When sense finally returned and she left her seat, the humiliation of the moment burning on her cheeks, Liev was nowhere to be seen. Settling his debts, no doubt.
Suspicion slipped uncomfortably into her mind. Had he bid for the bracelet to force her hand into representing his company? It was so far-fetched it was ridiculous, but there was only one way to find out.
Confront him.
* * *
Liev waited. His patience had served him well, as had the overheard snatch of conversation with her sister about the bracelet. Now he was finally about to get what he wanted. Bianca Di Sione dancing to his tune.
He stood outside the auction room and watched her leave, glancing around her. From the furious expression on her face, she was obviously looking for him, the person who had deprived her of her latest little trinket. Just like a woman to have her head turned by a piece of expensive and sparkling jewellery.
There was no need to pursue her now, to cajole her into agreeing to act for his company. His sources had done well. Her discreet enquiries about the bracelet, which had been scheduled for auction, had allowed him to move in swiftly, persuade the vendors that his interest was genuine and under no circumstances should they accept any offers before the auction, that whatever happened he would double the bid.
Now he’d proved his bank balance was worthy of New York society and up to such a bid, he wanted to put his name among the elite of the business world and he would do exactly that through Bianca Di Sione. He had her much-longed-for bracelet, the one she would do anything for, and was sure she would fall in line with his new request.
He no longer only needed her to represent his company to get the information for the revenge he so badly wanted. He now had much bigger plans. She’d stood in his way, slighting him and his business, and now she would pay for that. Not only would he use the Di Sione name to open the doors of society which had remained firmly closed to him—a self-made Russian—he would ensure the Di Sione family never forgot his name.
‘How could you?’ Bianca’s furious tones alerted him to her presence, even if the zip of energy which rushed through him hadn’t.
He turned to face her, anger glowing on her cheeks and sparking in her eyes. There was more yet, of that he was sure, and he stood silently against her anger.
‘You are unbelievable. You’ve just done this to get at me, because I wouldn’t represent your company. I knew you were trouble, knew you couldn’t be trusted.’ Her hissed tirade continued, attracting the attention of passers-by. The fury in her face and the exasperation in her stance brought a smile to his lips. She looked quite beautiful, stunningly passionate, with her eyes sparking so wildly that he wanted to kiss her into silent submission.
‘I had no idea you wanted the bracelet quite so badly.’ He raised his brows speculatively as he looked down at her, sure his smooth tone was as irritating as the fact he’d bought the bracelet, belittling her as much as she had him in the bar in Geneva when she’d refused to represent his company. He could feel the heat of her anger burning him.
‘You saw me bidding. You as good as stole it from me.’
Now his anger matched hers, but whereas hers was red hot, his was ice cold. Nobody branded him a thief and got away with it. ‘Think what you like of me, Ms Di Sione, but never call me a thief.’
Her accusation hurtled him back to the days of living rough on the streets of St Petersburg. And he clenched his hands into tight fists at his sides, determined not to allow her to push him to the limits of his control.
‘I need that bracelet.’ There was only the merest hint of desperation in her voice. Anyone else might not detect it, but with years spent on the streets, fending for himself, he’d become adept at such a skill.
‘I’m sorry. Did I deprive you of your latest little trinket?’ A bad taste filled his mouth as he again thought of her, growing up with the life of a princess, while he, along with other unfortunates, had sometimes not eaten for days.
‘Why do you even want it?’ She glared at him, her voice lower and more controlled, but her anger was all there in her eyes to see. He snapped the door closed on his past, knowing it would only make him angry—and anger wouldn’t help him now, only cool control was needed.
He waited calmly as she fixed him with those dark eyes, her breathing coming fast and hard, as if they’d just shared a kiss. The thought sent a rush of awareness around him, flooding his body with an undeniable need to know her much more intimately, to know how she kissed, how she liked to be held, but he pushed aside those heated ideas. He must be fired up by the exchange and the thought that now he had her where he wanted her. ‘That is none of your concern.’
‘I’ll pay you double what you bid.’
Double? Did she really want the piece that much? He already knew she was a woman who was easily distracted by such fripperies, but double his price? He didn’t miss the frown of irritation which creased her brow briefly. He couldn’t push her much longer with his silence. The outcome of this was now inevitable. He would get what he wanted, but he did need her to at least be willing if he stood any chance of getting the information he needed.
‘Double what you paid and I will have a contract drawn up to represent your company for twelve months.’
