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His Drakon Runaway Bride
Tara Pammi
Found – his long-lost bride!Ariana Sakis walked out on her husband Crown Prince Andreas Drakos knowing her feelings were unrequited. For ten years she has hidden herself away, determined never to be made vulnerable by passion again and believing herself divorced. Until her new wedding day is interrupted by Andreas himself, declaring them still married!Furious at her betrayal, Andreas won’t let Ariana escape him again. He’ll take his revenge by claiming Ariana for his throne—and his bed! But their passionate reunion threatens to undo dark-hearted Andreas, and he soon realises that desire is even more binding than duty…Book 3 in The Drakon Royals trilogy
Found—his long-lost bride!
Ariana Sakis walked out on Crown Prince Andreas Drakos, knowing her feelings were unrequited. For ten years she has hidden herself away, determined to never be made vulnerable by passion again...and believing herself divorced. Until her new wedding day is interrupted by Andreas himself, declaring them still married!
Furious at her betrayal, Andreas won’t let Ariana escape him again. He’ll take his revenge by claiming Ariana for his throne—and his bed! But their passionate reunion threatens to undo dark-hearted Andreas, and he soon realizes that desire is even more binding than duty...
A smile curved Andreas’s mouth, rendering him starkly beautiful. “You and my father missed one small detail in your plan. If I had never discovered you were alive it wouldn’t have mattered so much. But I did.”
“What detail?” Ariana was shouting now, her voice lost in the gray bleakness around her.
Everything about those few days was still jumbled in her head. She’d been acting on pure animal instincts—fear the overriding one—and listening to King Theos had been the worst kind of mistake.
All she’d wanted was to escape Drakon before Andreas came back from his summit. Before she was caught in the web of her own love for him.
Her leaving him was a betrayal to a man who didn’t break the rules for anyone—an unforgivable mistake to a man whose word meant everything.
She clasped his jaw, forcing him to look at her. “What detail, Andreas?”
He still didn’t hold her. Didn’t touch her in any way. Those eyes trapped her again, until even breathing was a chore. Those eyes betrayed all his emotions—fury, shock, and the cold enjoyment of her fate now.
“You are still my wife.”
The Drakon Royals
Royalty never looked this scandalous!
To the outside world, the Drakon Royals have the world at their feet. Yet beneath the surface black-hearted Crown Prince Andreas, his daredevil younger brother Prince Nikandros and their illegitimate sister Princess Eleni hide the secrets of their family name...
Until one brush with desire, and then all the Drakons find themselves at the heart of their very own scandal!
Crowned for the Drakon Legacy
April 2017
The Drakon Baby Bargain
June 2017
His Drakon Runaway Bride
September 2017
You won’t want to miss this outrageously scandalous new trilogy from Tara Pammi!
His Drakon Runaway Bride
Tara Pammi
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
TARA PAMMI can’t remember a moment when she wasn’t lost in a book—especially a romance, which was much more exciting than a mathematics textbook at school. Years later, Tara’s wild imagination and love for the written word revealed what she really wanted to do. Now she pairs alpha males who think they know everything with strong women who knock that theory and them off their feet!
Books by Tara Pammi
Mills & Boon Modern Romance
The Sheikh’s Pregnant Prisoner
The Man to Be Reckoned With
A Deal with Demakis
The Drakon Royals
Crowned for the Drakon Legacy
The Drakon Baby Bargain
Brides for Billionaires
Married for the Sheikh’s Duty
The Legendary Conti Brothers
The Surprise Conti Child
The Unwanted Conti Bride
Greek Tycoons Tamed
Claimed for His Duty
Bought for Her Innocence
Society Weddings
The Sicilian’s Surprise Wife
Visit the Author Profile page at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk) for more titles.
Contents
Cover (#udc141891-1109-57c2-a9ca-f363c33dbb15)
Back Cover Text (#uc848c9fb-f0c3-57a2-b054-1dd6d69972e7)
Introduction (#u997badf9-3aa5-54c6-8fec-7fb837ae5c95)
The Drakon Royals (#uf9914105-2ba3-5ee6-8488-64619b4fa283)
Title Page (#u5fa1bfaa-c0aa-5e4d-87db-bfaad75ac570)
About the Author (#u5f2633c9-8343-5133-bdc8-2333e22c9b8b)
CHAPTER ONE (#uead5ec29-fdae-508c-a154-4bb07c6f34ca)
CHAPTER TWO (#u18bdce93-8b45-54d1-a394-aa5bd78a1d2b)
CHAPTER THREE (#u2d0b857f-28e4-5ce2-8a86-4dadeb6e50ed)
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)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#u80ad7a60-3bcf-588b-b9cb-5cecd8108b01)
“IS THIS A coup to overthrow me?” Crown Prince Andreas Drakos of Drakon joked as he walked into his study to find his family staring at him with a spectrum of emotions—concern in his sister Eleni’s eyes, stubborn resolve in Mia’s, something he couldn’t define in his brother Nikandros’s and pure frost in Gabriel’s.
