Expecting the Greek’s Heir

Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE

The global economic forum—taking place in a seven-star resort in Switzerland, with the world’s most influential movers and shakers from business, the arts, government and science in attendance—had been running for three days.

That afternoon, Alexandros Andino had given a keynote speech to a packed-out auditorium about future trends in climate change investment. Tonight, at this drinks party, the last social event before everyone departed tomorrow afternoon, he was nursing a glass of whisky surrounded by half a dozen people who sought his further insight on the subject.

Up until a moment ago, he’d had plenty. When it came to alternative energies, green initiatives or the rapidly improving rate of return in this sector, there was little he didn’t know.

Right now, however, he had none.

He had nothing to say about anything, in fact.

Because he’d just spotted Olympia Stanhope chatting up playboy businessman Sheikh Abdul Karim al-Umani—his most important, most lucrative client—and through the red mist suddenly swirling about his head like a tornado, all he could think was, that was it. His patience was at an end. He’d finally had enough.

When she first burst onto the investment-fund scene as the director of new business for Stanhope’s, the exclusive private bank owned by her super-wealthy Anglo-Greek family, he hadn’t thought much of it. Who would ever take seriously a notorious wild child with a decade in the gossip columns and a twelve-week spell in rehab under her belt? he’d privately scoffed when he’d learned of her absurd appointment in November last year. She had no experience of financial markets. According to the tabloids that recorded her every move, all she knew about money was how to spend it. No one would pay her a blind bit of notice. She was simply being indulged by her older brother Zander, who ran the Stanhope Kallis banking and shipping empire, and evidently had no problem with nepotism. She’d be replaced within a week.

In retrospect, that arrogant disregard for her talents had turned out to be a mistake. He’d been an idiot to assume that a too-rich, over-indulged party girl was all she was. He’d underestimated the power of her scandalous appeal to the ultra-high-net-worth individuals that his and others’ funds served. He’d failed to consider her uncanny ability to sift the wheat from the chaff, to lure the former to her team and subtly discard the latter. Instead of slinking ignominiously from the financial pages back to the gossip columns where she belonged, she was being tipped as someone to watch. A potential key player in the field that she’d entered with zero previous experience and occupied for a mere six months.

Frankly, it beggared belief.

But because the investors she’d won over to date were relatively small fry, and he remained convinced she was a flash in the pan that everyone would soon see through, Alex had contained his irritation. Because he was no more immune to her charms than anyone else—despite the fact that she descended from a woman he hated with a passion, which should have turned him right off, but for some unfathomable and frustrating reason didn’t—he’d given her such a wide berth that they’d barely ever spoken.

However, tonight, by audaciously targeting the multi-billionaire Sheikh whose money he managed, she’d overplayed her hand.

This was his world, he thought, gritting his teeth as the sound of her low throaty laugh reached his ears and triggered an unwelcome rash of goosebumps prickling every inch of his skin. A world he’d had no choice but to step into in the aftermath of her mother’s affair with his father two decades ago, which had led not only to the destruction of his family and the brutal yet necessary severing of all ties with her son Leo—Olympia’s eldest brother and his then best friend—but also, thanks to an extremely acrimonious and expensive divorce, the threat of penury.

He’d spent twenty years sweating blood to turn the ashes of the Andino fortune into an empire that managed so many billions of dollars it was too big to ever be wiped out again. Olympia was trying to muscle her way into the industry he dominated on the back of little more than her family name. Her frothy presence in his space and the undeserved interest she generated was an insult to all his hard work. He could not allow it to continue. She needed to be put in her place before she became all anyone talked about, and what was left of his peace of mind vanished.

With his pulse thudding in his ears and a burning sensation tightening his chest, Alex gave a curt nod and a terse smile as he muttered his excuses to those around him. Then, with a set of his jaw and a sharp surge of adrenaline, he set off in her direction.

