Bought With The Italian's Ring

“Shouldn’t you be in bed?” Raphael said as Giovanni plopped down onto the sofa with a long sigh. Because of his agile mind and his penchant for playing games, Raphael sometimes forgot that Gio was old. His wrinkled hands shook as he lifted the glass to his mouth.

“You’re far too excited, Giovanni. This is not good—”

“What do you think of my new granddaughter?”

Knowing that he wouldn’t get a word in until they talked about Pia, Raphael shrugged. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you’d custom ordered her at a store.”

The old man frowned. “What? Why?”

Raphael stared into his drink. But it was the long fluid line of Pia’s back, the drop of water that had run down her damp skin that he saw. The outrage in her eyes when he’d accused her. The hurt when he’d called her naive and meek.

“Raphael?” Gio prodded.

“She fits your requirements for a granddaughter a little too perfectly, don’t you think?”

A sneaky smile twitched around Gio’s lips. “So you admit that she is perfect.”

Raphael raked his fingers through his hair, frustration and something else—no, not something else. It was lust pounding at him. Lust that had never seemed so complicated or so fierce before. And the last thing he needed was for Gio to scent how attracted he was to Pia.

“I don’t mean it that way. An innocent, shy, clearly out of her depth orphan who travels across the world searching for her legacy, searching for her grandmother’s lover... Damn it, Gio, you’ve always been desperate for a child, for someone to love. She’s the perfect lure to tug at your heartstrings.”

“She’s nothing like my fiery Lucia—”

“Or her manipulative grandfather, if you’re truly that,” he added.

“Si. She’s young and sweet. I feel as if the burden of looking after Lucia was too much for her. No wonder that man preyed on her.”

Raphael scowled. “Did you even check the legitimacy of her claim before you advertised her to all of Milan with her inheritance hung around her neck like a sign?”

Gio frowned as the meaning sank in. “I have no doubt that she’s Lucia’s and my granddaughter.”

“Excuse me if I save my teary-eyed approval for later.”

“You have become a hardened ass, Raphael. Mistrustful of your own shadow.”

“I’m realistic. After three marriages, one would think you would be too. One would think you’d see beneath the wide-eyed innocence and the fragile naïveté.”

Silence met Raphael’s outburst. A pounding was beginning behind his eyes. Something was very wrong with this talk and yet he couldn’t place it.

Giovanni studied him over the rim of his wineglass. “I watched you watch her tonight. I heard some of the things you said to her. You were exceptionally cruel.”

Raphael blanched at the matter-of-fact words. He had been, and that was not counting the stuff he’d said later, at the pool. He didn’t like losing control of situations around him. He loathed losing control of himself. Thanks to her, both had happened tonight. And it had erased the little charm he usually had.

He’d aimed where it would hurt most and shot. He prided himself on his reputation for ruthlessness, and yet tonight it sat like acid in his mouth.

“And you didn’t come to her rescue, knowing what I would do. What the hell are you playing at, Gio?”

“I knew you would grill her, that you would try to poke holes in her story. I didn’t know you would dance with her, or hound her until she ran away from you. I didn’t know you would lose your legendary control.” He said it as if he was calculating a complex puzzle. “What did she say when you cornered her by the pool?”

A chill climbed up Raphael’s spine. He’d been so close to kissing her. If Gio had heard of it... “Christo, did you have the staff spying on us?”

Suddenly, the frown cleared. His eyes twinkled, in that satisfactory way that raised every hackle Raphael had. “You were more ruthless than usual. You are attracted to her...” His gruff voice deepened. “You want her.” Raucous laughter burst out of him, and he slapped his thigh hard.

Raphael scowled. He had a feeling this was what Giovanni had waited and watched for. “I’d like to remind you that the woman you’re talking about is your granddaughter.”

“She got behind your...defenses, isn’t that what they say? And you don’t like it. Tell me, Raphael, are you interested in Pia?”

Raphael sat back, something about that question sending a chill wave through him. “You talk as if she were cattle you’re trying to sell,” he evaded.

