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“I am aware,” he said, looking back at the computer screen and typing in a few things.
“Are you looking for an appointment? Because I don’t think I have one.”
“No, I’m sending an email, just a second.”
She huffed out a short breath. “I’m just going to go in.”
“They’re locked.”
She didn’t turn and look at him again, she just walked on down another corridor, until she got to two, dark wood doors, carved in a similar fashion to the reception desk. “What does he think this is? The Sistine Chapel?” she muttered as she approached the doors and pushed on the door handles. They didn’t budge. Stupid Ferro.
She knocked, hard.
“Yes?”
“It’s your dream date, Calvaresi, open up.”
She heard his heavy footsteps crossing the office, then both doors swung open. “Did Jerry give you a hard time?”
“Is that his name? Yeah, he treated me like the enemy at the gate.”
“Well, he must not have seen the news this morning. Or he did and he’s afraid you’re trying to seduce secrets out of me.”
“Me? Seduce secrets out of you?”
“You are very much the Femme Fatale, especially with all the black.”
She looked down at her skinny jeans and tight top. “Yeah, all set for corporate espionage. Can I come in?”
He stood to the side and she brushed past him and into his office. It was as opulent and overdone as the rest of the building with marble and wood trim, art pieces and vases. And in here there was even a very plush, very busy oriental rug.
No one could accuse Ferro of minimalism.
She took a seat in one of the leather, wingback chairs in front of his desk. “So what was so important that I had to come across town before I finished my coffee?” She held her mug aloft. “So I could talk to you?”
“Did you see the news?”
“Been busy.” She’d been avoiding it. After the explosion that had happened after their first public outing she’d been genuinely terrified of what might be in the paper today. And she really, really didn’t want to see pictures of them making out. She really didn’t.
“Then let me enlighten you.” He smiled and picked up a tablet device from his desk. He touched a news app and it opened, giving headline after headline, from tech blogs, to traditional news publications, about Julia Anderson and Ferro Calvaresi’s scorching affair.
Heat pricked her face when she saw the photos. Each article had more than one of them, revealing, sexual. And the look on her face was much too sincere. There she was, pressed against the wall, her arms twined around Ferro’s neck, their lips fused together. She had to admit, they made a pretty hot couple. She actually looked okay with him, not completely out of place.
“Well. Wow,” she managed after a few minutes.
“And that’s not the best part,” he said.
“Oh. Yay.”
“The talk in the online forums, and on the tech blogs, isn’t as negative as it was yesterday. There’s some buzz that there may be a big merger coming. They’re already speculating about what the love child, so to speak, between Anfalas and Datasphere would look like.”
“But there isn’t.”
“Barrows will be the love child. That navigation system. And we’ll have the prebuzz. Can you imagine it? Can you imagine how desirable this product is going to be by the time it hits? This is better than we could have imagined.”
It didn’t feel better, it felt… It was making her dizzy. “You do know how to spread a rumor, don’t you?”
“Not just me. And in the age of media run by the masses things can spread at unbelievable speed. Even if they’re half-truths and speculation, people take them as gospel. And once it’s out there like this…eradicating it isn’t possible. All you can do is skew it to work in your favor.”
“You’re a master there, aren’t you?” She thought of that biography. Of all the secrets it had spilled. She wondered if any of it was true.
It seemed too fantastic to be real, honestly. She didn’t see how it could be true. A boy from the streets of Rome, barely scraping by, started making murky connections, dating wealthy women, manipulating them for their money. Then saving, investing, starting up a company and becoming one of the richest, most powerful men in the world.
