скачать книгу бесплатно
Seduced by the Sultan
Sharon Kendrick
What this sultan wants, he gets!Catrin Thomas was an ordinary girl from the Welsh valleys when she was swept into a steamy affair with the sexy Murat, a desert sultan! But when she discovered his aides were brokering a marriage to a suitable virgin bride she left, heartbroken.With an entire kingdom at his command, Murat’s furious that Catrin is the one person to defy him – whatever she thinks, she will be by his side again.Only Murat will find this Catrin isn’t the sweet, amenable plaything of before but a formidable woman! Smart, feisty, and tantalising him at every turn…‘The chemistry on every page is electric!’ – Hope, 67, SalisburyDiscover more at www.millsandboon.co.uk/sharonkendrick
‘It was uncomplicated and great—at least that’s what you told me at the time. But now you’re using that fact to make me sound like some sort oftramp!’
Steeling himself against the venom spitting from Catrin’s eyes, Murat shook his head. ‘My intention has never been to make you feel bad about yourself, but I never promised you marriage, Cat. I made that clear from the start. And, yes, I always said I would be honest with you. I told you that I had very particular specifications for my bride. That I required a woman of royal blood who would behave as a future desert queen would be expected to behave. And I’m afraid that you were …’
His voice tailed away, but once again she didn’t seem prepared to let it go.
‘I was what, Murat?’
He sighed, wondering why women always did this. Even Cat. Why they always provoked you to a certain point and made you say something which afterwards you would both regret. He shook his head. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘Oh, but it does. It matters very much.’
He shrugged. ‘I’m afraid you were neither.’
DESERT MEN OF QURHAH (#u6c1d5828-4780-5726-9693-71f2b6dfca75)
Their destiny is the desert!
The heat of the desert is nothing compared to the passion that burns between the pages of this stunning new trilogy by Sharon Kendrick!
Defiant in the Desert
Oil baron Suleiman Abd Al-Aziz has been sent to retrieve the Sultan of Qurhah’s reluctant fiancée—a woman who’s utterly forbidden, but is determined to escape the confines of her engagement … by seducing him!
Shamed in the Sands
The Princess of Qurhah has always wanted something different from her life. So when sexy advertising magnate Gabe Steele arrives to work for her brother, Leila convinces Gabe to give her a job … but that’s not the only thing to cause a royal scandal!
Seduced by the Sultan
The Sultan of Qurhah is facing a scandal of epic proportions. His fiancée has run off, leaving him with a space in his king-sized bed. A space once occupied by his mistress—Catrin Thomas. And now he wants her back—at any price!
Dear Reader (#u6c1d5828-4780-5726-9693-71f2b6dfca75),
One hundred. Doesn’t matter how many times I say it, I still can’t believe that’s how many books I’ve written. It’s a fabulous feeling but more fabulous still is the news that Mills & Boon are issuing every single one of my backlist as digital titles. Wow. I can’t wait to share all my stories with you - which are as vivid to me now as when I wrote them.
There’s BOUGHT FOR HER HUSBAND, with its outrageously macho Greek hero and A SCANDAL, A SECRET AND A BABY featuring a very sexy Tuscan. THE SHEIKH’S HEIR proved so popular with readers that it spent two weeks on the USA Today charts and…well, I could go on, but I’ll leave you to discover them for yourselves.
I remember the first line of my very first book: “So you’ve come to Australia looking for a husband?” Actually, the heroine had gone to Australia to escape men, but guess what? She found a husband all the same! The man who inspired that book rang me up recently and when I told him I was beginning my 100
story and couldn’t decide what to write, he said, “Why don’t you go back to where it all started?”
So I did. And that’s how A ROYAL VOW OF CONVENIENCE was born. It opens in beautiful Queensland and moves to England and New York. It’s about a runaway princess and the enigmatic billionaire who is infuriated by her, yet who winds up rescuing her. But then, she goes and rescues him… Wouldn’t you know it?
I’ll end by saying how very grateful I am to have a career I love, and to thank each and every one of you who has supported me along the way. You really are very dear readers.
Love,
Sharon xxx
Mills & Boon are proud to present a thrilling digital collection of all Sharon Kendrick’s novels and novellas for us to celebrate the publication of her amazing and awesome 100th book! Sharon is known worldwide for her likeable, spirited heroines and her gorgeous, utterly masculine heroes.
