A Scandal Made In London

Name: Kate Cassidy. Location: London.

Sexual experience: none.

Kate’s virginity is not something billionaire Theo Knox ever wanted to know about. He swore to protect her after her brother’s death, but when he discovers Kate’s dating profile, all he can think about is how much he’s tempted to unravel her...

Kate is mortified when Theo discovers her secret. Yet she can’t resist his tantalizing offer to introduce her to pleasure beyond her wildest imagination! Their chemistry is as unstoppable as it is off-limits, but the biggest scandal of all is yet to happen...

LUCY KING spent her adolescence lost in the glamorous and exciting world of Mills & Boon when she really ought to have been paying attention to her teachers. But, as she couldn’t live in a dream world for ever, she eventually acquired a degree in languages and an eclectic collection of jobs. After a decade in southwest Spain, Lucy now lives with her young family in Wiltshire. When not writing, or trying to think up new and innovative things to do with mince, she spends her time reading, failing to finish cryptic crosswords and dreaming of the golden beaches of Andalucia.

Also by Lucy King

Bought: Damsel in Distress

Propositioned by the Billionaire

The Crown Affair

Say It with Diamonds

The Couple Behind the Headlines

One More Sleepless Night

The Reunion Lie

One Night with Her Ex

The Best Man for the Job

The Party Starts at Midnight

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.

A Scandal Made in London

Lucy King

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-09813-7

A SCANDAL MADE IN LONDON

© 2020 Lucy King

Published in Great Britain 2020

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

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For Flo, for all the support and encouragement.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Note to Readers

Dedication

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

EPILOGUE

Extract

About the Publisher

CHAPTER ONE

WHAT ON EARTH...?

From behind his desk, situated on the top floor of the forty-four-storey building that housed the Knox Group, Theo Knox stared at the web page that filled the screen of the iPad that his head of security had just brought in and placed in front of him.

It appeared to be a table of information.

Harmony was the heading; below that came the details.

Geographical location: London

Age: 26

Height: 6' 1"

Vital statistics: 38-28-38

Hair: blonde

Eyes: blue

Tattoos: one

Interests: travel, books, music

Sexual experience: none

And the website? Belle’s Angels, according to the elaborate logo involving entwined vines that shimmered in the top right corner. ‘Matches made in heaven’, apparently.

Which was all well and good, but of what use was any of this to him? And why did Antonio Scarlatto, a valued employee he’d previously considered competent and level-headed, think it would be?

Theo had absolutely no interest in dating sites, or in any kind of dating at all, since the occasional one-night stand when the need arose suited him fine. And even if he did, he had no time for it. As owner and CEO of a company that spanned the globe, employed thousands and was worth billions, he had a multitude of issues clamouring for his attention, the principle one of which currently was figuring out how he was going to persuade the ridiculously sentimental owner of the business he badly wanted to sell it to him.

‘Why are you wasting my time by showing me this?’ Theo demanded, lifting his gaze from the screen and levelling it at the man standing on the other side of the desk, who was way out of line if he thought Theo needed Harmony in his life.

‘It relates to a current member of your staff,’ said Antonio, not batting an eyelid in response to the dark look and arctic tone that usually had people quaking in their boots. ‘She’s registered on the site and this is her page. She tried to log in from her work computer twenty minutes ago. Our firewall flagged it up. As it’s against company policy to access sites like this, I need to know what action to take.’

‘It’s a dating site,’ Theo said flatly.

‘It’s not just a dating site,’ Antonio countered. ‘I wouldn’t have disturbed you if it was. Scroll down.’

Mentally having to concede that point, Theo shoved a lid on his exasperation and switched his attention back to the tablet. He briefly ran his gaze over the table again, automatically registering and dismissing the information, then swiped up.

And froze.

Because to accompany Harmony’s description were half a dozen photos. Of the woman in question in various outfits in various eye-popping poses. In the first four pictures, she was at least wearing clothes—short and tight and pretty revealing, but clothes nevertheless. In the last two, however, she wasn’t wearing very much at all. Technically she had on a negligee, he saw, but she might as well not have bothered. It was so diaphanous it hid nothing that wasn’t concealed under a few scraps of strategically placed lace beneath. Not her curves. Not the length of her limbs. Nothing.

