She didn't recognize him. Isla didn’t know what was he was talking about, but Arturo kept on looking at her with that smile on his face. He stared at her like she was a rabbit in a trap.

She shook her head. "I don't think we've ever met before." She spoke carefully, worried she might be saying the wrong thing.

What of they had met at one of her grandfather’s business parties and she just forgot? That happened sometimes. She met a lot of people at those things.

He looked like he was enjoying this too damned much.

"Trust me, we have met," he said, as he reached down and opened one of the desk drawers. Pulling out a small rubber band, he used it to tie his hair back.

Confining his hair made him look a little different. It straightened it out and gave him a much more sophisticated look than when his long hair was loose.

It also made him look somewhat dangerous. She couldn’t explain why.

Then she realized something. Tying his hair back made him look familiar. It showed off his face and cheekbones better. As she studied him, she was now convinced that this wasn’t a mistake. She really had seen him before.

And that was worrisome.

Especially when Arturo glared at her, as though angry it was taking her so long to piece it all together.

Then her eyes flew wide. Arturo smiled at her when her mouth dropped.

She brought her hands up to cover her mouth.

"Now you remember me," he said, that angry look melting away. He was smiling at her now, a smile that made him look even more dangerous than before.

She shook her head, her hands still covering her mouth. No way. Not him. Not this guy! He couldn’t hold that against her. It was years ago! "That's not… I didn't know who you were!"

"Does that matter?" he asked.

"Yes, it fucking matters!"

“Interesting.” Arturo eyed her, as if he hadn't expected that. What? For her to swear at him? It wasn’t like it would be the first time he’d heard her cursing at him. Maybe his shock was over her suggestion that it didn’t matter what she’d said just because she hadn’t expected to be in this position.

"Why does it matter that you didn’t know me? You told me to go and fuck myself."

Isla nearly groaned. She had told him that. And she'd done it with such a sweet, innocent smile on her face, right before she'd spun around and walked away. She hadn't given him the time of day after that, and it had clearly pissed him off something severe.

"I told you that after you asked me if I wanted to have sex with you." Isla said.

She hadn’t known who he was, but she’d been aware something had been going on with the business. Her parents had tried to keep her and her brother out of it, but Isla had suspected they were in trouble.

Seeing a man in a suit walking into a boutique could only mean one thing. He was either buying for a girlfriend, or he was a scout. Someone hired to check out the various stores and see if there was something to be picked apart.

Isla’s suspicions either way as to what he was hadn’t mattered when he’d come on to her. If he was a man with a girlfriend, then he was a sleaze. If he was a scout, then he was an asshole, and he deserved to get told off.

“You can’t just walk up to a woman you don’t know and ask her to fuck you.”

“Why not?”

Isla sputtered, “It’s not… it’s not….”

"Appropriate? So what?"

"What do you mean, so what? You can't just do that." Isla never in a million years thought this would happen to her. That she’d have to be apologizing and making excuses to a man who had propositioned her for sex.

"Why not?" He sounded genuinely curious about this. He kicked his legs off his desk and marched over to her. His pants were still loose and hanging around his hips. He didn't bother to straighten them. Maybe he knew the effects his body was having on her and wanted to play with her. The way he moved, so confidant, his shoulders back, giving off an added impression of strength made her knees weak. She couldn’t tell how much of that was from lust, and how much was from her anxiety over the whole situation. She wasn't aware of how she'd dropped her contracts to the floor as he approached. Not until it was too late for her to pick them up.

Stepping on those contracts put him toe to toe with her.

Even with heels on, her eyes came up to his chin, meaning she wouldn't be unpleasantly short even without the shoes. Why was she thinking about that right now? That wasn’t what she should be thinking about.

"I asked you a question." He kept his voice low as he reached up and gently brushed back a stray lock of her black hair. She didn’t move. She couldn’t. "Why can't I ask you to have sex with me?"

Isla shook her head. "It's not right."

"That's the best you can do? ‘It's not right’?"

"It's not," she said, getting flustered.

Arturo leaned in slowly, slowly, slowly, so that she wasn't aware they were damn near nose to nose until suddenly they were. She didn't pull away. She wouldn’t make herself look small and weak by doing that.

"I asked if you wanted to have sex with me; isn't that the way it should work?"

Isla briefly bit her lips together. Her voice had a decidedly more breathy note to it when she spoke again. "That's not how it works."

"But wouldn't it be easier if it did?" he asked. He reached up and touched her wrist. The skin-to-skin touch was intense. Isla’s heart jumped as her body warmed. "I saw the way you were looking at me. Why wouldn't I have asked you to have sex with me? You're a beautiful woman, and you're obviously attracted to me."

"No, I'm not," Isla said, shaking her head and backing up.

He released her hand and straightened. He put his hands in his pockets, which just made his pants hang lower. Any lower and she’d be able to see his pubic hairs.

Don’t look down. Don’t look down.

“You might as well stop fighting it. I can tell you’re already mine. There’s no mistaking that look on your face.”

"You just fucked that blonde chick in another room, and you honestly believe I'm going to think that's sexy enough to jump on your… uhm…."

Her face became molten lava hot as she reached up and scratched behind her ear.

Yeah, she was a curser when it came down to it, but otherwise, she didn't like to swear out loud.

Arturo was looking at her as if he thought it was cute. "You can say it. You want to jump on my cock."

The tense bunching of her shoulders happened immediately. "That's not what I was going to say!"

He grinned at her. "Sure you weren't."

Her hands trembled as she glared at him. He was looking at her lips like they were something interesting.

Arturo stepped off the contracts she'd dropped. "Do you want me to sign these, or not?"

