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‘Our engagement!’ She almost choked over the words. ‘We are not, under any circumstances, going to become engaged.’
He moved closer to her, intent clearly etched on his face. She wanted to back away, to remove herself from danger, but if there was one thing her past had taught her, it was to face things sooner rather than later. As this thought raced through her mind, he laid out the final terms of his deal.
‘If you want to stand any chance of getting your precious bracelet back, we will become engaged.’ He said the words so softly, all but whispering them in her ear, that to anyone watching they would have looked like lovers. She backed away, bumping into someone passing behind her. She didn’t apologise. She couldn’t speak. All she could think of was his cruel terms.
‘What?’ Finally she managed to speak, the word so loud people nearby glanced over at them. She tried to decipher what he’d said, but her mind was so shocked and muddled it was impossible.
‘We will become engaged.’
‘I have no intention of becoming engaged and certainly not to a man like you.’ She glared angrily at him, totally shocked he could even be suggesting such a thing just to gain entry into a world he was obviously not born into. A world he didn’t belong to.
‘A man like me? A thief and a nobody?’ He snarled the words at her, his voice a low growl, laced with menace.
She lifted her chin, not wanting to show him her fear. ‘That’s not what I meant and you know it.’
‘For your information, if I had a choice, I would not be engaged to a spoilt little rich girl such as yourself.’
She smarted at his inference that she was materialistic and counted every last gem and diamond she owned. It was so far from the truth it was laughable, but right now she couldn’t laugh.
‘Then why an engagement?’
‘It is a means to an end. After three months of our engagement, during which you will ensure the doors of New York society open to me, you will have your bracelet.’
‘No.’ She was aghast. She’d already worked out he wanted to use the bracelet as leverage to his own ends, but an engagement? ‘We can never be engaged. There must be another way.’
‘You said yourself that you alone at my side wouldn’t achieve my aims.’ His voice was calm and steady. The idea of fooling all of New York’s society obviously didn’t bother him as it did her. How could she go out and face them as his fiancée?
He’d lured her into the biggest trap she’d ever seen and she’d inadvertently set it herself, giving him all the ammunition he needed. Her first instinct about him had been right. He was trouble. Ruthless trouble.
‘I won’t do it.’
‘Then you will not be able to add the bracelet to your collection of trinkets.’ He raised his brows and a cruel smile spread over his lips.
‘You purposefully bid for something I wanted just to satisfy your own greed?’
‘Yes.’ He wasn’t at all shamed by her statement—if anything, he was proud of it.
‘That’s blackmail.’ She raged against him and the injustice of it all. What was she going to tell her grandfather now?
‘Not blackmail, Ms Di Sione. Business. Now do we have a deal?’
* * *
Liev watched the horrified realisation spread across Bianca’s face. Waiting for her answer was merely a formality. There was no question as to what it would be. Whatever that bracelet represented, the one that had already cost him far more than he’d bid for it, her answer was going to be the same.
‘If I say no, that I won’t become your fake fiancée, that I will find someone else to play that part, will you allow me to buy the bracelet? Today?’
He couldn’t believe she’d asked that, but he liked the phrase fake fiancée. That part of his plan for revenge had only emerged after he’d overheard her talking to her sister in the private lounge in Geneva. Each time she’d placed a bid she’d backed up that snippet of conversation. She would do anything to get that bracelet and obviously wasn’t familiar with poker because all her emotions had been visible on her face as she’d bid.
‘Absolutely not.’ He spoke calmly, assured that with Bianca as his fiancée instead of merely his current date, his acceptance in society would be quicker, and what better way was there of gaining the information he needed on her brother’s company and getting to the person responsible for his father’s downfall?
‘I suspected you were ruthless, but this is barbaric.’ She spat the words at him, reminding him of the feral cats he’d shared the streets with when he’d been little more than a boy.
