Chapter 13
RIO
I sit at the bar, far enough from Dex and his new fiancée that she can’t see me. Although she’s not really his fiancée. The dude hasn’t even bought her a ring.
He wanted me to sit with them, to interrogate Daniela together. The guy’s not even thinking straight.
I told him, Dude, we can’t do that. We can’t gang up on her. It wouldn’t be fair. And, if I’m being honest? I acted like a complete sap the first time I saw her and I don’t want to face her. I blame my behavior on the dry spell. That’s all it was.
I take a sip of my Negroni as I glance at them. They make a good-looking pair. If only Dex would let his damn guard down. He’s a tough one. Jett is too. Hell, Jett’s worse. He’s arrogant and always looking down on me, Matteo and Enzo. Like we’re beneath him. The three of them, Jett, Dex and Zach, they’ve never made it easy for us.
Us flying to Brazil together, in the private jet, feels like it’s the old man’s way of forcing into pretending we’re family. So that we look like a united family at the wedding.
But we’re not a family.
We have never been.
The old man keeps us together to benefit him, to keep the legacy intact, to make sure the empire grows. But the bonds between us don’t exist. Mama still travels back and forth between Italy and New York.
It couldn’t have been easy for her to have moved here from the country she lived in and loved for all of her life. She had to, because Paul Knight demanded it. And she broke it off with him, as soon as she discovered the secret that shattered two families. She stayed here for a decade, and moved back to Italy, but we travel there a lot to see her, me, Matteo and Enzo. Mama says she’ll come back here when she has grandkids.
As if that’s ever going to happen.
Not from me.
Dex and I have talked about our mothers. Me mostly, because he clams up when he tries to talk about his mom. I don’t push him. I figure he’ll tell me when he’s ready. But we talk about how our father’s adultery wrecked two families. Sometimes I think about what it would be like if we all sat at a table, his brothers and mine, not because we were summoned to a Knight family dinner by the old man, but because we wanted to hang out together.
Because the truth is, we are all brothers.
We just don’t act like it.
Matteo, Enzo, and I stick together. We had to. When our father moved us here, we had no one else. Mama came for a while, because we were teenagers when hell broke loose. When we realized that the nice American man who visited us occasionally, the man we called Papa, also had another secret family in the US. I remember the day we found out the truth. That the man we called Papa had another family. That he was already married when we were born. And his wife—Jett, Dex, and Zach’s mother—had died. It was suicide, we later discovered. It happened after she found out about Mama and us. She couldn’t take it.
Mama was so upset. Not only that the man she loved had another family, and was married, which made her suddenly a mistress, but now she had to carry the weight of a woman who had killed herself. Mama felt it was her fault, even though she’d had no idea the old man was already married.
I push the thought aside and glance back toward Dex.
Oh, hell. Is he actually laughing?
I watch as Daniela leans back in her chair, and throws her head back, as if she’s laughing, too. With her back to me, I can’t tell her expression, but … these two look like they could be on a real date.
Dex has taken off his jacket, his broad frame relaxed, his sleeves rolled up. That’s a flex pose if I’ve ever seen one. I’ve seen this guy in action and I can tell that he’s trying, but also holding back.
Like he’s stuck.
I finish my drink, then, just as I turn to order another, a woman slips onto a barstool two seats away from me.
The way she looks steals my breath away.
She’s stunning.
My eyes fixate on her full mouth and those beautiful lips stained heavy in a rich red lipstick. It’s the kind of lipstick that makes a statement, and this one says, “watch out”. Her long curly brown hair tumbles down her back, and thick dark lashes frame her big dark eyes. The bar is mostly empty, which means she’s deliberately chosen this seat.
My gaze lingers on her for half a second too long and when she catches me staring, I look away.
Damn.
“Sorry,” I say smoothly. “Didn’t mean to stare.”
She tilts her head. “That’s okay.”
I expect her to leave it at that. Maybe flash a polite smile and look away.
