Forbidden Seduction (The Diamond Club Book 12)

by Elizabeth Lennox

  Lana laughed. “Bampas, if you don’t stop smoking that cigar, I’m going to invite that man to dinner tomorrow night.”

  Higar stared at his daughter, horror lighting his eyes. “You wouldn’t!”

  She grinned and he never could resist his little girl when the dimples came out. “I will, and you know it.”

  He shook his head, chuckling as he once again relaxed. “You don’t even know the man’s name so there’s no way you could invite him. But I appreciate the threat.” He sighed, took another puff of his cigar, then stubbed it out on the crystal ash tray beside him. “There! I put it out.” He bent and kissed her cheek. “Are you happy now? You take away all of my pleasures and leave me with nothing.”

  Lana rolled her eyes once again, then took the glass of scotch out of his hand, draining more than half of it. “Not all of your pleasures, Bampas.” Then, with a saucy look over her shoulder, she walked out of his study. “Kali nycha, Bampas!”

  “Good night, agape mou,” Higar replied in response, watching his daughter with pride. When he was alone again, Higar laughed softly, thinking that his daughter was growing up to be a beautiful woman who would make a man a good wife. A wonderful wife!

  Of course, she’d have to stop that silly drawing! Always, that one was drawing something! Sometimes just pieces of something and other times, there was a fullness to her drawings. Even to his uneducated eyes, Higar knew that her drawings were impressive. But since there was no future in drawings, no way to make a living from that, he wanted her to focus more on her other classes. Math and science, he thought. Those were the classes everyone should focus on. They were the areas that most employers needed these days. Art was…well, nice to look at, good to hang on one’s wall, but it was pointless otherwise.

  Chapter 8

  Four Years Later

  Lana, Tamara and Willow stared up at Royal Holloway, the iconic building that screamed “University of London” to anyone who cared to listen. “We’re here,” Tamara whispered.

  Lana grinned, linking her right arm through Tamara’s and her left arm through Willow’s. “Yep. We made it!”

  Willow smiled, leaning her head down against Lana’s shoulder. “My father doesn’t know where I am. I told his accountants where to send the money for my tuition. But otherwise, he has no clue.”

  Lana laughed, shaking her head. “My father grumbled about it for weeks, telling me I should just get married and give him grandbabies.”

  There was a long silence, then they both turned to look at Tamara. She was still, looking a bit…strange.

  “What happened when you told your father that you were continuing with your education?” Lana asked, but both Willow and Lana suspected that the conversation hadn’t been very good.

  “I didn’t,” she finally admitted, releasing a breath she’d been holding as they stood there staring at the university campus. “He wasn’t at my graduation. He has no idea where I am.” She shrugged. “I don’t think he even cares.”

  Lana grinned, those incredible dimples appearing once again. “We still don’t have daddy issues, right?” she laughed. “Still abandonment issues?”

  Tamara reluctantly pulled her eyes away from the old, stone buildings and looked at her two friends. “No way! We’re in control of our issues now,” she said, grinning. “Come on. Let’s go check out our dorm rooms. Lana, you got the bed closest to the bed at The Burling School. You are now banished to the corner!”

  The three of them laughed, because in truth, none of them wanted the bed closest to the window. The old buildings weren’t known for their insulation and the cold seeped in from outside during the winter months.

  “I won’t mind that at all!” Lana laughed. “Come on ladies. Let’s go start the next chapter in our lives!”

  Chapter 9

  “So…the school museum has examples of the dodo,” Naya announced, then waited.

  Sure enough, Ella and Cassy were slow to grasp her words, but then they simultaneously turned to look at Naya, then the three of them burst out laughing.

  “The dodo?” Ella gasped, trying to recover from her laughing fit. “I thought that was a joke!”

  Naya shook her head, wiping away the tears. Their laughter was as much amusement as nerves as they stood on the edge of the campus for Oxford University. “Not a joke. The museum here has not just one dodo, but the largest display of the dodo in the world.”

