The Secrets She Must Tell (Lost Sons of Argentina, Book 1)
Page 16
‘Yes,’ she said simply, the emotion pummelling her on the inside practically wiping out her knees. There was much, much more that she wanted to say but her throat was so tight and the emotion so thick that she couldn’t. All she could do was throw her arms around his neck and pull his head down to hers and kiss him with everything she was feeling.
With a harsh groan Finn whipped one arm around her waist and the other around her shoulders, pulling her tightly against him as he kissed her back with equal heat and need and desperation.
‘God, Georgie,’ he muttered when he eventually lifted his head, his breath ragged, his heart pounding against hers.
‘I’m so sorry,’ she said, hearing the catch in her voice and swallowing hard. ‘I had a relapse and panicked. I convinced myself that you weren’t who I thought you were. I’ve been so confused. So lost.’
‘So have I,’ he said passionately. ‘But we belong together. We belong to each other.’
‘I don’t want to live without Josh. Or you. I love you.’
He rested his forehead against hers and she could feel him shaking with emotion. ‘I think I fell in love with you the moment you walked up to me in my club and asked me if you could join me. You were dazzling.’
‘I’m not that person any longer.’
‘You’re all that and more.’
‘I still need help.’
‘We’ll get it,’ he said, stroking his thumbs over her cheeks to smooth away the tracks of her tears and the remnants of her fears. ‘I will always be there for you, Georgie, whatever happens.’
‘And I’ll always be there for you.’
He kissed her again, this time more gently, more deeply, and by the time he lifted his head, the sense of peace and hope and joy that had been beginning to spin through her filled her to the brim, overwhelming her all over again.
‘Don’t cry,’ he said, kissing away the tears. ‘It’ll be all right.’
‘Will it?’
‘Of course,’ he said gruffly. ‘I bought you these,’ he added, digging his hand briefly into his pocket and then sliding a plain gold band and then a stunning diamond solitaire onto the third finger of her left hand. ‘In Paris.’
‘They’re beautiful,’ she said, her throat tightening and her heart swelling as she placed her hand over his heart and looked at them.
‘You’re beautiful.’
‘I’m a mess.’
‘You’re mine.’
‘Your lift is broken,’ she said with a watery sniff.
‘I had it stopped.’
‘You had it stopped?’
‘I couldn’t risk losing you again,’ he said, his eyes darkening with emotion, his hold on her strong and secure.
‘You won’t.’
‘Promise?’
She nodded. ‘I promise.’
EPILOGUE
Ospedale San Giovanni,
Venice
PROPPED UP IN bed in the dark, quiet private hospital room where his shattered body was gradually healing, Federico Rossi stared one last time at the image on the screen, a photo of a couple at the recent launch of the seven-star Hotel Bellevue in Paris—at one Finn Calvert in particular, a man who was the spitting image of himself but without the scars and the broken nose—and slowly, thoughtfully, closed the lid of his laptop.
Coming next month
THE GREEK’S CONVENIENT CINDERELLA
Lynne Graham
‘Mr Alexandris,’ Tansy pronounced rather stiffly.
‘Come and sit down,’ he invited lazily. ‘Tea or coffee?’
‘Coffee please,’ Tansy said, following him round a sectional room divider into a rather more intimate space furnished with sumptuous sofas and sinking down into the comfortable depths of one, her tense spine rigorously protesting that amount of relaxation.
She was fighting to get a grip on her composure again but nothing about Jude Alexandris in the flesh matched the formal online images she had viewed. He wasn’t wearing a sharply cut business suit, he was wearing faded, ripped and worn jeans that outlined long powerful thighs, narrow hips and accentuated the prowling natural grace of his every movement. An equally casual dark grey cotton top complemented the jeans. One sleeve was partially pushed up to reveal a strong brown forearm and a small tattoo that appeared to be printed letters of some sort. His garb reminded her that although he might be older than her he was still only in his late twenties and that unlike her, he had felt no need to dress to impress.
Her pride stung at the knowledge that she was little more than a commodity on Alexandris’s terms. Either he would choose her, or he wouldn’t. She had put herself on the market to be bought though, she thought with sudden self-loathing. How could she blame Jude Alexandris for her stepfather’s use of virtual blackmail to get her agreement? Everything she was doing was for Posy, she reminded herself squarely and the end would justify the means…wouldn’t it?
‘So…’ Tansy remarked in a stilted tone because she was determined not to sit there acting like the powerless person she knew herself to be in his presence. ‘You require a fake wife…’
Jude shifted a broad shoulder in a very slight shrug. ‘Only we would know it was fake. It would have to seem real to everyone else from the start to the very end,’ he advanced calmly. ‘Everything between us would have to remain confidential.’
‘I’m not a gossip, Mr Alexandris.’ In fact Tansy almost laughed at the idea of even having anyone close enough to confide in because she had left her friends behind at university and certainly none of them had seemed to understand her decision to make herself responsible for her baby sister rather than returning to the freedom of student life.
‘I trust no one,’ Jude countered without apology. ‘You would be legally required to sign a non-disclosure agreement before I married you.’
‘Understood. My stepfather explained that to me,’ Tansy acknowledged, her attention reluctantly drawn to his careless sprawl on the sofa opposite, the long muscular line of a masculine thigh straining against well washed denim. Her head tipped back, her colour rising as she made herself look at his face instead, encountering glittering dark eyes that made the breath hitch in her throat.
‘I find you attractive too,’ Jude Alexandris murmured as though she had spoken.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Tansy protested, the faint pink in her cheeks heating exponentially as her tummy flipped while she wondered if she truly could be read that easily by a man.
‘For this to work, we would need that physical attraction. Nobody is likely to be fooled by two strangers pretending what they don’t feel, least of all my family, some of whom are shrewd judges of character.’
Tansy had paled. ‘Why would we need attraction? I assumed this was to be a marriage on paper, nothing more.’
‘Then you assumed wrong,’ Jude told her without skipping a beat.
Continue reading
THE GREEK’S CONVENIENT CINDERELLA
Lynne Graham
Available next month
Copyright ©2021 by Lynne Graham
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
http://www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
Bay Adelaide Centre, East Tower
22 Adelaide Street West, 41st Floor
Toronto, ON, M5H 4E3, Canada
http://www.harpercollins.ca
India
HarperCollins India
A 75, Sector 57
Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201 301, India
http://www.harpercollins.co.in
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
http://www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
http://www.harpercollins.com