Antonio Balducci, the billionaire celebrity surgeon, had tossed a hundred million dollars their way—chump change for him—and once again proved that money was the most powerful incentive on earth.
“Uh-oh.” Brian took a step back as he spoke. “You’ve got that look on your face.”
She frowned. “What look?”
“The one you get when you’ve decided to go to war.”
She huffed a chuckle, half amused, half embarrassed. “I didn’t realize I was that easy to read. After all the years I spent battling my verbal incontinence, thanks for letting me know I’ve only developed the mental and emotional variety.”
An indulgent smile lit up Brian’s genial face. “You’re just straightforward and spontaneous.”
She rolled her eyes. “Which are the PC words for unrestrained and blunt.”
“And it’s something everyone is thankful for.”
She groaned. “You mean it’s not only you as my best friend who can see through me? Everyone else can read me like a ten-foot neon sign?”
Brian’s grin was appeasement itself. “And they love you for it. In a world full of pretense and games, you’re a rarity and an incredible relief. Not to mention extremely cute.”
“An outspoken five-year-old is cute. A transparent thirty-one-year-old is not.”
Brian wrapped an arm around her shoulder and gave her an affectionate squeeze. “You’ll be cute when you’re a hundred and thirty-one.” He pulled her up. “Now let’s go meet our new boss. I have a feeling this won’t be as bad as you think.”
Taking off her lab coat, she tossed him a challenging glance. “I bet you it’s worse.”
“You’re on.” He never could resist a challenge. “If I’m right, you go on a date with one of the restless bachelors that plague my serenely married existence.”
Unable to resist Brian’s infectious good cheer any longer, a smile spread Lili’s lips. All nine of Brian’s brothers and brothers-in-law were either single or divorced. He and his wife, Darla, were always trying to set them up.
“But if I’m right,” Lili said, “you strike me off your list of possible bachelordom cures. I’m the last woman on earth you should consider for such a task, anyway.”
“I know, because you’ll never get married. You’ve told me a hundred times.” He grinned knowingly. “All the women who turn out to be the best wives say that. Including Darla.”
Lili stifled a scoff. “You’re comparing me to Darla, the paragon of domesticity and motherhood, and a savvy businesswoman to boot, when I can barely manage a single life that consists of work, exercise, sleep, study, rinse and repeat?”
“Details, details.” Brian winked as he held the door open for her. “You could well be twins where it counts.”
She shook her head, but let him have the last word. She was nothing like Darla or any other woman born with the ability to conduct intimate relationships or nurture families. Like her mother. And she’d long been at peace with that.
So she was confident she’d win their bet, and at least one good thing would come out of their current mess. Brian would finally stop trying to shove her into his version of a fulfilling existence.
As she passed him on her way out of the lab, she swept it in one last regretful look.
If things went according to her projections, as she was certain they would, this would be the last time she saw it.
* * *
Their new boss was late.
As she sat in her usual seat halfway down the conference table, Lili fumed.
Either Balducci had met his demise—and they couldn’t possibly be that lucky—or he didn’t consider them worthy of his legendary punctuality. And that boded even worse for them than she’d expected.
Her bleary gaze scanned the room. All thirty of the BIL employees were there and unlike her, they’d all clearly run back home to dress for the occasion, leaving only her in an appropriately drab-as-her-mood outfit. Also unlike her, they seemed relieved, even excited at the takeover. Even hating this as much as she did, Lili realized why. She had been feeling the toll of the obstacles they’d had to tackle continuously to do what other better-funded labs did in a fraction of the time. But to her, setbacks, false starts and near misses were an expected part of scientific endeavor. It seemed her attitude hadn’t been shared by the others as she’d thought, and she was the only one with a purely negative stance on the takeover. And a hostile one toward the man behind it.
Everyone else was awed by the very mention of the legendary Dr. Antonio Balducci. The buzz she was sensing wasn’t only over any favorable expectations with him at the helm, but also over the opportunity of meeting him in the flesh. The ladies especially looked aflutter at the prospect. From her online research of him, she grudgingly conceded their reaction was the normal one, not hers.
Since she reserved her curiosity for scientific matters, she’d barely known a thing about him before she’d heard the news. After she had, she’d gone through the stages of shock, denial and fury, and through everything she could find on him on the net.
To her surprise, she found three parallels with him from the first thing she read. Like her, he was a doctor, and he’d been born to an Italian father and was an only child. But that was where their similarities ended.
He was an American now, naturalized three years ago, while she was an American through her mother. Both his parents were long dead, while her own mother had died only a year ago, and her father who had never existed in her life, had recently—and to her continuing surprise, very enthusiastically—reentered it.
Pulling her thoughts away from that development, she turned them to the man at hand.
Not much was known about Antonio Balducci’s early life. He was raised in Austria, his mother’s homeland, where he became fluent in six languages and where he lived until he graduated from medical school. It was only about eight years ago that information about him, staggering in quantity and quality, had started pouring in.
