The Russian's Furious Fiancee Page 0,23
suppressing her frustration at being outmaneuvered. She wouldn’t give up though. The man might be a master at manipulating the financial world and making it bow down to his whims but she was a different force altogether. She could win this war if she could just keep her mind from floating away. That meant not letting him touch her, and definitely no kissing or anything beyond that!
When he noticed her, he stood up and nodded briefly to her father. “Let’s go,” he said and walked out of the room, no acknowledgement or greeting at all. She turned and glared at his back, fuming even more since he was now ignoring her.
She looked back at her father to see if he had noticed what Damon had done but her father was already on his cell phone, playing out whatever tips Damon had given him a moment ago so she wouldn’t get any support from that quarter. Nothing new there, she thought with resentment.
She considered going back up the stairs or simply sitting down in the living room to wait until he acknowledged her. In the end, she was tired of fighting him and too curious as to where he’d gone so she wandered out into the foyer to find him leaning against one of the marble columns, one eyebrow raised in question.
Her response was to stare right back at him. If he wasn’t going to greet her, why should she bother?
“About time,” he said and grabbed her hand, pulling her out of her parents’ house without a backwards glance.
As they stepped out into the night, he held open the passenger side door to his powerful looking car for her silently. When he got in beside her, she said sarcastically, “I thought you were trying to impress me with your charm and sparkling personality.”
He started the car, but then turned to glance at her briefly before putting it into gear and driving down the long driveway. “Am I missing something here?”
“Shouldn’t you be telling me how lovely I look or that you like my dress?”
He shook his head. “You chose the dress simply to irritate me so what’s the point in telling you that you look nice when you went out of your way to look appropriate but wearing a dress that is about as unflattering as you could possibly have chosen?”
She was stunned initially, never having been with a man who was so harshly honest before. After a moment though, she laughed, impressed with both his honesty as well as the fact that he’d seen through her ploy and wasn’t going to let her get away with anything. “Well, that’s blunt enough I suppose.”
“Good try though,” he said and winked at her before turning to the right so he could catch the highway to wherever they were going for the evening, the powerful purr making her think of a dangerous, black panther.
“But you aren’t impressed.”
He concentrated on passing through a group of vehicles, then accelerating out of the cluster of traffic. “I prefer that dress to something more…flagrant, if that helps. It just tells me that you want me to be the only one who sees your charms, which I sincerely appreciate.”
She chuckled again and looked out her window. “Trust you to turn things around so they benefit only you. You’re creative, I’ll give you that.”
Instead of responding, he changed the subject. “We’re seeing La Traviata tonight. Have you seen it before?”
“Not recently,” she replied, suddenly excited about the night. She loved this opera! She had last seen it as a child and had enjoyed it immensely. “I think it’s one of my favorite operas though. The tragedy and sacrifice of Violetta and all that passion in Alfredo, the confusion and nobility of Violetta’s sacrifice…it’s all so sad and lovely,” she said with brewing anticipation of the upcoming event.
Damon watched her face brighten and he was glad that he’d put that expression there, that he’d given her this thrill. The night was young, he thought and even chuckled again at her paltry attempt to irritate him with her dress. Well, it hadn’t been so paltry initially. He’d been furious that she’d gone to so much trouble to make herself look like a hag. He’d known that it was all to make a point; that she wasn’t interested in him enough to try and impress him.
She could try all she wanted, Damon thought grimly. Even discounting their dinner the other night, he’d seen the anticipation in her eyes even before he told