Read The Tycoon's Virgin Bride - Part 2 (The Corskovi Dynasty) Online
Authors: Ann King
THE TYCOON’S VIRGIN BRIDE –
PART 2 (The Corskovi Dynasty)
Ann King
Copyright 2013 by Ann King
All rights reserved; no part of this publication may
be reproduced or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying
or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters,
places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been
used fictitiously. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead is entirely
coincidental.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to my father and to my wonderful family,
friends and readers for your unconditional love and endless support.
What happens when the one you desire
is minutes away from marrying someone else?
She’s torn…
Hannah
Steeles
is moments away from marrying a man she does not
love, sexy Russian Gustav
Kolodenko
. The chapel is
filled with a hundred guests and she’s ready to walk down the aisle but her
heart is with hot, dripping with charm Andre
Corskovi
,
the man who makes her pulse race and dominates her fantasy.
The
friend who is giving her away in place of her father.
It’s too late to
turn back now.
He wants her…
Andre
Corskovi
, sexy, young self-made billionaire is used to
getting what he wants but this time may be a challenge. He’s never wanted any
woman more than he wants beautiful, charming Hannah
Steeles
.
It’s when he’s asked to give her away in place of his late mentor that he
wrestles with his desires. He can’t get her out of his system but the chapel is
decorated and filled with guests. Will he give away the one woman he desires or
take her for himself?
Holy crap!
Who the hell has
me under surveillance? And why?
Hannah
Steeles
felt her head spin.
She felt disturbing quakes in her serenity. Her heart hammered hard and fierce
in her chest. Her stomach squeezed so hard, she thought she would throw up any
moment now. And it wasn’t because of the champagne she’d ingested on a
near-empty stomach earlier.
She’d just had one of the most intimate sexual experiences
with hot, sexy Andre
Corskovi
—and it was all
captured on secret wireless video cameras.
She watched in horror as Andre picked up the clock radio by
the bedside and pulled it apart with a concealed Swiss army knife he fetched
from his pocket, using it as a screwdriver.
“What are you doing?” Hannah asked rhetorically.
Andre said nothing for a moment. His deadly expression spoke
volumes as he retrieved a tiny little
device which
looked like a micro video recorder.
Inside
the radio, too?
Where else will he find bugs?
“Andre,” Hannah’s voice raised an octave. She could not
stand this anymore. “Will you tell me what’s going on?” She felt as if her
heart would smash against her ribcage by the force of the beats.
Andre leaned back on the counter, his head tilted up
slightly and his jaw tightened. “Hannah, this whole God dammed room is riddled
with covert surveillance devices and spy cams and I’m going to find every
fucking one of them…”
“Andre, how do you know this?”
Andre reached over for his cell phone on the
table which
was flashing a little amber–
colored
light. She’d never seen that on a smart phone
before. It was weird.
“This isn’t just any smart phone, Hannah. A man in my
position can’t be too careful with his potential enemies.”
“Potential enemies?” None of this was making sense to
Hannah. She hugged herself and hunched her shoulders again, knowing full well, Andre
did not like when she did this. But she needed to comfort herself!
“I have a sweeper built in that searches for
RF
signals.”
“What are
RF
signals?”
“Radio frequencies. Often when I go into a confidential
client meeting, it’s common that some competitors will have bugs in the
boardrooms to eaves drop on secret strategies.”
“Holy shit! People do that? Isn’t that illegal?”
For the first time in a while, Andre’s sexy lips curled at
the corner into a smooth grin. Okay, so he found Hannah’s silly questions
amusing. At least that eased the tension slightly.
“Yes, Hannah! I own a surveillance company.”
“You do? I thought you specialized in real estate, Andre.
God, what else are you hiding from me?”
“Listen, I don’t have time to explain right now, but I’ve
managed to disable a few of the signals. Hans will be here soon.”
“Why Hans? Will he be taking us away from here?”
