Billionaires: The Hero

Oh, mio Dio. She pressed her hands to her face. “You did not.”

“I needed to give him a good reason to leave you alone, Mina. Now he has one. A man like Silvio would consider you used goods.”

Used goods? She shook her head at the insanity of it all and paced to the end of the terrace. Now Silvio and her mother thought she had been intimate with Nate while she’d been engaged to Silvio. Maledizione. She didn’t even want to think of how her mother had reacted. Or the harsh words that were undoubtedly on her voice mail.

“What did Silvio say to all this?”

“He said he was done with you. I said, Good. Because I’d take him apart if he came anywhere near you. So put your mind at ease, Mina. It’s going to be fine.”

Easier said than done. Her head spun as he disappeared inside and returned with a bottle of champagne and two glasses. She watched him warily as he uncorked the bottle. “I think the brandy was quite enough.”

“You’re wound tight as a bow.” He worked the cork out of the bottle, a loud pop cutting through the air. “A glass of wine will help. And,” he added, flicking her a glance from beneath dark lashes, “I have a proposition for you.”

His request to deliver the Marc de Grazia Guardiola personally to his hotel room filled her head. He didn’t mean—

“No, I don’t mean that.” His mouth twisted as he read her thoughts. “As much as I think that would loosen you up, what I have in mind involves another business proposition for you and I. Because like it or not, Mina, we are stuck together.”

They were? Hope flared inside of her. “You’re proposing we stay married?”

“I see no other option.” He poured the champagne in the glasses. “As certain as I am that I got the message across to Silvio today that you are untouchable, I’m not about to set you loose on the streets of Capri like...an orphan searching for a home.”

She frowned.

He waved a hand at her. “The point is I need that ring to show my grandfather. You need to be protected. So we stay together for the year and, like our original plan, we both get what we need.”

Relief flooded through her. “I don’t want to be a burden. I could work for one of your hotels. Pay my way. I’m a very good chambermaid.”

“You’re smarter than that.” He handed her a glass of champagne. “You proved to me what an innovative thinker you are that day at the Giarruso. You have great ideas, Mina. I’m offering to take you on as my protégée for the year.”

“Protégée?” Her fingers tightened around the stem of the glass.

He nodded. “I own a chain of luxury hotels from one side of the globe to the other. The best of the best. If you want to learn about business I can teach you everything you need to know.”

She frowned. “Why would you do that? I mean, I know you said I had good ideas, but surely you must be too busy for something like that?”

He leaned back against the railing, champagne glass in hand. “I got my start in business from someone who took a chance on me. I believe in paying it forward.”

She thought about what few options she had—as in none without a cent to her name, without a home to go back to. She’d made a decision when she’d left with Nate: to stand on her own two feet; to not allow herself to be controlled by anyone anymore; to make her own way in the world. The only path left was forward.

Nate was offering her a chance to fulfill her dream—to follow in her father’s footsteps. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with the best because he thought she was smart and had potential. Because he thought she was more than the pretty face her mother had always pegged her as.

A warm feeling spread through her, heat infusing her cheeks at the validation she had craved. To say the thought of becoming Nate’s protégée was intimidating vastly understated the apprehension snaking through her insides. The combined terror and exhilaration the thought inspired. And yet she trusted him. Had instinctively trusted him this entire, crazy day. He hadn’t blinked once at coming to her aid despite what she’d thrown at him. Yes, he wanted the ring, but there was more to it than that. He cared despite his tough exterior.

“I don’t know what to say,” she said finally. “You’re an honorable man, Nate Brunswick. Grazie.”

“Not so honorable, Mina.” A dark glitter entered his eyes. “You called me improper not so long ago. I can be that and more. I am a hard, ruthless businessman who does what it takes to make money. I will turn a hotel over in the flash of an eye if I don’t see the flesh on the bones I envisioned when I bought it. I will enjoy a woman one night and send her packing the next when I get bored of her company. Know what you’re getting into with me if you accept this. You will learn the dog-eat-dog approach to life, not the civilized one.”

