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“You are a fine one to talk about family businesses,” she said, her face filling with color.
It was a nicely placed jibe. Dead wrong, but she had no way of knowing that and Nick had no interest in pointing it out. She thought he was a famiglia heavy? Let her think it. Hell, he wanted her to think it. There was a sweet pleasure in a woman like this believing she was on the receiving end of help from the man she believed him to be.
“The bottom line,” he said, “is that you need my money. I’d bet my last dollar your father will be more than happy to remind you of that.”
“I need nothing from a man such as you!”
“Five hundred years of royal living, gone in the blink of an eye?”
“Do you think that matters to me?”
“I think it matters enough so that you were willing to show up today to greet a commoner.”
“You’re wrong, Mr. Orsini. I only, as you put it, showed up today because—because—”
She blinked. Nick could almost see her processing what was happening. She’d been sent to greet him. She was the prince’s reception committee. She was an Antoninni, unaccustomed to dealing with the peasants, but she didn’t have the power to get rid of him.
No wonder she was staring at him as if she’d just remembered something she’d all but forgotten.
He was sure he knew what that “something” was.
The princess had been flexing muscle she didn’t have. She had no power. To all intents, she might as well have been a chauffeur, sent to meet the plane of the visiting banker.
“What’s the problem?” Nick smiled thinly. “Thinking twice about telling me to leave?” When she didn’t answer, he took his cell phone from his pocket and offered it to her. “Here. Call Daddy. See what he says about sending me home.”
Alessia looked at the sleek bit of plastic as if it might bite her. Then she looked at the man holding it toward her. Bastardo insolente!
He knew damned well she wasn’t about to make that call. He just didn’t know why.
Mama, she thought, Mama, how could I have forgotten you?
For a few moments, anger at this horrible man had blinded her to reality. Now, it was back. She’d made a bargain with the devil. If she wanted her mother to remain in the sanatorio, she could not get rid of Nicolo Orsini. She had to deal with him, no matter what.
He was vile.
His macho arrogance. His brutal occupation, if you could call being a hoodlum an occupation. And that kiss, the assumption that he was irresistible, that the male domination of his world extended to hers…
Vile was not a strong enough word.
It didn’t matter.
She was stuck with him. He was her problem, and she knew how to handle that. Problems were her specialty. Let her father think that the public relations business was nothing but an excuse for protecting people with too much money and ego. Perhaps that was a reflection of what he knew of Rome and Romans.
That was not her world.
Alessia had put endless days, weeks and months into learning how to deal with the people her firm represented.
Having a royal title helped, though she loathed the idea that titles should exist at all in today’s complex world. The rest? Damned hard work.
Preventing clients from making asses of themselves was part of what she did. Cleaning up after they’d done so anyway was another part, as was making sure they did what they were supposed to do without veering from an accepted plan.
Some clients were pleasant, talented people. Some were not. And still some, admittedly a small percentage, thought that money and power and, often,
good looks made them gods.
There was no question as to which category Nicolo Orsini belonged, nor was there any question that she could handle him. The truth was, given the circumstances, she had no choice.
“A problem, princess? Have you forgotten Daddy’s phone number?”
