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The Final Seduction
Sharon Kendrik
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 100th book! Many of these books are available as e books for the first time.Form more than just one night…Drew Glover’s emotional absence hurt Shelley Turner terribly, causing her to leave for Italy for three years to pursue her career and freedom. But when she returns, far from seeming happy to see her, Drew appears even more impossible to handle.Drew is determined to think the worst of the sleek, sophisticated beauty Shelly has become. Surely she can’t be the same innocent girl he once knew. There’s only one way he can be rid of her completely and that’s to have her in his bed…But his final seduction is about to change their lives forever!
Shelley couldn’t believe her ears.
“You heard,” Drew whispered softly. “You’ve become one of those women who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing, haven’t you, Shelley? Seems like I had a lucky escape.”
“Or maybe you just don’t like the way I dress because the clothes I wear indicate that I’m an independent woman now?”
“Independent?” His lips curled like an old-fashioned movie star’s. “I don’t think so! Being a rich man’s plaything doesn’t usually fall into the category of independent.”
Dear Reader (#u1717c324-1e6f-5170-8a96-60e93b2b45d5),
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…
The Final Seduction
Sharon Kendrick
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
With thanks to Simon for beautiful Hillyard Boats
and to John for making Milmouth come alive!
Oh, and a great big “miaow” to Arthur at the Westover Hall.
CONTENTS
Cover (#uee799efa-ab92-5d0e-b353-38870b1d2e26)
Dear Reader (#u0f9fc5d1-46b6-5ae4-80f9-08122a971648)
About the Author (#u8b0d3540-3b88-588a-ad5c-ccee994b31bf)
Title Page (#u926526af-4c2a-5288-8c1c-034fd48ec927)
Acknowledgement (#ud01aa10a-3df8-5fea-9847-af00fe7c7c79)
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#u1717c324-1e6f-5170-8a96-60e93b2b45d5)
AS SOON as she heard him call her name she knew that something was wrong.
Very wrong.
‘Shelley?’
Shelley frowned at the intercom. ‘Yes, Marco?’
‘Are you busy?’ He spoke every word as if it were poetry. Sexy, deep, strong, lyrical. The kind of voice that drove women crazy. Shelley had seen it for herself, time after time.
Waitresses would go ga-ga for that voice. Female bank employees would flutter their eyelashes—even women who were old enough to know better started coming on to him like small-town hookers. Actually, they were the worst. Rich, confident, bored middle-aged women who fancied the idea of an Italian lover in their bed. And out of it!
Shelley wondered if he was being hounded by one of the more persistent females. It happened. Maybe that was why he wanted to speak to her—to ask her to let his pursuer know in the nicest possible way that he was definitely not available!
‘No, I’m not especially busy.’ She glanced down at the glossy catalogue she had been studying on his behalf. Marco was currently the hottest art dealer on the international circuit, and Shelley made sure he kept his crown by oiling the wheels of his life—so that it ran as smoothly as possible. ‘What’s up?’
‘We need to talk.’
‘I’m all yours, Marco.’ She closed the catalogue and pushed it to the front of her desk.
‘Good.’ Seconds later he appeared at her door, almost as if he had been lingering outside in the corridor, like a person waiting to be interviewed.
Shelley stared at him. Something was different. ‘Is everything okay?’
He hesitated, thick black lashes shading the ebony glitter of his eyes. ‘I’m not quite sure how to answer that.’
She watched while he came into the dazzling light-filled room which she was lucky enough to call her office. Watched his air of distraction as he walked over to the window to gaze out at the lake beyond. The morning sun made the waters glitter and throw back the intense golden light—as if someone had scattered the surface with sequins.
He turned back to face her and, as always, Shelley derived intense pleasure just from looking at him. It was like looking at a beautiful painting or a perfect sky. She knew how lucky she was and how many people envied her—with her perfect job and her perfect boss.
‘Shall I make us some coffee?’
He shook his head. ‘No. Thanks.’
