“Mine’s always going to be bigger than yours, Aristedes.”
“You wish.”
It was an old line of banter and made them grin again.
“So,” Nicolo said, “where’s Lucas?”
“We’re meeting him in—” Damian looked at his watch. “In two hours.”
“You guys picked a restaurant?”
“Well, more or less.”
Nicolo raised an eyebrow. “Meaning?”
“Meaning,” Damian said, “our old friend bought himself a club. Downtown. The club of the minute, he says.”
“Meaning, crowded. Noisy. Lots of music, lots of booze, lots of spectacular-looking women out for a good time…”
“Sounds terrible,” Damian said solemnly.
Nicolo smiled as he draped his towel around his shoulders. “Yeah, I know. But I have an important meeting Monday morning.”
“Well, so do I.”
“Very important.”
Damian looked at him. “So?”
“So,” Nicolo said, after a moment, “I’m hoping to finalize a deal. With James Black.”
“Whoa. That is important. So, tonight we celebrate in advance, at Lucas’s place.”
“Well, I want to stay focused. Get to bed at a decent hour tonight and tomorrow night. No liquor. No distractions—”
“Thee Mou! Don’t tell me! No sex?”
Nicolo shrugged. “No sex.”
“Sex is not a distraction. It’s exercise. Good for the heart.”
“It’s bad for the concentration.”
“That’s BS.”
“We believed it when we played soccer, remember? And we won.”
“We won,” Damian said dryly, “because the competition was lousy.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I. Giving up sex is against the laws of nature.”
“Idiot,” Nicolo said fondly. The men walked to the free weights area and made their selections. “It’s just a matter of discipline.”
“Unless, of course, there was such an instant attraction you couldn’t walk away.” Damian grunted as he lifted a pair of twenty-pound weights. “And how often is that about to happen?”
“Never,” Nicolo answered—and, unbidden, the image of the blonde with the hot eyes and the cold attitude flashed before his eyes.
He had been reaching for the twenty-pound weights, too. Instead he lifted a pair of heavier ones and worked with them until his mind was a pain-filled blank.
Farther downtown, in a part of Manhattan that was either about to be discovered or still a slum, depending on a buyer’s point of view, Aimee Stafford Coleridge Black slammed her apartment door behind her, tossed her black suede coat at a chair and kicked off her matching boots.
The coat slid off the chair. The boots bounced off the wall. Aimee didn’t give a damn.
Amazing, how a day that began so filled with promise could end so badly.
Aimee marched into the kitchen, filled the kettle with water, put it on to boil and changed her mind. The last thing she needed was a caffeine buzz.
She was buzzing enough without it, thanks to her grandfather.
Why had he summoned her to his office, if not to make the announcement she’d been anticipating?
“I shall retire next May,” he’d told her almost a year ago, “when I reach ninety, at which time I shall place Stafford-Coleridge-Black in the charge of the person who will guide it through its next fifty years. A person who will, of course, carry on the Stafford-Coleridge-Black lineage.”
Lineage. As important to James as breathing but that was fine because she, Aimee, was the only person with both the necessary lineage and the proper education to assume command.
She had a bachelor’s degree in finance. A master’s degree in business. She’d spent her summers since high school interning at SCB.
She knew more about the bank than anyone, maybe even including Grandfather, who still believed in a world devoid of computers and e-mail.
Aimee marched into the bedroom and methodically stripped off the gray wool suit and white silk blouse she’d deemed appropriate for the meeting with Grandfather this afternoon. She’d wanted to look businesslike, even though she knew damned well you could do as much business in jeans as you could in Armani.
She’d even worked up a little speech of assurance about how she wouldn’t change a thing, though she’d mentally crossed her fingers because there were things that definitely needed changing.
She’d presented herself at his office precisely at four. James was a stickler for promptness. She’d kissed his papery cheek, sat down as directed, folded her hands…
And listened as he told her he had not yet reached a decision as to who would replace him.
Be calm, she’d told herself. And she had been, or at least she’d managed to seem calm as she asked him what decision there was to make.
“You already said it would be me, Grandfather.”
“I said it would be someone capable,” James said briskly. “Someone of my lineage.”
“Well—”
The look on his face had frozen her with horror. “You don’t mean…Bradley?”
Bradley. Her cousin. Or her something. Who understood the complexities of second cousins twice removed, or whatever the hell he was? Bradley had been wimping around the bank for years, interning the same as she had, except he’d never done a day’s work, never done anything except try to grope her in the stockroom.
“Not Bradley,” she’d finally breathed.
“Bradley has a degree in economics.”
Yes. From a college that probably also gave degrees in basket-weaving.
“He’s well-spoken.”
He was, once he had three or four straight vodkas in him.
“And,” her grandfather had said, saving the best for last, “he is a man.”
A man. Meaning, nature’s royalty. A prince, whereas she was a lesser creature because she was female.
Grandfather had risen to his feet, indicating that she was no longer welcome in the royal presence.
“Be here Monday morning, Aimee. Ten o’clock sharp. I’ll announce my decision then.”
Dismissed, just like that.