‘You are desperate, aren’t you? Maybe it’s a bit more than just a trinket.’ He couldn’t help but goad her, just to see those sparks of anger fly in her eyes.
‘It’s a whole lot more, but I wouldn’t expect a man like you to understand.’ The barb of her words wasn’t lost on him. Did she know the truth of his past? She’d already accused him of being a thief. Had she investigated far enough and found the evidence damning his character for ever?
‘A man like me? And what is that supposed to mean, Ms Di Sione?’ She could wait a little while longer for his answer. Then he would put his deal on the table.
‘What you’ve just done proves you are heartless and ruthless.’ She almost spat the words at him. ‘No better than a thief.’
‘I don’t need you to tell me that.’ He fought hard to keep the growl of anger from his voice. His destroyed childhood had made him the man he was today and he didn’t need a spoilt little rich girl reminding him of his past, dragging it all back up.
‘Treble what you paid,’ she said flatly. ‘And that’s my final offer.’
‘I don’t think you are in a position to be making me offers, Ms Di Sione.’
‘And the offer to represent your company still stands.’ Her hard voice held lingering traces of desperation. This was what he originally wanted, but the stakes had suddenly become much higher. Her desire for the bracelet had raised them far more than three times the price he’d paid. She was the key to everything he hungered for. All he needed to extract revenge for his parents’ needless and untimely deaths was in place, thanks to her fancy for emeralds and diamonds. He had Bianca Di Sione precisely where he wanted her and he intended to exploit that fully.
‘When you’ve quite finished making ridiculous offers, I have a proposition to put to you.’
* * *
So this was it. The moment he finally made his intentions clear, and she was sure she wasn’t going to like the terms of his so-called proposition. Bianca could hardly believe this was happening. If it hadn’t been for the family selling the bracelet, insisting on it going to auction, she would never have ended up in this position. Beholden to a man who unnerved her yet excited her at the same time.
She looked at Liev, an uncomfortable suspicion settling over her once more. Why was he here—buying jewellery? He must have known she wanted the bracelet, known that she would be at the auction. How had he found out and, more importantly, what was in it for him?
She inhaled, trying to instil calm into her jangled nerves. Allowing him to see just how annoyed she was would only give him more power over her—and he had enough of that already. ‘And what is this deal, Mr Dragunov?’
‘I need acceptance.’ The cold words smarted with fury as she sensed the tension i
n his body. Despite the world revolving so closely around them, the throng of people attending the auction, it seemed as if they were alone, as if somehow she had connected to him on a level she’d never before experienced.
Such a thought only served to heighten her awareness of him. Or was that her shock and anger at what had just happened? The bracelet she’d promised her grandfather she’d get for him had slipped through her fingers. Straight into the hands of a ruthless Russian billionaire with a hidden agenda.
‘Acceptance from who?’ The unguarded question came out as she tried to make sense of all he was saying. He must have set this up. But why? Hers wasn’t the only PR company in New York capable of promoting his company. Why was he obsessed with securing a contract with her?
‘Society.’ The word was fired harshly at her, his accent more noticeable. As was his anger.
‘You can’t buy that.’ She thought of her life growing up in that very society, accepted simply because she’d been born into its ranks. But she’d also seen those ranks close against outsiders. It wouldn’t matter how much money a man or woman had; it would take much more than that to infiltrate the elite of New York.
‘Precisely. Which is why I need you.’ He fixed her with a cold glare which sent a shiver of apprehension rushing down her spine. Whatever his reasons for wanting acceptance in society, he was hell-bent on achieving it.
‘Me?’ Still stunned from the deal he’d put to her, she couldn’t form a sentence. She was good at her job. Damn good, but what he asked was a tall order, professionally as well as personally.
She didn’t have the power to gain him the acceptance he craved. It was her grandfather who held all the power in her family. Or Alessandro as the eldest grandson. She was just one of three Di Sione daughters whose parents had been killed tragically when she was only two. She wasn’t even the eldest daughter. How could she possibly gain this man acceptance among those she’d grown up with?
‘I need you at my side. You will be my key to their world.’
His icy grey eyes held hers, and if it hadn’t been for the harsh seriousness in them she would have laughed. ‘Seriously, you have picked on the wrong person if you think I have enough influence to give you standing within New York society.’
The hint of laughter in her voice served only to irritate him further. She could sense it with every nerve in her body and shivered.
‘You can if you are my fiancée, and the announcement of our engagement will be the first step towards that change.’
‘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.’
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