Arrangement With A Billionaire (Bad Boy Billionaire Brothers #1) (21 page)

Then they made it into the dining room, which had been made up just as well, or even better, than when Isla had eaten here with Arturo. There were candles on the table, short ones, not the tall ones. Those would be too romantic. The short candles were kept in small glass fish bowls with beads. They were the centerpieces, along with the brightest flowers, which were red, yellow, blue, and orange.

There was a fire in the fireplace, but the dining room was bright. It wasn’t being lit only with the fire and the candles. The aura was friendly, not sexy. Isla hoped her father was noticing that.

Even though Jeffery and Robert were standing in the dining room, bottles of champagne at the ready, Arturo was the one who pulled out Isla’s mother’s chair first and then Isla’s chair.

Of course, he left her father to do that on his own.

Arturo seemed to be speaking more for her mother’s sake. He really knew how to win over a woman’s mother. He kept the conversation light, on neutral topics or on family. The worst thing he had to say about Sebastian was that he was
going through a rough patch
. It wasn’t until he started talking about Martina that Isla knew her mother had been won over.

That was it. Game over. Arturo, a rich and handsome billionaire was speaking about a member of the staff as though she had given birth to him. Even though the tragedy of what happened to his real mother was never brought up, Isla could practically see the gears in her head turning. She knew what her mother was thinking.

This poor boy only needs a mother to take care of him and a woman to love him.

That was probably word for word, too. Isla could almost see it being spelled out as her mother looked over at her, her eyes sparkling.

Jeffery poured the champagne, and Robert silently pulled in a metal trolley with salad on it.

Everything was scooped onto their plates, and Isla thought this felt even more like being in a high-end restaurant than being in an actual restaurant.

Her mother seemed to be having the time of her life, getting to know Isla’s new boyfriend and asking more about Arturo’s brothers, while her father seemed to be sitting silently, searching for the opening he needed to attack.

It would have been nice that he was looking for something to attack Arturo on, and not her mother, but Isla didn’t want any fighting between anyone.

“So, how did the two of you meet each other?” her mother asked as the dessert came in.

Isla looked up just before her spoon of frozen… whatever this was, could reach her mouth. “How we met?”

Her mother continued to smile that wide, eager smile, probably not even really knowing what it was that she asked.

It wasn’t like in the movies. The soft sounds around them didn’t stop. The clatter of plates continued as Jeffery gathered up the dishes from their main course and prepared to take them away. The fire still crackled, and Isla could even hear the wheels on the trolley as Robert rolled it away.

Arturo barely hesitated. “We met in one of your boutiques, when it was still open. My father sent me to scout the business, and I noticed her folding some fairly lacy looking things.”

He knew exactly what they’d been. He just wasn’t saying it in front of her father.

That seemed to be enough for her father, however, to look sharply at Arturo.

Arturo just stared back, not at all fazed by those kill-you-with-a-stare-eyes.

“You met her on the job, did you?”

“Yes, sir,” Arturo said with a nod. “And then she promptly told me to fuck off.”

That seemed to throw off her father a bit. He actually jerked his head back as though he’d been punched.

“Isla, did you actually say that?” her mother asked. She looked torn between being scandalized and vastly amused.

Isla felt her face grow warm. It probably gave off the impression that she was just so in love with Arturo that she was embarrassed to recount the story, but that could also work in her favor.

“I did say that,” she admitted. “To be honest, I didn’t really like him the first time I met him.”

“And now?” her father asked.

Isla glanced over at Arturo, noting the way he was looking at her.

“Ah, well, I’d say he’s growing on me.”

T
he rest
of dinner went surprisingly smooth. Her father didn’t say too much, and he glared and scowled even less. It was probably because he’d just heard about how his daughter had told Arturo, the favorite son of his rival, to fuck off. Isla was willing to bet all of her best jewelry designs that was the reason.

What else could it be?

Looking back on it, it did sort of make for a funny dinner story. It showed her father that his daughter had some balls, for one thing, which worked out as far as he was concerned. It also gave her mother a few romantic ideas about her daughter and the new boyfriend, which also benefited this story Isla and Arturo were spinning.

Isla didn’t have any false ideas that her father would be upset when he found out that she and Arturo
broke up
, but she was starting to get worried her mother might actually be a little on the heartbroken side when it came time for Isla to reveal they were no longer dating. She was starting to give Arturo dreamy glances.

Oh, well. It was adorable how her mother was crushing on her fake boyfriend, but she’d get over it. Her father was still a handsome man, and this might help bring the two of them back together. He would comfort his wife sufficiently, while at the same time grumbling threatening things about Arturo that would get any other man thrown into prison in this day and age.

And when Isla got the business back for them, everything would fall into place just as Isla wanted it to. The fact that they were together right now, with no signs or hints of bitterness between them, got Isla’s heart thrumming.