That was when he’d shot onto the world scene, an awe-inspiring figure whose success in every field he entered was phenomenal. Being a founding member of the global juggernaut Black Castle Enterprises was meticulously documented, as well as his founding of the conglomerate’s medical R & D business—the arm of his empire that had taken over her beloved lab.
Adding to his lure for the media was his effect on the females of the species. Women went nuts over him like they did over music and soccer legends like Presley and Beckham. If she’d thought his effect a media exaggeration, she was seeing empirical evidence of his irresistibility to women right before her eyes. And that was before he actually arrived.
But all that wasn’t what he was best known for. Most of his fame stemmed from being sought after by the world’s elite to perform or even consult on their rejuvenations. But his biggest achievement was being hailed as a trauma and reconstructive surgical god whose work bordered on magic.
She ground her teeth together. The only magic she thought Balducci practiced was the black kind. To her, he was the capricious force who was pulverizing everything she’d worked for, just because he could.
And the damned man dared be late for her destruction!
Suddenly conversation was cut off as if someone had hit Stop. She looked up and saw all eyes glued to the doorway behind her. That meant...
She swung around to catch the moment when the man who’d quashed her ambitions bulldozed into her territory. And it was her turn to feel she’d been caught in a stasis field.
As everything decelerated to a standstill, a mental protest went off inside her mind.
No one should be all that, and look like that, too. Is there no fairness in this world?
Gaping and unable to do anything about it, she stared at the figure in the doorway. In a slate-gray suit that molded to a body that belonged to a wor
ld-class athlete, not a surgeon and entrepreneur, Antonio Balducci dwarfed the room with his physical and personal presence.
While viewing his photos online, she’d dismissed the possibility that he looked that good in real life, believing he’d had his photos touched up or he’d achieved his perfection surgically.
But even across a packed room, she knew neither of that was true. If anything, the photos had downplayed his looks. And she could discern surgical interventions from a mile away and she had no doubt whatsoever that every one of Antonio Balducci’s jaw-dropping assets was authentic.
At forty, the man had skin that looked like an alloy of polished copper and bronze. The tensile medium was pulled tight over a masterpiece of bone structure. Her fingers itched to indulge in a much-neglected pastime and sketch its every detail: the leonine forehead, the patrician nose, the slashing cheekbones, the powerful jaw and cleft chin.
After transferring the framework of his unique face to paper, she’d linger over every hair framing his majestic head, the most robust mass of raven silk she’d ever seen. But among all those wonders, two things transfixed her. The wide, sculpted lips bowed in a mysterious quirk. And his eyes.
Apart from their amazing shape and startling blueness, it was what they conveyed that sent her heartbeat into disarray. Contrary to the opacity of his smile, his gaze radiated an amalgam of expressions. Amusement and austerity. Curiosity and superiority. Astuteness and calculation. And a dozen other things she couldn’t decide on.
Those were the eyes of a scientist. But equally they were the eyes of a conqueror.
Which probably summed him up just right.
As he walked into room, déjà vu struck her.
Among his photos, one in particular had arrested her. A rare shot of him and his partners in Black Castle Enterprises.
They’d been captured as they’d exited their opulent New York headquarters en masse. It was an unrehearsed shot that was far more hard-hitting than any posed shot could have been, and it had earned its photographer instant fame.
The photo had captured their essence in such starkness that when it was published, Black Castle stock prices spiked to unheard-of levels. The men looked like a pantheon of warrior gods who’d descended to earth in the guise of ultramodern businessmen. The array of sheer male power and beauty in that photo was breathtaking. It had clearly robbed the whole world of breath.
Yet even among those gods among men, Antonio had stood out.
Not only had his brand of gorgeousness thrummed the chords of her specific taste, something else had fascinated her on a fundamental level. Though they were all extraordinary, she’d felt he had an edge over the other men. Even in the remoteness of a photo she felt he had the coolest head, the most deliberate mind. Even in her fury, that had appealed to her so fiercely she’d found herself saving the photo for leisurely inspection at a later date, maybe even as material for a future illustration.
And here he was in the impossibly perfect flesh, the epitome of splendor and sangfroid.
She wouldn’t be surprised if he belonged to some next-step-in-evolution elite who’d eliminated all human frailties and imperfections and who operated on pure, merciless intellect.
He now stopped at the table and leaned his six-foot-plus frame to flatten his palms on its shining surface.
Seething with renewed resentment at his effect on her, she followed his serene gaze as it swept the room. From the chain reaction she felt going off around her, he seemed to be making eye contact with everyone. Everyone but her. His gaze skipped over her as if she were a blank space.
After the momentary consternation of being passed over, she was relieved. If his mere presence provoked those reactions in her, she didn’t want to find out what she’d feel if that all-seeing gaze bored into her.
Once he’d had them holding their breath, he inclined his head. “Thanks for accommodating me at such short notice. I’m glad you could all make it.”
