where ‘neither confirm nor deny’ comes in?”
“Absolutely. My point is, Julia, you need to play this my way. Because while I appreciate that you’re a tech wunderkind—”
“I’m twenty-five. I’m not that young.”
Nearly ten years his junior, and even younger when it came to life experience. Julia didn’t look tired yet. But she would. Life had a way of doing that to people. Especially people thrust into the spotlight.
Lucky for him, in many ways, he’d come in worn down and tired. And at least now he had a bed that belonged to him.
“You are young,” he said. “And the fact that you don’t realize it only highlights that fact. And while that is its own kind of amazing, its own achievement, it is not what I have. Maturity.”
“You? Ferro Calvaresi? You’re playing the maturity card? You just…hijacked my presentation like a…a…pillaging tech pirate and now you’re trying to tell me you’re mature?”
He gave her his most practiced smile, smooth, genuine, a smile no one could find fault with. A smile he never felt at all. “I show the world what I choose to show the world.”
“You think I don’t?”
“I think your armor is thin, cara.”
He expected her to make some sort of snitty denial. Say she didn’t wear armor. She didn’t, and that was to her credit.
“You tell me then,” she said, slowly crossing her arms beneath her breasts, her blue eyes never wavering from his, “what do you think we need to do?”
“We need to make the world believe that all of our hostility has melted away into an attraction, an attachment, that we can’t deny. We need to make them think we’ve fallen head over heels into, if not love, bed.”
“And you think that will work?” She was blushing. He couldn’t remember ever seeing a woman blush. Or anyone for that matter. Everyone he’d ever known had seemed born jaded.
He hadn’t been. He could remember a time when he’d been young. When he’d felt hope. Optimism. Passion.
He’d learned. He’d learned that there were no bonus points for getting through life without mud on your hands. Sometimes you had to get dirty climbing out of the gutter, but at least you were out, even if the filth clung to your skin for the rest of your life. Even if it made you hard and old before your time.
“I know it will.”
“How?”
“The press, the public, are predictable. We show up at a public event, we’ll make headlines around the world. The seed will be planted, when we pitch our design to Barrows, it all suddenly makes sense.”
She flicked her hair back over her shoulder and shifted her weight, one stiletto clad foot out in front of her. “But won’t Hamlin see it coming?”
“Not necessarily. I said it would make sense. I didn’t say it would be predictable. I’m banking on his own ignorance to be his downfall in this. He would never partner with a woman. He’ll assume I won’t, either.”
She chewed her bottom lip, another show of that insecurity she kept concealed by all her hard black clothing. If this were a seduction, he would touch her face now. Just her cheek. Tell her it would be all right. She would respond to that.
He gritted his teeth. “Well? You were quick to remind me you had limited time, Julia. I am a man with many commitments and I can’t stand around waiting for you to make a decision that should be a very easy one to make.”
She extended her hand and he gripped it. She was so petite, fine-boned, her fingers long, slender and clinging to his with a firmness that surprised him. She was indeed a businesswoman.
“You have yourself a deal, Calvaresi.”
“Gratified to hear it, Anderson.”
“We work together on this project,” she said. “No touching that isn’t strictly necessary, no funny ideas about things heating up behind the scenes, and no espionage.”
The espionage happening in her company was well in place, information already being fed to him on a regular basis. And he was sure she’d done the same to him. Fair play during their normal operations.
This agreement changed things. But he imagined as long as he didn’t look at it during the duration of their agreement, it would count as him following the rules. Or maybe not. But he’d never been one for rules. “I think I can handle all of the above.”
“And when it’s over, it’s over. If I have a chance to get you in my crosshairs even thirty seconds after our work together is done, I’ll do it and I’ll pull the metaphorical trigger without hesitation.”
“Back at you,” he said, releasing his hold and dropping his hand back at his side, ignoring the slight burning sensation that skated over his skin.
“Until then, I suppose we have to play nice.”
Ferro smiled, and he watched the color in Julia’s cheeks darken again. “Now that, I can’t promise. I’m not all that nice.”