‘I don’t need your money,’ she spat. ‘You think any amount would induce me to sell the shares to you?’
‘Our grandfathers had a fight. No, it was more than that. It was war,’ he said, returning to the original point. ‘They’d started Prim’Aqua by joining together two shipping companies they’d inherited from their fathers, and it became the most powerful water-based logistics and transportation company in the world. Both of our families owe their prosperity to Prim’Aqua.’
‘Fine, if you say so,’ she snapped, moving towards the door. ‘But it’s my father’s company now.’
‘Your grandfather fooled my grandfather into signing it over—my grandfather trusted him implicitly and signed the deeds without reading.’
‘More fool him,’ she muttered.
His expression tightened. ‘It was a mistake on his part to trust a diSalvo—and that is a lesson I will never forget.’ His eyes glittered black when they met hers. ‘But I can rectify this, if you will only be reasonable.’
‘You dare ask me to be reasonable when you’ve just insulted my whole family? And me?’
‘You come from a family of thieves and bastards, Amelia.’
She stared at him; it felt as if he’d morphed into some kind of alien. It took her several seconds to be able to find her tongue and push it into service.
‘My God, get the hell out of this house,’ she demanded, the words only slightly shaky. ‘How dare you think I would give you anything? How can you speak of my family with such obvious disgust when you’ve literally come straight from my bed?’
‘Sleeping with you has nothing to do with why I’m here. I did not plan for that to happen, and it is not going to derail me from my course.’ His eyes narrowed warningly. ‘Nothing will, Amelia.’
The light in the house was so bright, and she could see him clearly now. His ruthless determination was a physical force in the room, a dark shape she would never be able to grapple with.
Her skin paled, her heart lurched. ‘You’re a real piece of work, aren’t you?’
He angled his head away from her and in profile his face was powerful, as if carved from stone, and a muscle jerked in his jaw, throbbing hard as he reined in his temper.
‘You have no interest in the shares I want.’
‘How do you know that?’ she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest.
He turned to face her, his eyes pinning her to the wall. Oh, God, just like the wall he’d held her against when he’d thrust inside her. Her heart gave a strange little double-beat as memories threatened to swallow her whole.
‘Since you inherited your stock portfolio, you have attended precisely zero board or shareholder meetings. You do not appear at corporate events...you do not have a bio on the website. You are absent in every way.’
‘So?’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Ever heard of a silent partner?’
‘It is not the same thing. You have holed yourself up here, as far as you can get from the seat of power in diSalvo Industries. You do not want to use your shares to control the company—’
‘And is that any wonder? When getting involved in my family’s business would mean running up against vultures like you?’
His nostrils flared as he expelled a rapid breath. ‘You think I am a vulture for wanting to take back what was stolen from me? Prim’Aqua is my birthright...’
‘As much as it is mine and Carlo’s,’ she interrupted firmly, her cheeks flushing pink. ‘You have as large a stake in the company as I do. And larger than my brother’s too. So what’s your problem?’
‘I do not want your family having any part of it,’ he said with icy simplicity. ‘Your grandfather stole it and I intend to take it back.’ He softened his voice slightly. ‘Only I am not stealing it. This is a business transaction, plain and simple. You have something I want and I’m prepared to pay you for it.’
‘You’re unbelievable. Do you realise that if you’d told me this when you first arrived I might have heard you out? But how can you think, after what just happened between us, you can lay all this at my feet and I won’t be angry?’
‘Because you’re a sensible, mature woman,’ he said. ‘And I believe you capable of seeing that business is separate to the personal.’
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