Chapter 34
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
B owie’s had been decked out like it was hosting something between an Oscar’s afterparty and a backyard kegger, but it was the only compromise that Gabe and Vanessa had come to, so Joel had allowed it.
The damn headache those two had given him with their bickering over floral chandeliers and hanging bauble garlands only eased off after he’d put Jordan in charge of overseeing the final approvals with the vendors. At first, Jordan appeared less than thrilled with the role of mediating between Gabe and Vanessa, but alas, not even he could refuse the numbers on the offer Joel had made him.
Turned out, Joel’s gut instinct was right. Jordan had the disposition of a rock, solid and unyielding, which helped with de-escalating Vanessa’s exuberant ideas. He also had the intriguing side quality of being a stickler for the rules, which put Gabe at ease. One could not, after all, risk having a five-foot tall floral centerpiece breaking fire code and shutting down the bar.
Regardless, it had all ended up being worth it, if only to see Lucy laughing with a glass of golden Dom Pérignon in her hand that matched the dress she was wearing.
Last night, Joel had allowed himself the simple pleasure of watching her sleep. She’d appeared so peaceful, so free of the grief and pain she’d endured, and he’d whispered his silent promise to her that he’d spend the rest of his life doing everything in his power to keep her that way.
Barone & Sons would be hers. He’d give her family this sham of a party and wedding. He’d pay for the over-sized centerpieces and outrageous finger food that Vanessa had flown in from New York City. The number of zeros next to a receipt he’d seen for handmade rose-shaped milk chocolate party favors had been ridiculous even to his eyes, but he’d paid it.
The money didn’t matter. To him, it was a drop in the hat. Their families needed this ostentatious display of celebration for a reason he hadn’t yet deciphered. This circus was for someone else’s benefit.
Lucy was already his wife in his heart and on paper. He’d married her in a little chapel in Vegas. But he’d marry her in a hundred-year-old cathedral next month. He’d marry her under a bridge in San Francisco with traffic whizzing over their heads. He’d marry her in the living room of his brother-in-law’s Pearl District apartment. He’d marry her anywhere, just so he could call her his wife in public.
Logistical kinks would be worked out. He’d already spent most of his night working out his schedule so he could maximize his time in Lucy’s proximity. Being apart from her was not something he wanted to entertain. Four years of separation were enough to last him a lifetime.
“Well, it looks like you got what you wanted.” Nico’s voice slithered over Joel’s shoulder like a snake that had been defanged. Vile but harmless.
The reminder that he still needed to deal with this fuckwad cut through his joyful mood. As it turned out, ending Nico had been more complicated than he’d anticipated. The dickhead was Barone family. The son of Luciano’s favorite cousin. Cutting him out of the picture by tossing him off the St. John’s bridge wearing nothing but cement shoes was not going to win his father-in-law’s affections.
So he’d had to be subtle in his takedown. Which, unfortunately, took longer.
“Indeed,” Joel replied casually, keeping his eyes on the diamonds that glinted around Lucy’s neck every time she laughed. Diamonds he’d given her this afternoon when she’d come out of his bedroom wearing her gold-colored dress. He took a long swallow of his Scotch.
Nico believed Joel was after Barone & Sons, and that it bonded them somehow, a secret rivalry between the two of them. Dipshit.
“A shame you have to leave before the wedding.”
Nico bled into Joel’s peripheral vision, shock lining his face. “How did you know I was leaving? My father only called me an hour ago.”
“I didn’t know,” Joel lied. “I assumed you’d be leaving America now that there’s nothing left for you here.” In truth, he’d negotiated the deal himself.
Nico’s father had a modest cabinet-making business back in Italy. After researching every inch of the company, Joel had found that some unfortunate financial choices had put the company in peril. Six months max and they would have had to fold. Probably the reason Nico had come sniffing over to this side of the pond. His own inheritance was in jeopardy, so he’d come after Lucy’s.
