The Moretti Arrangement by Katherine Garbera Page B

term he used. He said that one generation of Morettis had squandered their money and not to let our generation continue the pattern.”
    Angelina reached over and squeezed his thigh. “You were just a boy.”
    “I was old enough to know that what I’d done was wrong. My mother was upset because we might have to sell the Lake Como house. It had been a wedding gift from her parents.”
    “I am so sorry. So one act of brotherly teasing changed the direction of your life?” she asked.
    He shrugged. “I probably would still be who I am today, but that incident made me stop being so irresponsible.”
    His cell phone rang and he let go of her hand to answer it.
    “It’s Stark. We need to talk.”
    “Tonight, Ian?”
    “Yes. I have some important information on the investigation…Dammit. A cop just pulled me over,” Ian said.
    “What for?”
    “Driving and talking on my cell phone. It’s illegal in London.”
    “Call me back,” Dominic said.
    “I will.”
    Dominic disconnected the call.
    “What did Ian want on the phone?” she asked.
    “He’s had a break in the ESP Motors investigation,” he answered at length.
    “Good,” she said. “I’ll be very happy when that entire mess is behind us.”
    “Will you?”
    “Yes, I regret ever doing anything to make you feel like you were betrayed.”
    He nodded. Her words cemented in his mind that asking her to continue their relationship was the right choice. She had made a mistake and she had changed. He’d seen the evidence himself over the past six months. And he knew he didn’t want to go back to the way life had been before he’d blackmailed her into his bed.

Ten
    D ominic had arranged to have dinner set up on his Lake Como villa’s veranda. His parents’ house was a few miles up the road and Antonio and Marco both had their own places here as well. Lake Como was where they all called home.
    Lake Como was a beautiful area frequented by the jet-set crowd. Millionaire businessmen, heads of state and Hollywood celebrities all owned property here, but that wasn’t what had drawn him here. It had been the tranquility of the area and the fact that this was the one place where his parents had always managed to keep a home.
    Because his mom’s family had gifted the property to them, it had been a matter of pride that his father had never sold that house.
    When his father had lost the chairmanship of Moretti Motors, their immediate family fortune had changed. They’d been forced to sell their house in San Giuliano Milanese and had to live with distant relatives until his mother started making decent money as a teacher at a local university.
    “I love this place,” Angelina said as she walked out of the living room area onto the veranda.
    “Me, too. I’m sorry we haven’t had time to come out here before this.”
    “It’s been a busy summer,” she said. “Next year will be calmer once we get the Vallerio launched.”
    “Indeed it will be,” he said. Next summer he’d spend more time at the lake with Angelina and his brothers. Marco was thinking of retiring from F1 racing and he would take over managing Team Moretti when he did. That would give Dominic one less responsibility at work. And he could spend the extra time with Angelina.
    “I have something important to talk to you about.”
    “You mentioned our relationship in the car.”
    He walked to the balustrade’s railing and leaned against it. Angelina looked exquisite in the mood lighting. Her hair curled around her pretty face and her dress clung to her curves. Her nipples were visible under the bodice of her dress and he still had her panties in his jacket pocket.
    She was completely bare under that dress and he wondered if conversation was really what he wanted right now. He knew it wasn’t. He was still aroused from her hand on him in the car and he wanted to say the hell with talking and just lift her skirt and take her.
    But lust wasn’t the problem between them. Communication was. And he