SHARON KENDRICK once won a national writing competition, describing her ideal date: being flown to an exotic island by a gorgeous and powerful man. Little did she realise that she’d just wandered into her dream job! Today she writes for Mills & Boon, featuring her often stubborn but always to-die-for heroes and the women who bring them to their knees. She believes that the best books are those you never want to end. Just like life…
Seduced by the Sultan
Sharon Kendrick
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
To ace surgeon Mike Heard for his invaluable help with research—and to his lovely legal-eagle wife, Janie, for all the help she’s going to give me in future (I hope!)
Contents
Cover (#ua501b767-0fdc-5361-89e4-5f91964e1aec)
Introduction (#u8afdf5d4-9176-54fe-a263-5c01093f9c5f)
DESERT MEN OF QURHAH (#ua53c22f7-22e4-5ef7-8dbb-7a0b98647002)
Dear Reader (#u144a2531-bfef-5729-85a1-eca805866e5b)
About the Author (#u9c099168-b0ec-5069-a95e-0b3d3fcf1e8b)
Title Page (#u764183b4-458e-56ac-a82e-bb4a6ad624ea)
Dedication (#uea389ecf-c03f-5369-a9c0-4784234ca6dd)
CHAPTER ONE (#ue34c48dc-f9fc-5be3-ba5a-84622ecbc76b)
CHAPTER TWO (#ua07cfc3a-6337-5270-99b4-bb55726fc55a)
CHAPTER THREE (#uae5e6a08-4750-5e4b-b7be-71d1954ce98c)
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)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#u6c1d5828-4780-5726-9693-71f2b6dfca75)
‘YOU’RE NOTHING BUT a rich man’s whore!’
The words still burned in Catrin’s ears and she couldn’t seem to shift them, no matter how hard she tried. Hateful words made worse by the fact that they had been spoken by her own mother.
‘What the hell do you think he’s doing when he’s out of the country?’ Ursula Thomas had demanded. ‘Going to bed early, with nothing but a book in his hand?’
Catrin had sat listening to the slurred words, feeling all her confidence drain away. But she couldn’t deny that the accusations had touched a raw nerve and that was probably why she had reacted so defensively. Why her nails had dug into the palms of her hands so hard that it hurt and instead of telling her mother it was none of her business, she had stupidly tried to justify herself. Because that was pointless. Some people only ever saw the dark side of life and her mother was one of them.
She was not a whore.
And Murat was going to bed on his own.
Catrin let her thoughts stray to the exotic Sultan who had changed her world. She had never planned to be a ‘kept woman’ living in a fancy penthouse, but that was the way things had turned out. Just as she had never planned a relationship with a man who was larger than life—a man for whom the rules had to be broken. Only now she had broken the most dangerous rule of all and she didn’t know what she was going to do about it.
Later, he would arrive here from Qurhah. He would take her in his arms and the undiluted pleasure of his kiss would quickly block out everything else. But she wondered for how long. How long before the niggling doubts returned—along with the growing certainty that she had done what she had vowed never to do?
She had fallen in love with him.
She loved Murat.
It was the worst of all possible scenarios.
She walked over to the window and stared out. How had that happened? Especially to someone who didn’t ‘do’ love? Who had always claimed—with good reason—that she didn’t know what love was. She wondered when that invisible switch had been flicked. The one which had changed everything and made her heart race whenever she thought of him. Was it logical to love a man who was never really there for her, who had never offered her anything but fabulous sex and pretty baubles?
But love wasn’t logical, was it? It crept up on you whether you wanted it to or not. And that was dangerous. More to the point, it was futile. Because the only thing the Sultan had ever promised her was that he could never commit.
Her gaze moved to the distant treetops and the green canopy of leaves which were moving gently in the soft summer breeze. Sometimes it was hard to believe that this apartment was slap-bang in the centre of London—with a view dominated by a park so beautiful that sometimes it felt just like being in the countryside. Just as it was hard to believe that the sleek woman who stared back at her from the mirror every morning really was Catrin Thomas, the small-town woman who had given herself so completely to the autocratic desert King of Qurhah.
Gone was the unruly tangle of shiny curls which had once defined her and in their place were waves of hair so glossy that someone in a shop had once stopped her and told her she should be in a shampoo commercial. Gone were the cheap clothes she used to buy on her very average salary and the cut-price make-up she used to pick up from the nearby supermarket. These days she looked expensive because she was expensive. A rich man’s mistress. With a price tag to match.