Joel had called in a couple of favors to ensure that Nico’s father’s company would survive enough to entice the bastard home without the threat of him ever coming after Lucy again. It hadn’t been difficult, but it also hadn’t filled the vengeance Joel craved for this shithead.
“My father needed me home. Our company is doing well, but he needs my expertise,” Nico stated smugly.
This conversation could not end soon enough. “Safe travels home.” Don’t ever come back, dick face.
“Yes. And you enjoy the spoils of your victory, in both the boardroom and the bedroom.”
Joel halted mid-step, his entire body seizing, his muscles quivered with the restraint it took not to punch this motherfucker in the face in front of their combined friends and family.
Slowly, he turned to face Nico. “What did you say?”
Nico, oblivious to his arrogance, shrugged. “Luciana is a very beautiful woman.” As if he had no will to live, Nico added, “And her sister even more so. As you know, since you’ve had them both. Victorious in all things, my friend.” The leech smiled.
Heat clawed up Joel’s throat. “What are you talking about?”
Satisfaction gleamed in Nico’s darkened eyes. “Your rendezvous with Vanessa in Vancouver. The photographers were eager for pictures of the billionaire and his young model mistress. How could I not send the paparazzi your way?”
This ass twitch had organized that? “No one knew I was in Vancouver. ”
Nico’s casual shrug followed his nonchalant smile. “What do you Americans like to say? All’s fair in love and war. I’ve been keeping a close eye on you, and it was not difficult to find out where you’d gone once I’d caught wind that you had left poor Luciana all alone.”
“Do not say her name ever again.” Anger filled him with an urge of violence so great he curled his fists into tight balls instead of putting them through Nico’s face. “You’ll never earn the right.”
“I have been calling her by that name since she was in diapers. We are second cous?—”
“Finish that sentence and it will be the last one you ever speak.”
Nico chuckled. “Relax, my friend. You’ve won. I put in my best efforts, but I know when to bow out. You can enjoy Barone & Sons and my beautiful cousin.”
Disgusting ass fuck. Joel’s fingers itched with the need to put this scum in his place. One call and he could destroy Nico forever. His finger twitched against the phone in his pocket.
“Ah, my two favorite boys.” Luciano’s loud baritone filled the space behind Joel.
On a deep exhale, he unclenched his fists and faced Lucy’s father with a grim smile. If Luciano noticed any tension, he chose not to show it. Then again, he might have been beyond picking up social cues based on the pink glow on his cheeks and the near empty wineglass in his hand. Joel guessed it wasn’t his first of the night, or even his third.
“You know,” Luciano went on, clapping a firm hand on Joel’s shoulder, then doing the same on Nico’s, drawing them a step closer to each other.
Joel’s molars threatened to grind into dust .
“I might never have had sons, but God blessed me with the two of you.” He laughed loudly at his declaration, as though he’d bestowed the highest honor.
Joel nearly crushed his Scotch glass in his hand. His beloved father-in-law had put him on the same pedestal as this rat.
Nico, the oblivious jerk, grinned, inclining his head as a show of gratitude and respect, then murmured something in Italian that Joel’s language app had not yet taught him. Fuck. Another reason to hate the dipshit. Nico and Luciano had a secret language Joel didn’t understand. He made a mental note to work on his Italian before the wedding.
A laugh rumbled from deep within Luciano’s chest, and he clapped Nico on the shoulder again. “Your father will be happy to have you back, but I will miss you here.”
Nico glanced in Joel’s direction, his smug lips lifting infinitesimally. But whatever the second cousin from hell saw in Joel’s face had his expression morphing. His smile faltered and his eyes widened, like prey realizing their time was up if they didn’t run. Fast.
Fuckwad might have been a first-rate sleaze, but he wasn’t as dumb as Joel previously assumed, because he kissed Luciano on both cheeks and excused himself to get more wine.
