The billionaire she learns to love...
When Lys Theron inherits a hotel in Crete, her life is changed forever! Especially as she has to share ownership with gorgeous Greek billionaire Takis Manolis.
Instantly attracted to stunning Lys, Takis can see only one way to protect both his family and his reputation—make her his temporary fiancée! But the more time he spends with her, the more Takis knows he’s living a lie. He’s falling for her—hard! Can he persuade Lys that their temporary engagement should be more permanent?
The Billionaire’s Club
Meet the world’s most eligible bachelors...
by
Rebecca Winters
For tycoons Vincenzo Gagliardi, Takis Manolis and Cesare Donati, transforming the Castello di Lombardi into one of Europe’s most highly sought-after hotels will be more than just a business venture—it’s a challenge to be relished!
But these three men, bound by a friendship as strong as blood, are about to discover that the chase is only half the fun as three women conquer their hearts and change their lives forever...
Available now!
Return of Her Italian Duke
Bound to Her Greek Billionaire
And look out for Cesare’s story, coming soon!
Dear Reader,
Have you ever carried a hurt for part of your life, only to find out later that you were totally wrong about what you thought you knew?
Did you regret the time you’d wasted suffering over your imagined pain when the pain was what you, and only you, had conjured on your part? Just think, it could have been fixed in an instant if you’d had the courage to speak up immediately!
In my latest book from The Billionaire’s Club trilogy, Bound to Her Greek Billionaire, you’ll find that my hero is in deep pain over this exact situation, and you’ll cheer on the heroine, who recognizes what’s going on and tries to pull him from his self-inflicted abyss. This kind of love is what a true romance for life and beyond is all about.
Enjoy!
Rebecca Winters
BOUND TO HER
GREEK BILLIONAIRE
Rebecca Winters
Rebecca Winters lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. Surrounded by canyons and high alpine meadows full of wildflowers, she never runs out of places to explore. They, plus her favorite vacation spots in Europe, often end up as backgrounds for her romance novels—because writing is her passion, along with her family and church. Rebecca loves to hear from readers. If you wish to email her, please visit her website at cleanromances.com.
Books by Rebecca Winters
Harlequin Romance
The Billionaire’s Club
Return of Her Italian Duke
The Vineyards of Calanetti
His Princess of Convenience
The Montanari Marriages
The Billionaire’s Baby Swap
The Billionaire Who Saw Her Beauty
Greek Billionaires
The Millionaire’s True Worth
A Wedding for the Greek Tycoon
The Billionaire’s Prize
Visit the Author Profile page
at Harlequin.com for more titles.
Join Harlequin My Rewards today and earn a FREE ebook!
Click here to Join Harlequin My Rewards
http://www.harlequin.com/myrewards.html?mt=loyalty&cmpid=EBOOBPBPA201602010002
To my first editor and friend,
Paula Eykelhof, who believed in my writing
and helped me find a happy home at
Harlequin Romance. I’ve been there ever since.
How blessed could an author be?
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
EXCERPT FROM THEIR BABY SURPRISE BY KATRINA CUDMORE
CHAPTER ONE
LYS THERON ARRIVED ahead of time for her appointment with the detective at the prefecture in Heraklion, Crete. The officer at the desk looked her over in a way she found insulting and hurtful.
From her early teens she’d had to get used to men young and old staring at her. But his scrutiny was different because the unexpected and unexplained death a month ago of Nassos Rodino, the Greek multimillionaire hotelier on Crete, continued to be under police investigation and she was one of several people still being questioned.
The well-known, forty-nine-year-old owner of the Rodino Luxury Hotel and Resort in Heraklion had died too young. Nassos had always been an object of fascination in the news. But since the divorce from his wife, Danae, four months ago, there’d been rumors that he’d been having an affair with twenty-six-year-old Lys, his former ward who’d lived in their household since the age of seventeen.
While Lys struggled with her grief over his death, and many people lamented his demise, the media had done their best to sensationalize it, developing a story that had played every night in the television news cycle. Had Lys conducted a secret affair with the famous hotelier for several years? Questions had been raised as to what had actually caused the divorce and his ultimate death.
Without answers, speculation grew that foul play might have been involved. Rumor that Lys might have caused his death to gain access to part of his money had caught hold. Though the detective conducting the investigation hadn’t put the blame on anyone, the reason for Nassos’s death still hadn’t been declared and a cloud hung over her. Lys’s heart shuddered over the cruel gossip. Nassos was the man she’d loved like a father since childhood.
At seventeen, her millionaire Greek father, Kristos Theron, owner of a successful hotel in New York City, had been killed in a small plane accident. He’d left a will with a legal stipulation. If he died before she was of age, his best friend and former business partner, Nassos Rodino, would become her legal guardian.
Nassos had come to New York often throughout her early childhood and she had seen him as part of her extended family. When her father died, it was no hardship to travel to Greece with him.