The telephone began to ring and Catrin rushed to answer it as soon as she saw Murat’s name flash up on the screen, because he hated to be kept waiting. But she accepted that, as she had accepted so much else about him. He was a sultan and a king. He ruled a vast and affluent desert region. He wasn’t used to waiting. His time—as she knew only too well—was very precious.
‘Hello?’ she said, breathlessly, because a phone call meant that his private jet was already in the air and soon he would be landing at the small airfield just outside London. And she was nowhere near ready!
‘Cat? Is that you?’
She sucked in an excited breath, because his deep, accented voice always had the same effect on her. It made her stomach twist into knots. It made her skin prickle with anticipation. Only now, of course, it also made her heart lurch with anxiety—because this was not just the ‘friends with benefits’ thing any more. This was—most inconveniently—that stupid thing called love and she must be careful not to show it.
‘Of course it’s me,’ she said softly. ‘Who else could it be?’
‘It didn’t sound like you.’ There was a pause. ‘For a minute I thought you might have gone away and left me.’
His voice had dipped in that indulgent way it always did when they hadn’t seen each other in a while. A whole month had passed since Murat had last been in England. It had been the longest time they’d ever been apart, and Catrin had missed him. She’d missed him like crazy.
‘I think we both know,’ she said, trying not to let her voice tremble with emotion, ‘that I’m not planning on going anywhere.’
‘I’m very pleased to hear it.’
But something in his voice caused her to grow still, as a flicker of foreboding iced its way over her skin. She frowned. ‘You sound a little...weary, Murat.’
‘I am—or rather, I was. But suddenly I discover that I am filled with energy at the thought of seeing you again, my beautiful, green-eyed little Cat.’
She could hear the sudden roughening of his voice and wished that he were here now and that he were kissing her. Kissing her and making all these stupid doubts disappear into thin air. ‘Me, too,’ she said.
‘And I’m wondering,’ he murmured, ‘what you’ve been doing to make you sound so breathless?’
The words were on the tip of her tongue, but she didn’t say them, even though part of her wondered what his reaction would be if she came out with the truth. Oh, you know. I was just getting over the shock of hearing my mother tell me that I’m nothing but a whore and implying that you’re up to no good when you’re not here.
But she had vowed to herself a long time ago that there was no point in objecting to things which couldn’t be changed. She was trying to live in the moment. To enjoy what she had, instead of obsessing about what she didn’t have, and could never have. Hadn’t her own childhood taught her that was the only way to live?
‘Not a lot,’ she prevaricated. ‘I was just wondering what time you’re going to get here.’
‘Soon, my beauty. Very soon. But I don’t want to waste time talking about my schedule when there are so many more interesting things we could discuss. And there’s only one thought on my mind right now after so many weeks of being away.’ There was a pause. ‘What are you wearing?’
Catrin’s perfectly manicured nails tightened around the handset of the phone and she swallowed down the sudden lump which had risen in her throat. She knew what was expected of her and usually it was all too easy to play this game. Of course it was—because Murat had taught her the rules and, consequently, she had become very accomplished at it. And she liked it. She liked playing the sexy mistress who was up for it any time of the day or night.
But today the seeds of uncertainty had been sown in her mind. She felt like a tennis player who had walked out on court to find an enormous hole at the centre of her racquet.
So pull yourself together, she urged herself. Count your blessings and enjoy the life you’ve been given instead of the one you secretly crave.
She ran her hand over one hip, her fingertips encountering the rough texture of her denim jeans. But instead of describing an article of clothing which Murat despised, she injected a sultry note into her voice and pretended. Because wasn’t fantasy everything to lovers? Hadn’t he taught her that, too?
‘I’m wearing silk,’ she whispered.
‘What kind of silk?’
That stupid lump was still sticking in her throat, but it didn’t stop her from continuing with the game. Quite honestly, she couldn’t imagine having a telephone conversation with Murat which wasn’t erotic. The kind of conversation she’d never have been able to carry off when she’d just been that naïve girl from Wales. But in spite of her background, she’d always been smart. She devoured books and was a fast learner—and learning to please a man was a skill just like any other, just like arranging flowers or making a cake rise.
‘Soft silk,’ she said. ‘Butter soft.’
‘Tell me more.’
She thought about the ribboned and crotchless purchase still lying in folds of soft tissue paper in the bedroom. The one she was planning to slide into as soon as she’d had her shower. The one which would probably be ripped apart by Murat’s impatient fingers within minutes of his arriving here. ‘They’re midnight blue,’ she said, almost conversationally.
‘Excellent.’ A pause. ‘And are they tiny panties?’