Joel tracked him until he was sure that Nico was walking in the opposite direction of Lucy. When he saw him head toward Vanessa, he almost excused himself as well. No way was this jerk getting his claws into the next Barone sister, but then his gaze found Jordan, who was standing not far from Vanessa. After one exchange of looks, Jordan gave a resigned nod and went to intercept Nico. The man took instruction without words needing to be exchanged, and Joel wondered where in his corporation he could use a mind like that.
“Ah,” Luciano sighed, pulling Joel’s attention back to him. “It does my old heart good, seeing this.” He gestured grandly around the bar.
“You like the flower chandeliers?” Joel ventured.
Luciano laughed. “Your marriage to Lucy is a good thing, Joel.”
On this, they could agree. “The best thing that has ever happened to me.”
“I should have seen it long ago. You two are very similar, where it counts. You understand family and connection. Building things into bigger things.”
Where was this going? Joel took his final sip of his drink and let his eyes roam over Lucy again, his gaze lingering on the round shape of her ass under her gold dress. Tonight, he was taking her to bed. He’d strip that golden silk off her body and worship what was underneath for hours. Then he’d bathe her, feed her, and do it all over again. And again, until?—
“Barone & Sons will be yours.”
What. The. Fuck? Every single molecule of his attention snapped back to Luciano. “Excuse me?” He must have misheard, but pride was shining so brightly in the old man’s eyes, Joel was nearly blinded.
“I love my daughters. My wife. Every hour I have worked, every late night, every risk I took, it was all worth it to provide them with the best life I could. But I never had a son.” He rubbed one of his gruff paws over his age-worn face, stopping to pinch between his eyes. “You have grown up around business your entire life. When you took over your father’s company, it was the proudest moment of his life, and you have done well for Morgan Construction, more than well.” Luciano clapped Joel on the bicep, giving it a firm and affectionate squeeze. “You will take care of my daughter and my company, and I will retire knowing both are safe and secure.”
Something turned in Joel’s chest, something that ached and hurt like a bruise that was so deep inside he only felt it when he breathed. He knew how much Barone & Sons meant to Luciano, and how fucking honored he should be to have him say the things he had and offer what he had. But that bruise, the ache deep in him, thudded closer to the surface because he knew that he wasn’t the one who should have been given these words.
“Luciano…” He wasn’t often unsure of what to say or do. In fact, he made sure he always knew what to say or do, but this was…personal. Delicate.
Across the bar, Lucy observed them, a small smile tugging at her full red lips, an elegant eyebrow arched. She was wondering what they were talking about. If only she knew.
“The papers are ready to sign. I had my lawyer draw everything up. I cannot imagine a better person to pass my life’s work onto. Not even Nico. He’s family, but he doesn’t know Barone & Sons like you do.”
Without taking his eyes off Lucy, Joel murmured, “I can.”
“What?” Luciano leaned in, trying to hear over the crowd.
Joel shifted his gaze to his father-in-law. “I said I can imagine a better person to pass your life’s work on to.” He let his gaze trace back to Lucy, slowly this time, purposefully, so Luciano was forced to follow the movement. “In fact, I cannot understand how you do not imagine it yourself, since it has been happening for years. ”
They watched her together. Under their joint scrutiny, her cheeks heightened in color, like she was embarrassed to have been caught staring. Lucy gave them a little wave and a bashful toothy grin before she turned quickly back to the table where she sat with Hope, Ivy and Natalie.
“What are you talking about?” Luciano asked, sounding confused. “Lucy would not want the business.”
“Wouldn’t she?” Was the old man blind or obtuse? “Has she not worked alongside you every day for years? Has she not learned every aspect of cabinetry, product demand, design? Is she not in charge of all the financials? Did she, like her sister, turn away from your company? Seek other opportunities? Ever once make you think she wanted to do something else?”
Luciano stood, wide-eyed in his shock, like the dots had never connected before in his brain. “But she’s—she’s,” he stammered. “My daughter. All that work, it’s too much.”
