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Billionaire ’ s Revenge
by
Marie Kelly
Chapter One
Sara Balfour stood in the large elegant ballroom, feeling uncomfortable and awkward as her eyes scanned the room; her teeth savaged the softness of her bottom lip as she waited. Time and again she had been approached by men, their suave smiles barely hiding the lecherous looks in their eyes as they tried to engage her in conversation, each and every one having to give up as she brushed off their well-practiced pick-up lines. Flicking a look at her watch, her stomach clenched into a tight knot of nerves and tension as she waited - waited to see the one person who held so much power over her family’s future.
Movement on stage finally heralded the main event of the night: the keynote speech of the CEO and main shareholder of the Garelli Corporation, the man she had come to see that night. Sara had researched the head of the Garelli Empire, an older stately man, his online pictures portraying a handsome distinguished man in his sixties, her eyes that evening scanning the area continuously for him in the hope of being able to talk with him prior to his speech.
The emcee moving forward had once more brought her attention to the stage as he began his introduction, giving a brief history of the CEO and his many accomplishments. Sara was not really listening as she flicked her look around the side of the stage, a small frown knitted onto her smooth forehead. Stepping back she took a deep steadying breath, not concentrating on those around her as she collided into the arms of a man moving forward. Quickly spinning round with an apologetic look on her lovely features, she was aware as the man pushed out a steadying hand, his fingers warm as they wrapped around her arm, his handsome features smiling down at her as he mumbled a soft apology back, his voice deep and sensual. She took in the way his eyes slid down her with interest, appreciating the stunning woman before him before they reached her lovely face. His look changed, a note of confusion entered the darkest eyes she had ever seen, eyes familiar to her as she stared back at him in stunned disbelief.
“Darius?” the soft almost inaudible name escaped her shocked lips as he looked more carefully back, his warm eyes becoming cold and hard as recognition finally hit him. “Sara!” her name bitten out contemptuously as the speaker finished his introduction, his voice hardly registering to Sara as she stared back at the man she had known so many years before.
“So give a big hand for the Chief Executive Officer of Garelli Corporation, Mr Darius Garelli” A spontaneous eruption of applauding hands broke through the mesmerized way the two stared at the other. Pulling his eyes from her, his body stiff, he moved forward, quickly ascending the steps at the side of the stage. Sara stood in stunned shock, nausea filling her as she watched Darius Garelli - a man she had known as Darius Larosa - take his rightful place before the throng of rich partygoers.
Lifting a shaky hand to her forehead, she felt the despondency roll over her, the despair of knowing that it was finished, that her family’s last hope had been dashed away. She swallowed hard to hold back the tears which burned the back of her eyes. They were doomed, there was no salvation to be found at the hands of the man who after talking to one of his security guards moved with all the grace and confidence of a panther to begin his speech, as Sara once more flicked a stunned look down his wonderful body.
With a definitive movement she tore her eyes from him, turning with determination, defeat sitting heavily on her, as she pushed her way through the multitude of bodies which swarmed forward to hear the great man talk. Sara needed to be out of there, needed to put as much distance between herself and Darius Garelli as she could. Reaching the door, the security guard she had witnessed him talking to moved before her, blocking her way, his stance foreboding as he politely but firmly spoke to her. “Mr Garelli would like you to wait for him in his private office Miss”
Shaking her head firmly Sara refused to be intimidated by the tall man, her hand reached out to pull open the door. “I don’t think so. Please tell Mr Garelli that I politely declined his offer”, moving forward as the security man continued, a small almost unperceivable twitch of his lips the only real sign he heard her. “I was told that if you felt that way to say to you: ‘Paxton Holdings’”
The two words froze her to the spot, her eyes flying around to stare in disbelief at the man on the stage. A short video was playing and while the throng watched it, his eyes were focussed solely on her, their eyes colliding, his look unwavering and cold. Sara felt the pain wash through her. He knew. He knew everything. Pulling her look from him, her shoulders sagged in defeat as she nodded to the security guard, her posture and expression an admission of surrender as she allowed the door to close, before moving behind the guard to another entrance, the sounds of the presentation disappearing as she was led to the elevator.
