The Moretti Seduction by Katherine Garbera Page B

settle down.”
    Nathalie understood why. “Moretti Motors is as important to them as family.”
    Virginia nodded. “I think sometimes that to them it is family and not a business at all. And of course the curse my grandmother had placed on the Morettis hung over the boys’ heads.”
    Not a superstitious person herself, Nathalie found it hard to believe that so many of these people were. Virginia hardly seemed like a witch, but she’d told the story at dinner of how she’d used her limited knowledge of the old Strega ways to break the curse on Marco.
    The curse that Cassia had placed on Lorenzo and every generation that followed.
    Nathalie thought that Antonio and Dominic might believe they were still cursed. That by not finding love they hadn’t found a way out of the blight that Cassia Festa had put on them. She couldn’t help but sympathize with the close-knit Morettis.
    “How often do you all get together?” she asked.
    “Not often enough. Marco and Virginia travel most of the year for the Grand Prix. Antonio is here in Milan, but he is always busy, and Dominic goes between the offices here and the Grand Prix races.”
    “Do you attend the races?” Nathalie asked Philomena as they sipped coffee. Night had fallen and the sweet smell of flowers filled the air.
    “Mostly the ones in Europe and always the first and last race of the season.”
    “You should come to the race in Barcelona next week,” Virginia urged Nathalie. “There is so much excitement and energy at the races.”
    Nathalie doubted she would. Her father would have a fit if she attended a Grand Prix race before they had a deal with Moretti that satisfied him. “Thank you for the invitation. Is it always exciting to watch or are you ever afraid?”
    Philomena blessed herself and uttered a small prayer under her breath. “I am afraid every time Marco gets in the race car. One of the Team Moretti drivers almost died last year.”
    Nathalie reached over and put her hand on Philomena’s. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories.”
    “You didn’t,” Virginia said. “But it is a scary profession and even though I know that Marco is a very skilled driver I am reminded most weeks that this is a very dangerous profession.”
    Nathalie could see that. She was worried about falling in love with the son of her family’s sworn enemy, but Virginia had to worry about the man she loved possibly dying. It put a lot of things in perspective for her.
    She realized that she didn’t want Antonio to be in danger. Then it hit her sitting her in this garden with his mother and his sister-in-law that she was in love with Antonio.
    And once that realization opened her eyes, everything else fell into place. She hadn’t returned to Milan to broker a deal. She’d returned to Milan to be with Antonio. In Paris it was easy to ignore the truth and to pretend that she didn’t love Antonio, but tonight under the Milan moon there were no denials. Only the truth. And she was still dealing with that truth twenty minutes later when Antonio returned.
    He looked at her and she could do nothing but smile at him. The man she loved.

Nine
    A ntonio drove to Nathalie’s hotel in Milan in silence. Something was on her mind but he had no idea what. It had been a calculated move to bring her to his parents’ house, and now he was wondering what the aftereffects would be. “Are you okay?”
    “Yes. Dinner was very nice.”
    “I’m glad you enjoyed it.”
    “And I think I see what you meant about your parents’ love. Your father is positively smitten with your mother.”
    “Yes, he is.”
    “Funny to think that a curse would have given him that much love in his life.”
    Antonio turned to her when he stopped for a traffic light. “I don’t think he’s cursed at all.”
    “Do you think the men in your family are? When we talked earlier I couldn’t tell if you really believed you were doomed.”
    “Doomed to spend my life alone?” he asked. “Maybe I