Never Dare a Tycoon (4 page)

Looking at the clock as she peered out from the covers, she shook her head in frustration. “Why am I always rushing to family gatherings?” she asked herself and threw the covers back, running to the bathroom to shower and change.

Fifteen minutes later, she was dressed in a sunny yellow dress with a soft, buttercup-yellow cardigan. She pulled her black, curly hair into a tight chignon, forcing the stray curls to calm down, then pinned it with a matching yellow clip. Antonia quickly put on some mascara and a dab of lipstick. Then she hurried down the street to the bus stop that would take her to the apartment building where all her brothers believed she lived.

She stepped off the bus and had only a moment before Michael’s car pulled up along the curb next to her.

 

“Antonia, you don’t have to wait out here. I can pick you up at your building if you’d just tell me where it is,” Michael called out the open window.

Michael was the daredevil of the family. He liked mountain climbing, sky diving, hang gliding – anything that would give him a thrill. So it was odd that he had chosen to go into computers, a very non-dangerous profession. But he was a genius when it came to programming. Sal had made him head of IT, computer technology, the section of ATI that developed software programs for various clients, commercial and government. Since taking over, Michael had grown the business to twice its original size. His love of taking risks had followed him and he’d combined his incredible programming prowess with his risk taking nature and it had paid off enormously.

Antonia smiled at her brother, wondering how much he knew about Sal’s recent discoveries. Probably everything, she guessed. “I don’t mind. It gets my blood going,” she joked, ignoring his reference to her mystery apartment. “You know how hard mornings are for me,” she said. Antonia got into the passenger seat of his blue Mercedes, smiling as cheerfully as possible to her brother. But her usual spark wasn’t there, and Michael noticed immediately.

“What’s wrong?” Michael asked as soon as she closed the door.

 

“Nothing. Why do you ask?” she said, pulling the yellow sweater over her arms.

 

“You look tired. Did you sleep well last night?”

 

Not wanting to reveal that anything was amiss between her and Sal unless he’d already told them, Antonia simply nodded her head in the affirmative. “Why?”

Michael wasn’t the most diplomatic man on earth. “Because you look awful. You have dark circles under your eyes and you’re wearing that dress.” He said, then concentrated on merging into the traffic that would take them to Sal’s house.

“What’s wrong with this dress?” Antonia asked, looking down at it. It wasn’t her style exactly, but none of the clothes she wore around her brothers were. “It makes you look like you’re about to throw up,” he said, none too gently.

Antonia couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing. Only a brother would be that honest, she told herself. Goodness, she loved them all. Why did they have to be so smothering? “But you gave me this dress for my birthday last year,” she said.

Michael nodded. “Yeah, I know. The salesperson warned me that not many women could wear that shade of yellow. But I ignored her because I liked it and thought you would look nice in it. You probably would if you didn’t’ have those circles under your eyes.”

Looking out the window, she smiled. “I think it’s a nice color.”

 

Michael didn’t say anything else. They drove in silence the rest of the way.

The Attracelli home wasn’t just a house. It was a mansion. A huge, gothic mansion with seventeen bedrooms, a kitchen that a catering company would envy, an Olympic-sized swimming pool and a maze of hedges among acres of gardens maintained in memory of Antonia’s father who loved a lush variety of flowers.

Inside, there was a ballroom, mostly used to chase siblings, and now cousins, a library stacked floor to ceiling with books, a sauna, gym, solarium and hot tub. Growing up in this house, Antonia knew what privilege was like.

The family finally drove off to church, then filed in, one at a time, taking a seat in the chosen pew. No matter how much teasing went on during the ride to church, they all knew that church was a quiet time. Everyone sat down, taking up a whole pew. Antonia made sure she sat between two of her aunts so she could avoid the inquiring glances from her brothers during the sermon. She wasn’t prepared to deal with them right now.

Antonia didn’t hear anything during the service. She barely remembered singing hymns. But as they filed out, she greeted the priest with Sal right behind her, telling him that it had been a wonderful sermon.

