Page 1 of The Billionaire's Last-Minute Marriage
CHAPTER ONE
XANDERMYTIKASSTOODfrozen on the steps of the Manhattan courthouse in his sleek black tuxedo and felt the rush of shocked anger simmer in his veins.
The crowd of distinguished guests and eager paparazzi seemed to meld into one around him, their expressions a mixture of sympathy and scandalised delight as they realised that they had just witnessed the stone-faced CEO of a global financial powerhouse get very publicly jilted by his socialite fiancée.
‘I’ve never seen a bride run that fast.’ A voice laughed, coming from somewhere in the ever-growing crowd of curious onlookers along the pavement.
‘I’m sure he’ll cry himself to sleep tonight in his piles of money,’ another voice shouted, without an ounce of sympathy.
Considering some of the terrible accusations that had resurfaced since his tyrannical father’s death two weeks previously, as the company’s current acting CEO Xander had known he wasn’t the most likeable face in the media right now. But this...he felt the sting of being reduced to an object of pure scorn and derision. This was simply theatre to the masses and he had given them front row seats to his own humiliation.
The previous moments seemed to replay in his mind like a bad movie, Priya Davidson-Kahn standing frozen at the bottom of the steps in her giant white gown. His own concern and fruitless attempts to reach her through the crowd of paparazzi that had suddenly appeared... Then the look of apology on her face, right before she’d sprinted down the street in the rain.
In the handful of minutes since, he’d had his security team clear the perimeter and gather their guests back inside until the situation was contained. The details of the ceremony were supposed to have been kept strictly confidential, every attendee covered with a non-disclosure agreement and yet, judging by the seething mass of photographers being herded down the street, it appeared that someone had leaked their location to the press.
Was that why she had run?
His head of security appeared at his side, a beacon of calm amid the chaos. ‘I sent a team in pursuit of Miss Davidson-Khan, but it appears that she had a car waiting for her. We confiscated this from one of the members of the press.’
The man held out a phone screen showing a brief video clip of what looked like his bride being carried by a man through the rain down an alleyway... The mystery man glanced back and Xander growled as he saw his face.
Eros.
Of course, his half-brother had been involved in disrupting his wedding. Since their father’s death two weeks previously and the terms of his will had been revealed, Xander had been lying in wait for either one of Zeus Mytikas’s other two by-blows to resurface. The first of the three brothers to marry and stay wed for one year took control of everything.
‘Christos,’he cursed, resisting the urge to smash the image of Eros’s smug face to the ground. Xander’s arrangement with Priya had been strictly business, but seeing such undeniable evidence of her betrayal still hurt his pride.
‘We already have a car in pursuit,’ the guard assured him, taking the phone slowly from his hands as though he feared retribution for being the bearer of such bad news.
‘No.’ Xander exhaled, pinching the bridge of his nose where a dull ache was beginning to throb. ‘The last thing I want is my security team involved in a car chase through the streets of Manhattan in broad daylight. The press are already having a field day.’
‘You want us to just let her go?’
The noise around him was growing louder by the minute. The reporters down the street were hurling out their questions and the guests inside the doors of the courthouse too. Like sharks, they were all ravenous for the knowledge of what they had just witnessed. His usually unrivalled tactical mind tripped over such a senseless change to a seemingly perfect plan, fighting to make sense of it.
He had prepped his entire team to be on high alert today, to leave no stone unturned when it came to ensuring this quickie wedding remained a secret from both of his estranged half-brothers. His ruthless nature was infamous, as was his reputation for always getting what he wanted. But somehow, somewhere...he’d missed something. The scent of failure was enough to send him barrelling through the crowd, his guards rushing to clear the path through the gathering onlookers.
Xander slid into the nondescript black SUV and slammed the door, shutting out the din of their ravenous curiosity. It had been twenty years since he’d been thrust into this bloodthirsty world where pain was profitable and scandal was currency. No matter how much time his father had spent enforcing elocution lessons and private stylists, the same reporters who had hunted down his vulnerabilities as a naïve nineteen-year-old still found ways to make money from him. Such was the world.
‘You lovebirds are done early.’ A singsong voice sounded out in the dark interior as the privacy screen came down with a slow whir, revealing the smiling face and grey curls of his long-time driver, Mina. ‘I finally get to meet your...’
Her expectant smile dropped, ebbing quickly into confusion when she saw that Xander sat alone and bride-less on the back seat. He felt his gut clench, his eyes landing on the freshly chilled bottle of champagne and two gold-tipped crystal flutes.
‘Wedding’s cancelled. The bride had other plans.’ Xander undid his bow tie and popped the top button of his silk shirt open, fighting the urge to rip the garment off entirely. He needed a swim and a giant chocolate dessert, in that order. His muscles were wound so tight that a jolt of pain hit him in the solar plexus when a rogue reporter suddenly pressed their face up against the tinted glass of the car window, catching him completely by surprise.
Mina’s familiar croaking curse was a welcome salve to his nerves as she revved the engine and honked her horn with such vehemence that the crowd fell away. As they finally pressed forward into the afternoon traffic, the privacy glass was raised back up but Xander could practically feel the pity coming off his trusted driver in waves. He didn’t want her pity, or anyone else’s for that matter. And yet, it was now inevitable, wasn’t it? Gossip was one thing, but scandal...scandal would be the final nail in the coffin of his plans to take over Mytikas Holdings.
As the rain-soaked streets began to blur outside the tinted windows, Xander felt the throb in his brow turn into a full-blown migraine. He leaned back against the leather seats, feeling frustration and outrage battle against the soul-deep exhaustion that had plagued him for the past fortnight.
Christos...had it only been two weeks since his father’s death? It seemed like a lifetime ago now, considering the gigantic organisational nightmare that had followed immediately afterwards.
After Zeus’s death, it had been generally assumed that Xander would be the natural choice to succeed his father in the event of his passing. In fact, he had completed two decades of loyal service with that exact goal in mind. But apparently, the old man had had a last-minute change of heart. Somehow Xander hadn’t been too surprised that Zeus had thrown a massive curveball his way as a parting gift.
He had long ago stopped trying to gain affection or approval from the man who’d ignored his existence for nineteen years. But what he hadn’t expected was for Zeus to offer up the entire contents of his estate to the first of his children to marry and stay married for one year.
Xander growled under his breath, tapping the keys on his tablet to check his schedule. He would never demand his staff work on the weekend, but Sunday afternoons had become a regular occurrence in the past weeks considering their major planned expansion into Japan was imminent. The only reason he’d chosen to get married on a Sunday was because it would have the least impact on his schedule. Unlike his slovenly father, who seemed only to enjoy the status that came with his CEO title, Xander had always found solace in his work.
From a young age, he’d always noticed details that others missed and seen simple solutions for what most considered to be complex problems. As a young boy, growing up poor in Athens, he had been an enigma, a formidable opponent on both the chess team and on the football field. There was nothing he enjoyed more in life than learning how to play a game and winning.
