by King, Ann
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?
THE TYCOON’S VIRGIN BRIDE - PART 2
Chapter 1
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 whispe
red 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.
Chapter 2
“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 goi
ng 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.
