Resisting The Tycoon's Seduction (The Berutelli Escape)

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Epilogue

Excerpt from “The Billionaire’s Secretive Enchantress”

“Not that one,” the deep voice said firmly.  “The black one.” 

Marissa’s hand quickly pulled away from the beautiful, pink lace
lingerie set she was considering while she spun around at the same time to find the voice that had intruded on her favorite pastime.  “Excuse me?” she said, moments before her eyes focused on the tall, ruggedly dangerous looking man behind her.  When she caught sight of him, she couldn’t believe her eyes.  He was at least six feet, four inches tall with shoulders a linebacker would envy.  And he had dark, amused eyes that were laughing down at her for some reason. 

Immediately
she swung her arms behind her back, trying desperately to hide the other lacy or satin lingerie she’d been about to try on.  She couldn’t believe she’d been caught in here!  Of all the places for someone to approach her, a lingerie shop should definitely not one of them!  “Who are you and why in the world would you think I might be even remotely interested in your opinion?” she strangled out, horrified that this man, or any man for that matter, might see the items she might want to purchase.

Zeke Vaughn considered the lovely woman with lush, black hair that curled sof
tly down her back and the furious, soft chocolate eyes.  She was trying to appear confident, but he saw the underlying vulnerability.  He smiled slightly, noting the blush that stole into her velvety, pale cheeks. 

He moved fractionally closer. 
“I’m going to be your next lover,” he replied, and watched in fascination as her eyes widened, her pulse sped up and her breathing increased.  Her full, pink lips opened, then closed while she tried to absorb his comment and her reaction turned him on even more than her sexy, slender body. 

Had he really said that? 
“Excuse me?” she huffed, pulling herself up to her full height which still brought her head only up to the top of his shoulder.  Marissa was shocked that any man would dare to be so forward.  Men simply didn’t approach her in general and when they did, it certainly wasn’t with a salacious glint to his dark, audacious eyes. 

Zeke moved closer, touching her cheek briefly and realizing that the texture was even softer than it appeared.  “You heard me, little one.  I don’t mean to scare you. 
I was actually going for a completely different effect.”

She sputtered, trying to hide her terror of this man and the shivers his nearness was causing inside of her stomach.  “I’m not scared!  I’m insulted.”

Zeke noticed that her breasts were peaked underneath her silk shirt and he couldn’t stop his chuckle.  “I didn’t mean to offend.  Just stating the truth,” he said and moved even closer, smelling her soft, subtle perfume.  It was light and flowery, just like she was.  He liked it, he realized.  The women he normally dated preferred the heavier, more cloying scents and he never realized how much he disliked them until he had an alternative.  “You’re very beautiful.  And I think I have to change my mind.  The pink probably suits you much more than the black lace would.”  His fingers ran tenderly down her arm, leaving a trail of fire in its wake. 

For some reason, the man’s attempt to be reassuring only struck her as a challenge. 
A part of her knew her reaction was a bit irrational but she couldn’t stop the words.  She squared her shoulders and faced him, pretending that his touch wasn’t causing her knees to tremble.  “I could pull off the black!” she asserted firmly, her eyes glaring back up at him.  She tried to step back, but the table filled with lacy thong underwear stopped her momentum.  “And please stop crowding me.”

He took the black lace bra off of the stand and handed it to her.  “Prove it,” he challenged. 

Marissa actually took the bra and was about to step towards the dressing rooms when she realized what she was doing.  Turning back to him, she shoved the black lace back at him.  “No way!”

His arrogant smile cranked up her anger a notch. 
“See?  The pink would be better.”  And he actually dared to pick that one up and hold it in front of her, his dark eyes looking at the lace as if he were trying to picture her in it.  “Definitely the pink,” he confirmed.  “I can’t wait to see the crystal.”

Marissa grabbed the pink lace, just trying to get it away from her chest area.  Unfortunately, she couldn’t hide her curiosity and held the pink lace up so she could understand his last statement.  When she realized that there was a dangly crystal that would sparkle right between her breasts, she couldn’t help the pink that suffused her cheeks and neck once again.  “Leave me alone!” she growled. 

With an urgency she hadn’t ever felt before, she stepped around the man.  Stomping up to the cashier, she dumped all of her items onto the counter, surprising the sophisticated cashier. 

Marissa wanted to turn around and glare at the man, but she didn’t want him to see her flushed face or the way her body seemed to be tingling because she knew with absolute certainty that he was still watching her.  Was he laughing at her? 

She almost jumped a foot in the air when a strong, dark hand dropped a pink, lace thong onto the pile.  “She’ll need that as well,” his deep voice said.  “Put it all on my account.”

Marissa stared at the lace, horrified that she’d kept the pink bra he’d been examining her in.  With her mouth hanging open in horror, she tried very hard to come up with a scathing retort, something to bring the man down a peg.  Or ten! 

Unfortunately, by the time she’d turned around, he wasn’t anywhere in the store.  She walked to the front, determined to tell him off, but he wasn’t even in the hallway.  Where had a man of his size disappeared to so quickly? 

“Here you go, Ms. Berutelli,” the cashier stated softly.

