Skin (2 page)

“Do I muster up?”

She gave in to a rare smile. Crossing her arms over her chest, Frankie slowly walked around him. “Very nice glutes.” He did have a fine ass. Smooth, muscular cheeks screamed for her hand to test their hardness.

“How’d you get the scars on your chest?”

“Old girlfriend. Really sharp nails.”

“Are you Italian?”

“I am if you want some Italian in you.”

Frankie gasped. “For someone who’s looking for work, you sure are cocky.” She snorted. “Pun intended.”

She grabbed a digital camera off her desk, focused, and began clicking. As she worked her way back to the most excellent front view of this man, she knew even though she had more to interview, this was
the man
to launch her magazine into the ranks of
Playgirl.
He was perfect. He had an edge to his features that inspired women to want to tame him. His tan skin and deep-set crystal-blue eyes contrasted, giving him the predatory look of a lone wolf. A faint, thin scar ran behind his right ear down his throat, stopping just above his collarbone, giving him an air of danger. She needed to capture that danger on film and sell it to delirious women across the country. Her smile widened behind the camera.

His body spoke for itself. She could see the handwriting on the wall. The entire staff would want to be in on his photo sessions. An idea sparked. They’d go with location shots. A day in the life of Mr. Skin. She quickly warmed to the idea, then scowled. Time was limited and his agent wanted top dollar — she was short on both. Unk had hinted there were some accounting issues; so had her father the day before he died.

Her lips drew into a firm line. Since her father’s death two weeks prior, she’d been off balance, unsure — afraid. The turmoil in her personal life and here at
Skin
sent her control-freak nature into a tailspin. Yesterday, her first day back at the office, she’d forced herself to produce and not lament what she could not change. And the winds of change blew hot and heavy through the family. She always knew her family was dysfunctional, but now they were downright scary.

A shiver skittered across her skin, and her belly flip-flopped. Papa was dead now and playing the rebellious daughter was a moot point. But God, how she wanted to best him, to prove to him she had what it took to be involved in the family business, to change his perception of her after the Sean debacle. Now she couldn’t, damn it, and worse, their last words to each other were harsh.

Frankie shook off the malaise. She had a job to do. Pushing past the pain, she gave Reese her undivided attention. She focused and shot, getting every conceivable angle she could of the man who would launch
Skin
into the stratosphere.

“Tell me about your last job,” Frankie said, working her way around him, taking advantage of every angle.

“I spent the last few months in Europe. I did a spread for Mercedes, then hung around and soaked up the local culture.”

She bet he soaked up more than historical landmarks. And bet he didn’t do it alone.

“Why come back?”

“I need cash.”

“You want more cash than I can afford.”

“I’m worth it.”

For a brief moment Frankie lowered the camera. Her eyes swept him his from boots to the top of his head. He was worth more.

“I have a budget.”

“Once my issue comes out, you won’t have to worry about budgets.”

Raising the camera, she smiled. She would always worry about budgets. For all of her father’s money, he was frugal when it came to business. What would Papa do?

Emotion welled when she thought of him. She had so much she wanted to prove to him. So much to make up. She’d not only lost what little respect her father had given her as a businesswoman, but she had become the laughingstock of the family — proving once again that women were not worthy of the same respect as the male family members. The hot sting of tears caught her off guard. The trauma of the last two weeks caught up with her, realization hitting her hard. She was on her own now, in more ways than just business. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. A deep chuckle jerked her out of her musings.

“I have to admit, you’re the first, Miss Donatello.”

Lowering the camera, her eyes focused on Reese. “First what?”

“The first woman I’ve brought to tears without laying a finger on her.”

Her eyes narrowed and warning bells sounded. The man was too intense, too bold, too distracting. She’d worked with models like him before. She didn’t play well with other dominant personalities. Was he worth the hassle and the money? She had a tight window of time, and wrestling with the likes of this man would put her behind schedule.

“I —” The door to her office flew open with a bang and Reese and Frankie started.