But the moment Nassos had brought her to his home, she’d discovered that he and his wife had been living in a troublesome marriage.
Lys had never known the reason for their struggles, but it grieved her because she’d sensed that deep down they loved each other. It was all very complicated and she’d tried not to add to their problems. But in that regard she felt she’d failed when she’d started dating men neither of them approved of.
Nassos called them rich men’s playboy sons. Danae saw them as opportunists with no substance, adding to Lys’s insecurity that somehow she didn’t have the ability to attract the right kind of man. None of her relationships developed into anything serious because she sensed her adoptive parents’ disapproval.
Since coming to live with them, the paparazzi had followed her around, never missing a chance to exploit her private life by filming her accompanied by any rich man she may have been seen with in public. Unfortunately in her work at Nassos’s exclusive hotel chain, wealthy people made up her world. She’d never known anything else.
If she’d met and fallen in love with a poor fisherman, would they have approved of her choice? She didn’t have an answer to that question, nor to the many others that she often thought of as Lys suffered from a lack of confidence. Having lost her mother at the age of ni
ne hadn’t helped.
Their disapproval hurt her terribly because she’d loved Nassos and his wife so much and wanted their acceptance. Lys’s father had entrusted her to Nassos. Right now she felt like she’d let down three of the most important people in her life, but not on purpose.
Though he and Danae had suffered marital difficulties, they’d been wonderful to Lys and had made life beautiful at their villa on Kasos Island while she’d dealt with her sorrow. They’d helped her through those difficult years and had made it possible for her to go to college on the mainland.
Nassos was the kindest, dearest man Lys had ever known in her life next to her own father. The two men had been born on Kasos and had always been best friends. Early in their lives they’d gone into the fishing business together and had slowly amassed their fortunes. Kristos had ended up in New York, while Nassos stayed on Heraklion and had eventually married.
For Lys, the underlying strife during their divorce had been devastating. Since then she and Danae had been estranged. It tore her heart out. At this point Lys didn’t know how to overcome her pain except to pour herself into work at the hotel, and avoid the press as much as possible.
Deep in tortured thoughts, she heard a voice. “Kyria Theron?” She lifted her head to see another officer in the doorway. “Thank you for coming. Detective Vlassis will see you now.”
Hopefully this meeting would provide the answer that let her out of proverbial jail and allowed the funeral to take place. She walked inside.
“Sit down, Kyria Theron.”
Lys found a chair opposite his desk.
“Coffee? Tea?”
“Neither, thank you.”
The somber detective sat back in his chair tapping the tips of his long fingers together. “I have good news for you. The medical examiner has turned over his findings to my office. We know the truth and foul play has been ruled out.”
“You’re serious?” Her voice shook. The rumor that she might have poisoned Nassos with some invisible drug in his penthouse apartment in order for her to get a portion of his money had been devastating for her.
“It’s been determined he died of a subarachnoid hemorrhage probably caused from an earlier head injury.”
“Why did it take so long?” she cried.
“Unfortunately the bleeding went undetected. The reason it was difficult to find the first time was because it’s not unusual for SAH to be initially misdiagnosed as a migraine.”
“So the doctor didn’t catch it.”
“Not at first. A human mistake. It caused a delay in obtaining a CT scan.”
A small gasp escaped her lips. “After he’d hit his head on the kitchen cupboard several months ago, I thought he must have suffered a concussion. I told him I wanted to talk to his doctor about it, but Nassos told me to stop fussing because the pain went away. That must be why he had a stroke.” Tears rolled down her cheeks. “Thank heaven he can now be laid to rest.”
“This has been a very stressful time for you, but it’s over. The press has been informed. I’m sorry for your loss and wish you well in the future.”
Another miracle. “Thank you. Have you told his ex-wife?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” Now Danae could make the funeral arrangements. “You’ll never know what this means to me.”
Lys jumped up from the chair. “Thank you.” She couldn’t leave the police station fast enough and rushed past the officer posted at the front desk without glancing at him. She couldn’t endure one more smirk.
Once outside, Lys hurried to her car, running past the usual news people stalking her movements to take pictures. She got into her car and drove back to the Rodino Luxury Hotel where she had her own suite. She’d been living there and working in the accounts department for Nassos since graduating from business college in Heraklion four years ago.
The moment she reached her room on the third floor, she flung herself across the bed and sobbed. It was over at last. But with Nassos’s death and Lys’s unwanted estrangement with his ex-wife, there was no one to pick up the emotional pieces.
The couple’s tragic divorce had fragmented Lys. If they’d been going to end their marriage, why hadn’t it happened years before now? She simply didn’t understand. And then had come the shocking news of his death... The loss was almost more than she could bear.
