mention those tonight, thankfully.’
‘You were lucky, then.’ Mia’s breath came out in a surprised hiss as Alessandro took her elbow, his hand warm and dry and so very sure as he steered her towards another cluster of people. ‘Where…where are we going?’
‘To mingle, of course. That’s why we’re here. You’re going to introduce me to all these people, and then tell me their secrets.’
‘I thought I’d already done that this afternoon. Besides, I don’t know any secrets.’
‘I still need to put names to faces. And I think you know more secrets than you realise…always working behind the scenes, listening in the shadows.’
‘You make me sound like a snoop.’
‘No, someone who is smart.’ His gaze lingered on hers for a tantalising second as his hand had moved from her elbow to her waist, his fingers splayed across her hip. Heat flooded Mia’s body, and once again she was in danger of drifting along this lovely tide of feeling. ‘Mr Costa…’
‘You must call me Alessandro.’
‘You must stop acting like I’m your date.’ She knew she never would have said the words if she hadn’t had two glasses of champagne, and just chugged half of her third. If she wasn’t so afraid of how much he affected her.
‘Why? You are my date.’ He sounded utterly unruffled, like someone making a simple statement of fact.
‘No…’ Her breath came out in a rush. Her head spun. People were looking at them. Wondering. ‘I’m not. Not really…’
‘Yes, you are.’ They’d reached the group of people, and Alessandro kept his hand on her waist as he stretched out his other one. ‘Alessandro Costa, CEO of Dillard Investments.’ In turn, everyone shook his hand, with varying expressions of pleasure, speculation, or snobbery. It made Mia wonder yet again about Alessandro. What was he doing here, exactly? Why did he want her with him? Who was this man at her side? And how much did she want to know?
The chit-chat washed over her as she took in Alessandro’s easy, urbane manner. The man could be charming when he chose, a fact that alarmed her. If Alessandro Costa affected her when he was blunt and brusque, heaven help her when he was easy and affable.
She knew a few people in the group through Dillard’s, and somehow, her mind still spinning, she made chit-chat, introduced Alessandro to a few others, and stumbled through the evening, feeling as if she were acting a part in a play, desperate now to get to the end of the evening without embarrassing herself or losing her head entirely over the man at her side.
When they were alone again, and she was finishing her third glass of champagne, she rather recklessly asked him about it all.
‘I can make conversation, if that’s what you mean,’ he answered as he sipped his own champagne.
‘What do you want from these people?’ Mia asked, her tongue well and truly loosened by now. ‘Why did you buy Dillard Investments, really?’
A guarded look came over his face before he shrugged, the movement clearly meant to be dismissive. ‘Why do I buy any company?’
‘You tell me.’
The tiniest of pauses. ‘For financial gain.’
‘But you said yourself Dillard’s was operating at a loss.’
‘That doesn’t mean it always has to.’
‘Still…’ She shook her head slowly. ‘A man like you…’
‘A man like me?’ Alessandro’s voice sharpened. ‘What does that mean, exactly?’
‘Only that you must always have your eye on the bottom line.’
‘True.’ He eyed her thoughtfully. ‘So what did you learn about me, during that online cyberstalking session?’
Mia let out a choked laugh. ‘I was hardly stalking.’
‘Weren’t you?’
‘Gathering information. Big difference.’
‘Hmm.’ She felt dizzy with the turn in their conversation. It almost felt as if…as if they were flirting. But of course they couldn’t be. ‘So,’ Alessandro asked, stepping closer, ‘what did you learn about me, Mia?’
Alessandro hadn’t meant to ask the question. He surely didn’t mean to bother with the answer. He was curious despite his determination never to be curious about anyone. Curiosity implied caring, and he didn’t care. And yet… ‘Anything interesting?’ The words sounded provocative.
Mia licked her lips, her tongue looking very pink as she touched it to her full, lush lips, the instinctive movement causing a dart of desire to arrow through him, unsettling in its intensity. ‘Not really.’ Her gaze skittered away from his. ‘Not much.’
‘Tell me.’ His voice was low, the words a command, but with a thread of something dark and rich running through it, a promise he hadn’t meant to make. Mia turned to look at him, her eyes widening, looking very blue and clear. Eyes he could drown in if he let himself. He stepped closer. ‘Tell me,’ he said again.
‘Well…’ Again her tongue touched her lips. ‘You have a reputation for being ruthless. You take over companies, strip them of their assets, and fire about ninety percent of the staff before absorbing the company into Costa International.’
That was the gist without being entirely true, but Alessandro wasn’t about to defend his actions. They spoke for themselves.
‘Are you going to do that with Dillard’s?’ Her chin lifted a little. ‘Fire everyone? Get rid of it all?’
He eyed her for a moment, considering what to tell her. For some contrary reason he didn’t like the thought of her thinking badly of him, which was ridiculous, because he’d been thought of far worse by the furious CEOs he’d displaced.
‘I’m not going to fire everyone,’ he said at last. ‘I never do.’
‘Ninety percent, then.’
‘Your percentages are a bit off.’
‘Do you enjoy it?’ she asked, her voice choking. ‘Ruining people’s lives?’
He stared at her for a moment, fighting the urge to explain the truth of his mission. But, no. He was not going to justify himself to her. He was certainly not going to care about her opinion. ‘Does it seem as if I do?’ he asked, meaning to sound dismissive.
Slowly she shook her head. ‘You don’t actually seem cruel.’
‘No?’ He tried to keep his voice disinterested.
‘The media portrayed you as a bit of a cowboy…someone who came from nowhere and had a meteoric rise. Not entirely respectable, but not cruel.’
‘Well, they were wrong,’ Alessandro said lightly, even though her words were like razors on his skin. ‘I’m not at all respectable.’
‘Is that why you took Dillard’s over? To seem respectable?’
The question grated. As if he wanted to don Dillard’s shabby suit and call himself a gentleman. ‘Not at all. I don’t care one iota if I seem respectable or not.’
‘Then why bother with them? Where is the profit?’
‘In the clients I keep.’ Although Alessandro suspected there would be little profit indeed. Profit was not why he did what he did, at least not in regard to companies such as Dillard’s.
‘And what about all the employees? Innocent people…don’t you care about them?’
More than she