Page 34 of Business Temptations

Her hands gently cupped his face. “Not temporary,” she asserted firmly. “I’m not going anywhere.” Her thumb stroked his cheek. “If you want to ignore last night, that’s one thing. But I don’t. I like where this is going. But we both need to agree.”

“I agree,” he told her firmly. “I want this to work between us.” He turned his head, capturing one of her fingers. She gasped and he chuckled at her reaction. When he looked at her, he said, “Will you wait up for me tonight?”

“Yes,” she promised and kissed him sweetly.

“Good!”

With a sigh, she stood up and left the office. At the doorway, she paused, one hand resting on the open door. “But I want to hear about absolutely everything that happens. Understood?”

He nodded, his eyes moving over her figure. “I will tell you everything.”

Chapter 8

Matteo walked into the club and headed straight for the administrative offices. He found Emily, the club manager, in the hallway. “Is everything ready?” he asked.

“Everything is set up and ready. I have Maggie, Ann, and Melanie on the schedule tonight. They are my best wait staff and know exactly what to do.”

Matteo nodded. “That’s perfect. Thank you. And they know to–”

“They will hover around your father until they hear something important,” she assured him.

“Good,” he replied with a nod.

“Do you want us to refresh his drink often?”

Matteo considered that for a moment. “Sometimes, people reveal more when they are sober, thinking that the other person is drunk and they could gain more concessions that way.”

Emily grinned. Most of the club members assumed Emily was a member of the wait staff instead of the club manager, simply because she was a woman. Whenever there was a lapse in staffing, Emily jumped in and helped out, even with the wait service, which helped encourage their assumptions. Emily never clarified her role as the club manager, preferring to allow them to assume she was simply a staff member.

The members also knew that Levi, Matteo, and Sean were the owners. And since one or more of them were usually around the club to help out with the running of the daily activities, as well as overseeing the members, any complaints came directly to them, even though it was Emily who resolved ninety-nine percent of the issues.

“I’ve got my team ready to listen in and we’ll gauge their conversations to determine if we should fill up their drinks or hold back,” Emily offered.

Matteo nodded. “That sounds perfect. Gracias.”

“Sure thing!” she replied and turned on her heel, walking down the hallway to her office and then to the staff break room to brief the team members.

It was peaceful here at the moment. There were a few club members ensconced in the reading room, perusing the latest newspapers. The club still subscribed to the paper versions of the various news outlets since so many of the members preferred to read actual papers instead of getting their news online. Expensive, French brandy, private label wine, beer and scotch was being consumed while the members relaxed in deep, leather chairs. The food and alcohol were flowing, although at a slower rate than what would be imbibed later in the evening.

Matteo walked through the gambling tables and into the billiards room. There were four billiards tables set up. If one looked out through the windows, green pastures and tall, stately trees shimmered in the late evening sunshine. There were horses grazing in the fields to the right, but the horses weren’t for riding. They were rescue horses that Emily had found at auctions and had convinced Levi, Sean, and Matteo to purchase and allow them to roam in the pastures that weren’t being used for anything else.

Emily’s heart was rather soft, Matteo thought. But she was amazing at managing the club. What used to be an almost defunct club for members who liked to spend their afternoons and evenings gambling and sexually harassing, sometimes even assaulting, the club staff members, had been transformed into a smoothly operating business that brought in enormous profits from the member dues, which had quadrupled since Levi had inherited the place.

Matteo was proud of the club now. It had been such a dump when the three of them had first decided to transform it. Levi had wanted to renovate the club simply to snub his obnoxious, entitled half-brothers. Their father had built up a sporting goods empire with retail stores all over the United States and Canada. But after their father passed away, the legitimate brothers had run the business right into the ground. Their business had gone into receivership last year and the brothers were still trying to get Levi to bail them out, or just to let them become club members so that they could pressure the other members, most of whom were chief executive officers for some of the largest companies around the world, as well as leaders of various countries. But Levi refused to let his half-brothers enter the club. The brothers had even taken Levi to court, saying that he was illegitimate and, therefore, unworthy of inheriting anything from their father. However, their emails and comments after their father’s passing, all witnessed by others, had been presented to the judge. The brothers had ridiculed Levi for his inheritance, saying in front of witnesses that the club was Levi’s “punishment” for being illegitimate.

The judge had sided with Levi and tossed the lawsuit out of court. Now the brothers were throwing money at additional bad investments, trying to weasel their way back into power.

It wouldn’t happen. Levi’s machinations ensured that his half-brothers never had a chance. Just as the half-brothers had constantly put obstacles in his path years earlier. Karma could really be a bitch, Matteo thought.

Sean had faced similar struggles with his father, who resided in Ireland as the Earl of something or other. Recently, a troubling issue arose, involving sex trafficking, which Sean's father and half-brother had become involved in after their Irish factory closed down. Prior to their involvement in human trafficking, the only viable business remaining for the Irish earl had been a small village pub and a brewery that supplied several pubs in the vicinity.

Whenever Sean's father attempted to acquire a brewing company in the United States, Sean intervened and purchased the company before his father could seize it. Little did Sean know that these breweries would become a front for the earl's human trafficking operation. With each thwarted distribution effort, the earl sank further into debt to the ruthless individuals running the trafficking ring.

Everything fell apart when Sean acquired a brewery in Georgia. That marked the breaking point for the earl's endeavors.

Sean and Levi were now free from the machinations of their fathers and brothers. Would Matteo be through with his father and brother’s efforts after tonight? Would he get enough evidence to toss Ricardo out of the United States? Or would the man still attempt to pressure Matteo into moving his company to Spain?

Matteo worked out a plan in his mind, just in case this wasn’t the end. He knew several contacts within the Spanish government that could help him. He just needed to keep his father busy, his focus on something other than Matteo taking over and fixing whatever mess Ricardo had created.

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