A Breathless Bride by Fiona Brand

Lucas was a shade on the wild side, Zane was worse, but he had the good sense to stay quiet about it. A couple of years on the streets of L.A. after he had run away from his mother’s fourth marriage, and before they had managed to track him down, had left their mark. On the surface Zane was cool and calm with a killer charm. He never lacked for feminine company, but it was a fact that he didn’t trust any of the women he had dated.
    Zane sipped the beer he’d been nursing for the past twenty minutes. “It could be worth it. I notice she didn’t bring her accountant with her.”
    Or anyone else, Constantine thought with grim satisfaction.
    Lucas lifted a brow. “No briefcase, either.”
    No briefcase. No bra.
    Zane took another swallow of his beer. “She doesn’t look happy to be here.”
    Rub salt into the wound, Constantine thought bleakly. But at least she wasn’t carrying that damned sample case.
    “You don’t need this,” Lucas said bluntly.
    Constantine’s expression remained impassive. He hadn’t discussed what had happened in Sydney, nor would he, but he was aware that Lucas knew exactly how focused he was on the CEO of Ambrosi Pearls.
    He could have left the talking to their legal team. The options were clear-cut and his people were very, very good. Unless Sienna produced a large check, The Atraeus Group owned Ambrosi. But since those intense moments across the gravesite, this had ceased to be about the money.
    At least for him.
    He watched as Sienna paused to talk to an exquisitely dressed Japanese couple, her cool poise at odds with the off-the-register passion and fire that had seared him in Sydney.
    The reason Sienna was in Medinos was simple. Aside from the fact that he wanted to make love to her again, he needed to know just how far she would go to clear the debt. The thought that she would agree to sleep with him in order to influence the negotiations wasn’t something he wanted to dwell on, but after the debacle two years ago, and the fact that she had let him make love to her so easily the other night, he couldn’t afford to ignore the possibility.
    “The situation with the water rights has…complicated things,” he explained to his brother.
    Lucas shook his head. “The only real complication I can see is ten meters away and closing.”
    Zane finished his beer and set the glass down, his expression wry. “Ciao. Watch your back.”
    Constantine’s gaze narrowed as a male guest moved in on Sienna. His jaw tightened when he recognized Alex Panopoulos.
    His phone vibrated. He registered the Sydney number of the security firm he had used to investigate the Ambrosi family. As he lifted the phone to his ear, Sienna turned to speak to Panopoulos. If he’d thought the front view of the dress was daring, the back of the gown was nonexistent. “It’s not my back that’s the problem.”
    * * *
    Sienna managed to extricate herself from Alex Panopoulos on the pretext that she had to check her wrap. Pausing in a quiet alcove decorated with marble statuary and lush, potted palms, she folded the transparent length of champagne gauze into almost nothing and stuffed it into her evening bag. What she really wanted was a few moments to study the room and see if she could spot Northcliffe, the de Vries rep she was scheduled to meet with in the morning.
    She caught a glimpse of Constantine, darkly handsome in evening dress as he talked into a cell phone, and her heart pounded hard.
    Nerves still humming, she merged with the flow of guests while she examined that moment of raw panic.
    Every time she remembered that she had encouraged Constantine to make love to her, her stomach clenched. Like it or not, where Constantine was concerned she was vulnerable, and the emotional risk of getting too close was high.
    A waiter cruised past. She refused an array of canapés, too on edge to either eat or drink until she had identified Northcliffe. Pausing beside a glass display, she studied a series of gorgeously