The Unwanted Conti Bride (The Legendary Conti Brothers) by Tara Pammi Page B

sound any more naively hopeful, any more sanctimoniously righteous? She couldn’t, absolutely couldn’t care if he satisfied himself with another woman that night.
    He was scowling. “We’re both consenting adults and have been joined in the holiest of bonds in front of God and man just this morning. You’re making us both walk back out like horny dogs. You have enough character, don’t you think?”
    He sounded so pained, so disgruntled, that Sophia burst out laughing.
    It was easy, far too easy, to be mesmerized by Luca’s easy charm. As long as she remembered that there was nothing of substance beneath. “I scheduled a meeting with you and Leandro in an hour.”
    “Your plans for Rossi Leather are ready for Leandro?”
    She nodded, barely bracing herself against the admiration in his eyes. “I want to run them by you and Leandro first before I present them to Salvatore. That way, we’re all in the loop.”
    How was it that with of all the men she’d dealt with—CEOs and ruthless businessmen and millionaires—it was this wastrel playboy that was never intimidated by her? Who only showed respect for her accomplishments and her ambition.
    Could that easy confidence come from just his looks? Or was there more to Luca than met the eye?
    He uncorked the champagne bottle and poured it into two flutes. Handing her one, he clinked his against hers. The bubbles kissed her throat on the way down. She looked up to find his gaze on her. Rattled by the line of her thoughts, she said nothing.
    They talked of a varied range of topics, sometimes agreeing and more than once, getting into a heated argument. Only when her watch pinged did Sophia realize how invigorating and informative their discussion had been.
    And how enjoyable.
    Throughout the meeting with Leandro and Luca, all Sophia could think of was how jarringly discordant, how disconcertingly different this side of Luca was from the man she’d despised for so long.

CHAPTER SIX
    T HE LAST THING Sophia wanted, after the events of the last week, was a party.
    A party thrown specially in honor of Luca and her.
    A party to which every member of the high society of Milan was invited, including men who’d known of her humiliation ten years ago.
    A party thrown by her in-laws, the Conti family, which was a minefield of dysfunction—her family seemed so normal even with her differences with Salvatore—she couldn’t imagine navigating without setting off an explosion.
    The last she’d seen of Luca had been outside the Conti building, six days ago. He’d called a taxi for her after her meeting with Leandro and him and then driven off. The invite for the party came later that night, in the form of a phone call from Leandro’s wife, Alexis, her new sister-in-law.
    When she’d moaned about attending, Salvatore had warned her that she couldn’t alienate her husband’s family. Her new family , in fact.
    To which, she had, quite forcefully and uncharacteristically, asked him if he was that happy to be rid of her. Only silence had remained then. Full of guilt and shame, Sophia had apologized to him and left.
    She’d never confronted Salvatore like that. There had never been any need. Since he had married her mother, he’d been kindness itself to her. He’d paid for her to go to University, given her a job at Rossi Leather, provided her with everything she could have ever asked for.
    The only thing he didn’t give her was his trust when it came to business matters. Could she blame him when it was a one-hundred-and-sixty-year-old legacy that he wanted to protect for her brothers? Maybe asking for him to take such a big risk on her, when she’d never really excelled at the things he wanted of her, was too much?
    Maybe things would have been different if she’d been born a Rossi.
    At least, she had done the right thing in marrying Luca. Salvatore was delighted that finally he had a connection to the venerable Contis.
    Sophia had come to Villa de Conti straight from work