Why did something that was intended to be a warning send a curious shudder through her? Mina drew the wrap closer around her shoulders, her gaze tangling with Nate’s. The glitter in his eyes stoked to a hot, velvet shimmer as he took a step forward and ran a finger along the line of her jaw. “Rule number one of this new arrangement, should you so choose to accept it, is to not look at me like that, wife. If we do this, we keep things strictly business so both of us walk away after the year with exactly what we want.”

Her gaze fell away from his, her blood hot and thick in her veins. “You’re misinterpreting me.”

“No, I’m not.” He brought his mouth to her ear, his warm breath caressing her cheek. “I have a hell of a lot more experience than you do, Mina. I can recognize the signs. They were loud and clear in my hotel room that day and they’re loud and clear now.”

She took a deep, shuddering breath. To protest further would be futile when her skin felt like it was on fire, her knees like jelly. He watched her like a cat played with a mouse, all powerful and utterly sure of himself. “The only thing that would be more of a disaster than this day’s already been,” he drawled finally, apparently ready to have mercy on her, “would be for us to end up in bed together. So a partnership it is, Mina.” He lifted his glass. “What do you say?”

She seized hold of her senses. “So we have a marriage in name only and a business partnership. How are we positioning the marriage to others?”

“As if it’s a real marriage.” He shrugged. “I see no harm in that and there is the Silvio factor.”

“And what about—” A wave of heat sped to her cheeks. “I mean, if we’re not sleeping together, how will you—you know...?”

A wicked smile curved his mouth. “Relieve myself? There are ways. And if I choose to indulge, I’ll do it discreetly.”

Right. She dug her teeth into her bottom lip. Seized the moment. “Yes,” she said, lifting her glass. “Grazie, Nate. I accept.”

Her dark and apparently not so honorable husband pointed his glass at her. “Then tomorrow we begin. Get some good sleep tonight, Mina. You’re going to need it for the ride I’m going to take you on.”

CHAPTER FIVE

MINA DIDN’T SLEEP WELL. For hours she’d lain awake, terrified that despite Nate’s assurances she was safe, Silvio would come after her. That perhaps his declaration it was over between them had just been to lull Nate into a false sense of complacency before he came after her to seek revenge.

“Refuse me again and you’ll discover the depths to which my anger can sink. I will not tolerate you repeating any of your silly jitters to anyone, Mina.”

She had trumped that. She had married another man!

She had little time to nurse her coffee over breakfast with Nate, however, her brain barely awake when he hit her with his Business Rule Number One. “You only get one chance to make a first impression. Looking the part is the first step to realizing the role.”

She couldn’t disagree with that, because clad in a silver-gray suit with an ice-blue tie, handmade Italian shoes gleaming on his feet, Nate looked every bit the power broker that he was. So off she went with Susana, the manager of the hotel’s boutique, to outfit herself with a casual and business wardrobe.

Susana had opened the boutique early just for them. She installed Mina in a chair in the fitting area with a tablet and coffee while she and an assistant gathered clothes. Mina used the time to research her enigmatic husband, hoping for some clues as to what made him tick.

It turned out to be a rather useless activity, because none of the business profiles she pulled up on Nate delved into anything more personal than she already knew. The grandson of legendary shipping tycoon Giovanni Di Sione, he had worked his way up the ranks of Di Sione Shipping, eventually running various overseas branches of the company before leaving to start Brunswick Developments, his multibillion-dollar real-estate development firm.

A self-made man who has used his uncanny business acumen, aggressive street smarts and brutal negotiating tactics to land marquee deals that put him on the Forbes billionaires list at age thirty-four.

Giving in to an urge she couldn’t suppress, she typed in her husband’s name plus the word woman. A slew of photos came up. True to his word, the majority of his dates at the high-society events he frequented were brunettes, with a few blondes of late. All stunning. All vastly more sophisticated than her.

“Ready?” Susana bustled into the changing area with another armful of clothes. Mina put the tablet down and got to her feet to take half the pile.

“Can I give you some advice?” the other woman said, glancing down at the tablet. “Don’t do that. A man like Nate is going to have a past. You’ll only torture yourself.”

