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‘Oh, Bianca, that’s so exciting.’ The younger woman beamed, probably because she was now in possession of one of the best bits of gossip this evening. He knew how women’s minds worked.
‘Yes, isn’t it?’ Bianca bounced back, her smile firmly planted on those painted red lips.
‘And what a ring.’ The woman cooed.
Bianca unashamedly showed off the large diamond ring he’d bought for the purpose. Every dollar it had cost proving to be a worthwhile investment.
‘We should take our seats, my love.’ Liev spoke softly and smiled down at her face as she turned to look up at him. Briefly her eyes filled with question, and then she smiled. A knowing smile that told him she knew exactly what he was doing.
‘Yes, darling,’ she said huskily, then turned back to the other woman. ‘It’s so nice to be looked after.’
Liev guided her through the guests, aware of the curious glances of women and the sometimes suspicious glares of the men. He knew that without Bianca he would never be accepted into their world, no matter how many millions he had. They closed ranks against strangers and self-made men like him, but with her at his side, those ranks were beginning to move apart.
* * *
Bianca seated herself at her designated table. Her name-card nestling close to Liev’s seemed strangely intimate, and as it had done when she’d first opened her apartment door this evening, her pulse began to race erratically, unsettling her more than she cared to admit.
He stood behind her as she took her seat and rested his hand on the back of her chair, leaning down to bring his head close to hers. She turned to look at him, startled by the realisation that she was close enough to kiss him. What would his kiss be like? Brief and cold or hard and demanding? Either would suit him. He smiled at her and she seriously wondered if he was second-guessing her thoughts. She blushed, worried that he knew she was thinking about kissing him.
‘You look beautiful this evening.’ His voice was deep and sultry and a new kind of intensity filled those icy grey eyes, warming them so they resembled the ocean as the sun’s midday rays danced on it.
‘Thank you.’ She wanted to lower her gaze, to break the tension which suddenly seemed to zip between them. She would have to be cautious. Liev Dragunov, her three-month fiancé and blackmailer, possessed charms that could be lethal to an inexperienced heart such as hers. A heart that had been torn apart by deceit and disappointment before it had even had the chance to truly experience love.
Strangely self-conscious, she looked away as more guests arrived at their table, and very soon the intimacy they’d just experienced was lost in a flow of conversation. Liev became immersed in a discussion with the other men and she was surprised to hear the pride in his voice when he spoke of his company.
She tried to concentrate on the women’s talk of the latest Broadway show but she couldn’t help listening to Liev, wishing he was talking to her like that. She felt the barriers she always kept well and truly up lowering as her curiosity increased about the man she was now engaged to. Sitting at the table, with others about them, she was more relaxed about being in his company, somehow tuned into his mood.
By the end of the meal she’d heard enough snippets of conversation to have built up a good picture of him, something she liked to do before representing a new client, but never before had she heard it indirectly from the client themselves. It was also what she’d tried to do when he’d initially contacted her. She recalled that gut instinct she’d had that there was more to him than he let anyone see and that he was as determined as he was unstoppable.
Now, to her cost, she knew that to be true. Liev Dragunov would stop at nothing to get what he wanted.
‘It has been a very successful evening.’ He took her hand from where it rested on her lap, startling her out of her thoughts. She glanced around to see just one of the four couples who’d joined them at their table remained, deep in their own conversation.
‘Yes.’ She forced the word out, but it sounded like a husky whisper, so she fixed him with a bold glare, only to find that smile which never fully showed tugging at the corners of his lips. ‘I’d like to go home now. I have a busy day tomorrow preparing for a customer launch.’
‘Your brother?’ His thumb caressed her hand, making her skin tingle and distracting her far too much, but his voice had a granite-hard edge to it.
‘Yes. As you obviously overheard earlier, my brother Dario is launching a new product next month.’ Irritated that he’d listened to her conversation, she snapped the words out. For some absurd reason, she didn’t want him to know anything about her family. It wasn’t as if they were really engaged. All she was doing was opening doors for him.
‘You, too, overheard much of my conversation if I’m not mistaken, Bianca.’ The feral warning in his eyes made them glint like ice in the morning sun, but she refused to be intimated by him. Blackmail was enough.
‘I didn’t realise you’d built your business up from nothing.’ Her honest curiosity got the better of her as did the need to rein in the increasing tension. ‘You will, of course, need to tell me more about yourself if I am to represent your company.’
‘Providing you tell me more about yourself.’ His eyes flared briefly with amusement, like a firework before it melted into the night sky.
‘I don’t think so.’ There was no way she was going to open up to this man and tell him about her family. She didn’t want to reveal the nightmare of losing her parents when she was so very young and the difficulty of growing up in the spotlight without them. He probably knew already, but she didn’t want to have to tell him anything. ‘I’d like to go home now.’
‘Very well.’ He stood up and she suddenly became overwhelmed by him. As she sat there and looked at him, at the broad width of his shoulders, she felt almost helpless, as if he’d somehow taken every last bit of control from her. She didn’t like it one bit. Just as Dominic had done, he was using her for who she was, what she could offer him. The only difference this time—Liev had something she needed.
She stood up, her height in heels almost coming close to matching his, but when he put his arm around her back, his hand resting on her waist and pulling her against him, she knew her ability to hold it all together much longer was slipping away. He was eroding her ever-present mask of confidence faster than the tide wiped away footprints in the sand.
‘I will get a taxi.’ All she wanted was to be on her own, to cease this charade of newfound love.
‘What kind of fiancé would that make me if I allowed you to go home alone in a taxi? I will at least take you to your door, Bianca.’
Aware that they were being watched and that getting the bracelet back rested on how quickly he was accepted by people like these, she smiled sweetly at him, placing her hand on his arm and leaning against him seductively. ‘I can’t think of anything better.’
His finger tipped up her chin, forcing her to look directly into the icy heart of his eyes. The world around them stopped turning and nothing else exis
