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The Innocent's Shameful Secret
Sara Craven
Claimed by his touch…Alexis Constantinou haunts Selena Blake’s every memory. Before his expert touch awakened her, she was nothing more than a naive schoolteacher. Now she dreams every night of his idyllic Mediterranean island, and the scorching affair that stole her innocence…Left carrying his child!But their brief time together left Selena with a shameful secret. And when family duty calls her back to Greece, she must face the man whose caress branded her as his! Seeing Alexis once more, Selena cannot ignore their still-sizzling passion, but dare she reveal the truth she’s hidden from the world – the secret Constantinou heir!
Claimed by his touch...
Alexis Constantinou haunts Selena Blake’s every memory. Before his expert touch awakened her, she was nothing more than a naive schoolteacher. Now she dreams every night of his idyllic Mediterranean island, and the scorching affair that stole her innocence...
Left carrying his child!
But their brief time together left Selena with a shameful secret. And when family duty calls her back to Greece, she must face the man whose caress branded her as his! Seeing Alexis once more, Selena cannot ignore their still-sizzling passion, but dare she reveal the truth she’s hidden from the world—the secret Constantinou heir!
There was a violent flash of eerie green light and then, almost at once and right above their heads, an ominous rumble, building slowly and inexorably to a roaring, deafening crash as if the cave was collapsing on top of them.
Selena cried out, her voice lost in the uproar, and stumbled forward, her hands reaching out to Alexis, who caught her and held her until the last terrifying echoes of the thunder died away and all she could hear was the tumultuous thud of her own heartbeat.
And beneath her cheek his—like the relentless rhythm of a drum.
His hand moved down, impelling her silently to look up at him. To read his intention in the sudden flare of his gaze as he bent and his mouth found hers, gently, sensuously, coaxing her lips to part for him.
She leaned into the heat and strength of his body, welcoming his kiss, responding with bewildered ardour as it deepened and a shiver of pleasure feathered enticingly across her skin.
When, at last, he took his lips slowly from hers she made a small, lost sound in her throat that never became an actual word—even if she’d been able to think of one.
She registered that the crackle of the lightning had become less frequent and the answering thunder had become a sullen mumble in the distance.
‘The storm is over.’
There was an odd silence, then he said quietly, ‘On the contrary, Selena mou, I think it is just beginning.’
Secret Heirs of Billionaires (#u7209a4af-b016-5abe-b68f-64b0917f1fe7)
There are some things money can’t buy...
Living life at lightning pace, these magnates are no strangers to stakes at their highest. It seems they’ve got it all… That is until they find out that there’s an unplanned item to add to their list of accomplishments…!
Achieved:
1. Successful business empire
2. Beautiful women in their bed
3. An heir to bear their name?
Though every billionaire needs to leave his legacy in safe hands, discovering a secret heir shakes up his carefully orchestrated plan in more ways than one!
Uncover their secrets in:
Unwrapping the Castelli Secret by Caitlin Crews
Brunetti’s Secret Son by Maya Blake
The Secret to Marrying Marchesi by Amanda Cinelli
Demetriou Demands His Child by Kate Hewitt
The Desert King’s Secret Heir by Annie West
The Sheikh’s Secret Son by Maggie Cox
Look out for more stories in the Secret Heirs of Billionaires series, coming soon!
The Innocent’s Shameful Secret
Sara Craven
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Former journalist SARA CRAVEN published her first novel, Garden of Dreams, for Mills & Boon in 1975. Apart from her writing—naturally!—her passions include reading, bridge, Italian cities, Greek islands, the French language and countryside, and her rescue Jack Russell cross Button. She has appeared on several TV quiz shows, and in 1997 became the champion of UK TV show Mastermind. She lives near her family in Warwickshire—Shakespeare country.
Books by Sara Craven
Mills & Boon Modern Romance
Inherited by Her Enemy
Seduction Never Lies
Count Valieri’s Prisoner
The Price of Retribution
The End of Her Innocence
Wife in the Shadows
His Untamed Innocent
The Innocent’s Surrender
Ruthless Awakening
The Santangeli Marriage
One Night with His Virgin Mistress
The Virgin’s Wedding Night
Innocent on Her Wedding Night
The Forced Bride
Bride of Desire
Seven Sexy Sins
The Innocent’s Sinful Craving
Men Without Mercy
The Highest Stakes of All
Visit the Author Profile page at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk) for more titles.
