Jane Porter - Mistress To a Latin Lover

She shook her head. “I’m not listening.”

“Yes, you are. I can see the wheels spinning.” He leaned toward her to whisper in hear ear. “So file this away for future reference. An orgasm isn’t love. An orgasm is just an orgasm.”

Blood surged to her cheeks and she pulled back, putting distance between them. “Thanks for the biology lesson.”

“He slept with you, but he loved another.”

Cass’s head turned and she fixed a hard gaze on Emilio’s face. “You need serious help. You know that, don’t you?”

He smiled lazily. “So I’ve been told.”

She moved her legs so they wouldn’t touch his. “Is this why Maximos ended your professional association? He found out you weren’t completely stable?”

Emilio’s smile faded little by little. “Italia Motors was my success, not his. My car. My design, an innovative design that took the market by storm, winning us every industry award our first year alone.”

“So Maximos did nothing to contribute to Italia Motors’ success?”

“Nothing, compared to my contributions.”

“So it wasn’t his money that financed Italia Motors?”

“He wrote some checks—”

“Nearly twenty million dollars worth.” She interrupted, reaching for her wineglass and giving it a little swirl. “Because the first car did win awards and yes, it did capture the public’s imagination, but wasn’t there a design flaw? Something in the engineering which resulted in a tragic accident and a ten million dollar lawsuit settlement.”

“That wasn’t my fault. Maximos was in charge of research. If he didn’t run enough tests—” Emilio shrugged, hands extending “—you can’t blame that one on me. I had my area of responsibility and he had his, and the bottom line is that Maximos needed me. Needed my mind, my creativity—”

“Because Italia Motors was all about your genius, right?” She leaned on her elbows. “He resented you for being the brain behind the company while he was just the moneybags.”

“Yes.”

She couldn’t help shaking her head in disbelief. Emilio was ludicrous. Absolutely ludicrous. “Isn’t this the oldest story around? Two men go into business together and one has the money and the other has the brains—”

“It’s true.”

“Or maybe it’s true that you resented Maximos because he had money and brains.”

“No.”

“Then why are you so obsessed with him? Why should you want to make him suffer?”

“Because we had something good, very good, and he blew it. He ruined me.”

Cass glanced toward Maximos. He was engrossed in conversation with the people seated directly across from him and something inside her tugged. Maximos was such a strong person, such a powerful presence that she felt him even though he sat at the far end of the banquet table.

But suddenly his head turned and Maximos’s dark forbidding gaze met hers. For a long moment she just looked at him, drank him in, feeling the desire inside her stir. She missed him. God, she missed him.

Abruptly Maximos stood, crossed behind the table, walking toward Emilio and Cass.

Cass saw the taut, determined look on Maximos’s face, his cheekbones jutting harshly, his jaw set. Emilio saw it, too, and smiling idly, he touched Cass’s neck before running his hand through Cass’s hair.

Reaching their end of the table, Maximos spoke to the man seated on Cass’s right. The man stood and walked away, vacating his seat for Maximos.

Maximos pulled the now empty chair out and sat down.“Enjoying yourself?” he asked, leaning forward, looking Emilio in the eye.

Cass felt Maximos’s shoulder brush her breast and she shivered, nerves tightening.

“I am.” Emilio smiled, relishing the cat and mouse game he and Maximos were playing. “Your sister is beautiful. I’ve never seen her look better. She’s all grown up, isn’t she?”

Maximos didn’t even glance his sister’s way. “Adriana’s just twenty-one.”

“A woman.”

Maximos’s jaw thickened. “And you like other men’s women.”

Emilio laughed. “Not necessarily. But I do like women.” He clapped his hand on Cass’s knee, and rubbed his palm in circles over her kneecap. “Especially this one.”

Maximos didn’t answer and Emilio’s hand moved higher on Cass’s leg, sliding over her knee to her thigh. “She’s gorgeous, my Cass, isn’t she?”

Cass couldn’t bear it. She reached for Emilio’s hand, lifted it from her leg. “Stop.”

The look Emilio gave her was hard enough to cut glass. “Maybe it’s time we went home and went to bed. You’re sounding a little tired, love.”

“I’m fine,” she protested.

“No, you’re a bitch, and I don’t know what I ever saw in you.” Emilio shoved his chair back and stood. “I’m going to go get a real drink. Something better than this cheap table wine.”

He stalked off and Cass watched him go, insides twisted.

There was a long moment’s silence and Cass stirred uneasily. She didn’t know what to say, what to do, or how to make amends at this point. But she did need to make amends. This whole evening had been awful, and an embarrassment for Maximos.

“I’m sorry,” she said at length, tugging on the lapels of Maximos’s coat, cold despite the jacket’s protection. “I’ve behaved badly, and your poor family, having to suffer through this show Emilio and I’ve put on…” Her voice faded and she swallowed. “I’m sorry. I really am.”

Maximos regarded her steadily. “I was surprised to see you here with him. I didn’t even know you two knew each other.”

“We met in April, just after—” She broke off, surprised at a new thought. Quickly she counted back. She’d met Emilio in April at an advertising awards dinner, a dinner held three days after the miscarriage. Three days.

Maybe their meeting hadn’t been by chance.

Maybe Emilio had found out about the miscarriage and intended for them to meet…

It was bizarre to think about, but made sense in an awful sort of way.

“I need to go,” she said, reaching for her purse and rising. “This is—was—the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. I don’t know what I was thinking, and you’ve every right to think I’ve gone completely mad. Maybe I have.”

Maximos rose, too. “I’ll take you back to the palazzo.”

“No.” She smiled quickly to soften her refusal. “I’ll get a cab. I’ll be fine.”

“I can’t send you back unchaperoned. I don’t trust Emilio and I don’t want you returning to the palazzo alone.”

“Maximos—”

“I saw the bruises on your arm. He hurt you earlier, didn’t he?”

Her mouth opened but no sound came out.

Maximos shook his head in disgust. “That’s why I wrapped you in my coat. I didn’t want anyone staring at the bruises. They were so dark. It was obvious you’d been hurt.”

Hot emotion rushed through her and she had to look away for a moment to keep from crying. “I thought you were ashamed of me appearing virtually naked at your sister’s dinner.”

“Ashamed of your body? Impossible.” He leaned toward her, kissed her temple. “But maybe it was a bit daring for my grandmother’s tastes.”

Cass smiled wanly. “I didn’t want to wear it.”

“I suspected as much.” He reached into his pocket for his car keys. “Let me just let Sophia know I’m leaving. I’ll be right back.”

In the car Cass stared out the window as Maximos drove. She watched the neighborhoods pass by, the yellow streetlights glowed like topaz at night, the old city dark and mysterious, the narrow streets nearly deserted as the car approached the Guiliano palazzo. “How long have you been seeing Sophia d’Santo?” she finally asked, gathering her courage.