Lies?
I seduced you to protect Will. From you. When you came on to me while I was with him at the fund-raiser, I knew what you were and saw how you intended to use him. You made my job easy when you made a play for me, too.
What are you saying?
Im saying I sought you out tonight and slept with you so I could use it as leverage to make you stop seeing my brother. Tonight was all about Will.
Will? She sounded confused. Wait a minute. You think Will and I...that were a couple? That were dating? You...you dont like me?
How could I like you, knowing what you are?
Having been poor himself, he knew all about wanting more, about using people to get what he wanted. Hed worked damned hard. Still, hed done a few things he wasnt proud of to get where he was.
You were after him, and then after me, because you needed our money for your failing restaurant.
No, she whispered.
Do you deny Will is one of your investors?
No. But her beautiful mouth trembled just a little, and her eyes were now glistening with unshed tears. You...deceived me? You didnt really want me?
He shook his head.
Why? How could you do that? I would never use Will...or anybody. Wills a friend, and yes, hes an investor. Hes been an investor right from the beginning. But Im not after his money! Im not!
Then why did you hit on me so blatantly the night we met at the fund-raiser when you were with Will?
Maybe I flirted. But only because I thought you liked me.... She sucked in a breath. Will is just a friend. He was a friend of Johnnys first, and an investor in Chez Z when my brother first opened it. Thats how Will and I became friends.
Friends? Thats all you were?
The night of the fund-raiser shed worn a silver backless gown and a transparent shawl that had left very little of her sensuous shape to his imagination.
Her family history hadnt helped his opinion of her. Six months ago, Johnny Z, her celebrity-chef brother, had been found dead in bed with a prominent plastic surgeons wife, another of the bistros investors. Everyone presumed the surgeon had shot Johnny, but the husband, whod hired lawyers, wasnt talking to the police, and his wife had vanished. Thus, the investigation had stalled. Still, the scandal, coupled with Zs absence in the kitchen, had been devastating to Chez Zs bottom line.
Will asked me to go with him to the fund-raiser, so he could introduce me to some people who might be interested in investing. When he introduced me to you, I thought you might be one of those people.
Her eyes were so brilliant with innocence and outrage he almost believed her. Then he remembered Anya and how gullible hed been. Hed wanted to believe her. Capable as he might be in the business world, apparently he was an easy mark when it came to women he wanted in his bed.
Bottle the performance! If you think Im as big a fool as my little brother, youre wrong. I want you to dress and leave. If you stay away from Will, I wont tell him I slept with you tonight. If you dont leave him alone, Ill tell him about us.
Tell him for all I care. Bettermaybe Ill tell him myself. He needs to know how far youll go to control his life. Maybe hell resent you even more than he already does.
Her reaction caught him off guard. Hed expected her to care more, to bargain, and what shed said about Will hurt.
He cant afford to resent me, Michael bluffed. I write his allowance checks.
So everythings just about money and control to you? And you think Im like you
I know you are! So, leave my brother alone, and I wont make him think the worst of you by telling him about us. You bet on the wrong horse this time. Pick another. Someone who isnt naive. Someone more like you and me.
Tell him. Im not like you, and you cant blackmail me, either.
You are like me. Greed isnt the only thing we have in common, he replied coldly. If Will didnt desire you, Id be willing to set you up as my mistress. Id keep you and your bistro afloat for as long you excited me.
Do you ever listen? For the last time, your brother and I are just friends. Thats why he wont care if you slept with me. He was just an investor in the bistro. He already has someone in his life.
Reallywho?
Michael knew she was lying when she faltered and said, Maybe you should ask him.
If only Will did have someone, then Michael could have Bree for himself. He could afford her a helluva lot more easily than Will, couldnt he?
Suddenly Michael reconsidered the situation. Where was the harm in keeping her, if she wasnt serious about Will? As long as he understood what she was and was willing to be generous to her?