It almost felt like the way things used to be.

When the dessert plates were taken away, coffee and alcohol was offered. This was something that Isla could tell impressed her father. He was a man who enjoyed the best whiskies. It was one of the stereotypes about rich men that her father fell into.

She carefully watched the way her father spoke with Arturo, and was on edge every second, thinking that someone would eventually mention Baciami The men spent their time talking about business practices instead. It was a subject that came a little too close to Baciami for Isla’s comfort, but both men seemed at ease with the topic. They discussed the weather, favorite cars, and Arturo even made mention of some of his plans for the company now that his “asshole father”
was out of the picture.

Mentioning Arturo’s father seemed to shock Isla’s own dear old daddy enough that he could only nod his head as he swirled his drink.

“I see,” he said, and then said nothing else.

The air around them was awkward for only a minute before the conversation started back up. Her mother asked more questions about Arturo’s brothers, still clearly trying to get a feel for how family oriented he was, and soon, even all that came to an end.

It was nearly midnight by the time her father got to his feet and declared it was about time for him to take his wife home.

Isla released a heavy breath she’d hardly realized she’d been holding. Only her mother seemed to notice.

It must have been something of a guy thing that happened next, because even though Isla could still tell how much her father was still barely tolerating Arturo, they walked together several feet ahead of the women.

Her mother leaned in to whisper, “He seems like a nice young man.”

Isla bit her lip to keep from laughing at that. “When you say that, it makes you sound kind of old.”

“Hmm, don’t make me mess up your pretty hair because I will smack the back of your head if you’re not careful.”

“Right.” She said, hardly threatened by the warning, but still knowing that her mother would follow through if Isla annoyed her too much. She whispered back, “So, you really like him?”

“I do,” her mother replied, nodding and looking a little thoughtful as they both stared at the backs of their respective men. “I have to admit, your father had me worried. I wasn’t sure I would like him, but now it’s different.”

Both Arturo and her father seemed to be heatedly whispering about something.

“What changed your mind?” she asked softly.

“It’s the way he looks at you. Haven’t you noticed it?” her mother asked, sounding a little incredulous that Isla had to ask, and that she might not have noticed something like that herself.

She’d seen Arturo give her a couple of interesting looks before, usually right before he was about to lay into her like a champion, and, well, sure, she’d noticed a couple of sideways glances while they ate dinner.

That was just for show. Arturo was an excellent businessman. He knew how to look like he was interested in any proposals that were being offered to him. He also knew how to sell what he no longer needed. The fact that he might be looking at Isla with a warm affection didn’t mean it was real, and Isla wasn’t about to get her hopes up on anything like that.

“I guess I hadn’t noticed,” she said. Why was her face heating up like this? This wasn’t a big deal and there was no reason for her to be blushing.

Fuck! She wished it would stop.

Her mother, the angel of a woman, didn’t say anything about the sudden heat in the hallway, however. She just smiled and nodded. “All right, but you really should pay better attention.”

“Right,” Isla said, turning away and scratching the side of her cheek. She was still willing the heat in her face and neck to go down when her mother took her by the arm.

“Give them a minute, sweetheart. I think they want to talk.”

“What?”

Isla looked up and took note of the way Arturo and her father were speaking to each other.

More like the way her father was speaking to Arturo. She had only ever seen her father with a look like that on his face, so scowly and filled with all kinds of warning, whenever he was on the phone and someone had fucked up on a deal.

He didn’t exactly jam his pointer finger into Arturo’s chest, but his finger was pointing all right. As though that was where it was most happiest being, it pointed while Isla’s father proceeded to embarrass her by, most likely, threatening Arturo’s personal safety if he so much as hurt his baby girl.

Great.

Arturo, for his part, took it like a pro. He’d probably had worse confrontations with fathers before in his time—including his own, if Isla really stopped to think about it. Arturo just nodded. His mouth wasn’t moving, so she knew he wasn’t saying anything either.

He was just taking it.

“Uh, maybe I should go over there,” Isla suggested.

Her mother took her by the hand and gripped it tight. “Let him have this. I think he needs it.”

But how was that fair to let him unload on Arturo just because her father needed it? Arturo didn’t exactly need this himself.

Thankfully, he finally stopped with the finger pointing and quit talking just before his words could get loud enough for Isla to hear any specifics that were coming out of his mouth.

Arturo just nodded again.

That seemed to finally satisfy Isla’s father, who straightened his dinner jacket and then turned to face his wife and daughter, a smile suddenly on his face. “Ready to go?”

Isla looked to her mother, who just pat her hand and kissed her cheek. “It was good to see you. You should call more often.”

“I know.”

She watched as her mother walked over to her husband, but stopped in front of Arturo.

