Page 9 of The Billionaire's Last-Minute Marriage
He spent the rest of the evening arranging for the legal ceremony and necessary judge amendments to ensure their marriage was completed as soon as possible. He contemplated a phone call to deliver the news, but he knew she despised verbal communication, much preferring emails or texts. She really had been a poor fit for an executive assistant, he mused, wondering yet again why Zeus had hired her, while turning in his hands the small dark red booklet that held her travel documents.
It had been a harsh move, holding her passport as collateral, but a necessary one. He had seen the look in her eyes as she’d visibly considered her options. She had reminded him of a rabbit who had wandered too far from safety and found itself trapped in the path of a fox. He was under no illusion as to who played the part of the predator in this analogy.
But no matter how cruel she believed him to be, she had still agreed to his terms. She was prepared to sign her life over to him for the next twelve months and step into a role she had no preparation for whatsoever. Her words about societal expectations and reputation had not passed him by without impact.
Truthfully, he agreed with her. He’d never planned to marry at all because he had no desire to ever become romantically or emotionally vulnerable to anyone else by tying his life to theirs that closely. Bachelor life had suited him just fine for thirty-nine years. Using marriage as a bargaining tool to ensure he inherited the company he’d worked so hard for was Zeus’s cruel way of taking Xander’s beliefs and throwing them in his face.
He’d been nineteen on the day a shining black limousine had pulled up in front of his run-down Athens apartment block. For a young man, struggling financially thanks to his mother’s extensive debts, the sight of Zeus in his sleek five-piece suit introducing himself as Papa had been every dream he’d ever dared to hope for. The offer of a world-class college tuition and a foothold into the world of wealthy elites had been too much to resist. He had promptly paid off his mother’s debts and walked away from his past without a backward glance.
He’d learned that he had two brothers he had never met. Nysio Bacchetti was a descendant of Italian royalty with genius-level intelligence and Eros Theodorou, Arista’s son, had been raised in the elite Greek social circles that were expected of a Mytikas heir. Xander might have been the oldest of Zeus’s illegitimate sons but it hadn’t taken long for him to find that he had not been his father’s first choice to succeed him.
Nysio’s powerful family had threatened death and ruin upon anyone who dared allude to their son’s link to the Mytikas name, a fact that Xander had only learned of after his youngest brother had already been sent a copy of that damned will. With a paper document clearly listing him as an heir, Xander had been awaiting an imminent retaliation from the Italian. But instead, the attack had come from Eros. The brother he had actually known. They had begun working their way up the company ladder a few years apart and even worked side by side for a short time. Until Eros had left the company in a storm of scandal. A situation that his brother blamed him for, and rightly so. Guilt assailed him, but he pushed it down. Despite what Zeus had thought of him, ultimately, Xander had been the only one to remain.
His thoughts intruded upon him even after he’d gone to bed and, as usual, sleep evaded him. His mind was far too preoccupied with the rapidly shifting pace of his plans to rest. As dawn broke over the city, he was back at his desk, looking down at the slim brown envelope that had been delivered via courier. Inside was the engagement ring he had given to Priya. Returned without any note or explanation, but, he supposed, the ring itself was explanation enough.
If that video was any indication, he already knew exactly where Priya had gone or, rather, to whom. Eros was a slippery opponent and one he knew would go to any lengths to get revenge on those who’d wronged him. Xander’s actions fifteen years before had shaped their brotherhood into something cold and dangerous. But the news that Nysio Bacchetti had also been spotted in Manhattan had shocked him. Nysio had no need for Zeus’s fortune; he was wealthy in his own right and had a reputation to uphold with his own family. But it wouldn’t be a surprise if he’d seen the will as a broken promise, and in the circles the Italian frequented, such things were not taken lightly.
Xander sat back in his chair, pondering the fact that in Zeus’s efforts to pit them against one another, he had inadvertently brought them all to the same city for possibly the first time ever. Surely that had to be an omen of sorts. He sat that way for a long time pondering what good could ever come from the meeting of three bastards born of scandal, each of them united only in their hatred for the man who’d sired them.
CHAPTER FOUR
IFSHEHADN’Tknown better, Pandora might have convinced herself that the previous night had been a dream. There was no outward evidence of the bargain she had made with her former boss as she strolled out of the elevator and onto the open-plan top floor of the executive offices. Xander’s text for her to come into the office had been confusing seeing as she was no longer officially an employee, but the more she thought about it, the more she realised she had essentially left him in the lurch. It wasn’t surprising that he wanted her to finish up with her commitments.
‘Good morning,’ she greeted the front desk receptionist brightly. Too brightly, judging by the way the man nodded once, then quickly scurried away.
She’d always seemed to only ever have two speeds: complete radio silence or a great impression of an overexcited chipmunk who forgot to breathe between words. She remembered the words spoken by a psychologist to her teenage self that had changed her thinking dramatically. ‘You don’t need to hide your differences, they’re what make you who you are.’
The problem was, unless she pasted a thin veneer of false politeness over who she was, people noticed. If not immediately, they always noticed eventually. And not always in a positive way.
Everything seemed utterly normal for a Monday morning at Mytikas Holdings. She had seen no mention of their CEO’s failed wedding in the papers, unsurprising considering the wealth and power of the Mytikas name meant it would be child’s play for Xander to place a gag order on the media about what had occurred the day before.
Still, her heart ached just a little when she thought of him being put in the humiliating position of watching Priya fleeing from him as fast as her high heels could take her. Pandora got an odd little feeling, her fists tightening slightly, whenever she thought of Xander’s beautiful first choice bride. A perfect society match, he had called her. That feeling... Knowing she herself was now essentially a consolation prize for someone who had hoped for much, much better...it was sadly not a new experience for her. Which meant she could easily switch off the uncomfortable swirl of thought and file it away with all the other pointless emotions she’d accumulated in her lifetime.
She’d made her decision, she only hoped it was the right one.
The next thing she was aware of was a shadow looming over her desk and a strange hush falling over the rest of the office.
‘What are you doing?’
Pandora struggled for a moment to arrange her features into a polite mask. Her Executive Assistant face, she liked to call it. Xander stood dangerously close, his swarthy features carefully blank but his eyes blazing.
She frowned, lowering her voice to the merest murmur. ‘You said to come into the office. I’m here.’
‘I invited you here as myfiancée,Quinn, not to come to work.’ He made a strange choking sound, running a hand through his hair. ‘My office. Now.’
His own voice was a low whisper that made the skin on her arms tighten and prickle with awareness. She watched him walk away, as did everyone else in their vicinity before their curious eyes slowly switched back to her. Someone whistled under their breath and the girl who sat at the desk next to her let out a rush of whispered questions.
She had long ago mastered the art of the shrug. It was one of her favourite weapons when language simply was not possible. Pursing her lips, Pandora rolled one shoulder and opened up the digital files on her tablet that she needed to get his signature on. Nerves made her extra uncoordinated, so she paid particular attention to her footing as she followed in Xander’s wake.
At the very last moment, he took hold of her hand and pulled her in the rest of the way. She heard the audible gasp of her co-workers right before the door snapped shut, shielding them from view.
‘What on earth are you thinking, doing that? Everybody was watching.’ She spoke on a rush of breath as she yanked back her hand.
‘Them watching us was the whole point. They will just assume that I have taken my fiancée somewhere private to wish her a good morning.’
‘Why on earth would they...?’ Her brow furrowed as his meaning dawned. ‘You’ve already told them?’
‘Have you completely forgotten the events of last night?’
