LITMIR.BIZ

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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

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