The Platinum Collection: A Convenient Proposal. Maisey Yates

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      “You are quite cynical, Victoria. For someone who has had a life as charmed as yours.”

      His words made her chest tighten. She ran her fingertips over her arm, feeling the moisture left behind by the heavy air. “I have had a privileged upbringing, I won’t deny that. But I also learned a very valuable lesson early on about human nature. Having my blinders ripped off so effectively made me look at things differently. It made me look at people and their motives differently. I have never been able to take people at face value, not since that happened.”

      “And now I’m intrigued. What exactly did happen?”

      Bugger. She thought about lying to him, and truly, she would be justified. Because it wasn’t his business, and it had nothing to do with their agreement. Nothing at all to do with their interaction, or her relationship—if you could call it that—with him. But she’d never been the type who lied well on her feet—she excelled in being blunt and straightforward, and putting people on the back foot with that method. Subterfuge wasn’t in her bag of tricks. Sadly.

      “When I was sixteen my father introduced me to a friend. A business associate of his. He was incredibly handsome, in his early thirties and I developed a massive crush on him from the first moment I laid eyes on him.”

      “This is not starting where I imagined it might,” he said, and she could see that the muscles in his body had started to tense.

      Yes, well, if he thought it was going to be difficult for him to hear, he had no idea how difficult it would be for her to say.

      “I don’t imagine it is. However, this is where it begins. I developed an instant attraction for him. It was nothing like I’d ever felt before. I had always felt like boys my age were rather silly and it had been easy to ignore them in favor of my studies. This was different.” She looked up and met Dmitri’s gaze, refusing to look down, refusing to look as ashamed as she felt. “Nathan was different. At least, I thought he was. I think he knew how I felt, too, immediately. I think, perhaps, I was terribly obvious. Either way, he found ways to get in touch with me. Excuses to drop by and discuss business with my father when my father wasn’t there. And over the course of that time we were able to talk quite a bit. I fell for him, hard. You can’t imagine how hard. I thought he loved me, and I certainly loved him. And when the line of questioning changed to my father’s business affairs I didn’t think anything of it, because he worked with my father on various projects and seemed to be his friend. And I trusted him. But I let slip some very crucial information about a new fashion line, and Nathan gave the information to a competing company. They stole our ideas out from under us, launched their products first and sent London Diva’s stocks into a spiral. From there, Nathan purchased the majority of the shares and ousted my father. Because of me. So you can see, it’s my responsibility to get it back. And you can see where I learned to start questioning the motives of others.”

      She looked back up at Dmitri’s face. The expression there could only be described as murderous. He opened his mouth as though he was about to say something when the hotel staff returned with different plates of food. They waited while their entrées were placed in front of them, and she watched Dmitri as he watched the staff leave.

      Then he turned back to face her, his dark eyes fierce. “Any man that age who takes advantage of a sixteen-year-old girl is no man.”

      She huffed. “Oh, you get no argument from me, but the fact remains I was instrumental in the loss of my family business. Nathan acted badly, but I was a fool. It’s my responsibility to rectify that mistake. And I am doing so.”

      “I don’t see how it’s your responsibility to atone for the sins of others.”

      “Because I’m the only one who cares to atone for them. You don’t see Nathan hanging around groveling, offering to return London Diva to the Calder family.”

      “Well, in part because he can’t. Because I bought it out from underneath him.”

      Victoria couldn’t conceal the smirk that curved the right-hand corner of her mouth upward. “So you did. I knew I liked something about you.”

      “It does not surprise me that you like the rather more cutthroat part of me.”

      “It shouldn’t. I admire it because I had to change after I made that mistake. I knew I had to fix the way that I saw the world and the way that I acted within it. I had always been a good daughter, and I had never done anything wrong, but it didn’t matter because I made a mistake that cost my family greatly. I might as well have been rebellious for all of my life. A couple of piercings and tattoos would’ve been a lot less costly.”

      Dmitri stretched his arm out across the table, pushing his white shirtsleeve up past his elbow, revealing the intricate tattoo on his forearm, the leather cuff that bisected it. “The right kind of tattoo is fairly costly.”

      She looked down at his arm and tried to ignore just how dry her throat had got. But there was something about the web of artistry over his tanned, muscled arm that caused a visceral reaction in her.

      Who was she kidding? There was something about him that caused a reaction in her. All of her. And all of him.

      So different in many ways from that thwarted love affair from years ago, when she’d thought to give Nathan her body because of an intense emotional longing.

      This feeling was no less longing, but it had nothing to do with emotion. And it was just as undesirable.

      “Still not as expensive as losing an entire chain of clothing stores, I fear. Then, you should know since you bought an entire chain of clothing stores.”

      “I have bought several of them,” he said, his tone light.

      “And I only care about the one.”

      “And I see why now.”

      She tilted her head to the side. “Were you not curious about it before?”

      He drew his hand back and pushed his shirtsleeve back down. Then he lifted one shoulder in a casual shrug. “A little. But then, I figure we all have our secrets. And since I am not the sort of man who likes to share his, I don’t expect other people to, either.”

      “Except, then you asked me to.”

      “My patience has its limits,” he said, his lips curving upward into what could only be described as a deadly smile.

      Something about that smile made her stomach tighten further. Suddenly, the sound of raucous cheering broke through the tension, and Victoria breathed a sigh of relief. She really needed a break from whatever intensity was building between the two of them.

      This whole acknowledging that she found him attractive thing was supposed to alleviate the issue. Sadly, it was not.

      “I wonder what’s going on down there.”

      “Probably a hen night or bachelorette party of some kind. This is a very popular location for them.”

      “I’ve never really understood the appeal of them.”

      “Of a bachelorette party?”

      “Yes. They’re...not really the sort of thing I can see enjoying.”

      “Why СКАЧАТЬ