Sent out the door, down the wheezing old elevator, into the street where she’d walked blindly, no idea where in hell she was or where she was going, which was why she hadn’t seen the man and he’d almost knocked her down.
That despicable, horrible man who’d insisted it was she who’d walked into him. Who’d accused her of not being a woman when, damn him, it was the very fact that she was a woman that was going to deny her the one thing she wanted in life.
What a fool she’d been. What an idiot. She’d turned down two wonderful job offers because she’d believed—she’d been stupid enough to believe—
She’d been anguishing over that when the man charged into her.
As if she were invisible, which she undoubtedly was because she was female. Oh, the arrogance of men. Of him. The way he’d clasped her shoulders and looked down at her from the lofty heights of his lofty maleness.
“Easy,” he’d said, and smiled, and that—the smile, the slight foreign huskiness to the word, the broad shoulders, the ink-black hair, the midnight-blue eyes and the face that was the male equivalent of what had launched a thousand ships, that was supposed to make up for his rudeness?
Aimee had told him what she thought of him.
Men didn’t like honesty. She’d learned that a long time ago. And this one, this—this bad-mannered stranger, had decided she needed a lesson, that she needed a graphic reminder of her place in the universe…
He’d kissed her.
Kissed her! Put his mouth on hers, the arrogant, miserable son of a bitch….
His firm mouth. His soft mouth. His mouth that was, any woman could tell, made for long, deep kisses…
God, she was in bad shape. Anger, adrenaline, whatever you called it, was pumping through her veins. She was completely stressed out.
A man
would know what to do to ease such stress.
He’d go to a gym and sweat it out. Actually that would work for her, too, but her gym, a gym for women, was closed. Hey, it was Saturday. Date night for the fairer sex, right?
“Such crap,” Aimee said.
She could almost feel the steam coming out of her ears.
Or a man would call up his buddies, meet them someplace crowded and noisy and guzzle beer. That’s what men under pressure did, didn’t they? Go out, drink, talk about stupid things, pick up women?
Sex was the great relaxer. Everybody said so. Okay, not her because she’d had sex and it had been far from memorable but according to everything she’d read, sex could lower your stress levels every time.
Aimee snorted.
Imagine if a woman did that. Called a friend, went someplace loud to drink and looked for a guy to pick up. Went to bed with him, no strings, no ridiculous exchange of names and phone numbers. Just bed.
Just sex.
Of course, some women did. They went looking for sex.
Sex with a stranger. A stranger with dark hair. Blue eyes. A square jaw, straight nose, firm mouth. And that little accent…
The phone rang. Let it. Her voice mail could take the call.
Hi, her recorded voice said briskly. You’ve reached 555-6145. Please leave a message after the tone.
“Aimee, it’s Jen.”
The last person she wanted to talk to! Jen had taken a job with Fox and Curtrain after Aimee pointed her toward it.
“I’m not going to take it,” she’d said, “so why shouldn’t you?”
Why, indeed?
“Aimee, look, I know this isn’t your thing but a new club opened right near me and it’s supposed to draw a hot crowd. And it’s Laura’s birthday, remember her, from the second floor in our dorm? She’s in town and a bunch of us are getting together to, you know, check out the club…” There was giggling in the background and Aimee rolled her eyes. “Okay, Laura’s right. To check out the guys, see if they’re as hunky as everybody says.”
“Jen?” Aimee said, picking up the phone.
“Oh, you’re there! Listen, I don’t know what you’re doing tonight, but—”
“I’m not doing anything. I’ve had—it’s been one of those days, you know?”
“All the more reason to go with us. Have a drink, listen to some hot music—”
“Get picked up by some hot guy,” a female voice in the background said, to another round of giggles.
“That’s the last thing I need,” Aimee said. “I mean, is that all I’m good for? To go to a club where the music’s so loud I won’t be able to think? To let a guy pick me up, buy me a drink—”
“Yeah. I know. It’s a meat market out there—but sometimes, well, sometimes that can be fun. You know. No BS. Just an evening of fun and games.”
“It’s bad enough men think that’s what we’re all about. That we’re useless except in the kitchen or the bedroom. We don’t have to play into their stupid fantasy.”
Silence. Then Jen cleared her throat. “Okay,” she said carefully, “so just forget that I—”
“Not that I couldn’t be some jerk’s idea of a centerfold playmate, if I wanted.”
“Uh, Aimee, look, I have to run, so—”
“I could go to this club with you. Dance, drink, let some guy pick me up for a night of mind-blowing sex!”
The telephone line hummed with silence again. Then Jen spoke.
“So, uh, are you saying you want to go with us?”
Aimee took a deep, deep breath. “You’re damned right I am,” she said.
Twenty minutes later, dressed in a red silk dress she’d bought on sale and never had a reason to wear, ditto for a pair of strappy gold sandals, Aimee took a last look in the mirror, gave her image a quick salute, then headed out the door.
CHAPTER TWO
LUCAS’S CLUB was everything Damian had promised.
Like most hot Manhattan nightspots, it was in a neighborhood that had once been grungy and commercial and now was grungy and upscale. Streets that had once been relegated to the nitty-gritty of daily life now came alive after dark. Warehouses had given way to expensive, exclusive clubs.
