Priceless

“I hope you forgive me someday.”

“It’s okay, Ivan. I’m over it. I understand the mistaken identity now, and you should know I was extra fragile that night because I was coming down with strep throat. I am not a weepy girl normally, but I felt so physically ill on top of everything else, I guess I just couldn’t cope. Mr. Finnegan definitely saw me at my very worst, times a hundred.”

He tilted his head a little, his expression a bit unbelieving, and said, “I’m glad Finnegan was so helpful and kind to you then. At least somebody was.”

“He tried to feed me breakfast the next morning. Even tempted me with fresh scones, but I declined in my delirium.” I picked up a scone with jam off my plate and took a bite of the decadent treat. “Mmm…I totally should have stayed just for his scones.”

He smiled at my comment but his smile looked forced, as if he still felt badly for what had happened with us. So many questions rolled through my mind about Ivan Everley. Why the escorts? Surely he’d have zero problems finding a woman willing to give up some sex. Why was he still single? I’d guess he was in his early thirties, and his wealth was obvious, so why still unattached when he looked the way he did? Smoking hot gorgeous. Even now, I could hardly believe I was here with him enjoying this intimate breakfast in his private indoor pool house that looked like something out of Architectural Digest with its dark wood ceiling, glass tiles and slick lighting, stocked with modern comforts like chaise lounges and grotto showers. Why was he still pursuing me even after discovering I wasn’t one of his escorts? Why did he want me back at Donadea so badly? Why was he paranoid about being blackmailed?

“What are you thinking about, Gabrielle?”

I decided to tell him the truth. “I’m thinking about what a mystery you are to me. Why do you hire escorts to be with you? I know now we first met under mistaken identity, that you thought I was Maria-the-escort in my green dress, but now that you know I’m not, why do you want to be with me? And why did you want me here enough to kidnap me from Brynne and Ethan’s wedding?”

He never took his eyes off me as he answered my questions one by one. “It’s you that I find a mystery, so I suppose we’re even there.” He tapped his long fingers on the edge of the table. “The escorts are now out of the picture for good, but I used the service because I—I don’t have a great deal of trust in my past relationships with…women, I suppose. The women I’ve known all had a purpose in being with me, or merely wanted something from me…but not necessarily me, if that makes any sense.” He reached across the table and tapped the top of my hand with his index finger. “Now you, Miss Hargreave, have been an obsession since our first meeting, it’s true. But you keep running away from me for some reason and I need to put a definite stop to that.” He sent me a friendly wink. “I contacted the service the day after the Mallerton Gala and arranged another date with Maria, and was devastated when you didn’t show up. Honest to God truth.” He caught me with the intensity in his deep green eyes and gave me a really beautiful smile, the gap between his front teeth making him appear very sincere and real to me right now. He picked up my hand in his and intertwined our fingers. “And I kidnapped you last night and brought you here, because when fate dropped you right back into my lap after two month’s wait, after I’d given up hope of ever finding you again, I decided not to be a fucking moron and waste my golden opportunity.”

Wow. Not at all what I expected him to tell me. At all.

He was devastated when I didn’t show up as Maria?

His answers were a little much for me to accept, but it was hard not feel the sincerity from him.

“But why me and not somebody who runs in your circles?”

“Because nobody that runs in my circles, as you put it, has made me feel this good in a very long time, Gabrielle.”

I had to look down at my plate. It was still difficult to take in what he was telling me, but I did believe him. Ivan had a way of presenting himself as truthful, or it sure felt like it to me.

Because nobody has made me feel this good in a very long time, Gabrielle.

For whatever reasons, I made him feel good. Did he even know how good being with him made me feel?

“Look at me.” He spoke the words firmly, but not in a harsh way. Just as meaningful and compelling as he’d spoken to me from the very beginning.

I did.

I looked up at Ivan in all his glory: long hair wet from the pool and scraped back by his fingers combing through it; golden bare chest dotted with a few lingering drops of water; tattoo of what looked like the zodiac symbol for Sagittarius on his left shoulder, only revealed as he sat relaxed on a towel across the table from me.

He hadn’t let go of my hand either.

Devastatingly attractive, and deadly to my will to remain aloof and unaffected by him. I don’t think it was possible for me to be unaffected.

There was far too much gorgeousness blessed upon Ivan Everley for one human man to own, but very blessed he had been.

And if he didn’t watch out he would make me fall for him, with his soulful words and seductively commanding ways. If it wasn’t too late for me already.

“I’ve never brought a woman here before in the way you’re here with me right now.” His eyes held onto me. “You are the first, Gabrielle Hargreave. And furthermore, I think you should stay and do the job of cataloging my ridiculously large collection of paintings.” He picked up my hand and brought it up to his lips still entangled in his own. “I want you here. Very much.”

Damn, he is good.

His expression was one of adoration, respect, desire. I wanted to stay with him. I wanted to be the object of his desire.

Perhaps it was already too late for me.

Perhaps I was already falling.

FOURTEEN

I could see the struggle going on in her mind as clearly as if she’d just told me her inner thoughts. It reminded me a little of a competition. The moment when you know you’ve gotten into your opponent’s head. It was like that with Gabrielle right now. All I had to do was stay in her head, and convince her she wanted the same thing as me.