The Billionaires Collection. Оливия Гейтс

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СКАЧАТЬ 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?’

       CHAPTER THIRTEEN

      HE WAS A SHAREHOLDER? As the sounds of the launch filtered into the office, Bianca’s mind reeled. What had he done? He’d been so angry when he’d left the park, so hell-bent on getting revenge, but this was the last thing she expected to hear.

      Why had he waited until now to say anything? Why moments before the launch? What was he up to? The need to warn Dario rushed over her again and she realised sending Liev away would only give him the perfect opportunity for taking his revenge at the worst possible moment.

      ‘What did you do, Liev?’ She asked the question, hating the trepidation in her voice. None of what he was saying made any sense, and why was it all connected to her?

      ‘I did exactly what you told me to do. I went to see Dario. I went with the intention of telling him I knew all about his latest product, that I would leak it all to the media as payment for what ICE had done to my family. I wanted revenge and Dario was the way to get to the man who’d been responsible for destroying so many companies.’

      She saw his jaw clench as he finished speaking, as if he was trying to bite down the anger he felt. Nothing made sense. Had he blackmailed Dario too? But her brother would never take that. Would he?

      ‘What did Dario say?’ Her voice was more of a cracked whisper as she hardly dared to ask. Liev must have seen Dario after she’d called him; otherwise her brother would have said something when she’d called to confess what she’d done. Thank goodness she’d finally plucked up the courage to tell him. At least he would have been forewarned. Then she recalled her brother’s words. I’ve got it covered. What had he meant?

      Liev crossed back to the window, looking far too much in control of himself and the discussion. How did he always manage to turn everything to his advantage? He’d even turned a prison sentence into something beneficial to him.

      ‘Dario listened to all I had to say, something I did not expect. Then he picked up a file, one he had ready after your warning call. He showed the various correspondences that had been made to my father or his beneficiary. As you know from your research on me, I’d purposefully lived under the radar. The letters never reached me.’

      ‘And that’s why you didn’t leak the information you so cruelly duped out of me?’ Bianca’s mind was racing to keep up with these new events. Surely Dario would have called her, told her what had happened.

      ‘In part, but I couldn’t have gone through with it, Bianca.’

      He turned those slate grey eyes on her and her heart flipped, sending a dart of annoyance through her. She shouldn’t feel anything for this mercenary man. ‘So our sham of an engagement has been wasted? The past two months have been for nothing?’

      ‘Hell, Bianca, can’t you see? I couldn’t go through with it because it would hurt you.’

      She looked at him, suspicion filling her mind, her heart. What was he trying to do now? Make her think he actually had feelings for her? That he felt guilty for what he’d done?

      ‘You are just saying that because it’s all gone wrong. All you want is to justify blackmailing me and keeping an old man from something he treasured.’

      ‘I’m saying it because...’ He paused and she looked at him warily. ‘Because I love you, Bianca.’

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