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The man he had promised to destroy should that man ever abuse his power. Such was their bond.
Such was his dedication.
But now... Lusting after his brother’s fiancée made him compromised.
It compromised that promise. Compromised what he was. What he claimed to be.
His phone rang.
It was Matteo. As if his brother could feel his betrayal from across the continent.
“Yes?”
“We have been successful,” Matteo said. “Monte Blanco will now be included in the United Council. My mouse has proven herself indispensable yet again.”
“Is she in the room with you?”
“Of course she is.”
Javier didn’t even have the right to scold his brother for that. Not at this point. He had lost his right to a moral high ground of any kind.
“When do you return?” he said, his voice heavy.
“Two days. We have to make a stop in Paris for a diplomatic meeting.”
“I suppose, then, that it is good you spent all those years studying business.”
“Yes. Not the way our father did it, but there are similarities to diplomacy in business and when it comes to running a country. Of course, the bottom line is not filling your own pockets in the situation.”
“No indeed.”
The bottom line was not about satisfying themselves at all.
It stung particularly now. As he thought of Violet. As he thought of the deep, gut-wrenching longing to touch her.
And the anger that crept in beneath his skin. Anger that was not at himself, though it should have been. Anger at the cruelty of fate. That he should want this woman above all others when she was perhaps the only woman in the world who was truly off-limits to him.
He was a prince. He could snap his fingers and demand that which he wished.
Except her.
The insidious doubt inside of him asked the question. Was that why he wanted her? Was that why she presented a particular appeal? Because she was forbidden.
Because she was forbidden to him and no matter how hard he tried to pretend otherwise, he was born a man with a massive ego who didn’t feel that a single thing on the earth should be barred from him should he take to it.
No. He would not allow it.
He would not allow that to be true.
“I look forward to your return.”
“How is my fiancée?”
“Not exactly amenable to the idea of being your fiancée,” he said.
It was the truth. Everything else could be ignored. For now.
“I must say, the connection between myself and her is one of the things that made our meetings the most interesting. She is well liked, world-renowned for her business mind. Such a fantastic asset to me she will be.”
