that had been singing through her veins like crescendoing music abruptly ended.
She told herself that she was glad. He’d made her feel strange and uneven and half-drunk.
But where was he?
Why had he gone?
Dinner ended, and a new dread distracted her. The emcee, a prominent local land developer, went to the dais with his gavel.
“Now, the fun part of the night,” he said with a grin. “The auction you’ve all been waiting for. The first item up for bid…”
He started the fund-raiser with a 1960s crocodile Hermès bag that had once been owned by Princess Grace herself. Lia listened to society mavens placing enthusiastic bids around her. The increasingly astronomical bids should have delighted Lia. Every penny donated tonight would go to the park trust, for playground equipment and landscaping costs.
But as she heard the items get auctioned off one by one, she felt only a trickle of building fear.
“It’s a perfect idea,” Giovanni had said with a weak laugh when the party planner had first suggested it. Even from his sickbed, he’d placed his trembling hand over Lia’s. “No one will be able to resist you, my dear. You must do it.”
And even though Lia had hated the idea, she’d eventually agreed. Because Giovanni had asked her.
She’d never thought his illness would take a sudden turn for the worse. She hadn’t expected that she would be here to face this all alone.
One by one the auction items sold. The dress-circle box at the Vienna Opera Ball. The month-long stay at a Hamptons beach estate. The vintage 1966 Shelby Cobra 427 in pristine condition.
And every punch of the gavel caused the tension to heighten inside her. Getting closer and closer to the final item for sale…
After the twenty-carat Cartier diamond earrings were sold for $90,000, Lia heard the crack of the gavel. It was like the final blow of a guillotine.
“Now,” the emcee said gleefully, “we come to our last item up for bid. A very special item indeed.”
A spotlight fell on Lia where she stood alone on the marble ballroom floor. A titter rose from the guests, who’d all heard whispers of this open secret. She felt the eager eyes of the men, the envious glares of the women. And she longed more than anything to be back in her cloistered Italian rose garden, far from all this.
Oh, Giovanni, she thought. What have you left me to?
“One man will win the opening dance tonight with our own charming hostess, Countess Villani. The bidding starts at $10,000—”
He’d barely gotten the words out before men started shouting out their bids.
“Ten thousand,” Andrew began.
“I’ll pay twenty,” a pompous old man thundered.
“Twenty-five,” cried a teenage boy, barely out of boarding school.
“Forty thousand dollars for a dance with the countess!” shouted a fortysomething Wall Street tycoon.
The bidding continued upward in slow increments, and Lia felt her cheeks burn and burn. But the more humiliated she felt, the straighter she stood. This was to earn money for her sister’s park, the only thing she had left in her life that she believed in, and, damn it, she would smile big and dance with the highest bidder, no matter who the man was. She would laugh at his jokes and be charming even if it killed her—
“A million dollars,” a deep voice cut in.
A shocked hush fell over the crowd.
Lia turned with a gasp. The dark stranger!
His eyes burned her.
No, she thought desperately. She’d just barely recovered from being in his arms. She couldn’t be close to him like that again, not when touching him burned through her, body and soul!
The emcee squinted to see who’d made such an outlandish bid. When he saw the man, he gulped. “Okay! That’s the bid to beat! A million dollars! A million, going once…”
Lia cast around a wide, desperate glance at all the men who’d so eagerly been fighting over her the moment before. Wouldn’t any of them meet the offer?
But the men looked crestfallen. Andrew Oppenheimer just clenched his jaw, looking coldly furious. But the last bid before the stranger’s had been a hundred thousand dollars. A hundred thousand to a million was too big a leap, even for the multimillionaires around her.
“A million going twice…”
She gave a pleading smile at the very richest—and very oldest—men. But they glumly shook their heads. Either the price was too high, or…was it possible they were afraid of challenging the stranger?
Who was this man? She’d never seen him before tonight. How was it possible that a man this wealthy could crash her party in New York, and she’d have no idea who he was?
“Sold! The first dance with the countess, for a million dollars. Sir, you may collect your prize.”
The dark eyes of the stranger held her own as he crossed the ballroom. The other men who’d bid for Lia fell silent, fell back, as he passed. Far taller and more broad-shouldered than the others, he wore his dark power like a shadow against his body.
But Lia wouldn’t allow any man to bully her. Whatever she felt on the inside, she wouldn’t show her weakness. He obviously thought she was a gold digger. He thought he could buy her.
You’ll be mine, Countess. You’ll want me as I want you.
She would soon disabuse him of that notion. She lifted her chin as he approached.
“Do not think that you own me,” she said scornfully. “You’ve bought a three-minute dance, nothing more—”
For answer, he swept her up in his strong arms. The force of his touch was so intense and troubling that her sentence ended in a gasp. He looked down at her as he led her onto the dance floor.
“I have you now.” His sensual mouth curved into a smile. “This is just the start.”
CHAPTER THREE
THE orchestra started playing, and a singer in a black sequined dress started singing the classic song of romantic yearning, “At Last.”
Listening to the passionate lyrics of love long awaited and finally found, Lia’s heart hurt in her chest. The handsome stranger spun her out on the dance floor, causing her white mermaid skirt to flare out as she moved. The sensation of his fingers intertwined with her own held her more firmly than chains on her wrists. The electricity of his touch was a hot current that she couldn’t escape, even if she’d wanted to.
He pulled her closer against his body. She felt his muscles move beneath his crisp, elegant tuxedo as his body swayed against hers, leading her in the rhythm. She lost all sense of time amidst the sensuality of his body against hers. He smoothly controlled her movements,
