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PROLOGUE

Seven years ago...

THEDOORCLOSEDbehind her brother and Eloise Martin was left alone with the enigmatic Konstantin Galanis.

Her seventeen-year-old heart began to pound. Not with fear. Not exactly. Ilias was only running to the corner for eggnog and would be back in five minutes, but she was still overcome by something between awe and dread, as though she’d been left alone with a tiger and the promise thathe doesn’t bite.

Like heck. From what she’d read of his business acumen, Konstantin picked his teeth with the bones of his enemies every morning.

He was king of the jungle magnificent, too. He wore a stylish knitted pullover in ivory with brown suede patches on the elbows and the tops of his shoulders. His jeans were black, matching his short boots. His hair was cut short around his ears and was rakishly windswept on top. Given it was late afternoon, a hint of shadow was coming in on his jaw, framing his somber mouth and accentuating the hollows in his cheeks. His brows were strong thick lines over eyes that were cast down to ignore her in favor of his phone.

This crush of hers was silly. Childish. She knew it was, but she’d never been able to shake it. While her friends swooned over a cute actor or a boy band star, she secretly took screenshots of Konstantin from news releases and imagined a world where she was part of his life.

It was so immature! Especially when she was looking at him now and all she felt was intimidated and mesmerized.

He must have sensed her staring. His spiky lashes lifted and his dark brown gaze snared hers. Her pupils dilated in reaction. The lights on the tree suddenly seemed to paint the whole room in psychedelic reds and blues and golds and greens.

Quit gawking, she ordered herself and shakily turned back to the tree she was supposed to be decorating.

She didn’t allow herself to look over her shoulder. He’d probably gone back to reading his phone, but her acute awareness of him had her imagining she felt his gaze traveling down her back and bottom and legs. She grew clumsy as she took each ornament from its case and looped it onto a branch.

“Ilias said you came to New York to settle some business with him.” Nerves made her voice off-key and sharp.

Silence, except for the music switching to “Santa Baby.”

She looked over at him.

Hewaslooking at her, which made her pulse hitch.

“Yes,” he replied.

“I don’t...” She cleared her throat, feeling extra awkward. “I know that Galanis is a freight and shipping enterprise, but I don’t know what you do there.” She had the impression it was more involved than managing an inherited fortune the way her brother did.

“I oversee it. We’re expanding into media and tech so it’s being rebranded as KGE.”

“You run it by yourself?” She hung the next ornament and glanced over.

“I have employees.”

He made her feel gauche, quirking his mouth in that ironic way.

“I meant that it sounds like a lot to shoulder for one person.” He was twenty-five, same as Ilias, even though he projected an air that was light-years ahead of everyone on the planet in maturity and life experience. “I only wondered if you have brothers or sisters who help?” Ilias had never mentioned any siblings and gossip sites were distressingly vague when it came to Konstantin’s personal life.

“No,” Konstantin replied.

“Other family?” His grandfather had died a few years ago.

“No.”

This was going well. “Pets?” she asked facetiously.

“No,” he pronounced dryly. “What do you really want to know? How I came to live with my grandfather? I don’t talk about it.”

Well, that was clear enough, wasn’t it?

“I wasn’t trying to be nosy.” She ignored the sting of his less than subtle rebuff and hung another ornament, this one shaped like an icicle. The heat in her cheeks should have caused it to melt into a puddle on the floor. “You and Ilias have been friends forever.” Since their boarding school days in England. “But he’s never told me much about you.”

Ilias had rarely brought his friend around. Aside from early glimpses over the tablet, Eloise had only seen Konstantin in person a handful of times. This was the first time in well over five years that she’d spoken to him in person, but she’d been idolizing him from the first time she heard his voice.