Okay, then, if Will doesnt want you because he has someone else, theres nothing to stop me from having you. Heres a new deal for you. If you cut Will loose as an investor and become my mistress, Ill keep your bistro afloat for as long as you please me in bed.
What? She stared at him as if she was having a hard time comprehending him.
You heard me. Be my mistress, and your money problems will go away for as long as you keep me happy. Like you did tonight.
I cant believe this. First you sleep with me to destroy an imagined relationship with your brother. And now you want to buy me for yourself? Im sorry I ever met you.
Im sure youll feel differently after you shop for the right apartment in the neighborhood of your choice and we settle on your generous allowance.
Now you wait a minute!
You want to save the bistro, dont you? We enjoy each other, so why not?
She pushed herself up from the bed. You cant just buy people!
Youd be surprised what money buys.
Well, Im not for sale.
I doubt that. I just havent made you the right offer. Tell me what you want, and well negotiate.
I cant believe I ever thought for one second that you were a decent human being. Her expression twisted in utter misery. And I did. I really did. I cant believe Ive been such a fool...again. She sighed. This just proves what I told you earlierI dont have very good instincts about men. I think youre the worst of them all...and I have to tell you, thats pretty low.
Her rejection stunned him. Too late Michael saw that he should have flattered her, that he should have seduced her into the deal as he had seduced her into his bed. Obviously she was like all the criminals in prison who proclaimed their innocence; she really didnt see that she had done anything wrong. Thats where they were different. At least he knew when hed crossed the line and was willing to accept the inevitable consequences.
Ill call my chauffeur, he said coldly, hiding his disappointment. Hell be at the front door downstairs in five minutes to escort you out of the building. Hell drive you anywhere you wish to go. After tonight I dont ever want to see you with my brother again. Do you understand?
You cant order me around...or your brother, who is an adult, and who is, whether you like it or not, one of my key investors. I fully intend to see him as often as I like! He has every right to invest his money where he chooses.
Youre very wrong.
Youre very wrong.
Michael turned his back and strode out of the room because the sight of her shimmering, pain-filled eyes, her quivering lips and her bare breasts were more than he could bear. Damn it, in spite of her rejection, in spite of what she was and how she was using Will, he still wanted her.
Only when he heard her rushing down his spiral staircase to the lower floorshe never used an elevator unless she had to because she was afraid of themonly when he heard his front door slam downstairs, did Michael return to his bedroom.
For a long moment he stood in the dark and stared out at the city that sparkled beneath a full moon and a starless sky. It was a beautiful night, he supposed, a night made for romance, if one believed in such things. He wondered if his failure to do so was due to the many flaws in his soul.
Growing bored with the view he left the window and turned on every light. Never had the vast marble bedroom in his penthouse apartment blazed with such cold and terrible brightness.
Only when he saw the bright splashes of red staining his sheet did he realize that maybe hed been wrong about at least one thing.
Had she been a virgin? His heart, which usually felt so solid behind its frozen walls, began to beat with vicious, guilty pain. Surely no virgin would have shown such a wild, uninhibited response. And yet...
When he remembered her little cry when hed first entered her, and her sweetness, and the admiration in her eyes when hed discussed some of his projects with her, he recoiled. What if she had been an innocent? What if he, whod been raised so roughly, had failed to see goodness because it had been such a rarity in his life?
If I could succeed at even one thing, Id feel so proud of myself, she had confided. And look at youyou turned the family investment firm around right after the last global financial meltdown. Now youre opening banks and hotels in China and power plants in Malaysia. You conquer worldsand accept such feats as your due. Your family must be so proud of you. Her shining eyes had warmed him through.
If hed been wrong about her virginity, had he been wrong about other things? Had she truly admired his accomplishments? Had she liked him, at least a little? Had he wounded her? And what was she really to Will?
No.
Damn it. He was sure of her ulterior motives. With her famous brother dead, his image trashed and their once popular bistro on the Upper West Side in trouble, shed been after Will for his money. Then she had zeroed in on Michael at the fund-raiser when shed seen a better mark. The only reason shed turned down Michaels second offer was because hed wounded her pride.