As they made their way up within the marbled and opulent elevator, she felt sick. She had been sure that if she could get the CEO of Garelli Corporation alone, and talk to him about her problem, that she could buy the family some time, that the billionaire businessman would understand and support the family. However, that hope had been dashed the minute she discovered who the CEO now was. Darius Garelli would take great pleasure in destroying them all, coldness seeping into every part of her.
The ping of the elevator door heralding their arrival pulled her thoughts back, as with head held high she followed the guard, the realisation hitting her that they were on the top level of the exclusive five-star hotel. When the doors opened, she had been ushered into the large penthouse suite, her eyes staring in wonder at the surroundings, knowing that this was his private suite, the room he was staying at, this knowledge filling her with even more discomfort.
Ushered into what appeared to be a study, the guard told her to help herself to a drink before moving back out, the click of the front door the only sound, leaving Sara alone, alone with her thoughts and ghosts of the past. Finally she sank into the large over-stuffed leather armchair, her head falling in her hands as the memories of the past flooded back.
Six years ago Sara had been 18. About to go to university, she spent the summer working in the main office of her late father’s construction business. She was shy and awkward about the way she looked, her sister often teasing her about her braces and too-skinny body and she had kept to herself. Her sister Angela was the complete opposite. Older and working in the office full-time with no desire to go off to university she was gregarious, her stunning figure and long auburn hair and good looks making her popular with the many contractors who would pass through. None more so than Nick Paxton, the owner of a small joinery company. While Angela had been initially interested in Nick, a man Sara disliked, not quite sure what it was about him that made her uncomfortable, the arrival of the gorgeous and seductively dangerous Darius Larosa soon wiped out any other man from her sister’s thoughts.
Sara was embarrassed to watch the way Angela threw herself so blatantly at the builder, brought in to help with some issue requiring a more specialised contractor. He was a hard worker, his ideas and solutions a godsend to the project he was working on, nobody more thankful than Angela as she fawned over him, her eyes promising so much every time that he would appear in the office.
He however, had been polite and distant with her sister, often choosing instead to deal with Sara. She had been nervous of the devastatingly handsome man, older than her - then in his mid-twenties. She was never really sure what to say or do when he would smile so warmly at her, his dark eyes holding her large blue ones which she hid behind sensible glasses, required when she was working on her computer, which in the office was all of the time.
Three months into his contract, money had gone missing - lots of money. A search of lockers found some it, the serial numbers given to them by the bank, along with a key for her father’s office and the security safe, all tucked away in a hidden compartment in his locker.
Her father was furious. Not a man who put up with betrayal, it had taken all her persuasion for him not to call the police there and then and have Darius arrested. Sara, however, never felt that he stole the money and pled for hours on his behalf, only gaining her father’s support after telling him that it might cause a scandal. Her family were mainstays of the conservative and proper establishment in the area, and her father was always careful about how his family was presented in the eyes of these stuffy judgemental people. He forced Sara to be the one to fire Darius, his way of punishing her for taking the Italian’s side. After she had, she had never forgotten the shock on his handsome face, or the anger as he professed his innocence. She however, held firm, informing him that if he did not leave then they would involve the police. Darius welcomed the police involvement, until she explained the evidence against him, remembering the way his mouth set in such an angry line, his eyes flints of cold rage as he declared that he had been set up. While secretly she agreed with him, she said nothing, knowing that the police were very much on the side of her father and she feared that he would not get a fair hearing.
Lifting her head, she gave a small groan. His last words to her had been that he would make them pay, that one day her whole family would pay for that day, the softness of his tone, with the hint of his Italian accent, adding to the vehemence of his statement. With an ironic curl of her lip she knew that that day had finally come. Darius would have his revenge, and her family would be destroyed.