And her face...

He knew that face.

It was Kate Cassidy.

Harmony, with her luscious body and dazzlingly striking looks, was Kate Cassidy.

The realisation hit Theo like a blow to the gut and he reeled.

What the hell was she up to?

Steeling himself, he scrolled down and read the text that accompanied the photos, and his blood turned to ice. Antonio had been right. Belle’s Angels wasn’t just any dating site and Kate wasn’t after any kind of normal date at all.

As the implications of what he’d read and seen sank in, questions ricocheted around his head. What on earth was she thinking? Did she have any idea of the danger she could be putting herself in? More importantly, now he knew what she had planned, what was he going to do about it?

Because he’d definitely be doing something, he thought grimly as he clicked around the site, his horror growing with every passing second. Kate clearly needed looking out for. In fact, he should have been keeping an eye on her and her younger sister ever since their older brother Mike’s death nine months ago. Discreetly. From afar. But nonetheless making sure they were as okay as they could be, because the debt he owed him was huge, because Mike had died because of something he could have prevented, and finally because they had no one else.

So why hadn’t he done anything? Why hadn’t he even been aware Kate was working for him? Guilt? Denial? The fact that these days he only seemed to function through sheer force of will?

Well, whatever it was, it stopped now because she, at least, was not okay. She’d evidently lost her tiny little mind. Furthermore, by signing herself up to this particular website she’d put herself at considerable risk, and that was unacceptable. The potential consequences didn’t bear thinking about, and a person hurt—or worse—because he hadn’t done enough to stop it simply could not happen again. Twice in one lifetime was more than enough.

‘What action do you want me to take?’ asked Antonio, cutting off Theo’s thoughts before they could scythe through the fog of Mike’s death and hurtle down memory lane to his own turbulent teenage years.

‘Shut the site down,’ Theo said as he pushed the tablet in Antonio’s direction and slammed a mental door on Harmony’s bio and the photos. ‘Whatever it takes, however much it costs, shut it down.’

The head of security acknowledged the order with a brief nod of his head. ‘And with regards to the employee in question?’

‘I’ll deal with her.’

Not once in the five and a half months she’d been working at the Knox Group had Kate been summoned to the hallowed top floor of the central London building that housed it, and that was fine with her. Her position as a middle-ranking accountant didn’t merit the dubious honour, and, quite frankly, the less she had to do with the horrible Theo Knox, the better.

Not that they knew each other well, thank God. He might have been supposed ‘friends’ with her brother—although she struggled with the concept that her uptight, aloof über boss could ever do anything as human as friends—but she’d only met him once. At Mike’s funeral nine months ago, in fact. And since that had hardly been a cordial encounter, she hadn’t expected him to be in touch.

He was the man, after all, who’d coldly told her he wasn’t interested and then turned his back on her when she’d made the monumental mistake of asking him for his support. All she’d wanted was a quick drink after the wake. To talk. Nothing more. Everyone else had left and she’d been distraught, feeling so horribly alone she’d simply wanted to prolong the afternoon by talking about her brother with someone who presumably had known him well. High and mighty Theo Knox, however, had evidently interpreted her suggestion as an invitation, and had treated it with the disdain and contempt he obviously felt it deserved before spinning on his heel and stalking off.

Kate had stood there staring at his retreating figure, open-mouthed and dumbstruck, unsure whether to laugh or cry because had he really thought she was coming on to him? At her brother’s funeral? How inappropriate, how downright absurd, was that? His arrogance had been breathtaking. She’d never encountered self-absorption like it. Even worse was the lousy way his unwarranted rejection had made her feel. She shouldn’t have cared what he thought of her since he meant absolutely nothing to her, yet his response had pulverised what little self-esteem she had, and for one blazing moment she’d never hated anyone more.

So if she’d been in any position to turn down the offer of a job at his company that had come her way shortly after, she’d have done so. However, she had bills to pay and the salary she’d been offered had been too generous to refuse. Not generous enough, of course, to cover the stratospheric sums of money her sister’s residential care facility required, nor the repayment of the ever-increasing debt her brother had accrued to cover it, but definitely generous enough to make her want to pass her probationary period. And that was why, when she’d received the call from Theo’s assistant requesting her presence on the top floor at precisely six p.m., the time she should have been leaving for home, she’d obeyed instead of telling him where to stick his imperious demand.

