Capture My Heart

Chapter 1

Raina Elisabeth Grayson sped through the streets with little regard to speed limit. She looked back on the rear view mirror once again before speeding up even further. The black SUV was still visible behind her. Fear spread in her heart and Raina couldn't stop feeling like she was being watched. She stepped on the accelerator and sped up towards her house hoping to lose the car behind. 

“Someone is following me!” Raina blurted out as soon as her sister Raven opened the door.

Raven with her dark hair and blue eyes in no way resembled her blonde sister Raina, but the two siblings were as close as can be.

“Stop being paranoid again Raina! You have been saying that for a week. No one is following you.” Raven chastised her sister as they walked into their house.

“Annie Ray” Raina’s two year old nephew Mason, called from the high chair where he was messily eating his dinner of mashed veggies. Raina’s attempts at getting her little nephew to call her Auntie Raina as soon as he could talk, has resulted in her being permanently christened Annie Ray by the little boy.

Raina lived with her sister Raven and her family. One year ago, when Raven’s husband Kian Drew had to move to Ohio for his work, Raina did not hesitate when her sister Raven asked her to move in, unable to cope with the stress of living alone with her little baby.

“I’m telling the truth Rave, I have been seeing the same car behind me for a week now, wherever I go. That’s no coincidence.” Raina continued her conversation with her sister after giving Mason a little kiss on his head.

“Have you talked to Danny about it? If someone is really following you, you should be more careful.” Raven started getting concerned, wondering if her sister is imagining things or if she is really in danger.

“I know. I want to tell him but he has been so busy with this new project from work lately that I don't want to impose.”

Danny Riles, her boyfriend for the past two years. They met in college and he was absolutely perfect in her mind. She knew that someday she would walk down the aisle and find him waiting for her at the end.

She has been getting concerned about Danny lately. He has been acting weird and stressed all the time, always busy with work. Danny owned his own successful shipping company so she understood that he would give work a high priority, but couldn't help feeling a little neglected. After contemplating a lot, she decided to give him a call. 

“What's wrong? Why are you calling me?” Danny asked before she could even greet him.

“Hello to you too” Raina replied sarcastically. “Are you busy? I need to talk to you about something.”

“Is it important? I'm still at the office and I need to finish this presentation tonight.” Danny replied with a disinterested voice.

“No. if you are busy, let it be. We can talk later. You work too hard. You should rest a little too. I will call you tomorrow. Bye. Love you.”

“Love you too sweetheart. Goodnight”

The short and curt phone call left Raina feeling upset. Dark thoughts crept into her heart, wondering if Danny was bored of her, or not interested anymore. She shook of her thoughts, reminding herself that Danny loved her. He was just busy and she can talk to him this weekend.

After a quick shower to freshen up Raina went to the kitchen to prepare dinner. She loves cooking and is always experimenting with new recipes. It’s a little hobby Raina picked up from her mom Sophia. She used to love to cook too and Raven would always find both of them in the kitchen when they was young.

“Have you talked to Danny about your new stalker?” Raven asked walking into the kitchen where Raina was sitting at the counter having dinner. Raven was carrying Mason her hip. The little boy was dressed in his Spiderman pajamas and wriggling to get down.

“No. he was busy with work. I will talk to him later.” She replied.

“You should talk to him soon. Meanwhile be more careful okay?” Raven was seriously worried about her sister now. Raina was not the type be over imaginative or dramatic. Maybe someone really was following her.

“Yeah sis… Have you talked to Kian today?” Raina asked trying to change the topic.

“Yes. He said he is coming back this weekend for a visit. I’m so excited. I miss him so much and I’m sure Mason misses his daddy too. Right Mase?” Raven cooed at her baby.

 “I'm going to bed now. I have to go to work early tomorrow. We are getting a new client and apparently he is a really important man. Yasmine wants us all there early for a briefing. She is going to kill us all if we mess up this deal.” She told her sister before making her way to the bedroom to get some sleep.

 *          *          *

“Raina wake up! You’re going to be late!” Raina woke up the next morning to Raven knocking on her door. She set up groggily and looked at the time on the small alarm clock next to her bed.

7:50 am

She quickly got up as she is already late to work. Today is an important day and her boss Yasmine wanted to meet her as soon as she got into work.

