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An Heiress for His Empire
LUCY MONROE
The story: Innocent debutante Madison Archer has hit the headlines for a scandal not of her making. Now, marriage to the unscrupulous Viktor Beck is the only way to save what's left of her reputation!The contract: Maddie has always featured in Viktor's plans to take over her father's company and expand his empire. The intense attraction between them only sweetens the deal he's offered…The secret: Though love doesn't beat in Viktor's heart, he'll show Maddie just how hot their chemistry can be. But even this corporate shark is in for a shock—his wild socialite is still a virgin!Discover more at www.millsandboon.co.uk/lucymonroe
Viktor’s kiss took Maddie by surprise. It shouldn’t have. Wasn’t it natural to kiss to seal an engagement?
But the kiss did surprise her. And then it overwhelmed her, his lips coaxing a response that radiated throughout her body. They took possession of hers, insisting on the two things she’d said only that morning she wasn’t capable of.
Submission and trust.
But then, like with so many other things in her life, the rules did not apply to Viktor Beck.
She found herself melting into him, no thoughts for self-preservation or holding anything back.
And he accepted her surrender with a forceful masculine desire that belied any claim for a lack of passion between them.
He devoured her mouth, his arms coming around her, his hands pressing her body flush with his.
Maddie’s knees would have given out, but Vik’s hold on her was too tight.
The kiss was Viktor Beck staking claim to the woman who promised to marry him and give him his dreams.
Lucy Monroe’s
RUTHLESS RUSSIANS
Passion is in their blood
As boys, they came from Russia to America to make their fortunes. Now formidable opponents in the boardroom, Viktor Beck and Maxwell Black are about to make the biggest acquisitions of their lives by marrying two of San Francisco’s most notorious heiresses! Beneath their suave American exteriors beat the passionate hearts of fearsome Cossack warriors—and their intended brides are about to give them the battle of their lives!
In AN HEIRESS FOR HIS EMPIRE October 2014
A tabloid sex scandal means Viktor Beck can put his plan in motion and marry heiress Madison Archer—the key to taking over her father’s business and building his empire. But even this ruthless Russian is not prepared for his wild bride to be a virgin!
In A VIRGIN FOR HIS PRIZE November 2014
Formidable CEO Maxwell Black is about to make his ultimate acquisition— socialite Romi Grayson! She has something he wants, and his need for control—in all areas—means he won’t rest until his ring is on her finger and the innocent Romi is warm and willing in his bed!
An Heiress for His Empire
Lucy Monroe
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
LUCY MONROE started reading at the age of four. After going through the children’s books at home, she was caught by her mother reading adult novels pilfered from the higher shelves on the bookcase … Alas, it was nine years before she got her hands on a Mills & Boon® Romance her older sister had brought home. She loves to create the strong alpha males and independent women who people Mills & Boon® books. When she’s not immersed in a romance novel (whether reading or writing it), she enjoys travel with her family, having tea with the neighbours, gardening, and visits from her numerous nieces and nephews.
Lucy loves to hear from her readers:
email LucyMonroe@LucyMonroe.com (mailto:LucyMonroe@LucyMonroe.com) or visit www.LucyMonroe.com (http://www.LucyMonroe.com)
For Judy Flohr, a very special reader who I have long considered an honest friend. It’s sort of amazing to me that you’ve been reading and sharing your love of my books since the very first one, THE GREEK TYCOON’S ULTIMATUM, back in 2003. When I’m doubting myself, or the story, I know I can re-read your emails or online reader reviews and remember why I write and that maybe I’m not so bad at this after all.
THANK YOU!!!
Hugs and blessings, Lucy
Contents
Cover (#u2a09575a-7c8d-51f5-9227-2dd9c851fdf0)
Excerpt (#u47594acc-dee8-5a56-9a19-7789826b4bd1)
Title Page (#u95952779-dd27-56f4-b2c0-53228ea24cf9)
About the Author (#u386e6291-6aad-5476-a2cd-5ea83913cdd8)
Dedication (#u674e1e2b-4bd2-579a-9168-b1b1c062becf)
CHAPTER ONE (#u0dad20c2-cbb9-59f0-bc1f-43f567164281)
CHAPTER TWO (#u0e4ac607-b5f8-502e-8e30-1ef0cf349157)
CHAPTER THREE (#u26ca1422-0695-5686-b30f-5364f3fb41e7)
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)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_b35bdd28-4f3c-5eaf-9da9-1c6afe0cdf0c)
MADISON ARCHER SET HER morning coffee down, hot liquid spilling over the rim, as she read her Google alerts with growing horror.
Madcap Madison Looking for New Master?
