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Lynne GRAHAM
is one of Mills & Boon’s most popular and bestselling novelists. Her writing was an instant success with readers worldwide. Since her first book, Bittersweet Passion, was published in 1987, she has gone from strength to strength and now has over ninety titles, which have sold more than thirty-five million copies, to her name.
In this special collection, we offer readers a chance to revisit favourite books or enjoy that rare treasure—a book by a favourite writer—they may have missed. In every case, seduction and passion with a gorgeous, irresistible man are guaranteed!
LYNNE GRAHAM was born in Northern Ireland and has been a keen Mills & Boon® reader since her teens. She is very happily married, with an understanding husband who has learned to cook since she started to write! Her five children keep her on her toes. She has a very large dog, which knocks everything over, a very small terrier, which barks a lot, and two cats. When time allows, Lynne is a keen gardener.
www.millsandboon.co.uk
CONTENTS
Cover
About the Author
Title Page
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
Endpage
Copyright
CHAPTER ONE
WHEN the stretch limo pulled up outside, the executives waiting in the foyer fell silent. The new owner of Devlin Systems, the Greek multimillionaire, Leos Kiriakos, had arrived. His ruthless reputation had preceded him and the tension was electric. Everyone was expecting a huge round of redundancies by the end of the month.
Susie Marshall, the slender redhead on reception, was pale as death, her entire concentration centered on the entrance doors being swept open. In just seconds, she would see him for the first time in fourteen long, endless months …
Her co-worker, Jayne, a chatty blonde, whispered, “Bet he’s not anything as attractive as his publicity photos!”
Susie snatched in an unsteady breath and clenched her hands tightly together. From the instant Leos Kiriakos had added Devlin Systems to his global business empire, nobody had been interested in talking about anything else. Frantically trying to calculate how to avoid being seen by Leos when she had the misfortune to work on the front desk had run Susie’s nerves ragged.
“In fact, it’s my bet that below chin level, our Leos will be short and round, and about as sexy as a socks-wash!” Jayne said ruefully.
In immediate contradiction of that forecast, a male who was an easy six foot four inches tall strode in. With his wide shoulders, lean hips and long powerful legs, he had the well-honed physique of a natural athlete. From the crown of his proud dark head to the soles of his hand-made shoes, he was, by any standard, spectacular.
“I have just died and gone to heaven….” Jayne swore as the executives engulfed Leos Kiriakos, desperate to make a good first impression. “Drop dead gorgeous and loaded!”
“Yes …” Susie mumbled shakily, unable to drag her eyes from those bold, bronzed features. She was dizzy with a longing that shamed her, for the bitter-sweet memory of the last night she had spent in Leos’s arms now felt like a guilty secret.
While Leos appeared fully occupied, Susie left the desk and headed for the cloakroom, intending to stay there until the coast was clear.
“Susie …?”
In shock, she froze in her tracks, the startling intervention of that rich, dark voice on a clear and rising question so horrifically unexpected, she almost died right there and then. Slowly, she turned. The men surrounding Leos had parted like the Red Sea.
Heart racing so fast she was afraid she would faint, Susie collided with glittering tawny-golden eyes set between black, spiky lashes. Having initially moved forward, Leos stilled and moved an authorative hand to indicate that she should come to him. His lean, strong face was as hard as granite.
“You work here?” Leos enquired grimly.
Painfully conscious that they were now the focus of astonished stares and surrounded by total silence, Susie nodded jerkily.
“In what capacity?” His fabulous bone structure was taut, the long-lashed brilliance of his eyes raking over her like slashing shards of ice.
“I’m on reception.” Susie practically whispered.
His aggressive jawline squared. With a bleak nod of dismissal, Leos swung away from her—again.
CHAPTER TWO
SUSIE peered at her still-swollen eyes in the vanity mirror and suppressed a groan. She had not slept the night before.
A plaintive cry sent her whirling round. Across the room, her baby son was clutching his crib bars in frustration. His toy keys had fallen to the carpet. As she restored the ring to his tiny grasping hand, she smiled as his cross little face cleared like magic.
