Arrangement With A Billionaire (Bad Boy Billionaire Brothers #1)

by Mandy Rosko

  Nope. She actually felt her stomach melt away inside of her body and form twin puddles at the bottom of her feet. The only thing that reminded her it wasn’t just in her imagination was the fact that she was still breathing.

  Gasping for breath, more like it. Isla had forgotten how good he looked. Or maybe he just looked so much better because she hadn’t seen him in so long. Was it possible he might be thinking the same thing about her?

  Arturo calmly walked over, stepping elegantly between seated customers, his eyes remaining locked onto her. He pulled out the chair across from her, where Sebastian had been sitting a little over a half an hour ago, and sat down, smiling.

  Isla felt like she was about to have a job interview. An interview for her dream, reach-for-the-stars, never–in-a-million-years, sort of job.

  “Hello,” Arturo said.

  Isla swallowed. “Hi.”

  Her face heated as her voice cracked.

  She was mortified, and if her neck and body clenched any more, she was going to have a full-body cramp.

  Arturo had to have noticed it, but he didn’t mention it. He just continued to smile that soft, Prince Charming smile at her.

  There was nothing fake in it, and Isla was checking for that.

  She stared at him. She might’ve been making him uncomfortable, because he cleared his throat and looked away from her. He reached his hand up to his collar, but he must’ve remembered that there was no tie there for him to loosen, so he dropped his hand.

  “So, everything’s going well with the business?” he started.

  She nodded. “Yeah.”

  She couldn’t just give one word answers. She had to say something.

  “My parents aren’t fighting so much anymore, though it looks like they might still split.”

  Arturo’s dark brows drew together over his strong forehead. “Sorry to hear that.”

  Again, he sounded like he meant it.

  Isla shook her head. “Don’t be, it wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault.” She laced her fingers together on the table. “If anything, it was stupid to ride their marriage on getting the business back.” Isla glanced up at Arturo. “Thanks again for that. It really is great to be working again.”

  Arturo smiled. “I hear you’re selling your designs again.”

  Pride swelled in her chest. “Yeah, want to see some that I’m going to make for the main store?”

  She opened her sketchbook and showed the necklace to him before he could respond. At least, he genuinely looked interested.

  “Very nice. And what are these gems here?”

  “Pink crystal,” Isla said. “They give it that nice sparkly look while being inexpensive to make and to buy. Customers seem to like it.”

  “Do all your designs have a sort of…I don’t know how to describe it. It’s not steampunk, but close.”

  Isla grinned. “No, this is my fall collection,” she said. He was probably talking about the wire wrapping and bronze chains. “It seems to be selling pretty well, so I’m trying to come up with some new ideas. I even opened an Etsy shop.”

  Arturo looked at her sharply. “Really?”

  She waved her hand. “Not because things are stale in the stores, but I figured I should try making an income for myself, instead of riding out on the success of Baciami.”

  “I handed over the 49 percent. That’s yours. I won’t take it back,” Arturo said.

  She felt a full body blush coming over her. “I know, but it’s something I should’ve done anyway. If I’m ever going to be my own person, then I need to at least try and work outside of Baciami. Sometimes all I want to do is make more designs, but there really is only so much shelf space my grandfather will give over to me, even if the jewelry is selling well.”

  He nodded. “I suppose that makes sense. Whenever I walk into a store, the space devoted to accessories isn’t always a lot.”

  Isla nodded. “Exactly. Besides, you were the one who inspired me to really do it.”

  “Me?” Arturo’s eyes widened.

  She was pleased to catch him off guard. “I mean, I’ve played with the idea for a while, but never put a lot of effort into it. Knowing how hard you work, that you would actually spend days at a time in your office, well, it made me want to work harder too.”

  He grinned wide at her, showing off his perfectly white, straight teeth, causing more of that melty feeling in her stomach. God help her.

  “Glad to know your time spent with me was, well, influential.”

  Isla nodded.

  A waitress eventually came, taking Arturo’s order. He requested black coffee and a couple of cookies. She was pretty sure he even slipped the waitress a hundred dollar bill and told her to keep the change.

  Of course, it might’ve also been to influence her a little when he said they wanted to speak privately for a while.

  More of that tense tingling inside of her body took command of her. He wanted to speak with her alone? It wasn’t like the waitress would be buzzing around them like a gnat, but why would he want to speak with her alone?

  Isla cleared her throat and took a sip from her straw. She barely tasted her own caramel coffee. “So, how’s the family?” she asked, just for something to say.

  Arturo smiled. “Silvio seems distracted. Orlando’s been keeping busy. I guess you had a chat with Sebastian?”

  She nodded.

  He held onto his coffee mug. One finger seemed to scratch the ceramic white edge. “What did he say to you?”

  Honesty was her best policy after all. “He told me why you all had a falling out.”

  Arturo winced.

  She kept smiling at him. “You were kids.”

  He shook his head. “We should’ve known better.”

  “No, not really.” When Arturo lifted one dark brow at her, she continued. “You were a child in that house. It didn’t matter how big you got, and you didn’t know any better. Not really. You loved your mom and didn’t want to cause trouble.”