As he yanked the sheets off his bed, he remembered her radiant complexion and the wonder in her eyes and his own intense pleasure. Sheathed to the hilt, hed felt all male and powerful and yet happy in a bone-melting way hed never known before.
If she was what he believed, why had she turned him down? Why?
Michael tried and failed to push his gnawing doubts aside. Damn it, he had to know why. But he couldnt face her tonight.
They both deserved a few hours to recover from his brutal offer and her rejection. Tomorrow morning would be soon enough to confront her again.
But by morning she was gone.
After he bribed the doorman to let him in to her empty apartment, he stomped about flinging her cupboards open while he dialed her cell phone, which went to voice mail. For more than an hour he searched for some clue as to where shed gone and found none. His texts were ignored. When he went to Chez Z, her steely-eyed French mother, Bijou, had been in a meeting with the waitstaff.
She said she had to go somewhere, her mother said coolly, when hed insisted upon interrupting her. She said it was an emergency. She looked upset. I didnt pry. Now, I wish Id asked more questions. Are you the problem? Is she in trouble because of you?
No.
Well! She is no good with men. In fact, thats an understatement. Shes pathetic. She took after me, you see. Her father did everything he could to ruin my life. If you arent going to treat her right, stay away from her, yes?
What could he say to that? Despite the circumstances, he envied Bree for having such a mother. He hadnt been so lucky.
When Michael went to his brothers to warn him about Bree, Will refused to let Michael into his apartment.
She already told me what you accused her of, Will said, standing with the door half-closed to keep Michael in the hall. I dont know where she is, and frankly, I wouldnt tell you if I did. Youve overstepped the line.
She said you were seeing another woman? Are you?
Will, who usually had an easy nature, scowled. Right now, maybe you can guess why I dont choose to discuss my personal life with you.
Then he shut the door in Michaels face.
Michael felt guilty and uneasy. What was Will hiding? Not only had Bree rejected him, shed turned his brother against him. Will wouldnt even confirm he was dating someone else, so did that mean he was still interested in Bree? If Will was involved with another woman, what the hell had Michael accomplished by bedding Bree other than becoming obsessed with her himself?
The odds were he was right about her character. Maybe she was gone, but what good was that if Will felt more protective of her than ever? Instead of turning his brother against her, all hed done was make his brother angry with him.
Despite everything, Michael burned for her. No matter how hard he tried to bury himself in his work during the weeks that followed, no matter where he traveled or how many glamorous women he publicly dated in the attempt to prove to himself and to her how little she mattered, he couldnt forget her.
Even when he left on what proved to be a month-long business trip to Shanghai to solve a crisis at one of his hotels, memories of her sweetness and outraged innocence lingered, haunting him.
The perfection of their night together drove him madespecially after he learned that the same day hed left New York, shed returned to her bistro and had lunched with Will.
Had she deliberately remained hidden until he was gone? Was she that afraid of him?
What was her game? How could he stop her and save Will?
Two
Eight weeks later
Will has to be okay. He has to be.
As his heart beat in panic, Michael slammed through the heavy steel emergency-room doors with his dripping briefcase. When Pedro, his assistant whod notified him about the accident, wasnt at the entrance, Michael had rushed inside and hurried down a crowded hall that was a blur of nondescript floor tiles and pale green walls, beds, patients and visitors.
Michael had been trying to call Bree from his limo on the drive through thick rain from JFK airport into the city. When all he could get was her voice mail, hed decided to stop by Chez Z on the way to his office to confront her again. Hed just pulled up at the curb outside the bistro when Pedro had called him to tell him Will had been in an accident.
Wheres Will North? Michael demanded of the nurses in dark scrubs at the nurses station. Im his brother. I got a call a while ago that he was in an accident and that hed been brought here by EMTs.
North? Nurses looked up from their papers and stilled. When they didnt answer him, maybe because they had to choose their words carefully, he sensed the gravity of his brothers condition.