Ben was six months old. He had silky dark curls, huge melting brown eyes and dimples. His features were still rounded and indistinct but he already bore a marked resemblance to his father in hair, skin, and eye colour, Susie conceded wretchedly.
And there was no denying that she was wretched. Only yesterday, Leos had looked at her with icy hostility. His attitude had really hurt. But then, she and Leos had not parted the best of friends and the pain of that cruel severance remained, biting deepest whenever she looked at the son she adored.
Coping as a single parent had not been easy. Her brother David, who worked abroad, allowed her to live rent-free in his apartment. Without his generosity, she would have been forced to live on welfare. Having Ben cared for in the Devlin Systems day care swallowed half of her salary. What was left over would not stretch to paying a London rent and living expenses as well.
On the bus to work, Susie thought back uneasily to Jayne’s reaction to what she had witnessed.
“Well, you’ve certainly been a dark horse,” Jayne had sniped. “Why didn’t you say that you actually knew Leos Kiriakos?”
So Susie had told part of the truth but not the whole. Although she had a business degree, she’d been working as an office temp when she first met Leos Kiriakos. While he was over on London on business, flu had laid low two of his personal staff. Susie had arrived at his hotel suite, proud to have got the opportunity but secretly quaking in her shoes. She had fallen in love at first sight of his breathtaking smile. In a split second, he had gone from being the intimidating and powerful Greek tycoon, whom she wanted to impress with her efficiency, to being simply the man of her dreams.
When Leos had asked her out to dinner, she had been overjoyed. Six weeks of ecstatic happiness followed before everything began to go wrong …
Susie hurried into the Devlin Systems building and left Ben in the ground floor nursery. As always, leaving him was a wrench. And like every other employee using the excellent childcare facility, she was anxiously wondering whether Leos Kiriakos would keep such a staff luxury.
When she arrived at reception, Jayne pushed a sheet of paper toward her. “Looks like you’re on the way up …”
Susie frowned. “What’s this?”
“Personnel sent it down. You have an interview with Leos Kiriakos tomorrow afternoon.” Jayne’s envy was unconcealed. “You must have made quite an impression the last time you worked for him …”
CHAPTER THREE
AT TEN to three the next day, Susie presented herself on the top floor, dressed in a dark-green skirt suit, with a longer-length jacket, her streaky red-gold curls caught up in a clip, her emerald eyes were strained, the pallor marking her delicate features pronounced.
Two sleepless nights in a row. She had lain awake fretting about whether or not Leos now knew that she had a child. Leos, who had once angrily given forth on the subject of a friend “trapped for the next 20 years by a pregnant woman on the make!”
Had Leos looked at her personnel file? If he had, he would surely have found out that she had given birth to a premature baby, eight months after they broke up!
She was sent straight down the corridor to the managing director’s office. Sick with nervous tension, she knocked on the door and entered.
Leos was on the phone, his hard, chiseled profile intent. He indicated the chair set several feet from his desk and returned to his call. Susie sat down and tried to keep her hands steady. She tried crazily to recall what constituted defensive body language, for Leos was certain to know. As she watched him, an emotional pain that was almost physical held her taut.
He had replaced her with another woman without telling her. But then there had been extenuating circumstances for his behavior. And the truth was, Susie had yet to get over her affair with Leos Kiriakos.
“Sorry about that.” Pushing aside the phone, Leos sprang upright, emanating the megawatt energy that was so much a part of him. “Stop looking at me like a scared little mouse, Susie. I didn’t bring you up here either to sack you or abuse you. Believe it or not, I can take having been dumped without behaving like Neanderthal man!”
Was this the guy who had growled down the phone at her 14 months ago, “no woman dumps me!” Connecting with eyes of stunning tawny-gold clarity set below level ebony brows, Susie was mesmerized, her heart hammering, her bewildered mind blank. Fortunately Leos was still talking, his rich-accented drawl like evocative long-missed music on her ears.
