“If it does, you’ll be able to pick up TH for a song.”
He absorbed the accusation. “Which automatically makes me guilty?”
She spun to face him. “Tina claimed you told her. And it makes sense. Who else profits from revealing the truth to her?”
He shrugged. “As far as I know, no one.”
“You’re not helping yourself.” Frustration riddled her expression. “You realize that, don’t you?”
“I realize that nothing I say will change your mind. Ialso realize you don’t trust me.”
“How could I? Why would I?” She thrust her fingers through her hair, tumbling the curls into delicious disarray. “Since the minute we met you’ve done nothing to inspire that trust.”
That got to him, shaving some of the calm from his temper. “Our nights together didn’t inspire trust? Our time together hasn’t proven the sort of man I am?”
Tears welled in her eyes again. “Those nights meant everything to me, more than they could have meant to you or you’d never have blackmailed me. You’d never have forced me to betray the Fontaines and work for you.”
He climbed to his feet to give weight to his words. “I intend to return Dantes to its position as an international powerhouse, no matter what sort of sacrifices that requires. Imade that fact crystal clear to you right from the start. Iwill recover every last subsidiary I was forced to sell off when I assumed the reins of this company. And that includes TH.”
She tugged off his engagement ring and held it out. “Take this. Irefuse to wear it a minute longer.”
He simply shook his head. “That’s not happening. If we break our engagement so soon after we announce it, your life within the jewelry world will become unbearable.” He held up his hand to stem her protest. “As my fiancée, you have the Dante name to protect you. No one willdare say a word about you, your talent, or where you choose to work. Nor will anyone dare say anything should Tina decide to be indiscreet.”
Her mouth trembled. “You think she’ll tell people I’m Kurt’s daughter? You think she’ll publicly blame me for TH’s demise?”
“A woman that angry is capable of anything. There’s no telling what she’ll do.”
Francesca made a swift recovery, one that impressed the hell out of him. “I don’t care about any of that. Let people talk. Let Tina do her worst. Let the world assume whatever they want.”
“Right. And maybe you could handle the public fallout. Damned if you don’t seem determined to try. But I have Dantes to consider. Becoming engaged one day and ending it only weeks later is not the image I want to project to the general public, my suppliers, or my associates and competitors.”
“Then you never should have come up with this scheme.”
“Point taken, but it’s a little late for that.” He offered a wry smile. “When I came up with the idea, my only consideration was you and trying to salvage your relationship with the Fontaines. That’s what I get for thinking like Nicolò.”
For an endless moment she wavered between acceptance and rejection. To hisprofound relief, she released her breath in a sigh of reluctant agreement. “How long? How long do we have to keep up the pretense?”
“For as long as it takes.” He ran his hands up and down her arms, picking up on the slight shiver she couldn’t quite suppress. “Give it time, sweetheart. Is it really so bad being engaged to me? You liked my family, didn’t you?”
Once again, he’d said the wrong thing. Her eyes darkened in distress. “I don’t want to fall in love with them.”
He could guess why. “Because it hurts too much when it ends and you’re forced to walk away.”
She didn’t deny it. Instead she changed the subject. “What about the Fontaines? You have to promise me you won’t take advantage of this latest wrinkle. You have to promise me you’re still going to pay full price for TH, even if their marriage falls apart.”
He refused to be anything other than straight with her. “If they offer me a good deal, I’m not going to turn it down.”
Maybe he shouldn’t have been quite that straight. She pulled back and glared. “We have a contract. You have to pay them full price for their business. And I intend to make sure you stick to that agreement.”
“Our contract states I’m to pay fair market value. That’s what I intend to pay and not a penny more.”
“Even if the fair market value drops because Kurt and Tina divorce?”
“Fair. Market. Value,” he repeated succinctly.
She stilled and something drifted across her expression, something that had the businessman in him going on red alert. Then she gave a careless shrug. “If that’s the best you’re willing to do, Iguess I have no choice but to accept it, do I?”
He stared at her through narrowed eyes. “That’s precisely what I expect you to do, since that’s precisely what the contract calls for.”
