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Redeemed By Her Innocence
Bella Frances
When a merciless billionaire meets a virgin beauty… Can the beast be tamed? Ruthless businessman Nikos Karellis won’t risk his company to save Jacqulyn Jones’s struggling bridal boutique. But he will give her the best night of her life! Discovering that Jacqulyn’s as pure as the white wedding dresses she designs, Nikos is intrigued… But returning to Greece leaves him dangerously exposed and warring with past guilt. Could untouched Jacqulyn’s sensual surrender be this dark-hearted Greek’s redemption?
When a merciless billionaire meets a virgin beauty...
Can the beast be tamed?
Ruthless businessman Nikos Karellis won’t risk his company to save Jacquelyn Jones’s struggling bridal boutique. But he will give her the best night of her life! Discovering that Jacquelyn’s as pure as the white wedding dresses she designs, Nikos is intrigued... But returning to Greece together leaves him emotionally exposed and warring with past guilt. Could untouched Jacquelyn’s sensual surrender be this dark-hearted Greek’s redemption?
Indulge in this dramatic tale of seduction...
Unable to sit still without reading, BELLA FRANCES first found romantic fiction at the age of twelve, in between deadly dull knitting patterns and recipes in the pages of her grandmother’s magazines. An obsession was born! But it wasn’t until one long, hot summer, after completing her first degree in English Literature, that she fell upon the legends that are Mills & Boon books. She has occasionally lifted her head out of them since to do a range of jobs, including barmaid, financial adviser and teacher, as well as to practise—but never perfect—the art of motherhood on two now almost grown-up cherubs. Bella lives a very energetic life in the UK, but tries desperately to travel for pleasure at least once a month—strictly in the interests of research! Catch up with her on her website at www.bellafrancesauthor.com (http://www.bellafrancesauthor.com).
Also by Bella Frances (#udaee3373-3da6-523c-ac4d-e69eda21c6eb)
The Playboy of Argentina
The Consequence She Cannot Deny
The Tycoon’s Shock Heir
Claimed by a Billionaire miniseries
The Argentinian’s Virgin Conquest
The Italian’s Vengeful Seduction
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk).
Redeemed by Her Innocence
Bella Frances
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-08820-6
REDEEMED BY HER INNOCENCE
© 2019 Bella Frances
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)
Note to Readers (#udaee3373-3da6-523c-ac4d-e69eda21c6eb)
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Acknowledgements (#udaee3373-3da6-523c-ac4d-e69eda21c6eb)
With grateful thanks to Joyce Young,
By Storm, Glasgow and London, for her insights
into the world of wedding dress design.
For Graham Frize,
redeeming innocence wherever he goes.
Beautiful, sinful and wonderful friend.
Contents
Cover (#u028b9434-b936-5f7a-840b-26c0021a3e61)
Back Cover Text (#ue022d292-0cd8-58a2-8a24-3739b4961311)
About the Author (#ubaf79136-3bc2-5bfb-8025-3d533a8632d6)
Booklist (#uecaf178d-7d42-5a1c-b6b2-37036f69b278)
Title Page (#u5ca92028-d36e-529d-b9f0-85b946cfc915)
Copyright (#ua082cb3b-8531-56c1-ba91-28f2bed77c96)
Note to Readers
Acknowledgments (#u1dde73e3-4312-5724-9763-4f13f617e10e)
Dedication (#u0668f2f7-6f3b-5155-85bb-6f29a33c65a8)
CHAPTER ONE (#u4415f0a9-3752-52ee-9559-a5560011fe6a)
CHAPTER TWO (#uca55fd51-76e8-503d-a172-b3ccb3bd4fb6)
CHAPTER THREE (#ud008f61c-e30a-556d-9138-c978aab278ab)
CHAPTER FOUR (#u92675623-226b-50db-b551-0b5269640884)
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)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#udaee3373-3da6-523c-ac4d-e69eda21c6eb)
NIKOS KARELLIS WALKED straight into the bridal suite of Maybury Hall, Wedding Venue of the Year, and slung his suit carrier down on the four-poster bed. So this is romance, he thought, frowning at the frills and flowers and buckets of girly fizz. He lifted a bottle, checked the vintage and slipped it back into the watery ice. He was a long way off celebrating yet. He’d travelled through eight time zones and three continents, and he needed something a bit harder to take the edge off.
Finally he saw what he wanted, tucked underneath a gilt mirror featuring chuckling cherubs—a tray with decanter, glasses and water jug. Perfect. He poured a generous measure, then he added a little more, skipped the water, and sank it, the burn and peaty fumes soothing as they slid down his throat.
