The Moretti Seduction Read Online Free PDF Page A

torn. He really did believe that all was fair in love and war, but this time he didn’t know that he wanted to exploit the weaknesses he found in Nathalie. He would, he knew, but this time he might regret it.
    “Her weakness or Vallerio’s?” Dom asked.
    “Aren’t they the same?” Antonio asked.
    “In most cases I’d say yes, but if you are going to seduce the girl, then I imagine your thinking could get muddled.”
    “I have to remember that. There is no gray area here.”
    “Don’t let Nathalie get her hooks in you. I don’t think Nono’s legacy is going to withstand two of us falling in love.”
    “So you don’t believe that Marco and Virginia have broken the curse?” Antonio asked. He had read the words of Cassia Festa’s curse in the journal that Virginia had. He thought about the curse he’d read.
    My love for you was all-encompassing and never ending and with its death I call upon the universe to bring about the death of your heart and the hearts of succeeding generations.
    As long as a Moretti roams this earth, he shall have happiness in either business or love but never both. Do not disdain the power of my small body. Moretti, you may be strong, but that will no longer help you. I am strong in my will and I demand retribution for the pain you have caused me.
    Virginia might have broken the curse for Marco by combining Festa and Moretti blood, but Antonio wasn’t too sure.
    Dom replied, “Maybe as far as Marco is concerned they have, but I have the feeling you and I aren’t out of the woods yet.”
    “You better be careful, old man. I would never be so weak as to fall for any woman.”
    “That’s what Marco thought.”
    “Our baby brother was distracted by the races. I am not about to be.”
    “Remember that, Tony. We are on the cusp of taking Moretti Motors to heights that it has never seen before,” Dom said.
    Antonio knew that better than anyone. He and his brothers had been born to a legacy of both pride and powerful determination but also to the curses that Lorenzo Moretti had left behind. This mess with the Vallerio family was only one of them. If Dom was right and Marco managed to appease the curse put on them by Cassia Festa, Lorenzo’s spurned lover, then thank the stars. The fact that no generation of Moretti men had ever been lucky in business and in love wasn’t going to be easily forgotten by either himself or Dom.
    “Do I have your permission to act without checking in?” Antonio asked.
    “Why?”
    “I might need to act quickly to get Nathalie to agree.”
    “Nathalie?”
    “Ms. Vallerio.”
    “Yes, you can act without checking in with the board. I will back you. But make sure that you get the results we need, Tony.”
    “Have I failed you yet?”
    “No. No, you haven’t.”
    He rang off with his brother and entered his house. The town house was opulently decorated and quiet at this time of night. He had never noticed the silence of the place before, but tonight with Dom’s words echoing in his head and after the evening he’d spent with Nathalie, he wondered if he, like Nono, was doomed to spend his life alone.

    Nathalie had a restless night’s sleep and woke early. She stood on the balcony of her hotel suite and looked out over the city of Milan. In the distance she saw Duomo and heard the bells of the cathedral still calling the faithful to worship. She touched the small gold cross at her neck and thought of her father.
    He wanted her to succeed because it had been his aunt who had been so badly used by Lorenzo, and his father who had been duped by his onetime friend.
    She took a sip of her cappuccino and leaned back in the cushioned wrought-iron chair. Her family wasn’t used to failing. After their disastrous business deal with Lorenzo Moretti, the Vallerios had made it their mission to never walk away from any deal the loser.
    And Nathalie followed a proud tradition of being the one to make sure that her family won.
    There was a knock on her hotel door