The Debutante Series Book 1
Daphne Ralston is a refined, beautiful, high-society debutante. When her fiancé, Martin Greer, cannot repay his debt to the alluring millionaire and underworld kingpin Franco Martelli, Franco exacts the repayment: Daphne, the secret object of his all-consuming desire.
Franco, inflamed by Daphne’s beauty, incarcerates her in a prison of pure sensuality and pleasure. He discovers that beneath this ice princess’s refined veneer lies his absolute equal in the arts of love and passion.
A war prize caught in a power struggle between two men, Daphne reconciles to the fate foisted upon her. Then a startling realization comes to light: though she and Franco are from disparate worlds and have been thrown together by the most unimaginable circumstances, they are soulmates, fulfilling their destiny to unite.
AmazonExcerpt from A Debutante Enslaved © Copyright 2024 Romira Scott
CHAPTER ONE
“Mr. Ainsley?”
William Ainsley put down the spreadsheet he was studying and stared at the urchin standing before his mahogany desk. The boy was a scrawny sixteen-year-old with large brown eyes that dominated his somewhat emaciated face.
“I need help,” the boy implored.
“What do you mean?” Ainsley asked icily.
“My mom died last week. I’m on my own. I don’t make enough to afford rent, food, clothes, and school supplies.”
Ainsley held his hand to his chin. “Hmm, that’s a big issue. What do you propose we do about it?”
“Well, sir, I was hoping you could give me a break on the rent.”
“Do you mean a reduction?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, that’s a lot to ask, Franco Martelli. You see, I’m running a business and have a lot of overhead to cover. This includes property taxes, which are rather hefty even for that dilapidated apartment building in which you live. I don’t have much money left over after it’s all paid.”
“Well, sir, you don’t look like you’re struggling to me with your fancy clothes and fancy car.”
Ainsley’s face reddened. “Quite the smart-ass, aren’t we, Mr. Martelli?”
“I’m just pointing out what I see, sir.”
“Do you work, Mr. Martelli? Do you earn money?”
“I just started working full-time as a janitor, sir. On weeknights after school.”
“That means you have weekends available,” Ainsley pointed out.
“Yes, sir, I do.”
“Well, the solution here is obvious. Get a part-time job on the weekends to earn extra cash. That way, the rent gets paid.”
“But I’m working full-time and going to school as it is. Weekends are the only time I can do my schoolwork.”
“We all have to make sacrifices, Mr. Martelli. If you want to keep a roof over your head badly enough, you’ll do what you must and get a second job.”
“But that’s going to be so hard for me,” he said, tears in his eyes.
“Earn the extra rent money or be out on the street, dead mother or no dead mother,” Ainsley intoned.
Franco, defeated, said no more and departed Ainsley’s office. In the hallway, he sat on a chair and cried even more than he had when his mother died. For the first time since that terrible day, he felt utterly abandoned, and he worried terribly about his survival.
Franco Martelli sat at his kitchen table sipping coffee and thinking back to that long-ago day when that scumbag sonofabitch William Ainsley turned his back on him in his time of need.
At Ainsley’s insistence, Franco found a weekend job to help cover the rent. It was at a local car wash, and he worked it in addition to his full-time weeknight janitorial job. He was a sixteen-year-old school kid forced to work sixty hours a week to survive while struggling to make it through high school and graduate.
Franco’s teenage experience could have either demolished him or made him stronger; it did the latter. Franco believed the hardship made him a go-getter who would eventually amass a sizeable fortune and lead a good life.
Franco morphed into an attractive and alluring man when he reached his twenties, after his awkward adolescent phase was behind him. With the time constraint and financial burden of school eliminated, he finally had the wherewithal to correct various defects in his physical appearance. He fixed his crooked teeth with braces, which gave him a perfect smile. He lost his childhood scrawniness, gained much-needed weight, and began working out. He eventually developed the body of an Adonis and maintained his sculpted physique by working with a personal trainer four times weekly.