All he wanted to do was walk away. From this discussion and from that woman.

Of all the people in his life, Giovanni was the one person who could see through his ruthlessness, who’d known Raphael before he’d become hard and cynical. Who knew that Raphael didn’t like even a bit of weakness, any trace of vulnerability. And being attracted to a woman in a way he didn’t understand was a weakness.

But he couldn’t leave. Not until he knew what Giovanni was up to.

“Answer the question.”

“I’m rarely interested in any woman for more than one night.” He made his voice harsh. “And definitely not in a woman who flees if I so much as touch her hand.”

Finally, he saw a flash of his godfather’s infamous temper in his eyes. His mouth lost that arrogant twist that always meant Gio was up to no good. Since he usually reserved that for his parasitic relatives or money-hungry exes, Raphael didn’t much care.

“Do not cheapen her.”

“I’m the one cheapening her?” He took a deep breath, modulated his tone. “Tell me, Giovanni. What does it mean if she’s your granddaughter?”

“It means she already owns a piece of my heart and I will do everything in my power to do right by her. It means she inherits everything I own. Including my stock in VA.”

Dio, he was going to give her the stock in VA?

The stock that Raphael wanted. He could have bought Gio out ten times over in the last few years. Could have established his exclusive ownership of the company.

For reasons he refused to share, Gio had always denied Raphael’s request. Even though Raphael was the only one with executive and operational powers at Vito Automobiles, Gio refused to leave the board. In short, the old man had always loved playing games.

“So now all that stock will rest in the hands of a woman who, by her own admission, was so desperate to be loved, to be wanted, that she fell for the sweet words of a lowlife? Who not only signed away the little money she had but actually racked up a credit card debt because she couldn’t bear to lose him?

“That is the woman who’ll inherit your wealth? Do you know what the jackals will do to her?”

“Which is why I want to ensure her well-being. If I died tomorrow, Pia would be all alone in the world.”

“And so you have advertised her to all of Milan with the size of her inheritance hanging around her neck like a bloody flashing neon sign. By tomorrow morning, the vultures will be circling, determined to get their hands on Pia.”

“I didn’t advertise her, Raphael.” A shadow of pain crossed Gio’s usually animated features. “I celebrated her presence in my life. After years of wondering about Lucia, I finally have someone to call my own. I want to give her everything she could ever want. I want to cherish her, pamper her, protect her.

“That child is... Her innocence, there’s something so fragile about her.

“Would you deny me the chance to right my wrongs? Would you deny me the pleasure of showing off my granddaughter to the world? The chance to find a man worthy of her among the vultures?”

By sheer dint of his will, Raphael kept his shock to himself. He’d been right. Giovanni intended to buy a prince for Pia. And hand her over lock, stock and barrel. Along with his shares.

He couldn’t care. He didn’t.

“That’s up to you. Just...don’t give her any more money. Not until I confirm her claim.”

“You do what you have to do, Raphael. Who knows, maybe she’ll take my seat on the board?”

He wouldn’t, however, watch years of his hard work being thrown away. “She’s an elementary school science teacher and you want to throw her into the shark-infested pool that is the VA board? They’ll pick the meat off her bones.”

“She will have you to advise her and guide her.”

He stood up, and put away his wineglass. “I have neither the time nor the patience to teach that woman anything. I have enough on my plate with Alyssa, with the company, and now I find out that—” he bit off the last part. Giovanni had always had a soft spot for his stepdaughter, who happened to be Raphael’s ex-wife and Alyssa’s mother. He didn’t want Gio sticking his head in Raphael’s business just as he wanted nothing to do with Pia.

“As long as you keep her away from VA, I don’t care if you sign away your entire fortune to her.”

Giovanni watched as his godson walked out. His breath left on a sigh of satisfaction.

By the time he was through, neither Raphael nor Pia would like him very much. But he didn’t care. There was only one man to whom he would trust his granddaughter’s well-being. Just as he had trusted only one man with his precious company.

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