Page 121 of Modern Romance December 2025 1-4

His Heir Of Revenge

Jackie Ashenden

CHAPTER ONE

Rafael

I see herleaning against the rail that bounds the SkyPark Observation deck, one of the most unique buildings in Singapore. Her black hair is twisted up into an elegant knot at the back of her head and adorned with jewelled hair clips in the shape of dragonflies. Her gown is scarlet silk, wrapped around her slender figure in a complicated series of twists that highlight the luscious curves of breasts, hips and thighs.

The humid, scented air toys with the split in her dress, revealing one rounded thigh and making the silk billow around her legs. She wears matching high-heeled sandals of scarlet silk with straps that criss-cross up her calves, making her legs look long and elegant.

This building is an architectural marvel, but she…is a masterpiece. Clean and precise in her nose, cheekbones, jaw. Yet also sensual with that sulky, delicious mouth and delicately arched, dark brows.

She’s looking at the view, her eyes wide, a rapt expression on her lovely face. It’s true, the view is spectacular, but I don’t care about the view. At least not of the city or the harbour. The view I’m particularly concerned about tonight is the woman leaning up against the rail.

She’s why I’m here, but she’s not what I expected, not in any way.

She’s Olympia Zakynthos, the younger sister of the one man I hate above all others—Ulysses Zakynthos, owner of the huge energy conglomerate Vulcan Energy. A powerful man. Also, the man directly responsible for the ruination of my family’s company and my family along with it.

It’s been years since that happened, and in that time I’ve slowly but surely made a name for myself and Atlas Construction, the construction company that I started as a labourer in and now am the CEO of. I’ve also made many plans for how to best get my revenge on the man who caused my father’s death and my mother to sell herself to pay his debts. Yet the time and circumstances have never been right.

However, Sicilians like their revenge served cold, and I am Sicilian through and through, and now, finally, it’s the right time and the path to my revenge is standing in front of me, leaning against the rail and admiring the view.

Ulysses Zakynthos’s Achilles heel. His only weakness.

The occasion is a charitable gala for the very rich and powerful, so, after my sources informed me that Vulcan Energy would be represented, not by Ulysses, but by his younger sister, I made sure to secure an invite.

I’m not well liked by high society—I’m too raw, too rough, too unrefined and unsophisticated for their tastes—but that doesn’t bother me. Nothing bothers me, nothing except the loathing in my heart for the man who ruined me.

The dragonflies in Olympia Zakynthos’s black hair glitter in the light, drawing my attention back to her, reminding me of my plan, which is, in essence, very simple. Her brother took my family from me and so I will take his family from him. I will take her, turn her against him, make her mine and then, once she is, I will take his company too.

It won’t be difficult to get close to her. The information I’ve gathered so far indicates she’s been sheltered all her life so she’ll have no protections from a man like me. And I know women. I know what they like and I know what gets them off. To say my experience is wide and free-ranging would be to understate the case, so I’m sure I won’t have any problems seducing Miss Olympia Zakynthos. She’ll fall to me as all the rest have fallen, willingly and happily, but…

I have to admit, I didn’t expect her to be so lovely or for my body to instinctively tighten at the sight of her. Beautiful women I can get with a snap of my fingers, yet there’s something about this one, something I can’t name, that digs deep inside me and pulls. The way she’s standing with her elbows on the rail, staring at the view. The way her eyes are wide and her lovely mouth curves, as if she’s never seen a view like this one before. It speaks of…innocence almost.

I can work with that.

The other guests swirl around me as I grab two glasses of excellent champagne from a passing waiter. Then I move over to where my quarry is standing.

She doesn’t notice me, a wolf moving amongst the sheep and approaching the smallest of lambs, ready to devour. She has no idea that tonight she will cause her brother’s ruin. However, just before I arrive at her side some sort of sixth sense alerts her, a latent survival instinct detecting the approach of a predator, and she turns her head suddenly, her gaze meeting mine.

The impact of those amber eyes is almost physical and I stop dead in my tracks, the champagne in my glass sloshing against the rim as I nearly spill it.

Dio.I have never seen eyes that colour, a delicate, smoky gold, but something in them pierces me like a crossbow bolt. I’m caught, held there, staring at her like a teenage boy poleaxed by his first sight of a girl in a bikini.

The air between us seethes with electricity. It almost suffocates me. Then her thick, black silky lashes fall, veiling her gaze as colour washes through her cheeks, and a powerful satisfaction seizes me.

I was never in doubt that she’d find me attractive—most women do, after all—yet seeing the confirmation on her face is a drug I can’t resist.

Like a magnet I’m drawn to her, so I continue on, coming up to the rail beside her and holding out the glass of champagne. ‘Such a beautiful view deserves the best champagne, don’t you think?’ I say in Greek, her mother tongue. I make sure she knows which particular view I’m talking about.

Those silky lashes lift and, again, her incredible eyes meet mine.

Dio, she’s luminous.

A hesitant smile curves her mouth and it’s so unbelievably sweet my cold, dead heart catches in my chest.

‘Oh,’ she says, the most delicious husk in her clear voice. ‘You speak Greek? Thank God. My English isn’t bad, but I keep making such an idiot of myself. Wait…’ Her eyes widen. ‘How do you know I’m Greek?’