Raina works in a small advertising agency as a marketing manager. She loves her job and the pay is pretty good. The only downside of her job in her opinion, is Jessica Swirly. She is one her co-workers and has hated Raina since her first day on the job. Jessica was vying to get the position of marketing manager when the previous one resigned, and was furious when the position was offered to Raina instead.

Raina quickly showered and got ready in a navy blue knee length dress. It had half sleeves with a small belt tied around the waist. If she hurried she could still make it to work on time. After making a quick stop at the nearby Starbucks for a cup of coffee Raina quickly made her way to her office with just five minutes spare.

“Thank god you are here. Why are you late? Come on, we are going to be late for the briefing. Yasmine has been freaking out about this deal for like a month now. Apparently this client is some famous Greek tycoon. If we get the deal it will be a huge achievement for the company.” Her best friend and assistant Lillian started talking the minute she saw her.

‘This girl talks way too much.’ She thought as she followed Lillian to the meeting room.

Lillian eventually calmed down when Yasmine came and the meeting started. She gave everyone a brief introduction of the new client and his company. Raina zoned out after a few minutes as she already knew all this information. She was in charge of this project and will meet the client later today. It was some rich Greek tycoon called Christos Vallis who was the CEO of his family business. She heard that he had quite the reputation as a ladies man. They couldn’t find out much about his personal life as he was a very private man. Other than a few articles about his latest exploits on the tabloids, no one knows much about the man. She also heard that he was a very ruthless man when it came to his enemies. Some of the most powerful men in the world cowered in his presence so she was not looking forward to meeting him.

After two boring hours of Yasmine going on and on about Christos Vallis and his company, the meeting was finally over and they could return to work. She had two more meetings to go that day before Mr. Christos Vallis was scheduled to arrive. Right after her first meeting ended, Lillian called to tell her that Yasmine wants to meet her, right now. After quickly wrapping up all the paper work related to the meeting Raina made her way to Yasmine’s cabin.

Raina walked into her boss’s cabin without knocking as usual. Yasmine was her friend more than her boss so they never bothered with the formalities.

“Yasmine, what…” she trailed off as she saw the handsome man sitting in the room.

The man stood up and turned to greet her. He was by far the most handsome man Raina has ever seen. She just couldn’t stop herself from staring at him. And those eyes… Those beautiful bright blue eyes held her captivated.

“This is my marketing manager Raina Grayson. She is going to be the one handling this deal” Yasmine’s voice snapped her out of her improper thoughts about this man.

The man took two steps towards her and held out his hand.

“Hello… I am Christos Vallis”

Christos couldn’t help but admire the beautiful girl before him. Her photograph did not do justice to her beauty.

A few hours ago…

“Chris, we have a slight problem” Xander entered his best friend’s office looking worried.

“What is it?” Christos immediately got up from his chair. He needed everything to go smoothly for what he had in mind today. There can be no mistakes.

“The girl Raina, has a boyfriend, and not just any boyfriend. Her boyfriend is Danny Riles. They have been together since college and I heard that he is preparing to propose to her. We cannot let this happen. This can cause major problems with our plan” Xander looked worried.

Christos could feel his anger taking over his mind. He needs to remain calm and come up with a solution to this problem. No wonder it took them so much time to find this girl.

“s**t! We need to get him out of the picture. How the hell did he find her before us? We should have been more careful.” Xander could see the anger on his best friends face. Danny Riles was soon going to regret ever coming in his way.

“Well I have a plan. But you are not going to like it. ” Xander said looking thoughtful.

“For this, I would do anything” Christos replied with no hesitation.

“I heard that Raina has not met up with Danny for some time. We can use that to our advantage. And have a look at this file” Xander handed him a blue file with the word confidential on it.

‘Danny has definitely made our work easier for us’ He thought with a slight smile as he looked over the contents of the file.

“What's the plan? What do you need me to do?” He asked Xander.

“Well…”

*          *          *

“That’s your plan? That’s ridiculous. How do you expect me to do that? You don’t even know what I would do to you right now if you were not my best friend” Christos wanted to punch Xander for coming up with this ridiculous plan.

“Oh come on Chris! You are no saint. And it’s not like you are going to fall in love with this girl. You just need to marry her and you will finally get everything that you always wanted. Besides I would love to see the look on Danny’s face when he proposes and she says no.” Xander looked positively giddy at the thought of humiliating Danny.

