Bought: Destitute Yet Defiant

Her lipstick came from the supermarket and she didn’t think it would make for an interesting exchange.

Feeling sicker and sicker, she dragged h

er hand from his grip and stopped walking. ‘Wait a moment. Silvio, about tonight—’

‘Stop worrying about tonight. Just be yourself.’ Clearly unwilling to dwell on the topic, he urged her away from the helicopter and across the deck towards a flight of steps.

Jessie stared at his profile with exasperation.

Be herself?

Surely that was the last thing he wanted.

Being herself would be the equivalent of committing social suicide.

To stand any chance of surviving a champagne reception on board a super-yacht, she had to be someone else.

Someone confident, poised and most of all glamorous.

Someone who could realistically be seen with a man of Silvio’s wealth and status.

Jessie’s anxiety trebled as she took in the unparalleled luxury and understated elegance of her surroundings. The more she saw, the more intimidated she felt.

She didn’t fit in here and she never would.

And then she remembered her wardrobe full of new clothes. Expensive, stylish clothes, all worthy of the woman he wanted her to be.

Couldn’t she be that woman?

Frowning slightly, she promised herself that she was going to transform herself and give him a shock.

Tonight, when she dressed for the champagne reception, she wasn’t going to be Jessie from the back streets, or Jessie with the gold dress. She was going to dress like someone who dated a billionaire, and when she walked out on the upper deck—or whatever they called the bit of the yacht she was currently standing on—she was going to get more than a ‘fine’ from him.

As darkness fell and the yacht was illuminated by tiny lights, Silvio greeted the first of his guests. Conscious that there was no sign of Jessie, he glanced around impatiently, his tension mounting with each passing minute.

One glance at her frozen features as she’d stepped from the helicopter onto the deck had been enough to remind him that the tension between them hadn’t gone away. She still blamed him for what had happened to her brother and it was obvious that she found the chemistry between them as inconvenient and disturbing as he did.

Silvio gave a cynical smile.

It was clear that had she not been in mortal danger, she never would have accepted his help.

The past stood between them like a solid brick wall.

His mouth tightened. And that was a good thing, wasn’t it?

It prevented them from doing something that both of them would regret.

More guests arrived and there was still no sign of Jessie.

Had she decided that she was far enough away from home to take her chances on her own? His brows met in a frown as he considered that possibility but he dismissed it almost instantly. His security team were the most highly trained in the business and, besides, Jessie had been too shaken up by her encounter with those animals to risk leaving.

Exchanging small talk with a famous actress who flirted outrageously, Silvio glanced discreetly at his watch.

In all probability, there was no crisis. She was probably standing in front of the mirror, changing outfits a hundred times.

Five more minutes, and then he was going to look for her.

He was about to extract himself from the actress when she broke off in mid-sentence, a dangerous gleam in her eye as she stared at someone behind him.