Ghana’s Most Forbidden Seduction - Chapter 1

Atu Quayson nursed a drink in the smoky nightclub, attempting to throttle his impatience. The club was exclusive, a members-only type tucked away in the Airport Residential Area of Accra, Ghana, where the elite liked to see and be seen.

His superelite status meant he was being subjected to far too much of the latter while having zero interest in doing the former.

A sigh escaped him as he was forced to acknowledge yet another smile, another wave. And a few suggestive head tilts from stunningly beautiful women who eagerly conveyed the message that they’d gladly end his solitude if he so wished.

He didn’t like to be rude, usually. He had more important things to do in life than withstand his mother’s wrath should he ignore some useful politician or heiress’s greeting.

But he desperately wished his older brother had chosen another venue for this…whatever it was his brother had summoned him here for.

Fiifi had sounded almost…frenzied on the phone, a state he seemed to be careening closer and closer to recently.

Atu’s lips thinned. As much as he didn’t want to be that guy, he couldn’t help but lay the blame for that at the doorstep of the woman his brother had been borderline obsessed with for the last few years.

A woman he should’ve known better than to even look at, never mind date, in the first place.

Esi Hayford wasn’t just extremely high-maintenance—she also happened to be the daughter of his family’s number-one enemy.

Atu couldn’t pinpoint exactly when relations between Joseph Quayson and Rex Hayford had turned sour. All he knew was that it had had something to do with a business transaction and had escalated with his family’s acquisition of a much-coveted gold mine in the north-east region of Ghana five years ago.

The one-time best friends had fallen out spectacularly and were now locked in a battle which—owing to the ruthlessness Joseph Quayson possessed and Atu was fairly sure coursed through his own veins—his family was winning.

What he wasn’t sure of was whether his father allowed Fiifi to date the Hayford daughter because it was yet another conquest he could silently claim and lord over his enemy.

But even if it wasn’t, didn’t his brother get away with every single transgression he’d ever perpetrated? Wasn’t he the golden boy who seemingly could do no wrong?

Atu tried to stem his bitterness and jealousy, and his mood plummeted further when he failed to squash them. He was sure he would be in open conflict with his own brother if he didn’t love him so much. If he didn’t look up to Fiifi for his sharp intelligence and his ability to negotiate seemingly impossible deals on the family business’s behalf.

His brother was a genius…when he applied his total focus to the various needs of the Quayson conglomerate of luxury hotels and resorts, mines, and his father’s latest venture—a pan-African private bank.

But lately, thanks to Esi Hayford, he’d been operating at a fraction of his capacity. At just a few weeks shy of his twenty-fifth birthday, Fiifi seemed to have lost all interest in the family business and had spent most of his time pursuing the so-called love of his life.

Atu’s lips twisted.

It was time to stop pulling his punches. Not when he could see his brother travelling down a road that would only lead to disappointment.

Because the type of love his brother purported to possess for Esi Hayford simply didn’t exist…

A firm hand slapping him on the shoulder pulled him from his brooding.

But the moment he swivelled his seat and looked up, he wished even more that he hadn’t agreed to his brother’s request for a drink.

Because not only was Esi Hayford in tow—he really should’ve remembered that these two were all but joined at the hip these days—they’d also brought someone else along.

Someone who, against his will, had the blood rushing through his veins that little bit faster…

Amelie Hayford.

Sister of Esi Hayford.

And the woman responsible for far too many of his own forbidden dreams.