The Billionaire's Trophy
By: Lynne Graham
What is his intern’s photo doing on an escort website? Bastian Christou doesn’t know if he’s more surprised by her double life, or her stunning photo—she’s kept those curves well hidden! He has an ex-fiancée to keep at bay and Emmie Marshall might just be the best armor money can buy.
Emmie is outraged when Bastian, her uncompromising boss, confronts her. She had no idea her photo was online. But his check’s been cashed and he’s come to collect his prize… A weekend in Greece. With her. Alone. Their relationship might be fake, but Emmie’s trepidation is all too real!
“I realized that you were the perfect match for my requirements,” Bastian fielded with characteristic cool. “However if you don’t want to do it, return the fee and we’ll say no more about it.”
Bastian strolled forward, lean, darkly handsome features infuriatingly calm and assured. He was disturbingly graceful in motion, not a visible ounce of tension in his big powerful frame as he stepped unexpectedly into her space.
“What on earth do you think you’re doing?” Emmie gasped, overpowered by his proximity and totally disconcerted by his behavior.
“Maybe I wanted to see what I was paying for,” Bastian said succinctly, indifferent to whether or not he caused offense. After all, wasn’t he hiring her to do a job?
“You haven’t bought me…you can’t buy what isn’t for sale!” Emmie flung back at him in fierce rejection.
“Yet I’ve still managed to buy your time for the whole of one weekend.”
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CHAPTER ONE
SEBASTIANO CHRISTOU, KNOWN as Bastian to his many friends and acquaintances, studied the huge emerald ring in his hand with seething frustration blazing in his dark golden eyes, his lean darkly handsome features settling into forbidding lines of hauteur. He was holding the Christou betrothal ring, which had, until very recently, adorned the hand of his intended wife, Lilah Siannas.
Ironically, Lilah had not voiced a single word of reproach concerning the terms of the pre-nup agreement presented to her lawyer. Instead, while leaving the pre-nup unsigned, Lilah had become irritatingly unavailable and distant but her burning resentment had ultimately triumphed, culminating in her public statement that the engagement was over and the wedding cancelled. And ever since then Lilah had been noisily painting the town red in the company of a good-looking toyboy millionaire.
Bastian was well aware that Lilah was throwing down a gauntlet she expected him to pick up. He was supposed to be jealous: yet he was not. He was supposed to feel foolish: but he did not. He was supposed to want her so much that he would forget about the pre-nup: only he did not. No, Lilah was playing a losing game for Bastian would never marry a woman without first securing his wealth with a pre-nup agreement. That was a lesson learned well at his grandfather’s knee.
His father had married four times and his three incredibly expensive divorces had decimated the Christou family fortune. Bastian’s grandfather had taught his grandson that love was unnecessary in a successful marriage and that shared goals and principles were more important. Bastian had never been in love but he had often been in lust. Lilah, a tiny exquisite brunette, had excited his need to chase and possess but he had never kidded himself that he loved her. Indeed before he proposed, he had evaluated Lilah’s worth much as though she were an investment. He had recognised the advantage of their similar backgrounds; he had admired her unemotional outlook, excellent education and her skills as a society hostess. But, as he now grimly reminded himself, he had seriously underestimated the strength and pulling power of his fiancée’s avarice.
