The Prodigal Prince's Seduction / The Heir's Scandalous Affair: The Prodigal Prince's Seduction. Jennifer Lewis
I can’t.”
The flare subsided, ice putting out the blue-hot flames.
Something twisted beneath her ribs. She couldn’t bear to see disappointment replacing exhilaration in his eyes.
She hurtled on. “Believe it or not, I did approach you with business and only business in mind.”
Relief swamped her when his eyes simmered again. “I believe you. But it ceased to be business the moment you laid eyes on me.”
She didn’t even think of denying the fact. “Yes.” She still had to qualify it. “But I can’t afford to let it be that way—”
He cut across her unsteady words. “You can’t afford to let it be any other way. Business will be taken care of in due time. But I’m not postponing this for anything else’s sake.”
“But what is this?”
“Something unknown to either of us, something unprecedented. And you know it as well as I do.”
Gabrielle stared at him. He kept stunning her. But what most amazed her was that she picked up no malice from him, that malignant triumph most men transmitted when women made the mistake of not only falling for them, but admitting it, too.
Not him. She felt he was above pettiness and double standards. This was also no line that he gave every desirable woman he met. In fact, his ruthlessness likely originated from his never instigating the pursuit. He was renowned for his detachment.
There was nothing detached about him now. She just knew he was being swept along the same unstoppable current as she was.
That didn’t mean she could let herself be swept. There was far more at stake than the elapsing of “an appropriate period before indulging in intimacies.” And not only couldn’t she tell him what, but that this was happening at all made her feel she’d fallen flat on her face into someone else’s life. Men like him—and there were no men like him—didn’t appear in hers.
She looked up at him, at once pleading for him to understand her chaos and afraid he’d shimmer and disappear. “Whatever this unknown and unprecedented thing is, and no matter how I feel about it or how right it feels to feel this way, I’m still totally weirded out by the detour everything has taken. Hours ago I didn’t dream…”
“…you’d see me and the world would cease to matter.”
His confidence sent her explanations scattering. “Oh, quit making it harder for me to make sense. The world might have ceased to matter, but it didn’t cease to exist. I had this proposal memorized and now I barely remember what it was all about.”
“I barely remember why I came here tonight, too. I don’t care about anything now beyond you.”
“Maybe if you hear my proposal, you’ll change your mind.”
“I won’t. Not even if you’re coming to me with the patent for an eternal-youth or super-power serum.”
“Actually, I was thinking along opposite lines. That you’d be so opposed to my offer, you’d drop me.”
“So it’s something you think I’m liable to turn down flat? Is that why you were trying to sweeten me with the hundred grand? Is there something dark and controversial about you, mia ragazzaccia?”
The way he said “my bad girl” quickened her melting rate. “Oh, I wish. Okay, really, I don’t. I’m pretty grateful there’s nothing so…interesting about me. I’m just—”
“The woman I want to know everything about. And to that end, I want to conduct an experiment.”
She blinked. “An experiment?” She stopped. “God, I keep repeating things. I might start asking for crackers next.” His smile widened, blinding her with a flash of charisma. She groaned. “So, what’s this experiment? What are you out to prove?”
“That you were onto something great when you approached me without revealing your identity and purpose. The labels might have interfered with our impact on each other. I don’t think your name or your business will shed any light on who you really are. I want to know you. What you are, what makes you tick, what shaped you, what you want and why and how you want it. I want to revel in what we have blazing between us, to enjoy us, man to woman. For tonight.”
Another breaker of reaction shuddered through her. “Are you for real, or am I dreaming you up?”
The heat of his smile became almost unbearable. “I take it you agree to participate in my experiment.”
She shook her head. “That experiment is skewed and the results are bound to be unreliable. I know exactly who you are.”
“You only think you do. But what do you know? My statistics? My reputation, status and estimated fortune? Sterile facts mixed with conjectures and financial data. Did knowing any of the above prepare you for the effect I have on you in the flesh?”
She raised her hands begging for respite. “Okay. I admit the ‘labels’ conjured up a man who, while impressive, has nothing to do with the flesh-and-blood reality of you. In fact, I’m having a tough time connecting you at all to that man.”
“You see? If you can’t access your preconceived ideas about me, we’re on a level playing field. Say yes, bellissima.”
“Now I know why you’ve soared so high. You’re relentless.”
“That’s your expert opinion as a fellow unstoppable force?”
“Hah, I wish. Or again, not really. Okay. On one condition.”
“Anything.”
She exhaled a tremulous chuckle. “Not very businessman-like of you, all these carte-blanche concessions.”
“I’m not a businessman now. I’m just a man who knows you’re the woman to whom only carte-blanche concessions will do justice.”
“God, stop with the impossible-to-live-up-to stuff.”
“You’ve already lived up to all of it by making me feel this way, think this way. So, what’s your condition?”
“That you give me back my check.”
He didn’t hesitate, not in expression, not in action. He produced her check as the words left her lips. Delight fizzed in her blood. He hadn’t paused to ponder her intention, trusted that whatever it was, there was nothing underhanded about it.
Her hand trembled as she extended his back to him. “Here’s yours. Now I don’t owe you untold millions.”
He didn’t reach for it. “Keep it, bellissima. You wouldn’t owe me a cent. That’s for the causes of your choice.”
“Oh, I would owe you. I wanted to make a donation through you, while gaining something for myself. But if I take your check, I would be ‘donating’ your money. So, you donate what you wish and I’ll do the same and let’s take money out of the equation, start this on a real equal footing.”
He took the check. “I’ll just keep it until you wish to donate something you can’t afford. Now, shall we?”
Her heart began to race her. “Shall we…what exactly?”
“Spend the rest of the evening together. As for the night…I won’t push for anything you can’t wait to…donate.”
Three
Durante leaned back against the railing of his yacht, almost tasting the beauty of his bellissima an arm’s reach away.
She stood on the first rung, holding on to the railing, arching into the wind, framed against the lit-up Manhattan skyline they were sailing parallel to.
They’d just left port. There was no moon, but stars hung like tiny