“Can I buy you a drink?” she asks.
I blink.
Well, hot damn.
That doesn’t happen often.
A beautiful woman sitting at a bar offering to buy me a drink?
Bold move.
I lean back, studying her. “You always go around buying drinks for strangers?”
“Let me guess,” she says, resting an elbow on the bar, those rich red satin lips curving slightly. “This makes you uncomfortable.”
“I wouldn’t say uncomfortable.”
“Confused, then?”
I try not to wince. “Intrigued.”
“Ah.” She leans in slightly. “And let me guess, you were about to say that if you had been the one to ask, I’d be expected to bat my lashes and say yes?”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking.”
“Hell no.” She flags the bartender down. “If I want to buy you a drink, I’m going to buy you a drink. What’s your poison?”
This woman has some balls. I tilt my glass toward her. “Negroni, or Anejo. I’d like Anejo now. It’s—”
“Aged tequila,” she says. “I’ll have the same.”
This just got even more interesting.
She looks around at the bar, examining the different jewel-colored bottles, admiring the décor. Ignoring me.
I see what she’s doing.
Playing hard to get.
Waiting for a reaction from me.
Fuck if this type of chase doesn’t turn me on.
Finally, I give up. Also, because I don’t know how long I have here, or if she has a date, in which case, I’m out. It’s something I need to find out. “So,” I say, turning to face her fully. “What brings you here?”
“I’m in town on business.”
“Business?” I raise a brow. “What kind of business?”
The server sets our drinks down and she picks up her glass, takes a slow sip, and meets my gaze over the rim.
“I’m a corporate lawyer.”
I mask my surprise.
Because she does not look like a corporate lawyer. I shouldn’t be so chauvinistic. Women can be brilliant and beautiful. She must have caught the flicker of disbelief in my expression because her eyes narrow.
“What?” She arches a brow, daring me to say it.
“Nothing.”
“You thought I was some pretty little rich girl, sitting at a fancy bar waiting for someone to pick up my tab?”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
She eyes me carefully, like she’s assessing me. “And you?”
“I’m a businessman.”
“You’re too slick to be an average businessman.”
“Nothing average about me.”
She tilts her head. “You give off shady vibes.”
“Shady vibes? Please don’t hold back.”
“I don’t.” She gives me another perfect smile. Damn.
I laugh. Fully and completely. Deeply amused, and surprised. This woman has intrigued me like no other. I raise my glass in her direction. “Guilty as charged.”
We stare at one another, and I feel the undeniable, dangerous pull that vibrates between us.
I take another sip, contemplating this strange situation I find myself in. I don’t know her name. She doesn’t know mine. But something tells me, when she does, things are going to get real fun.
This. This is what I was talking about when I told Dex I like the chase. The heiress giving herself to a marriage deal is boring. Dex can have her. But this feisty woman with brains, with balls , this is a chase I can get behind. She already has my attention.
Until she glances over her shoulder and looks in the same direction I’ve been looking.
What the fuck?
“Who’re you checking out?” I ask, an edge to my tone.
“The guy there. Who is he?”
“Why?” My insides harden. She’s here to check out Dex. Fucking Dex. That man has women falling at his feet, whether he wants them or not, they still fall. Just like the heiress did.
“Just curious.”
I’m about to open my mouth and ask her why the fuck she’s curious, but I zip my mouth. I don’t usually meet two gorgeous women in one week, so this is most peculiar. I try not to give a shit that she’s eyeing up Dex.
“He’s with someone.” Realizing that she’s checking out a guy who’s obviously with a partner, I immediately check out of our conversation.
***
DEX
Daniela and I are getting along better than I ever expected.
Maybe because there’s no pressure. No romance. No pretending this is something it’s not. It’s purely a business agreement, nothing more. Maybe that’s why I feel more relaxed. Why I can laugh, talk, joke with her. Maybe that’s why she’s at ease, too. It’s better than many first dates I’ve had.
Daniela and I have even ordered appetizers.
