ago were now hard and set in fierce lines.
‘No, you are my blackmailer. You’re no better than Dominic. He’d placed bets with his friends at the school prom he’d take my virginity. Thankfully I’d found out, played him at his own game. But you stooped even lower.’
‘I would not have done that if I’d known.’ The anger in his voice was so clear it cut at her delicate heart, crushing it cruelly. ‘I made a mistake.’
She gasped. ‘Don’t say that.’ Why was he pushing her away?
‘It shouldn’t have happened, Bianca.’
‘Where does that leave us now, Liev? What happens now?’
He stalked across the room to stare out at the gardens bathed in light from the setting sun. ‘We leave tomorrow morning as planned.’
She wanted to go to him, to ask what she’d done, but her pride and ever-present need for survival kept her from doing that. Instead she stood with as much decorum as her crumpled dress would allow and lifted her chin in the defiant gesture she always did when life hurt.
‘We still have to visit my grandfather. That was part of the deal.’
‘Very well. You kept your side of the deal today at the photoshoot. I will honour that.’
AS HE APPROACHED Bianca’s family home, Liev looked at the large white house set in immaculately maintained grounds and had to suppress his anger. This was what his mother could have enjoyed if ICE hadn’t duped his father so cruelly. Instead his mother had died in poverty and pain, broken-hearted after watching the man she loved drink himself into oblivion, believing he was nothing but a failure.
He tried to refocus his thoughts, bring them back to the present. Bianca had been stoically silent during the flight back from his island retreat. Now, as he stopped his car outside the imposing front doors, he glanced across at her. She looked much younger and more vulnerable than she’d ever done before. It was more than just the light make-up she wore today or the soft floating sundress, which caressed her body, reminding him how he’d done the same.
Every emotion she was feeling was exposed. A sensation he, too, felt and he didn’t like it one bit. She’d changed him, made him think differently, feel differently, and he couldn’t allow sentiment to get in the way of his plans—not now—not ever.
‘Grandfather will be resting for the remainder of the day,’ she said as she got out of the car and walked towards the sweeping front veranda of the house. Discreet members of staff came out to take his car to be parked. This was most definitely high-society living.
‘I trust he is well enough to meet with us later, even if only for a short while?’
‘Of course. That is the main reason we are here. He plans to join us before dinner this evening.’
The thought of being vetted by her grandfather sat uncomfortably with him. Naturally the old man would want his granddaughter to be happy, but what would he say if he knew she was being blackmailed? For a bracelet? What would the old man think of him if he knew he’d taken her innocence—her virginity—as part of that blackmail?
He watched as Bianca greeted the staff with genuine affection and didn’t miss the way they responded with fondness. The sound of her light laughter caught him unawares as she laughed at something the maid had said. Before he had any other opportunity to say anything, she turned and smiled at him, the laughter of moments ago still in her eyes.
‘This way.’
He walked with her up the wide staircase, the intimacy of being in her family home not lost on him. How many other men had she brought home to meet her grandfather? From the comfortable way she was dealing with this, it was something she was used to doing.
What he hadn’t expected was to be shown into a suite so large his own childhood home would have fitted into it twice over. She closed the door and blushed, not able to meet his questioning gaze.
‘This is the principle guest suite and where we can change for dinner, or rest until we head back to New York this evening.’
Liev bit back against the urge to walk out right now and go back to New York. How could he have thought coming here was a good idea? He could feel his frozen emotions thawing, more rapidly than he was comfortable with, and knew the iron-strong will which served as his barrier against everyone was failing. He shouldn’t feel anything for Bianca. She was a means to an end, a tool which turned the wheel of his revenge.
He could understand her need to pacify her grandfather about the engagement. It was making headlines, and even if he was frail and elderly, the old man would want to know who it was his granddaughter had become engaged to. But being here, in the home he’d raised all the Di Sione children, including Dario, was too intimate, too personal.
Just as sleeping with Bianca had been. Not only sleeping with her, but taking her virginity, damn it. Guilt continued to eat away at him over that.
‘I have no intention of staying here any longer than necessary.’ He snapped the words out as he looked at the view from the doors which opened out onto a magnificent balcony. ‘It’s not as if the engagement is permanent. I only agreed to this so you could do what was needed to put your grandfather’s mind at rest. Nothing more.’
He didn’t need to look at Bianca to know she was bristling with indignation. He could feel it in the hot afternoon air.
‘I apologise for the inconvenience, but just because you are ruthless and cold-hearted doesn’t mean I am. I care about my grandfather, and even if this damn engagement is fake, I will not give him cause to worry about me. I played along with your photoshoot, gave you all you needed and more, so now you will afford me the same courtesy.’
He turned to look at her, hostility rushing off her in waves as she made yet more demands on him. The vulnerable woman he’d begun to glimpse on their last dates, the one who’d tantalisingly revealed herself over the past few days, had now gone. And why wouldn’t she? This was her family home, her territory. Just as she’d been emotionally exposed at his island villa, so he was here.
‘I will do my best to convince your grandfather I am worthy of calling myself your fiancé.’ Why it mattered to him when all he wanted was to avenge his parents was beyond reason right now, adding to those exposed emotions he was desperate to hide.
‘Thank you. Now if you will excuse me, I must just go and see my grandfather quickly.’
* * *
Bianca rushed from the room, desperate to calm herself before she saw her grandfather, but with the hum of desire still heating her body and the anger at herself for having responded to Liev’s expert touch, she doubted the short walk to her grandfather’s suite would do that. The hours on the plane, then trapped with Liev in his car, had been too much. The memory of her night in his bed was burning in her mind, so much she doubted it would ever fade.
Unnerved by how she’d all but begged him to make love to her, she smoothed down her dress and took a deep breath before knocking on her grandfather’s door. His frail voice called her in and her insides contracted, sure he would want to know if she had made any progress with the bracelet.
‘Hi,’ she said as she walked in, trying not to show how shocked she was by his ever-weakening health. Damn Liev and his blackmail. That emotion mixed uncomfortably with the passion she and Liev had shared and guilt added to the potent cocktail.
‘Bianca,’ he said with a smile, and he gestured for her to come closer. He took her hands in his and looked at the large diamond ring on her finger. ‘It is true, then. My Bianca has finally succumbed to love.’
‘Don’t.’ She smiled down at him, knowing he was only teasing. It was just a little too close to the truth. How had she even fallen for a man who used such underhand tactics as blackmail?
‘I