Opposites Do Most Certainly Attract!

Outsmarted, by whom?

Dante merely raised his eyebrows at Scarlett's statement about her great great grandmother's smartness and waited for her to battle wits with him some more - he loved it! Wait, what? Clearly, he'd spent more time at her office than he'd intended - he was losing it. If he were to be honest though, he'd admit she was so combative it made his blood pulse. When was the last time someone had contested, disagreed or argued with him over something? Had it ever happened? The answer was 'no'. It was thrilling.

"Well yes, because she must have known deep down that she was in danger of losing everything since she'd lost her husband and children. She had to keep the house. You know, collateral? So she kept the deed to the house and passed it on to her eldest child. Quick question, how did your great great grandfather get another deed made, because that would be illegal since the house already had a deed." Scarlett asked with a little frown between her brows making her look very very serious. Dante wondered if she wore glasses when reading...

"How do we know it's not your great great grandmother who had another deed made?" he asked to mask his growing fascination with everything 'Ms. Kane'.

"With your great great grandfather's signature on it? And my great great grandma's signature as well? How could she accomplish that if it wasn't your great great who orchestrated everything? If she forged it, why would she include his name on it?" she stood up and walked to the window behind her chair feeling a headache coming on.

Dante stood up as well, hands in his pockets, "You have a point, the deed I have has only my great great grandfather's signature - who outsmarted who?" he frowned as well because he was sure by now that both deeds had his grandfather's signature and they were authentic. "Could it be that he came home after finding out about the other lover and had another deed made? With the same owner?"

Scarlett whirled around with gasp, "That's exactly what I was thinking! He wanted to teach her a lesson for daring to cheat with someone else! And it would have worked had it not been for having already made the first deed." she concluded, eyes wide with realisation and then suddenly, "How to prove that though because, believe it or not, Mr. Valenti, the house has to stay or go with one family." she reminded him.

"Things have really changed from what I thought originally - I mean, we're supposed to be mortal enemies according to my late grandfather. And now, the property in question has two deeds!" Dante slowly paced around her office in frustration.

"Tell me something, Mr. Valenti - " she started only to be stopped with a "Please call me, Dante - I think we've come a long way from trying to solve this confusion for you to call me by the name all my ancestors have had."

Scarlett was this close to blushing, this close! And the man wasn't even flirting with her! He was simply trying to have her put in less effort in saying his name. " Of course, Dante. I guess you can call me, Scarlett then because Ms. Kane sounds too serious considering our ancestors have indulged in really unscrupulous things." she said with a little professional smile that was intended to keep things very professional. "I was wondering about something though, from the time I started talking to you about this 'matter', you've not really seemed that interested enough to be fanatical about this whole thing... Why's that?"

"Because I'm richer than Midus already." He said with a very unembarrassed look, not at all sounding arrogant but surprised that she should ask. "I didn't see the point of fighting over some house in England no matter how much my family talked about the 'wicked Whichams'. We're wealthy enough as it is." he shrugged an unconcerned shoulder.
Did this mean he didn't care at all how this ended?

"That doesn't mean though that I don't care about the house going to the family it rightfully belongs to, of course."

There goes that thought, Scarlett thought as she inwardly sighed.
"Of course. Now, two deeds, Dante. We need to fix this fast, I want my grandma to stop worrying." she clearly didn't have a problem using his name, Dante thought as current went through his body at her very American way of pronouncing his name. With that sexy breathless voice that made it seem like she was not talking about the problem they were facing and instead about something more sinful, hot - she was really hot.