“None of us want your job, your popularity rating or your life, Andreas,” replied Nikandros, the financial genius who had set Drakon on its path of recovery after the mess their father had made in the last decade.
Nik was right. The state of his life currently—utter chaos with the Crown Council breathing down his neck for the announcement of his choice for the next Queen of Drakon, the questions the media was raising about his mental health, his frequent disappearances from Drakon in the last year, sometimes even his sexuality—would have usually had the effect of fire ants crawling all over his skin.
But he didn’t have any mental energy left beyond the hunt he’d been on for two years now. He was getting close, he knew it in his blood.
He settled down next to Mia. The smell of baby powder drifting from her was strangely calming. “How are you, Mia?”
Mia took his hands in hers. He tried not to flinch. Physical contact made him twitchy and now Mia knew it. But somewhere in the last few months, his sister-in-law and he had become strangely close.
“You didn’t come to see the twins, Andreas. After all the hullabaloo you raised about heirs for Drakon, I’m feeling neglected.”
He smiled. “I have just this hour returned to Drakon.”
“Which nicely segues to why we are all here. Andreas, what is going on?”
“You let her leave Tia and Alexio’s side to ask me this question?” Nik glared at him in response. Dark shadows bruised Mia’s eyes. “You look awful.”
“Stop posturing, Nik. You know he’s just trying to get a rise out of you.” She smiled and her eyes lit up with that same incandescent joy he’d seen in Nik’s of late. “I have two very good reasons for my ghoulish look, Your Highness,” she said, her gaze tracing the angles of his face. “You however do not.
“You look like hell,” she said with that forthrightness he’d come to expect from her, “and whether Nik and Gabriel will agree to put it like that or not, we’re all...very worried about you.”
He frowned, looked up and, with a strange knot in his gut, realized it was true. “It’s not necessary.”
“There’s talk from the Crown Council about asking you to step down. Your popularity level is at its lowest,” Nik said in a deceptively calm voice. “Some political pundits have dared say Father’s madness has already begun to manifest in you. You leave Drakon for days, not one of your aides knows your schedule, you refuse to see even Ellie and me...”
“That’s why you’re all worried?” Andreas asked with a laugh. “That Theos gave me his madness in addition to everything else?”
Eleni spoke up. “Of course not. But we do think you’ve been acting strange. Andreas, the House of Tharius is waiting for your word to release news of your engagement. The coronation is in two months and you—”
His phone pinged and every nerve in him went on high alert. He knew even before he switched on his phone’s screen what the news was going to be. His fingers shook when he swiped the screen.
Found the target. Sending location specs now.
His breath balled up in his chest, and he had to force himself to exhale.
Anticipation bubbled in his blood, coupled with savage satisfaction. “Let the House of Tharius know it’s off.”
The shock that spread through the huge room made the hairs on his neck rise. Nik and Eleni looked at him with such concern in their eyes that for the first time in months Andreas felt a little guilt. “I apologize for leaving you both in the lurch these past few months. I needed—”
“Thee mou, Andreas!” Nik burst out. “We don’t care that for the first time in thirty-six years, you took a few months for yourself.”
“Not the first time,” he said automatically. “I took a free year just when your health improved. Almost ten years ago.”
Nikandros frowned. “When Theos tried to make me his leashed dog?”
“A few months before that happened, yes.” When Andreas had, in a fit of madness, threatened Theo that he would walk out on Drakon if he didn’t give him some time off.
“Andreas.” Eleni reached him, her voice wavering. “You can’t be crowned King without a wife. That’s one of the oldest Drakonite laws. No member of the Crown Council will let you defy it. Are you...are you giving up the crown?”
Nikandros cursed so filthily that he had to laugh.
Andreas patted his sister’s hand awkwardly. “I’m not doing any such thing, Eleni. I will be crowned as scheduled.”
“You need a wife for that.” Nik again. Only Gabriel stood silent, staring at him from those steel-grey eyes. Gabriel, his brother-in-law, who had figured out the truth.
