by King, Ann
THE TYCOON’S VIRGIN BRIDE – Part 3 (The Corskovi Dynasty)
Ann King
Copyright 2013 by Ann King
*Previously published under a different title.
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?
*Previously published under a different title.
THE TYCOON’S VIRGIN BRIDE - PART 3
Chapter 1
Mixed feelings surged through Hannah Steeles as she stumbled to the chair. She had to sit down or she would pass out.
Gustav Kolodenko, the sexy heart throb with the Russian accent who’d swept her off her feet less than two months ago in exchange for a green card wedding and to father her child in wedlock was back—and not in a good way.
He’d jilted her at the altar two weeks ago. Well, sort of. She was about to jilt him at the altar after having second thoughts about their Vegas vows. After all, she’d only met him two months ago. Now, here he was in front of her, presumably holding her captive now in Andre’s Toronto penthouse while Andre was away. And Gustav wasn’t even the man she thought he was. She’d just learned that he was somebody else.
Gustav was an undercover secret service agent from her country. God, what had she done now? Why was he after her? Hannah’s head throbbed, she felt as if a hammer was pounding on her skull.
“Are you going to be okay?” Gustav asked smoothly as he walked over to the window to peer outside. He then moved around the suite to make sure they were alone. He seemed to have a sweeping device in his hand to detect bugs. She’d recognized such a device when Andre’s chauffeur and right hand man, Hans, had come to sweep their hotel suite for bugs in Vegas.
Hannah sat dazed on the chair, unable to move. Paralyzed by fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of what Gustav Kolodenko, or rather Mr. James Gustav Kendricks, III, secret service agent 08975 MSSA, wanted with her.
She stole a second glance at the badge she held in her hand after Gustav handed it to her a moment ago. She ran her fingers over the cold, hard metal material and felt every groove. It was real. This was all real. This whole situation was like a vivid nightmare.
“So…so you’re a…a secret agent?” she whispered breathless, dazed. Her eyes drifted to his dark grey suit and silk tie, his jacket was loose fitting, obviously to conceal his service pistol. His body filled out nicely in the suit, she noticed.
“You could say that?” he answered as he walked over to where she was seated. He leaned against the granite counter in the kitchen area in front of Hannah. Moments earlier, she was sitting there opposite Andre. It was strange how situations could turn in a heartbeat. There she was with a man she should have despised but for some reason, she didn’t.
“What do you mean by that?” she lifted her head to look into his eyes. His eyes were blue as the ocean and sparkling, his jawline strong and set with high cheekbones. He was certainly a charmer and delicious eye candy for sure. He was also smooth operator. Just the way he moved was silky, flawless, calm and indicative of a man who was always in control.
There was something in Gustav’s beautiful bright eyes framed by his dark eyebrows that she found oddly trusting. That was what got her hooked on him when they’d met that night two months ago at a bar of all places. An upscale bar.
She had gone there with her roommate Lucy after she’d confided in Lucy that she needed to find a husband quick and get married and have a baby before it was too late. She had a hereditary medical condition related to her uterus that would make it difficult for her to conceive as she grew older.
Hannah just didn’t want to have a baby out of wedlock like her mother. She’d promised herself that. She hadn’t even known her real father and her mother was the talk of the town when she’d given birth to her. Hannah still carried the disgrace on her birth certificate with father unknown written on it. It was a devastating shame she carried around with her. A shameful chain that had to be broken.
“Well,” Gustav sighed, slicing through her concentration, “the truth is, I am on leave.”
“On leave?”
“Yes,” he said with his arms folded across his broad chest, a dimpled grin settled on his handsome face. There was something about Gustav that reminded her of a roughneck yet she found him trusting, intriguing at the same time. She loved men with a bad boy stubble or a sexy five-o’clock shadow on their face. And he sported one, just like Andre. Perhaps that was what drew her to him…that night.
She waited for him to continue, her breathing shallow, her eyes wide open.
Gustav unfolded his arms and scanned around the apartment once more. “Very nice. I see your taste has improved since we last met—in residential accommodation,” he clarified as he cocked a brow.
God, he looked so cute like that. No. Stop it, Hannah. Something is so fucked up about all of this. You need to know like yesterday what’s going on with this guy and the Melipos government.
“Gustav what the fuck is going on?” Hannah growled as she stood up, her arms folded across her chest now, lips pinched, nostrils flared.