Contents
Cover (#u82de4079-458a-5d28-b8c9-6169f073e7b2)
Back Cover Text (#uda3e6072-7848-59cb-9183-1268d4f2152e)
Introduction (#uf33e8353-0093-5acc-905c-dea326910887)
Secret Heirs of Billionaires (#ua8897588-d98d-5310-af13-bb9751db1308)
Title Page (#uab982f57-b7f7-5150-8f55-a83c871a50cc)
About the Author (#udba71923-03d2-5f4b-8430-d3890ce2adac)
CHAPTER ONE (#uf03ba6b7-5f30-5277-81b0-91b867e864ec)
CHAPTER TWO (#u9591965f-37ff-5ed3-a5dd-d64917f71212)
CHAPTER THREE (#u73e832d1-b212-5016-8e26-c421d5882ecc)
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 (#u7209a4af-b016-5abe-b68f-64b0917f1fe7)
SELENA SAW THE letter as soon as she opened the front door, the blue airmail envelope unmissable against the brown matting.
She halted abruptly, recognising the Greek stamp, her stomach lurching as a sudden image blazed into her mind of tall bleached columns rearing into an azure sky, with a pool of grass hidden among the fallen stones at their feet. And the soft murmur of a man’s voice in the sunlight, and the brush of hands, lips and warm, naked skin against her own.
She gasped, the plastic carrier bag she was holding slipping from her numb fingers, sending the lemons it contained bouncing and rolling down the narrow hall to the foot of the stairs.
Before she realised almost in the same instant that the untidy scrawl on the envelope could only be Millie’s. No one else’s. And alarm was replaced by growing anger.
Nearly a year of silence, she thought, her throat muscles tightening. And now—what? Another diatribe of recrimination and accusation with the pen scoring the paper just as her sister’s furious voice had scraped across her flinching senses in that last disastrous telephone conversation?
‘It’s all your fault,’ Millie had accused tearfully. ‘You were supposed to help—to put things right. Instead you’ve behaved like a brainless idiot and ruined everything for both of us. I’ll never forgive you, never, and I don’t want to see you or speak to you again.’
And the phone had gone down with a crash that sounded as if it was in the next room rather than hundreds of miles away in a taverna on a remote Greek island.
Leaving her with the knowledge that there was little she could have said in her own defence even if Millie had been prepared to listen. That she had indeed behaved like a fool and worse than a fool.
But she’d suffered for what she’d done in ways that Millie could not even imagine, or was determined to ignore.
Because since that phone call, there’d been nothing. Until now...
She was sorely tempted to leave the letter lying there. To step over it and walk into her living room and begin the new life that had filled her thoughts on the bus journey home.
Except it wouldn’t just go away. It wouldn’t disintegrate or vanish on a breeze. And, in spite of everything, curiosity would be bound to get the better of her in the end.
She bent stiffly and picked up the envelope, walking through the living room, and tossing it on to the worktop in her small galley kitchen, before filling the kettle and setting it to boil.
She’d originally planned to make a jug of fresh lemonade, clinking with ice, and enjoy it in the warmth of her tiny courtyard. A quiet celebration of this unexpected fresh start.
Now what she needed instead was a caffeine rush, she thought bleakly, taking the jar of coffee and a beaker from the cupboard.
While the kettle was coming to the boil, she went back to the hall, collected the lemons, and put them in the fruit basket.
Idiotic, she told herself, to panic like that. Needless, too. Had she really thought, even for a moment...?
No, she told herself harshly, her hands clenching into fists. You do not—not—go there. Not again. Not ever.
She made her coffee strong and carried it outside, settling herself on the elderly wooden bench in the shadiest corner, making herself recap the previous events of the morning and try to recapture something of its optimism.
She had been alone in the classroom, taking down the wall display for Mrs Forbes and putting it in a folder while she considered rather anxiously how she should occupy the unpaid six week summer break ahead of her, when her reverie was interrupted by the arrival of Mrs Smithson, the head teacher.
