The Billionaire Banker Read online

  The Billionaire

  Banker

  Book One

  Georgia Le Carre

  The Bil ionaire Banker

  Book 1 of the Billionaire Banker series Published by Georgia Le Carre

  Copyright © 2013 by Georgia Le Carre The right of Georgia Le Carre to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the copyright, designs and patent act 1988.

  Al rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  Al characters in this publication are fictitious, any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  ISBN: 978-0-9576812-4-8

  You can discover more information about Georgia Le Carre and future releases here.

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  Dedicated to all who have love and passion in their lives, and to those who are still searching…

  Table of Contents

  One. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

  Two. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

  Three. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

  Four. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

  Five. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

  Six. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45

  Seven. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53

  Eight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63

  Nine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

  Ten. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83

  Eleven. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89

  Twelve. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .98

  Thirteen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

  Fourteen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

  Fifteen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .126

  Sixteen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .137

  Seventeen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

  Eighteen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151

  Nineteen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .156

  Twenty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .164

  Twenty one. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .171

  Twenty two. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .181

  Twenty three. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

  Twenty four. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

  Twenty five. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

  Twenty six. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .215

  Twenty seven. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .223

  Twenty eight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

  Twenty nine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .234

  Thirty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .245

  Thirty one. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

  Thirty two. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

  Thirty three. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

  Thirty four. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

  Book 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

  You aren’t wealthy until you have something money can’t buy.

  —Garth Brooks

  One

  lake Law Barrington drops a cube of sugar into the Bcreamy face of his espresso, stirs it with the dinky spoon he finds on the saucer, and glances at his platinum Greubel Forsey Quadruple Tourbillion. Acquired at Christie’s Important Watches auction last autumn for a cool half a million dollars.

  Eight minutes past eight.

  He has a party to go to, but tonight he will give it a miss. It has been a long day. He is tired. He has to be in New York tomorrow. And it will be one of those incomprehensibly dreary affairs, where he will invariably feel he has stepped back in time, and any minute Winston Churchill could walk through the door. He takes a sip— the coffee here is always superb—and returns the tiny cup to its white rim.

  Summoning a waiter for the check, he senses the activity level in the room take a sudden hike.

  Automatically, he lifts his eyes to where all the other eyes, mostly male, have veered to. Of course. A girl. In a cheap, orange dress and a lap dancer’s six-inch high plastic platforms.

  You’re looking for love in all the wrong places.

  A waiter in a burgundy waistcoat bearing the bill has silently materialized at his side. Not taking his eyes off the girl—despite the impossible shoes she has a good walk, sexy—he orders himself a whiskey. The waiter slinks away after a right-away-sir nod, and Blake leans back into the plush chair to watch the show.

  It is one of those exclusive restaurants where there are transparent black voile curtains hung between the tables and discreet fans to tease and agitate the gauzy material.

  There are three curtains between him and the girl and he experiences a flash of irritation that he is unable to see her face properly.

  Minus the shoes she is perhaps five feet five or six inches. She has the same body type as Lady Gaga, girlishly narrow with fine delicate limbs, and her skin is the color of thick cream. His eyes travel from the waist-length curtain of jet-black hair to the swelling curve of her breasts and hips, down her shapely legs to those awful, bright-orange platforms. Very nice, but…

  At twenty-nine, he is already jaded. Though he watches her with the same speculation of all the other men in the room she is a toy that no longer holds any real excitement for him. He does not need to meet her to know her. He has had hundreds like her—hot, greedy pussies and cold, cold hearts. It is always the same. Each one hiding talons of steely ambition that hook into his flesh minutes after they rise like resurrected phoenixes from a night in his bed.

  Safe to say he has realized the error of his ways.

  But….

  Something about her has aroused his attention.

  She comes further into the room and even the billowing layers of curtains cannot conceal her great beauty or youth.

  Certainly she is far too young for her dining companion who has just barged in with all the grace of a retired rugby player. Blake recognizes him instantly. Rupert Lothian.

  An over-privileged, nerve grating
ly colossal bore. He is one of the bank’s high profile private customers. The bank never does business with anyone they do not check out first and his report was sickening.

  Curious. What could someone so fresh-faced and beautiful be doing with one so noted for ugly games? And they are ugly games that Lothian plays.