Gustav took an apple from the fruit basket on the granite countertop and offered it to her. She shook her head refusing. He then turned around and ran the cold-water tap over the apple before shaking it dry. Slowly he turned around and as if his eyes were transfixed on Hannah he slowly lowered the apple to his full lips and slid his tongue out to lick it before slowly pressing his lips as if kissing it but parted his lips wider to take it in his mouth and crunch into the apple. Juice from the apple slid from his full lips…Hannah licked her dry lips. She remembered what those delicious lips felt like on hers when he kissed her—on their third date. Oh, he was one hell of a kisser—could bring a girl to orgasm with his erotic kisses. Why was he teasing her now? What the hell was he up to?
As if in a trance, Hannah finally snapped out of her brief daydream and shook her head, her eyes darted away from his luscious full lips—those sexy, hot lips of his.
“Why don’t you take a bite, Eve…I mean Hannah?” he neared her, sending her pulses racing. She rolled her eyes at his slip of the tongue ‘Eve’ comment. Then her gaze drifted back to the apple in his hand. Hannah licked her lips again.
God, s
he was so tempted but…something just came over her. Before she knew it she lifted her hand with the intent to slap the apple out of Gustav’s hand to stop him from teasing her, but his other hand was quick and grabbed her wrist with such power and force she thought he would snap her hand off. She pulled back as he loosened his grip and heaved a sigh of relief.
“You know I don’t like to be touched…that way,” his voice was low and dangerous. She’d forgotten about what he told her that night they’d met…well, almost.
“Yeah,” she panted, “I forgot that you’re some undefeated world champion in Judo, Karate and what else?”
“Kick boxing.”
“Right. Kick boxing. Only you used a different name then, didn’t you?” she murmured.
He leaned back against the counter surveying her from head to toe, as if undressing her with his oh, so blue sexy eyes. But she had to get a hold of herself.
“Andre would be here anytime soon.”
“No he won’t. He’s…engaged at the moment. Tied up.”
“What? What’s that supposed to mean? What the fuck is going on Gustav or James or whoever you are?”
“You see the name on the badge. My first name is James but God how I hated it when growing up…”
“Yeah and what is your real accent like? You sound American now but when we first met you had a Russian accent.”
“Yes, that was good, wasn’t it?”
“That was all part of your cover, too?”
“You could say that.”
“That’s all you’ve got to say,” she said slowly and casually moving away from Gustav and closer to the door.
She was going to try and make a run for it. Try to get the hell away from Gustav as far as possible and call Andre on her cell phone. But it was in her purse in the bedroom.
Shit! How would she get it now? Screw that! She would call Andre from one of the service phones. This was Andre’s building after all and the staff all knew she was his ‘special guest.’
Hannah continued to question Gustav while he continued to pick fruit from the fruit basket on the kitchen countertop seemingly paying her no attention. It was clear that he was going to keep her there but for how long? And why?
“So you learned to change accents to fool women?”
“No, my dear. When you are in my line of business it helps to speak and understand as many languages as possible. I speak seventeen languages fluently,” he said with his back turned to her as he bit into a juicy strawberry.
“Oh, wow, seventeen languages, fluently. That explains it. Of course, if you’re going to work in espionage or secret service it comes in handy, I guess,” she continued slowly moving backwards towards the door.
She sighed deeply when she felt her back touch the front of the door. She then felt for the gold knob and slowly turned it as Gustav engaged himself in picking out a grape from the fruit tray.
Fuck you! She called out in her mind as she opened the door and proceeded to run out. Only she slammed hard into a large man as tall as Shaq O’Neal, probably seven feet tall and huge by all definitions of the word. Huge guy had biceps the size of her body!
Holy fuck! Hannah’s head pounded from the impact. Who is this guy? The Incredible Hulk?
He gave her a deleterious gaze and she immediately went back inside the suite and slammed the door closed behind her. Panting, her heart raced hard and fast in her chest as she leaned her back against the door. She thought her ribs would crack at the impact.
Holy shit! What the hell was that? Am I being held prisoner in here?
Gustav was still over by the counter helping himself to the breakfast tray, seemingly oblivious to what had just occurred.
“I see you’ve met Angus,” he finally said smoothly as he sliced another apple with what looked like a Swiss Army knife.
“I’m afraid you’re going to have to learn to trust me, my dear Hannah.”
“Trust you? You’ve got to be kidding, right?” she huffed, folding her arms tight across her bosom, she’d just remembered that she was still in her silk gown and didn’t want to give Gustav any ideas.
“Why wouldn’t you? You thought you could trust me to impregnate you and create a sham wedding for your family,” he cocked a brow. His demeanor was incredibly calm, it frightened her and intrigued her at the same time.
“That…that was different. Back then, I didn’t know you were spying on me, following me…”
“Hey, that secret recording in what would have been our honeymoon suite was not my doing.”
“I know that. Andre’s men found the source and they’re dealing with it.”