They’d worked together at the hotel. He’d taught her everything about the business. He’d been her friend, confidant, mentor. How was she going to be able to go on without him?
For Nassos not to be there anymore was killing her and she missed Danae terribly. Until the police had closed the case, Lys had been in limbo, trying to do her usual job, but her mind and heart hadn’t been there. When she did have to leave the hotel for any reason, she’d felt accusatory stares coming in all directions and avoided any publicity if she could help it.
Thankfully this was over and there’d be an end to the malicious talk that he’d been murdered. Hopefully everything would die down, but where did she go from here? Lys felt like she’d been driving her car when the steering wheel had suddenly disappeared, leaving her to plunge over a cliff. She was so heartbroken she could hardly think.
While in this state, the phone rang. Lys turned over to look at the caller ID. It was Xander Pappas, Nassos’s attorney. She picked up and learned that he’d be in Nassos’s private office at the hotel in a half hour to talk to her. The detective had already been in touch with him.
“I have something important to give you.”
She sat up in surprise. “Will Danae be meeting with us?” Lys longed to talk to her.
“No. We’ve already spoken and I’ve read her the will. She’ll be calling you about the funeral.”
“I see.”
Stabbed with fresh pain, Lys thanked him and hung up. If there hadn’t been a divorce, she and Danae would have planned his funeral together. Now everything had changed. More tears gushed down her cheeks before she got off the bed to freshen up.
Of course she hadn’t expected to be present at the reading of the will and hadn’t wanted to be. Danae had been married to Nassos for twenty-four years. That business was between the two of them.
A few minutes later she left for the corporate office downstairs. On the way, she couldn’t help but wonder what Xander wanted to give her. Nassos couldn’t have known when he would die, so she couldn’t imagine what it was.
After nodding to Giorgos, the annoying general manager of the hotel, she walked in to Nassos’s private office. The attorney greeted her and told her to sit down.
“I have two items to give you. Both envelopes are sealed. You’ll know what to do after you open the envelope marked Letter first. Nassos wrote to you at the time he divorced Danae.” He put both envelopes on the desk.
She swallowed hard. Nassos had written something that recently? “Have you read it?”
“No. He gave me instructions to give them both to you upon his death, whenever that would be. Who would have imagined he’d die this early in his life? I’ll miss him too and am so sorry since I know how close you two were. I’ll leave now. If you have any questions, call me at my office.”
After he left the room, Lys reached for the envelope and pulled out the letter with a trembling hand. She knew Nassos’s handwriting. He wrote with a certain panache that was unmistakable.
My dearest little Lysette,
Immediately her eyes filled with more tears.
I’ll always think of you that way, no matter how old you are when you read this letter. You’re the daughter I never had. Danae and I couldn’t have children. The problem was mine. I found out early in our marriage that I was infertile. It came as a great shock, but I’d dreamed of having children, so I wanted to adopt. She didn’t, and I could never talk her into it. I decided she didn’t love me enough or she would have ag
reed to try because I wanted children more than anything.
Six months ago, Xander let me know that he knew of a baby we could adopt. I went to Danae and begged her. It could be our last chance, but she still said no. In my anger I divorced the woman I loved and always will. Now I’m paying for it dearly because I don’t believe she’ll forgive me.
You need to know that you were never the reason for our marital troubles. I ruined things at the beginning of our marriage by making an issue that she stay at home. I insisted she quit her job because I was raised with old-fashioned ideas. I was wrong to impose them on Danae. She’s very much a modern woman and a part of me resented the fact that she couldn’t be happy at home.
Please realize that your coming to us helped keep our marriage together and deep down she knows it. I’m afraid it was because of my damnable pride—my greatest flaw—nothing more, that made me divorce her, so never ever blame yourself. If I was hard on you because of the men you dated, it was only because of my desperate fear you might end up in a bad marriage with a man who didn’t value you enough. Danae felt the same way.
Forgive us if we hurt you in any way.
“Oh, Nassos—” Lys cried out in relief and anguish.
You have a massive inheritance from your father that will be given to you on your twenty-seventh birthday. He dictated that specific time in his will to make sure you’d be mature enough when you came into your money.
Lys was incredulous. She’d thought it had all been incorporated into the Rodino empire. Nassos would have deserved every euro of it.
Again, I have no idea how old you are now that I’m dead. I suspect you’re a very wealthy woman, hopefully married with children, maybe even grandchildren. And happy!
As you will have found out from Danae, she inherited everything with one exception...the hotel is your inheritance from me to own and run as you will.
Lys reeled physically and clung to the arms of the chair.
No. It wasn’t possible. The hotel should have been given to Danae, who understood the hotel business very well. It was Nassos who’d hired her away from another hotelier to come and work for him twenty-four years ago. How sad that even after his death, Nassos couldn’t allow her to continue in a career she’d enjoyed.
Bound to Her Greek Billionaire Page 1
