Page 135 of Tempting All The Way

“Mr Miller, I have a Mr and Mrs Valentino here for you.” My secretary sticks her head in, announcing their arrival.

“Thanks, Tracey. Send them in.” I stand, buttoning my jacket as the two Valentinos enter the conference room. I thought I’d seen arrogance before, but this Matteo Valentino takes that look to a whole new level. I school my features and hold out my hand. “Nathan Miller. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

For a moment, I think he’s not going to return the gesture as he sizes me up. “Matteo Valentino. And this is my wife, Savannah,” he says before taking my palm in his.

“It’s nice to meet you, Savannah,” I say, shaking her hand as well. Which, judging by the growl that emanates from the man beside her, wasn’t something her husband approved of. “Please have a seat.”

“Dominic, Lucy. How are you?” Matteo asks as he pulls out a chair for his wife before taking his own.

“Good, I’m excited,” Lucy says.

“How was the flight?” Dom asks.

“Fucking long,” Matteo answers.

“Right, let’s get started, shall we? I’ve gone over the contract, added changes, which you’ll see are tabbed.” I hand each party a copy of the document.

The room is silent as everyone reads through the paperwork. I see Matteo’s lips curl when he picks up on the one major change I made. It was well hidden—the clause basically stated the entire agreement could be terminated by the Valentinos at any time with all profits, ownership of designs, materials, and so on reverting solely to them. In other words, Lucy could do all the hard work of setting up, making the business successful here in Australia, and they could swipe it out from under her, leaving Lucy with no legal recourse to stop them.

Matteo looks up at me. I’m not sure if he’s trying to intimidate me into backing down from the change I made, whichreally just deletes that whole clause. If that’s the case, it’s not going to work. I don’t care who he is. I will not let Lucy be taken advantage of.

“Is there a problem?” I ask.

“Nope, just wondering how you managed to pick that up. I must admit this is a first.”

“I’m good at what I do.” I shrug.

“Hold up… What are you talking about?” Dom asks, flipping through the pages.

“Yourfriends,” I say, emphasising the last word, “added a clause that would leave Lucy with nothing if and when they decided they wanted to end the arrangement.”

The expression on Dom’s face morphs into something feral. I knew the kid was one step away from the asylum, but this look takes him five more past the door.

“You tried to fucking rip her off?” he growls, pushing to his feet with his palms spread out on the table. Before I know what’s happening, Dom and Matteo both have a gun pointed at each other. And all I can think isthank fuckI fogged over the glass.

“If you’re as smart as I’m told you are, you’ll drop the gun, Dominic.”

“If you were as smart as I thought you were, you wouldn’t have tried to rip off my fucking girlfriend,” Dominic growls.

“It’s business,” Matteo says with a shrug.

“Yeah, funny you say that, because I’m in the farming business. And you know what we have in the farming business, Valentino? Pigs… heaps of hungry fucking pigs.”

“Okay, stop. Put the damn guns down now! Both of you. We all know neither of you are going to fucking shoot. Matteo, we don’t kill family.” Savannah stands to move in front of Matteo.

“Savannah, get the fuck out of the way. Don’t put yourself in front of a gun,” he hisses at her.

“Please, he’s not going to shoot me. Are you going to shoot me, Dominic?” Savannah turns and asks him.

“No, but your husband? Yeah, I just might,” Dom answers.

“No, you’re not,” Savannah hisses. “Fine. I didn’t want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice.” She sighs as she pulls out her phone.

“Who are you calling?” Matteo asks her.

She smiles wide and puts the call on speaker. “Aunt Reilly.”

Both Dominic and Matteo groan at the mention of the name.

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