The Russian's Furious Fiancee (11 page)

Glancing around, he realized that other men were still glancing at her and he sighed inwardly, frustrated that he actually cared. It simply irritated him, that so many men were coveting what was his.

“Thank you,” she said and set her purse carefully on the floor beside her.

He slid her chair in for her, then moved around the table to take his own seat. “It was a nice surprise to hear from you this morning. And even nicer to hear you asking me out to lunch.”

Eva smiled stiffly and shook her head. “I don’t think you’ll like it once we start talking.”

“I’m sure we can work out whatever is on your mind.”

“Maybe,” she said and thanked the waiter who handed her the menu. She stalled by burying her face in the menu, trying to gather her thoughts and figure out how best to approach the subject she needed to discuss with him. She had to be careful, to make sure he understood her position and backed away from his demands. She couldn’t allow her father to know how she’d broken things off with Damon either, it all had to be very delicately done so no feelings were hurt. Damon was too powerful and, although her father had very powerful business connections as well, they were nothing compared to the strength and influence that Damon wielded in the business world. He could crush her father’s business without significant exertion.

Why she should care about her father’s businesses, she had no idea. There was just something about family that she had grown up respecting. Even if her family was completely dysfunctional with an absent father and an alcoholic mother, she felt a strong need to protect them.

After the waiter had taken their drink order, she took a deep breath and hid her hands under the table. She had no idea how Damon would take this conversation but she was nervous just bringing it up. She knew he wouldn’t be happy but she had to do something. “I wanted to discuss this wedding situation without all the emotion that has been present during our previous conversations.”

Damon didn’t like the way she was sitting across from him, looking like a prim, distraught woman. Her features were pale and he noticed dark circles under her eyes. “Are you backing away from our deal?” he asked carefully.

She worked those words through in her mind, wanting to answer him diplomatically. “I don’t want you to think I’m reneging,” she started to say.

“Good. Because I would consider that a serious breach of one’s trust. Specifically mine.”

“I don’t consider that the words spoken in the rush of anger would hold up in a court of law, Damon.”

The waiter came back with their drinks and she ordered a salad, not sure if she’d be able to eat anything, too nervous about what she was doing here and the intent look in Damon’s golden-brown eyes. She was starting to understand his moods based on the color of his eyes and this color wasn’t necessarily a good mood.

Damon’s lips compressed into a grim line, his mind already working on countering any argument she planned to present to him. There was no way he was going to allow her to back out of their deal. “At least you’re willing to admit that I can generate emotions in you.”

She laughed and shook her head. “You generate a great deal of emotion.”

“All negative?”

She bit her lower lip and considered her words, trying to keep the conversation positive so he didn’t become defensive. “A great deal of it is irrefutably confusing,” she said softly.

“So what are you asking of me now?”

Eva cleared her throat and took a sip of ice water. “I was hoping you could explain to me why you want to marry me.” She looked around, searching for the correct words. “I mean, you’ve mentioned that you hired an agency and selected me, you’ve callously explained that you need a hostess and a mother to your future children, but surely there was more. And maybe if I understood the rest, I could maybe feel more upbeat about this whole situation. Or maybe, even better, I could help you find someone that would suit your goals more effectively.” She sat across the table from him, her whole body tense and waiting for his reaction while he looked back at her without any emotion crossing his handsome features.

Damon contemplated the beautiful woman sitting across from him and considered various ways to answer her question. He reminded himself of his ultimate goal and his promise to himself to take it more slowly, to play this game differently and be more aware of her sensibilities. “You don’t think I saw you across the room and instantly knew you’d be perfect for my wife?”

She watched him closely and thought about his words. Something about them rang true and she nodded. “Yes. I don’t know if it was a room or some other venue, but yes. I believe that you made a very logical decision based off of some equation that works in your mind. You’ve mentioned that you went through an agency. Can you tell me what your direction to the agency was? Are you willing to tell me that much at least?”

“No.”

She felt deflated but determined to persevere. She looked down at the napkin resting on her lap and forced her brain to figure out a different way to get the information she needed. Something that would help her understand him better. “Okay. How about this, what kinds of women have you dated in the past?”

Damon saw one of his acquaintances approaching and shook his head, indicating that he didn’t want to be interrupted. The man caught the signal and turned, ensuring that Damon had the privacy he needed for this conversation.

“They were beautiful, just like you. Poised, accomplished in whatever field they’d chosen…” he slowed at the end, not sure how to explain that they’d basically chosen him instead of the other way around. When he was at a function, women recognized him and approached him without any encouragement on his end. If he was mildly interested and had the time to play their game, he would take them up on their obvious suggestions, some spoken, some not but all the women were blatantly obvious about their intentions. All his previous relationships had been sexual with nothing else possible between his partners. They’d understood his terms, even if they’d all wished for, and some even subtly suggested, a more permanent situation. He’d dismissed all of them without qualms. When the heat had fizzled with one woman, he immediately started looking for another. It wasn’t until Eva’s picture had arrived on his conference room table that he’d thought of a woman as more than just a temporary diversion.

Or, to be more correct, it wasn’t until he’d met her, got to know her and felt more than just a passing interest, that his intentions had changed. Her picture in the file had caught his eye. Her hell for nothing temper and unrelenting passion for all things had captured his interest.

He couldn’t tell her that. Damon knew this beautiful, vibrant woman wouldn’t appreciate being chosen out of a set of five pictures simply because her head shot had caught his attention.

She blinked, waiting for more but when he stopped and simply looked across the table at her, she realized that he’d just told her everything he was going to say. It wasn’t enough. She couldn’t go through her rolodex of friends to find him a new fiancée without more information. “What personality traits do you look for when choosing a woman to date? Surely some of the women you’ve been with in the past might have been appropriate wife material. Couldn’t you give me a clue what they might have been like? You don’t need to give me names, just things that they did or didn’t do that made you date them.”