‘Correct me if I’m wrong, Ms Di Sione, but you do not have a significant other in your life, nor have you had for many years.’ He watched her eyes narrow in suspicion, and a flicker of a smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. Briefly he considered what it would be like to be the man in her life. She was so icy cold, so inaccessible, he was sure that when the sparks of passion flew they would be earth-shattering. But he’d fallen prey to one such woman before and had no intention of doing so again.
‘That has nothing to do with this.’
‘Ah, but it does. How can we convincingly become engaged if it is believed you are in love with another man?’
He felt a small tug at his conscience as she fought to control the panic that was clear on her pale face. The idea of being engaged to him obviously horrified her and he wondered just who would be her chosen man.
* * *
‘There must be someone else. I can’t be the only person who can propel you into society.’ Bianca looked at him, hardly able to believe he was serious. His stance and his hardened expression left her in no doubt how serious he was. He meant every word. It was the only way of getting the bracelet, and hadn’t she admitted to herself she’d do anything to get it?
‘No. Not if you want the bracelet.’
‘You are the lowest.’ She wanted to hiss at him, to let him know just how angry she was, but astutely she realised that would give the bracelet even more importance in his eyes. He must never know exactly how much she wanted it—or why. If he knew that, he would have all the power.
‘It has been said.’ His cold, somewhat distant reply didn’t make sense, but she didn’t care about what he felt. All she cared about was fulfilling Grandfather’s last wishes. If she had to do it this way, then so be it—for now at least. She would do everything she could, as quickly as she could, to give this man what he wanted. But did she trust him to keep his word?
‘It will never, under any circumstances, be a proper engagement. It will certainly not last any longer than three months, after which time you will give me the bracelet.’ She set out her terms. Events of ten years ago and the bets that had been placed on her at the prom, by the man she’d loved from afar, surfaced like demons from the past.
She thought she was over that humiliation. It had scarred her emotionally, making her determined to keep men locked out of her heart. She’d walked away from that experience a virgin, her reputation intact and with a vow never to be so naive again, and had been unable to trust a man since. And she certainly didn’t trust Liev Dragunov one bit. Not when he had the one thing she had to have, giving her little choice but to agree to his terms.
‘In fact,’ she began again before he could say anything, ‘if you achieve your objectives before that time, our engagement will end and you will give me the bracelet.’
‘You sound sure you can do this.’ His voice held a note of suspicion as she looked up at him, resisting the urge to just walk away and forget it all. But she couldn’t. She had to do this—and she would.
‘The only problem I have will be convincing everyone I have fallen for such a...’ She floundered over her words, hating herself for it.
‘Such a what?’
She looked at him. Everything about him shouted wealth and power, but it couldn’t hide the untamed man within. It was something that would attract women, but she was not one of those women. Never had been and never would be.
‘A ruthless rebel.’ He actually laughed, as if he was proud of it.
‘Do I have your word? Three months at the most.’
‘You have my word—you will have the bracelet before three months, providing sufficient acceptance of my name and standing in society have been achieved.’
‘And if that doesn’t happen?’ She knew the answer already.
‘You will not see the bracelet again, but I am sure with your excellent PR skills you can smooth the way for me.’
She hated him more than she’d hated any man before. But unlike the last time she’d been set up ten years ago, there wasn’t a way out. At least, not an obvious one. She was dealing with a much more determined character this time. A force of nature let loose on her Achilles heel. Her grandfather.
‘Three months. Not a day more,’ she reiterated firmly.
‘Yes.’ His Russian accent, which had softened as he’d whispered his terms in her ear, was suddenly very distinctive again.
‘And when do you propose this fake engagement to start?’ That choice of word wasn’t lost on her as she wondered how her brothers and sisters would take the news of her engagement. Especially Allegra, who knew all the sordid details of the prom and why she’d sworn never to get involved with men. How could she tell her it was all for show, that in order to get the bracelet Grandfather so desperately wanted, she was bargaining with her reputation?
She thought again of how tired and worn out Allegra had looked in Geneva and knew that, whatever happened, she couldn’t confide in her. Not now. This was something she would have to face alone.
She looked directly into Liev’s cold grey eyes, determined not to let her unease show.