“Yes, but Hans works for me in many capacities. I hired him
for a reason but I’m not going to get into that here,” Andre spoke in a soft,
low voice. Hannah could sense that he was keeping his anger under control.
“By the way,” Andre continued, “just so that you know, if
you are in a room that is bugged, it’s better to move around and speak in a low
voice so that it’s difficult to be picked up word for word. Detectives hate
that.”
“Oh, so that’s why you often speak in a low voice. I still
don’t get it,” Hannah plumped herself on the sofa in the suite. “Why do
companies do shit like this? Invasion of privacy should be illegal everywhere.”
“You’d be surprised, Hanna.” Andre offered Hannah a glass of
water from the bar in the room and took one for
himself
.
“My company works mostly for businesses that place their staff under
surveillance without their knowledge to catch fraud and theft.”
“What?” Hannah almost choked on her water. “Why? Isn’t that
creepy?”
“Well if you had people in your employ that had access to
classified material or top secret documents, you’d want to make sure they
weren’t spying for your enemies or rivals wouldn’t you?”
Hannah didn’t like the sound of that at all, yet it made
sense. Okay, she was never going to trust anyone or any company ever again.
Boy was she getting paranoid as hell. Still, she felt deeply
violated. Someone had a recording of her coming on videotape. Of her losing her
sexual inhibitions and doing wild things she’d never done before on tape. And
no, she was not a socialite of any sort so if this got out on YouTube she
doubted very much that she’d be offered her own reality show and a huge
following on Twitter. Her fifteen minutes of fame would more likely be her
fifteen minutes of
shame
!
“What makes you think I’m under surveillance, Andre? It
could have been set for someone else…or you?”
“No one knew that I’d be here,” Andre said calmly as he
peeked out the window through the curtain. He then turned and moved over to the
bar area as if tormented, or contemplating what to do next.
“That’s true,” Hannah whispered, feeling defeated. This
whole situation only gnawed away at her confidence.
Great! She was a target for haters! And she wasn’t even
famous, or popular for that matter?
“But why?”
“I’m going to find out, Hannah. Trust me.” He moved over to
her and ran his fingers through her dark, silky hair as she sat down with her
head held down. “I won’t let anyone bring harm to you in any way, Hannah.”
Hannah looked up to meet his dark, sexy gaze. His eyes
sparkled and gave her a shred of hope.
“It could have been a jealous ex or…”
“Gustav! Do you think Gustav is behind all this?”
“We’re looking into it but I doubt it.”
Hannah’s stomach sank.
“Listen, Hannah, whoever did this needed more time. I doubt
very much that Gustav would want to videotape you two having…sex on what should
have been your honeymoon.”
“Right,” Hannah whispered painfully. This didn’t make her
feel any better as she waited in the room with Andre. “So someone went through
a lot of trouble to pull this off. To humiliate me.”
“Don’t worry, baby. We’ll get to them soon enough. In the
meantime, Hannah, I need you to tell me if you’ve had any jilted boyfriends in
the past, ex-boyfriends with axes to grind…”
“No. Not that I know of.”
“I know you haven’t been intimate before me, but sometimes
emotional betrayal can be just as dangerous.”
“Andre, I swear, I haven’t. Not that I know of.”
Andre’s expression was blank. Unreadable. “While growing up,
Donald always told me ‘
Choose your friends wisely, but choose your enemies even more carefully
.’”
His eyes narrowed and his lips thinned
into a hard line.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You can never be too careful about who your enemies are.”
“And what if your enemies choose you?” she growled.
“Hannah, I’m not attacking you. I’m on your side, remember?”
“Yeah.”
“Whoever did this knew you would be here with Gustav tonight
and probably knew Gustav was a fraud who was already married and probably has
some sort of record a mile long.”
“So it could be Gustav that was under surveillance without
his knowledge.”
“It could be, but I’m not quite convinced. This equipment is
not the most sophisticated. Definitely amateurish.”
“Oh, that makes me feel much better,”
Hannah
pouted.
Andre reached over and stroked her chin and shivers of
delight shot through her body bringing calmness to her soul once more.
