Chapter Eleven: Can't You?
When it came to women, Marco Maselli had gotten his share. He'd had the virgins, and he'd had the seasoned pros. He'd had the ones who wanted it rough and the ones who wanted to pretend they were the Queen of England.
But nothing could have prepared him for Mary Stuart.
"Marco! Sit up straight when I'm talking to you. Damn it, man, are you even listening to me?"
"What? Yeah, sure, baby. Sure." Marco knew how Elizabeth O'Hara hated it when he called her baby. Especially when she was holding a secret meeting behind her cousin's back. The other men in in the room were all corporate suits, all loyal to her. All interested in money and nothing else. None of them had been up to 4 AM trying to keep up with Mary Stuart. Underneath the angelic face and schoolgirl manner was a very naughty and very inventive woman. As trusting and innocent as she appeared in public, when it came to sex Mary was very energetic and completely uninhibited. Marco felt exhausted all the time, except when he felt guilty as hell. He still hadn't told Mary the truth about who he was working for. He told himself that ruining her reputation was just a job.
But it was eating into him more and more.
". . . never would have believed she would get the Moray clan to give her a second chance," Elizabeth grumbled. The tall, sexy redhead rubbed her temples with her fingertips. It was clear that Elizabeth wasn't sleeping all that well either, except she was up all night plotting and scheming while her sweet blonde cousin was up making Marco spend every last ounce of his manly strength in her arms. "You may be sleeping with her, finally, but you're still not delivering what you promised. You were supposed to destroy her credibility, not drive her out to their country place so she could charm that old fool into bankrolling her ridiculous charity projects!"
"Well, there's no way around it, the old man is fond of her," Marco shrugged his broad shoulders. "I tried everything I could think of to keep her from meeting him, but she went out there all the same. If he and his sons all show up to the next board meeting, they're sure to vote you down. And Mary will go right on running Tudor enterprises."
"Yes, if they show up all is lost. But wait!" Elizabeth paused, regarding Marco's swarthy face and hulking physique like a foul witch selecting a particular brand of poison. "If we can't stop the Morays from coming to the meeting, we can stop Mary. You can stop Mary. If she misses the board meeting the motion will fail. And everyone will see she's not ready for the leadership role!"
"Yeah, but I can't just tie her to the bed . . ." Marco began. Then he stopped, a wave of dread running down his spine like an icy chill.
"Can't you?" Elizabeth O'Hara asked.