After church, the whole family gathered for lunch. The women, all except for Antonia, made lunch. Sometimes it was simple food, like sandwiches. But today, since the temperature was almost seventy degrees, everyone agreed to have a barbecue outside on the flagstone patio. Antonia was in the kitchen with the rest of the women instead of on the lawn or patio playing with her aunts’ kids or talking with her brothers.

She didn’t want to admit it, but she was hiding from her brothers. All of them. She knew Sal had told them the whole situation. She’d received too many looks from each of them for her to delude herself into believing they didn’t know. So while Sal was in his study with a guest, she hid in the kitchen, hoping against hope that she’d be able to avoid a confrontation today.

That was as far as her plan went until Sal came out of his study, accompanied by the man who’d occupied her dreams and driven her crazy with thoughts of his kiss for the past two nights.

“Ladies,” Sal announced, stepping into the kitchen, “I’d like to introduce you to Brett Hancock. He stopped by to get some papers signed. I was hoping there might be enough food so I could invite him to stay for lunch.”

Antonia had turned around with a smile on her face, ready to greet the person he was introducing. But when she caught sight of the tall, broad shouldered man standing next to her brother, she immediately turned back to her onion and chopped harder, hoping he wouldn’t see her amid the chaos of the food preparations.

Antonia gritted her teeth as all her aunts and cousins laughed at Sal’s joke. There was always enough food to feed an army at any Sunday afternoon lunch in the Attracelli household. One more wouldn’t make a dent.

Antonia’s Aunt Marsha was the one who spoke up. “Brett, you’re more than welcome as long as you can get the knife out of Antonia’s hand so she will stop mutilating that onion. It’s already been punished enough for its sins, whatever they were. It doesn’t need to be turned into pulp.”

Antonia turned beet red as four women laughed at Antonia’s attempt at chopping an onion.

“Why don’t you do us a favor,” Jennifer, a cousin of Antonia said to Brett. “Have Antonia show you around the house and gardens. It’s nothing compared to what it will be like in a month or so when the weather becomes warmer, but the solarium might be nice right about now. I think Sal’s been working on it,” she said, noticing Antonia’s shocked expression but not understanding its meaning.

“Ladies, I accept your challenge,” Brett said. He walked over to Antonia, towering over her as he laid a hand on her forearm that instantly stopped all movement, including Antonia’s heart beat. But as he slid his hand sensuously down her forearm, cradling her hand as he took the knife and set it on the counter next to the once proud onion, Antonia’s heart started back up. Triple time.

Putting a hand in the small of her back, Brett guided her out of the kitchen.

 

“Good luck,” Marsha said, amid five stunned stares. As soon as they were out of the house, Antonia turned to him. “How
could
you do that to me?”

 

Brett chuckled. “What did I do to you?” he asked. “Reveal to you how much you wanted me to touch you? Just like I wanted to touch you?”

 

Antonia’s mouth dropped open. Turning away from his smiling face, she snapped, “Boy, you have a high opinion of yourself.”

Brett just threw back his head and laughed, drawing the attention of Carlos, Michael and Giuseppe who were standing on the patio, examining the grill’s flames, each with a beer in his hand. “Would you like me to demonstrate just how much I know you’d like me to touch you?” he said once his laughter had died down. They were moving down the steps from the patio to the lawn, thankfully out of hearing from her brothers.

Antonia couldn’t believe her ears and stopped walking so she could face him. “What?” she whispered, staring up at his handsome face.

“Shall I kiss you again?” he asked again, looking down at her, as he watched her lick her lower lip. “I don’t mind demonstrating, as long as I’m making a point,” Brett said, moving forward as if he were going to do just that.

“Don’t you dare!” she gasped. She turned then and headed for the pool hoping to put a little distance between the two of them. He was too powerfully attractive for her peace of mind.

Concentrating, she refused to look at him as she said, “I’m supposed to show you the grounds. Here’s the pool,” she waved a hand in the direction of the covered pool then headed for the garden beyond. As soon as she reached it, she waved a hand towards the still sleeping plants. “This is the garden,” she said without any enthusiasm and kept walking.

