Read Online Educating Gina by Debbi Rawlins - Free Book Online

thinking about going with Mondavi.” George abruptly stood. “I haven’t made up my mind yet. Until I do, I expect you to have my normal shipment ready each week.”
    He stormed out of the office before Mike could say another word.
    “Mondavi. Ha!” Gina grunted, and then rattled something off in Italian.
    He turned to stare at her. She looked awfully pleased with herself. Calling George’s bluff didn’t give Mike the same satisfaction. A catalog business could screw up his West Coast plans. The real bite is that it made sense. “You want to tell me about this catalog proposition?”
    Her triumphant look promptly faded. “There is nothing to tell.”
    “Right.”
    She folded her arms across her chest and he tried not to get distracted by the way her shirt pulled across her breasts. “When I was in school I did a paper on such a plan, and I got a very high grade.”
    “But you haven’t presented it to your father or Antonio yet?” he pressed anxiously.
    Her eyes got wide. “No. I have not.”
    Mike sighed at his own paranoia. Still, when Gina did implement her plan, he would undoubtedly be affected. The crazy thoughts started to spar in his head when he abruptly realized what had happened with George.
    “Gina, you could have really pissed the guy off. We can’t afford to chase away business.”
    She frowned. “I am sorry, but he made me angry. He comes in here speaking of Mondavi as if—”
    “Gina.” Mike waited for her to chill out. She lifted her chin but gave him her attention. “When you do get involved with the business, you’re going to have to hold on to your temper, be a little more tactful. Even if a distributor or a supplier does make you mad, and believe me, there’ll be plenty of times when some of those idiots will drive you up a wall.”
    She gave him a funny look. “What do you mean, get involved with the business?”
    “When you go back home and take your place at Scarpetti Wines.”
    She blinked, looking utterly stunned. “I have no place in the business. No Scarpetti woman does.”
    “Of course you do. You studied business in college, right?”
    She nodded, her expression grim. “It does not matter.”
    Mike shook his head. He knew the family was old-fashioned, but Gina was from a new generation. Surely they wouldn’t hold her back. “What a horrible waste of talent.”
    Her eyes lit up. “Me?”
    “You obviously know more than enough about wine making and sales. Maybe you’ll be surprised.” He locked his desk, mostly out of habit, and then stood, suddenly anxious to get the hell out of the office. “Maybe you’ll get back to Tuscany and your father will have a job waiting for you.”
    The sadness returned to her eyes. “The only thing waiting for me will be a wedding.”

    S HE TALKED HIM into taking the subway. But Mike was so damn dazed she could have talked him into just about anything. A wedding? Gina married? To some stranger?
    No, of course the guy wasn’t a stranger. But he was to Mike. Which made no difference in the entire scheme of things. Except he had this damn proprietary feeling going on. He didn’t understand it, but there it was.
    “Are we almost there?” Gina turned her big, almond-shaped eyes to him. She looked all of fifteen.
    But he knew that once she got up, with the tight jeans and snug shirt hiding nothing, the illusion would be gone. “About ten minutes,” he said, and quickly looked the other way, out the opposite window.
    Still, she was too young to be married. Dammit. She was inexperienced. She had to ask to be kissed. Most women nowadays took what they wanted. He wondered if she ever had been kissed. A real tongue-sweeping, down-your-throat kind of kiss. The kind that made a guy so hard he thought he might explode.
    Hell, he wanted to be the first one to show her what it felt like to press bare skin to bare skin, to make her wet and needy. To make her mindlessly grope for him, to make her part her thighs and welcome him inside.
    She