Not His Widow
His jaw was shadowed, not with sculpted designer stubble, but with several days’ growth that made him look more like a lumberjack or pirate than a corporate tycoon. His forehead pleated in a frown and his dark eyebrows came together as if in displeasure.
“You're not going to say hello, mi amor?” his lips peeled back in a fox-like grin, attitude mocking and condescending. “Huh? Nothing from you, Aurora?”
“Hurley must have broken my news to you.” He continued. “I would've preferred to do it myself, but we all know how nosy everyone is around here.”
Anger warred with pain. She stared at him with wide, murderous eyes.
His dark eyes narrowed. “Knowing your preference for older men, is it wrong to assume that you are fucking the butler too?”
Her legs moved quickly, heart racing, cheeks flaming hot with anger, she stormed towards him. He dropped his drink and covered the remaining distance between them easily. Her fist came up and flew towards his face. She didn't get that satisfaction though. Her hand was seized in his iron grip.
“Don't.” he slipped a hand around her waist and pulled her to him instantly. “You'll hurt your hand.”
She struggled in his embrace. “Let go! I won't be bothered with my hand when I slap off your face!”
#
He lifted his knuckles, running them back and forth, over the smooth soft line of her cheek. The familiar sandalwood and jasmine scent of his expensive aftershave lotion made her nostrils flare, while the faint rasp of his rougher skin scored her nerve endings into life.
Heart beating so fast with tension that she could hardly breathe, she pushed him back and yelled, “Get out of my house!”
He snorted, stepping away from her. “Your late husband had no legal right to gift you this property. He's a thief. Just like you.”
“I don't care if this house had been in your mother's lineage for years, Mr. Khomeini!” she fired back. “Seeing as you are not much of a saint yourself, I certainly don't care what you think of me. You'll have to drag me to court if you must get it back. But you can rest assured that I will never make this easy for you.”
He released a husky laugh that purred down her backbone like a taunting scratch. “As you wish, Mon Cherie.”
##
Aurora Khomeini is widowed at 25. Her husband, Maximo Khomeini, suffered a cardiac arrest after an infected bullet wound he received in a gunfight worsened. She's left utterly devastated by the loss but is not left to mourn her husband in peace.
Mariano Khomeini, alias Mariano Barrera, is the first son of the late Maximo. He's an angry and very vindictive man, who's on a mission to destroy everything his father touched. The newly widowed Aurora, would not be an exception.