She stood with her back to him. Her long dark hair shone beneath the soft light of the chandeliers. Her outrageously flashy silver-sequin dress clung to her curves and shimmered like a beacon in a sea of grey, navy and black. Always standing out, he thought grimly as he cut a swathe through the throng, his eyes narrowing at the sight of the Sheikh touching her on the arm. Always the centre of attention. Like mother, like daughter—dangerous, unpredictable and in possession of the potential to unleash devastation.

Steeling himself not to respond to the impact of her proximity, which he knew from the one and only time he’d experienced it was as intense as it was unwelcome, he came to an abrupt stop beside them.

‘Good evening, Abdul Karim,’ he said, ignoring her completely as he leaned forward to clap the other man on the shoulder in a move designed to demonstrate his authority. ‘Good to see you. Forgive me for interrupting, but would you excuse us? Miss Stanhope and I need to have a word.’

‘Right this minute?’ The Sheikh’s eyebrows rose in a way that suggested he was not best pleased at the intrusion, but those choppy waters would have to be soothed another time.

‘I’m afraid it can’t wait.’

Abdul Karim eyeballed him for a moment. Then, evidently noting the hint of steel in Alex’s tone that belied his relaxed stance and easy smile, he inclined his head and took a step back. ‘In that case, of course.’

‘Mr Andino is mistaken,’ Olympia cut in smoothly, addressing the Sheikh with an effortless smile of her own. ‘We do not have and never have had anything to discuss. We haven’t even met. Not properly, at least. I can’t imagine what words he thinks we need to exchange.’

‘I beg to differ,’ he countered. ‘It’s a matter of some importance.’

‘I have a gap in my schedule tomorrow morning at nine,’ she said, flicking him a glance so chilly it could have frozen the Sahara. ‘I could fit you in then.’

‘Not tomorrow. Now.’

‘Now is not convenient.’

‘The urgency of the situation dictates otherwise.’

‘Perhaps you could elaborate?’

‘I will. In private.’

‘As fascinating as this dynamic is,’ said the Sheikh, clearly bored of the polite but thinly veiled battle for control playing out before him, ‘it’s getting late, and I should be heading off. I would, however, be interested to hear more of your thoughts about the future of fossil fuels, Alex. Lunch next week, perhaps?’

‘I’ll set it up.’

‘It was delightful to meet you, Miss Stanhope. I do hope we cross paths again.’

‘You can count on it.’

‘Good evening.’

With a nod and a smile at each of them in turn, Abdul Karim walked off. Vowing that his client and Olympia would never meet again if he had any say in the matter, Alex clamped a hand to her elbow and wheeled her away before she could escape.

‘Let me go this minute,’ she hissed, instantly losing the dazzling smile as she tried but failed to shake him off. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’

Steering her towards the exit while ignoring the curious looks darting in their direction, Alex gritted his teeth and focused. Despite having braced his defences to withstand her effect on him, her captivating scent nevertheless ignited his nerve-endings. Awareness sizzled through him. The palm that was in contact with her arm felt as though it was on fire and his pulse raced. All of which was frustrating and unacceptable and meant that he needed to get this over and done with as quickly and efficiently as possible.

‘I could ask you the same thing.’

‘I’m not the one causing a scene. How dare you take advantage of your superior physical strength to maul me about as if I’m some sort of chattel? What’s going on? Please remove your hand from my arm at once.’

‘In a moment.’

‘This is outrageous.’

Ignoring her ire, Alex hustled her out of the ballroom. On spying a fire exit, he marched her across the sumptuously carpeted floor, through the door and into the dimly lit stairwell, which would afford them the privacy this conversation required. The second the door swung closed behind them, he released her and shoved his hands into the pockets of his trousers.

Olympia sprang back and rubbed her elbow, her glare so fierce it could have stripped the paint from the ceiling. ‘You made me look like an idiot back there, you patronising, misogynistic jerk,’ she fumed quietly, her colour high, her dark eyes sparking with simmering fury. ‘It was mortifying and utterly out of order. You’ve done your very best to avoid me for months, and now we suddenly need a word? At a drinks party? When we’ve been here for three days already and I’m right in the middle of something? What’s so urgent?’