“Son of a bitch, Anthony, do you know how to knock?” Frankie demanded.

Anthony stopped in his tracks and gave Reese and his erection a cause for pause. “Back to your old tricks, sis?”

Frankie set her camera down on her desk and stepped around toward the door. “Excuse us…?”

“Reese.”

“Sorry — Reese,” she apologized, then pushed her brother out the office door and into the crowded anteroom of her offices, where Tawny, her assistant, sat surrounded by hunky male models. A dozen sets of eyes looked expectantly at her. Frankie smiled and continued down the hall with her brother in tow until she came across the office recently vacated by one of her father’s accountants. She hustled Anthony in and shut the door behind them.

“What the hell, Tony?” she demanded.

His dark brows shot up. Good looks ran in the family. Expressive, olive-skinned features accentuated Tony’s Italian heritage. Lucky for her half brother he didn’t inherit much from his maternal line. Instead he was a miniversion of their handsome father, Santini “Sonny” Donatello, and his older brother, Carmine. Santini wasn’t known as Don Juan for nothing. He was a ladies man until the day he died, much to the chagrin of Tony’s mother, Connie.

“You’re asking
me
what the hell? What the hell was that naked guy doing in your office?”

“I’m interviewing for my centerfold.”

“The hell you are!”

“The hell I’m not!” He might be the heir apparent for all things nefarious, but
Skin
was legit and it was hers.

“You are not going through with that.”

“I sure as hell am.
Skin
needs a shot in the arm and the anniversary edition is launching our first centerfold.”

“Father forbade it!” Tony shrieked. He sounded like a teenage girl on a roller-coaster ride.

“Father is dead.”

“And you have no more respect for him dead than you did when he was alive. No wonder he disowned you.”

“He did no such thing.”
He only threatened it.

“That’s a load of shit. I talked to him before he left Carmel.”

Frankie chewed her bottom lip. They had quarreled, she and her father. She wanted complete creative control over
Skin,
and that meant giving her permission to go with the naked centerfold. Santini was violently opposed to his only daughter — a daughter who in his mind had proven to be naive, emotional, and impetuous — taking pictures of naked men and then publishing them for the world to see. He had his honor, he told her.

“But, Papa, you own strip joints and peep shows!”

“That’s different, Francesca. It’s what men do. I will not have my daughter, my flesh and blood, take pictures of naked men. I’ll lose respect in the family. My answer is no!”

When she refused to be swayed by him, then threatened to enlist the aid of her uncle, his older brother, his last words to her were, “Then you are dead to me.”

The next afternoon he was dead to her.

Frankie tilted her head up to look at her brother. He wasn’t much taller than her. She read no affection in his black eyes, only cool disdain. It had always been that way. “Papa promised me
Skin.
He didn’t change his mind.”

“As soon as father’s will is located and dissected you’ll have legal proof, everything he owns including
Skin
will be mine.”

“Unk will have something to say about it.”

“I’m sure he will, and he can say all he wants. But the documents will stand on their own. I win and you lose.” And that was always how it was with Anthony. A game. He played hardball. This time he was in for a big surprise. Not only was she stepping up to the plate, she was coming out swinging.

As angry as she and her father had been with each other, she didn’t believe he would go to such drastic lengths to cut her out. Or would he? Santini Donatello was old-fashioned to the core. If he believed she was going in a direction he was opposed to, would he reach out from the grave to control? Flicking her hair off her shoulder, she shrugged. It didn’t matter.
Skin
was hers. “Give it your best shot, little brother.”

Tony flashed his sister a narrow-eyed glare. “You’ll lose. You always have.”

“Not this time.”

He nodded as if contemplating an offer. “I’ll be around, Frankie — watching, keeping my eye on you and the family’s interests.”

“Watch all you want, Anthony. Despite your delusions, at the very least, I’m still creative director here. Go back to running your strippers.”

