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Carides's Forgotten Wife
Maisey Yates
Once forbidden, now for bedding!Greek billionaire Leon Carides has it all: wealth, power, notoriety, even a wife – though he’s never touched his convenient, innocent, bride. Then an accident rids this damaged, debauched playboy of his memories…Leon remembers nothing, except his wife’s sparkling blue eyes. Now, the desire he feels for Rose overrides the gaps in his past, making her impossible to resist! But when his sins catch up with him, can Rose forgive the mistakes of the man he once was? Or will Leon lose more than just his memory?
He’s awake.
A rush of relief ran through her that she didn’t want to analyse.
Leon’s eyes opened, and he began to look around the room. “You aren’t a nurse?”
“No,” she said, her heart thundering hard. “I’m Rose.”
He was probably still disoriented. After all, this was Italy, and she was supposed to be at home in Connecticut. She was probably the last person he expected to see.
“Rose?”
“Yes,” she said, starting to feel a little more alarmed.
“I flew to Italy because of your accident.”
“We are in Italy?” He only sounded more confused.
“Yes,” she said. “Where did you think we were?”
He frowned, his dark eyebrows locking together.
“I don’t know.”
“You were in Italy. Seeing to some business.” And probably pleasure, knowing him, but she wasn’t going to add that. “You were leaving a party and a car drifted into your lane and hit you head-on.”
“That is what I feel like,” he said, his voice rough.
“As though I were hit head-on. Though I feel more like I was hit directly by the car. With nothing to buffer it.”
“With how fast you drive, I imagine you might as well have been.”
He frowned. “We know each other?”
She frowned. “Of course we do. I’m your wife.”
MAISEY YATES is a USA TODAY bestselling author of more than thirty romance novels. She has a coffee habit she has no interest in kicking, and a slight Pinterest addiction. She lives with her husband and children in the Pacific Northwest. When Maisey isn’t writing she can be found singing in the grocery store, shopping for shoes online and probably not doing dishes. Check out her website: maiseyyates.com (http://maiseyyates.com).
Carides’s Forgotten Wife
Maisey Yates
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
To Megan Crane/Caitlin Crews.
For all the times we've sat around talking about how wonderful it is to write these stories, and everything else.
You make my writing and my life more sparkly.
Contents
COVER (#ud8a2518d-5b2d-5802-80ca-f716c19bb1ef)
INTRODUCTION (#uc40e7868-f306-582c-8241-40f0db33770e)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR (#u6958195f-4bb9-51d2-8d4b-00d956aeb76b)
TITLE PAGE (#u1afee8b3-e65d-589c-ba4c-af39038178cc)
DEDICATION (#u64e5c1e8-068b-5301-bc50-ebc9c2bffffd)
PROLOGUE (#uabfc8b03-b641-5921-99b2-bed0c0e4a887)
CHAPTER ONE (#uf6c21170-e96a-5947-a524-ea6b96048bbc)
CHAPTER TWO (#udef11c3e-5b61-5000-9ff7-737f773bc808)
CHAPTER THREE (#u0d6b0cd9-9f70-5b0a-b6bb-fd4e823c2978)
CHAPTER FOUR (#u29a56ce0-fb01-52f7-b9d7-fedc523004d3)
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)
PROLOGUE (#ulink_00bef7a4-786b-5643-817d-30189179e4e7)
ANOTHER BORING PARTY in a long succession of boring parties. That was Leon’s predominant thought as he pulled away from the ostentatious hotel and out onto the narrow Italian streets.
The highlight of his evening had been the most disappointing portion, as well. Being rebuffed by Rocco Amari’s fiancée. She had been beautiful. Exotic. With her long dark hair and honey-colored skin. Yes, she would have made a wonderful companion for his bed tonight. Sadly, she seemed to be very committed to Rocco. And he to her.
To each his own, he supposed. Frankly, Leon did not see the appeal in monogamy.
Life was a glorious buffet of debauchery. Why on earth would he seek to limit that?
Though he had walked away empty-handed, he had thoroughly enjoyed enraging his business rival. He could not deny that.
The other man was possessive in a way that Leon could see no point in being. But then, he had never had feelings so intense for a woman.
He turned onto a road that began to lead out of the city, heading toward the villa he was staying in during his time in Italy. It was a nice place. Rustic, well-appointed. He preferred places like that to a penthouse in the middle of a busy business district. A fact that was, perhaps, at odds with other aspects of his personality. But then, being a contradiction had never bothered him.
He owned several estates worldwide, though none were as important to him as his estate in Connecticut.
The thought of that house, of that place, turned his thoughts to his wife.
He would rather not think of Rose just now.
