On autopilot, Ian made all the right responses to Joyce before she walked away to deal with the auctioneer. At least, he hoped he did. Because from the moment he looked out onto the dance floor and saw Tatiana in Quinn Patrick’s arms, Ian hadn’t been able to focus on anything other than tearing her out of them.

Quinn was suave, rich, and between wives. Even a blind man could see that the two of them looked great together. This was exactly the kind of guy Ian had known that Tatiana and her slinky, barely-there dress would attract. Some mogul who wouldn’t care about her intelligence, her talent, her kindness. All he’d want Tatiana for was to be a stunning trophy who was hot in the sack.

Blood rushed in Ian’s ears as he made a beeline for the center of the dance floor where the two of them were now holding court, cameras continuing to flash as they captured every seductive move Tatiana made in the other man’s arms.

He had been working on loosening Quinn’s pockets for the foundation for months. When Ian stole Tatiana away in the middle of their dance, Quinn would likely be furious enough that he wouldn’t give one red cent of his fortune to the charity, but Ian didn’t care. Not when the dirtbag was holding Tatiana too tightly and his hands were too close to the swell of her hips.

Ian would make up the difference himself—would double it—if it meant getting her out of the guy’s arms.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“Ian,” Quinn said when Ian walked up to interrupt their dance, “you should have told me Tatiana was going to be here tonight so I could brush up on my dance moves.”

“It was more fun to surprise him,” she said softly.

When Quinn smiled down at her, there was more genuine warmth in his gaze than Ian could remember seeing before. Quinn turned back to him with a raised eyebrow. “She was telling me you two are practically cousins.” Ian knew exactly what he was doing—trying to remind him that he should stay away from the beautiful woman who was nearly family.

Tatiana’s skin was flushed, her eyes bright, when she finally turned her gaze to his. In an instant, Ian’s brain rewound to the way she’d been just as flushed beneath him, and then over him, in those breathless moments in his bed. Standing in the middle of the dance floor, every muscle in his body clenched tight as he remembered how intense, how shockingly right, it had been to make love with her.

Barely nodding at the other man, he told her, “Valentina needs to speak with you.”

Tatiana frowned. “Is she here?” She scanned the room. “I didn’t think she and Smith were coming back from Ireland until Monday.”

“No, she’s not back yet. She needs to speak with you on the phone.” When she looked down at the small purse dangling from her wrist, obviously wondering why she hadn’t noticed her phone buzzing, he clarified, “She called my phone asking for you. I’ve got a quiet place I can take you to talk to her.”

“I’m sorry, Quinn,” she said to the other man, “but I need to make sure everything’s okay with my sister.”

“Of course,” he agreed, though it was clear he hated to let her go. “It was positively delightful dancing with you, and please don’t hesitate to take me up on my offer to bring you up the coast to that private beach I mentioned.”

With a final smile for Quinn, she let Ian direct her through the crowd and into a small, empty kitchen off to the side of the ballroom.

Ian hadn’t thought this through, he’d simply taken the first available opportunity to get her alone. Now, as he stood close to her again, close enough to smell her perfume, close enough to see the pulse beating at the side of her neck, close enough to see the little flecks of blue in her green eyes, he lost the thread of everything but how much he wanted her.

More now, he was stunned to realize, than ever before.

One night hadn’t quenched his thirst for her. One night hadn’t gotten her out of his system. On the contrary, the passionate hours they’d spent together had only made him increasingly desperate for more of her.

“Ian? Don’t you need to give me your phone so that I can talk to my sister?”

Shit. He never lied. But he hadn’t been able to think straight when he’d seen her dancing in Quinn’s arms, so he’d simply said the first thing that popped into his head. “There isn’t a phone call.”

“There isn’t?” She frowned again, looking up at him in confusion. “They why did you drag me off the dance floor?”

“Because I needed to ask you what the hell you were thinking, wearing that dress tonight!”

The room was so small it almost sounded like he was yelling at her. But the control by which he’d always lived his life was currently in such shreds—precisely the way her clothes had been last night when he’d torn them off of her in his office—that he couldn’t moderate it.

The last thing he expected Tatiana to do in response was to give a little twirl. As the thin, sparkling gold fabric swirled around her knees, she said, “I was thinking that it’s a pretty dress. Don’t you like it?”

“It should be illegal.” The urge to touch her was so strong it nearly broke him. “All a man can think of when he sees you in that dress is tearing it off you.”

“Thank you,” she said as if he’d just given her a great compliment. “But why do you care if other men see me in this dress?”

“Because you’re—”

The word mine hung in the air between them, as potent as it had been when he’d said it to her the night before in bed, right before he’d claimed her.

Damn it, he was getting everything wrong with her again and again and again...when all he really wanted to do was figure out a way to make things right.

“I’m sorry about this morning,” Ian said. “I handled everything badly.” He shook his head and admitted, “And now I’m handling everything badly again. What I’m trying to say, what I need you to know, is that I didn’t push you away because of anything you did wrong. Every bit of blame for the situation lies in my court.” Not only for losing control and taking her to bed, but also for not being the kind of man who could give her the true love she deserved.

He couldn’t read her expression as he fumbled through the apology. What was she thinking? And why wasn’t she just saying it to him the way she always had before?

Of course, that was when his phone actually rang.

“I know that’s the ring tone that means something’s wrong. You should go take care of it. There are probably millions of dollars on the line right now.”