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Married For The Greek's Convenience
Michelle Smart
Vows never broken…He was the man she never wanted to see again… Exclusive matchmaker Elizabeth Young cannot believe it when Xander Trakas storms back into her life, announcing that their disastrous marriage was never annulled!His was the bed she never thought she’d share again… It would be so easy to surrender to the fire that still flickers between them, but can Elizabeth risk giving her heart to formidable Greek again?His was the ring she never thought she’d wear again… With guardianship of Xander’s precious nephew at stake, Elizabeth just can’t refuse her husband’s demand!Book 4 in the Brides for Billionaires quartet
Vows never broken...
He was the man she never wanted to see again... Exclusive matchmaker Elizabeth Young cannot believe it when Xander Trakas storms back into her life, announcing that their disastrous marriage was never annulled!
His was the bed she never thought she’d share again... It would be so easy to surrender to the fire that still flickers between them, but can Elizabeth risk giving her heart to the formidable Greek again?
His was the ring she never thought she’d wear again... With guardianship of Xander’s precious nephew at stake, Elizabeth just can’t refuse her husband’s demand!
‘Using your ex-wife to find you a new wife is one thing, but conducting the preliminary interviews on the very island where we met and married screams of insensitivity. You have the money and the resources to travel anywhere your heart desires, so why here? Is it to rub my nose in it?’
When Elizabeth finally looked at Xander he was staring at her with a look she couldn’t interpret.
‘I have a number of reasons.’
She forced herself to remain poised. If he wanted to play mind games he could play them on his own. She was here to do a job and nothing else. ‘Tell me what kind of woman you have in mind to marry.’
Elizabeth waited for him to answer but his gaze remained on her...the same unfathomable expression stayed on his gorgeous face.
Uncertainty crept up her spine. The way he was looking at her...
Xander took a mouthful of his drink and set the glass steadily on the table.
‘I don’t need you to find me a wife, Elizabeth. I already have one.’ He leaned forward and lowered his voice. ‘Our marriage was never annulled. We’re still married.’
Brides for Billionaires (#u38623b7b-9958-53da-ab3c-95efb4f64650)
Meet the world’s ultimate unattainable men…
Four titans of industry and power—Benjamin Carter, Dante Mancini, Zayn Al-Ghamdi and Xander Trakas—are in complete control of every aspect of their exclusive world... Until one catastrophic newspaper article forces them to take drastic action!
Now these gorgeous billionaires need one thing: willing women on their arms and wearing their rings! Women falling at their feet is normal, but these bachelors need the right women to stand by their sides. And for that they need billionaire matchmaker Elizabeth Young.
This is the opportunity of a lifetime for Elizabeth, so she won’t turn down the challenge of finding just the right match for these formidable tycoons. But Elizabeth has a secret that could complicate things for one of the bachelors...
Find out what happens in:
Married for the Tycoon’s Empire by Abby Green
Married for the Italian’s Heir by Rachael Thomas
Married for the Sheikh’s Duty by Tara Pammi
Married for the Greek’s Convenience by Michelle Smart
Available now!
Married for the Greek’s Convenience
Michelle Smart
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
MICHELLE SMART’s love affair with books started when she was a baby, when she would cuddle them in her cot. A voracious reader of all genres, she found her love of romance established when she stumbled across her first Mills & Boon book at the age of twelve. She’s been reading them—and writing them—ever since. Michelle lives in Northamptonshire with her husband and two young smarties.
Books by Michelle Smart
Mills & Boon Modern Romance
Claiming His Christmas ConsequenceThe Russian’s Ultimatum The Rings That BindThe Perfect Cazorla Wife
Wedlocked!
Wedded, Bedded, Betrayed
The Kalliakis Crown
Talos Claims His VirginTheseus Discovers His Heir Helios Crowns His Mistress
Society Weddings
The Greek’s Pregnant Bride
The Irresistible Sicilians
What a Sicilian Husband Wants The Sicilian’s Unexpected DutyTaming the Notorious Sicilian
Visit the Author Profile page at
millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk) for more titles.
Contents
Cover (#ue5e14705-d58a-5a3f-ac99-0be23e50134c)
Back Cover Text (#u63c40adc-3812-5734-b09c-41388dbe0dc1)
Introduction (#uc7dc9b67-aa77-580c-b936-f51deda66195)
Brides for Billionaires (#uf04f9e16-0fe8-5107-adb2-9634b5b811d8)
Title Page (#u93aacc4c-0d6a-596c-b297-c0bc7729d038)
About the Author (#uabb195b5-c88a-548d-b04e-2e1e2fcbf84c)
CHAPTER ONE (#ud8bf383d-9b63-58c2-92af-96e42fe88aad)
CHAPTER TWO (#ueac8e54f-0ac0-5963-ac3d-c8bd020edfbe)
CHAPTER THREE (#u35ddbf93-8ac7-5c65-aba7-e814572772dd)
CHAPTER FOUR (#u40d2306c-185d-5243-a381-ff147f6b658a)
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)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#u38623b7b-9958-53da-ab3c-95efb4f64650)
IF XANDER TRAKAS had thought his week couldn’t get any worse, this was the nail in the coffin to finish him off.
His American lawyer, a thorough man if ever there was one, had confirmed that Xander’s marriage to Elizabeth Young was indeed registered with all the relevant jurisdictions and authorities. However, there was no evidence of their annulment.