Fuck, was she going to say something, too?

No. Well, nothing bad or nagging.

She actually took Arturo by the hands, which seemed to shock him as much as it did Isla, if his wide eyes were anything to go by.

“Thank you for dinner. It was a very lovely evening.”

Her mother never used the word
lovely
unless she was really trying to win someone over. She was probably hoping to undo any damage her husband had caused with his whispered rant and not scare Arturo off from Isla.

Then her mother shocked her even more when she leaned up and kissed Arturo’s cheek, which was not an easy thing for a woman her size to do, even with the high heels.

And it was kind of funny how Isla’s father nearly choked at the sight.

He managed to hold himself back from flipping out. Sam had arrived with the limo ready to take her parents back home. By that time, Isla’s father had managed to nod curtly in Arturo’s direction, the closest Arturo would likely ever get to acceptance from the man, and she knew better than to think of it as even being that.

It wasn’t.

Then the door was closed, and Isla watched from the window as the limo pulled away before she sucked back a deep breath, letting it out in a whoosh. “That was the worst.”

“Was it?”

She looked at him. Arturo had a stupid little smile on his face.

“I think your mother likes me.”

“Yeah, well, don’t get any ideas.”

“Too late. It wouldn’t be the first time a hot mother-daughter team got into bed with me.”

Isla jerked back, her eyes flying wide. “That’s disgusting!”

Arturo continued to smile at her.

Isla laughed. “Oh, God, you’re gross.”

He shrugged. “I had no complaints at the time, and there isn’t anything in your contract that states you won’t.”

“I’m telling you right now that I won’t,” Isla said, shaking her head. “Christ. You know, I can’t even tell if you’re joking right now or not, but on the off chance that you’re not, the answer is no. I’ll let you keep Baciami before I walk up to my mom and ask if she wants to join us.”

“A woman with standards. Be still my beating heart.”

“Shut up.”

But even as Isla was laughing, having fun with Arturo’s joke, she kept thinking about what her mother had said, about Arturo looking at her in that way that…. Okay, she couldn’t think of how to describe it, but just knowing that he was doing it made her stomach flutter in all the right ways.

And when she looked up at him, he was giving her a
look
right then.

It looked more like he was observing her, really just looking at her, instead of glaring at her and plotting ways to embarrass her.

After tonight, she was fairly confident he wasn’t going to try and ruin her life after this was all done and over with.

Maybe she’d done a better job than she’d thought. She had wanted to at least make Arturo like her enough that he would feel, what? Guilty for all of this? That he would want to give her back Baciami Boutique without pulling some sleazy business trick that would make her contract null and void.

He liked her enough to sit down and have dinner with her parents.

“What did my dad talk to you about?”

The corner of Arturo’s mouth turned up. “He threatened to rip my balls out and feed them to me if I ever hurt you.”

She felt her eyes go wide. “Wow, really?”

He shrugged and went to stand next to her. He crossed his arms as they leaned against the wall. “Not his exact words,” he replied, “but definitely something to that effect.”

There was a pause, and Arturo had that same soft smile on his face when he continued. “You’re lucky to have them.”

Isla’s heartbeat felt like it stopped in her chest for a second or two. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling.

Arturo was clearly aware of what he’d just said as the smile on his face slowly melted, replacing itself with a harder, sterner expression. He looked down the hall, away from her. She could see the tension in his neck and hear the slight grumble he let out as he punished himself for saying something that gave so much of himself away.

She didn’t think she would ever forget the look on his face as he said that, envious of her parents and the good life she’d had, whereas his mother had been less than stellar, his father had been an abuser and later a murderer, and now he and his brothers were barely hanging on.

Something inside of her must have snapped at that, because Isla was overcome with an urge she couldn’t even hope to fight against, not that she gave it the good old college try. She didn’t want to fight herself as she reached her hand out and touched his cheek.

Arturo resisted when she tried to pull his face to the side. “Cut it out.”

She didn’t. She put her hand back on his cheek and forced him to look at her.

At first, he looked like he was going to keep pulling away, but he stopped. Isla stared up at him as his body seemed to relax. The darkness in his deep brown eyes softened.

Her heart pounded as they looked at each other. She could hear the thumping all the way in her ears as she leaned up and pressed her mouth to his.

A soft press of her lips, their mouths meshing together warmly, but still hardly touching at all. Arturo shut his eyes for a brief second, and so did Isla. She pulled back before it could really begin, her heart slamming louder, and it was a little hard to breathe in that moment, though their noses were still touching as she met his gaze again, making sure this was okay.

It must have been, because Arturo took the next move. A strong, calloused hand went behind her head and into her hair. His fingers threaded through the strands in just the way she liked as he pulled her forward to finish what she’d started, and she moaned as she opened for him.