“You love my son.”
She didn’t deny it. What would be the point? Everyone in that room knew the truth about her emotions. And his now, no matter how misled she’d been that morning.
“But I don’t even like you,” she told Demyan’s adopted father very succinctly.
The king flinched, his face slackening in shock as if he’d never had anyone speak to him in such a way before. Maybe he hadn’t.
“Chanel...” That was Demyan, the tone in his voice not one she wanted to hear or could even begin to trust right then.
Definitely not admonishment for her rudeness to his father, but what it was, she refused to name.
She spun to face him, her heart in a vise that brought pain with each indrawn breath. “Don’t. Just don’t, Demyan. However horrible their intentions, the duke and duchess were more honest with me than you’ve been.”
“No.” He lurched forward, as if he’d been yanked by a string attached to his chest.
She stepped back quickly, sure of one thing. She could not allow him to touch her right now. “Stop. I said later. I meant later.”
“Perhaps you two should speak now,” the king said, sounding less certain than he had to this point.
Chanel made no attempt to hide the utter dislike she felt when she faced him. “You’re doing it again. You say maybe we should talk and all I can think is how much more certain I am that there isn’t going to be any more talking.”
“You are a contrary woman.”
“You have no idea how contrary I can be, but spend a few minutes talking with my stepfather and he’ll fill you in.”
“I have spent some time in his company already.”
And heard an earful, Chanel was sure. For the first time in her life, she simply didn’t care if Perry had managed to turn someone right off her. “I’m sure he enjoyed that.”
“He’s an opportunistic man.”
“He is.” Something clicked in her mind, two memories coming together to form a single conclusion. “He’s the one, isn’t he, the reason you had to act now?”
The king’s face smoothed over into an emotionless mask, but not before she saw the flare of surprise at her guess.
Because she was right.
“My great-great-grandfather Tanner died, apparently with a very different will to the one my great-grandmother believed to have been in existence. Yet no one from your family has approached mine in four generations to secure Baron Tanner’s shares in your precious company.”
“It is not just a company—it is the financial cornerstone of an entire country.”
“Your country.”
“Yours now, too.”
“That remains to be seen.”
“Chanel—” Demyan tried to say something.
She put her hand up. “No. Not you. Not now. Trust me when I tell you it is better for everyone if you show that ruthless patience you are so well-known for in business.”
“How do you know about that?”
“I’ve spent six weeks learning you.” Too bad he hadn’t done the same.
He would have realized there was no worse way she could have learned of his subterfuge than to be told by an outside party. But then maybe he had realized and it simply didn’t matter.
He wouldn’t risk upsetting whatever scheme he and his father had set in motion to protect their precious wealth and thereby their country.
She focused on the king again. “My stepfather approached your company trying to trade on connections he didn’t really have, but it got you all worried.”
“He is a resourceful man.”
“He’s a shark, though I think maybe Demyan is a bigger, and much meaner, one.”
“Without doubt.” The king sounded proud.
But then he would be, wouldn’t he? His son’s ruthless resourcefulness had netted him full interest in Yurkovich Tanner for the first time in four generations.
She didn’t know how, or what the details were, but that much she had gleaned from what had and had not been said in this room tonight.
“There are half-a-dozen moderately accessible chemical compounds that would eat the flesh from a shark’s body in less than a minute, did you know that?”
The king shook his head, his expression almost bemused.
“I did. I know every single one of them.”
“Are you threatening him?”
“I am reminding you that even sharks get eaten if they aren’t careful and it doesn’t always take a bigger shark to do it.”
“I believe there is a strand of ruthlessness in you, too.”
“Would you like to find out?”
The king opened his mouth and then closed it, giving Demyan a look of concern before his expression turned thoughtful. “No.”