Twin Consequences of That NightThe Secret of Their Billion-Dollar Baby by Pippa Roscoe & Dani Collins

Author:Pippa Roscoe & Dani Collins [Roscoe, Pippa & Collins, Dani]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2024-02-20T22:01:11+00:00

CHAPTER ONE

Three years ago...

RAFAEL ZAMOS HAD become a chameleon capable of blending into whichever surrounding would provide him the best chance of survival.

Tonight, he’d put on his bespoke tuxedo and walked into a New York ballroom where old money elites were gathered. A young woman in a short black dress tried to check his name off a list on her tablet, but he gave her his most dispassionate, reptilian stare.

“Have a nice evening, sir,” she stammered and allowed him to pass without having to say a word.

That was the funny thing about power. A lot of the time, it was something other people gave you, especially if you created the impression that you already had an abundance of it.

He didn’t have as much as he wanted. He doubted he ever would. He’d been on the wrong side of power often enough in his childhood that he had an insatiable thirst for it now, to ensure he was never at anyone’s mercy ever again.

That resistance and thirst had drawn him here tonight. Competitors back in Greece were beginning to see him as a threat and were flexing their muscles against him. Yet again, he was being pressured to quit rising above his station.

Rafael was beyond literal fights that left him bleeding on the ground. No, he understood that tailored suits were a type of armor and the right connections could be an impermeable shield. He hated being beholden to anyone, but strategic partnerships would reinforce the place he was carving for himself as a global player in international trade. No one closer to home was willing to align with him, but an American pillar would do nicely for now.

These snobbish circles were notoriously hard to penetrate, though. They could smell an imposter a mile off. He was already receiving the side-eye as he accepted champagne and scoped out the roomful of balding, heavyset men with bejeweled, middle-aged wives. The few youthful women were likely trophies. This wasn’t an event for mistresses. It was a political fundraiser of some kind. The power behind the power.

But who the hell was she?

Rafael’s abdomen tightened as though taking a punch while his gaze fixated on a blonde woman of midtwenties who floated to the center of the ballroom in a risqué gown of diaphanous purple. The fabric twisted from one shoulder across her breasts and around her torso before it fell in mostly see-through panels around her naked legs. Well-placed spangles on the underlay covered her nipples and mound, but it was barely decent. He could see her ass.

Which was a joy to behold. All of her was mouthwatering.

He was not the only person who noticed. Everyone turned their heads and goggled their eyes. Even the music faltered briefly, just long enough for a curse to be heard from some distant corner of the room.

A fiftyish woman in a blue gown with a skirt like a church bell bore down on the newcomer. She had to press her skirt down to lean close enough to scorch the blonde’s ear.

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