Billionaires: The Hero: A Deal for the Di Sione Ring / The Last Di Sione Claims His Prize / The Baby Inheritance

“First of all,” he said, “you are here to learn. So learn. The most valuable thing you can do over the next year is to sit back and listen, soak up everything that’s being said, conduct your own analysis, and afterward, when it’s just the two of us, you can ask any questions you may have.

“Secondly, I want you to watch the people in this meeting or any meeting we’re in. Watch their body language, look for their nonverbal cues, because they are often more telling than what is coming out of their mouth. Always look for an angle, because everyone has an angle in business, an agenda they’re walking into the room with. Understanding these goals and different agendas is a crucial skill in any negotiation—antagonistic or friendly.”

“I’ve been told my father was brilliant with people.” A proud light entered Mina’s eyes. “He once solved a strike that had been going on for weeks at one of our plants by walking into the picket lines and hashing out a deal with the workers.”

“Which translates into my third rule,” said Nate. “I want you to be a problem solver. Come to me with a solution, not an issue.”

She nodded. “Bene.”

“That’s it for now.” He nodded toward the report. “Profits have been sagging over the past year at the Emelia. We need to light a fire under things. See what you think.”

* * *

The meeting with Giorgio and the Emelia management team went worse than Nate had expected. Complacency had set in at the hotel and it seemed his general manager had no plan how to lift sagging profits because he didn’t think he had a problem.

“The market is down, Nate,” Giorgio soothed in that smooth-as-silk voice of his. “We’re doing everything we can to entice new customers to the hotel, but we can’t manufacture them.”

Nate directed a look at Mina. “Was the Giarruso’s occupancy rate down this year?”

She frowned. “Not much. I think the manager said five percent.”

“And you are down fifteen percent,” Nate said to Giorgio.

Giorgio put his hand on Mina’s arm as if she were a child in need of correction. “It must have been more than five percent. Perhaps you have the numbers wrong.”

“No,” said Mina. “It was nowhere near fifteen percent.”

Giorgio sat back and crossed his arms over his chest. “What do you propose I do? Alter the economies of the western world? Manipulate the markets? We’ve upped the sales and marketing budgets. The effort is there, Nate.”

“The effort is ineffective.”

Giorgio’s face reddened. Silence fell at the table.

“What about repeat guests?” Mina interjected. “Your number is way down. What if you—”

Nate shot her a withering look. She sat back in her chair and closed her mouth.

“What is your plan of attack for them?” Nate asked Giorgio.

“We’ve done a whole discounted rate campaign. It isn’t moving rooms.”

“Then it isn’t compelling enough.”

Giorgio looked at Mina. “What were you going to suggest?”

Nate nodded tightly at her to go ahead.

“I was thinking of a ‘remember the memories’ type campaign,” Mina said. “I was here in Capri on holidays with my family years ago. When we arrived it brought back such great memories. So perhaps something more emotion based than financial.”

Giorgio steepled his hands together. “I like it.”

Nate liked it, too, but wished the idea had come from his manager and not his protégée. He continued to grill his top man until the end of the three-hour meeting, then mercifully ended it, ushering Mina up to their suite in tight-lipped silence.

“I know,” Mina said in a preemptive strike, the minute the door closed behind them, “I wasn’t supposed to talk. It’s just it was getting painful and I had an idea.”

“Painful is good. Discomfort shakes people up and pushes them outside of their comfort zone. Which, quite frankly, Giorgio needs desperately right now or he will be out of a job.”

Her eyes widened, color washing her cheeks. “I thought by offering up an idea, Giorgio might build on it.”

“And by doing so you undermined my attempt to teach him a lesson. After I told you not to talk.” Nate pinned his gaze on her. “When I put someone in the hot seat I’m doing it for a reason, Mina. So keep your mouth shut.”

She took a step back. “Mi dispiace. I—I didn’t realize that’s what you were doing. It won’t happen again.”

“No, it won’t,” he agreed, his voice sharp as a knife. “Because you will stick to my rules or you won’t play at all.”

She nodded rapidly, pupils as big as saucers, hands clenched by her sides. He did a double take. She was afraid of him?

Then he remembered what she’d just gone through... How intimidating he must look to her at twice her size towering over her. Furious. Mina wasn’t one of his toughened, worldly employees used to his rants. She was a baby chick who’d just taken fledgling steps out of the nest.

He shoved his hands in his pockets and blew out a breath. “Business isn’t the glorified interaction of a tea party, where everyone plays nice and leaves with a smile on their face. It’s a ferociously competitive playground where only the strongest survive. I could leave you in a back office, give you research work and not let you experience what it’s really like, but that’s no way to learn. So find yourself a thick skin, Mina. Learn to be a gladiator, because people’s feelings don’t matter in this game.”

A determined glint entered her eyes as the fear faded from her face. “I can and I will, Nate. I apologize again. I did not mean to undermine your authority.”

“Fine.” He nodded. “Go get changed for the party.”

She started toward her room.

“Mina?”

She turned around. “I thought your idea about the repeat guests was right on the money. Emotional affinity is the reason people will spend money in a downturn. I’m going to direct Giorgio to investigate with his marketing team.”

Her face brightened. It was like the sun had come out. “Grazie, Nate.”

His lips curved. “We’ll see if you’re still saying that after a month with me.”

CHAPTER SIX (#u9e10057e-820a-507c-9f07-14235bd0355e)

“WILL THIS DO?”

Nate shifted his gaze from the smartphone he’d been perusing to the spectacular set of legs in front of him. Moved up past rounded hips outlined in a shimmering midnight blue fabric to a modestly covered but spectacularly presented cleavage. The term less is more came to mind. With Mina less was always more. A man could be forgiven for concluding she was best left entirely unclothed for his undeniable pleasure.

And yet Mina, it seemed, had no idea of just how stunning she was, a fact that only increased her appeal. Lip caught between her teeth, a finger twirling a curl around it, her gaze on his for approval, it amused him to think of what her response would have been had he suggested what would have been on his mind had she been his wife in more than name.

Her eyes on his in the ornate mirror on the wall, her palms flat on the antique table in front of it, her dress around her waist as he put that just taken glow in her cheeks that marked her his.

Mina’s eyes widened. Her lashes came down to fan her cheeks.

“You look stunning,” he said, before he shocked her from here to New York. “The color suits you.”