Just then, a knock on the door interrupted their closeness.
Andre looked through the
peep hole
then opened the door. It was Hans. His chauffeur did not look happy at all.
“Sir, I’ve got some information for you,” Hans said looking
gravely.
“Wait a minute.” Andre threw on his Blazer and went outside
the door with Hans.
What was that all about? Hannah’s curiosity was peaked.
She’d never felt so lost before. Great! She wanted so badly to get married to
have a kid in wedlock that she agreed to married some creep with a green card
motive knowing little about his background. That would teach her to jump head
first into a relationship without knowing everything possible about a person.
Shit!
What had she gotten herself into? What were Andre and Hans
talking about? And why couldn’t she listen in on their conversation?
Moments later, Andre came back into the room. “Okay, let’s
get your things and go. I have some men who will be here soon to do a complete
sweep of all the bugs in the room.”
Hannah immediately did what Andre said and before long they
were inside the hummer limo on their way to a secret location. It was a secret
because Andre had not spoken about where he would be taking her.
An hour later, their limo pulled up in a large open area
with a field and a runway. They’d arrived at what looked like a private plane
hangar. A white jet plane was waiting for them with the aircraft door open and
the
steps which had dim lights going all the way up
had two men in dark suits standing by.
Holy cow! We’re
going on Andre’s private plane?
She did not want to interrupt Andre who was on his cellphone
at the time. When he’d finished, it was as if she wasn’t there, he’d turned to
a man in uniform with a bronze flight pin that resembled wings of an eagle.
That must be the pilot. He was tall, lean and handsome and strangely enough he
had on shades even though it was sunset.
She couldn’t hear the conversation they were having with the
engine roaring and the distraction of the powerful blinking lights on top of
the plane and on the wings. The wind swept her dark mane over her face and she
fought to keep her hair in place. It was extremely windy in that area.
“Are you okay,
Ms
Steeles
?” Hans’s voice interrupted her thoughts.
“Oh, yes, I’m
fine
thanks.” She
didn’t want to say anything else. She wanted to ask him if Andre told him where
they were going but dared not. Andre would have to tell her himself.
In the meanwhile, she still couldn’t grasp the whirlwind day
she’d had. She’d heard about it but never been close to a luxury private plane
before.
This was so unbelievable. Hannah thought she was dreaming.
It all seemed so surreal.
So fast-paced.
This had to
be somebody else’s life. Not hers. She hadn’t experienced anything so
spontaneous, so adventurous before in her life. Talk about a life lacking a
good thrill. Hannah had always played it safe and went very few places. Outside
of work at
Corskovi
Enterprise and classes at the
university for her Psych masters, there wasn’t really much she’d done to tweet
about, so to speak.
Then reality kicked in and her stomach squeezed. She’d had a
wedding that didn’t happen. Had mind-blowing passionate
love-making
with Andre, whom she’d never known had feelings for her before. Then she’d
found out that she was under surveillance and that
their
intimate moment was not only recorded but possibly broadcast somewhere in
cyberspace.
“Andre where are you taking me?” Hannah asked when Andre
returned to her side.
He looked serious as he walked over to her.
“Everything’s taken care of, Hannah. No need to worry,
okay?”
She nodded.
A crew and some staff members dressed in fine suits were
there to greet them.
Holy crap! Andre
lived like this? He could grab his private plane like hailing a cab in New York
and be whisked to anywhere he pleased?
“I’ll tell you when we’re settled on the plane. You have
your travel documents with you?”
“Um. Yes, of course.”
“Great, let’s go.”
He took her arm and she felt his strength once more and she
felt protected for some odd reason. It was as if Andre’s hold on her was a
shield from any dangers in the world. She saw Andre as somehow invincible. The
sweet cologne scent as he walked close to her was comforting, relaxing.
Hannah made her way up the stairs as the crew politely
greeted her and asked her if she needed anything. She hadn’t been introduced to
them, which she thought was odd but dismissed it anyway.