The lift she was travelling in slowed until it came to a smooth stop, and the doors opened with a soft swoosh. Automatically reminding herself not to slouch, Kate lifted her chin and crossed the plush white carpet that covered the floor with a long-legged stride.

When she arrived at the reception desk, she was waved in the direction of a pair of vast wooden doors, and headed towards them. Taking a deep breath, she knocked, and didn’t have to wait long before a deep masculine voice barked, ‘Come in.’

Kate braced herself and did as he’d commanded. The minute she walked through the door her attention instantly zoomed in on the man sitting behind the oak monolith of a desk, the man who was looking at her with a dark intensity and a stillness that radiated powerful authority and suggested complete and utter control.

Of her surroundings—the sleek white office so vast her entire flat would fit in it, the crystal-clear wall-to-wall windows that allowed the early evening late spring sunshine to flood in, the luxurious furnishings and the colourful pops of modern art on the walls—she was only dimly aware. All she was conscious of was her boss, the rude, condescending, hurtful jerk, and the memory of the intense loathing he’d once aroused in her.

‘Shut the door.’

She did so, then walked towards him, the office becoming increasingly hot and claustrophobic with every step she took. Which, given the state-of-the-art temperature control the building had, was odd, and not a little disturbing.

As was the automatic way in which she seemed to be taking a mental inventory of his looks. At Mike’s funeral she’d been in too great a state to register much about any of the guests, least of all him. Now, though, she had to grudgingly admit that the gossip columns, which lauded his appearance as much as they lamented his enigmatic elusiveness, were right. With his short dark hair, obsidian eyes and chiselled features he was easily the best-looking man she’d ever seen. The shoulders beneath the suit were impressively broad and they were matched by an equally impressive height, which she knew to be true because even though he was now sitting down, she’d just had a brief flash of memory of how she’d been in the unusual position of having to look up at him when she’d suggested a drink that afternoon.

He was also immaculate, she thought resentfully, taking in the perfection of his appearance as she advanced. Did he ever shove his hands through his hair in frustration? Ever permit even the hint of a five o’clock shadow? She doubted it. And had he ever been paralysed by self-doubt or plagued by rock-bottom self-esteem as she continually was? Even more unlikely. The man was a machine. A high-performing, single-minded, ruthlessly brilliant one, if the business press was to be believed, but a machine nevertheless.

Well.

Whatever.

What he was and how he looked were immaterial. So he was staggeringly handsome, in enviable control of himself and a good three or four inches taller than her. He was still a deeply unpleasant human being.

Coming to a halt a foot from the desk, Kate pulled herself together and reminded herself to stay calm, since it wouldn’t do to reveal either how little she thought of him or how vulnerable she could be if she kept remembering how wretched he’d once made her feel. ‘Mr Knox,’ she said coolly. ‘You wanted to see me?’

Something flickered in the depths of his dark eyes, something that flashed and burned and swiftly disappeared but nevertheless made her pulse skip a beat and her blood heat. ‘I did,’ he said with a brief nod in the direction of the two modern armchairs on her side of the desk. ‘Theo will do. Sit down.’

‘Thank you.’

Deliberately taking her time, Kate folded her six-foot-one frame into a chair and then spent a couple of vital seconds tugging her jacket down and smoothing her skirt. She needed to settle herself. This pulse-skipping, blood-heating business was ridiculous, as was the strange restlessness that churned around inside her. Nerves, most probably, because she had no idea why she’d been summoned and despite what she thought of him he was a bit intimidating. Or dread perhaps, the kind that came from knowing that one false move and the many plates she had spinning would crash to the ground. But still, either way, it was absurd.

‘How are you?’

She stilled for a second and fought back a frown. What? Now he wanted pleasantries? Well, okay, she could do that. She could forget how they’d met for now. She couldn’t imagine he remembered in any case. He certainly didn’t appear to recognise her. ‘Fine,’ she said brightly, as if she weren’t wrung out with stress and exhaustion. ‘You?’