‘It will start right now.’
CHAPTER THREE
LIEV WAS CONVINCED the fiery woman who had just challenged him so passionately hadn’t really agreed to his terms. Not completely. Her dark eyes met and held his defiantly, and he knew she was still trying to figure an alternative way out. Playing for time.
All he needed was to discover why the bracelet was so important, why she would even agree to such a drastic deal for a piece of jewellery. But that wasn’t so urgent now. He needed to set the stage for their engagement and it would have to be convincing.
‘Right now we could certainly pass for lovers who have had a tiff, but you are going to have to do better if we are to convince everyone that we are madly in love and have just got engaged.’
‘Madly in love?’ The surprise in her voice echoed that in her expression.
‘Yes, Bianca, madly in love. That way my acceptance into society is more guaranteed. Do you think you can portray a woman in love?’ He lowered his voice and taunted her mercilessly, enjoying all but whispering in her ear. Her scent filled him, knocking his heightened senses off balance.
‘Don’t worry about that, Mr Dragunov. I’ve spent my life in the limelight. I can act my part.’ Bianca’s words, once again, cut short his runaway thoughts.
He nodded his approval. ‘In that case, you will have no objection to me putting my arm around your shoulders as we leave and, naturally, as we are in love, you will welcome it. You will look happy. Ecstatic. I have, after all, just bought you an expensive gift—and, most importantly, you will call me Liev.’
‘Where are we going?’ For a moment she looked startled and again his conscience snagged on something, but he quickly reminded himself this icy beauty was agreeing to his proposition for a frivolous trinket. Diamonds and emeralds it may be, but it was frivolous nonetheless. She was exactly the kind of woman he despised and there was only one reason for being here with her—the revenge he had to exact on the company her brother now headed. The one that was responsible for his family’s ruin.
He smiled and moved closer in the way a lover would do, pushing back the hurt from the past in order to play his part. He caught the scent of her perfume again and this time inhaled, closing his eyes momentarily, enjoying the scent of summer roses. There were going to be parts to this revenge he would enjoy immensely.
‘First of all, as we leave we will have to pass the press that will most probably have gathered to find out who it was that made such an outrageously high bid on the bracelet. Then we will find a quiet bar to finalise the finer points of our deal.’
‘Don’t worry, Mr Dragunov. I can handle the press.’ Her flippant tone made him smile, admiring the fight that still raged in her.
‘I have every reason to believe you can.’ The slight widening of her eyes, which turned into a deep blue, reminding him of the dark waters of the ocean, suggested she hadn’t thought about the possibility that the press would be outside, despite her bravado. But he had. And he intended this to be the first time they were noticed together as a couple. ‘It will set things up nicely for an engagement announcement.’
‘You’re actually serious about the engagement?’ Incredulity filled her voice.
‘I am nothing if not serious, Bianca.’
The use of her name sent a rush of awareness through him, probably because of the way she drew in a sharp breath, her luscious lips looking ever more kissable. The inconvenient pull of attraction to the woman who was the key to successfully avenging his parents was not something he’d considered. Nor would he do so again. Complete focus was all he needed to maintain. Any other emotion was surplus to requirements—just as it had always been.
‘There is a bar on the next block that will be quiet enough for us to discuss the finer details of our arrangement.’ He took her hand and felt her hesitation as she allowed him to wrap his fingers tightly around it.
‘What about the bracelet?’ So she didn’t trust him.
‘It is quite safe and will remain that way until our arrangement is complete.’ Without further comment, he walked towards the main doors of the auction house. As the door was opened for them, he let her hand go and put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her snugly against his body.
It felt good to have her there, where he could feel every step she took and every curve of her body. The flash of the cameras lit up the early evening and satisfaction raced through him. What would make the headlines? The highest bid so far this year at the auction house or Bianca Di Sione out with a Russian billionaire? Either way it suited him. He walked Bianca through the throng and hailed a taxi.