  The three of them slowly recovered, each of them taking a deep breath and standing once again. “Okay, so…we’re here. We’re going to conquer, right?” Ella asked.

  “Absolutely!” Naya replied with a firm nod.

  “You bet!” Cassy agreed. “Except…” she turned and looked at them. “We’ll be going in different directions. At the Burling School, we basically took the same classes. Now we’ll be…”

  Ella broke off, then spun around, glaring at her two best friends. “No! We got each other through high school. We’re going to get each other through university now. We’re friends.”

  Naya shook her head. “We’re more than friends,” she asserted firmly. “We’re sisters.”

  Cassy grinned. “A strange looking family, but I agree. We’re sisters. If not by blood, then by fire.”

  They laughed, then turned and lifted their luggage from the trunk of Cassy’s father’s car. He’d driven all three of them here today and had been standing back, looking at the trio with an amused expression to his kind features. “You ladies ready?” he asked.

  The three of them looked at each other, huge grins on their faces. In unison, they all nodded. “Yes!” they replied.

  Note: There might be additional scenes to this novella. When I write them, I’ll post them separately on my website and will let all of you ladies know via e-mail and social media. Once the series is finished, I’ll compile all of the scenes into the novella in the correct order and will release this, free, to all of the retail sites.

  (Keep reading for a bit more on each of The Ladies of The Burling School!)

  A bit of insight into the ladies you’re about to get to know:

   Tamara comes across to the world as tough and indomitable, but she’s vulnerable and scared underneath. Despite that, she is determined to make her way in the world.

   Willow is a gentle soul who is searching for her way. She refuses to be a pawn in her father’s career and love life anymore.

   Naya is possibly the most tender of these ladies, but she hides it well – at least from everyone except for the man who steps into her life. But she hides her real self from the world with a defiant lift of her chin and barrels forward.

   Lana is a fabulous artist but not the best when it comes to running her father’s business. She’s proud and loyal – almost to her detriment.

   Ella is oblivious to caution! She pushes through life as if there are no obstacles. Her determination to reveal all the wrongs in the world leads to her success, but also leads her to a man she can’t control.

   Cassandra (Cassy) is deeply wounded by her past, but refuses to allow it to hinder her ambition. She’s tough and determined – as well as soft and tender when she falls in love.

  I’ve also started Ms. Dunworthy’s story, but it’s still in rough draft format so it needs a bit more polish before I can give you details. More to come! If you’d like to keep reading, I’ve also included an excerpt from Lana’s story, “Her Enemy, Her Lover” for your enjoyment. This is the first story in The Burling School Series.

  Excerpt from “Her Enemy, Her Lover”

  Release Date: February 14, 2020

  Click HERE to Order “Her Enemy, Her Lover”!

  Lana stared at the complex documents spread out chaotically over the big, wooden desk. Contracts and invoices, complaints and lawsuits, requests for…something…and even a few pieces of paper that looked like they might be official or legal. Those were the papers that scared her the most. Everything in front of her seemed extremely complicated. She had no idea where one issue en
ded and another began.

  At the moment, the door to her father’s big, pandemonium -filled office was closed, a heavy silence weighing over the room. Lana slowly lowered her head into her hands, hoping that some divine intervention would point out what she needed to focus on first. And if that could happen, perhaps that divine intervention could also give her clues as to how she might accomplish each of those priority tasks.

  Unfortunately, no heavenly message was forthcoming and she sighed again, but this time, frustration tinged the increasing resentment. “Why did you leave me, Father?” she whispered to the panicked silence. “Why couldn’t you have taken better care of yourself?”

