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CHAPTER ONE

BIANCA DI SIONE SCANNED the busy conference roo for her sister Allegra The buzz of voices became louder as the room filled but she was too preoccupied to notice She couldn’t quite shake off the sensation that things weren’t right with her sister Not that she’d ra

As the conference got under way, Bianca saw Allegra walking onto the stage and knew so She was pale beneath the polished exterior she always showed to the world and Bianca felt guilty She was about to add to that worry The weight of their terrandfather’s request would only exacerbate whatever worried Allegra, but she had to talk to her She needed to confide in sora had always been that person She’d stepped into the role of ic loss of their parents when they were young and had always been there for her

The final speaker was introduced but Bianca couldn’t concentrate; her randfather had asked of her last week He’d been so frail, so weak, she hadn’t wanted to press him for o on was the tale of his Lost Mistresses, which she and her brothers and sisters had grown up on Even randchild to be sent on a mission to retrieve one of these Lost Mistresses, but she did understand how important they were to him She recalled the many times he’d told theed to set up Di Sione Shipping when he arrived in Aacy

‘Ms Di Sione This is an unexpected pleasure’

That voice, that accent which hadn’t quite had the roughened edges smoothed from it, startled her from her reverie She turned and looked up into the hard but undeniably handsounov

He looked i the hardness which sparked frorey eyes, his brown hair short and as severe as his expression He looked formidable Just as he had the first day she’d met him, when he’d approached her company to represent his The firered just beneath the surface Inwardly her heart plummeted She didn’t need this, not today Couldn’t the man take no for an answer?

‘Mr Dragunov I trust you are here for legitimate reasons’ The same unease she’d felt the very first time he’d stood in her office last week shivered down her spine She even began to wonder if she was losing her ability to read a person Allegra was being unusually evasive, probably due to all the travelling she’d done recently But thisaura, unsettled her far too much

‘Everything I do has a legitimate reason’ Was that an undertone of threat in his accented voice?

She lifted a brow in speculation as she looked at him, not

totally iaze slid discreetly over him as he surveyed the room He pulled at the cuffs of his white shirt, visible beneath his dark suit, as if he was preparing himself for some kind of battle or confrontation In response she found herself co to ht

‘That may be so, but what possible reason could you have to be here, Mr Dragunov? Geneva is a long way from New York’ He turned his attention back to her and she looked directly into his eyes, resisting the urge to shiver at the coldness in them Instead she kept her chin lifted and her face ashe’d become more than adept at over the years

‘As I made a sizeable donation to the Di Sione Foundation, I think it is prudent to see ork is being done Would you not agree, Ms Di Sione?’ Hehis voice, and even though his polite s more