The Spanish Tycoon's Temptress Page 0,1
as much as possible.
“You don’t know what I prize.” Rufus laughed softly, squinting at the younger man to keep himself from chortling with victory. He was so close, he could almost taste success now.
Gaston was impatient with this farce. “Okay, let’s have it. You know what I want. Tell me your terms and I’ll have the money in your account by this afternoon.”
Rufus shook his head, smirking. “I don’t want your money.”
Gaston waited, but when the man only sat there smiling, he shook his head. “Explain your terms. I don’t have time for your ridiculous games.”
This is exactly where Rufus wanted the younger man to be. Now he had him. All his dreams would finally be realized. “If I give you what you want, you have to give me what I want.”
“Just name your price, old man.”
Rufus chuckled softly. “I want my daughter married.”
Gaston froze, his stomach clenching with renewed fury but he hid his reaction, not wanting to give his nemesis any power. Even the knowledge that his daughter would marry eventually seared his brain with rage. “Fine,” he replied stiffly. “Get her married.”
Rufus paused, enjoying the tension, reveling in it. Finally, he said the words that would infuriate the younger man even further. “To you.”
Gaston stopped breathing for a long moment. He was still, his body absorbing the impact of those words. “Impossible,” Gaston snapped. If he never saw that woman again it would be perfectly fine.
Rufus shrugged his shoulders, pretending the younger man’s response was unimportant. “Then you’ll never see the book again. I won’t live forever and in my will, I have instructions to have the book destroyed.” He paused to let those words sink in before he said, “Although I might grow impatient with the expense of hiding the book from you. You have massive resources and, over the years, your investigators have caused me a great many problems. I have had to work hard to keep one or two steps ahead of them. Perhaps I should just destroy the damn thing now and be done with it.”
Gaston shoved out of the seat, not even aware that it fell backwards with the force of his fury. “If you do that, I will make sure that everything you own will be destroyed, including your precious, faithless daughter!”
Rufus wasn’t impressed by the man’s threat. “All you have to do is convince Elana to marry you and the book is yours. Free and clear.”
“You’re out of your mind! I wouldn’t touch your daughter! You know the history! You yourself showed me the evidence of her betrayal.”
Rufus still had some pride left and knew he didn’t want to admit all of his errors to this powerful man. He shrugged once again. “Elana is a very smart woman. If you can’t keep her faithful to you, then you don’t deserve her.”
Gaston fisted his hands at his side to keep himself from throttling the older man. “Trust is two sided. She broke my trust.” He paused to try and regain his composure. “This is all beside the point. I want the book and it has nothing to do with your daughter.”
Rufus chuckled softly while he shook his head. “It has everything to do with my daughter. You said to name my price. My daughter’s happiness is my price.”
“That still doesn’t bring me into the picture.”
Rufus wasn’t sure how much to tell this man. He didn’t want to betray Elana’s privacy, but there had to be some hope to give this tall, handsome man. It didn’t matter that Rufus hated Gaston and the entire Montebello family. He loved his daughter more than he hated. She was all that mattered now. “Elana has locked herself away.”
“You’re being ridiculous,” Gaston snapped. “She’s working as a botanist at the university.”
It was interesting to Rufus that this man knew that. “And she hasn’t dated anyone in….” again, how much to reveal? “In some time,” he finally finished, not mentioning that the last man his daughter dated was this particular one. She’d locked herself away from life, from happiness. He couldn’t remember her laughing, genuinely laughing, in more than seven years. From the day this man walked out of her life, Elana had grown more and more quiet, reserved. She used to love life, attacking it with a vengeance. Seven years ago, she’d said that she was in love with Gaston Montebello but Rufus hadn’t believed that she truly meant it. She’d been only eighteen! No woman knows the love of her life at that age. So