  “We shouldn’t have let Orlando go through all that, and Sebastian…” Arturo looked down into his dark mug. “He pisses me off now, but sometimes I really can’t be mad at him. Not after what happened.”

  She wet her lips. “Arturo, you’re not special.”

  He jerked his head back and really looked at her. He puffed out a small laugh. “Thanks so much for that.” He was smiling as he said it, but Isla didn’t want to make a joke of this.

  “No, really, think about it. You were no different than any other kid your age. I don’t know if you didn’t step in because you thought Orlando was a boy, so it wasn’t like your mother could hurt him too much, or if you didn’t say or do anything out of respect and love for her, but in a weird way, that’s all normal. She was your mother. You loved her. I seriously doubt you wanted to yell at her to stop, or call the police on the woman who probably sung you to sleep when you were a baby. That is no different from any other child. You couldn’t have known what to do. You weren’t special, so stop holding yourself to a standard that says you were.”

  “You said weren’t special that time.”

  More heat rose in her cheeks. “You know what I meant,” she said, even though it had been a slip.

  He looked and felt pretty special to her now. When he’d walked onto the patio, several women, and even a guy or two, had turned their heads to look at him.

  He was special now.

  “Does Orlando love you as his brother?”

  Arturo shrugged. “I’d say he does.”

  “Do you and Silvio love him?”

  He smiled softly. “Yeah.”

  “Then that’s what matters. He’s a grown adult. I don’t know him that well, but I wouldn’t respect him if I thought he got some sick pleasure out of spending time with people he thought didn’t like him, or hated him. If he’s forgiven you, then that should be enough.”

  “Sebastian hasn’t.”

  Isla smiled. “He said something similar about you and Silvio.”<
br />
  “He said he didn’t forgive us?”

  “No, he said you both haven’t forgiven him.”

  Arturo’s eyes widened.

  She reached for her drink again. “I asked him if he might call you. I kind of doubt he will, but maybe this will give him something to think about.”

  “Maybe.” He didn’t sound too convinced.

  She wanted to change the subject, she wanted to talk about something that wouldn’t have Arturo so forlorn.

  She hoped it wasn’t a mistake to bring this up. “How’d your mission go with your father?”

  He tilted his head to the side a little. “My father?”

  “Remember? You brought me to a hockey game to—”

  “Oh, right!” Arturo said. If the wide smile on his face was anything to go by, then he’d been successful in that one. “I actually went to visit him not too long ago.

  Isla’s eyes widened. “Okay, that’s kind of shocking. What did he say?”

  Arturo waved off her worry. “I wouldn’t worry about it. I only do that when I want to see the look on his face about something. Sometimes he tries to summon me, but I never answer. The last time he called, I definitely went over because I knew he’d be pissed.”

  She grinned. “He saw the game?”

  “He saw the game,” Arturo said, crossing his arms and looking up at the sky for a second, as though picturing the scene in his mind. “You should’ve seen the look on his face when I walked in.”

  “He was pissed?”

  He nodded. “Super pissed.”

  She was sure she’d never heard Arturo say those two words together, and she couldn’t help herself. She started to laugh.

  He did, too.

  God, it felt good to laugh with him. She almost felt like she was having a coffee date with a friend.

  “So what did he do when he found out you gave me 49 percent of the company? Did he try calling you again?”

  “Oh no, I told him on my visit, with this big smile on my face,” he said, pointing with both fingers at his cheeks. “I swear it looked like he was about to have a stroke. Didn’t quite happen, but the visit still had to be cut in half so he could go and rest.”

  Isla never thought she would take pleasure in another man’s suffering, but when it came to Arturo’s father, he deserved all that and more.

  “I also told him that I gave you 75 percent,” Arturo said. “Don’t get any ideas, I’m still keeping the fifty-one, but it was fun making him think I’d given away so much of what he’d had fun taking.”

  She didn’t blame him for that in the least.

  She reached across the table. “Well, for that, I’m taking 25 percent of this cookie,” she said.

  “I wouldn’t respect you as a businesswoman if you didn’t,” Arturo replied.

  She broke off her stolen share and popped it into her mouth. She and Arturo were smiling, were they flirting? It kind of felt like they were.

  Then he wasn’t smiling so much at all. His expression softened, and he looked her right in the eyes. “I miss you.”

  Isla nearly choked on her cookie. She had to force herself to swallow. “You what?”

  Arturo winced.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean for it to come out like that,” she said quickly.

  His mouth tightened into a firm line as he nodded, but he was no longer looking at her. “I liked seeing you again, but I don’t think I can do it after this. Unless there is some business reason for me to meet with you or your parents, this should probably be the last time.”

  Okay, that hurt. Her fingers clenched on the table before she realized what she was doing, and then she pulled her hands off the glass, letting them rest on her lap.

  She stared down at the glass table. “That’s a mixed message if I ever heard one. You miss me, but you don’t want to see me?”

  She wouldn’t mind seeing more of him at all.

  He blew out a hard breath. “I don’t think you realize how hard this is for me.”

  Isla snapped her eyes up to look at him. “How hard it is for you?”