Heat scored her cheeks. “I will say congratulations on doing the impossible,” continued Susana as she hung up the suits. “Mingmei will undoubtedly be wondering how you did it.”

“Mingmei?”

“The manager of our Hong Kong hotel. Better you know about that one before you come face-to-face with her. Mingmei and Nate had an affair before she came to work for him.”

“How long ago was that?”

“Three years ago. Clearly it ended well because he hired her, but Mingmei—”

“—still desires Nate.”

“Perhaps.” Susana handed her a cream-colored suit. “How did you and Nate meet?”

Mina’s brain worked furiously. “We met at the hotel in Sicily where I worked. In the bar. It was...love at first sight.”

Susana smiled. “That I would have liked to have seen. It would have been entertaining to watch the Ice Man fall.”

Mina diverted the conversation to clothes after that before she stumbled over another answer. Three hours of endless fittings later, she walked out of the boutique the owner of a stylish, power-based wardrobe with some pretty things for the evening. “You’ll need it,” Susana had advised. “Nate’s social calendar is daunting.”

Her phone rang as she walked back across the courtyard. She glanced at the screen, her stomach doing a slow churn. Her mother. Maybe it was better to get it out of the way.

She sat on a bench and took the call. “Ciao, Mamma.”

There was silence on the other end of the line. Then, “Che pensi che stai facendo, Mina?” What do you think you’re doing?

Her cheeks fired, her fingers trembling around the phone. “I couldn’t marry Silvio, Mamma. I told you that but you wouldn’t listen.”

“So you disgraced your fiancé, this family, in front of the entire city?”

She bit her lip. “He hit me. I can’t live with a man like that.”

“And you expect your American tycoon to be any different? Men are all the same. They want a beautiful wife on their arm who obeys them, Mina. Who uncomplicates their life. Start disagreeing with your American after the rosy glow is over and see how he acts.”

“Nate would never hit me.”

A pause. “Where are you now?”

She chewed hard on her lip.

Her mother made a strangled sound. “What will you do? Go live with him in America? You will surely have to now, because your reputation is in tatters. This family’s reputation is in tatters.”

A lump formed in her throat. She didn’t even know where Nate lived. Only that it was in New York.

“Mi dispiace,” she murmured huskily. “You left me no choice, Mamma.”

“You disappoint me, Mina.”

What was new about that? She had always disappointed her mother. Had never understood why when she’d done everything asked of her. Had attained top grades at school, had dated her endless contingent of bachelors, and still been found lacking.

“What about our plan? To sell the ring?”

Her heart sank. There it was. What her mother truly cared about. “It hasn’t changed. I will sell the ring and pay off our debts. But as I’m sure Pasquale told you, I can’t do that for a year.”

“Perhaps,” her mother said deliberately, “your husband could help.”

She closed her eyes. “I won’t ask that of him, Mamma.”

There was silence on the other end of the line. There would be no inquiry as to how she was. Whether she was happy. None of that mattered to her mother. Had never. “I have to go,” she said thickly.

“Mina—”

She ended the call. A deep, all-encompassing throb moved through her. Made it hard to breathe. She’d gotten past her naïveté about her mother a long time ago. It was the depth to which she didn’t care that shocked her now.

She was alone in this world. Utterly alone. Her life would have to be shaped by her and her alone.

* * *

Nate had just finished reviewing the financials for the Emelia when Mina walked through the door in a charcoal-gray suit, her traffic-stopping legs clad in a pair of finely made Italian heels.

If he’d thought a suit would help dull his attraction to her he had been entirely wrong. The suit was conservative, covered all the requisite parts adequately; it was what was under it that was unavoidable. The fitted jacket highlighted her tiny waist and taut high breasts, the knee-length pencil skirt skimmed generous hips.

A power suit to be sure, but on his wife it swayed all the power in favor of her innate sensuality.

He brought his gaze back up to her face. Studied the pallor that blanched her honey-colored skin. “What’s wrong? Did Silvio contact you?”

She set down the bag she was holding and slid off her shoes. “No—it’s—I’m fine.”

“You were having nightmares about it last night. You’re not fine.”

A flush filled her cheeks. “I woke you?”