* * *
Bianca quickly got into the back of the car, glad to be out of the glare of the flashlights. Being the focus of press attention wasn’t new for her. She’d been all but hounded by them for as long as she could remember. Such attention certainly hadn’t been courted, but was more something she’d learnt to deal with—and avoid where possible.
She looked at Liev as he got in beside her, still unable to believe what had happened. He calmly gave an address and sat back next to her, seemingly happy that they had been photographed together. Having him so close was distracting and she had to resist the need to slide along the seat, further away from him. Her heart also thumped a little harder, making her feel light-headed. What was the matter with her?
‘So you’ve been photographed as my companion. What’s next, Mr Dragunov? Have you already chosen a fake engagement ring?’ She couldn’t keep the flippant tone from her voice. Was it born out of panic to her reaction to being near him or was it the situation she now found herself in? Her anger rose once more, fired up by her confusion, and together they made a heady cocktail. How could she find a man attractive and hate him at the same time?
‘As a matter of fact, I have.’ He startled her from her thoughts and she looked at him, the golden sunshine of New York’s summer evening playing across the sculpted contours of his face, lending him a dangerous edge. He dominated the very air she breathed as she sat next to him, trying to ignore the tingle of awareness from just being close to him. ‘But it is far from fake.’
Frustration fired through her, making her snap. ‘I can’t believe you are doing all this just because I declined to represent your company.’
‘That was a minor inconvenience and not at all my main goal.’ He looked at her, his eyes hard as they met hers. Everything else slipped into non-existence for the second time that day and mentally she shook herself. Where was the unflappable Bianca who’d forged her way through life for the past ten years without love and definitely without this kind of physical attraction?
‘What is your main goal, Mr Dragunov?’ She forced her mind to focus. This was one man she had to be on full alert with. He’d already proved that.
‘Liev.’
Good grief, even hearing him say his name was sexy. She had to stop thinking such things right now. She had to get a grip and pull herself together. She already knew the consequences of letting emotions show and wasn’t this proposition a battle? One she had every intention of fighting.
She recalled what she’d told Allegra—that she’d do anything to get the bracelet for her grandfather. It seemed that Liev was going to test that claim to the full, but she wouldn’t be thwarted by such an arrogant man. She would do whatever necessary to get that bracelet from him—even a fake engagement.
Her usual cool composure was well and truly ruffled. It was like going back to that prom night when she’d almost allowed herself to be used in the most basic way. She had been a challenge just because of her family name, one she’d risen to and overcome in spectacular style, maintaining her reputation and destroying that of the boy she’d foolishly believed she’d loved.
Since then she’d given men a wide berth, determined not to repeat the same mistake by letting anyone close, but now, confronted with a man like Liev, she had let her emotions show and everything had unravelled. But how could she not bring emotions into the task of getting back something her grandfather wanted so much after he’d told her it was his final wish?
‘You must call me Liev.’ The insistence in his voice was clear and she stifled a smile, knowing she was irritating him.
The taxi stopped and Liev got out. For a moment she thought about shutting the door and instructing the driver to take her home. If it had been anything else this man had taken from her, she would have done just that, but the bracelet was her grandfather’s dying wish. She couldn’t let Liev walk away with the one thing which would make her grandfather happy in his last days. She just wished she knew why it was so important to the elderly man.
Neither Matteo nor Allegra had heard the full story when he’d set them similar tasks. All they knew was that each item was a Lost Mistress from the tales he’d told them as children, as if they were part of the Di Sione fairy tale.
Bianca got out of the taxi onto the sidewalk, the hum of the traffic and the sound of sirens overpowering her. Or was it the man who stood watching her? His eagle-like assessment was unnerving.
‘You made a wise choice.’ His voice was deep and firm and she frowned at him, but before she could ask what he meant, he continued. ‘Not leaving in that taxi.’
‘I was tempted, and believe me, if there was another way, I would have done exactly that,’ she snapped back. ‘But we have to settle the details of our deal first and I warn you, Liev. I will go if those finer details aren’t mutually beneficial.’
