The Moretti Seduction by Katherine Garbera

had filled his life with one passion and that was his wife, Philomena. Antonio knew that once Nathalie met them she’d see that the Moretti men weren’t out to crush the Vallerio family once again.
    He wanted to make her see that they were sincere in their offer to put Vallerio back on the lips of car connoisseurs the world over.
    “Are you sure about this?” she asked once they were seated in his car.
    “Positive. I had the opportunity to meet your father and sister and now I think it’s time you had the same.”
    “Aren’t they going to be angry that I haven’t convinced my board to accept all of your terms?”
    “No. I doubt they will say anything to you about business. My parents aren’t concerned about that at all.”
    “What are they concerned about?”
    Antonio thought about that for a moment. “Each other. And that my brothers and I are happy.”
    “I can’t imagine that Lorenzo’s son wouldn’t be as passionate about car making as he was.”
    “Wait until you see my parents. They have a love that consumes them.”
    “I still don’t understand,” she said. “Many men are married and still manage a company.”
    “But those men weren’t cursed to be lucky either in love or in business,” Antonio said.
    “And your family was?” she asked.
    “Indeed. In fact your great-aunt may have fallen victim to the same curse.”
    “How do you figure?” she asked.
    “Lorenzo broke the heart of a girl he’d left behind in his village to go and seek his fortune, and she cursed him when he didn’t fulfill his promise to her.”
    “What promise?”
    Antonio glanced away from the road and over at Nathalie. She seemed very interested in his story. And he wanted to share it. Wanted her to understand that there was more to Lorenzo than his callous behavior might have indicated. “The promise to marry her once he had won the Grand Prix championship and started his car company.”
    “Promises he didn’t keep?”
    “No. Lorenzo needed more time to make his fortune. His parents were poor farmers who never did more than eke out an existence and he wanted better for his children.”
    “So he asked her to wait for him, or did he send her home?” Nathalie asked.
    “He told her he couldn’t fulfill his promise until he was certain he’d have the future they both wanted. He asked her to wait awhile longer. She returned home to her village and waited.”
    “How do you know all of this?”
    “Marco’s wife, Virginia, is the granddaughter of Cassia, Lorenzo’s first love. She has Cassia’s journal.”
    “She cursed your grandfather but your brother married her granddaughter?”
    “That makes us sound crazy, I know, but the curse she put on Lorenzo was also put on succeeding generations. When you meet my parents you will see they have a love that is just as successful as Moretti Motors was under Nono ’s leadership. As successful as it will be now that Marco, Dom and I are running things.”
    She gave him a very queer look, then turned away, glancing down at her hands, which were laced together in her lap. “Does that mean your brothers don’t expect to find the love your parents have?”
    Antonio tried not to think of love. It wasn’t really something that he’d craved. He had his parents’ love and he had never lacked for feminine company and he had his brothers. What more could a man need?
    “I don’t know,” he said honestly. “Love…romantic love just isn’t something I’ve ever really wanted to have.”
    “Why not?”
    “Maybe because of how badly Nono screwed it up. Virginia’s grandmother cursed him, hated him so much that she wanted to make sure he never felt love again. Your great-aunt hated him so much that she turned Pierre-Henri against him.
    “With that kind of a legacy do you think I’d even entertain falling for a woman?”
    “But your father isn’t that type of man,” she said.
    Antonio had often thought the same thing. But he’d seen Dom crash and burn with a love