A red haze bled through the periphery of Joel’s vision. “Too much? It’s not enough. She deserves your company and a thousand more.” Maybe he was going too far, towing the line of disrespect that he could never take back, but his rage on Lucy’s behalf unhinged him, snapping his finesse and control. “Do you even listen to her when she speaks?”
Luciano jerked back, eyes widening. Yep, he’d definitely just disrespected his father-in-law. So be it.
“Because when she speaks, she’s all I hear, all I see, all I care about. And that’s how I know, as you should have known long before me, that she would do anything for Barone & Sons .” He hissed the last word like a curse, and it had been for Lucy. A twenty-nine-year curse she couldn’t break no matter what she’d tried.
Obviously, not even a fake engagement or strategic marriage could help her, because the man in front of him was still staring at him far too blankly for someone who had just had an epiphany.
“With all due respect, sir, and I do respect you, I would never take Barone & Sons. It doesn’t belong to me, it never did. And if you listened and looked with your heart, you’d see that it doesn’t belong to you anymore, either.”
“Joel—” Luciano’s head whipped back like he’d had a collision but couldn’t believe who he’d collided with. “Luciana is not—she could not—” He was unable to get whatever he wanted to out. Years of narrowmindedness and pride had apparently rendered him speechless.
“I’ll take your daughter, if she’ll have me. But I won’t take her company.” His vision blurred under his disgust and anger.
Lucy’s father had just offered him the one thing Lucy had been fighting for her entire life, and Luciano was ready to sign it over to Joel with a flick of a wrist.
Nausea churning in his gust, he almost staggered, so he turned on the old man and walked toward his wife. He’d die a thousand agonizing deaths before he betrayed her, but even knowing that couldn’t shake the guilt and shame coursing through him now.
The second his hand drifted down the soft curve of Lucy’s back, the tension in his chest dissolved by half.
She turned toward him, eyes sparkling with curiosity. “I saw you talking to Nico and my father. Which was worse?” The humor in her voice a complete contrast to the burning under his rib cage. “Let me guess.” She tapped her index finger to her chin, casting her eyes up to the side in mock contemplation. “My dearly beloved second cousin.”
After the exchange he’d had with her father, he’d take a thousand Nico’s. That was an enemy he had seen coming, and one he could deal with. Her cousin was utterly meaningless. But her father—her father —Joel needed to get out of here.
Tugging Lucy flush against him, he brought his lips to her ear. “I need to take you home.” He needed to claim her in every possible way, to be as close as he could. Needed to wash off the second-hand guilt pounding through him. Needed to prove to her that he’d never hurt her the way her father had. “I need to fuck you until I can’t see straight. Until you’re carbon copied into every part of my soul.”
Lucy leaned back so she could catch his gaze. A worried flicker rippled across the golden flecks in her irises. “Are you alright, Joel? Did Nico say something?”
She thought this had to do with dipshit. He almost laughed. If only. “Nico is nothing. He’ll be on a plane in three hours. If we are very, very lucky, we won’t be seeing him again until the next family reunion.”
Lucy stroked her palm down the stubble on his jaw, and he turned his cheek into her caress. “We can’t leave right now. There’s still the dinner and speeches, and…what happened?”
Your father wanted to give me the company . Even thinking it made him ill. The company this entire plan had been designed to bring to her had backfired and landed in his lap. If she ever knew her father wanted to give it to Joel, it would devastate her. Destroy her relationship with her father and turn her away from Joel forever.
He could never risk that, not ever again. Running his nose along her fingers one last time, he leaned forward and dropped a kiss on her forehead. “Nothing happened. Did something have to have happened for me to want to tear this dress off you?”
It wasn’t his most convincing work, but a smile curved the ruby red of her lips. “Well, I’d be lying if I said I haven’t been thinking about the moment you take it off. I’ve been thinking about it since I put it on.”
One hard tug and there wasn’t enough room for air between them. Joel crushed his lips to hers, the bruising kiss a claim, a stake. She was his, and he wasn’t going to give her up for anything. Not ever again.