Seducing His Opposition / Secret Nights at Nine Oaks: Seducing His Opposition. Katherine Garbera
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“He sure does.”
“Abuelita, what would abuelito say if he heard you talking like that?”
“He knows where my heart lies,” she said. “Can I say something to you, tata?”
“Of course.”
“You have never known where your heart lies,” she said. “You were always fixated on getting out of here and doing bigger and better things, but I don’t think you understood the true cost.”
There was truth there. Truth that Selena had never wanted to acknowledge before and she knew that it was time to. Maybe it was because she was thirty now and had made enough mistakes in her life to have really experienced the ups and downs in life. “I think you are right.”
“I know I am,” her grandmother said with a laugh. “Are you thirsty? I need another mojito.”
“Did I hear my lady ask for a mojito?” Tomas asked coming over to them.
Her grandmother stood up and kissed her grandfather. “Yes, you did.”
Selena watched them together and felt a pang in her heart. Her own parents had married young and filled their house with love and laughter and a few tears when it took so long for her mother to have a second child. She wanted what those couples had. That was her destiny. Though she loved her job and her apartment in Manhattan.
“Come and dance with your grandfather,” Tomas said, drawing her to her feet.
“Wouldn’t you rather dance with abuelita?”
“I will dance with her later. Right now I want to dance with my beautiful granddaughter. I’m so happy you’ve come home, tata.”
Enrique was playing music with a strong Latin beat, mixing the contemporary artists with the old ones her grandfather and his brothers liked. The song playing was a samba and she danced with her grandfather, forgetting all of her troubles and her worries. Laughing with her cousins and aunts and uncles over missteps and bumping hips.
She closed her eyes and for a second allowed herself some self-forgiveness and enjoyed being back in the best home she’d ever found. She enjoyed the smile on her grandfather’s face and the way her little brother looked as he spun the music and watched their family.
Her family.
Her eyes met Justin’s and she felt a pulsing start in the very core of her body and move up and over her. She wanted that man. But she could never have Justin and have her family, too. Because no matter what he might say, his objective was always going to be money and hers had to be the heart of this family and the community they lived in.
She turned away from him. She wished she were the big-city woman she’d thought she was. Someone who could have a short-term affair that was about nothing but sex. But a big part of her wasn’t sure that she could. She was still the sheltered Latina she’d always been. And being back here she felt more that woman than ever before.
She wanted more from Justin Stern than just sex. And he could never give her that.
Five
Justin liked Selena’s cousins, Paulo and Jorge. They made him laugh and he understood them because they were both successful businessmen who were used to doing what they had to to get the job done. If only Tomas were a little more like his grandsons, then Justin had the feeling he wouldn’t be facing an injunction.
“I’d love to have you on a committee I’m putting together to make sure that the renovation of the Cuban American marketplace is both profitable and a benefit to Little Havana.”
“I’ll think about it. But my plate is pretty full,” Jorge said.
“I’ll do it,” Paulo said. “We need new investors to come here and I really like what you’ve done with Luna Azul. That’s the kind of club we need down here. And it drives business to my restaurant.”
“That’s the kind of synergy I think we can have at the marketplace.”
“You should call it a Mercado instead of marketplace,” Selena said coming over to join them.
“She’s right,” Jorge said. “I think you should have a Latin music store there. My boys have to drive across town to find the music and instruments they need. And you could tie it to the bands that play at Luna Azul … have them stop in there for a release party or a little concert.”
“I like that idea,” Justin said. But discussing business while Selena was standing so close that she was pressed against his arm wasn’t conducive. He could barely think since all of the blood in his body was racing to his groin and not his brain.
“Did you invite them to be on the community committee?”
“I did,” he said.
“Good, so you are done talking business?” “No,” Justin said.
“He’s like us, tata, he’ll be dead and buried before he stops trying to make a deal,” Paulo said.
Justin laughed and Selena smiled but he could tell that her cousin’s words disturbed her. A few minutes later the food was ready and the other men moved to prepare the platters for everyone to eat. He took Selena’s arm and drew her away from the crowd.
“Why does what Paulo said bother you?” he asked her.
“It just reaffirmed my fears that you are attracted to me because it might make dealing with my family easier,” she said.
That was blunt and honest and he shouldn’t have been surprised, since Selena wasn’t the kind of woman who was tentative about anything.
“I want you,” he said. “That’s it, end of story. If you said to me right now that you were going to keep that injunction in place against my company until we both died, it wouldn’t change a thing. I still want you naked and writhing against me.”
“Lust.”
“We discussed that.”
“I know. And I thought I’d found a solution.” “Vacation fling,” he said.
“It’s the only way to keep this in perspective,” she said.
He understood where she was coming from. He’d watched his own father love a woman who didn’t want him. Not the way he wanted her. It had always been Justin’s fear in relationships. He knew that if he ever fell in love it would dull his razor-sharp edge when it came to business. And he’d been careful to make lust his criterion for a relationship. Never really getting to know the family or friends of the women he slept with.
“I’m not going to lie to you, Selena. I will use whatever means necessary to make that marketplace successful, but that will not change how I feel about you. And I always go after what I want.”
“I bet you get it, too,” she said.
“Yes, I do. Today has been eye-opening for me.”
“Because of that dress I wore earlier?” she asked.
“Partly. I don’t think I’ve recovered full brain function since then.”
She laughed. “It’s nice to know I have a little power over you.”
“You have more than you know. Inviting me here was a very well-played move on your part. Talking to your cousins made me realize that we should be reaching out here more than we do. Luna Azul is successful in this location without community support. Imagine what we could do with support.”
“I have imagined it. That’s why it is important that my grandparents are in on the ground level.”
“I see that. I can’t wait to have the first committee meeting.”
“Me, too,” she said.
“Now about us,” he