Harlequin Presents January 2015 - Box Set 2 of 2: The Secret His Mistress CarriedTo Sin with the TycoonInherited by Her EnemyThe Last Heir of Monterrato

by Lynne Graham

  ‘Oh, he’s surprised me too in that line,’ Billie confided lazily, her attention on the six-month-old daughter sleeping in her portable crib in the shadows. ‘He adores Ianthe.’

  ‘When does your family tree get a look-in with the names?’ Dee asked.

  ‘Are you joking?’ Billie laughed. ‘With Grandpa being a Wilfred and Grandma Ethel, I think Gio’s family names have more promise. What were we talking about? Right, yes, Gio and children. He’s surprised too by how much he enjoys having a family.’

  ‘Billie, if you wanted a giraffe in the family, he’d try to give it to you,’ her cousin said with a roll of her eyes. ‘The man is besotted. I can see it every time he looks at you.’

  ‘Maybe it’ll be your turn soon,’ Billie remarked quietly, because Dee had started seeing someone back home. It was early days yet, of course, but she was hoping Dee would be brave enough to try another relationship because her cousin spent too much time alone.

  It had been two years since Billie had married Gio and Dee was currently in the process of buying Billie’s vintage clothes shop, which she was still successfully managing. A lot had changed for Billie in that same period but Gio had changed too, opening up to his emotions and pulling free of an outlook that had once been set in stone. He would never be Dee’s best friend but he could relax now with the other woman and accept her place in Billie’s life without comment or tension. Billie suspected that their children had helped Gio become more relaxed and flexible.

  Theo was tall for a three-year-old, like all the men in the Letsos family, and he had Gio’s black hair messily combined with his mother’s corkscrew curls, something he would no doubt complain bitterly about when he reached his teenaged years, Billie reflected fondly. Ianthe was a combination of their genes as well, for her eyes had turned as green as her mother’s and she was fairer in colouring than her brother with dead straight hair with not even a hint of a curl.

  Billie went into the beach house for a cold drink and glanced around with a rather wicked smile because she knew that she and Gio would be spending the night there. Dee and the children were heading home in the afternoon and Irene, their trusty nanny, would collect Theo and Ianthe to take them back to the villa.

  In the two years since she had married Gio, Billie had learned to make the most of their private time together. Gio travelled less than he once had and their lives were based on the island. Billie got on great with Gio’s family and was particularly close to his sisters and never short of company. Sometimes she wanted to pinch herself because she had never dreamt that she could be so happy.

  A pair of arms closed round her from behind and she jumped. ‘Gio?’

  ‘Who else?’ he breathed teasingly above her head.

  ‘You gave me a fright,’ she whispered, swivelling round in his arms to look up at him. ‘Who’s with the children?’

  ‘Dee’s taking a turn.’

  Billie collided with smouldering dark golden eyes set in a stunning lean dark face and wrapped her arms round his neck, her heart hammering. ‘You still rock my world, Mr Letsos,’ she confided breathlessly.

  Gio dealt her a thrillingly erotic smile of anticipation. ‘Not until tonight, agapi mou.’

  He called her ‘my love’ now, Billie reflected blissfully, for she now spoke a fair amount of Greek. Her curvaceous body sealed slowly to his with intense appreciation of the strength and protectiveness in his tall, well-built length. ‘I love you, Gio...’

  ‘And I am totally devoted to you,’ Gio intoned huskily, bending his head to steal a kiss that went on until they had to break apart to breathe.

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from NINE MONTHS TO REDEEM HIM by Jennie Lucas.

  We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Presents title.

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  PROLOGUE

  THIS IS ALL I can give you, he said. No marriage. No children. All I can offer is—this. And he kissed me, featherlight, until I was holding my breath, trembling in his arms. Do you agree?

  Yes, I whispered, my lips brushing against his. I hardly knew what I was saying. Hardly thought about the promise I was making and what it might cost me. I was too lost in the moment, lost in pleasure that made the world a million colors of twisting light.

  Now, two months later, I’d just gotten news that changed everything.

  As I went up the sweeping stairs of his London mansion, my heart was in my throat. A baby. I gripped the oak handrail as my shaking steps echoed down the hall. A baby. A little boy with Edward’s eyes? An adorable little girl with his smile? Thinking of the sweet, precious baby soon to be nestled in my arms, a dazed smile lifted to my lips.

  Then I remembered my promise.

  My hands tightened. Would he think I’d somehow gotten pregnant on purpose? Tricking him into becoming a father against his will?

  No. He wouldn’t. Couldn’t.

  Could he?

  The upstairs hallway was cold and dark. Just like Edward’s heart. Because beneath his sensual charm, his soul was ice. I’d always known this, no matter how hard I’d tried not to know it.

