The Platinum Collection: A Convenient Proposal: His Diamond of Convenience / The Highest Price to Pay / His Ring Is Not Enough

“I am not, and you can spare me your foreign endearment.” Even she was annoyed with her responses at the moment, but she couldn’t seem to hold them back. He had too much power over her. Over how she felt.

“They aren’t foreign to me.”

She bristled, feeling very much as if he had the upper hand, and there was nothing she could do to reverse their roles. “Fair point.”

“Yes, this will do nicely. I gather you’re expecting a good turnout tonight?”

This was her area of strength; this was her confidence. The upper hand was here, and she was grabbing it. “That I am, Dmitri. That I am.”

“You should be very proud. All you have to do is beat a few bushes and celebrities fall out. I would wager that would not be the case for me.”

Because she was better with people than he was. And better at this. And that thought cheered her immensely. “You don’t think?”

“No, I do not think. Unless said celebrity wanted to install a cage in the midst of a gala and arrange a fight, then have me seduce his wife, I fail to see why I would be included in something of this nature. That’s what I am, after all. That’s why my reputation is what it is.”

She looked at Dmitri, his broad shoulders and well-defined muscles tapering down to a slim waist. The way the slight bump in his nose added to the look of him, to the danger. He certainly wouldn’t blend in at a social event like this one, but then, there was something nice about not blending in. At least when it applied to other people. She had always gone out of her way to blend in as best she could.

“You’re more than that,” she said, and she wasn’t sure why.

“Do you think?” he asked. “I’m not certain. But we had better make everyone think so, yes?”

She nodded slowly. “Yes.” She cleared her throat. “So, there will be tables and chairs set over here. Dinner will be served around nine, then it will be dancing and live jazz music. It sounds nice, doesn’t it?” She was desperate to change the subject, to get things back on track. To ignore all of the electricity that crackled between them.

“You’re avoiding looking at me, Victoria.”

She kept her eyes fixed on the stage. “I am not avoiding looking at you, Dmitri. It’s just I can look at you anytime, and we came down here to look at the venue. I don’t see why I should need any of this special, allotted venue time to examine you.”

He made a low, musing noise in the back of his throat, and the hair on her neck stood on end. “And you are acting prickly. You’re prickly when things don’t go your way.” He started to pace the length of the room. “I have been perfectly agreeable, so I know it is not myself making you feel like things aren’t going your way. Which makes me wonder...is your body disobeying you, Victoria?”

She stiffened. “Why would you think that?”

“I only wonder if your body is still obeying me.”

Oh, that...

She made a sound that was somewhere between a snort and a growl. “I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean. At no point has my body ever obeyed yours.”

“Last night,” he said, the words dark and sensual, wrapping themselves around her body. No. No, no, no.

She gritted her teeth. Part of her was begging her to retreat, while the bolder part, the part that hated to lose, that seemed to be in top form when he was around, urged her on. “Stop feeling so proud. It’s nothing I haven’t done for myself.”

He arched a dark brow. “On a balcony in front of the sea of strangers? You are a much more adventurous woman than I have given you credit for.”

She ignored the heat sizzling beneath her skin. “We are not going to talk about this again. We are going to talk about the gala tonight.”

“All right, Victoria, we can play your way. But before we do, I have one question for you.”

“What?” She braced herself mentally for what he might say.

He was silent for a while, the silence winding itself around the line of tension that already stretched between them and pulling it tight. Finally, he spoke. “Do you want me? Do you want more than what happened last night?”

“I don’t see what that has to do with anything.” Being curt was her last line of defense. And even it was hanging on by a thread.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s relevant or not, this is what I’m asking you right now. I told you, one question. And then we can get back to being relevant.”

She took in a deep breath, deciding yet again that she was going to pursue honesty. Because after what had transpired between them the night before it would be foolish of her to try and deny that there was something between them. Ignoring it wasn’t working anyway. “Obviously, I am attracted to you. It would be disingenuous of me to say otherwise. As to the question of whether or not I want you, that’s a different story.”

“Is it? Do you think wanting me and wanting to want me are the same?”

She felt some of the defenses around her crumble. “Aren’t they?”

He looked at her, his dark eyes boring into hers. She could feel frustration coming off him in waves. “No, Victoria, they are not the same thing. I could go out onto the street, snap my fingers and have any woman I wanted—do you realize that? I can go right outside this hotel this very moment and find a woman and be back in my room having sex with her in less than an hour. I have that choice.” His voice vibrated with intensity, an intensity that echoed through her. “But...I don’t want to make it. Because I want you.” The words hit her hard, unexpected and, much more unexpected than the words themselves, welcome.

He wanted her.

He wanted her.

Not because of what she could offer him, but because he was attracted to her. He already had use of her, without seduction. This had to do with lust. Simple lust. And it meant more to her than she’d ever imagined something like that might.

He continued. “Do you suppose I find that terribly convenient? Do you suppose I want that? No, I would much rather have the easy way. What man wouldn’t? But with us, it will never be simple.”

Victoria’s throat constricted, her chest tightening. “Why bother with something that isn’t easy?” she asked. “I mean...isn’t life hard enough?”

“True,” he said, his voice rough. “But easy is never fun. Not for people like us.”

The truth that resonated, in his words and through her, was unwelcome. “I would take some easy,” she contradicted.

He met her gaze. “No. You don’t want easy. You’re like me. You want a fight. You want this fight, too, don’t you?”

“Fine,” she said, barely able to force the words out. “Fine, I want you. But I don’t want to want you.” She finished the rest of it in a rush, not quite able to believe she’d said it out loud.

She felt as though she had stuck her head into a bonfire. She’d done this once before. And she’d been rejected horribly, seen her entire life turned upside down because she’d chased after desire. She had laid herself bare and been turned away, and even saying those words to Dmitri now took her right back to that place. To feeling as though she’d taken her clothes off for him to either accept or reject. Just as she’d done back then. But this was more somehow, bigger, even without all of the feelings that had accompanied her attempted seduction of Nathan.

Because it had been one thing to offer herself to a man when she’d been a sixteen-year-old girl who had wanted something nebulous and romantic. Who had wrapped everything in the soft haze of love and fine feelings.

It was quite another thing to say it to a man like Dmitri. When what she wanted had nothing to do with romance or love. When it had everything to do with desire. When she was a woman and old enough to understand exactly what that meant. To know that the ache between her thighs was because she was desperate to be filled by him, that she wanted him inside of her, skin to skin, clinging to each other as they both chased their climax.

She felt dizzy, her vision getting fuzzy around the edges, the world tilting on its axis.

“I will not seduce you,” he said, his voice rough, “you have my word.”

She laughed shakily. “As if you could seduce me.”

“I already have, Victoria. I think I proved that last night. I said I enjoyed having you mindless, and I did. But the truth is I do not want you mindless when I finally take you to bed. I want you to know exactly what you’re getting into. I want you to know exactly what you are agreeing to when you say yes, Dmitri, yes. So I will not seduce you. You will choose it. You will beg me,” he said, his tone rough, harsh, his dark eyes blazing.

This was not the laid-back playboy she’d met, casually sparring with a man in the gym. This was the warrior. And for the first time she truly appreciated what he was.

And it only enticed her further.