Page 5 of How To Tempt The Off-Limits Billionaire

Muzi sighed, thinking that the past three years as Clos du Cadieux’s CEO had been incredibly hard. Mimi’s unexpected announcement of her retirement rattled the industry—she was the wine-making world’s doyenne—and his appointment as CEO had made waves, people saying he was too young and inexperienced.

After much discussion, the Clos du Cadieux board approved his appointment, but they also elected Susan as the new chairman and her son Keane as a new board member. Susan immediately began making his life hell: openly questioning his decisions, undermining him to senior management and other board members and generally being a complete pain in the ass.

Her goal was to have complete control of her family’s—Mimi’s—assets, interests and influence, and he, “the grandson of Mimi’s housekeeper, a nobody, for God’s sake,” stood in her way.

She was smart, ruthless and convincing. And persistent. Worst of all, she’d managed to turn Keane, technically his nephew but emotionally his brother, against him.

As the Tempest-Vane siblings talked, Muzi rubbed his chest, feeling like there was a knife lodged in his heart, reminding him that if you didn’t let people in, they couldn’t hurt you. And after putting up with Susan’s mind games for thirty years, could he be blamed for thinking that being alone was safer? He’d earned the right to fear rejection and never again wanted to experience being emotionally abandoned. Muzi tightened his grip on his beer glass.

He couldn’t go there, didn’t want to wander down that mental vortex, so he returned his thoughts to business, to what he could control.

Last year the COVID crisis had hit their industry hard, and Susan was using the dip in company profits and turnover as a sword, telling the board that an older and more experienced CEO would’ve steered the company better through the crisis. Unfortunately, many of the board members were listening.

Muzi knew his ass was on the line.

But he had an idea of how to save it...

Muzi rolled his beer glass between his big hands, acknowledging that, if he wanted to, he could step down from Clos du Cadieux tomorrow and not look back. He had various business interests to keep him occupied and he wasn’t short of cash. Actually, that was a huge understatement. When Radd and Digby had sold the innovative internet payment system they developed, and which he’d invested in, he’d become an instant billionaire, so he had enough money to last him several lifetimes.

But Clos du Cadieux was his passion—vineyards and wine the loves of his life. He adored Mimi and knew she was counting on him to continue her legacy of bringing fine wine to the marketplace. He loved the industry, loved his job, enjoyed the combination of science and art, agriculture and sophistication. Clos du Cadieux, the brands and the vineyards it owned, was his life and he refused to be ousted by a petty, insecure, spoiled snob with delusions of grandeur.

If he could add the old St. Urban winery—and assuming he found acres of C’Artegan, a rare, old-world vine on the property—to Clos du Cadieux’s portfolio, and develop an exciting, new and stunning wine from those long-forgotten vines, his position within the company would be cemented. He’d be all but untouchable. He’d had his eye on the vineyard for years but Zia Tempest-Vane, who had inherited the vineyard from her mother, refused to sell the property. When she died it became part of the trust she and Gil left behind. With Ro inheriting their assets, he could finally reopen negotiations.

What should be a simple transaction—he was prepared to pay whatever he had to in order to acquire the two-hundred-year-old vineyard, its antiquated cellars and Dutch gable house—could become tricky. Because Ro was extraordinarily beautiful, and he was insanely attracted to her.

She was also his best friend’s sister and not even Digby knew he needed her vineyard to cement his position at Clos du Cadieux...

It was all so damn complicated. He’d only ever admit this to himself, but he was terrified of anything that made him feel too much. Emotion and connection, and the losing thereof, led to heartache.

He’d had enough of that in his life, thank you very much.

“How did your meeting with the lawyers go today, Ro?” Radd asked his sister as Muzi pulled his attention back to their conversation.

Ro bit the inside of her lip, looking unsure. Muzi placed his hands on the arms of his chair and started to rise. “I can go if you guys want to have a private conversation.”

Ro shook her head. “Since you already know my biggest secret, I don’t have a problem with you hearing the details.”

Muzi sat back down and Ro looked at Radd, then Digby, and wrinkled her very pretty nose.

“Siya Mabaso, my lawyer, arranged to have Gil and Zia’s possessions moved to a warehouse in LA in preparation for the auction. Their house in Carmel has been sold. I’ve accepted offers for the apartment in New York, the house in the South of France, and the villa on St. Bart’s.”

Gil and Zia had shown the world how much wealth a couple could acquire when one drained a hundred-plus-year-old company of all its assets, Muzi thought.

“I’ve been in touch with the representative of Murphy International, and they are going to handle the auction of the art, cars and collectibles. I had a video call with her and she said that Carrick Murphy is personally going to oversee the auction. As I said, if you guys don’t want any of their possessions—” Muzi knew that neither of the brothers wanted anything from their parents “—then the proceeds of the sale of the movables and the properties will be donated to the Tempest-Vane Foundation.”

“Please don’t feel obligated to do that, Ro,” Radd quietly stated. “It’s a generous offer but you are their heir, it’s now your money and you can do whatever you want with it.”

“I don’t need money, I need answers.” Ro stared down at her hands, delicate with long fingers and unvarnished nails. Muzi watched as confusion chased hurt across her face. “I wish I knew why they gave me up for adoption. I mean, it wasn’t like they didn’t have the money to feed and clothe me, educate me.”

Muzi met Digby’s eyes and saw the pain within him, the flash of temper and then, devastation. Muzi knew his anger and grief were no longer for him, but for his sister. Ro had no idea—and would never know, if her brothers had their way—that she was tossed aside, given away because she was of no monetary value to them.

Per Digby, a Tempest-Vane grandfather or great-grandfather, noticing that Gil Tempest-Vane was the only male left to carry the T-V name and genes, promised Gil two million dollars—a fortune back then—for every male child he sired. Zia cooperated and they produced three boys for the family tree, boys they went on to ignore and neglect.

But a girl didn’t come with a monetary payout, so she was given up for adoption.

Bastards.

Radd and Digby were determined that Ro never learned the truth of why she was given up for adoption. Muzi knew they were trying to protect her, but he thought that if Ro found out after the fact, and from someone else, their brand-new, still fragile ties would fray. He thought the brothers were playing with fire, but this wasn’t his family and, because he would never tolerate them shoving their noses into his business, he kept his opinion to himself.

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