She beamed, and he knew he’d guessed right. The betrayal of his mom’s memory made him squirm, and he looked away. Because for as long as he could remember, he’d wished for a new mom, even when his mom was alive. He couldn’t remember a time when she wasn’t weak and tired, and he resented not having a mom that could take care of them, like their friends’ moms. It was like he’d wished his real mom dead and gone so he could have a better one. Now that his wish had come true, he knew he’d be going to hell. What kind of son does that?
Now there was a lull in the conversation, so Vince plunged in. “Hey, Dad, I’ve got the papers in the car for the library project. Looks like with some adjustments, the project is ours.”
His dad set his fork down. “What kind of adjustments?”
“The town wants to preserve the historic old part, and we’re going to rework the design a bit to include brick surround to make it blend.”
“You mean the way Capello Construction proposed? That’s too expensive.”
His brothers watched them back and forth like a tennis match.
“Yeah, about that,” Vince said carefully. “They signed off on Capello’s design, but named us subcontractor—”
“Subcontractor!” his dad thundered.
“With the majority of crew and work. It’s complicated, but Sophia said—”
“Sophia Capello?” A vein pulsed in his dad’s forehead.
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “It seems their company isn’t doing too well. They’re looking for a partner. Sophia said she could head up a historic architecture department while I run the new construction projects. Of course, I said the library should be a trial project before we moved forward with any kind of—”
“What the hell are you talking about?” His dad’s face was red.
“Honey, calm down,” his stepmom said. “It’s not good for you to be stressed.”
“What are you talking about?” his dad said in a calmer voice. “We don’t have a historic architecture department. You’re running the rest? What is this, a merger? Because I didn’t agree to that at all.”
Vince held up a hand. “I know it’s complicated, but they’d let go of some of their employees, and we’d keep all of ours. We’d knock out our greatest competitor and have the good reputation of both. Not to mention the experienced crew from their side.”
“Are you out of your mind?” his dad shouted. So much for not making a scene in front of the family. “What kind of hold does this woman have on you?”
“She’s a supermodel,” Gabe put in.
“Gabe,” Zoe said, shaking her head.
“A matching pair,” Nico chimed in, referring to the old joke about Vince’s brush with modeling.
“I’ll show you a matching pair,” Vince growled at Nico, thankful for the interruption for what promised to be a first-class tirade from the head of the family and the business.
“Last time I checked,” his dad boomed, “I’m not dead yet. That means I’m still in charge, and it’ll be a cold day in hell before I align myself with the likes of Joe Capello.”
“He’s out of the picture,” Vince said. “Sophia’s running things, and she needs help. She needs us.”
“I’m not giving up everything I worked for so you can hook up with some supermodel!” his dad hollered.
“She’s not a damn supermodel!” Vince hollered back. “She’s a historic architecture expert!”
“Let’s not talk business at the table,” his stepmom said in her quiet calm voice. “After dinner.”
“Sorry,” his dad said, wiping his mouth with a napkin and returning to his meal.
“Sorry, Ma,” Vince said.
“So, Zoe, have you and Gabe signed up for baptism class yet?” his mom asked, steering the conversation to neutral ground.
“Yes, we’re taking one in November before the baby arrives,” Zoe said. “Vince, can you take it too?”
“Sure.”
Zoe went on. “And Father Munson says we need to be at church every Sunday if he’s going to be baptized there. Godparents too. Okay, Vince?”
Vince hadn’t been to church in years, but there was no way he’d let his godson down. “I’ll be there.”
“Good. My sister, Jasmine, will be there too.” Zoe looked around the table. “She’s godmother.”
“Your sister’s little girl is so adorable,” his mom said. “It’ll be nice for the cousins to grow up together.”
Vince calmed down a bit, thinking of his godson. Everyone returned to their meal, teasing each other and talking over each other like usual. Except his dad, who sat there quietly fuming. Vince knew he was going to get an earful once everyone cleared the room. When the meal finished, Vince helped clear the dishes like usual and returned to the dining room to face his dad.
“Let’s take a walk,” his dad said.
Vince inclined his head and followed his dad out the front door.
“Vince, when I put you in charge of this project, I wasn’t handing over the reins completely.”
“I can handle it,” Vince said. “One day you’re going to retire, and you’ve got me ready and willing to step up. I’ve earned partner.”
“I can’t retire if you’re going to throw everything I’ve worked for away on some fling.”
Vince took a deep breath. “I’m not. It’s more like a partnership. An alliance that could be good for both companies.”
“I won’t do business with a foulmouthed, bad-tempered stubborn asshole. And that’s being nice about it.”
Vince couldn’t imagine Sophia being so devoted to her dad if he was a complete monster. He suspected pride and stubbornness on both their dads’ parts were what kept the hostility level high. “Sophia’s not like that.”
“You like her,” his dad said.
He shrugged. “She’s all right.”
“Son, there’s too much riding on this for you not to be straight with me.”
“Nothing’s going on.”
“Good. The last thing we need is to be connected to that family.”