Alex’s stomach churned. His muscles clenched. Keeping a lid on the heat raging through him, and resisting the urge to lower his gaze to the rapid rise and fall of her chest, was taking every drop of willpower he possessed. ‘Stay away from my clients, Olympia.’

Her eyebrows shot up and her jaw dropped. ‘I beg your pardon?’

‘You heard,’ he said flatly. ‘You’ve been trespassing on my territory for months now and I’ve let it slide. The low-hanging fruit you’ve been picking off to date is of little importance to me. But tonight, by approaching Abdul Karim, you crossed a line. You’ve overstepped and I won’t tolerate it any more. So it stops. All of it. Now.’

For a moment she just stared at him. Then twin spots of colour hit her cheeks. ‘Your territory?’ she echoed with a mutinous jut of her chin. ‘You let it slide? Your arrogance is truly breathtaking.’

So what if it was? As if he’d ever cared about that. ‘This is my world, not yours,’ he ground out. ‘I’ve been at it for twenty years. I’m the best in the business, the biggest shark in the sea. You are a minnow, splashing around in the shallows. An inexperienced upstart who’s waltzed into my industry on her name and nothing else and has ideas way above her station.’

‘Yet you evidently see me as a threat,’ she shot back, irritatingly uncowed.

‘Don’t be ridiculous.’

‘And you know what? You’re right to be concerned about the Sheikh. Because I can be very persuasive when I put my mind to it.’

He could imagine. How many men had she slayed with those dark come-to-bed eyes and the charm that she wielded like a weapon? How many more did she have lined up? Why was he suddenly grinding his teeth?

‘The Sheikh is and always will be mine,’ he said, unclenching his jaw, scrubbing all thoughts of kissing her from his head and focusing on the point. ‘Far more experienced operators than you have tried to lure him away from my company and failed. You’re wasting your time.’

‘Am I?’

‘Your mule-headed naiveté demonstrates how totally out of your depth you are.’

‘That’s rude.’ She took a step towards him and he resisted the urge to retreat. ‘But you can think what you like. I may not have been at this for long, and I know I have much to learn, but I have no intention of stopping. In fact, I’ve barely even begun. There are no lengths to which I won’t go to squeeze every drop of success from the opportunity I’ve been given. I have big plans. Huge plans. So I hope you can handle a little healthy competition.’

Refusing to recognise elements of his youthful self in what she said, because identifying with her in any way was the very last thing this situation required, Alex inhaled deeply and fought for calm. ‘Do not make an enemy of me, Olympia.’

‘Or what?’

‘You’ll regret it if you do.’

‘These feel like empty threats,’ she said with a dismissive shrug that only intensified the red mist in his head.

‘They’re anything but. Have you heard of Naxos Capital Assets?’

‘No.’

‘Lincoln Masters?’

‘No.’

‘Precisely. Mess with me at your peril. Stay in your lane and out of my business or suffer the consequences. Continue to defy me and I will use any weapon at my disposal to get what I want—your past, your family, every single thing I can find out about you. It will all be fair game.’

‘I doubt you’d find anything that isn’t already in the public domain.’

‘I won’t warn you again.’

‘And I won’t be intimidated.’ She planted her hands on her hips, the glint of challenge lighting the dark depths of her eyes. ‘What exactly is your problem with me, Alex?’ she asked as a fire began to burn in the pit of his stomach. ‘And don’t try and claim that what’s going on here isn’t personal. We both know it absolutely is. You can’t stand me, can you? That much became clear when I tried to introduce myself to you at that awards ceremony back in November. I mean, there I was, holding out my hand for you to shake, and you just looked down your nose at me, then spun on your heel and walked away. It was quite the snub. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. Your dislike of me has been apparent ever since. Whenever we find ourselves in each other’s vicinity, you avoid me. You glower at me from afar. If looks could kill I’d be dead a thousand times over and I just don’t get it. You and I don’t know each other. Before tonight we hadn’t even spoken. So have I wronged you somehow? Do you take issue with my reputation? I once overheard you commenting that I ought to find a different career to play at, but surely you can’t have that big a chip on your shoulder. As you pointed out, you’re the best in the business and have been for years. If you want the truth, your precious Sheikh was more interested in getting me to agree to dinner than moving his assets to Stanhope’s, and believe me I tried. So why do you care what I do? Why do I even show up on your radar? What have I done to make you hate me so much?’

