Million Dollar Christmas Proposal

“This hand?” he asked, brushing the thumb of his left hand—the one safely cradling her head—down along her neck.

“You know it’s not.” Though it seemed to be more of a threat to her equilibrium than she’d suspected.

That simple caress revealed the direct line between that tender spot on her neck and the place between her legs clamoring most for his attention.

More than the sensual onslaught, there was something entirely possessive about the way he held her head just where he wanted. Something that said no matter what he might be feeling, regardless of small cracks in his near-impenetrable armor, Vincenzo Tomasi was in control.

Of himself. Of her.

A moment of clarity sent frissons of uncertainty through her. Could she spend the better part of two decades, perhaps even longer, as this man’s lawfully wedded wife?

The overwhelming desire to do just that would have taken her legs out from under her if she were standing, it was so powerful.

“You must mean this one?”

He was still playing the sensual game while she’d been having her life-altering internal revelation.

He let one finger slide up to brush over her nipple, bringing Audrey instantly back into their hot, sensual bubble.

This man was lethal. “Y-yes, that one.”

He chuckled darkly and moved the overstimulating appendage down her stomach. Slowly. So very slowly. Neither of them made the tiniest sound as he withdrew his hand from under her sweater.

He carefully tugged the hem into place before sitting up. “You are a temptation.”

“But you stopped.”

“It is for the best.”

“According to your plan,” she teased.

“It is my habit to follow my plans.”

“You never lose patience and just do something because you want to?”

“No.”

No room for misinterpretation there. “One thing I’ve never heard anyone call you is impulsive.”

“My cautious nature has served me well.”

“You and your company, not to mention Tomasi Commercial Bank.”

Vincenzo had pushed the bank to withdraw from high-risk, high-yield bonds before the stockmarket tanked.

His bank and company had suffered minimal damage while the rest of the financial world teetered on the edge of bankruptcy.

“I used to be impulsive.” When there had been room in her life for spontaneity.

His expression was tinged with disbelief. “Used to be?”

“You think I’m impetuous?”

“Sì.” One word. No clarification. Absolute certainty.

“I’m not.” She couldn’t afford to be anymore.

“You do not think coming to my office with no introduction or any idea of how I would react to your initiative to apply for an extremely unorthodox position was impulsive?”

She frowned, unable to actually deny the charge. She had had no idea how Vincenzo would react to her. Audrey could have lost her job that day, or at the very least gotten a severe reprimand.

“Desperate times…”

“And was it desperate times that made you ask me to kiss you in my office and again just now?”

“Not desperation, no.”

“Did you plan to kiss me then or today?”

“No.” Today she’d meant to get to know two small children to whom she might well become a mother.

“You see? Impulsive.”

“But you kissed me both times.”

“While I may not share your impetuous nature, I am a man who knows how to take advantage of a fortuitous circumstance when it arises.” He sounded entirely too smug.

“You think an opportunity to kiss is lucky? I would have thought you had plenty of those you turned down all the time.”

“In that you would be right, but you have left out the key element to the equation.”

“What is that?”

“The opportunity was to kiss you, Audrey.”

Wow. She didn’t know how to respond to that. He’d implied that she was something special, but she wasn’t. Just one of several candidates he was considering for a position she was coming to want more and more.

“You’re sort of lethally charming, you know?”

“You would be one of only a few who think so.”

She just shook her head at such a ridiculous claim.

“I am a workaholic who has spent most of my adult life building a financial empire, not a charming playboy.”

Like his brother Pinu. And his father, whose affairs were legendary and legion despite his being married to the same woman for almost four decades.

“If a kiss affects me like this, I’m afraid your test-drive is going to kill me,” she jokingly admitted.

“I fully intend for you to experience a surfeit of la petite mort, I promise you.”

The promise of multiple orgasms sent shivers of reaction through her. This man pushed every single one of Audrey’s buttons.

Just as she’d warned him, her heart was engaging at light speed, her four-year crush fast becoming something else. No matter that he wasn’t interested in her emotions. She had no more choice about that than how quickly her body responded to his kiss.

She wasn’t sure she believed in love at first sight, but Audrey would never forget her first glimpse of this powerful man. He’d been to the bank for a meeting. Her heart had ended up in her throat and hadn’t dislodged itself until an hour later.

She’d applied for a transfer to Tomasi Enterprises a week later and told herself it was for the bump in pay and responsibilities.

Audrey had spent four years watching him from afar, reading every article that was published in the printed and electronic press about the brilliant business tycoon. She’d saved the link to a rare interview he’d given which had been uploaded to the net in her Favorites.

He’d fascinated her. This man who could take apart a company with ruthless precision for maximum financial gain, but who had personally driven his own corporate policies that benefitted not only his employees but their families. His charitable contributions were evidence that, no matter how cold and emotionless Vincenzo Angilu Tomasi might appear, his heart was as human as anyone else’s.

She only wished it was accessible to her. But that was

one miracle she had no hope of.

Audrey didn’t know what she would do if Vincenzo chose one of the other candidates to complete his little family. However, there was an undeniable part of her that hoped fervently he did just that.

The fear he would choose her was almost as strong as the fear he wouldn’t, and Audrey had the inescapable feeling her heart was going to end up broken either way.

“I should move back to the other seat.”

He adjusted his seat belt across his torso. “Don’t. It gives me satisfaction to challenge my control.”

If she were more confident in her own sensuality it might make her happy to add to that challenge. To spend the rest of the ride teasing him in subtle ways, until maybe that control even broke. Perhaps someday, when she was not a sexual novice.

As it stood, she did her best to bring her own clamoring desires back to manageable levels.

“How did you accomplish the Gatling coup last year?” she asked, pretty sure that the discussion of acquisitions and mergers would be staid enough to help in that endeavor.

What followed was actually both interesting and informative, and not just about that particular financial windfall Vincenzo had engineered. His answer revealed both the power magnate’s passion for his work, and a great deal about his personal business philosophy as well.

“So, you try to keep a company active if you can?”

“It depends on the numbers.”

“What do you mean?”

“If I can realize a minimum of a ten percent return on investment within a year, or twenty-five percent within three.”

“So if you only project a nine-point-seven ROI, you dismantle and sell?”

“Sì.”

“What if selling for parts wouldn’t net you the minimum ten percent either?”

“Then I would not have bought it.”

“So, no exceptions?”

“No.”

“But you can’t be sure about those numbers. I wasn’t a business major, but even I know that there has to be a margin for error with any income projection.” She worked for a financial institution after all.

She couldn’t help picking up a thing or two.