Vince kicked some leaves down the sidewalk, quickly deciding to leave the fact that Joe had left the company near bankruptcy out of the conversation. It would come up soon enough if they went forward with a merger. And he’d promised Sophia not to say anything. “Her family’s screwed up. She’s just caught in the middle.”
His dad shook his finger at him. “No alliance. No partnership. Am I making myself clear?”
Vince’s stomach dropped. Now he had to come clean. “Dad, Sophia asked for my help, and we worked out a deal.”
“What?”
“We worked it out,” he repeated. “We’ll still get the lion’s share of the work. Our name will be right next to theirs at the groundbreaking.”
“Dammit, Vince, I thought I could trust you with your first project.”
Vince gritted his teeth. “You can. Sophia knows what she’s doing on the historic side. It wouldn’t hurt us to get more involved with historic projects. A lot of towns around here have a history they want to preserve.”
“Listen to you, the freaking history fan. Since when, huh? You sleeping with this woman?”
“No. She’s not like that. She’s…” Awesome, he finished silently. Feisty, sexy, smart. He stared off in the distance, remembering their last conversation that had gotten a little…spicy. Like Sophia, sweet and spicy. He wanted more of that. It felt unnatural not to go for it. She was just so—
“Ah, shit.” His dad shoved a hand in his hair. “Hook up with her on your own time. Don’t screw this up, Vince!”
Vince stiffened. “I’m not screwing it up. They’re more like consultants. It’s mostly our project. This is the only way.”
“So who’s the boss?”
“I am.”
“If I find out she’s running things behind the scenes, making a play for our business.” His dad shoved both hands in his hair. “This could all be a scam to destroy everything I’ve worked for.”
�
�She’s not like that. She’s a straight shooter.”
His dad groaned. “This was Joe’s plan all along. Send in his supermodel daughter to turn your head, and then steal the project right out from under us.”
“She’s not a supermodel. Yes, she’s beautiful, but that doesn’t mean she’s not good for the company. You can’t hold that against her.”
His dad paced back and forth. “So we’re subcontractor or nothing? That’s what you’re telling me?”
“Yes.”
“Dammit. If I find out you’re fooling around with this strumpet.”
“She’s not a strumpet! I don’t even know what the hell that is. Don’t talk about her.”
His dad gave him a look. Vince met his gaze unflinchingly. He’d done nothing wrong, and he’d saved what could have been a loss with the potential for a lot more work for the company.
“I’m not signing a damn thing until I meet her,” his dad finally said.
“Why?”
“I want to see what we’re up against!”
“She’s harmless.” He bit back some harsher language he felt like spewing, out of respect for his dad’s condition, recovering from chemo. “Just…calm the frick down.”
“Tomorrow night. Bring her by the house. Either she shows or she goes.”
“Fine!” he barked.
Chapter Nine
Sophia had just settled on the sofa with a glass of red wine and a book when the doorbell rang. She peeked through the peephole. Vince! She smoothed her hair and tied the belt on her red silk robe a little tighter.
She opened the door, and he barged in. “It’s not going to work,” he said. His hair was wet like he’d just taken a shower. His woodsy, masculine scent filled the space, making her almost woozy with lust.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. “It’s late.”
“I just came from working out, and I looked at it from every angle—” He stopped and took her in from head to toe. “Whadda ya got on underneath that robe?”
“I wasn’t expecting anyone. I’ll change.” Before she could take one step, he snagged the arm holding the book.
“Whatcha reading?” he asked in a teasing tone.
She hid the book behind her back. “Nothing. What do you mean it won’t work out?”
“The Mistress and The Rake? Do you want to be a mistress?” He barked out a laugh. “Are you looking for a rake? Is that like a player?”
She stiffened. “My friend left it here. I normally only read, um…”
“Shakespeare?”
“Yes! Shakespeare and-and Tolstoy.”
“Any good sex scenes in there? I read a doozy of one in my ex-girlfriend’s stash.”
“I just skip over those scenes.” She looked away from those gleaming, knowing eyes. “Kinda boring actually.”
“Uh-huh.”
She crossed her arms. “Why are you here again?”
He snagged the book out of her hands and read out loud. “‘Why, Maurice, you can’t mean to bed me here?’ she asked in a breathy voice.” He grinned. “Let’s hear your breathy voice.”
“I don’t have one.”
He stepped into her personal space and brushed her hair back over her ear, and then that devious rake leaned in close enough to make his voice rumble in her ear. “I bet you do.”
“I don’t,” she breathed.
He kept rumbling in her ear. “Say ‘you can’t mean to bed me here.’”
She jerked away. “Like hell.”
He grinned. “I love messing with you.”
She turned on her heel and flopped down on the sofa. She caught him staring and looked down to see the front of her robe had opened. Geez. She refastened it so she was covered decently and grabbed the lap blanket she kept on the sofa. He sat next to her and pulled the blanket so it went across both their laps. Most of it was on him. Was he covering a hard-on? She flushed, uncomfortably aware of the skimpiness of her thin robe and panties next to this sexy lumberjack she was unaccountably drawn to. He was extremely aggravating.