  Arturo refused to look her in the eye. It seemed he was trying to look at anything and everything except for her. Why?

  “You don’t even know…you don’t even know how hard this is because you don’t know me.” He finally glanced at her, just to look away again. “I’m not good with talking about emotions. Not these kinds of emotions anyway. I don’t like doing it. I don’t like feeling them, but I swear to God, whenever I got near you before you left, my heart started thumping in my chest.”

  Isla’s heart was doing that right now. “You don’t say.”

  Arturo’s lips thinned. He looked angry. “I thought it was better when you left. Things would go back to normal. I tried to make them go back to normal.”

  Isla didn’t need to be reminded of the blonde she’d seen in his office the last time she saw him.

  “But lately, I’ve been looking at your number on my phone, contemplating calling you. The only reason why I didn’t was because I didn’t want you to think I was a creep or a stalker.”

  Her face heated. She wanted to tell him she wouldn’t have thought that at all, and considering her feelings for him, she knew she wouldn’t have.

  But she and Jane had, had a couple of girlfriends before who complained about those very things whenever an ex tried to get back together.

  They were labelled as being too clingy, unable to let go, creepy whenever they arranged for flowers to be delivered, or stalkers for asking to meet up.

  Considering the reputation Arturo had to defend, she didn’t blame him for being worried she might think that of him.

  This wasn’t one of Jane’s romance novels. The hero didn’t immediately take the first step just to have the heroine jump into his arms and declare her undying love.

  It was real life. And real emotions were never that simple.

  Funny how they kind of felt that way in that moment. They felt simple, the solution felt simple, but Isla still found herself speechless as Arturo spoke.

  “You know, I actually ran after you when you went to the elevators the last time you came to my office.”

  Isla’s eyes flew wide. “You did?” She frowned and shook her head. “No, wait, you couldn’t have.”

  “The doors had just shut and you were gone by the time I got out of the office. Seemed like a missed opportunity, and if I followed you down to the parking lot, that would’ve looked desperate and stalker-ish for sure.”

  “So you just let me go?” Isla asked, her voice hardly carrying.

  He nodded. “I let you go.”

  Okay, that would’ve been romance-novel worthy, if Arturo had rushed out of his office before the elevator doors had closed. Even if he hadn’t been in time to stop the elevator, just seeing him coming through his office doors would’ve been enough to make her go back, to let her know what his feelings for her really were.

  “I get that what I did to you wasn’t right,” Arturo said, “so I’m not even going to pretend that things are better than they are. We can be civil when we are together, and if you don’t hate me for everything, then that would be enough. I just…” He trailed off, and then laughed. “I actually skipped out on a meeting that took five months of hard work to set up to come here. I probably shouldn’t have even done that.”

  He finally stopped talking and seemed to be waiting for her response.

  She could hardly speak. He’d left an important meeting for her. She didn’t know the details of it, and she wouldn’t ask, but if it had taken him that long to arrange it, then it had obviously been important.

  And he’d left it behind to come have coffee with her.

  Okay, this was her line. It was time for her to say something.

  Her throat was dry. She didn’t know what to say.

  Arturo stifled a sardonic laugh. “Sorry. I know this must be uncomfortable for you.”

  “It’s all right,” Isla croaked. Then she swallowed. “Are you in love wit
h me?”

  Arturo tensed, and the way he glanced at her, as though she’d asked him something he really wished she hadn’t, told her the answer before he gave it.

  “Yes.”

  “Okay,” Isla said.

  Their silence was no longer pleasant. It was awkward.

  She had to think of something else to say. He loved her but wasn’t acting on it because of the way they’d gotten together? He probably thought it was an unhealthy way to start a relationship.

  It was an unhealthy way to start a relationship.

  “If I were to tell you that I’m pretty sure I love you back, what would you say?”

  Arturo smirked. “I’d say you don’t have to say that because you feel sorry for me.”

  She ducked her head. “I don’t feel sorry for you.”

  Not where this was concerned, at any rate.

  He pursed his lips. “I want to believe that, I really do…”

  He was going to get up and leave. If she didn’t do something soon, he was going to get up and go and she might not see him for years. Might never see him again.

  Isla put her elbows on the table and leaned forward. She was struck by a confidence she could hardly describe and didn’t even know where it had come from.

  “There’s another hockey game happening in two weeks. You’re going to take me to it.”

  Those dark eyes widened. “What? That’s kind of pushy, isn’t it?”

  “Don’t pretend like you don’t like it,” she said, smiling a little. “You don’t believe me because we don’t even know each other, so I want to get to know you. You’re going to take me out on a date.”

  “It’s not even about being worried that I might’ve made you feel things you really don’t,” Arturo said, his jaw clenching. “You don’t know me, but you know me well enough to know that my experiences with relationships aren’t great. I mean, Christ, my father, the man I’m supposed to look up to and admire, killed his wife.”

  “And you’re not your father.”

  “I know that. I wasn’t trying to make a comparison.”

  She continued as if he hadn’t said anything. “And the entire point of a date is to get to know each other. We can meet up for dinner and a movie before the hockey game, or you can take me to the arts museum. I like that place.”