Marissa’s head snapped around and saw the huge bag, the top covered in silver tissue paper.  With a groan, she stepped back.  “I can’t take that,” she declared emphatically. 

The cashier smiled with a twinkle in her eye.  “Mr. Vaughn just called a moment ago and told me you’d say that.  He instructed me to tell you that if you didn’t take the items today, I was to
ship them to your house.”

Once again, Marissa couldn’t help it when her mouth fell open in surprise.  And that annoying tingling started up once again, irritating her beyond anything she’d ever experienced.  “He actually said that?” she
snarled. 

The cashier smiled and nodded her head, still holding the large bag. 

“What arrogance!” she snapped, but she took the bag and stormed out of the shop.  She had planned on spending the whole day here at the stores, spending her father’s money on things she didn’t need.  But the possibility of running into that man again was too appalling so she quickly walked to the exit, tossing the bag onto the passenger seat of her little, black roadster. 

Zooming out of the parking lot, she spent the rest of the drive home coming up with several different ways to embarrass that man just like he’d done to her.  Unfortunately, she had no idea how to accomplish most of those ideas
because she didn’t know who the man was, where he lived or what he did for a living. 

With a maliciousness she hadn’t known she was capable of, Marissa briefly considered telling her father what the man had done.  He wouldn’t ever allow any man to disrespect her in that manner.  But as soon as she thought of the idea, she immediately dismissed it.  She would never tell her father about that kind of incident.  Mr. Vaughn, or whoever he was, would be dead.  Literally.  Joe Beru
telli wasn’t a man to mess with she’d learned over the years. 

“What’s wrong?” her sister, Sierra, asked as soon as Marissa had dumped her bag in the closet where her father wouldn’t be able to see what she’d purchased. 

Marissa flung herself on the bed, staring up at the ceiling in exasperation.  “I just had an encounter with a man who really….” She wanted to say something horrible, but her sister was only eighteen years old.  “He was just a jerk,” she finished.

Sierra tossed her book off to the side, moving so her own face blocked her sister’s view of the ceiling.  “Tell me what happened,” she said with mock earnestness.

Marissa wasn’t in the mood to play.  She was in the mood to hurt someone.  Namely, a big, huge brute of a man who had no sense of how to treat a lady.  “I just hate men sometimes.”

Sierra pulled back and pushed the pillows into a more comfortable position behind her back.  “I can’t imagine that.  Men usually grovel at your feet,” she teased, looking at her older sister’s beautiful, expressive eyes and her slender figure draped
in a white silk shirt and blue wool slacks.  She even had a simple pearl necklace around her neck and pearl stud earrings.  Marissa was the epitome of class and sophistication which generally intimidated most of the men they encountered. 

Of course, most of the men who socialized with her father thought that the thickest gold chain was the gateway to a promotion.  That, or whoever came up with the most creative criminal enterprise.  Her father seemed to respect both aspects
of their culture, an issue which continued to confound both sisters. 

Marissa punched the pillow
into a more comfortable shape before pushing it behind her back.  “This man was simply horrible!  I was just shopping by myself and he came right up to me, talking to me as if he…” she wasn’t sure how to describe what the man had done.  Especially since she didn’t really understand it herself.  Sierra didn’t have any experience with men and Marissa wanted to help keep her innocent for as long as possible.  Marissa was almost twenty-five and she didn’t want to expose Sierra’s sweetness to something so vile as what that man had said to her.  “He just said some inappropriate things.” 

At Sierra’s widened eyes, Marissa knew she’d said
something her sister could pounce on with relish.  Sierra loved romantic novels, was excited about the idea of being swept away by some magnificent, heroic male who would carry her off to an exotic destination where they would love each other continuously and make babies together.  That wasn’t the real world and, at some point, Sierra was going to have to face reality.  But Marissa didn’t want that to happen today.  Not for a long time, if possible. 

Unfortunately, her little sister understood enough to know that her older sister’s experience was more exciting than she was letting on. 
“Oh, please tell me what happened?  Was he handsome?  Did he have soft, curling hair?  Did he touch you and both of you fell instantly in love?” Sierra fell onto the bed, her head next to Marissa’s as she sighed with the fantasy she was whirling around in her mind. 

Marissa made an inelegant sound and Sierra giggled.  “Not even close.”  She thought back to the man’s rugged, dangerous looking face, thinking that he’d probably broken that nose several times over the years.  And his cheekbones were high, but they
didn’t come across as a pretty boy.  They were just….tough.  Everything about that man told her that he was strong and…wicked.  She shivered at the memory of his callused fingers against her cheek.  She wasn’t feeling excitement, she told herself.  It was simply fear.  Fear of what the man might do to her if he ever caught her alone.  She didn’t want that to happen.  She’d lived in fear of her father’s violence all her life and she was thoroughly sick of it.  She wanted a kind man in her life.  One who didn’t try and intimidate her for no reason! 

Thinking about the man certainly wasn’t going to push
his memory out of her mind.  “What did you do today?” she asked her sister, changing the subject and sitting up against one of the posts on her canopy bed.