“I was still working. Mina, I promised to protect you and I will. You don’t need to worry about him.”

“I know. I do. It’s just—sometimes my imagination gets the better of me.” She raked her hair out of her face. “That’s not why I’m upset. My mother called. She was furious. Not that I hadn’t expected that. My reputation is in tatters. Also not surprising.”

“Then why the lost look? What did she say to you?”

She shook her head. “You are my boss now. I should keep this professional.”

He gave her a wry look. “We are also married. I think we have a rather unique relationship. What did she say?”

She exhaled. “She wasn’t worried about me. She didn’t ask if I was okay. She didn’t care if I was happy with you. She said I’d disappointed her.”

He lifted a brow. “For running away from a monster to marry a man who professes to love you and will keep you safe? For delivering the exact same result in the sale of the ring? What kind of a mother is she?”

She shook her head. “She never wanted children. My father did. I was always with my nanny, Camilla. As soon as my father died, she sent me off to boarding school in France, as if she couldn’t wait to get rid of me. I always came home with good grades, top of my class, but it seemed inconsequential to her. She just didn’t care.”

“How old were you when your father died?”

“Eight.”

The image of a tiny Mina being sent off to school at such a young age pulled at his heartstrings. “You’ve never talked to her about it? Asked her why?”

She lifted a shoulder. “My mamma—she is cold. It’s her way. I told myself to let it go. To not wish for the impossible. But sometimes I do. I wish I knew what she finds so...lacking in me so I can fix it.”

He knew how that felt. To always wonder what it was about you that was so defective your own father wanted nothing to do with you. That he could turn his back on his own flesh and blood and slam a door in your face when you had come to beg for assistance. To deny you even existed. But he knew it was a fruitless pursuit. A soul-destroying pursuit.

“It’s better not to wonder,” he told Mina roughly, “to look for that flaw in yourself you think they see in you. Because it’s not you, it’s her. She should have been a proper mother to you and she wasn’t. That’s her cross to bear, not yours. Don’t waste your life trying to figure out something you’ll likely never get an answer to.”

She blinked. “Are you talking about your father?”

He ignored that. “Learn how to stand on your own two feet. How to exist without her approval. It will be the most empowering thing you can ever do.”

She nodded, but hurt still throbbed in her eyes.

He sighed. “What?”

“She’s all I have.”

His heart squeezed. “You’re better off without her. That’s not how a true parent acts.”

Her mouth compressed. Turning on her heel, she walked into her bedroom, came back and handed him the massive diamond solitaire Silvio had given her. “I need to give this back.”

He took the small fortune out of her hands. “I’ll have it sent to him. Speaking of which, we’ll need to get you a rock for show.”

“It’s not necessary.”

“You’re my wife, Mina, it is. People will be looking.”

She sat down on the sofa and poured herself a cup of coffee. “Susana asked me how we met. I was unprepared for the question. I told her we met in the bar at the Giarruso. It was the first response that came to me.”

His mouth curved. “That I picked you, extraordinarily innocent Mina, up in a hotel bar after work?” He sat down on the sofa opposite her. “Seems a stretch but we’ll go with it.”

“I should know a few pertinent details about you if we’re to carry this off. It was awkward with Susana.”

He lifted a brow. “Such as?”

“Where do you live in New York?”

“I have a penthouse off Central Park in the heart of Manhattan. It’s not as beautiful as Sicily, but I think you’ll enjoy the energy of the city.”

“You said we’re not going back to New York right away?”

“We have week-long stops in Hong Kong and the Maldives after Capri, then we head home.”

She blinked at the blindingly fast pace of her new life. “Brothers or sisters?”

“I have seven half siblings from my father’s marriage.”

“Are you close to them?”

What to say? That he and his brothers and sisters were perhaps the most dysfunctional clan on the planet? That there was not only a deep wedge between himself and Alex, but a distance he kept with all of them because every single one of them was a bit broken from their past and it was easier not to open up old wounds?

“I’m not sure I’d characterize it as close,” he said finally, “but we do interact from time to time.”

“I know you run and like the opera, but do you have any other hobbies? Other leisure activities I should know of that are a passion?”