She was glad to leave Vegas. It only held some messed up
memories for her on her crazy-ass green-card wedding day that thankfully never
happened. Once inside the aircraft her jaw fell open.
“Whoa! This is nice,” she whispered and from the corner of
her eye she could see a grin perch on Andre’s lips.
“It’s okay,” he said nonchalantly. “It gets me from A to B.”
She rolled her eyes playfully. Still, it was awesome inside Andre’s
luxurious private airplane. The plush carpet was the softest that ever touched
her shoes. It was so
soft,
her feet sank into the
texture. She could see gold fixtures everywhere in the seating area. The
environment was so inviting. The comfortable leather cream-colored sofas and
comfy chairs with built-in gadgets looked so high tech. The bottle of champagne
on the table by their chairs gave it a romantic restaurant touch. But what
really grabbed her attention were the dividers. She peeked around and saw that
there was a plush bed with soft satin pillows and a silky duvet that looked
inviting. By its side was a large built-in Flat Screen TV.
Holy Shit! People
live like this?
This was a far cry from the cheap coach tickets she’d get
from discount airlines if she
was
lucky enough to not
have it double-booked and had to take a later flight.
“Relax, Hannah!” Andre turned to Hanna a half hour later
after
takeoff
.
She sat hugging herself again, her shoulders hunched. She
had to get rid of that insecure-looking habit.
“Sorry.” She felt out of her mind. Who the fuck was watching
her? And why? How could she be settled until she knew for sure? She felt sick
to her stomach because someone had those sex videos of she and Andre on her
wedding day to another man. If that wasn’t fucked up, she didn’t know what was?
“Andre, I…I just don’t know what’s going to happen now.”
Andre was engaged in his cell phone screen. He then switched
it off and placed it on the table beside him. “Hannah, just trust me, okay.
We’re going to get to the bottom of this. I won’t let anything bad happen to
you.”
“But…”
He reached over and stroked her chin sending shivers down
her spine.
“You worry too much.”
“What if my privacy is all over the internet right now?”
“What do you think worrying will do? Make it stop…or make
your heart stop?”
He had a good point, of course. But that didn’t calm her
down too much. She sighed deeply.
“Listen, Hannah. I’m just as fucking pissed as you are but
right now things are in motion. I have men on it and soon we’ll get this shit
over with. Until then, I’m a man of the moment. Too many people spend time
worrying about things that may or may not happen or that they have no control
over. What we do have for sure is this moment and we need to make the best of
it, because that’s the only thing that is guaranteed to us right now.”
“You’re right,” she whispered while her heart still pounded
hard and fast in her chest.
“I noticed that you looked into the bedroom while we
boarded.” He grinned.
“Yeah, I was…um kind of surprised you had a cosy bedroom
there.
Talk about luxury.”
“If you call it that. I call it a necessity. I work hard…”
“And you play hard,” she finished for him, relaxing a
fraction as the plane eased through the dark sky over the city lights below.
“I want to make sure that I’m fresh when I go to meetings
around the world.”
“Oh?”
“That’s why there’s an en suite shower in there, in case you
were wondering.”
Hannah’s jaw fell open. She turned to face him squarely.
“There’s a
shower
on the
plane
?” she asked, dubious.
He smirked. A wicked, naughty look played in his boyish
dark, sexy eyes.
“We’ll take a tour after we’ve been served our meals.”
“What?”
“I mean, unless you want to sit here for the next seven
hours. It’s usually five hours trip time to Toronto but we’re taking a longer
route.”
“Oh, no. I’m spent. I could use a good restful sleep.”
“Good,” he said and leaned back.
“Did you say, Toronto?”
“Yes, I have condos there on the lake Ontario. It’ll be
private and quiet. Just what we need while we figure out our next step.”
“Right,” Hannah whispered.
The delicious aroma of dinner in the kitchen area meant they
were about to have their inflight gourmet meal soon.
Holy shit! This is
how the other
half lives
?