Anthony’s features hardened. “My girls turn a profit every night. You haven’t turned a profit since you gave up all your secrets the night Sean humped you dry.” Frankie gasped at his crudity.

Anthony continued, “It makes me wonder what else you’ve done to drive this place into the ground.” He walked to the computer sitting on the bare desk. He ran his hand across the top of the monitor, then turned to look at her with a thoughtful, narrowed gaze. “Father finally woke up to your schemes, and lucky for the family he did it before he died.”

Frankie fisted her hands at her sides. What she wouldn’t give for just one sucker punch.
“Skin
is
mine.”

He shrugged and moved to look out the window at the busy street below. “Maybe. For now.” He slid his hands into his trouser pockets and smiled his best weasel smile. “But in the meantime, I’ll take this office and make myself comfortable. Enjoy your job, sis, while you still have one.”

“Like I said, Tony, give it your best shot,” Frankie said, and moved to the door. She was done with her brother. She’d made dozens of overtures over the years to close the gap between them, but he consistently refused. The gloves were off now. She’d fight tooth and nail for what was rightfully hers.

Anthony laughed. “I play for keeps, sister.”

“So do I. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have my magazine to run.” And oh, shit, she had a naked man in her office!

F
rankie sprinted down the hall, dismissing her brother’s threats and ignoring the hunks sitting impatiently, waiting to show her their stuff.

She opened her office door just enough to slide in and shut it behind her. She pressed her back up against the smooth wood and her gut somersaulted when a very sexy Reese turned from her window to bestow her with a million-dollar smile. While her heart did a giddyup thump, she frowned, disappointed. He’d dressed. Not that this view was bad. Far from it.

She’d dealt with scores of models over the last five years at
Skin,
and she was used to pretty faces, but Reese was more. He possessed that certain je ne sais quoi that only came along once in a blue moon. It could get a girl in trouble — big trouble. Trouble that could push her disjointed life off the edge. She took a deep breath. Tony’s reminder of her foolish behavior with Sean tore a festering wound wide open.

She wasn’t a moron. She’d learned very early the opposite sex was more attracted to her father and his perceived glamorous life than to his daughter. The minute they met Santini Donatello, notorious don, their eyes glazed over with dreams of life as a goombah, the posturing began, and they were lost to her forever.

All of them — except Sean. He wasn’t interested in her father, he told her, he was interested in her and her life. Yep, he was. That and getting her in bed to pump her for secrets. The more he pumped, the more she shared, until he had her blueprint of success for
Skin.
He took it, walked across town, and sold it to her competitor.

It not only ruined her standing in the business community, it ruined what little respect she’d managed to garner from her father, and it also emotionally devastated her. She didn’t trust easy these days, especially her own instincts.

“I apologize for my brother’s rudeness,” she breathlessly said, then strode past him to her desk. “He never grasped the concept of manners.”

Reese shrugged it off. “No big deal. Every family has its problems.”

He had no idea.

“So when do I start?” he asked.

Frankie sat down at her desk and looked up from the file she just opened. The intensity of his gaze nearly undid her. Warning bells shrilled in her head. “You don’t.” Her words startled her as much as him. But she’d learned a dear lesson after being so impulsive with Sean.
Skin
’s survival depended on the model she hired and how well she could or couldn’t work with him. She promised herself two years ago she would always without fail take slow, deliberate,
informed
steps the next time she felt a spark with a potential employee. And as much as she didn’t want to, she felt more than a spark with Mr. Hotshot Reese. He could wreck a woman with a smile. The man she chose to launch her magazine into the company of
Cosmo
and
Playgirl
would have to not only fit her stringent physical requirements, which Reese more than did, but also be a safe bet on all other fronts, which Reese definitely was not.

Besides, she couldn’t afford him.

She and her model would be spending too much time together, and most of that time would be her instructing him to take his clothes off while she got very close and very personal with her camera.

Reese’s eyes widened in surprise. “I’m out because…?”

“I don’t owe you an explanation.”

“Because you don’t have one.”