His mouth twisted. “Work is my passion. I work fourteen-...fifteen-hour days, Mina. Not much time for anything else. Which,” he suggested, “is what we should focus on now. Unless you have more questions?”

She shook her head. “That will do for now.”

He picked up the report on the Emelia’s financials and handed it to her. “Review this. We’ll talk it over after you’ve had a chance to read it, but first I want to go over the ground rules of how we’ll work together.”

She crossed her legs primly and sat back to listen.

“First of all,” he said, “you are here to learn. So learn. The most valuable thing you can do over the next year is to sit back and listen, soak up everything that’s being said, conduct your own analysis, and afterward, when it’s just the two of us, you can ask any questions you may have.

“Secondly, I want you to watch the people in this meeting or any meeting we’re in. Watch their body language, look for their nonverbal cues, because they are often more telling than what is coming out of their mouth. Always look for an angle, because everyone has an angle in business, an agenda they’re walking into the room with. Understanding these goals and different agendas is a crucial skill in any negotiation—antagonistic or friendly.”

“I’ve been told my father was brilliant with people.” A proud light entered Mina’s eyes. “He once solved a strike that had been going on for weeks at one of our plants by walking into the picket lines and hashing out a deal with the workers.”

“Which translates into my third rule,” said Nate. “I want you to be a problem solver. Come to me with a solution, not an issue.”

She nodded. “Bene.”

“That’s it for now.” He nodded toward the report. “Profits have been sagging over the past year at the Emelia. We need to light a fire under things. See what you think.”

* * *

The meeting with Giorgio and the Emelia management team went worse than Nate had expected. Complacency had set in at the hotel and it seemed his general manager had no plan how to lift sagging profits because he didn’t think he had a problem.

“The market is down, Nate,” Giorgio soothed in that smooth-as-silk voice of his. “We’re doing everything we can to entice new customers to the hotel, but we can’t manufacture them.”

Nate directed a look at Mina. “Was the Giarruso’s occupancy rate down this year?”

She frowned. “Not much. I think the manager said five percent.”

“And you are down fifteen percent,” Nate said to Giorgio.

Giorgio put his hand on Mina’s arm as if she were a child in need of correction. “It must have been more than five percent. Perhaps you have the numbers wrong.”

“No,” said Mina. “It was nowhere near fifteen percent.”

Giorgio sat back and crossed his arms over his chest. “What do you propose I do? Alter the economies of the western world? Manipulate the markets? We’ve upped the sales and marketing budgets. The effort is there, Nate.”

“The effort is ineffective.”

Giorgio’s face reddened. Silence fell at the table.

“What about repeat guests?” Mina interjected. “Your number is way down. What if you—”

Nate shot her a withering look. She sat back in her chair and closed her mouth.

“What is your plan of attack for them?” Nate asked Giorgio.

“We’ve done a whole discounted rate campaign. It isn’t moving rooms.”

“Then it isn’t compelling enough.”

Giorgio looked at Mina. “What were you going to suggest?”

Nate nodded tightly at her to go ahead.

“I was thinking of a ‘remember the memories’ type campaign,” Mina said. “I was here in Capri on holidays with my family years ago. When we arrived it brought back such great memories. So perhaps something more emotion based than financial.”

Giorgio steepled his hands together. “I like it.”

Nate liked it, too, but wished the idea had come from his manager and not his protégée. He continued to grill his top man until the end of the three-hour meeting, then mercifully ended it, ushering Mina up to their suite in tight-lipped silence.

“I know,” Mina said in a preemptive strike, the minute the door closed behind them, “I wasn’t supposed to talk. It’s just it was getting painful and I had an idea.”

“Painful is good. Discomfort shakes people up and pushes them outside of their comfort zone. Which, quite frankly, Giorgio needs desperately right now or he will be out of a job.”

Her eyes widened, color washing her cheeks. “I thought by offering up an idea, Giorgio might build on it.”

“And by doing so you undermined my attempt to teach him a lesson. After I told you not to talk.” Nate pinned his gaze on her. “When I put someone in the hot seat I’m doing it for a reason, Mina. So keep your mouth shut.”