For the first time, she noticed the unfamiliar shadows beneath his eyes and deep in her subconscious little warning bells began ringing sounds of danger. Marco always slept like a baby. ‘Something is wrong, isn’t it?’ she said.
He sat down opposite her and spread his hands expansively, in a very Italian way. ‘Not wrong—just different. Something has changed.’
‘Don’t speak in riddles, Marco,’ she implored. ‘You know I can’t stand suspense! I’m the kind of person who reads the reviews of films before I go to see them, just so I can find out the ending!’
‘There is no easy way to say this, Shelley—’
And then she guessed. ‘You’ve met someone?’
‘Yes.’
‘And you’ve fallen in love.’
‘Yes, again.’
‘It’s obviously serious.’
‘It… Yes,’ he admitted, and for a moment his face looked almost severe. ‘Yes, it’s serious. Very serious.’
‘Serious in that you’ve already shared breakfast in bed?’
‘Shelley!’ he protested, but he was smiling. ‘How can you ask me such a question?’
‘Because I’m a woman, and because I’m curious! Or did you imagine I’d find it painful?’
‘I guess I did. Well, not painful exactly. Difficult.’
‘Because I’ve lived with you for three years and every woman in Italy would like to scratch my eyes out because of that?’
‘Shelley!’ He hesitated. ‘You know—if I could change things I would.’
‘Fall out of love again, you mean?’
‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘Rewrite history.’
‘Well, you can’t,’ she said flatly. ‘No one can.’
‘But I took you away,’ he said slowly, painfully. ‘I took you from Drew.’
Drew.
His name washed over her like the morning tide.
She had seen him in her dreams so often—especially at the beginning, when everything was still so raw, and so painful. But it was a long time since either she or Marco had spoken that name aloud and, oddly, it hurt more than it should have done. Even after all this time.
Shelley shook her head, mainly to rid herself of the face which had swum into her memory with pin-point clarity. Sapphire eyes and honey-tipped hair. The body of a labourer, with the face of an angel.
‘Please don’t say that you “took” me, Marco!’ she protested softly. ‘It makes me sound like a piece of merchandise to be picked up at the supermarket—a can of beans!’
‘But I did!’ he gritted. ‘You know I did!’
‘And you certainly didn’t take me from Drew!’ she contradicted. ‘That would imply that he owned me. And he didn’t—even if he thought that he did. No one can own another human being, however much they try.’
‘But you were engaged to him,’ he pointed out gently. ‘Weren’t you?’
‘I wore a cheap little ring on my finger!’ she cried. ‘A mark of possession—that’s all engagement rings ever are! A metal circle which said “Keep off—she’s mine! And I can do what I like with her because she wears my ring!”’
She blinked back the sudden and mysterious tears which had made her eyes go all blurry. She hadn’t thought about that ring for a long time, but now she had more important things to think about. Like doing the decent thing and leaving as quickly as possible. Not standing in Marco’s way. The way they’d always agreed. ‘Can you arrange an early flight for me, Marco?’
‘Of course. But where will you go?’ he questioned quietly.
‘Why, back to Milmouth, of course.’ She gave him a gentle smile. ‘Where else would I go?’
‘It will be—painful?’
‘Very probably,’ she agreed. ‘And difficult too, I expect. But Milmouth is my home. It’s where I grew up. More importantly, I have a house there—and I’ll need somewhere to live while I make up my mind what I want to do next.’
‘You’ll go and live there?’ he breathed in surprise.
‘You find that so strange to imagine?’ she asked. ‘Why—because it’s a tiny little place compared to the near-palaces I’ve lived in with you?’
‘I think you’ll find that you’ve outgrown what you had there.’
‘We’ll see.’
‘But more than that—aren’t you forgetting the one big difficulty of going back there?’
She met his eyes, knowing what he meant, but needing to hear him say it. ‘Like what?’
‘Why, Drew of course. Drew still lives there, doesn’t he?’
