of the top hotel chains in the world, and under some of the most successful men and women in the industry. By twenty-eight he’d opened the doors to the first in his goal of many luxury boutique hotels catering to a specific jet-setting demographic. He’d put in the time and sweat, and now it was about to pay off. Hosting the Showdown at his hotel would not only put the Napa Grand back on the map, it also would have made his parents proud.
And he was damn proud. Which was why he’d called his brothers first thing. Everyone made mistakes, but a man knew when to admit that he was in trouble and had the balls to come clean and then ask for help. Doing it alone to prove he could wasn’t worth screwing this up.
“Yeah, Trey. I want to do this next year and the year after that and hold this event every year on Mom and Dad’s anniversary in my hotel. And I know what seems to you like a bunch of errors and spontaneous decisions on my part is really just a clusterfuck of bad luck. I swear to you that I researched this, made sure the hotel was financially secure enough. But you all know that in business things happen. Even with the best planning and intentions, sometimes it goes wrong. That’s all this is.”
Marc held his breath, watching his brothers watching him, and waiting to see how they would react. If they decided to let him go it alone, he’d still come out on top, but he hoped that it didn’t come to that.
“Thanks for clearing that up,” Trey said, face hard. “Because we’d be totally screwed if you hadn’t intended or planned on sleeping with one potential caterer while playing grab-ass with the other in front of town hall.”
“You’ve been talking to ChiChi.”
“ChiChi, Abby, Mrs. Moberly, my damn postman.” Trey shook his head. “You’re the tiebreaker, man. No matter which one you choose, it will look bad. I get it, they’re hot, but couldn’t you keep it in your pants for just another few weeks?”
Now it was Marc’s turn to stand and take an aggressive step forward, around his desk and right into his kid brother’s face. “Natasha is old news, and Lexi is off-limits. Understand?” He underscored his stance on the topic with a shove to the shoulder. “And since when is my personal life any of your business?”
“Since you decided to crawl into bed with the ex-wife of our business partner.” Trey moved forward until they were breathing the same air and fighting over the same space. Trey was not only the youngest, he was also the shortest by two inches, a difference which he made up for with the enormous chip on his shoulder. “What part of litigation don’t you get?”
“Even if I was sleeping with Lexi, which I’m not—”
“But you want to,” Gabe stated quietly.
Marc opened his mouth and immediately closed it. He did want to sleep with Lexi. So bad. Even though every piece of his moral fiber dictated that he stay away, he was finding her harder and harder to resist.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Gabe said, patting him on the back. “Now have a seat. In about ten minutes my wife is going to start calling to ask where I am. About a minute after that I’ll remember that today is Tuesday, which means that Holly is at ChiChi’s and my wife, who has had a long month and needs some pampering, was calling me from bed.”
“Is that what they are calling it these days?” Nate asked.
Gabe shot Nate a look. “Do you want to fix this mess or let them bitch at each other some more? Because either way”—he looked at his watch—“in nine minutes I’m out of here.”
A few months ago, Marc would have thought Gabe was joking. The mighty head of the DeLuca family, business god and wine tycoon, choosing to pamper a woman over going to battle for the family business. Marc and Gabe might have different styles, but the one thing they had always shared was the love of business. The bigger the stakes, the bigger the rush.
Yet somehow over the past few months Gabe had become domesticated. Then again, Gabe looked happier when he was with Regan than he’d ever looked in a boardroom, and suddenly Marc wanted to solve this problem. Not for the stroke to the ego, but because he would rather be next door tasting Lexi’s new creation