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PROLOGUE

THE setting was a grand , its soaringexclusive views across the Fontanka River The enormous room was packed in the afteruests had not even known the departed The lure that had brought the presence of Nikolai Danilovich Arlov, the oil end

Indifferent as always to being the centre of attention, Nikolai was heavily engaged in a business phone-call A tall, powerful figure, with cropped black hair and eyes as dark and hard as rain-washed stone, he was a breathtakingly handso sexual charisma that radiated er, while his minders and aides studiously screened him from every possible approach Few of those present received more than a distant nod from their host Butbeen a guest in his jaw-droppingly fantastic home

Nikolai ignored virtually everyone As tough as an Arctic winter and as relentless as a juggernaut, he was a maverick who played by his own rules He loathed time-wasters and tedious social events It was the pursuit of power and profit that energised and drove him He had attended his late father’s memorial service purely as a matter of form, for close connections of the family kind were utterly unknown to him He could not even recall when he had last spoken to the old man His father had hated and resented him almost from the day of his birth and his two older half-brothers feared and envied their fabulously successful sibling However, neither of those undisputed facts had prevented Nikolai’s relatives froled affairs and ensure that the estate was settled without cost or inconvenience to theht have ato carry out that thankless task

When a dazzling blond beauty in a power suit appeared in a doorway invisible tension surged through Nikolai’s lean, powerful frah, carved cheekbones lance at Sveta’s expression told hier of bad news and that the questions that had plagued him as a child were to remain unanswered: the search of his father’s personal effects had proved fruitless

‘Nothing’ Frustration and annoyance laced Sveta’s low-pitched voice when she drew level with hih achiever, never satisfied with anything less than positive results

‘Nichivo—no problem’ His tone was one of dismissal and as he spoke, so he believed He saw no reason why the ht All the documents his father had left behind had now been examined; safes had been opened, desks emptied, deposit boxes tracked down What had appeared to be a pro opportunity had failed to deliver even a jot of new information He didn’t know the name of his mother and he didn’t knohere or why he had been born And now he most probably never would

But so what? Nikolai asked hi Such paltry facts were irrelevant to aAt the age of thirty-three he had realised his every aise for and nobody to i his y

At the precise moment that Nikolai reached that conclusion a co out at the lower end of the roo to a buzz of excited co his brow even before he was inforitta Jansen, had just made her entrance She had flown in froripped hiatecrasher and an intrusion on his privacy A smile on her flawless face, the Dutchin the attention she was attracting

Fifteen minutes later, Nikolai was on his way to the airport alone He had left Brigitta in hysterics, surrounded by her sycophantic staff of hangers-on If her intent had been toher, she had failed abysmally Emotional blackgestion that he uy, free to sample other company and other beds as and when he liked

He wondered why he always landed bunny-boilers who started out cool and calm but speedily went into the pursuit mode of deadly missiles He told no lies; he was direct about what he wanted Sex was as necessary to his health and co to do with the e the ground rules Love wasn’t in his vocabulary Why was so as basic and simple as sex a continual flashpoint for trouble? Perturbed by that unprecedented train of philosophical thought and by the dark e, he took another business call with alacrity