THE TYCOON'S REBEL BRIDE(37)

attempt to change the subject. “Did you get her off to Europe?”

Again, there was a long silence. Theron wiped a hand through his hair wishing

he’d pressed Madeline harder about who was on the phone.

“She didn’t go to Europe,” he said.

“Who is Isabella?” Piers demanded. “Are we talking about little Isabella Caplan?”

“I’ll fill you in later,” Chrysander said. “Why didn’t she go to Europe? Where is

she then?”

“She’s here. She’s decided to stay in New York,” Theron said. “And she’s not so

little anymore,” he added, though he was unsure why he felt the need to make that point.

Chrysander chuckled. “Poor Theron. Saddled with women on all sides. I imagine

you’re cursing me about now.”

If he only knew.

“I’ve seen to Isabella’s needs, and gotten her settled in. Everything is fine. I’m

fine. You two can get off my back now.”

“He sounds a little defensive, does he not?” Piers said smugly. “I smell something

here. Something rotten. I only wish I was in New York to see for myself.”

“You just stay the hell where you are,” Theron muttered. “You have a hotel to

build.”

Piers’s laughter flooded the line.

“I’m hanging up now,” Theron said before lowering the receiver.

Now he knew how Chrysander had felt when he and Piers had given him such a

hard time about Marley. Well-meaning relatives were always the worst.

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THE TYCOON’S REBEL BRIDE

52

MAYA BANKS

SILHOUETTE DESIRE 1944

THE ANETAKIS TYCOONS

Eleven

“H ave any idea what you’re going to say yet?” Marcus asked Isabella as he

picked up his wineglass and brought it to his lips.

Reluctantly she shook her head and stared down at her barely eaten entrée. “I

don’t want to make an ass of myself, but at the same time I have to make him see that I’m

not teasing. I’m not playing some silly game nor is he a passing infatuation.”

When she looked up, she saw sympathy in Marcus’s dark eyes.

“Put yourself in his shoes,” she murmured. “You’re about to ask a woman to

marry you. You’ve kissed another woman twice, and you’re fighting the attraction hard.

What could this other woman say to you to convince you not to marry someone else?”

Marcus set his glass down, leaned back and blew out his breath. “Boy, you don’t

ask the hard ones, do you? I guess it would depend on whether I truly loved the woman I

was about to marry, but then I wouldn’t propose unless I was certain of that. And if I was

certain, and I intended to propose, then nothing would sway me.”

“I was afraid you’d say that,” Isabella muttered.

“All you can do is try,” he said gently. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained, and all

that jazz.”

A smile cracked through her lips. “Between you and me, we have all the trite

clichés wrapped up.”

He reached over and took her hand. “Are you sure this is what you truly want,

Bella? I hate to see you hurt or disappointed.”

“You’re sweet,” she began.

“Lord, but a man hates to hear those words from a woman’s lips,” he said with a

groan. “It’s as bad as hearing you’re just like a brother to me.”

She laughed and relaxed her shoulders. Tension had crept into her muscles until

her entire body had gone stiff with it. Marcus was right about one thing. All she could do

was try. Whatever happened afterward was out of her control.

“You look fantastic tonight,” he said as he relinquished her hands.

“Thank you. You really are too sweet.”

She glanced down at the royal blue evening gown she’d chosen on her whirlwind

shopping trip she’d dragged her bodyguards on earlier that day. She was dressed to kill,

or to do battle at the very least. Without false modesty, she knew she looked her best.

High-class, posh, a far cry from her preferred jeans and flip-flops and brightly

polished toes. Tonight, she fit into Theron’s world. Her world too, for that matter, just

one that she’d never fully embraced. She had the money and pedigree, just not the desire

to fit in.

“What time should we leave?” she asked anxiously.

She couldn’t help the surge in her pulse when she imagined making it to the party

too late. It made her want to break into a cold sweat that she’d arrive only to see the

happy couple already engaged.

Marcus smiled reassuringly. “The opera has only just begun. We have quite