She wanted to tell him that the bracelet didn’t mean that much to her, that he’d got it all wrong about her being the spoilt little rich girl, but suspected it would only draw his attention to it once more. If he could put a deal like that on the table, he could do anything. She had to keep her guard up.
‘And believe me, Bianca, they will be.’ The way he said her name, caressing it even while his voice remained granite hard, sent a shiver over her as if he’d actually touched her—and she hated him for it.
She walked into the bar with Liev, not completely unaware of the glances cast in their direction or the way he attracted the attention of just about every female in the bar. He was handsome, that was undisputable, but in a hard and angry kind of way. Or did he just hate her because he thought she was privileged and spoilt? He’d made no secret of his opinion of her.
She drew in a sharp breath as he placed his hand in the small of her back, guiding her to a table set back from the rest of the bar, the privacy it would afford them undoubted. Had he planned this evening down to such a level? Her earlier suspicions surfaced and she became more convinced that he’d known she would be at the auction. She bit down on the anger which bubbled up from deep within.
She slid along the seat, hoping he would sit opposite her, not quite able to take being close to him again so soon after the short journey in the taxi. She still couldn’t understand the effect he had on her, how heat could infuse her so quickly just from being close to him. She’d resisted the pull of sexual chemistry for the past ten years and she could continue to do so now. If Liev thought charm would soften his twisted deal, he was very much mistaken. She was immune to such tactics.
‘This is very, how shall I say, convenient.’ Her words were spiked with tartness as she desperately fought to suppress that new idea of awareness to a man she’d disliked on first sight and now hated with a vengeance.
He flicked his brows up at her sarcasm, then signalled to the bar staff. A bottle of wine, her favourite red, arrived promptly. That uncomfortable suspicion returned. He seemed to know a lot about her. Far too much.
‘I pride myself on being able to prepare for every eventuality.’ The self-satisfied expression on his face just begged to be wiped away, and she vowed that before this deal was over she would do just that.
‘In that case, why not allow me to find a more suitable fiancée for you, one more powerful, more able to open the doors you so desperately want opened? You overestimate my standing in the Di Sione family if you think an engagement to me will do all you want.’
‘Not only is it your family’s name and that old-money respectability I need. It’s your undoubted skill in your professional life. So you see, Bianca, I have made my choice well.’
‘There must be someone better placed than me for this ridiculous sham of an engagement?’
She watched as he poured two glasses of wine, desperately trying to think of who that woman could be, knowing deep down it couldn’t be her. History was repeating itself, but on a much more dramatic scale. Her family name and reputation was being used once more, callously gambled with, but this time she couldn’t see any way out. Not if she wanted the bracelet.
‘And who exactly would you suggest?’ He leant back in his seat, his wine untouched in front of him. She had the uneasy sensation of being more like a hunting eagle’s quarry, set up and unwittingly waiting for the moment she would be swept away from all she’d ever known and devoured.
‘I will find someone.’ She could hear the desperation in her voice. Could he hear it too? ‘There are agencies, although how they’d look upon the request for a fake fiancée, I don’t know.’
She tried hard to think who it could be, but single women able to offer him what he wanted were few, and those she could think of wouldn’t stand a chance against his lethal charm. She had no need to be close to a man, so maybe she was the best woman for the job.
He folded one arm across his body and raised one to his face, his thumb on his chin and his finger rasping over the hints of stubble; the sound, although hardly audible, set her nerves even more on edge. ‘That won’t be necessary. I am certain we can come to a mutually satisfying arrangement. I have something you want and you are in a position to give me what I want.’
‘How long have you been in New York, Mr Dragunov?’ She used his surname and couldn’t help the smile which caught her lips at his annoyed expression. She noticed his eyes glitter, making them ice cold.
‘I have been doing business here for a few years on a small scale, but now our engagement will ensure the success of my latest and biggest venture. It will turn my company global. I will still keep my main office and home in St Petersburg, where I grew up.’ The last few words had a harsh edge to them that was hard to miss.