“I need a social secretary for the next month.” Lithe as a jungle cat, Leos strolled over to the tinted windows. “You’re quick, you’re clever. You don’t irritate the hell out of me with stupid questions. When I move on from here, you’ll be an executive assistant on the management team.”
Disconcerted by his every word, Susie just sank deeper into shock. Clearly, she had been over-sensitive on the day of his arrival, mistaking his natural surprise at seeing her as hostility. “Social s-secretary?”
Leos quoted a salary that made her head spin and then glanced at his gold watch with impatience. “If you want the position it’s yours and you start tomorrow. We’ll discuss your duties then. I’m rather pushed for time today.”
“I’ll take it …” she heard herself say, even though his quite shattering indifference to their former relationship pierced her like a knife….
CHAPTER FOUR
LEOS was chairing a board meeting when Susie arrived.
Nervous as a cat on hot bricks, she organized the small office allotted to her. Finally, the phone rang and she was summoned into the boardroom. Leos immediately stood up, provoking a noisy thrusting back of seats as the all-male management team surged to emulate his good manners.
“Not only has Miss Marshall a topflight marketing degree, but she is also fluent in French and Spanish,” Leos said, disconcerting Susie a great deal with that introduction. “What was she doing down on reception?”
Looking aghast, the personnel manager froze.
“A business that fails to place promising staff in a key position is wasteful.” Leos delivered. “I have also taken note of the fact that there are no female managers, an extraordinary achievement in a firm this size.”
On that thought for the day, Leos closed the meeting. Suddenly, Susie understood that there had been nothing personal about his decision to promote her. He had simply used her to highlight his lecture about equal opportunities! A confusing mixture of reluctant admiration, pain and resentment assailed her.
A vision of masculine sophistication in a superb gray business suit, Leos showed Susie into his office. “Last month Devlin Systems settled two charges of sexual discrimination out of court. There will not be a third—”
“I thought you didn’t approve of working women—”
Leos raised a brow. “You were the first working woman I took to my bed and you were often unavailable when I wanted you. What I seek for my own satisfaction in my private life has no relation to my opinions as an employer.”
Hotly flushed in receipt of that blunt clarification, Susie tore her gaze from his and regretted her own over-familiar comment. All those months ago, she had only actually worked for Leos for three days before their passionate affair began and she had moved on to another agency placement.
“I have a long list of tasks for you,” Leos continued without skipping a beat, the heavy silence not seeming to disturb him in the slightest.
But then, she already knew that he did not have a sensitive bone in his body, didn’t she? Everything Leos did merely emphasized that she had never been more than a casual bed partner—on his terms. Her throat convulsed with tears.
He extended an audiotape to her. “It’s all on here. First, you send out the invitations to the dinner party. Then you can nip over to Bond Street and choose a bracelet for Brigitte. I’ll fill in the gift card.”
Powered by a near-agonizing sense of humiliation and pain, Susie lifted her head, green eyes alight with outrage.
“You are asking me to choose jewelry for your current lover?’ she exclaimed and flung the tape back at his feet. “You call that work? I call it victimization and revenge. Burn in hell, Leos!’
Leos studied her with incredulous tawny eyes.
“I hate you … I really hate you! You were the biggest mistake I ever made in my whole life!” And on that embittered declaration, Susie stalked out …
CHAPTER FIVE
AN HOUR LATER, Susie’s tumultuous emotions calmed enough for her to slowly fill with horror at her own behavior.
She had spent 10 minutes silently sobbing in the cloakroom, 20 minutes trying to pull herself back together and the subsequent 30 minutes hugging Ben in the day care.
Ben, whose comfort and security were dependant on her success in the job market. Ben, whose mother had just lost her foolish head and screamed like a shrew at a monstrously insensitive male. Ben, whose mother now had to eat humble pie for his sake.
Back on the top floor, Susie knocked on Leos’s office door with a hand she couldn’t keep steady. Infuriated with herself, she whirled back flat against the wall and breathed in deeply before going in.
Lounging back in his desk chair, Leos surveyed her, his lean, powerful face unreadable.
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