Page 5 of The Tycoon's Diamond Demand

After she’d left, he’d used every bit of self-control he could muster, and gathered every last drop of his anger and fear, vowing to use them to fuel his ambition. He’d stopped believing in relationships and emotional connections and decided he didn’t need anyone’s approval but his own. He’d never again allow himself to feel rejected and abandoned. He’d left his childish need to be loved and validated behind.

He preferred action to wallowing in unproductive sentiment. Revenge to reconciliation.

It was simple... He couldn’t make Flora acknowledge him, Håkon was dead but Maja would regret messing with him. And if she had to pay for her father’s decisions, then so be it.

Sins of the fathers and all that.

Jens pushed his shoulders back, picking up and discarding possibilities on how to use Maja’s secret identity to extract retribution. He knew something no one else did, that M J Slater was Maja Hagen, the daughter of Norway’s most famous, now dead billionaire and that she desperately wanted to retain her anonymity. How could he use that information?

‘Why haven’t you been recognised?’

She lifted one slim shoulder and let it drop. ‘Nobody expects a server to be Håkon’s daughter or the artist. And Håkon rarely released photographs of me to the media, so I was never a household face or easily recognisable.’

She’d told him she and Håkon had a strained relationship but, judging by the bitterness in her voice, it had been a lot more troubled than he realised. Interesting.

‘Why are you keeping your identity a secret?’

‘Why do you think you have the right to ask me that?’ she swiftly retorted. ‘What I do, and how I live my life, has nothing to do with you!’

‘So if I went out there and announced to the world that you are Håkon’s daughter, you’d be fine with it?’

Panic, then fear, flashed in her expressive eyes, and he noticed her full body tremble. ‘Don’t you dare!’ she whisper-shouted. ‘I swear... Jens...’ The little colour in her face leeched away. ‘Youcan’tdo that.’

‘Oh, you have no idea what I can and can’t do, Maja,’ he assured her. Because he preferred to keep his adversaries off balance, he switched subjects.

‘I’m sorry about your father,’ Jens stated.

Maja released a disbelieving snort. ‘No, you arenot. I’ve read about your feud with my father, Jensen. You probably raised a glass when you heard about his death.’

‘Okay, I’m not,’ he admitted.

What he did feel was cheated. By dying before Jens had time to inform him the hostile takeover of Hagen International was successful, Håkon had robbed him of his revenge. Håkon’s dying had ended their feud before he knew Jens was the winner. Jens might’ve been ahead of the game, and might’ve had Håkon on the back foot, but it meant little since Håkon had left the world thinking he still retained control of his company.

And the world assumed they were still equals. He needed everyone to know he’d bested Håkon, that the promises he’d made to himself as a scared, hurt twenty-four-year-old were fulfilled.

‘So, is stating inane trivialities something you do now?’ Maja asked, her voice dripping with disdain.

‘If I have to.’

If it served his purpose. He’d do whatever he could, short of crossing the line into doing something that could land him in jail, to obtain the revenge he needed, the payback his pride demanded.

Maja made a show of looking at her watch. God, she was beautiful. Lovely and sexy, she sent blood coursing south and stopped the airflow to his lungs. He cocked his head, surprised at how much he desired her.

It was such a pity he was going to have to destroy her. But he’d made a vow, to himself and to his aunt, the woman who took him in because his mum couldn’t be bothered to take him with her to Broadway, or anywhere, that he’d take Hagen down. Any way he could. Håkon was now beyond his reach, but Maja wasn’t.

And, by God, he was going to make her pay.Someonehad to.

He leaned his shoulder into the wall and wished he felt as relaxed as he looked. Memories of them rolling around in bed bombarded him—tangled limbs, streaking hands, gasps and groans—and he needed to banish them. Immediately. He could not afford to be distracted by the memory of great sex.

‘So how was the funeral? Did you cry? How are you going to spend the many billions he left you?’

Her eyes turned a deeper gold, and Jens knew he was wading into dangerous waters. She made him feel raw and off balance, tumultuous and out of control. Like that stupid, in love, trusting kid he’d been, the one with dreams and hope. He’d been hot-headed and temperamental, but he wasn’t like that any more. He sucked in a deep breath. Then another, relieved when his heart rate slowed down. He needed to be cool and collected. Precise and deliberate.Focused.

‘I won’t discuss my father with a man I haven’t seen in twelve years,’ Maja quietly stated.

She’d acquired polish in the intervening years. Strength and dignity.

‘I won’t say it was nice seeing you again, Jensen. A complete surprise, yes,’ Maja said, her voice as cool as the wind that blew off the Svartisen glaciers. ‘I’d appreciate it if you kept my identity as M J Slater a secret.’

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