Free The Unwanted Conti Bride (The Legendary Conti Brothers) by Tara Pammi

between them.
    After the depth of emotions she’d seen play out on his face in the conference room, Sophia wasn’t sure she really knew the Conti Devil.
    Her gut said one thing while her history with him, quite the opposite.
    She had just started looking for him when Luca appeared in the carpeted corridor and pulled her into a small, private lounge that was the size of her bedroom at home.
    Cream leather and cream walls greeted her, the quiet luxury of the room markedly different from the business-oriented layout of the rest of the building. Afternoon light poured through the high windows, touching the space with a golden intimacy.
    The most surprising thing about the room, though, was a piano that stood in the corner.
    And in the middle of all that light, stood Luca, looking like a dark angel in his black jeans and white shirt with buttons undone to his chest. Dark olive skin gleamed like burnished metal, beckoning her touch. The leather jacket was gone.
    The devil had intentions. And not good ones, for her mental health. Her body, however, had very different ideas for it was thrumming like an engine ready to take off.
    Sophia rubbed her hands on her hips, had to swallow the butterflies in her throat before she could speak. “What is this place?”
    “My brother’s private lounge.”
    “It is soundproofed, isn’t it?”
    “Si.” He raised a finger and shook it. “Don’t ask me why.”
    Sophia stole a glance at the door as he closed it behind him. “You have key card access?”
    “ Si. Why is that so surprising?”
    “I thought maybe this was the first time you came into the building.”
    He shook his head from side to side, making a thick lock of hair fall on his forehead. “No, I’ve been known to crash here, once in a while. My brother used to be a very hard taskmaster years ago. He’s worked for the company since he was sixteen or seventeen. He refused to leave me alone at home.”
    “Where were your parents?” She’d vaguely heard of a scandal involving their father, Enzo Conti.
    “Absent.” The shrug that accompanied it seemed far too practiced to be real.
    “So, wait, Leandro had this...room built for you?”
    “Si.”
    She looked around the room again, noting the dark, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. At first glance, the subjects were varied from art to space to the leather industry in Italy. “Wow, all this to just keep you out of trouble?”
    “My brother takes his responsibilities very seriously.”
    “Why do you hate them all so much?”
    A shadow flitted over his face and Sophia knew she’d hit the nail on the head. “Will you not move from the door?”
    Evasion. If it didn’t work, he’d smile at her. Or touch her. Or kiss her. She was beginning to see the pattern. She pushed off the door and casually strolled toward the bookshelves. None of the books were for amateur readers and looked quite worn. Who did all these books belong to?
    “I thought it was all a joke to you. I still think a part of it is. You’re like Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream .”
    “A good-looking Puck?”
    She ignored his little quip. “You do your little thing and stand back to watch the explosion. But what happened in that boardroom was more than that.” She turned around to see him standing close. Instantly, she felt the zing in her blood. The hungry clamor to touch him. The simple need to look at him, study him, to her heart’s content. “You let them think you were going to join the board and for all of three minutes, that pack of gray wolves looked terrified. It was kind of funny.”
    He raised a brow. “Gray wolves?”
    She shrugged.
    “Why gray wolves?”
    “They whiff out their prey’s weakness from a considerable distance. They stalk and hunt it until it gives up out of sheer exhaustion. I have seen them all turn on Salvatore these last few months, from the minute things began to get worse, ready to tear Rossi’s out and keep the good parts. Except Leandro, and Kairos, for his own