Elizabeth Lennox - The Spanish Tycoon's Temptress
The Spanish Tycoon's Temptress
Elizabeth Lennox
romance/billionaire
Chapter 1
Gaston Montebello walked into the office, absently noting the general sense of disrepair and the absence of an efficient staff moving about the hallways. The old man was probably desperate by now which was exactly what Gaston had planned.
He walked into Rufus Catelano’s office without knocking which was simple since his assistant wasn’t in her place outside.
The old man looked up as soon as the door banged open, furious at the interruption. “What the hell are you doing here?” Rufus demanded gruffly, his grey, bushy eyebrows drawing together in anger at the arrogance of his uninvited guest.
Gaston unbuttoned his dark jacket before taking a seat in one of the green plastic chairs in front of the large, heavy desk. “You know exactly what I’m doing here.” He paused for emphasis and also to make the other man squirm for a moment. “I want it back, Rufus.” Gaston stared hard at the old man, hiding his fury and impatience. “You’ve lost about forty percent of your empire fighting this war. And I will make sure that there is nothing left if you don’t give me what I want.”
Rufus leaned back in his leather chair, satisfaction smoothing out the anger. Despite his hatred of the younger man, Rufus had to admit that Gaston was a prime specimen of masculinity with his height well over six feet tall and every bit of him packed with hard, bulging muscles, a fact of which Rufus silently admitted he was jealous. Rufus supposed that most women would consider Gaston Montebello a handsome man with his black hair and dark, intense eyes, not to mention the angular face that, in most circles, women thought were sexy and mysterious. Not in Rufus’ circles, but the gossip columns certainly enjoyed following this man’s activities.
There was no denying that Gaston Montebello was ruthless in business. He’d never have amassed such an enormous fortune and controlled such a huge empire if that weren’t the case. Rufus hated this man with every fiber of his being, but he accepted that there must be some redeeming qualities if his tender hearted daughter had fallen in love with him. And he suspected that she was still pining for the bastard! A fact which continually ate at him but had also led up to this confrontation.
He hated to admit it, but if Gaston was what his daughter wanted, even after all these years, he would help her get him back. Not that he would ever admit to his part in their original breakup. No, that secret Rufus would take to the grave!
With a hot sense of satisfaction, Rufus leaned back in his creaking chair, lacing his hands over his protruding stomach. Gaston had finally come. It had been a hard struggle to get him here, a painful, deliberate chess game played out in financial markets and corporate boardrooms, but Rufus had finally won. The end was in sight and all would be well with his precious daughter Elana if he played this situation correctly. He leaned back in his leather chair, ignoring the squeak that needed to be fixed as he continued to glare at the younger man. “You think you can push me into a corner and I’ll roll over and weep, but that’s simply not going to happen.”
Gaston raised a sardonic eyebrow. “You have almost no resources left that you can sell off, your companies are losing contracts almost daily and your own house is so heavily mortgaged even the banks are going to start calling in the loans. What do you have left? Just give me what I want and I’ll make it all stop.”
Rufus chuckled, the sound echoing his Gaelic ancestry and coming across as both arrogant and amused, fully in charge despite strong evidence denying that possibility. “You don’t understand me very well, do you?” He lifted the cigar to his mouth and inhaled deeply, filling his lungs with the pungent smoke before releasing it into the air.
Gaston ignored the smoke despite the way it temporarily obliterated his view of the man. Thankfully, the scent was almost pleasant if it weren’t for the fact that the particles were carcinogens that would eventually kill the older man. “I understand that you’re a lying thief and an old man who is losing his grip on an empire that meant so much to him once upon a time,” Gaston said with disgust. He hid his rage, his fury and distaste for this man