Seducing His Opposition / Secret Nights at Nine Oaks: Seducing His Opposition. Katherine Garbera

said.

      “Tata?” Justin asked, smiling.

      She glared at her grandfather. “It’s a nickname.”

      She blushed, and it was the first crack he’d seen in her all-business, tough-as-nails shell.

      The business deal was going to go through whether Tomas and his allies wanted it to or not. Justin had already scheduled a round of golf with the zoning commissioner, Maxwell Strong, at the exclusive club he belonged to to get him to change his mind. And over the next week he’d work on finding a way out of the legal hole that Selena had dug for him. But he wanted to see more of her.

      And this committee thing would be perfect. Plus, he did actually want the community behind the project. “Myra, will you set up a meeting time for us … I think we should use Luna Azul. Tomas and Selena will send you a list of people to invite.”

      “I’d like to take a closer look at the plans for the market,” Selena said.

      “I’ll leave you two to discuss that,” Tomas said. “I need to call around and see when everyone will be available to meet.”

      “Myra will show you to an office you can use,” Justin said.

      After Tomas and Myra left the room, Justin studied Selena for a minute. Her head was bent and she was making notes on her legal pad. He noticed that her handwriting was very neat and very feminine.

      “Why are you staring at me?”

      “I thought I already told you that I like the way you

      look.”

      “That wasn’t just you trying to … I don’t know what you were up to. Did you know who I was in that lobby of the zoning office? “

      He shook his head. “No. I wish I had known.”

      “Why?”

      “Maybe I could have talked you out of filing that injunction,” he said with a laugh.

      She chuckled at that. “Wow, that’s putting a lot of pressure on your supposed charm.”

      He grabbed his side pretending she’d wounded him. “Good thing I’m tough-skinned.”

      “You’d have to be in order to work in the neighborhood you do. How did you and your brothers manage to make Luna Azul a success without getting the community behind you?” she asked him.

      “Some locals do frequent the club but we rely on the celebs for business. They bring in their own crowd of followers. We book first-rate bands and we have salsa lessons in the rooftop club … so we do okay. Have you ever been there?”

      She shook her head. “I left Miami before you opened your doors.”

      “Why did you leave?” he asked.

      “None of your business,” she replied with a tight look that told him he’d somehow gone too far.

      “My apologies. I expected you to say you needed some freedom … would you have dinner with me tonight?”

      “Why?”

      “I believe in keeping my enemies close.” “Me, too,” she said. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

      “It is a yes. But I’ll pick the place.” She wrote an address at the bottom of her legal pad and then tore the paper off and handed it to him. “Be there at seven. Dress casual.”

      “Do I need to bring anything?” “Just your appetite.”

      She gathered her things and then stood up and walked out of the conference room. He watched her leave.

      Inviting Justin to her family get-together was inspired. He wanted to do business in this community but he didn’t understand it. This would be his lesson.

      On her way home, she’d driven down to the strip mall to see her grandfather’s store, and it had been run-down more than she expected.

      Something was needed, but an outlet mall or a highend shopping plaza wasn’t it. The Calle Ocho neighborhood leaders wouldn’t stand for. Plus, she wanted to ensure that her grandparents got the best deal possible.

      They had always been at the center of things in Little Havana and she wasn’t about to let Justin Stern take that away from them.

      She also stopped by her house. When she entered, she was swamped with memories but managed to brush them aside as she freshened up and got ready to walk back over to her grandparents’. The last thing she wanted was to be here, she realized. She packed a bag with some clothes she found in the closet, locked the house and pointed her rented convertible toward the beach.

      Her New York law practice had made her a wealthy woman. And considering this was the first real break she’d taken from work in the last eight years she thought she deserved a treat. All she did was work and save her money. Well that wasn’t completely true—she did have an addiction to La Perla lingerie that wouldn’t stop. But for the most part all she did was work.

      So as she pulled up at the Ritz and asked for a suite for the next month, Selena knew she was doing the right thing. She was in luck and was soon ensconced in memory-free luxury. Just what she needed.

      As she was settling in, her cell phone rang and she glanced at the number. It was a local number but not one she recognized. She answered it anyway. “This is

      Selena.”

      “This is Justin. How about if we have drinks at Luna Azul first so you can see the club?” “No.”

      “Just a flat-out no, you aren’t going to even pretend to think it over,” he said.

      “That’s right. I am not staying near there, anyway. I’m at the Ritz,” she said. She was kicked back on the love seat in her living room reading up on Justin on her laptop.

      “How about a drink in the lobby bar?” he suggested. His voice was deep over the phone—very sexy.

      “Why?” she asked. She wasn’t sure spending any time alone with him was the right thing. She wanted to keep it all business between them. That was the only way she was going to keep herself from acting on the attraction she felt for him.

      “I want a chance to talk to you alone. No business—just personal stuff.”

      “No business? Justin, all we have between us is business.” She hoped that making that statement out loud would somehow make it true. She didn’t want to admit to herself or Justin that there was a spark.

      “But we could have so much more.”

      “Ha! You don’t even know me,” she said.

      “That’s exactly what I’m hoping to change. What harm could one drink do? “

      “One drink,” she repeated. Hell, who was she kidding? She was going to meet him. She’d invited him to her welcome-home party so he could get to know her family and not only because of business. She wanted to see how he was with them to get the measure of the man he was.

      “Just one,” he said. “I’ll do my best to be charming and try to convince you to stay for more.”

      “I’m a tough cookie,” she said.

      “I think that’s what you want the world to believe but I bet there’s a softer woman underneath all that.”

      She hoped he never found out. She had tried so hard to bury the woman—girl—she’d been when she’d graduated from the University of Miami and left her hometown behind. Were there still any vestiges of that passionate side of her left after Raul had broken her heart?

      Sure she dated, but she was careful that it was just casual, never letting her emotions get involved. Raul had taught her that the price to be paid for loving foolishly wasn’t one that only she paid. Her grandparents had almost lost their business because of her poor judgment in men, and Selena had vowed to never be