  Lana’s father, Higar Kosta, had been a wonderful man, his life filled with love and laughter, always ready to listen when Lana had a problem or just needed a hug. But Higar preferred a good cigar with a glass of scotch over sweating in a gym. And goodness, he’d loved his food! The man was renowned all over the city for his elaborate dinner parties! Maybe, if he’d stopped eating all of the rich foods and exercised a few times a week instead of sitting around smoking those horrible cigars, then he might still be with her now. He would still be taking care of all of these mind-boggling corporate details and she could be back in her light-filled art studio, doing what she loved instead of sitting her in this depressing office, alone, panicked and…overwhelmed!

  But her father had passed away two months ago and…Lana secretly acknowledged that she was completely lost.

  Yes, she could call up her best friends from school, Tamara or Willow. They’d met at The Burling School on the outskirts of London, and, after an initially expecting to hate both of them, they’d quickly become fast friends. The three of them had shared a room for many gloriously wonderful, laughter and tear-filled years. No, their acquaintance hadn’t started off smoothly. Lana was very aware that most people thought of her as flighty and irresponsible. But she wasn’t! Lana came across as flighty only because she lived in her head a bit more than the rest of the world. As a painter, Lana saw things differently, which was also why her paintings sold so well. Every year, the value of her paintings increased in value. She was financially secure and understood the international markets better than most artists.

  But this….! She shifted several of the papers around on the previously polished desk, not sure where to even start. Lana couldn’t keep relying on advice from Tamara who had a degree in international business and knew how businesses worked. The woman knew the world and, even though the world might think that she was a ditzy party girl, that was a very deliberate image that Tamara created and cultivated. The images that appeared in the tabloids were placed there for a very specific purpose.

  Unfortunately, Tamara had her own problems and Lana didn’t want to bother her friend. Willow was…well, normally Willow would be in her craft studio, working with her team to get ready for the next holiday season’s…stuff…whatever it was that Willow might create next. But Willow had her own worries as well.

  “Cassandra!” Lana whispered into the silence of the office. Standing up, Lana walked over to the window and looked out, not really seeing the beautiful ocean or the sunshine as it sparkled off of the water. “Cassandra might be able to get me out of this…mess!” she thought. There’d been that article recently about an especially trick legal case that Cassy had won!

  But…Cassy and Lana weren’t really friends. They were more…acquaintances. Lana and Cassy had enjoyed a few moments of camaraderie during their years at The Burling School, but they weren’t bosom buddies. Although, Lana had always wondered why Cassy had worn those horrible sports bras. The woman was gorgeous in a pinup girl kind of way. She was smart too! Unfortunately, Lana hadn’t ever taken the time to really get to know Cassy – or Cassy’s roommates. Not really. Oh, the six of them had snuck into the dining hall occasionally for a late night ice cream raid. But she’d been too close with Tamara and Willow and hadn’t bothered trying to befriend anyone else.

  “Not an option,” Lana thought with resignation and turned away from the window to look at the desk once again.

  “What a mess,” she groaned, pushing her hands through her already mussed, brown hair, trying to figure out where to start. Her father’s business was shockingly complex and, from some of the documents she’d read, wasn’t in very good shape at the moment.

  Every morning when she contemplated coming into this office, she felt her chest constrict and a vicious bout of nausea came next. Not only because she had her own issues to handle with her personal business, but because her father’s empire was too convoluted. Too vast.

  Thankfully, as an artist, Lana’s business had done well enough over the last few years that she hadn’t taken any money from her father since graduating from college. Her paintings were meticulous and beautiful. Every canvas she released into the world sold almost immediately. But…!

  “Having problems?” a deep voice asked, interrupting her pity party.

  Lana looked up, startled. But not nearly as startled as she was when her eyes focused on the tall, terrifying man standing in the doorway of her father’s office.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” she demanded, standing up with a jerk as the tall, odious man pushed away from the door frame and stepped arrogantly into her father’s office. With a soft thud, the door closed behind him, the sound ominously dreadful. It might have been better if he’d slammed the door closed. That would have given her mind something to focus on besides the terrifying man coming towards her.