She stopped, her eyebrows raised, her chin up, tension and defiance radiating from her every pore. Alex reeled, buffeted by her accusations and flummoxed by her questions.

So much for assuming that, in response to his proven ruthlessness, she’d accept his vastly superior experience and acquiesce to his demands with a grudging apology. Instead she’d gone on the attack, seizing the upper hand—a development he would never have envisaged—and for the first time in years he found himself on the back foot.

Silence bounced off the walls of the stairwell as their clashing gazes held, but the cacophony in his head was deafening. While the Sheikh’s loyalty had never been in any doubt—although they’d be having dinner over his dead body—Olympia obviously hadn’t made the link between the past and the present, between her family and his. So where did he go from here? Was he really going to have to explain that he didn’t hate her exactly, but rather what she represented?

It would mean confessing that she looked so like her mother that every time he laid eyes on her he was seventeen again, trying to block out the arguments, the tears and the callous cruelty, and realising that life had changed irrevocably. He would have to reveal how deeply he resented constantly reliving not only the moment he’d found his father stone cold on the kitchen floor, a mere week after the divorce had been finalised, his hand still clutching his chest, but also his mother’s later diagnosis of terminal cancer that he remained convinced had been brought on by everything she’d suffered. And, as if the prospect of exposing those vulnerabilities wasn’t unpalatable enough, he’d also have to acknowledge the frenzied lust that she—Olympia—drummed up in him, which he loathed and feared in equal measure.

He too could recall the moment they’d met as if it were yesterday. The instant their gazes collided, he’d felt as if he’d been punched in the gut. Her smile had blinded him. The thunderbolt of desire that had gripped him had been so powerful, so consuming, he’d instantly understood how nations could be obliterated in the pursuit of it. Instinctively, he’d known that if he’d taken her hand in his, he’d have pulled her into his arms. He’d have crushed his mouth to hers, as if they were the last two people on earth and the survival of the human race depended on them doing something about it.

He’d never experienced such a threat to his control. Shocked to the core by the strength of his reaction to her—and horrified at the idea of history repeating itself, albeit a generation removed—he’d had to walk away. He’d had no choice. He would never succumb to such temptation. He could not contemplate the resulting chaos. He would not be that weak.

Ever since, he’d sworn to keep his distance. And he had. Until tonight, this very minute, when they were standing less than two feet apart, eyes locked, the bristling air that filled the space between them thickening and heating to such a degree that, suddenly, he couldn’t recall what she’d asked.

His head was pounding and his heart was crashing against his ribs. Her proximity was stealing his wits. Despite who she was, and the threat she posed to his settled, well-ordered life, he wanted to yank her into his arms and propel her back against the deep-red silk-papered wall. To cover her with his body and his hands, until she was melting into him and sighing, clutching at his shoulders and moaning his name. When she touched the tip of her tongue to the corner of her mouth, the need to kiss her surged through him so fiercely, he actually had to hold himself back from leaning forwards and taking what he wanted.

‘Ah,’ she said, her voice penetrating the swirling fog in his head, with a breathlessness that made him think of twisted sheets and tangled limbs. ‘Now I get it.’

The knowing tone snapped him out of his trance. He stilled. Blinked. Focused on her face, finding her expression had lost the anger and challenge, and, after briefly flirting with astonishment, was now displaying baffling yet unsettling smugness. ‘Get what?’