‘Fine. Coffee?’

She gave her head a quick shake. ‘No, thank you.’

‘Tea?’

‘No.’

‘Anything?’

‘I’m fine.’

‘How’s the job going?’

Hah. Which one? As well as being an accountant, she now worked in a bar five nights a week and dog-walked at the weekend. What little time she had left when she wasn’t visiting her sister, she dedicated to the freelance bookkeeping work she’d also started to take on. ‘Extremely well,’ she said with a beaming smile, determined not to think about how close she was to the edge or how terrifying that was. ‘I’m enjoying it very much.’

‘Good,’ he said, leaning forwards in a way that for some bizarre reason made her breath catch and her pulse skip a beat all over again. ‘So. Kate. Tell me about Belle’s Angels.’

And just like that—bang!—there went her composure. Talk about being lulled into a false sense of security, she thought, her smile fading as the churning started up again in her stomach. What did Theo Knox know about Belle’s Angels? And how? Surely he couldn’t be a member. He’d have no trouble getting a date. But had he visited the site? Had he seen her page? She had no idea why when her profile had racked up over a thousand views since she’d rashly stuck it up last night but the thought of him looking at her photos made her feel quite weak.

‘What about it?’ she said carefully, since his expression was giving absolutely nothing away.

‘You’re on it.’

Ah. Right. Busted.

Since Mr Knox—Theo—was allegedly insanely sharp, Kate didn’t see the point in trying to come up with an excuse. ‘I am,’ she said, reminding herself that she had nothing to apologise for and nothing to be embarrassed about. What did it matter if he had seen her page? The photos were good. Empowering. Or something like that. At least she’d come up with a solution to the traumatic situation that had been robbing her of what little sleep she did get, even if it had had unexpected and rather unsettling consequences.

‘You tried to access it while at work.’

Indeed she had. Earlier this afternoon. Her profile had attracted a great deal of interest, her alluded-to virginity in particular, and she’d been inundated with emails, some merely curious, some a bit odd, some downright creepy. Not having a clue what to do about any of it and wanting the deluge to stop, she’d decided to alter her account settings while she figured it out. ‘I did.’

‘Which is an infringement of company policy.’

At that Kate went very still, her heart giving a great lurch.

Oh.

Oh, dear.

That hadn’t occurred to her. But it should have done because of course it would be. Belle’s Angels, registered in Germany and possibly skirting the boundaries of legality in the UK, was just the sort of website that would be blocked by a firewall. Which was undoubtedly why it hadn’t opened. She hadn’t thought to reflect upon that. She’d just wanted to switch off the interminable stream of responses. But clearly she’d been an idiot. More than an idiot, actually. She could very well have put herself out of a job.

‘That was a mistake,’ she said as the potential ramifications raced through her head and a sweat broke out all over her skin. ‘A one-off. It won’t happen again.’

‘You’re right,’ he said flatly, his eyes dark and inscrutable. ‘It won’t.’

A ball lodged in her throat and she swallowed it down with difficulty. ‘Are you firing me?’ she asked, the rising panic making her voice tight.

She needed this job, she needed all her jobs, but if she lost this one, she’d be in even more serious trouble than she already was. Fired accountants weren’t exactly desirable potential employees and who knew how long it would be before she got another job? The bills were mounting up daily and the correspondence from the debt agency was growing increasingly threatening, not that her salary was anywhere near enough to cover the repayments or the cost of her sister’s care, but Milly depended on her and only her since there was no one else now Mike had died, and if she had to leave Fairview she’d be devastated, and, oh, she really should have thought this whole crazy plan through.

‘I’m not firing you.’

Phew.

‘Then what do you mean?’ she said as her racing heart slowed and the jumble of panicky thoughts faded.

‘I had the site shut down.’

What? The tension that had ebbed a moment ago shot straight back.

No.

No.

This was not good.

‘You can’t do that,’ she breathed, appalled, as it dawned on her that if what Theo was saying was true then he’d scuppered what, as far as she could see, was her only chance of making some serious, much-needed money fast.

‘I can,’ he said grimly. ‘And I have.’