They were still married.
He grabbed the back of his neck and rubbed it hard, breathing deeply.
The whole Celebrity Spy! scandal was the mess that just kept giving. What had started as a relatively small teaser promising to reveal the ‘juiciest and most scandalous details’ about the world’s most eligible and debauched bachelors had grown into the scandal of the decade. And to think he had dismissed that initial teaser... Yes, he was considered one of the world’s most eligible bachelors, but debauched? He’d heard plenty of lewd stories about his new brothers in arms over the years. Compared to them he was practically a virgin.
Okay, that might be a notion too far, but a few monogamous affairs throughout the years had nothing on the legendary exploits of Dante Mancini, Benjamin Carter or Sheikh Zayn Al-Ghamdi.
The subsequent articles, not just in Celebrity Spy! but in its rival tabloids and websites the world over, had painted a picture of himself he simply did not recognise. Three of his ex-lovers had sold him out, embellishing and sensationalising what, to him, had been perfectly normal healthy affairs. Half a dozen women he struggled to remember even meeting had sold tales of their nights together. It was complete rubbish.
Strangely enough, the only woman from his past he hadn’t worried about selling her soul for a piece of gold was the woman he’d made the mistake of marrying a decade ago.
All it needed was for one tenacious reporter to go digging through the court records and his marriage would be there for the world to see. It wouldn’t take them long to put two and two together and see that while his jilted Greek fiancée had been falling apart at the seams, he’d been romancing and marrying an American beauty, oblivious to the destruction he’d left behind.
He’d never spoken of his marriage to Elizabeth. Not to anyone. Not his parents. Not his friends.
They’d never lived as man and wife. They’d met, married and gone their separate ways in a mad two-week period on the honeymooner’s paradise of St Francis.
But their separate ways did not include the annulment Elizabeth had sworn—with an uncouth curse thrown at him for good measure—she would obtain.
The last time he’d seen her had been in their hotel villa. She’d had tears streaming down her shell-shocked face.
Did she know their annulment had been denied? Did the billionaire matchmaker know she was the legal wife of a billionaire herself? It beggared belief that she didn’t know, but in all their years apart she’d never reached out to him, not once.
And he’d never reached out to her. He’d pushed her face from his mind almost completely.
He would have to tread carefully.
The report he’d had compiled on her had revealed a different woman from the one he’d known then. She was no longer a carefree nineteen-year-old who lived for nothing more than to feel the wind in her hair and the sun on her face. In the decade since they’d gone their separate ways she’d built a new and successful life for herself.
His phone vibrated, breaking through his thoughts. Hoping it would be his lawyer, who he’d ordered to find out exactly why their annulment had failed, he only just stopped himself pressing the accept button in time. The caller was his father, someone he was not in the mood to speak to.
Xander couldn’t face another argument. The daily calls from Greece were becoming increasingly fractious, from both sides. Late last night, his sister-in-law had been admitted into hospital with alcohol poisoning. Liver failure had been diagnosed. Unless Xander’s brother stopped shovelling drugs into his system, his body would be the next to break down.
All of this would have been difficult enough to cope with without having to deal with the major press intrusion the Celebrity Spy! scandal had unleashed.
Tonight he needed to keep himself together and his head straight. He would return home first thing in the morning but for now he had the annual gala for the Hope Foundation, the main charity he supported, to attend. The press would be out in force. All four of the men in the eye of the scandal would be under the same roof for the first time. They all supported this charity, and evidence was growing that it was now suffering because of its association with them.
Although their businesses lay in different fields, they’d been rivals for years. All four of them were strong, ultra-wealthy men with hard noses for business. There had been nothing friendly about their interactions. Tonight, he suspected they would have to find a way to breach their usual silent antagonism.
All four of them were feeling the pressure. They were in the eye of the storm and the sooner they found their way out of it, the better.
Two weeks later
Elizabeth Young stepped into her West Village apartment with a very real sense of relief. After a week away in Rome, she welcomed the return to the space she called home.
She loved her apartment, set in the heart of New York’s oldest district. While it wasn’t the largest piece of real estate around—she earned excellent money but not that excellent—she had never lived with such contentment anywhere else.
For perhaps the dozenth time since she’d landed at JFK, she checked her cell phone, telling herself it was concern for Piper that had her looking and not the looming possibility of her ex-husband getting in touch.
It was hearing Piper vocalise his name that had her so on edge. The beautiful Australian had been openly prying her with questions. Elizabeth didn’t blame her. In Piper’s shoes she would have been curious too. Three of the men implicated in the Celebrity Spy! scandal had called on her services so it was only natural the fourth would require her assistance too.
Dante did say Xander must call you too.
Were those Piper’s words? They had definitely been something along those lines and had forced Elizabeth to confront what she had spent almost a fortnight in denial about.
Benjamin, Zayn and Dante had all said they’d been recommended to her by Xander. He’d passed her details to them.
She had no idea how her ex-husband knew what she did for a living or how he’d got her details. Leviathan Solutions was run in utter secrecy on a strict word-of-mouth basis.
She assured herself that just because he’d recommended her to the other men it didn’t mean he required her services for himself. His situation was different from the others. Timos SE had been solely owned by the Trakas family for generations.