“So much for just showing up for drinks,” I said when she agreed to get food,.
She waved it off. “It doesn’t mean anything. We’re just hungry.”
And she’s right. It doesn’t. And we are. I’m famished. But I lean across the table, my voice dropping an octave lower. I look into her eyes. “If my wife is hungry, I’m going to make sure to feed her.”
Those bright green eyes turn darker as her pupils dilate, her lips slide apart and she’s momentarily speechless. I’ve lost my tongue, too, and have no idea why I said that. The word “wife” feels foreign on my tongue and yet so … suggestive. A visual crashes into my head of me feeding her. Slipping something between those luscious plump lips of her. Suddenly my pants feel tighter.
Heat pulses between us. Words not spoken evoke ideas, for me at least. And Daniela, too, judging by the way she’s looking at me.
“Wife to be,” she says, her voice wavering.
Bingo.
She feels something. I know it as sure as I can feel my cock springing to attention. I lower my head and wonder how this has happened. We haven’t even touched.
Then, when I least expect it, she asks the question that slams into me like a bullet to the chest.
“What happened to your mom?”
Just like that, the air shifts. My guard slams back up so fast it’s like a physical reaction. I grip my glass, trying to decide if I want to answer.
“I’m sorry to ask,” she says gently, obviously seeing the change in me. The air just chilled a few degrees. “It’s just… I feel like it’s important.”
I exhale slowly, buying myself time. Instead of answering, I turn the question around. “How long have your parents been married?”
She doesn’t hesitate.
“Thirty-six years.”
My brow lifts in shock and awe. “That’s a long time.”
“They’re happy,” she says with absolute certainty, like I’d asked her if she breathes air. I nod, letting her talk. She tells me how they met. How they built her father’s company from the ground up. How they had problems conceiving. “They went to expensive clinics,” she says. “Flew across the world looking for solutions. But it never worked. But miraculously, they managed to have me.” She gives a soft laugh. “They tried over many years. It just goes to show you that money can’t buy everything.”
“I disagree. In my experience, I’ve seen that it can.”
She cocks her head, watching me. “But money can’t buy everything . It can’t buy happiness, or joy, or satisfaction. Those emotions come from a deeper place.”
Her words stump me, and I dwell on them as she continues talking about her father’s business. I half-listen, half-think about what she said.
She’s right.
Money didn’t save my mother. It didn’t stop her from—
“And what about you? Your parents?” Daniela turns the question back on me and I tense. “How long were they married?”
I should shut this down and tell her it’s none of her business. But before I can stop myself, the words slip out. “She died when I was eleven.”
Her eyes soften. “That must have been really hard.”
I’m surprised I even answered her. But for some reason, it doesn’t feel dangerous to talk about this with her. Which makes me feel even worse. Jett and Zach know, of course. We’ve talked about it, and they think I’m being dramatic. They tell me it wasn’t my fault, but they don’t understand.
Nobody does.
“She and I argued before she died.” My voice is quieter now. “It was stupid. A small fight. But it was the last conversation we ever had.”
Daniela watches me, listening. Really listening.
It makes me do something I never do.
I keep talking.
“I don’t know how much you know about my family,” I say. “My father had… a mistress.”
Her eyes open wider. She didn’t know. She wouldn’t.
“We have—” I exhale. “We have half-brothers. Rio, Matteo, Enzo. They grew up in Italy.”
She listens without judgment.
“My mom didn’t know,” I say, staring at my scotch. “Not at first, but when she found out…”
I stop. I never talk about this.
Not with anyone.
Daniela is silent, waiting.
But somehow, I feel compelled to. “She drove off a bridge. On purpose.”
Her hand moves instinctively toward mine. I should pull away. But I don’t. Then her fingers wrap around mine, warm and gentle. “I’m so sorry,” she whispers. I stare at our hands and I want to pull away, but it feels reassuring. Her hands are so soft and small compared to mine. Her skin warm and soothing, infusing me with heat and chasing away the coldness of my past. Her fingernails, painted a soft pink, catch the lights, but it’s my ring on her finger that holds my gaze captive. Something about it grounds me. Tethers me to her, in a way the paper contract doesn’t.
