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Claiming My Hidden Son
Maya Blake
My contract bride’s secret… …is about to turn my world upside down! My marriage to Calypso was simply business. Until our unexpectedly passionate wedding night shook us both! Unwilling to muddy our convenient arrangement with such inconvenient emotions, I reluctantly left. Now discovering the baby in my estranged wife’s arms is mine, it’s about securing my legacy. I will claim my son and again enjoy the one thing Calypso cannot hide—the chemistry that still sizzles between us…
My contract bride’s secret…
…will change everything!
My marriage to Calypso was simply business—satisfying the terms of a family arrangement. Until our unexpectedly passionate wedding night shook us both! Falling for my convenient bride was a risk I couldn’t entertain. So, I left
Now, after discovering the baby in Calypso’s arms is mine, I will claim my son. But no longer a shy innocent, my estranged wife is stronger and even more captivating! This will be the negotiation of a lifetime with the woman who’s turning my world upside down…
MAYA BLAKE’s hopes of becoming a writer were born when she picked up her first romance at thirteen. Little did she know her dream would come true! Does she still pinch herself every now and then to make sure it’s not a dream? Yes, she does! Feel free to pinch her, too, via Twitter, Facebook or Goodreads! Happy reading!
Also by Maya Blake (#u686479aa-33b3-5edc-a721-77748ecc78bd)
A Diamond Deal with the Greek
Signed Over to Santino
The Di Sione Secret Baby
The Boss’s Nine-Month Negotiation
Pregnant at Acosta’s Demand
The Sultan Demands His Heir
His Mistress by Blackmail
Crown Prince’s Bought Bride
An Heir for the World’s Richest Man
Bound by the Desert King collection
Sheikh’s Pregnant Cinderella
Rival Brothers miniseries
A Deal with Alejandro
One Night with Gael
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk).
Claiming My Hidden Son
Maya Blake
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-08839-8
CLAIMING MY HIDDEN SON
© 2019 Maya Blake
Published in Great Britain 2019
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
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www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
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Contents
Cover (#ue170c724-74e7-5c34-8a73-4b08ada0ba54)
Back Cover Text (#u1a7bb1ef-fc17-5226-b1b4-6c5006daac1f)
About the Author (#ue4a83aef-1dc0-519c-9847-05d4ed21890d)
Booklist (#u48b65bc9-ca1d-584d-8113-1f6f06cc4897)
Title Page (#u8c50b91a-3987-5bd6-ad41-77a8a2efcbc5)
Copyright (#u116a2aca-ec38-50a1-99de-8bc9193d5b51)
Note to Readers
PROLOGUE (#ufa0bb912-f364-5f79-a760-3698ebfe5518)
CHAPTER ONE (#ufc3b5400-a723-5d5e-b588-0b0baf4bd329)
CHAPTER TWO (#u9ed082f2-ba5d-57e7-a588-a22c7c45e198)
CHAPTER THREE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
PROLOGUE (#u686479aa-33b3-5edc-a721-77748ecc78bd)
THE DRUMMING IN my ears was loud. So loud I had the fleeting thought that I was on the verge of suffering a stroke. Of doing myself irreparable harm and comprehensively ending this debacle once and for all.
But that would be too easy.
And the headline…
I could see it now.
Axios Xenakis Suffers Stroke Due to Family Pressures!
They would have no clue as to the unreasonable part, of course. Despite the media outlets lauding the story of the Xenakis near-ruin to phenomenal rise on a regular basis these days, they would be swift to jump on past flaws. Old skeletons would be dragged out of closets. I would be deemed weak. Broken. Not quite up to the task of managing a global conglomerate.
Just like my father.
Just as my grandfather had been falsely labelled after that one risky move that had seen all his hard work whittled away to almost nothing.
He’d had to bear that one misfortune all the way to his grave.
Once a titan of his industry, a simple decision to align himself with the wrong partner had decimated him, leaving the Xenakis name with a stench of failure that had lingered long after his death, causing insidious damage.
Damage that had taken back-breaking hard work to reverse, with my refusal to allow my family name to sink without a trace spurring me to seek daring solutions.
The Xenakis name was no longer one to be ashamed of. Now it was synonymous with success and innovation—a global conglomerate that Fortune 500 companies vied to be associated with.
However, the solution being proposed to me now was one set to resurrect the unsavoury ghosts of the past, with their talons of barefaced greed—
‘Ax, are you listening? Did you hear what Father said?’ asked Neo, my brother.
‘Of course I heard it. I’m not deaf,’ I replied, with more than a snap to my voice.
‘Thank God for that—although you do a great stone statue impression.’
I ignored Neo and fixed my gaze on the man seated behind the large antique desk. My father was studying me with a mixture of regret and apprehension. He knew my precise thoughts on the subject being discussed.
No, not discussed.
It was being thrust upon me.
‘No,’ I replied firmly. ‘There has to be another way.’
The tension in the room elevated, but this was too serious for me to mince my words. Too serious to let the elephant that always loomed in the room on occasions like this cloud my judgement.
I simply couldn’t allow the fact that my grandfather had chosen me as his successor instead of my father to get in the way of this discussion. Nor could I allow the resentment and guilt that had always tainted my relationship with my father to alter my view on what was being proposed.
What was done was done. I’d turned the tides and restored the fortunes of my family. For that even my father couldn’t object.
Which was why I was a little surprised when he emphatically shook his head.
‘There isn’t. Your grandfather was of sound mind when he made the arrangement.’
‘Even though he was judged otherwise in other areas?’
Barely fettered bitterness filtered through my voice. The injustices dealt to my grandfather and mentor, the man who taught me everything I know, still burned like acid all these years after his untimely death.
‘Now is not the time to reopen old wounds, Axios,’ my father said, jaw clenched.
My quiet fury burned even as I accepted his words. ‘I agree. Now is the time to discuss ways to get me out of this nonsense.’
And it was nonsense to expect an arrangement like this to hold water.
‘A sweeping agreement where the other party gets to call the shots whenever they like? How come the lawyers haven’t ripped this to shreds?’ I demanded, striving to keep a tighter rein on my ire.
My father’s lips firmed. ‘I’ve spent the last month discussing it with our counsel. We can fight it in court, and probably win, but it’ll be a protracted affair. And is now really the time to draw adverse publicity to the company? Or drag your grandfather’s name through the mud again for that matter?’
My own lips flattened as again I grimly accepted he was right. With Xenakis Aeronautics poised for its biggest global expansion yet, the timing was far from ideal.
Which was exactly what Yiannis Petras had banked on.
