‘That’s not the impression you gave to Dario.’ Now he really had her attention.
‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘He wouldn’t have told you.’
‘What? That you’d fallen in love with your blackmailer?’
She gasped and for a moment he thought she was going to crumple to the floor in shock. Her blue eyes were so wide, their colour so vivid. Then she dragged in a deep breath and fixed a furious expression to her face. ‘He had no right to tell any such thing.’
‘So, it’s true?’
‘No.’ Her voice rose and he knew she was lying, deceiving herself as well as him. All he had to do now was convince her that he loved her, that because of that love he’d changed all the plans for revenge. ‘I despise you. How can I ever love a man who wants to do nothing but destroy my brother and me in the process?’
‘How could you make love to a man, give up your virginity, if you didn’t love him?’ She paled as his words found their mark and he felt sorry for her, felt her pain and confusion, and wanted nothing more than to hold her, to kiss away that pain, caress away that confusion.
‘I did it for the bracelet, for my grandfather.’ She fiddled nervously with the simple gold locket around her neck and bit down on her bottom lip as she waited for his response.
‘I know,’ he said softly, and he moved towards her. ‘You have no idea how much it hurts me to think that I put you in that position.’
‘You blackmailed me, Liev, blackmailed me in order to ruin my brother. I can never forgive you for that—ever.’
The door opened and one of Dario’s staff came in. ‘Sorry. Ten minutes until we go live.’
‘Thank you.’ Bianca was visibly unnerved and her eyes met his, the questions in them clear. He’d do anything to take away her pain, to answer those questions, but in the light of what she’d just told him, he knew it might never happen.
‘Excuse me. I have to go.’
Panic sluiced through him. She had to know what he’d done in an attempt to mend the hurt he’d caused. He had to make her understand he loved her, but from the sound of that last comment, his time was very limited.
She looked at him. ‘I have work to do, Liev. I’d like you to leave.’
‘Not yet, you don’t. I need to explain.’ He stood so close to her he could smell her fragrance and he remembered how she felt in his arms. He had to fight for that.
‘There’s nothing to explain. You deceived me, blackmailed me and now you plan to destroy all that my brother has worked to achieve. How can there be anything to add to that?’
There was so much more to add, like the deal he’d struck with Dario after the heated argument which had revealed the truth of the situation. A deal that meant he could put right the past in a businesslike way and not hurt anyone in the process. He had, of course, faced Dario’s wrath over hurting his sister and it was then that her confession to her brother had unintentionally come out, but Dario must have got it wrong. She didn’t have feelings for him. From the contempt on her face, it was obvious she had no wish to see him at all.
‘I didn’t use anything you told me, Bianca—not to anyone but Dario.’ He’d never felt this out of depth before, this adrift in a sea of emotions he couldn’t control.
‘But what is to stop you leaving here right now and doing just that?’
‘There is only one thing that can stop me,’ he said, his voice gravelly and thick with emotion. ‘You.’
She shook her head. ‘It’s too late, Liev, too much has happened, and besides, I don’t believe you and certainly don’t trust you. You could leave here now and leak all you know, just moments before the launch, to the waiting press and achieve the destruction you so obviously crave.’
‘Why would I destroy a company I’m now a shareholder in?’
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