Man, that voice. If everything about him weren’t too much already, that darkest vocal spell would have been bad enough on its own. Making it even worse was an ephemeral accent that intertwined through its meticulous articulation, deepening its impact.
As murmured responses rustled around the room, he straightened to his towering height.
“I don’t want to hold you up, especially those of you whose schedule is nine to five, so I’ll get right to the point of my visit.” A perfectly timed dramatic pause. “I hope you’re as optimistic as I am about the new state of affairs, and will find working under the Balducci umbrella a rewarding experience, scientifically and financially.”
He spread a prompting smile around the room and Lili saw everyone grin back at him like hypnotized fools.
Without taking his eyes off the assembly, he gestured to someone she realized had been behind him all along. The shorter man in turn directed four people behind him to come forward. They had piles of folders, which they passed around the room. When it was her turn to receive one, she stared down at the inch-thick glossy volume graced with Balducci’s distinctive serpent logo.
“In your hands is comprehensive info on Balducci’s operations,” he explained. “As well as the mission statement for its new merger with your facility.” Merger, huh? Big of him to call his incursion that. “Until you read everything in detail, let me give you a brief summation.
“I founded Balducci R & D to furnish the world with visionary medical solutions. A dynamic, adventurous and fast-paced researching, manufacturing and distribution organization specializing in state-of-the-art products and technologies in a number of leading medical fields. My aim remains to provide the medical community with unparalleled clinical products that set the trend in medicine. For six years, Balducci has been the primary supplier, to hospitals, clinics and research institutions, of advanced medical solutions in a variety of fields. With a constantly growing global team of the best the world has to offer in their disciplines, which I’m proud for you to be a part of now, we provide exceptional value, service and support much above the industry standard. And we achieve the highest customer retention rates in every market we currently dominate. But there are new frontiers I aim to conquer.” Yeah, just what she’d figured. “And this is where you come in.”
Everyone sat up, taking even closer notice. The man really had masterful timing and delivery.
When he’d made sure everyone was hanging on his every breath, he went on, “I don’t need to tell you that your team is composed of some of the most avant-garde researchers of our time. I have no doubt you’re well aware of your individual and collective worth. I certainly am best equipped to know it. I’m still suffering from the very sizable hole in my assets it took to acquire your services.”
As chuckles of pleasure spread through the room, Lili’s hackles rose higher. What was wrong with her colleagues? They were proud they had a price? Sure, he pretended “acquiring their services” had taken a toll on him, but they all knew this was untrue. The man was worth over a dozen billion dollars!
Then he spoke again, dousing her new spurt of irritation.
“The methods and results you’ve contributed to the medical community working with limited funding and resources is nothing short of astounding. Each and every one of you is exactly the kind of unique-approach, enterprising scientist that Balducci covets. As you’ll see from the documents you have in your possession now, each of you has been assigned to a project I believe you’re most suited for, where you’ll have anything you could possibly want to make progress in it, and hopefully reach a breakthrough. And let me be clear. By anything, I do mean anything. My assistants will be available to provide any of your needs. But my own door is always open if what you need is too ambitious, as I hope all your work with me will be.”
By the time he finished, she was gaping again.
The man was overpowering. Velvet over steel over a
n enigma. Not only the most magnificent male she’d ever seen, but the most persuasive, too.
What he’d outlined was every scientist’s fairy tale come true. Unlimited resources to be as adventurous as they wished, caring only about the work, while funding and feasibility were being taken care of by dedicated experts with access to bottomless pockets and powered by limitless ambition. His.
He’d almost convinced even her. Almost.
But if she had to fight his hypnosis with all she had, she had no doubt the others were already in his thrall. A darting glance noted the glassy eyes of those who no longer questioned that his decreed path was the one to tread. Even Brian had a budding hero-worship expression on his face.
“That would all be well and good, if you were offering to fund our projects, not yours.”
It wasn’t until everyone swung to gape at her as if she’d thrown a grenade on the table that she realized she’d spoken.
And she did it again, without intending to.
“In your R & D career, you’ve consistently ignored basic research, what has produced centuries of history-changing breakthroughs, spawned whole industries and disciplines in medicine. You’ve also ignored the kind of research we do, of untrendy ailments that don’t provoke public or market interest. You’ve overlooked necessary research for a jumble of popular, feel-good, cash-cow fields like the cosmetic and weight-loss industries.”
The elusive smile that had been hovering on his lips suddenly froze.
All her blood followed suit.
Her heart thudding, she wished for some cosmic rewind button so she could erase what she’d just said.
Why had she spoken at all? She’d already found out her worst-case scenario would come to pass and they’d be herded wherever he wished. She didn’t do posturing confrontations. She knew her power, or rather, lack thereof. So why hadn’t she kept her big mouth shut and just tendered her resignation in silence?
Before she could draw another breath into her constricted lungs, he turned his head in her direction and impaled her on the lasers he had for eyes.
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