Page 31 of Brutal Heir

It had taken all my restraint not to shove her against a wall and fuck her there and then.

Her purity and innocence were remarkable. It tempted a man to corrupt her. To possess her. An uncut diamond in the rough.

I wanted to be the man to fashion and mold her, to bring out her beautiful facets until she shone so brightly that anyone who beheld her would go mad with envy.

It was a dangerous thought.

Going forward, I would have to be more cautious with her.

With my reaction to Sabrina under control, I brought Rafaello his drink, just as Arabella breezed in. Several staff members flanked her, their arms filled with shopping bags.

“Ciao, dear brothers.”

Rafaello sat forward to set his drink down. “Where have you been? I’ve been texting you.”

As she flung herself onto the sofa, she rolled her eyes in exasperation.

Then, after giving Rafaello a kiss on the cheek, she pulled off her heels and curled her legs under her. “I had to turn my phone off. Mother wouldn’t stop calling. She’s pissed as hell we didn’t hold the corporate jet for her.”

Unconcerned, I shrugged. “I warned her that Rafaello had an early morning meeting with that Geneva auction house over their latest diamond acquisition.”

Propped up on her knees to rest her arms on the back of the sofa, Arabella gazed at me. “Did you tell them my suggestion to cut it into an oval brilliant with the sixty-six facets like the Koh-i-noor, or are they still determined to cut it into an oval cushion like the Star of the South?”

“Star of the South.”

Her lower lip protruded. “Che noia! So wrong. I wish you had let me go to the meeting.”

I kissed her on the top of her head. “Not a chance. I needed you to represent the House of Diamanti at the Yves Saint Laurent show.”

The diamond business was a brutal game of power and greed.

My father, clinging to outdated ideas about business being a man's world, kept Arabella from participating.

My motives were different.

My brothers, Rafaello and Arcangelo, and I were fiercely protective of our little sister.

We didn’t want her exposed to the more unsavory, and frankly criminal, elements of the family business.

Unfortunately, that decision did not sit well with her.

It might be time to find her a husband. It was past time she focused on marriage and children.

Shifting the conversation, I asked her, “Did you want a spritz?”

She turned her back on me with a long, dramatic sigh. “I’ll take a Nero Chinato.”

I scanned the contents of the bar cabinet. “I don’t have any blackberries. How about a Bicicletta?”

She folded her arms over her chest. “Fine.”

After exchanging a knowing look with my brother, I grabbed the Campari and prepared her drink.

With her arms stretched up behind her, she twisted her hair into a messy bun. “Since you are both being boorish, now I don’t feel so bad letting you know Mother is ordering her own private plane now, just to spite you.”

Rafaello threw his head back and stared at the ceiling as he groaned. “Father will have a fit.”

After handing Arabella her drink, I joined them in the lounge area with my simple Negroni. “Relax, I put a flag on her corporate card. No purchases over a hundred thousand euros without my permission.”