And she’d enjoyed the butt rub he’d given her a little too much.
“This is cozy,” he said.
“I’m losing patience with you,” she said.
“What happens when you run out?” he asked.
She gritted her teeth. “Just tell me why you’re here.” The tension was unbearable. Was he going to make a move or not? She’d been imagining those rough calloused hands on her more than was reasonable for a busy woman with a lot of other important things she should be focused on. Of course, having lusty thoughts was very different from actually carrying through on them. She casually shifted away from the heat of that large, thick, muscular body.
He let out a long breath. “Yeah. My dad is not going for the partnership idea. He was pretty irate about it. Has a big thing against your dad, as you know.”
“Oh.”
“So…I dunno. I think we’re back to square one. He’s the boss.”
She shifted to face him. “Well, so is my dad, but who’s really running things on the ground day to day? You and me. That’s who!”
He held up a hand. “Preaching to the choir.”
“What about this? The library project we work just like we agreed, shared resources, me in charge of the historic end as a trial. If it goes well, then they’ll have to agree the merger idea could work.”
Vince ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah. Well, I’m okay with that, but my dad…”
“How close is he to retirement?”
“I don’t know. He was rumbling about it before, but now he’s pulling rank. What about your dad?”
She thought about that. “I don’t know if I’d say he wants to retire so much as he doesn’t want to do anything anymore. That’s how I ended up here.”
“Did you run the partnership idea by him?”
She looked straight ahead and admitted, “I was waiting to see how it went on your end first.”
“So you just let me take the heat?”
She glanced over, expecting him to be really angry, but he was looking at her more like he was fascinated with whatever she was about to say. She lifted one shoulder up and down. “I figured why get into it with my dad if it was a no-go with yours.”
“You figured, huh?”
“Yes.”
He tickled her, and she shrieked in surprise. Then she tickled him back, connected with a hard stomach, and he grabbed her hands and wrapped them around his waist, making her hug him. She looked up at him, puzzled.
“Hey, you feel like coming to dinner at my parents’ house tomorrow night?” he asked, not even bothering to look at her.
Her jaw dropped. “You want me to meet your parents?”
He let out a long sigh. Still not looking at her. “Yes.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Okay. Should I bring anything?”
He released her hands, straightened, and finally looked at her. “Just yourself. Wear a dress.”
“Is it formal?”
“No.”
“Then why the dress?”
“For me.”
Her brows shot up. “Are you playing with me?”
“I’m not playing.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “For once I’m not playing.”
“I’m not dressing to please you.”
“Fine. Wear what you want. It’s casual.”
“You sound like you don’t really want me there.”
“No, no, I do.” He stared at the floor, frowning. In that moment, she knew what the invitation was about. She was being summoned by the senior Marino. He wanted to meet her before moving forward with anything. Still, it was a good sign. Better than a flat refusal. It was clear Vince’s hands were tied, and he wasn’t happy about not being able to sign off on the contract and move forward like she did. Her dad had given her the authority to run the business, putting her name on everything important just before he’d retreated to his hidey-hole. For some reason, Vince didn�
�t have the authority to sign off on this project, even though he’d represented the company for it.
“Are you going to feel me up after?” she teased to cheer him up.
He flashed a smile that lit up his face. “Do you want me to feel you up after?”
She smacked his arm. “Of course not, you rake!”
He laughed. “I’m getting a copy of that book.”
“Look out, ladies. Vince is getting an instruction manual.”
“I don’t need an instruction manual. I know where everything is.” He raised his brows. “Trust me.”
“I’ll have to take your word on that.”
“Sophia,” he said quietly.
“What?”
His gaze was warm and direct. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
He stood. “Enjoy your rake.” And then he left just as suddenly as he’d arrived.
She sat there for a moment, musing over the man she was beginning to suspect had a tender center hidden under all that hard muscle and macho bravado, and then she returned to her book. Only this time she kept imagining Vince as the rake.
~ ~ ~
Sophia sat across from Vince at his parents’ dining room table, trying to appear relaxed. His dad had been polite, but she felt the tension rolling off him and knew it was just a matter of time before he got to whatever point he wanted to make.
“Can we eat?” Vince asked, rolling his neck. Bread and salad were on the table, but the main course was warming on the stove. His mom had made Italian wedding soup for the health benefits she said, but Sophia was suspicious about some misplaced matchmaking intentions between her and Vince, especially when Mr. Marino had scowled at that comment.
“Nico will be here,” Mrs. Marino said.
Vince drummed his fingers on the table. “Why?”
“Does your brother need a reason to come home for dinner?” his dad asked.
“Angel too,” his mom said.
Vince stared at his dad. “Again, why?”
“Because we’re talking Marino family business,” his dad said evenly.
“But they don’t want to be in construction,” Vince said.
Sophia tensed. Was Mr. Marino handing over the business to his three sons? Was she about to watch an all-out war between Vince and the rest of the Marino clan?
Not My Romeo Page 8