The Billionaires Collection. Оливия Гейтс

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СКАЧАТЬ love me?’ The question slipped from her lips in a silky whisper and she saw for the first time the anxiety in those grey eyes as he watched her, intense expectation on his handsome face.

      This was almost too much. The man who had stolen her heart was confessing his love for her. Hope rushed through her. She blushed and she lowered her gaze beneath his fierce scrutiny. But how could the blackmailer become a lover? Was it possible?

      ‘Yes, Bianca, I love you. Ever since my parents died, I’ve shut out sentiments I considered to be weakening. After one disastrous affair, I focused my energy on avenging the destruction of my father’s business and ultimately life as I knew it.’

      He paused again and she walked towards him, still unsure of what was really happening, but unable to resist the pull of attraction, the flare of hope which urged her to take a chance. He looked into her eyes as she stood before him and then slowly reached out and took her hand in his and drew her closer. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t break the heady spell that had filled her office.

      ‘You’ve changed all that. You brought light back into my life. You made me feel real, whole. Bianca, you are my life.’

      ‘But what about ICE?’ She had to ask. She couldn’t ignore the launch that was probably happening right now.

      * * *

      Liev looked down into Bianca’s face, saw the worry and confusion swirling in her eyes and longed to kiss her, to prove what he felt was real. But he had more explaining to do yet.

      ‘Dario was understandably angry.’ That was an understatement. He’d been furious, but as he’d given vent to his anger, not over the fact that Liev had wanted to ruin the business as a means of revenge, but the fact that he’d used Bianca so appallingly, Dario had let slip one important bit of information.

      How could you use Bianca so cruelly? Don’t you know she loves you? Dario’s words had sliced through the angry atmosphere, shattering all his plans for revenge as if they were made of the finest crystal and had just been hit with a rod of iron. He’d known then that the revenge he’d wanted for years could never be taken. Not when the woman who’d stolen his heart loved him, despite her claims of hate the day he’d given her the bracelet and she’d returned the ring.

      ‘But you told him—about your father’s business?’ She looked up at him, all wide-eyed and innocent, and again the urge to press her to him and kiss her forged forward.

      ‘That was easily sorted, once he showed me the file. What he wasn’t so easily placated over was the way I’d treated you—and rightly so.’ He brushed his fingertips over her face, watched as her eyelashes fluttered briefly closed.

      ‘I knew all along that would be a problem when we ended our engagement. I just hoped none of my brothers or sisters would find out about the deal I’d struck for the bracelet.’ Her earnest words cut him deeply. How could he have been so callous? She hadn’t deserved any of that. ‘What did he say?’

      Most of what Dario had said he couldn’t repeat, but one sentence had kept playing over and over in his mind, until he knew he had to come and see her, had to risk everything. Don’t you know she loves you?

      ‘That I’d hurt you, treated you badly, didn’t deserve you. The usual brotherly type of things.’ He tried to inject lightness into his voice, but as his last words rushed out, he failed. ‘And he was right.’

      ‘No, no, don’t say that.’ The husky whisper forced his eyes closed, and when he looked at her again she was smiling up at him. ‘That’s what brothers do—and offer you a deal so that you don’t have to break my heart all over again.’

      ‘All over again? When did I first break your heart?’

      ‘After that night on the island.’ She blushed and lowered her lashes, and he lifted her chin so she had to look at him. He wanted to see the reality of her love in her eyes. ‘You looked so disgusted with me.’

      He let a harsh Russian curse slip out, realising how it must have looked to her. She’d been at her most vulnerable then and he’d hurt her at the worst possible time. ‘I was disgusted with myself for pushing you into that situation.’

      She reached up and pressed her lips against his briefly. ‘None of that matters now, Liev, and I wouldn’t have changed that night for anything. It was perfect.’

      Before she could say anything else, he kissed her, her response firing the need within him, and he had to force himself to stop. He loved her, and as he’d looked into her eyes, he’d seen her love reflected back at him.

      * * *

      Bianca wanted to keep kissing him, to savour every last minute of the kiss. She loved him. He’d changed her and changed the way she viewed men, albeit in an unorthodox way, but he had and she meant what she’d said. That night they’d spent on his island together was special and she couldn’t ever forget it, wish it undone, for anything. That night she had loved him—truly loved him.

      Her grandfather had known that she’d fallen deeply in love with Liev; she was convinced of that now. Thankfully she didn’t think he knew that Liev had blackmailed her, but he had known she loved him and was holding back, denying herself love. ‘Do you know what my grandfather said just before we left?’

      She felt Liev’s arms tense around her and his eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion. ‘What did he say?’

      ‘He told me that whatever I did, I shouldn’t waste a chance of love if it comes along.’ She smiled at him, her heart beating hard with love for him. ‘And I don’t intend to waste it, Liev.’

      He closed his eyes in relief, his arms losing their tension, but not lessening their hold on her. ‘Bianca, how can I ever make it up to you, put right all the wrong I’ve done?’

      ‘Love me.’

      ‘There was a moment in the park last week when I wanted to tell you I loved you...that I didn’t care about revenge, that all I cared about was you. Do you remember telling me I would one day do anything for love?’

      ‘Yes,’ she whispered, remembering those exact words.

      ‘I was almost blinded with jealousy because of the love you had for your grandfather.’

      ‘It wasn’t my grandfather I was referring to—or the bracelet. It was you and that night at the villa.’

      Liev didn’t answer her, at least not with words. Instead he claimed her lips, pulling her so hard against him that she could hardly breathe, but it was exactly where she wanted to be. His hands caressed her and beneath the business suit she wore her body burst into flames.

      ‘There is only one thing left to do.’ He held her away from him to look into her eyes, his full of desire matching that which raced through her. He stepped back and pulled the ring from his pocket, holding it between his fingers so it glinted beneath the lights. ‘You can choose a different ring if you want, but, Bianca Di Sione, will you do me the great honour of becoming my wife? My real wife.’

      ‘Yes,’ she whispered. This was the happy ending she’d secretly longed for all her life, since reading that letter, the one so full of love. ‘Yes, Liev, I will and I don’t want a different ring—this one is just perfect.’

      He kissed her more deeply than he’d СКАЧАТЬ