скачать книгу бесплатно
Christmas Baby For The Greek
JENNIE LUCAS
A festive surprise… “Did you have my baby, Holly?” Facing the worst news imaginable, Stavros Minos seeks oblivion in an incredible encounter with Holly Marlowe. But a year later he discovers she’s had his child! In his mind, nothing could be more logical than legitimising his heir with a marriage this Christmas. Yet Holly disagrees! Stavros will have to break down the emotional walls he’s spent years building, if he’s to claim his bride and son…
“Did you have my baby, Holly?”
Facing the worst news imaginable, Stavros seeks oblivion in an incredible encounter with Holly. And a year later, he discovers she’s had his child! In his mind, nothing could be more logical than legitimizing his heir with a ring.
Yet he’s stunned when Holly disagrees! Yes, he rejected her after their night together, but she deserved more than he could offer. He’s spent years building his emotional walls, he can’t possibly break them down… This Christmas, to claim his bride and son, will Stavros take the ultimate risk?
USA TODAY bestselling author JENNIE LUCAS’s parents owned a bookstore, so she grew up surrounded by books, dreaming about faraway lands. A fourth-generation Westerner, she went east at sixteen to boarding school on a scholarship, wandered the world, got married, then finally worked her way through college before happily returning to her hometown. A 2010 RITA® Award finalist and 2005 Golden Heart® Award winner, she lives in Idaho with her husband and children.
Also by Jennie Lucas (#uc5e2b33c-1779-5108-a22f-f92e4bd74945)
The Sheikh’s Last Seduction
Uncovering Her Nine-Month Secret
Nine Months to Redeem Him
A Ring for Vincenzo’s Heir
Baby of His Revenge
The Consequence of His Vengeance
Carrying the Spaniard’s Child
Claiming His Nine-Month Consequence
Chosen as the Sheikh’s Royal Bride
Secret Heirs and Scandalous Brides miniseries
The Secret the Italian Claims
The Heir the Prince Secures
The Baby the Billionaire Demands
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk).
Christmas Baby for the Greek
Jennie Lucas
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-08838-1
CHRISTMAS BABY FOR THE GREEK
© 2019 Jennie Lucas
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.
® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Note to Readers (#uc5e2b33c-1779-5108-a22f-f92e4bd74945)
This ebook contains the following accessibility features which, if supported by your device, can be accessed via your ereader/accessibility settings:
Change of font size and line height
Change of background and font colours
Change of font
Change justification
Text to speech
Contents
Cover (#u4c98fd70-a6ed-5e8c-bde2-8bda0589278d)
Back Cover Text (#ufefd172a-5bd3-53bb-ac70-61ef18eff317)
About the Author (#u1880fab0-f54f-5e93-a314-621aeac56a67)
Booklist (#u4bafc8c5-5f23-5358-a1de-6327c4778025)
Title Page (#u52efcf64-0a70-53ba-9824-e5530c16422a)
Copyright (#uf9321343-6dca-5589-9aa2-eb50663df821)
Note to Readers
CHAPTER ONE (#u673e98d4-e5f7-5f8d-aa4a-606770e20373)
CHAPTER TWO (#ue58ee793-54cc-5127-a006-4af245843ada)
CHAPTER THREE (#u97888429-f533-5fa4-be1f-804292c735db)
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)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#uc5e2b33c-1779-5108-a22f-f92e4bd74945)
WAS THERE ANYTHING worse than a wedding on Christmas Eve, with glittering lights sparkling against the snow, holly and ivy decking the halls and the scent of winter roses in the air?
If there was, Holly Marlowe couldn’t think of it.
“You may now kiss the bride,” the minister said, beaming between the newly married couple.
Heartbroken, Holly watched as Oliver—the boss she’d loved in devoted silence for three years—beamed back and lowered his head to kiss the bride.
Her younger sister, Nicole.
The guests in the pews looked enchanted at the couple’s passionate embrace, but Holly felt sick. Fidgeting in her tight red maid-of-honor dress, she looked up at the grand stained-glass windows, then back at the nave of the old New York City church, lavishly decorated with flickering white candles and red roses.
Finally, the newly married couple pulled apart from the kiss. Snatching her bouquet back from Holly’s numb fingers, the bride lifted her new husband’s hand triumphantly in the air.
“Best Christmas ever!” Nicole cried.
There was a wave of adoring laughter and applause. And though Holly had always loved Christmas, striving to make it magical and full of treats each year for her little sister since their parents had died, she thought she’d hate it for the rest of her life.
No. A lump rose in Holly’s throat. She couldn’t think that way. She couldn’t be selfish. Nicole and Oliver were in love. She should be happy for them. She forced herself to smile as the “Hallelujah” Chorus pounded from the organ in the alcove above.