Cheers, Martin, he thought, tipping his glass at the chandelier. At least his former brother-in-law’s taste in whisky was better than his taste in décor.
The bridal suite.
Of all the rooms in his flagship luxury hotel, Martin had chosen to put him up here. Maybe it was his idea of a joke, but it wasn’t a very funny one. Pretty much nothing about being married to Maria made him laugh any more.
Nikos reached for the decanter, pausing in the act of pouring a second. The temptation was strong, but clear-headed was the only way to be tonight, because tonight was the beginning of the end, the face-to-face to get it all out in the open. Whatever it was that Martin thought had been hidden away in Maria’s legacy, this was the night when they’d sort it out, because it was draining—and not just financially.
Despite what Martin’s lawyers and the Inland Revenue seemed to think, there were no hidden assets, no secret stash of cash, no offshore investments. She had drunk them all, or snorted them all. And that was that. It would be a hard story to tell her doting brother, but Nikos was damned sure he wasn’t going to leave anything out, because he’d had enough.
The tit-for-tat legal wrangling had gone on for too long so he’d done it the old-fashioned way; lifted the phone, and asked for a meeting. When Martin suggested this black-tie event in one of his chain of luxury hotels, Nikos didn’t hesitate. It was that or wait another six weeks until they’d even be on the same continent.
He could barely wait six more minutes now that he finally had the end in sight. Five years since Maria’s death—but it was only his wedding ring he’d tossed into the cool, blue Aegean; the pain and the memories had been much harder to shift.
Too late to stop himself, he touched his ring finger. Empty space, smooth skin. Even though House, his high-end chain of department stores, was now in the Forbes 100, with turnover almost hitting the four billion mark, that feeling of bare skin felt better than anything. It was the feeling of freedom. More than that, it was the cast-iron knowledge that he was on his own now. On his own, forging his path, no wife hanging off his arm, or around his neck, no damage to clean up after—just these final few crumbs and then he really was home free.
He filled up a fresh glass with water and walked to the window. The estate was impressive, immense, expanding off into horizons of oak trees and lawns, and willow-draped lakes. He could just see the roof of the lodge house he’d passed and the huge iron gates at the end of the road, where a car had just pulled up. Something about it made him strain forward to see better...
But just then a knock sounded on the door, and he turned.
‘I heard you’d arrived.’
Martin Lopez stood in the door and for a second they looked at each other. The same dark hair, dark eyes, sallow skin and high cheekbones as Maria—a look that he’d once found ravishing, irresistible, forging a love so strong he’d moved from delinquent eighteen-year-old biker to husband, in three years.
Looking back, which he had done all too often in the ten years they’d been together, it had been a predictable car crash of wrong place, wrong time. The minute he’d rescued her from the Bentley she’d wrapped around a lamp post on the side of the Sydney highway, they’d been inseparable—he was tennis coach, swimming coach, personal trainer, anything she could do to keep him in her life, and, after where he’d been, it had felt like arriving at the Promised Land.
Unfortunately some promises were very hard for Maria to keep.
‘Martin. Good to see you.’
He walked towards him, stretching out a hand, reading in the light press of Martin’s palm and the shifting of his gaze that he was on edge.
‘Nikos. I’m glad you came. It’s been a long time.’
‘Too long,’ said Nikos, holding the handshake a second longer, reassuring him that they were friends, no matter what had gone before.
‘Yes, and I wanted to get in touch, but it’s not been easy since Maria died.’
‘I guess not. Our lives have taken different directions.’
‘But we’ll always have her in common.’
‘I can’t deny that,’ said Nikos, staring hard at Martin, wondering what was really going on in his mind. He had done everything for the Lopez family; they were all set up for life. He had nothing left to give.
But something was eating the other man up. Martin dropped his gaze and turned back to the door.
‘Shall I show you around, before the guests start to arrive?’ he said, over his shoulder.
‘Absolutely,’ Nikos said, strolling out to the grand hallway, where the faces of various English rose aristocrats in grand gilt frames hung around the walls, no doubt wondering what the hell had happened to the old house now that the Lopez Hotel Group had transformed it.
‘Yes, it’s great to see you,’ Martin said, stepping alongside him now like a best buddy. ‘And I’m really grateful that you’ve agreed to present an award. We sold an extra fifty seats when it was announced yesterday.’
Nikos shrugged. ‘It’s no problem. I was on the way back from Sydney when I got the call.’
‘Visiting your mother? How is she?’
They were at the top of a wide sweep of carpeted stairs, no doubt a prime photo opportunity for the hundreds of brides who used Maybury Hall.