‘You want me.’

Shock froze him to the spot. All the blood in his body drained to his feet. Surely he wasn’t that transparent. Surely he hadn’t actually moved. ‘I beg your pardon?’

‘You’re attracted to me,’ she said, running her gaze over him with a shrewd intensity that coated his skin in an ice-cold sweat, even as he burned. ‘There’s no point denying it. The evidence is indisputable. Your pupils are dilated. The pulse at the base of your neck is pounding. You couldn’t take your eyes off my mouth just now. And I’m making an educated guess here, but I suspect that because you think so little of this “pampered nepo princess”—your words, as I recall—you don’t want to want me. You desire me against your will and that’s what you hate.’

For a moment, Alex couldn’t think of a thing to say. He was utterly speechless. She was so appallingly right about everything, except why he didn’t want to want her, that denial was his only option. ‘Have you completely lost your mind?’

‘Quite the opposite. The situation could not be clearer. And you know what I also think? I think this unwelcome desire you have for me is behind the grim, disapproving looks you’ve been shooting at me these past few months. They haven’t just been about my scandalous reputation and the fact that my brother, the CEO, gave me a job for which I admit I have no experience. They’ve been because of you. You don’t know how to handle me.’

His heart was beating so fast he felt as though he were about to pass out. ‘That’s quite a leap of the imagination.’

‘Perhaps,’ she agreed with a slight tilt of her head. ‘But if I’m right—and I’m pretty sure I am—it would certainly explain what happened in the ballroom earlier.’

‘How?’ The word was out before he could stop it.

‘You were jealous. Of the Sheikh. And I can see how it may have looked. We were standing fairly close together. That room has terrible acoustics. No wonder you were moved to stake your claim. He’s a notorious womaniser.’

Beneath Alex’s feet the floor shook. Rejection surged through him, blazing a scorching trail that singed the very marrow of his bones. Stake his claim? What the hell? [EC1] Of course he wasn’t jealous. Not only was jealousy a destructive, pointless emotion he’d never had any time for, but also it would mean he felt some sort of possessiveness towards Olympia, which was so far out of the question it was in another galaxy.

Although it would explain the white-hot bolt of lightning he’d experienced when he’d first caught sight of her and the Sheikh talking. And the urge he’d had to break the other man’s fingers when he’d seen him touch her. The flat denial that had surged through him at the thought of them having dinner, too.

But no. All that had just been fury that she had the temerity to invade his space and was daring to try and create a professional rapport with someone she shouldn’t. Nothing else. And the only claim he was interested in staking was on the Sheikh.

‘This is insane,’ he practically growled, the voice in his head nonetheless urging him to get the hell out now, while he still could, before he was pushed into doing something he’d regret, whatever that might be. ‘You are completely deluded. And not nearly as irresistible as you seem to think. Not every man you meet is bewitched by your smile or succumbs to your charms. Some of us manage to remain immune. All I want is for you to stay out of my business.’

‘So if I touched you, you’d feel nothing?’

Every muscle in his body tensed. ‘Right.’

‘I don’t believe you.’

‘I don’t care whether you believe me or not.’

‘Let’s prove it, one way or another.’

Before he could even register her intention, she stepped forward, closing the distance between them, and lifted a hand to his face, its destination evidently his jaw. But instinct kicked in—just in time—and he jerked his head away, catching her wrist in his hand. ‘Stop this.’

‘Stop this. Stop that,’ she echoed, provocation dancing in her darkly amused eyes. ‘You’re very free with your diktats. Does everyone apart from me do what you say?’

Yes. They did. So how the hell had it come to this? To the two of them locked in a stand-off that she clearly expected him to lose? And how was he going to win it? He’d have to teach her a lesson she would never forget, a lesson that would make her regret ever deciding to take him on.

‘Back off, Olympia,’ he ground out, giving her one last chance to comply before facing the consequences.

‘You first, Alex.’

‘You’re playing with fire.’

‘So burn me.’