He dealt with the first because the last would be a bit too volatile. “You’re self-confident, you know how to handle a room full of people with grace and dignity, you seem to be a very good hostess which can help my business grow.”

Eva waited for the waiter to put their meals down in front of them and leaving before she continued. This wasn’t a discussion that the wait staff at the restaurant needed to overhear. “You don’t need your business to grow.”

“Everyone needs to grow.”

“How much are you worth? Right now?”

He almost laughed at her matter of fact tone. No one had dared to ask him that. They just looked up other peoples’ estimates on the internet or in magazines. He was regularly featured in the top ten wealthiest men in the world so it wasn’t as if someone would need to dig too deeply to find out his estimated net worth. “Right at this moment? I have no idea.”

She sat back, shaking her head. “You probably know but think it’s crass of me to ask. And you’re right. Even I’m uncomfortable with the subject. But it doesn’t matter. The point is, you’re so wealthy you could stop working today and not have to make any other business deals and you’d still be disgustingly wealthy for the rest of your life.”

“And your point is?”

“My point is that you don’t need a wife. You don’t need me to further your business interests. So what’s truly behind all this?”

“You might not think I need someone, but I do. I want children to pass on my wealth.”

She was already shaking her head at the idea of passing billions on to the next generation. They wouldn’t push themselves to succeed on their own if they had no reason to contribute something to society. “Children shouldn’t expect that much money. They won’t pursue their own interests or they become those obnoxious people the tabloids write about, who are always in trouble with drugs or the law since they have no real responsibilities other than finding their next social event.”

“But I can provide for them. My children will have their comforts, although I will encourage them to strive for their own success.”

She latched onto that as evidence of their incompatibility. “See? We already disagree about the most fundamental issues about child rearing. I don’t think children should inherit their parents’ wealth and that’s your second most powerful reason for marrying me, so you can have children and pass on your wealth.”

He was becoming impatient with this discussion and wanted to see where she was going with it. “Our children will be provided for, Eva.”

“I agree that your children should have security and privilege.”

“Are you saying you don’t have an inheritance that you live off of? What about the trust fund your grandmother left for you?”

She was uncomfortable with his knowledge of her finances. How did he know so much? “I have that for emergencies. But I don’t live off of that.”

That infuriated him. “So what are you living off of?” She damn well better not tell him that she had a boyfriend on the side who gave her an allowance and paid for her apartment.

She laughed softly, glad she’d broken through his emotionless façade. For some reason, she wasn’t afraid of his anger, just his passion. “Not the way you’re thinking. Why do you think it’s so amazing to think that a woman can survive without a man’s wealth?”

He read between the lines and knew that she wasn’t telling him something. Something probably significant. “Are you saying you work? What’s your job?”

She shrugged and felt that old tug of battle kick into play. This man just did that to her. “None of your business.”

“It’s obviously my business since we’re engaged.”

“In your mind,” she countered, refusing to give an inch to ease his mind. He was thinking the worst, let him do his own research and find out where she earned her income. His initial investigation obviously hadn’t turned up the information about her teaching and royalties from her book sales, let it fester in his mind.

He sat back in his chair and looked at her, noting the smug look of victory that had suddenly come over her. She thought she’d won this round. He’d just have to bring her back to reality, he thought to himself. “I think in your mind as well.”

Eva didn’t know she could hate a man so much. “You can believe that all you want,” she snapped, hating the way she couldn’t look him in the eye. “But you don’t know me, I don’t know you which means there’s absolutely no way a marriage can work between us. So no, in my mind, we are not engaged.”

He chuckled and shook his head. “Now I know our marriage is going to be strong.”

“You know nothing of the sort.”

“Of course I do. I can tell when you’re lying, Eva.”

She was sputtering with her anger and she glared across the table at him. “First of all, I’m not lying. And secondly, how in the world would you know if I was or wasn’t lying?’

“You’re neck becomes all red when you’re not telling me the truth. So, now that we’ve established that you’re a walking lie detector, perhaps we can find out some more interesting information. Like perhaps why you’re so afraid of me.”

She reared back, refusing to even look at him after such an outrageous question. “I’m not afraid of you! And you flatter yourself to think that you have that kind of power over me.”

He looked behind her and shook his head one more time. “We need to have this conversation in a more private atmosphere.” He stood up and came around the table. “Come along,” he said quickly and took her hand, practically pulling her out of the restaurant.

He stopped briefly to speak with the manager who nodded quickly and hurried off to do whatever it was that Damon had ordered him to do.

She didn’t like the confident look that had come over him a few moments ago. It didn’t bode well for her confidence. Besides, where had her plan gone awry? She’d determined to be cool, calm. To face him with logic and sincerity and try to help him with his problem of finding an acceptable wife while relieving herself of the burden of paying him back all the money he’d donated to the recreation center. “Where are we going? I’m not going back to your place with you!”

He stopped outside the restaurant, smiling briefly while his driver pulled up to the curb. The manager hurried out with a large bag that he quickly handed to Damon’s driver.

Damon looked behind him and then back to her wide, wary eyes. “As much as I’d like to take you back to my place, we both know where that will end up and I made a promise to myself to slow down for your benefit.”

“My benefit?”

He nodded curtly and waved to the open door to the back of the limousine. “Get in the car or I’m going to kiss you in front of all those curious people over there, some of which I’m guessing are paparazzi and would love a picture of the two of us in a passionate embrace. Wouldn’t that make headlines on all the tabloids? ‘Daughter of local business man making out with out of town tycoon’?” He let that headline sink in for a moment before he said, “Has a nice ring to it since it’s true.”