  He watches three waiters head off towards the new arrivals and the fluid, elegantly choreographed dance they perform to seat and hand them their menus. Now he has her only in profile. She has put the menu on the table and is sitting ramrod-straight with her hands tightly clasped in her lap. She crosses and uncrosses her legs nervously.

  Unbidden, an image pops into his head. It is as alive and wicked as only an image can be. Those long, fine legs entangled in silky sheets. He stares helplessly as she pulls away the sheets, turns her mouth into a red O, and deliberately opens her legs to expose her sex to him. He sees it clearly. A juicy, swollen fruit that he wants. Blake sits forward abruptly.

  Fuck.

  He thought he had passed the season of fantasizing about having sex with strangers. He reaches for his whiskey and shoots it. From the corner of his eyes he sees a waiter discreetly whisper something to Lothian. The man rises with all the pomposity he can muster and leaves with the waiter.

  Blake transfers his attention to the girl again. She has collapsed backwards into the chair. Her shoulders sag and her relief is obvious. She stares moodily at the tablecloth and frowns. Then, she seems to visibly force herself away from whatever thoughts troubled her, and lets her glance wander idly around the room until her truly amazing eyes —he has never seen anything like them before—collide with his unwavering stare. And through the gently shifting black gauze his breath is punched out of his body, and he is seized by an unthinking, irresistible call to hunt.

  To possess.

  To own her.

  Two

  t can have been only seconds, but it seems like ages that ILana is held locked and hypnotized by the stranger’s insolent eyes. When she recalls it later she will remember how startlingly white his shirt had been against his tanned throat, and swear that even the air between them had shimmered. Strange too how all the background sounds of cutlery, voices and laughter had faded into nothing. It was as if she had wandered into a strange and compelling universe where there was no one else but her and that devilishly handsome man.

  But here she is prey.

  The powerful spell is broken when he raises his glass in an ironic salute. Hurriedly, she tears her gaze away, but her thin façade of poise is completely shattered. Hot blood is rushing up into her neck and cheeks; and her heart is racing like a mad thing.

  What the hell just happened?

  She feels his gaze like a burning tingle on her skin. To hide she bends her head and lets her hair fall forward. But the desire to dare another look is immense. She has never experienced such an instant and physical attraction before.

  With broad shoulders, a deep tan, smoldering eyes, a strong jaw, and straight-out-of-bed, vogue-cool, catwalk hair that flops onto his forehead, he looks like one of those totally hot and brooding Abercrombie and Fitch models, only more savage and fierce.

  Devastatingly more.

  But she is not here to flirt with drop dead gorgeous strangers, or to find a man for herself. She presses her fingers against her flaming cheeks, and forces herself to calm down. All her concentration must go into getting Rupert to agree to her proposal. He is her last hope. Her only hope.

  Nothing could ever be more important than her reason for being there with such a man as him. She looks miserably towards the tall doors where he has gone. This cold, pillared place of opulence is where rich people come to eat. A waiter wearing white gloves comes through the doors bearing a covered tray. She feels out of her depth.

  The orange dress is itchy and prickly and she longs to scratch several places on her body. Then there are the butterflies flapping dementedly inside her stomach.

  Don’t ruin this, she tells herself. You’ve come this far.

  Nervously, to regain her composure, she presses her lips together and firmly pushes the sarcastically curving mouth out of her mind. She must concentrate on the horrible task ahead. But those insolent eyes, they would not go.

  She brings to mind her mother’s thin, sad face, and suddenly the stranger’s eyes are magically gone. She straightens her back. Prepares herself.

  She will not fail.

  Rupert, having met whomever he had gone to meet, is weaving his way back to her and when their eyes touch she flashes him a brilliant smile. She will not fail. He smiles back triumphantly. He comes around to her side and drops her a quick kiss, before slumping heavily into his seat. She has to stop herself from reaching up to wipe her mouth.

  Rupert seems transformed. Expansive, almost jolly.

  ‘That’s one deal that came in the nick of time. It’s almost as if the heavens have decided that I deserve a piece of you.’

  The way he says it almost makes her flinch with horror.

  ‘Lucky me,’ she says softly, surprising herself. She tells herself she is playing a part. One that she can vanish into and emerge from unscathed, but she knows it is not true.

  There will be repercussions and consequences.

  He smiles nastily. He knows she does not fancy him, but that is part of the thrill. Taking what does not want to be taken. ‘Well then, don’t be coy, let’s hear it. How much are you going to cost me?’

