winning her back (Sample)

1

Markellos

His fist clenched hard against the desk, his jaw hardening as his teeth ground against each other. This was the last thing he had expected. Even after all these years, he'd still had hope. Now looking at her smiling, radiant face his heart felt like it'd just been pulverized.

How could she be happy? After what they'd had she shouldn't be happy with anyone else. Shouldn't be engaged to another man. Had he made love to her? Touched her as only Mark ever should have?

Mark wanted to scream, to throw something at the glass walls that surrounded him. Only the hard won control he'd cultivated over the years stopped him. He wouldn't have their employees see him break down.

His eyes once again skimmed over the article headlining the society pages. Some sadistic part of him couldn't help torturing himself. The wedding date had been set for a month from now. A coming together of two great houses, the article said.

And their engagement picture.

He held her with a proprietary arm, she leaning into him as if seeking shelter in him. Her smile was radiant in that serene composed way they'd been taught from childhood. Her eyes were looking up into his adoring gaze.

Closing his eyes, Mark swallowed hard as his mind took him back to a similar photo and headline. Did the newspapers recycle their materials? He could swear the words in the articles were the same they'd marveled over before.

Before...

A time when he hadn't royally screwed himself. When he'd been the happiest he'd ever been. A time when he'd held her in his arms and she looked at him with untainted love. Her beautiful brown eyes full of trust and an innocence he'd shattered irreparably.

She'd looked at him with secure eyes, confident he'd never hurt her. He had. Not intentionally, but what did it matter when the end result was the same?

He couldn't let her go, he decided. Not without a fight. It'd been years since he'd fought for her, for their love. Back then he'd been too young and naïve to know how to fight. Now he was a man capable of more than his twenty-three year old self had ever imagined.

He knew she still had feelings for him. Why else would she still avoid him after all these years? If she was over them, over him, she wouldn't go out of her way to avoid even being in the same room with him. At least that's what he reasoned. It was time to know for a fact.

Taking up his phone, he pressed the button to connect him to his secretary. The man picked up immediately. "Yes sir?"

"Can you check if my grandfather is available for a meeting?"

"Of course sir." His efficient secretary agreed and Mark dropped the phone.

Leaning back against his chair he took a deep breath to calm himself, to solidify his resolve. There'd be a scandal if he succeeded. If not, his heart would once again be shattered.

He had to be ruthless, to forget that this was the woman he loved. The only woman he'd ever loved. Otherwise she'd once again slip out of his arms and he'd be left off worse than before. Mark had to have her, he couldn't imagine surviving in a world he knew she irrevocably belonged to another man. Where he had no chance to ever hold her again.

The line between him and his secretary rang and he took up the receiver. "Your grandfather said he can see you now but has a meeting in fifteen minutes." The man reported.

"Good." He stated before putting the phone back down.

He knew he was being too curt, not his way, but he was too strung out to be polite. Until he had her in his arms Mark knew he'd be this tense. He also knew it'd help him, give him the edge he was going to need.

As he passed his secretary's desk, he barely acknowledged the man, his mind centered on reaching his grandfather's office. He would've bypassed his grandfather's secretary but the woman had been here long before Mark was born. She was in a sense his surrogate mother and would never have allowed him that disrespect.

"Lillie." He greeted her, a smile trying and failing to grace his face.

"Go on in." She said with a somber face.

She'd probably seen the article and would know what it meant for him. Lillie had always known how he felt, as had his grandfather. Where the latter had encouraged him to move on, she'd long believed their love was worth fighting for. She wouldn't approve of his plan though.

With a nod, Mark walked into the CEO's office. Unlike his glass office, his grandfather's was enclosed with the bank of windows looking over the city the only glass there. Since it was a corner office two of the walls were glass but his grandfather had privacy from the rest of the company.

The old man sat behind his desk as Mark would always remember him even after he was gone. His back was as straight as ever, his full head of hair now snow white. Wrinkles lined his face but seemed to add to his infallible strength instead of making him feeble.

Tore Trevisio didn't show his age despite being in his late seventies. The old suits he wore suited him even with so many males his age abandoning them. They gave him a sense of gravitas that few could pull off.

Mark smiled as he remembered the days he too had worn the same style of suits and how they hadn't suited him. Then he remembered how he'd come to realize that and his smile left his face.

"What is it my boy?" His grandfather asked with a welcoming smile.

There was no mistaking the pride that laced his voice and Mark felt humbled that such a man could be proud of him. Tore Trevisio had come from Greece with his diminished inheritance when his family had lost most of their wealth.

Through hard work the man had built an empire that, even if Mark never worked a day in his life, he could never diminish. As far as Mark was concerned, no man could measure up to his grandfather.

Even at 78 years of age, Tore was still a force, his back unbent and his intelligence clear in his eyes. He still ran the Giovanni-Trevisio conglomerate with an iron fist.

"She's engaged." He stated as he took a seat across from his grandfather

His grandfather's face lost some of its pleasure. "Yes I saw." He agreed. "I'm sorry my boy."

"I'm not going to let it happen." He stated, looking the older man in the eye.

"Son," his grandfather leaned in and gave him the serious look he reserved for hard lessons. "She's moved on, you have to let her go."

"I still love her grandfather, and I know she still loves me."

"It's easy to see what we want in these situations." Tore countered. "She ran all the way to Greece to avoid you."

Mark shook his head. "I know I hurt her. I also know her enough to see it still hurts even after five years. If she didn't still have feelings for me, she'd be over it."

"Are you sure you're not seeing what you want?" His grandfather reiterated.

Mark thought that over. He didn't want to even consider that her feelings were no longer the same, that she truly had moved on. It was a possibility, he conceded, but he couldn't believe it likely. "Maybe." He allowed. "But I have to know one way or another."

"So what do you intend to do?"

"I'm going to kidnap her." He stated, his eyes glued his grandfather's.

The old man's face paled as those aquamarine eyes so like his own doubled. "Are you insane?" He blew out.