  “I’m here to see if you need help.” His eyes moved over the desk that seemed to be piled with papers and files, contracts and reports. “Looks to me as if you’re drowning.”

  Lana looked up at the formidable man, refusing to show her fear. Christoph Anastas. The few times she’d met him at the various social gatherings around Athens had told her that this was not a man to ignore. He was one of the few businessman in Greece, all over the world actually, that made other businessmen quake in their thousand dollar shoes! Christoph Anastas was simply that powerful! Just his name sparked reverential silence when spoken out loud.

  Even now, looking up into eyes that weren’t quite blue and not really grey, she knew that he was a man to keep at arms distance. Ice, she thought. Yes, his eyes were the color of ice. Cold. Heartless. Merciless. Rivers of ice ripped open mountains, tore down boulders and reframed the earth. This man was the same. Just a simple glance from this man could damage a business, alter financial markets and shift the paths of currencies.

  She’d hated him from the first time she’d met him several years ago. It had taken one dance, just five minutes in the man’s spookily strong arms, before she understood his dangerous power.

  Well, not really understood so much as grasped. Even from across the ballroom that night, the man had looked at her and she’d felt naked. Raw. Vulnerable. And when he’d touched her that one time, her skin had felt singed. An odd reaction when his eyes seemed so cold, but she’d immediately wanted to pull her hands away. To run from him.

  But Lana prided herself on facing problems head on. Never running from them, never cowering. After the initial shock of being in his arms, she’d straightened her spine and glared up at him, refusing to let him feel her trembling because she absolutely refused to show any weakness around this man! Not him! Not with her father’s enemy! Show no weakness, Higar Kosta had always told her. “Use your weaknesses to gain power! Aspire to Strength” her father had preached ever since she’d been small.

  So here she was again, facing the man who was her weakness, determined to make him her strength! How Lana was going to do that was the mystery, but she’d eventually figure out how.

  In the meantime, Lana refused to show him how overwhelmed she was with all of the business issues spread out over the wide desk. Her chin went up a notch, her arms crossing over her stomach. “Did you come here just to annoy me for general purposes?” Lana demanded, pretending that everything in this office was under control. “Or did you have a more spec
ific purpose?”

  The man had the audacity to sit down in one of the chairs on the opposite side of her father’s big desk. He even unbuttoned his immaculate suit, stretching his long legs out in front of him before he looked up at her. Was he laughing? Was he mocking her?!

  Oh, her hatred for the man intensified with that smug expression! There were few people in this world who could engender those kinds of emotions in Lana. Her friends from boarding school, Tamara and Willow, had been two of them…initially. They’d hated each other upon their first meeting all those years ago. But now she loved those two women more than if they were her own sisters. The three of them understood each other. They fought for each other and protected each other’s secrets.

  This man had secrets, she thought. And if she could ever discover any of them, she’d reveal those secrets to the world. Just looking into his icy blue eyes made her want to take him down several pegs. No, not several pegs. She wanted to crush him under her heel. She wanted to beat him at whatever game he was initiating.

  And Lana had no doubt that the man was definitely initiating a game. Cat and mouse. Okay, maybe lion and mouse, she corrected. Christoph Anastas was much bigger and significantly more powerful than a house cat.

  But Lana refused to be his timid mouse! She was going to be…well, at least a cheetah.

  Okay, ridiculous mental conversation, she acknowledged and forced her eyes to glare at him from across the huge desk.

  “I understand that you’ve inherited all of your father’s businesses,” he started off conversationally.

  The horrible grief from her father’s passing several months ago still haunted her, but she suppressed the instant stab of sadness. She was a cheetah, she reminded herself. A sleek, powerful cheetah. “How is that significant to you?” Her hand slipped self-consciously over her too-rounded hips, reminding herself that she’d planned to go for a run after work. Of course, she’d planned on going for that run this morning, but had rolled over in her warm bed, not wanting to face the misery of morning, much less a morning run.