But it was in his control now.

“We’ll have to make it look like our…merging—”

“This is not a merger,” she bit out.

“For the project,” he said.

“Fine,” she said, barely civil. “Go on.”

“We’ll have to make our merging look organic.”

“And how do you propose we do that?”

In some ways, the fact that she wasn’t going to like his suggestion made it even more perfect. Anything he could do to tip the balance of power further to his favor was only good. And the more flustered she was, the more control he would have. “It would be completely expected for a couple to discuss a project and come to the conclusion that collaboration would be the best for all involved.”

Her blue eyes glittered. “Are you suggesting that we…that we feign some kind of personal involvement?”

“You’re sanitizing it,” he said, smiling. “I’m suggesting we pretend we’re heavily involved in a scorching affair.”

Julia exploded from the chair and started pacing the room. “That’s insane. As if I would ever…As if you would…As if…As if!”

“You find the idea so offensive?” He crossed the room and sat in the chair she’d just been occupying.

“I find it unbelievable. After the stunt you pulled today do you really think anyone would believe that you and I…”

“There’s a fine line between hate and lust, cara mia.”

“Maybe if you have a disconnect between your brain and your nether regions.”

“And many people do.”

She looked down, then back up, hands planted on her hips. “That’s crazy.”

“Do you have a better idea? Why should Barrows have any confidence in our ability to work together if we present a proposal out of the blue?”

She flung her hands wide. “Because we’re awesome!”

“Awesome doesn’t score points in business, Julia, and this is where being like me has an advantage over being like you.”

“Like me as in young, extremely smart, creative and—”

“Green. Untried. Untrained.”

“And what about you, Ferro Calvaresi, graduate of the school of hard knocks?”

No, she wasn’t a woman to win over with seduction. But when she was challenged? She couldn’t resist fighting back. “Hard knocks? Have you been reading my unauthorized bio?”

Color stained her cheeks, crimson against the pale white of her skin. “No. It’s a common expression.”

“And it’s also in the front jacket of the book. My rise to success from the seedy underbelly of Rome. Fantastic reading. If you like a fairy tale.”

It was almost amusing that she, along with the rest of the world, had jumped at the chance to read about his sordid past. And it was sordid, no mistake, no denying. A good thing for him, the book only scratched the surface. Sure there were whispers, whispers that were close to the truth, but no one really knew.

“I have no idea what book you’re talking about.”

“I think you do, but you can have your lie.”

She was all but bouncing in place now, her knee flexing in time with something in her head. Probably the horrible names she was silently calling him. “Fine. I read it. Know your enemy and all. The Art of War. See? I’m on top of stuff.”

“It’s like your mommy and daddy got you a CEO boxed set for Christmas. Did you also get a world’s best boss mug and a zen garden?”

“Make your point, or I walk,” she bit out.

“My point is that you’ve had success easy and young.” She bit her lip, like she was holding back words she wanted desperately to speak. Words that would be designed to castrate him, of that he had no doubt. “Because of that success, you’ve never had to deal with the realities of setbacks. Of how business works. Of the nuances of it. You didn’t have to court the press, they came to you. You haven’t had to turn scandal around and make it work to your advantage. Haven’t had to twist lies around so that they’re close enough to the truth no one will examine it all too closely, but I have. I know what we’re dealing with here. I know the manner of man Scott Hamlin really is, and I won’t hesitate to take him out completely.”

“You say that like I don’t know that manner of man,” she said, her tone frosty. “I’m a woman in a man’s world. Tech is a boys’ club, Calvaresi. There’s practically a No Girls Allowed sign on the door. I’ve been dealing with men all my life who want to take from me, who think they can just take from women. I do know about men like Hamlin. And you’re right. He deserves nothing less than total professional destruction.”

“He would do nothing less to us. He’s tried to, or didn’t you know?”

“What?”

“You look shocked.”

“I am. He’s never tried to do anything to me.”

“You think not? Well, he’s the man who’s seventy percent responsible for my unauthorized bio, which you are familiar with. And he’s also responsible for the IRS rechecking all of your returns last year.”

“How did you know about that?”

“It’s getting tiresome but I’ll say it again. Corporate espionage.” He watched her expression change, watched her skin turn a deeper pink. He really had made her angry now.

“Who do you have in my company?”

“Who says I have anyone in there? Now.”

“Ferro…”

“I never confirm anything. I don’t deny it, either, so you might as well not waste your time trying to get either from me.”

“Fine. So you say he’s trying to take us down.”

“Yes. And if you were more scandalous he may have succeeded.”

She frowned. “Excuse me? You’re extremely scandalous and he didn’t succeed with you.”

Ferro shrugged. “Because I know how to play it.”

“Is this where ‘neither confirm nor deny’ comes in?”

“Absolutely. My point is, Julia, you need to play this my way. Because while I appreciate that you’re a tech wunderkind—”

“I’m twenty-five. I’m not that young.”

Nearly ten years his junior, and even younger when it came to life experience. Julia didn’t look tired yet. But she would. Life had a way of doing that to people. Especially people thrust into the spotlight.

Lucky for him, in many ways, he’d come in worn down and tired. And at least now he had a bed that belonged to him.

“You are young,” he said. “And the fact that you don’t realize it only highlights that fact. And while that is its own kind of amazing, its own achievement, it is not what I have. Maturity.”

“You? Ferro Calvaresi? You’re playing the maturity card? You just…hijacked my presentation like a…a…pillaging tech pirate and now you’re trying to tell me you’re mature?”

He gave her his most practiced smile, smooth, genuine, a smile no one could find fault with. A smile he never felt at all. “I show the world what I choose to show the world.”

“You think I don’t?”

“I think your armor is thin, cara.”

He expected her to make some sort of snitty denial. Say she didn’t wear armor. She didn’t, and that was to her credit.

“You tell me then,” she said, slowly crossing her arms beneath her breasts, her blue eyes never wavering from his, “what do you think we need to do?”

“We need to make the world believe that all of our hostility has melted away into an attraction, an attachment, that we can’t deny. We need to make them think we’ve fallen head over heels into, if not love, bed.”

“And you think that will work?” She was blushing. He couldn’t remember ever seeing a woman blush. Or anyone for that matter. Everyone he’d ever known had seemed born jaded.

He hadn’t been. He could remember a time when he’d been young. When he’d felt hope. Optimism. Passion.

He’d learned. He’d learned that there were no bonus points for getting through life without mud on your hands. Sometimes you had to get dirty climbing out of the gutter, but at least you were out, even if the filth clung to your skin for the rest of your life. Even if it made you hard and old before your time.

“I know it will.”

“How?”

“The press, the public, are predictable. We show up at a public event, we’ll make headlines around the world. The seed will be planted, when we pitch our design to Barrows, it all suddenly makes sense.”