The Billionaire's Prize

After the fashion show on the yacht, Guido’s father had sought her out. At the time she’d taken an instant dislike to the renowned shipping-company CEO. He was so full of himself that he was quite unbearable. Dea’s modest father was a completely different type and so easy to be around. Meeting the puffed-up man’s son was the last thing Dea and her friend Daphne, who had modeled with her, had wanted to do, but she knew she had to be gracious.

Prepared not to like his son, who was probably an obnoxious replica of his father, she’d been shocked to meet his best friend, Rini Montanari, the dark-haired handsome prince standing next to him. At that moment everything else had left her mind. He wasn’t a real prince, but he’d seemed to have stepped right out of her childhood dreams. But Rini hadn’t responded to her as she’d hoped and her world had fallen apart. Of course, that was ages ago...

Tonight she felt she was truly seeing Guido for the first time and not just as Rini’s best friend. It had been unfair to judge him because of his father. This was important to Rini and Alessandra. For that reason she made up her mind to be a good sport and act friendly. Why not? If nothing else, she might be able to talk him into meeting Gina’s fiancé after a game, or giving Aldo an autographed team poster or something.

Dea left the bedroom and hurried down to the foyer, where the others had congregated. Rini glanced at her. “While we were waiting, we flipped a coin. You’re on Guido’s team.” He smiled broadly. “My wife is on mine.”

“Hmm. I wonder how that happened. Sorry, Guido.” Dea rolled her eyes at him. “You got the bad end of this deal.”

“Why don’t I show you a few moves before we start.” He was holding the soccer ball. “Who knows what can happen?”

She chuckled. “I’m game if you are. Let’s go.”

They left the castle and walked around to the back, where the cruiser was pulled up to the dock in the distance. Rini and Alessandra had moved on to draw boundary lines in the sand.

While Guido explained the basic rudiments of the sport to her, there was no chitchat. He was all business. No doubt the players on his team held him in awe.

“The whole point of the game is to prevent the other team from driving the ball forward and scoring. One of the first basic moves is to take a big side step and pull the ball with you to put space between you and the enemy.”

“Show me.”

“It goes like this.”

Dea watched his hard-muscled body and legs do the move with sheer masculine grace and speed. Whoa. She smiled. “Do that again.”

He did it five more times. No matter how she anticipated what he was going to do, she couldn’t react fast enough to stop him.

“Again!”

This time she was desperate to succeed. Refusing to let him elude her, she made a flying leap and tackled him with all her strength. They both went down. She turned over to look at him, trying to catch her breath, but laughter kept bubbling out of her. “I’m sorry.”

“No, you’re not.” He lay there looking at her before bursting into laughter himself. Their faces were so close she could tell his incredible blue eyes were smiling. Guido Rossano was a sensational-looking man. How could she not have noticed before today?

His gaze continued to play over her features. “For a first soccer lesson, you did well. You’d make an excellent player in American football—tackling is what they do in their football games. Tackling isn’t what we do in soccer. Who would have thought?”

“Forgive me. I got so frustrated I didn’t know what else to do.”

“You’ve got all the right instincts, but you need to refine your technique to soccer or you’ll get thrown out of the game.”

“Hey, you two?” Rini called from a distance. “Are we going to play, or what?”

“I need to show her a few more moves before we start,” Guido shouted back.

Guilt swept over her as he helped her to her feet. Conscious of their clasped hands, she eased hers from his grip. As his eyes focused on hers, her heart skipped a beat for no good reason. “We’ll start with the lift, step and go.” He put the ball on the ground. “Use your foot to push it toward me and watch.”

Dea was loving this. She started moving the ball toward him. He lifted his foot as if to do a sideward motion. But it was a fake move. He stepped forward and drove the ball away from her. She groaned.

“Let’s do that again.”

She pushed the ball three more times, but he evaded her every time. “You’re amazing!”

“Not amazing. I’ve been doing this move since childhood.”

“No wonder Aldo idolizes you.” After four tries she got the hang of it.

“Okay. Now what’s the next move called?”

“You’re not tired yet?”

“No, but maybe you are.”

His hard jaw rose a fraction and he put his hands on his hips in a totally male stance. “This one is called the chip shot. Come toward me, moving the ball with your feet.”

She did his bidding and thought he would push the ball forward, but he chipped it instead so it flipped up, catching her off guard.

“Oh! I like that move. I want to try it.” But with her next effort, she used too much force and fell on her derriere. He chuckled and helped her to her feet.

“Try once more.”

Dea did her best and stayed upright.

“Bravo. You’re ready. Let’s try out those moves on them before they decide they want to go home.”

“You think I can do it?”

“We’re about to find out.” The way he smiled made him look like a devilishly handsome blond pirate with a wicked gleam in his eyes. How odd that she’d never dreamed of a tall blond pirate prince before...

* * *

The guys played goalie so the girls could battle it out. Guido hadn’t had so much fun in years and was silently betting on Dea to outplay Alessandra.

Right away it became clear that Rini hadn’t taught Alessandra any special moves. She could run and scrap, but Dea pulled a few moves on her with an expertise that shocked Guido. In the end, Team Scatto Roma took the honors over Team Montanari. Again he was surprised she’d caught on so quickly and he discovered he was proud of her.

Alessandra eyed the three of them. “Now it’s the men’s turn. You and I will play goalie, Dea.”

“I’m ready.”

“It’s too dark out,” Rini protested.

His wife smiled. “Since when has that ever stopped you? I’m counting on you to win for our side.”

Guido turned to his friend. “Come on. Let’s show the girls how the game is played.”

“You’re on.”

Before they spread out, Guido took Dea aside. “Try not to let the ball get past you. Do whatever you need to do.”

“I’m afraid Rini will kick it so hard I won’t stand a chance, but I’ll try.”