Archer Heiress into Heavy Kink
San Francisco Bad Boy Dumps Very Bad Girl
The articles made lurid claims about a lifestyle and relationship between Maddie and Perry Timwater. A completely nonexistent relationship.
The fact that Perry was the source caused the coffee to sour in Maddie’s stomach.
His supposed exposé of their fictitious relationship claimed she was a submissive with a serious pain fetish and need for multiple partners. She gritted her teeth on the urge to swear as she read it was her inability to remain faithful that forced Perry to end things between them.
Maddie wouldn’t mind ending Perry right that minute. Betrayal choked her.
How could he have done this?
He was her friend.
They’d met their freshman year at university. He’d made her laugh when she’d thought nothing could. Not after her epic fail trying to get Viktor Beck’s attention. She’d started university with a broken heart and Perry had helped her paste over the cracks with friendship.
She’d helped him pass his accountancy courses. He’d played platonic escort for her and she’d provided him entrée to Jeremy Archer’s world—an echelon above his own.
But never, not once, had their friendship ever taken a turn toward something heavier.
Pounding sounded on her front door. “Maddie! It’s me, don’t freak.” Then barely a second later, the double snick of locks sliding back was followed by the door swinging wide.
Holding a bag from their favorite bakery aloft, her black bob swirling around her pixie face, Romi Grayson kicked the door shut behind her. “I come bearing the panacea for all ills.”
“I’m not sure even chocolate and flaky pastry can make this situation better.” Maddie slumped against the back of her chair.
Eyes the same vibrant blue as Maddie’s glittered with anger. “So, Perry’s lost his mind, right?”
“You saw the articles?”
“Only after reporters woke me from a dead sleep demanding my opinion of my best friend’s darker sexual proclivities.” Romi’s mouth twisted wryly. “Proclivities I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t have even if you weren’t still a virgin.”
“You’ve got that right. I’ve never been able to trust one man enough to have sex, much less multiple partners.”
As ridiculous as that might seem at twenty-four, it wasn’t going to change anytime soon, either.
“If you ask me, it’s got less to do with trust and more to do with the fact you imprinted on Viktor Beck like a baby bird when you were a teenager and you’ve never gotten over him.”
“Romi!” Maddie was in no mood to hash out her unrequited feelings for her father’s dark-haired, dark-eyed, to-die-for-bodied golden boy.
“I’m just saying...”
“Nothing you haven’t said before.” Maddie’s stomach grew queasier by the second.
Along with the rest of the world, Vik would see the articles, but she couldn’t afford to think about that right now, or she really was going to lose it. “Father is going to kill me.”
This new scandal was bound to crack even the San Francisco tycoon’s icy demeanor. And not in the way Maddie had always craved.
He’d sent her away to boarding school months after her mother’s death and Maddie had courted media attention in the hopes of gaining his. It had worked for her mother, Helene Archer, née Madison, the original Madcap Madison, but Maddie had come to realize the strategy had backfired pretty spectacularly for her.
In the nine years since Helene’s death, Jeremy had developed a habit of thinking the worst of his daughter. When he wasn’t ignoring her existence all together.
“If he doesn’t die of a stress-related heart attack first.” Romi put a chocolate-filled croissant in front of Maddie.
“Don’t say that.”
The other woman grimaced. “Sorry. Stuff just comes out. You know what I’m like. Your dad is wound pretty tight, though.”
Maddie couldn’t argue that.
“I think this time, Perry’s diarrhea of the mouth has me beat anyway.” Romi chewed her pastry militantly. “What was he thinking?”
Morose, Maddie stared at her friend. “That he wanted the money the tabloid paid him for the story?”
She’d had no idea that turning down his latest request for a loan would result in her utter humiliation. How could she? Friends didn’t do that to each other.
“Jerk.”
Maddie usually played peacemaker between her two closest friends, but she wasn’t about to stand up for Perry this time. “What am I going to do?”
“You could threaten to sue and demand a retraction.”
“Based on my word against his?”
Romi made a sound very close to a growl. “You two have never even kissed with tongue.”
“But we have kissed, for the cameras.” Perry had always made a joke of it.
He had been Maddie’s go-to escort for years and more than one article speculating on their relationship had been run, often quoting anonymous sources and always accompanied by the joke kissing pictures.
“Do you think he’s done this before?”
“Sold confidential details of your supposed relationship?” Romi asked.
“Yes.”
“You know what I think.”
Maddie sighed. “That he’s a leech.”
“Always has been.”
“He was a good friend.” Maddie couldn’t make herself claim he still was.
Romi just gave Maddie a disbelieving look, no words necessary.
