Morina thought I was something I wasn’t, and I had to prove her wrong. We needed a united front when we went out in public, and she had to trust I would do right by the company. The only way to do that was by winning her over.
My father would have illegally wormed his way out of this one. There would have been fear, coercion, and threats.
I wanted this to be of her own free will. A business traction we both agreed on.
“Why can’t we have a singing house, Uncle Cade?” Ivy pointed to the movie.
Cade glanced up from his phone and his hand fell to her curly head, rubbing back and forth. “That’s not real, Ivy.”
“But aren’t we going to see a real castle tomorrow?” Her voice was high with concern.
Morina glanced at both me and Cade like we were going to ruin the experience. “Well, the princess castles are real, of course,” I corrected before Cade could kill her dream. He wouldn’t pick up on the social cues. He’d grown up too isolated from them. “And Uncle Cade made sure you’re going to get to them as quickly as possible tomorrow.”
Cade muttered when Ivy went back to watching the movie. “The theme park has some high security. We’ll have to get fingerprints into my tablet tonight. I’m working the system though. I’ve also sent a message to the CEO. If they see it, we’ll be good. Worst case scenario, you call him.”
“Call him for what, Cade? To get my niece into a park? That’s a little ridiculous.”
“Not ridiculous, Uncle Bastian,” Ivy singsonged.
We all winced. The girl had the uncanny ability to be listening even when she wasn’t. She’d grow up a fantastic multitasker.
We watched more of the movie, and Ivy’s eyes drifted shut as she snuggled next to Morina. Cade meandered off to grab his laptop and retired to another room.
Morina lifted her head to stare at me. “Why do you even have the CEO’s number?”
Morina didn’t understand that I was a man that had most people’s numbers, especially if they were in the business of making money. “He was a friend of my father’s.”
“What exactly did your father do, Bastian?”
The question made me tense. The muscles in my neck that were rarely ever this relaxed coiled tight again. “We were all in the business of growing businesses.”
“Or protecting your own, right?”
“Does it matter?”
She leaned in close. “I think if you’re doing something illegal and threatening companies like my grandma said your dad used to, it does matter. I have to marry you and be tied to you for six months. You want this to be believable and for me to understand your intentions?” She glanced down at Ivy. “Are we safe around you?”
“More safe than you would be not around me. Your food truck was ransacked with you in it.” I held back a wince at the reminder.
Morina was like one of these naive princesses in the cartoons. She knew something was up and yet I swear she avoided it at all costs. She avoided everything except maybe goading me.
“Ivy is a sweet kid.” She tugged at the little girl’s curls softly.
“Yes, and she’ll remain a sweet kid.” My voice was low. Was she insinuating I would hurt my niece?
“I’m just saying, if something happened to any of you because you were all doing something illegal–”
“Morina, my father did illegal dealings long before I was born.”
She kept staring at Ivy. “So, you are all the mob? I’m marrying into the mob instead of getting further away from it.”
“It’s not what we consider ourselves anymore.” I pulled at the back of my neck and looked toward the ceiling, searching for the right words. “I’m cleaning up his businesses slowly. We’ve got families too. We’re products of this shitty life he brought us into but I’m on the cusp of having everything clean. I just need…”
I couldn’t tell her I needed to confirm that no illegal imports were coming into her grandmother’s company, even as she stared at me, completely willing to listen. She was studying me, her dark blue eyes swimming with questions.
“I need you to trust me. We need to work as a team.”
She chewed on her bottom lip. “So, I need to read that packet.”
Something about the fact she’d brought that packet up while we were talking about millions of dollars, and people’s lives pulled a laugh from deep under all the stress of this situation.
“Yes, Morina. You need to read the packet.”
She sighed. “Maybe keep this movie on in case she wakes up while I start that?”
She stood and stretched her long legs and toned stomach. The movement went straight to my dick. It remembered how smooth that skin was, how smooth every part of her was.
When she pursed her lips at my staring, I smirked. “Can’t blame me, piccola ragazza. You’re still the woman I slept with just a few weeks ago.”
“You said no more of that, daddy.” There was her goading.
I hummed low and her blue eyes flared.
She stomped away, walking around the tent we’d made from Egyptian cotton sheets draped over the couch and barstools. I watched her ass the whole way.
We were going to have to figure out a way for us not to take the path of least resistance and end up sleeping together again. It would complicate an already complicated situation.
She returned with the files and plopped down next to me, leaning against the couch while Ivy slept.
“I’m going to read it out loud in hopes I can focus.” She cleared her throat. “Sometimes I have a hard time keeping my attention on things like this.”
I shrugged at her omission, not caring at all that she thought this was boring. “It’s a lot of information.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I’m not that good with focusing sometimes.”
I shrugged again as she blushed in embarrassment. I didn’t know what for. “Everyone has their strengths. Can’t hold this one against you since I don’t particularly enjoy combing through data either.”
She beamed at me and then got to reading. When she’d read about two pages into the oil company’s daily processes, her eyes started to droop.
“Did you write this?” she grumbled.
“No.” I straightened. “I compiled some of it and Cade pulled some from the internet. We had a few people work on drawing up the documents.”
“Do I really need to know all of this? I find it hard to believe my grandma did.”
“She didn’t. That’s the point. If we want to clean this company up, we need to know everything. You want your town running in a way that it can stand the test of time, right?”
“Of course I do, Bastian.” She set the file down and got up in a huff before filling a cup of water. “I just don’t think I can provide any good insight. Tell me what you want to change and why.”
“You’ll just take my word for it?” That wasn’t smart business practice.
“Oh my God, can you wipe that look off your face?” She poured the whole cup of water into the plants. I winced. That wouldn't help them thrive at all.
I took time to cover Ivy up on the floor before going to meet Morina by the kitchen island. “You can’t water the plants in anger like that.”
“Huh?” She glared up at me. “I’m not angry.”