Lucas’s place was located in a dark brick building with shuttered windows. There was no sign to indicate that what had once been a factory was now Le Club Hot.
No sign. No published telephone number. You either knew the club existed or you didn’t, which went a long way toward sorting out the clientele, Nicolo thought wryly as he opened a heavy, brass-hinged door and stepped, with Damian, into what might have been the small lobby of an upscale hotel.
The behemoth who greeted them was not someone you’d ever find behind a reception desk. They gave him their names, he checked a list, then smiled.
He pressed a button, and the wall ahead of them slid back.
“Wow,” Damian said softly.
Nicolo had to agree. “Wow” summed it up.
The first thing you noticed was the noise. Music, heavy on bass, went straight into your blood.
Then you realized that the room you’d walked into was huge.
The designer had carefully left the exposed overhead pipes and old brick walls but everything else—the lighting, the endless Lucite bar, the elevated dance floor and the music—was dazzlingly modern.
“You could play American football in here,” Damian murmured. “Especially since the place comes equipped with so many cheerleaders.”
He grinned, and Nicolo grinned back at him. It was true. The room was filled with people, more than half of them women. Young. Stunning. Sexy. Faces recognizable from European and American magazine covers and movies.
What an idiot he’d been, letting what happened this afternoon get him worked up. Damian had it right. This was what he needed. Lights. Music.
Women.
This was the way to relax.
“Barbieri! Aristedes!”
Lucas was making his way through the crowd toward them. The men exchanged handshakes and then Lucas rolled his eyes and grabbed them both in a bear hug.
“Ugly as always,” he said, raising his voice over the pulsating beat of the music, “but not to worry. I’ve told a bunch of lies about you both and made you sound so interesting that people are willing to meet you, despite your looks.”
The three of them grinned. Then Lucas pointed toward a suspended, transparent staircase.
“My table’s up there,” he shouted. “On the mezzanine. It’s quieter…and the view is óptimo!”
He was right. The table overlooked the dance floor and the sound level dropped from deafening to ear-shattering.
And the view was, indeed, excellent.
“What scenery,” Damian said.
He meant, of course, the women. Nicolo nodded in agreement. He’d already acknowledged that the scenery was spectacular. All those lithe, gyrating bodies. The lovely faces…
Was there a woman on the dance floor with eyes the color of violets? With hair the honey-gold of a tigress?
“Nicolo? Which do you prefer?”
Nicolo blinked. Lucas and Damian were looking at him, along with a girl in gold hot pants and a skimpy black tank top.
“To drink,” Lucas said, with a little laugh. “Whiskey? Champagne? The club special? It’s a Mojito. You know, rum, lime juice—”
“Whiskey,” Nicolo said, and told himself to stop being a fool and start having a good time.
But that was a problem.
It turned out you couldn’t have a good time just by telling yourself to have one. You had to relax before you had fun, and now that the woman with the violet eyes had pushed her way into his head, he knew damned well “fun” wasn’t going to happen.
No matter how much he tried.
He ate. He drank. He listened while Lucas and Damian caught up on old times. The three of them hadn’t seen each other in months; there was a lot to talk about and he forced himself to join in the conversation.
After a w
hile, his thoughts drifted. To the woman. To how he’d dealt with her. The more he thought, the angrier he became.
At her.
At himself.
What kind of man let a woman make a fool of him?
“Nicolo?”
Another blink, this time at Damian, who was watching him through slightly narrowed eyes.
“You okay?”
“Yes. Sure. I told you, it’s—it’s this meeting Monday, and—”
Lucas snorted. “My friend, you’re as transparent as glass. What’s on your mind is a woman.”
No. It wasn’t true. Well, yes. There was a woman on his mind but not in the way Lucas meant.
There were no women in his life to think about.
He’d ended an affair a month ago, and grazie a Dio that he had. The lady in question had been like so many others, beautiful and accommodating at first, then simply beautiful and boring.
But then, that was in the nature of things—or was it? Somehow, he couldn’t envision the blonde with the violet eyes ever being accommodating or boring.
She would always be a challenge.
Any other woman, given the situation, would have accepted the apology he’d offered. Hell, any other woman would have done more than that.
He was always lucky with women. They liked him and he liked them. So, any other woman would have smiled and said it was nice of him to say it was his fault but, really, it was hers.
And he’d have understood her smile, returned one of his own and said, well, perhaps they might have a drink while they decided who owed whom an apology….
Nicolo brought his bourbon on the rocks to his lips and took a long drink.
Damn it, the woman was haunting him and for a reason that was insulting.
Such insolence! Why had he tolerated it? Such audacity! And he’d let her get away with it.
His eyes narrowed.
What she’d needed was a real lesson in how a woman should behave. Not that pale excuse of a kiss but something she would have remembered, something that would have shaken her loose of that cold disdain.
He should have dragged her against his body. Taken her mouth, parted her lips with his and filled her with his taste. Let her understand that she was female and he was male and despite the ridiculous conventions of this misbegotten century, what that meant was that he held supremacy when it came to things such as this.
The Billionaires' Brides Bundle Page 2
