Her fingernails dug into his shoulders, and with her head pushed back deep into the pillow, she cried out in shock and pleasure. He stilled, the effort making his body shake. She was more than inexperienced. She was a virgin.
‘Don’t stop, Liev, please.’
She moved her hips, urging him to continue, and that final thread of control he’d been hanging on to snapped. He moved inside her, and as she wrapped her legs around him again, keeping him deep inside her, he was lost. Waves of pleasure, so big he thought he might drown, cascaded over him, and he knew this moment would change things. It would change him, change everything he’d been driven to do since he was a young boy.
She gasped his name as her release swept her away, dragging him with her until he lay over her, shaking in a way he’d never done before. All he could think about was that he’d taken her virginity, stolen it with his deceit and lies, because there was no way she would have surrendered such a precious gift if she’d known all he wanted was revenge on ICE, revenge that would destroy her brother too.
With his breathing still ragged and his body still humming, he moved off her, disgusted with himself. He’d taken a woman’s innocence in the name of revenge. What kind of man did that make him?
‘Liev?’ He heard her startled question as he strode to the bathroom, but he couldn’t look at her, not yet. She would see the anger and disgust blazing in his eyes and she didn’t deserve that. She didn’t deserve any of this.
* * *
Bianca heard the shower and lay there, unable to move. She wanted to run back to her room and hide from the anger she’d seen blazing in his eyes and the contempt as he’d glanced back at her.
Should she have told him, made it clear that she was totally inexperienced—a virgin?
What had she done to change things so drastically? The passion had been so intense her body had burned for his; now it was icy cold with shock and she realised she was shivering. Whatever was wrong, she wasn’t going to run and hide. Bianca Di Sione didn’t hide; she faced things head-on. Always had done and always would do.
She pulled the delicate and creased fabric of her dress together, buttoning it up and wishing her hands would stop shaking. When he came out of that bathroom, she was standing in front of the mirror brushing down her hair, smoothing away the just-tumbled-in-bed look.
Their eyes met in the mirror and she blinked at the image of him naked but for a skimpy white towel around his hips. The passion she’d just experienced flared to life again and she wondered if this was to be the moment they would go back to bed—if they were lovers.
‘You should have told me, Bianca.’ He looked at her in the mirror, those icy grey eyes full of regret. ‘You should have made it clear you were not just inexperienced. You should have said you were a virgin.’
Indignation rose, as did the need to protect herself, just as she’d done ten years ago. ‘And if I had?’
He walked over to her and stood before her, hardly caring about his state of undress. She looked up at him, trying to ignore the increasingly rushing pulse just from being so close to him.
‘You were a virgin and I am not your fiancé. Hell, I’m not even your lover.’ The softened features of his face she’d kissed just moments 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