Page 13 of Fiancée for the Cameras

Andrea had known they were both fond of her, but this possibility... A sick feeling twisted in his stomach. If his brother reallylikedMonica, when Andrea had just discovered such deep... It didn’t bear thinking. Out of the miasma of confusion, a selfish, primal, competitive want roared.

“Of Monica?” Mama said, an instant smile teasing her mouth. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if he were? She is such a lovely girl, Andrea, and she does make him laugh like before...the accident and that business with that girl.” His mother pursed her mouth and sighed. “I know Monica might be open to trying something but I also know it is not fair to her. His heart and mind are not yet in a good place.”

Andrea grunted. Everyone she came across, at work or in personal life, whether it lasted a day or a week or a moment, Monica seemed to win them over. He found it both infuriating and fascinating. “She just got dumped at city hall at the last minute, Mama. How are you so confident that she would welcome Romeo’s advances—” he had to inhale with a conscious effort “—whatever they might be?”

“All Monica wants is family and security and to belong somewhere, and she fits so well already into our family and we all like her, even you, and...”

Whatever she saw in his face, her words trailed off.

Andrea turned just in time to see her gaze widen, her mouth fall open with a soft gasp. As if she’d just seen a tiger setting its target on a doe.

Cristo, he was a thirty-four-year-old man. The last thing he needed was his mother to know he lusted after his very capable, very young, assistant and that it had him thrashing around like a randy teenager. Or that he wanted to act on it, forgetting all his own personal ethics. “Mama, do not—”

“She’s too...young, Andrea. And so pure at heart,” she finally said, a thread of outrage in her tone.

He laughed and pulled her close, loving her a little more for being so protective of the stranger in their midst. Though he wasn’t at all surprised. The Valentini name had always stood for ethics and sound business morals, and his father had made loyalty the highest badge of honor. His mother’s warning only reminded him of his father and all the values he had tried to instill in him and Romeo, beginning with the fact that power and privilege shackled a man as much as they liberated him.

“And now this...media scandal about that video...” his mother said, bringing him back to the present. “I demand to know what your plan is.”

“I have no plan, Mama. This has already blown up beyond my control.”

“So marry Chiara, bring Monica back to work for you and all this...speculation is over. You wanted a future with her once, Andrea.” She turned completely and studied him. Her voice softened as she cradled his cheek. Andrea marveled at how little she did that with him these days. All her softness and her maternal instincts were limited to Romeo.And Monica, hethought, without an ounce of rancor. “Chiara is sophisticated and smart and she will make you a good wife.”

“I am not the same man I was ten years ago.”

“Then it is good that she has matured, too, no?”

“It doesn’t look like that, given she’s letting her father trot her out like some show horse, attached to this merger. If there’s one thing I know, it is that Chiara wants power and prestige more than anything. I have nothing against her wishes for her life. But I will not play her games.”

His mother looked alarmed, as if she couldn’t imagine so much scheming. The simple soul she was, he wasn’t surprised. Still, she persisted, taking his hand in hers. “Is it simply wounded pride that she picked a different man over you a decade ago that drives you to say no now?”

“Pride has nothing to do with it. And believe me, I’m grateful that she didn’t accept my proposal then. Because now, I’m not that young, prideful buck who needed to prove himself by gaining the biggest prize around. Now, she or marriage...have very little appeal to me.”

It was both relieving and sad that his mother did not push him harder toward matrimony or hold the Valentini legacy over his head like some hanging sword. Maybe because she knew where his opposition came from. She had once known the real thing and the loss of it had nearly shattered them all. Once you were witness to something as holy and real as his parents’ marriage had been, it felt like blasphemy to enter one that was nothing but a mocking illusion of it. Neither did he think he was made for the real thing, even if it was available to him.

He had lived through enough pain such love wrought on one.

“She and her father are playing a dirty game, threatening to pull back from the merger at this critical point when so many livelihoods depend on its success. They need to learn that I will not bow.”

“So you will use Monica?”

“Use her? She’s not a doll, Mama, to arrange wherever you or I please. This situation was not of my making and if I twist it to my own advantage, it will be because there is no other choice left. I have my reputation and Valentini’s to protect.”

Before his mother could further lecture him, Andrea turned around toward the stairs. He had tried to stay away. He’d already had her moved to a different department, though that had only seemed to blow up in his face because Monica was the linchpin for so many matters that came through to him.

But the video circulating on the internet and the story that the media had already woven around it besmirched the Valentini name. The very name his father had given a new meaning to. Andrea could not let it continue. So he would take care of two birds with one shot.

CHAPTER FIVE

ONELOOK.ONEEXCHANGEbetween him and Romeo in which Andrea tried to keep his expression vacant—not completely successfully—was enough to know his brother’s heart. Conversely, Andrea had no doubt that Romeo now knew what was in his heart, too. Or to be precise, what was swimming like lazy wine in his blood a lot farther south of his heart.

“I was just asking Monica if she is the reason you have neglected us for three weeks,” Romeo said, grinning. “Quite the precedent you’re setting, Andrea.”

Standing by his brother, her gaze landing on and quickly skidding away from Andrea’s face, Monica looked like she wanted to run.

“I could be a gentleman like you,” Andrea said, unable to stop himself from ruffling Romeo’s hair, “and lie, but I’m not. Monica is indeed the reason I couldn’t visit. There’s a media scandal in the making with her in the middle of it and I have been trying my best to thwart it before it muddies the Valentini name beyond repair.”

Monica stiffened and finally, finally, met his gaze. “I called you several times since I found out two days ago, Mr. Valentini. You didn’t pick up.”

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