“But is it necessary? There must be another way to get what we want.” He tried to think of something else. Anyway to get what he wants without having to follow through with this plan.

“You and I both know that the girl is in love with Danny. There is no way she would marry you right now without something drastic. And we can’t expose the truth about Danny without exposing ourselves too. This is the only way she will marry you.” Xander tried to convince him.

“You better hope that this works Xander! Have you informed grandmamma that we found the girl?” Christos asked referring to his grandmother.

“Not yet. But she is definitely not going to approve of this plan” Xander smirks at him.

“Don’t remind me. Anyways when do I have to do all this?” Christos said resigned to follow through as he has no better options right now.

“Tonight”

“WHAT?” he screamed.

“According to my sources Danny is going to propose to her this weekend and it’s already Wednesday. We need to do this now before he finds out that we found her.” Xander tried to explain.

“I still feel bad about doing this. She is going to hate me forever.” He told Xander walking back to his desk and sitting down.

“We have no choice. You are meeting her this afternoon. If everything goes according to plan you will be a married man by this time next month.” He winked at me before leaving.

‘I am going to hell for this’ Christos thought as his best friend closed the cabin door behind him.

He took out the photo of the girl Xander gave him a week ago and looked at it again. Raina… Her name suited her. Suddenly the thought of her and Danny together made him furious. That bastard should have known his place and stayed away from his girl. He is going to pay for this. No one messes with Christos Vallis and gets away with it. He will not let Danny win.

He looked at his watch and there was still some hours left until his meeting with Raina. He was getting impatient. Finally, he decide to go and meet her now. He couldn’t concentrate on his work anyways after everything Xander and he talked about today.

When he reached the advertisement company she worked at he was immediately shown to the owner’s office. He apologized for coming early without informing them but she didn’t mind.

“It’s alright. We don’t mind. Our company is used to changing our schedule to meet that of our customers.” She said in an overly fake voice.

Christos almost rolled his eyes at her on that comment. He knew that this company needed the deal with him or they would have to declare bankruptcy soon. Personally he could find much better advertising agencies for his business but if he makes a deal with this agency it will help him in his plan to get Raina to marry him. The report submitted by Xander’s detective showed that Raina is good friends with the owner and loves her job, so she would do almost anything to save this agency.

“I am still sorry for the inconvenience. So who did you say was in charge of this deal?” he asks the woman.

“Raina Grayson. She recently joined us as a marketing manager and is really good at her job. She will be here shortly.”

Just as she finished talking, he heard the door open and a melodious voice talked to the woman sitting there.

“Yasmine, what…”  She stopped talking when she saw him.

Christos stood up and turned to face her. She was absolutely gorgeous, even more so than her picture. She truly looked like an angel. His angel…

“This is my marketing manager Raina Grayson. She is going to be the one handling this deal” the owner’s voice snapped him out of the daze he was in. He quickly took a few steps toward her and held out his hand.

“Hello… I am Christos Vallis”

“Raina Grayson” she shook his hand and he noticed that her hand was shaking a bit.

He flicked my thumb over the back of her hand to calm her down and smirked when he heard her gasp.

‘So my little angel is attracted to me huh? This is going to make my job easier’ He thought, feeling a sudden happiness.

She quickly snatched her hand back and walked away briskly taking a seat in front of her boss. He followed her and sat down beside her.

“Mr. Vallis. May I begin our presentation?” she asked.

“No!” I replied getting up again abruptly.

“May I ask why? Are you planning on hiring some other agency?” the other woman asked exchanging a worried glance with Raina.

“No. I haven’t made a decision yet. I just have a meeting in an hour and there won’t be enough time for us to discuss the whole deal. So I was wondering if maybe Miss Grayson can accompany me to dinner tonight and we can discuss it. I hope that you understand. As you know I am a very busy man.” he tried to look regretful about cancelling the meeting.

“Of course… She would be there” the owner replied before Raina could say anything.

“Well than I will pick you up at 7 tonight Miss Grayson” He said leaving the room quickly before Raina could refuse the dinner invitation.

*          *          *

“How was the meeting? Did it work?” Xander asked as soon as he got back to his office.

“Yeah it worked. She is coming to dinner with me tonight. Get everything ready. There should be no mistakes. The plan should go perfectly.”

‘Tonight is going to be a night you will never forget angel’