“Good. Wouldn’t want that sort of thing to be leaked online or show up on YouTube, God forbid,” he sounded a tad sarcastic but Hannah couldn’t quite tell at the time.
Horror gripped her throat and squeezed so tight she thought she would pass out from lack of breathing. She shook her head and drew in a deep breath mentally pushing that notion of a sex tape floating around in cyberspace out of her head. Andre said he’d handled it. She trusted him. She just had to or she’d live to be a paranoid crazy person looking over her shoulders every minute and missing out on actually…living.
“First and foremost, Hannah, I would never do anything to hurt you.”
“Then why did you track me down and have me followed and pretended that I was your wife and crazy shit like that.”
“Whoa…whoa. Wait a minute. First of all, that was one of the reasons I came to America to see that you were okay. Yes, it’s true that someone from Melipos had gotten wind of the Barrington’s search for a missing heir and followed you here to track you down for monetary purposes but it wasn’t me. I was sent after the fact.”
“What?” Hannah was breathing hard and fast now, her heartbeat galloped like a speeding horse at the racetrack, it was almost unbearable. “Wait a minute. I…I don’t understand. Missing heir? Start from the beginning.” Hannah’s hand shook as she reached for a glass on the tray that Gustav had brought in pretending to be the waiter.
She was trembling so hard that Gustav’s smooth hand touched hers to calm her sending an electrical current down her spine.
His electrifying bright eyes locked with hers and she was in a trance again. She was mesmerized by the rich blueness of his eyes. It was like gazing into the ocean. He was breathtaking…but he could be a real jerk sometimes. He had a shit load of explaining to do and she wanted it all out now. He then took his other hand to remove the glass from her and poured her a tall glass of orange juice, freshly squeezed. Just the way she liked it.
“Take a sip first,” she stuttered sheepishly. One of the things Andre had told her and she’d learned from Gustav a couple months ago that if you must drink from someone you don’t quite trust, make sure they’re getting the same drink and wait to see what happens first.
“Good. No, I didn’t poison it on my way up but good catch, Hannah. You’re not as helpless as you want others to believe you are.”
“I try,” growled, her palms moist and sweaty despite the coolness of the air conditioner in the penthouse.
She watched licking her lips as Gustav slid the juice down his throat and swallowed as his Adam’s apple’s bobbed. He let out a grin of satisfaction. Hannah then took Gustav’s glass and drank the rest of the fresh, cool juice to wet her pallet and calm her nerves.
“Thank you,” she murmured.
“You’re welcome,” he said in a low voice, his eyes still penetrating hers. He moved his hand in one smooth motion over Hannah’s to take the glass from her and she jolted as if a pleasurable force of electricity shot through her. He still had his incredible touch. Why had things gone so complicated between them?
There was still so much she had to know. Still so many unanswered questions, yet the only thing on her mind right now was how torn she was between Gustav and Andre. It should have been a no-brainer though. She loved Andre and would never hurt him. End of discussion.
Only it wasn’t quite the end of discus
sion—her mind and her heart were both fighting over how she’d felt about Gustav. That first kiss with Gustav two months ago was amazing on so many levels.
Yes, Andre stole her body and brought her to a delicious erotic pleasure she’d never known existed but she had Gustav to thank for that spectacular mind-blowing kiss they’d shared.
The one that made her feel that they really could pull off this wedding and maybe stay married after he got his green card. Only now she knew he didn’t need a green card—or to get married.
His ocean blue eyes locked with hers and shivers danced down her spine. His lips pressed firmly together as he continued to penetrate her with his gaze. His eyelids appeared heavy, it was as if he wanted to say something to her, plead with her. But maybe it was all in her mind.
This was so wrong. So wrong, she thought to herself. Why was this elusive man making her heart race in her chest? Only Andre had that kind of magic on her.
“You know, I never forgot about the day we got together at Lacy’s,” he said in a low voice, smooth and seductive.
Hannah quivered inside not sure of what to say, her breathing was shallow, slow. “I…” she stopped talking and slid her tongue out once more to lick her dry lips.
Gustav leaned in closer to her after placing the glass down on the counter. Her eyes caught the tented crotch growing inside Gustav’s pants but she looked away.
“You know you turn me on when you do that, don’t you?”
“Do what?”
“Lick your lips,” he said, his eyes fixed on her lower lip. “I love it when you do that.” His deep, silky voice was low and seductive. Hannah tried to shake off the feeling that was bathing her inside.
Andre. She was worried about Andre.
She could not be here with Gustav because she chose Andre.
She slowly turned to look at Gustav, her breathing became labored again. “Gustav, you shouldn’t…”
