“Yet ‘he’ became one, and as ruthless as they come.” To her chagrin, her denunciation sounded like a cooing endearment.
“‘He’ basically found himself one. And I must contest the ruthless part. Though ‘he’ makes too much money, it’s not by adopting cold-blooded bottom-line practices. It just happens that the methods those people taught him are that efficient.”
Her own fundamental fairness got the best of her. “No one could have helped you make a cent, let alone such a sustained downpour, if you hadn’t come up with something so ingeniously applicable and universally useful.”
“And I wouldn’t have gotten any of that translated into reality without those people.”
Her heart hammered at his earnest words. At the memories they exhumed.
She’d once poured all her time and effort into providing him with a comprehensive plan for his future operations. He’d already had an exceptional head for business when he applied his off-the-charts IQ to it, but it hadn’t been his specialty or his focus. And he had had some unrealistic views and expectations when it came to translating his science into practice. So she’d insisted on educating him in what would come after the breakthrough, how his R&D and manufacturing departments would sync and work at escalating efficiency and productivity to streamline operations and maximize profit.
That had been another of the injustices he’d dealt her as he’d discarded her, evaluating her only based on her sexual role, as if she’d never offered him anything else. That had cut deeper into her the more she’d dwelled on it. It had taken her a long time to recover her sense of self-worth.
She bet he didn’t count her among those teachers fate had blessed him with.
A finger ran gently down her cheek. “You’re at the top of the list of those people.”
She blinked. He admitted that?
“I owe you for most of the bad decisions I didn’t make before the good ones I did make.”
Her heart stumbled, no longer knowing how hard or fast to beat, thoughts and emotions yo-yoing so hard she felt dizzy.
She shook her head as if to stop the fluctuations. “Is this admission part of your efforts to ‘put me at ease’?”
“It’s the truth.”
“Not according to you six years ago. Or forty-eight hours ago.”
His eyes misted with something like melancholy. “It’s not the whole truth, granted.” Now, what did that mean? “But I’m sick and tired of pretending this didn’t happen, that there were no good parts. There were…incredible parts. And no matter why you offered me this guidance, you did offer it, and I did use it to my best advantage, so…grazie mille, bellissima.”
This time she gaped at him for what felt like an hour.
What did this confounding man want to do to her? Was he truly suffering from a multiple personality disorder? What else could explain his contradictions?
But he’d already said he wouldn’t explain. So there was no use pursuing it.
Deciding not to give him the satisfaction of a response to his too-late, too-little thanks, she cast a look around. “I still think this level of luxury is criminal.”
His smile dawned again, incinerating all in its path. “Sorry to shoot down your censure missiles, but this isn’t my jet. It’s the Castaldinian Air Force One.” So her earlier observation was true! “Ferruccio put it at my disposal as soon as I told him of you, in his efforts to see me hitched…ASAP.”
As he grinned as if at a private joke, something inside her snapped.
She whacked him on the arm, hard.
His eyebrows shot up in surprise that became hilarity, and then he was letting out peal after peal of laughter.
“Had your joke at my expense?” she seethed.
“I was actually basking in your abuse,” he spluttered.
“Why didn’t you say you developed masochistic tendencies in your old age? You don’t need to manipulate me into obliging your perversion. The desire to shower abuse on your unfeeling head is my default setting.” She’d bet her glare would have withered rock. That hunk of unfeeling male perfection only chuckled harder. She attempted a harder verbal volley. “That this jet isn’t yours doesn’t exonerate you. You probably have your own squadron that puts it to shame. But apparently you’re so cheap you’d rather use state property and funds.”
“Damned if I do and if I don’t, eh?” He didn’t seem too upset about it, but looked like she’d just praised him heartily as he picked up her hand and brought it to his lips. “Sheathe your claws, my azure-eyed lioness.”
She gritted her teeth as his lips moved against her knuckles. “Why? Didn’t you just discover that you relish being ripped to shreds?”
He sighed his enjoyment. “Indeed. But it works better when you’re slamming me over my real flaws. Being pretentious and exploitative isn’t among my excesses and failings. If you think so then you haven’t kept abreast with my pursuits.”
That made her snort. “You mean you think it’s possible to avoid those? When your face and exploits are plastered everywhere I go? You even come out of the faucet when I turn it on. My building has turned to your services for heating.”
His laugh cracked out again.
In spite of wanting to smack him again, that sense of fairness still prodded her to add, “But among all that obnoxious overexposure, I do know your corporations have substantial and varied aid programs.”
That seemed to surprise him. “The world at large doesn’t know about this side of my activities. I wonder how you knew.”
Her smirk told him two could play at withholding answers. “It’s I who wonders what you’re after with all the discreet philanthropy. Are you playing at being Bruce Wayne? If you are, all that’s left is for you to don the cape, mask and tights…” She paused as his laughter escalated again then mumbled, “Since making you feel great is nonexistent on my list of priorities, I’ll shut up now.”
He leaned closer until his lips brushed her temple. He didn’t kiss her, just talked against her flesh. “I’d beg you not to. I don’t think I can live now without being bombarded by the shrapnel that keeps flying out of your mouth.”
She kept said mouth firmly closed.
To incite another salvo—she was sure—his lips moved to the top of her cheekbone, in the most languid, heart-melting kiss.
She jumped to her feet, nerves jangling.