The Billionaires Collection. Оливия Гейтс

as she stopped and was shocked to see vulnerability on her face, but as she sensed him watching her, that slipped away to be replaced by the toughness he would have expected from the woman he’d come to know and even admire.

      ‘Well, that is one hurdle over.’ She feigned an interest in smoothing the silk of her dress down against her body. He gritted his teeth together as he watched her, unable to drag his gaze away from her. Did she have any idea how flirtatious that action was? ‘Our engagement will no longer be a secret. It would, however, have been nice to have had time to prepare my family.’

      ‘Why? Would you have had time to think of them if we had been swept away by the madness of love?’

      ‘I don’t think the madness of love sweeping me away is something any of them will believe, especially my brother Dario, whose launch I am at this moment supposed to be concentrating on.’ Her eyes sparked with angry fury as she turned to look at him, her voice low and hushed as she spoke, but he didn’t miss the resentment in it.

      ‘I’m sure they will forgive you.’ He wanted to ask about her brother. She’d given him the perfect opportunity to find out more of Dario Di Sione’s dealings, but as ever, he would have to bide his time and wait. Now was not the time and place, and neither was her mood conducive to sharing such information. It was far better she was lulled into a false sense of security.

      As they entered the room, she became the Bianca he’d first met, the confident woman who knew what she wanted and how to get it. It reminded him that right now she wanted the bracelet and the only way to get it was to introduce him into her world and that if she had a choice she would not be spending the evening with him.

      ‘Bianca.’ He watched as a woman, several years younger than Bianca, kissed her on each cheek and smiled at her. ‘How are those twin brothers of yours? Doing well by all accounts.’

      Liev’s interest was piqued. One of those twin brothers was the reason he was here. Dario was now the owner of ICE, one of the most well-known computer companies which had become rich and successful by buying out other companies, then closing out the founders, destroying them until they had nothing. Just as they had done to his father.

      Whilst Liev accepted that Dario hadn’t been responsible for the buyout which destroyed his father, he’d certainly turned a blind eye to the company’s past. Now, through Dario, Liev intended to expose all those underhand deals and the man who’d been behind them all.

      ‘Yes, they are. In fact, Dario is soon launching a new product.’ Bianca’s reply drew him back from the black hole of his childhood, her sweet voice full of pride. But how could she be proud of a man who advocated such practices? ‘This is Liev Dragunov, my...’

      Bianca’s voice faltered very briefly, but he wasn’t going to give her the opportunity to create the wrong kind of speculation. ‘Her fiancé.’

      ‘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