Page 2 of Unwrapping the Billionaire

I know how much this company means to her. It’s the last surviving piece of her father, but it’s nothing but road kill in my headlights now. It’s about time I made her pay for what she did to me.

Will she beg for my leniency? Will she sink to her knees if I spare her the worst; if I back away nicely, and call off my scavengers?

My dick throbs just thinking about the power I could yield over her…

The buzz of my intercom interrupts me.

“There’s a Miss Parker on line one for you, Mr. Farley. She says it’s urgent.”

That was fast…A grim smile paints my lips. Maybe this trip to New York won’t be such an imposition, after all.

“Put her straight through,” I say smoothly.

I’m going to enjoy hearing that pretty mouth beg.

2

Grace

Present

My heel catches in the gap of the elevator carriage as I exit in a rush, forcing me to slam my hand against the door to save myself.

“Shit!”

If only I could blame Jonas Farley for my clumsy ass feet too, I reflect angrily. You know, as well as ruining everything else that’s good in my life.

My hate for him has been smoldering away inside of me for two years now.

Painful memories keep the embers stoked.

Fragile glimpses across crowded bars have turned my beating heart to ash.

After today, I want nothing more than to serve up my hatred with a side of cold-blooded murder.

Damn you, Nathan, for putting me in this position.

How could my brother have been so stupid?

For the last twelve months, I’ve watched on, helplessly, as he seduced the board with his empty charm, leading them into one bad decision after another, and exposing Parker & Fisk Publishing to Jonas Farley.

That man is the Count Dracula of mergers and acquisitions. He sinks his teeth into failing companies, and rips out their soul, before selling them off, piece by piece, while dining on their bloody trails of dollars.

But not this one… Not if I can help it.

There was a last minute deal on the table that could have stopped today’s sale. I’ve spent the last week working my ass off to make it happen—anything to stop this company from going under. But Nathan wouldn’t wait. He couldn’t see past his own damn agenda... Like most of the men in the Parker family, he refused to listen to me, believing I should stick to making lipstick choices, and not smart corporate decisions.

Never mind the Harvard business degree.

Never mind that it wasall my hard workthat turned our company around when dad passed away.

When every other small-time magazine publisher was going under, it wasmewho’d suggested diversifying our market online. Under my guidance, we’d launched a new fashion publication that appealed to recent graduates, as well as seasoned professionals. In the first three months, we’d outsold three of our five major rivals, but then strange stuff kept happening. The website went down on publication day, my top editor left to work for a competitor, and we lost two major fashion scoops in a row… That, along with my brother’s stupidity, hammered the final nail in the coffin for Parker & Fisk.

Dad was the only one who believed in me, and my sense of shame over what’s happened today has turned a white Christmas into something bleak and unthinkable.

My only hope is to beg for a stay of execution from the one man who hates my guts. The same man who turned my whole world a shade of blue.

I hate myself for what I’m about to do, but what choice do I have? Jonas can hang my pride in a fancy frame on his office wall, next to a glass jar of my total and utter humiliation—just so long as I get my father’s company back.

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