For some reason when he thought of her after just attempting to bring another woman into his bed, he felt a tug of unaccustomed guilt. For the past two years, Rose had often made him feel guilty.
There was no real reason, of course. They were married, it was true, but in name only. He allowed her to do as she liked, and he carried on as he liked.
Still, it was easy to picture those wide, luminous blue eyes and feel...
His focus snapped back to the road, to a pair of headlights heading in his direction.
There was no time to correct. No time to react at all. There was nothing but the impact.
And a clear image of Rose’s blue eyes.
CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_8e2f1ffb-6e44-5cb6-9b20-faefa7729582)
“HE IS STABLE for the moment,” Dr. Castellano said.
Rose looked down at her husband, lying in his hospital bed, broken, bandages wrapped around his upper arm, down over his shoulder and across his chest. His lip was swollen, a cut looking angry and painful at the center, a dark bruise bleeding color on his cheekbone.
He looked... Well, he looked not at all like Leon Carides. Leon Carides was larger-than-life, a man so full of power and charisma he was undeniable. A man who commanded respect with his every movement, his every breath. A man who stopped women in their tracks and demanded their full attention and admiration.
A man she had been on the verge of divorcing. But you could hardly hand a man divorce papers while he was lying in bed with severe injuries.
“It’s a miracle he survived,” the doctor continued.
“Yes,” she said, her voice hollow. As hollow as the rest of her. “A miracle.”
Some small part of her—one that she immediately set out to squash—thought it would have been much more convenient for him to have died there on the side of the road. Then she wouldn’t have to face any of this. Wouldn’t have to deal with the state of their union. Or rather, the lack of union.
But she banished it. Quickly. She couldn’t stand being married to him anymore, but that didn’t mean she wanted him dead.
She swallowed hard. “Well, thank heaven for miracles. Large and small.”
“Yes.”
“Has he been awake at all?”
“No,” the doctor said, his voice heavy. “He has not been conscious since we brought him in. The impact was intense, and his head injury is...serious. He shows brain activity, so we do have some hope. But you know, the longer someone stays unconscious...”
“Of course.”
It had taken her about twenty hours to get to Italy from Connecticut, and Leon had been unconscious for all that time. But there were all kinds of stories of people waking up miraculously after years. Surely he still had hope after a mere few hours.
“If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch. A nurse will be by in the next fifteen minutes. But if you have need of anything, just text this number.” The doctor handed her a card with a phone number on it. She imagined this was what it was like to get special treatment at the hospital. Of course Leon would get special treatment. He was a billionaire, one of the most successful businessmen in the world. Wealthy, and powerful. Which meant that these sorts of things—as difficult as they were—would always be easier for people like him.
She held the card close to her chest. “Thank you.”
The doctor left, closing the door behind him. Leaving her standing there in the room with nothing but the sounds of machines surrounding her.
Panic started to rise in her chest as she continued to look at Leon’s still form. He wasn’t supposed to look like this. He wasn’t supposed to be breakable.
Leon Carides had always been more of a god to her than a man. The sort of man she had built up into fantasy as a young girl. He was ten years older than her. And he had been her father’s most trusted and prized protégé from the time Rose was eight years old. She could hardly remember a period of time when Leon hadn’t been involved in her life.
Carefree. Easy with a smile. Always so kind. He had seen her. Truly. And had made her feel like she mattered.
Of course, all that changed when they got married.
But she wasn’t going to think about their wedding now.
She didn’t want to think about anything. She wanted to close her eyes and be back in the rose garden at her family estate. Wanted to be surrounded by the soft, fragrant summer breeze, held in it as though it was a pair of arms, protecting her from all of this. But that was just a daydream. Everything here was too stark, too white, too antiseptic to be a dream.
It was crushingly real, an assault on her senses.
She wondered if there had been anyone else in the car with him. If there were, they hadn’t said. She also wondered if he had been drinking. Again, no one had said.
Another perk of wealth. People wanted to protect you so they might benefit later. But the why didn’t matter, as long as the protection happened.
Leon groaned and her focus was wrenched back to the hospital bed. He shifted, moving his hand, and the lines to the IV and the cord link to the pulse monitor on his finger tugged hard.
“Be careful,” she said, keeping her voice soft. “You’re plugged into...” She looked around at all the equipment, all the bags of saline and antibiotics and whatever else was being pumped into his veins. “Well, you’re plugged into everything. Don’t...unplug anything.”
She didn’t know if he heard her. Didn’t know if he understood. But then, he shifted, groaning again.
“Are you in pain?”
“I am pain,” he said, his voice rough, tortured.
Relief flooded her, washing over her in a wave that left her dizzy. She hadn’t realized just how affected she was until this moment. Just how terrified she was.