Isla looked down, noted the way the papers were wrinkled, and a short cry left her mouth as she quickly got to her knees to pick them up. Only then did she realize the position she’d put herself in, and she froze.

Arturo reached down and took her by the chin, forcing her to look up at him.

She did, reluctantly.

"You have no idea how sexy you look right now, in those high heels, on your knees in front of me like this. If we both want to fuck each other, why bother with fighting it?"

Isla glared at him, shaking her head and dislodging his fingers from her chin. "I don't want to fuck you."

She struggled to get to her feet, and Arturo had to pull her up by her elbow. That kind of shocked her. That he would tease her like this and still help her to her feet.

She didn't move, once again seeming to be stuck in the spell he had on her.

He smiled at her, still sexy and confidant with what he said. "Yes, you do."

She snarled at him. A rage she didn’t think she’d ever felt before in her life consumed her, and she did something that shocked even her.

She slapped him.

"Forget it," she snapped, spinning on her heels and moving for the door before she could stop and think about what she’d just done.

"You sure you don't want me to sign those papers?"

She stopped at the door. She didn't turn to face him.

He stepped closer to her. She could hear it in his voice as he got closer.

"When my father sent me to scope out your boutique—"

She spun on him. "That's what you were there for?"

Arturo’s father had used shark tactics on Isla’s family boutique. He sued them until they were forced to sell the business to him. Isla’s grandfather hadn’t done anything wrong, stolen any designs, or broken any contracts. It was impossible since the King family and the Calendri family had never done business before. That wasn’t the point of it. Arturo’s father could afford the lawyer fees and court costs a lot more than Isla’s family could.

The fact that Arturo had been sent there that day to see if there was anything worth taking made her all the more furious.

“Of course that was it,” Arturo said. “What else would I have been there for? I saw you looking at me and thought, ‘That's one gorgeous woman. I'd love to show her a good time.’"

She felt her face heat up. When he stepped back into her personal space, that heat increased. She wouldn’t be shocked it he could feel that heat radiating from her.

The worst part about it was that she was wet, for him. For this complete jerk, she was breathless and aroused.

"I never forgot about it. I was so damned angry with you when you denied me."

Isla swallowed hard over the lump in her throat. "Because poor, little you never got told no in his life?"

He smiled at that. "Still trying to fight back," he murmured. He let his index finger trail down the sensitive underside of her throat. It felt good when he touched her. Goose bumps prickled over her arms and behind her neck. She bit back a groan.

"It really is adorable how you're trying to pretend you don't want this."

She swallowed. "What do you want? You said you'd sign these papers."

"I didn't say I would sign them," Arturo snapped, his words. "I asked if you wanted me to sign them."

God, how could he be so cruel? Her words came out softly spoken. "Of course I do."

He pushed himself away from her, though he didn't step back. His expression changed slightly, though was still hard. "I'm not trying to scare you."

Her shoulders bunched up. "I'm not scared."

"Sure you're not, but that's all right. I don't need you to do anything now."

Isla was starting to get angry again. She clenched her fists. "What do you want?"

The dancing in his eyes said it all. Now he had her. She’d lost the battle, and he already knew it.

"What I want you to do is go home, take a nice, long bath, and let yourself relax. Think over my offer, and then come back and tell me your decision."

Isla didn't like this. She didn't like this at all.

"What's your offer? I'm assuming it will get these papers signed?"

"It will," Arturo said, nodding.

Why was it that he could still look professional and business-like, even with his shirt unbuttoned?

And why did he have to be one of three guys in the history of her twenty-five years of life that she'd told to go and fuck himself?

Why, why, why?

His dark eyes glittered, and the bastard seemed to know he was about to get what he wanted.

"You are going to be at my complete beck and call for the next four weeks. I won't address you as my girlfriend or even a friend to the public. If anyone wants to snap a picture of us, they can do it and think whatever they want to think."

Arturo Calendri was one of the richest men in the United States. Paparazzi followed him around an awful lot lately after what happened with his mother.

"They're all going to think I'm just with you for sex."

"Good, because that's what I want them to think." He actually bounced from heel to toe, like an excited child about to get something he wanted.

And holy shit, she was thinking about it. She was considering it, and he could probably see it in her eyes.

"My mother might see something like that, so could my daddy, my grandfather."

"Too bad" He shook his head. "Four weeks, or I don't sign."

"I'm not having sex with you."

"Sex is most definitely part of the deal," he said. "At my beck and call, whenever I want it, no exceptions, or else I won't sign those papers and your grandfather loses everything he built and Mommy and Daddy go bankrupt."

Isla sucked in a breath. Her stomach clenched as though invisible hands were kneading dough in there.

"Why are you…? Why are you being so mean? Because I told you to fuck off? That's it? That's your reason for being like this?"

"Do I need more of a reason than that?"

She glared at him. He smiled back at her.

"You have until tomorrow at three pm to decide. If I don't hear anything by then, I'll assume your answer is no."

"Can't you get that blonde girl to hang off you for a month?"

"She never disrespected me, and now you need something from me."

Great.

"Twenty-four hours. Think about it." He smiled sweetly at her, and she knew, she just knew what was coming. “Or you can go and fuck yourself.”

Author Notes: I know Arturo is an asshole here, but trust me he gets better. I promise :D

Thanks so much for reading! Please remember to add this book to your library and subscribe as well ^_^ The more people who subscribe to me, the sooner I can roll out advertising and tipping, and those will really help with the writing process

Hugs and happy reading! Chapter 3 is up right now, I hope you enjoy it!

Mandy