  Lana takes a deep breath. A bull this large can only be taken by the horns. ‘Fifty thousand pounds.’

  His dirty blond eyebrows shoot upwards. ‘Not exactly cheap.’ There is something spiteful in his voice. ‘What do I get for my money?’

  They are both startled out of their conversation by a deep, curt voice.

  ‘Rupert.’

  ‘Mr. Barrington,’ Rupert gasps, and literally flies to his feet. ‘What an unexpected pleasure,’ he croons obsequiously. Lana drops her head with shame. It is the stranger. He has heard her sell herself.

  ‘I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure of your companion’s acquaintance.’

  ‘Blake Law Barrington, Lana Bloom, Lana Bloom, Blake Law Barrington.’

  She looks up then, a long way up—he is definitely over six feet, maybe six two—to meet his stormy-grey stare.

  They are the most mesmerizing eyes she has ever encountered. She searches them for disgust, but they are veiled, impenetrable pits of mystery. She begins to tremble. Her body knows something she does not. He is dangerous to her in a way she cannot yet conceive.

  ‘Hello, Lana.’

  ‘Hi,’ she says. Her voice sounds small. Like a child that has been told to greet an adult. Perhaps, he has not heard her sell herself, after all.

  He puts his hand out, and after a perceptible hesitation, she puts hers into it. His hands are large and warm, and his clasp firm and safe, but she snatches hers away as if burnt.

  He breaks his gaze briefly to glance at Rupert. ‘There is a party tonight at Lord Jakie’s.’ Then those darkly fringed eyes return to her. Inscrutable as ever. ‘Would you like to come as my guests?’ His voice is an intriguing combination of velvet and husk. It is as if he is addressing only her. It sends delicious shivers up and down her spine. Confused, by the unfamiliar sensations she tears her eyes away from him and looks at Rupert.

  Rupert’s eyebrows are almost in his hairline. ‘Lord Jakie?’ he repeats. There is unconcealed delight in his face.

  He seems a man who has found a bottle of rare wine in his own humble cellar. ‘That’s terribly kind of you, Mr.

  Barrington. Terribly kind. Of course, we’d love to,’ he accepts quickly for both of them.

  ‘Good. I’ll leave your names at the door. See you there.’ He nods at Lana and she registers the impression that he is obsessively clean and controlled. There is no mess in this man’s life. A place for everything and everything in its place. Then he is gone. Rupert and she watch him walk away. He has the walk of a supremely confident man.

  R
upert turns to face her again; his face is mean and at odds to his words. ‘Well, well,’ he drawls, ‘You must be my lucky charm.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘First, I get the deal I’ve been after for the last year and a half, then the great man not only deigns to speak to me, but invites me to a party thrown by the crème de la crème of high society.’

  ‘Who is he?’

  ‘He, my dear, is the next generation of arguably the richest family in the world.’

  ‘The Barringtons,’ Lana whispers, shocked.

  ‘He even smells of old money and establishment, doesn’t he?’ Rupert says, and neighs loudly at his own joke. Rupert himself smells like grated lemon peel. The citrusy scent reminds her of Fairy washing up liquid.

  A waiter appears to ask what they would like to drink.

  ‘We’ll have your finest house champagne,’ Rupert booms. He winks at Lana. ‘We’re celebrating.’

  A bottle and ice bucket arrive with flourish. The only time she has drunk champagne before is when Billie and she dressed up and presented themselves as bride and bridesmaid to be, at the Ritz, and pretended Lana was about to drop forty thousand pounds into their coffers by cutting her wedding cake there. They quaffed half a bottle of champagne and a whole tray of canapés while being shown around the different function rooms. Afterwards, Billie thanked them nicely and said they would be in touch. How they had laughed on the bus journey back.

  Lana watches as the waiter expertly extracts the cork. It leaves the bottle with a quiet hiss. Another waiter in a black jacket reels off the specials for the night and asks them if they are ready to order.

  Rupert looks at her. The beef on the bone here is very good.’

  ‘I guess I’ll just have whatever you’re having.’

  ‘I’m actually having steak tartare.’

  ‘Then I’ll have the same.’

  He looks at the waiter. ‘A dozen oysters to start then steak tartare and side orders of vegetables and mashed potatoes.’

  ‘I’m not really hungry. No starter for me,’ she says quickly.

  When the waiter is gone, he raises his glass. ‘To us.’