It wasn’t until they came to the hedge maze that Antonia realized how far away from the house they’d gotten. She immediately turned back, but Brett realized the same thing at the same time. Instead of moving back towards the house, he put an arm out and grabbed her by the waist, then almost lifted her back into the relative isolation of the hedge. Antonia couldn’t do anything but gasp as his muscular forearm wrapped around her waist, setting her down a foot away from his massive chest.

“Why are you afraid of me?” he asked, bending down so he could smell her hair and the soft scent of her perfume.

Antonia tried to think of some witty remark to put him in his place, but her mind was blank. He was so close, she could feel the heat of him through the thin layers of her dress and sweater. “I’m not,” she finally said although the words were strangled.

Brett shook his head, falling under the spell of her soft, brown eyes, which were wide with the fear that he might kiss her. “Yes, you are. Why?”

Antonia couldn’t take this today. She tried to turn away, but he was still there. And she could feel her body leaning towards him but she couldn’t stop herself. “I don’t know,” she finally said, closing her eyes and shaking her head slightly.

Brett nodded his head. “I don’t understand it either,” he said, moments before his mouth crushed hers in a passionate kiss that stole her breath away.

Antonia didn’t know why, but her arms reached up to encircle his neck, her hands delving into his thick, blond hair. She knew that her body was aching for his touch, that it arched closer, desperate to feel him along the length of her.

It was several minutes before Antonia realized that the bell had rung, indicating that lunch was ready. But she jumped away from Brett when she heard small voices giggling off to her left.

“Aunt Tony?” Daniel, her cousin’s son whispered, a huge grin on his face as he peered around the soft green leaves of the hedge.

 

Antonia didn’t trust her voice yet. So she turned to him with raised eyebrows, asking him without words what his question was.

 

“Uncle Sal told us to find you and Mr. Hancock. Lunch is ready,” he said, still whispering.

Antonia nodded with as much dignity as possible and watched in despair as three children ran away, giggling louder as they reached their parents. “She’s kissing him,” she heard one little voice yell, but couldn’t identify who the tiny traitor was.

Brett’s deep chuckle brought her out of her reverie. “Not very good about keeping a secret, are they,” he said.

 

Antonia couldn’t help but laugh as well. “Not really,” she replied. “I guess we should get out of here before they believe them.”

Brett didn’t reply, but he took in the rosy color in her cheeks, her swollen lips, and the comb that had fallen out of her hair when his hands dislodged it. He knew that with one look at Antonia, everyone on the patio would believe the boy. Instead, he picked the comb up off the ground and handed it to her.

Antonia took it with shaking hands and tried as hard as possible to replace her style. “Is it straight?” she asked, turning back to Brett.

 

He was silent for a moment. Then he replied, “You’re beautiful.”

Antonia smiled weakly, more flattered than she wanted to be. What was she doing? Kissing out here in the middle of a maze of hedges wouldn’t help her case with her brothers much. And she knew the “talk” was coming.

Brett and Antonia walked silently back to the patio where tables had been set up with linen and flowers. Antonia never understood how her aunts and cousins could make even a barbecue look elegant. Wasn’t mustard supposed to be falling down everyone’s hands, beer being consumed, children running around everywhere?

Not here. All the kids were sitting down at a table together; a plate with either a hamburger or hotdog on it was placed in front of each one. There was a huge bowl of chips placed in the center, and each child dug into the bowl to grab his or her own chips.

Somehow, it just wasn’t natural, the way this family worked, Antonia thought to herself as she accepted a glass of white wine from Marsha.

Picking up a plate, she got a hamburger and a bun then sat down at one of the tables. She knew she should be a good hostess to Brett, but now that everyone knew they’d been kissing in the maze, she couldn’t look him in the eye. She was grateful to Jennifer and Belinda, her cousins who sat down across and beside her.

She was just about to take a sip of her wine when a strong, dark hand took it away from her. A beer, opened already, was placed in front of her instead. Antonia turned around and watched Brett put the glass of white wine back on the table that held the other drinks. He then headed over to the grill and accepted a huge hamburger from Michael.

When Antonia turned back to her food, she noticed three stunned faces. Jennifer, Marsha and Belinda were staring at her, their mouths literally hanging open in confusion.

“We had a drink Friday afternoon,” Antonia explained how Brett knew she liked beer instead of wine.