Smiling, the bride and groom started back down the aisle. And Holly suddenly faced the best man. Oliver’s cousin, and his boss. Which made him her boss’s boss.
Stavros Minos.
Dark, tall and broad-shouldered, the powerful Greek billionaire seemed out of place in the old stone church. The very air seemed to vibrate back from him, moving to give him space. He hadn’t been forced to wear some ridiculous outfit that made him look like a deranged Christmas lounge singer. Of course not. She looked over his sleek suit enviously. She couldn’t imagine anyone forcing Stavros Minos to do anything.
Then Holly looked up, and the Greek’s black eyes cut through her soul.
He glanced with sardonic amusement between her and the happy couple, as they continued to walk down the aisle to the cheers of their guests. And his cruel, sensual lips curved up at the edges, as if he knew exactly how her heart had been broken.
Holly’s mouth went dry. No. No, he couldn’t. No one must ever know that she’d loved Oliver. Because he wasn’t just her boss now. He was her sister’s husband. She had to pretend it never happened.
The truth was nothing had happened. She’d never said a word about her feelings to anyone, especially Oliver. The man had no idea that while working as his secretary, Holly had been secretly consumed by pathetic, unrequited love. No one had any idea. No one, it seemed, except Stavros Minos.
But it shouldn’t surprise her the billionaire Greek playboy might see things no other person could. Nearly twenty years ago, as a teenager, he’d single-handedly started a tech company that now owned half the world. He was often in the news, both for his high-powered business dealings and conquests of the world’s most beautiful women. Now, as organ music thundered relentlessly around them, Stavros looked at Holly with a strange knowing in his eyes.
Wordlessly, he held out his arm.
Reluctantly, Holly took it, and tried not to notice how muscled his arm was beneath his sleek black jacket. His biceps had to be bigger than her thigh! It seemed ridiculously unfair that a man so rich and powerful could also be so good-looking. It was why she’d carefully avoided looking at him whenever she’d liaised with his executive assistants—he had three of them—at work.
Shivering, she avoided looking at him again now as they followed Oliver and Nicole. The faces of the guests slid by as Holly smiled blindly at everyone in the packed wooden pews until she thought her face might crack.
Outside the old stone church, on a charming, historical lane in the Financial District, more guests waited to cheer for the couple, tossing red and white rose petals that fell against the thin blanket of snow on the ground.
The afternoon sunlight was weak and gray against the lowering clouds when Holly reached the safety of the waiting limo. Dropping Stavros’s arm, she scrambled inside and turned to stare fiercely out the window, blinking fast so no one would see her tears.
She couldn’t be sad. Not today. Not ever. She was happy for her sister and Oliver, happy they’d be leaving her today to start new adventures together around the world. Happy.
“Whew.” Nicole flopped into the seat across from her in a wave of white tulle that took most of the space in the back of the limo. She grinned at her new husband beside her. “We did it! We’re married!”
“Finally,” Oliver drawled, all lazy charm as he looked down at his bride. “That was a lot of work. But then, I never thought I’d let anyone put the marriage noose round my neck.”
“’Til you met me,” Nicole murmured, turning her face up to be kissed.
Smiling, he lowered his head. “Exactly.”
Holly felt her own seat move as Stavros Minos sat beside her. As the door closed behind him, and the limo pulled away from the curb, she unwillingly breathed in his intoxicating scent of musk and power.
Oliver turned smugly to his cousin. “How about it, Stavros? Did the ceremony give you any ideas?”
The Greek tycoon’s handsome face was colder than the icy winter air outside. “Such as you can’t imagine.”
How dare he be so rude? Holly thought incredulously. But then, the commitment-phobic playboy famously despised weddings. He obviously was unhappy to be forced to attend his cousin’s wedding. And unlike Holly, he didn’t feel any compunction to hide his feelings. Luckily, the happy couple didn’t seem to notice.
Oliver snorted. “I was going to invite Uncle Aristides today, him being family and all that, but I knew you wouldn’t like it.”
“Generous of you.” His voice was flat.
Holly envied Stavros Minos’s coldness right now, when she herself felt heartbroken and raw. Her sister’s pressure for Holly to move with them to Hong Kong after they returned from their honeymoon in Aruba had been ratcheted up to an explosive level. Oliver had already quit at Minos International. If Holly stayed, she’d soon be working for the notoriously unpleasant VP of Operations. Or else she had a standing offer from a previous employer who’d moved back to Europe.
But if she was going to leave New York, shouldn’t she move to Hong Kong, and work for Oliver in his new job? Shouldn’t she devote herself to her baby sister’s happiness, forever and ever?
