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As though she’d heard him, the object of his thoughts met his gaze across the sea of guests. Almost in slow motion, she raised her champagne glass in a toast, an unmistakable smirk on her full lips.
Schooling his own expression to one of mild interest, he raised his own in response and began to move slowly across the deck towards her. He could see her eyes shifting towards him at regular intervals as he got closer, her hand moving first to push an errant curl behind her ear, then to touch the delicate necklace at her throat.
He noticed that she had trapped her ebony curls high on her head, only letting a few hang free. It was impossible not to see how the style accentuated the long, bare expanse of her neck and shoulders, but likely that had been her aim. She was a confident woman—surely she knew how her appearance captivated the crowd around her.
He didn’t know much about fashion, but he knew that she had chosen perfectly in the emerald-green concoction encasing her curves. He felt his throat turn dry as the shimmering material moved, revealing a modest slit up to the smooth skin of one thigh. Reflexively, he forced his gaze back to her face. She seemed to sparkle in the light as she moved away from the small crowd around her, taking a few steps in his direction to close the final gap between them.
‘My compliments on your stellar work today, Mr CEO,’ she said tightly, her charming smile still firmly in place as she waved politely at a couple of guests who passed them.
‘I assumed you wouldn’t mind my input on this event’s inadequate guest list, seeing as you were so eager to have me back.’ He fought the urge to smirk as her eyes sparked fire at him.
She took a delicate sip of her champagne, giving him an icy glare over the rim. ‘If you had given me your input before making your sweeping changes, you might have found out that there was a strategic, brand-specific reason for my tiny guest list.’
‘If you’d answered any of my calls today, maybe I could have done that.’
‘Well, maybe I was too busy recovering from your ridiculous...proposal.’ She lowered her voice to a hiss, her eyes darting around as she uttered the last word as though it were some kind of demonic chant.
Valerio couldn’t help it then—he chuckled under his breath. There was absolutely nothing funny about any part of their situation, but some long-buried part of him was really enjoying this verbal sparring.
It had always been like this between them—from the first time they’d met as teenagers, when she’d come to watch Duarte in a sailing competition at their all-boys boarding school. Even when she’d joined Velamar he’d used to start fights with her at events just to draw out this...fire. At one point he’d started to wonder if she was avoiding him, and that had only made him try harder to provoke her—before Duarte had mistaken his playful jabs at her as interest and moved the entire PR and marketing division to their London offices. He’d said it wasn’t because of that, but Valerio had known better.
The terse silence between them was broken by the arrival of a wide-smiling Tristan Falco at Dani’s elbow. ‘Marchesi, you seem to have forgotten my invitation tonight. Luckily your partner was in need of a fine male escort.’
‘I wasn’t aware that you were in town.’ Valerio extended his hand to the other man, not missing the way Dani’s eyes widened with surprise. ‘I’ve never had the chance to thank you since the last time we spoke.’
A serious look came across the other man’s features. ‘It was nothing. I hope you took my advice.’
Valerio exhaled on a sigh, reflexively crossing his arms over his chest as he nodded brusquely. ‘I did
.’
‘Am I missing something here?’
Dani’s voice was hard as stone between them. Her hand was on her hip, her eyes narrowed as she looked from one man to the other. Tristan was the first to speak, sliding his arm over her shoulders and pulling her in close.
‘It’s a private matter between us guys.’ He smiled in his trademark way. ‘I met up with Marchesi a couple months back while I was in Rio.’
‘Rio?’ Dani fired that amber gaze Valerio’s way briefly, then turned back and fluttered her lashes up at Tristan. ‘How lovely. What did you guys get up to in lovely Rio?’
Valerio tensed, hoping Falco would have the good sense to stop talking. Despite his invaluable help, the man was still a thorn in his side. Even looking at him now, with his big meaty arm slung over Dani’s shoulders, it made him want to throw a punch in his pretty-boy face and launch him bodily off the yacht.
After a long, painful silence it seemed Dani had realised that neither of them planned to elaborate further on the matter. But she didn’t fire off another smart retort. Instead Valerio watched as a brief glimmer of hurt flashed in her eyes. Her lips thinned for a moment and she made a big display of looking around the party. Then she smiled—a glorious movement of red-painted lips and perfect teeth that seemed to hit him squarely in the chest.
‘Excuse me, gentlemen... Some of us have work to do tonight.’
Valerio was powerless to do anything but watch as she retreated in the direction of the bar, stopping here and there to greet her guests cheerfully, as though nothing had happened at all. He cleared his throat, turning back to see Falco pointedly raising one eyebrow.
‘Why do I feel like I’m interrupting something?’ the other man drawled.
‘Just a professional disagreement.’ Valerio cleared his throat and took a long sip from his glass. ‘None of your concern. Also, she’s off-limits to you.’
‘Professional?’ Tristan Falco laughed. ‘Right...and that’s why you looked like you wanted to throw me overboard when you saw her with me.’
‘There’s still time if you don’t stop talking,’ Valerio said, gritting his teeth.
Falco raised both hands in mock surrender, leaning back against the wall to survey the crowd in his usual calculated way.
Valerio tried to ignore the pang of guilt in his gut. He hadn’t wanted Dani to find out that he’d been back to Brazil at all. And he certainly hadn’t wanted her to find out like that.