I want to tell her to drop it.
I don’t.
Instead, I say something that only Jett and Zach know about.
“The last thing I said to her,” I murmur, “was that I wished she were dead.”
Daniela inhales sharply. “Dexter …”
I let out a humorless laugh, shaking my head. “It was silly. I was an evil child—”
“No child is evil, Dexter.”
“You don’t know what I was like back then, when they started to argue and yell at each other. We didn’t know then that the calm and quietness vanished when the secret came to light. After that my parents used to fight all the time, not physical fights, they just threw verbal punches. I became angry and confused, and bitter, not understanding what had happened. But when I said that to my mom, she looked at me like I’d cut her in two, and I wanted to rush up to her, and hug her and say I was sorry, but my stubbornness, and my anger, stopped me. Hours later the news came and we discovered that she’d driven off a bridge. I would give anything to turn back the time and run up to her and hug her, and take those words back. But I can’t.”
“Dexter.” Daniela sniffles. I look up and see her looking so sad.
“Jett and Zach say it wasn’t my fault. That she was already so broken by our father’s deceit.” I pause. “But I feel like it drove her to the edge. Like she wouldn’t have done what she did. She had three boys to live for. But then my father cheated on her, and I told her I wished she were dead…”
Daniela’s eyes turn misty. This woman barely knows me. And yet, she’s sitting across from me, looking like my pain is her pain. Feeling it.
“You can’t think that what happened to your mother is because of something you said,” she says.
“Cause and effect. I said those words and she died.”
“It wasn’t your words, Dexter. Your father had a secret family.”
I exhale. “Mom died about a month later after she found out about them.”
“Dexter. If I could take away your pain, I would.” Her whisper curls around my heart, offering compassion.
My chest tightens. “Why would you?” I say roughly, the shutters coming down all around me, keeping me in my safe space. “You don’t know me.” I choose not to get close to people for this very reason. I know what love can do to people and I don’t want to make myself that vulnerable to anyone. Ever.
Daniela meets my gaze. “I don’t have to know you to see the pain in your eyes.”
Hell.
We haven’t even had sex. This is the kind of thing that happens post-sex. Sometimes, before I shut it down.
It’s not supposed to happen here.
Not now.
Not with her.
I jerk my hand away, my entire body tensing.
She immediately retracts, looking down. “I’m sorry if I … if I overstepped.” I clear my throat, nodding.
It’s fine.
It’s not fine.
I glance up and spot Rio, just as the appetizers arrive. Suddenly, I’ve lost my appetite. This was too close. It felt good for a second, being heard. Being listened to. Having someone feel my pain and try to make it better.
But then, in the next second, I remember—
This is an arrangement. Nothing more.
This woman will be out of my life in less than a year. After seven months, she’ll be nothing more than a memory.
What the hell am I doing? I pick up my drink, gripping it tighter than I should. I’m so fucking stupid. I glance at Rio again.
Daniela notices. “What is it?” She turns in her chair, then her body stiffens and she jumps right out of her seat and walks to the other end of the room. To the bar. Where Rio is sitting.
I bolt up and rush to her side. “What are you doing?” I ask, but her eyes are blazing.
“Meu Deus,” she mutters under her breath.
Fuck. She saw him. But I don’t understand why she’s so angry. “What are you doing, Daniela?”
She doesn’t answer.
She just heads toward Rio, and I frantically try to figure out what beef she has with him. At the same time, I see the woman sitting next to him. They’re turned towards each other, as if they like each other.
Did he bring a date here? I catch a glimpse of bright red lips and long brown curls, a sharp profile, and an expensive business suit.
To my utter shock, Daniela doesn’t reach for Rio. She taps the woman on her shoulder.
It suddenly feels like shit is about to go down.