  I’d given him my body, which he wanted, and my heart, which he hadn’t. Had I made the biggest mistake of my life?

  Maybe he could change. I took a deep breath. If I could only believe that, once he knew about the baby, he might change—that he might someday love us both...

  Reaching our bedroom, I slowly pushed open the door.

  “You’ve kept me waiting,” Edward’s voice was dangerous, coming from the shadows. “Come to bed, Diana.”

  Come to bed.

  Clenching my hands at my sides, I went forward into the dark.

  Copyright © 2015 by Jennie Lucas

  ISBN-13: 9781460329634

  The Secret His Mistress Carried

  Copyright © 2015 by Lynne Graham

  All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  ® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and in other countries.

  www.Harlequin.com

  With the quirk of an eyebrow, Gabriel Cabrera can get anything he wants!

  That is, until he meets PA Alice Morgan and he realizes three things:

  1) He’s jealous…a first.

  2) He’s in pursuit…also a first.

  3) She’s immun
e to his charms…definitely a first!

  So he’ll draw her to him—his every word an innuendo promising pleasure, his every touch sinfully seductive. And sweet, virginal Alice will come to him willingly so Gabriel can claim his prize…

  Seven Sexy Sins—The true taste of temptation!

  “Have you ever experienced that before, Alice?”

  “Experienced what?” she asked in a hoarse whisper, and Gabriel laughed under his breath.

  “The grip of passion that makes you behave irrationally…”

  “I prefer to trust reasoning and logic,” she managed to say.

  “So that’s a no…”

  “If you recall—” she was close to snapping because not only was he making her feel uncomfortable, but he was enjoying himself “—I did say to you when I took this job that I didn’t want to talk about my private life!”

  “Was that what we were doing? Talking about your private life?” He stood up, flexed his muscles, debated whether to let this conversation go and just as quickly decided not to.

  Why deny it? She roused his curiosity. She was so contained, so secretive while giving the impression of being straightforward, so unwilling to share even the smallest of confidences… When you could have anything you wanted, including access to people’s thoughts and emotions, what would you pay to have the person who withheld everything?

  Seven Sexy Sins

  The true taste of temptation!

  From greed to gluttony, lust to envy, these fabulous stories explore what seven sexy sins mean in the twenty-first century!

  Whether pride goes before a fall, or wrath leads to passion that consumes entirely, one thing is certain…the road to true love has never been more enticing!

  So you decide:

  How can it be a sin when it feels so good?

  Sloth—Cathy Williams

  Lust—Dani Collins

  Pride—Kim Lawrence

  Gluttony—Maggie Cox

  Greed—Sara Craven

  Wrath—Maya Blake

  Envy—Annie West

  Seven titles by some of Harlequin Presents’ most treasured and exciting authors!

  CATHY WILLIAMS

  To Sin with the Tycoon

  CATHY WILLIAMS was born in the West Indies and has been writing Harlequin® romances for some fifteen years. She is a great believer in the power of perseverance, as she had never written anything before (apart from school essays a lifetime ago!), and from the starting point of zero has now fulfilled her ambition to pursue this most enjoyable of careers. She would encourage any would-be writer to have faith and go for it! She lives in the beautiful Warwickshire countryside with her three daughters, Charlotte, Olivia and Emma. She derives inspiration from the hot, lazy, tropical island of Trinidad (where she was born), from the peaceful countryside of middle England and, of course, from her many friends, who are a rich source of plots and are particularly garrulous when it comes to describing Harlequin Presents® heroes. It would seem, from their complaints, that tall, dark and charismatic men are way too few and far between! Her hope is to continue writing romance fiction, providing those eternal tales of love for which, she feels, we all strive.

  Other titles by Cathy Williams available in ebook:

  THE ARGENTINIAN’S DEMAND

  SECRETS OF A RUTHLESS TYCOON

  ENTHRALLED BY MORETTI

  HIS TEMPORARY MISTRESS

  To my beautiful daughters for all their support

  Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  EXCERPT

  CHAPTER ONE

  ALICE MORGAN WAS growing more annoyed by the second. It was ten-thirty. She had now been sitting in this office for an hour and a half and no one could tell her whether she would be sitting there, tapping her foot and looking at her watch, for another hour and a half, two hours, three hours or for the rest of the day.

  In fact, she seemed to have been forgotten. Mr Big played by his own rules, she had been told. He came and went as he pleased. He did as he wanted. He was unpredictable, a law unto himself. All this had been relayed to her by a simpering, pocket-sized blonde Barbie doll as she had been ushered into her office to find that her new boss was nowhere to be found.

  ‘Perhaps he has a diary?’ Alice had suggested. ‘Maybe he had a breakfast meeting and forgot that I would be coming at nine. If you could check, then at least I would know how long I can expect to be kept waiting.’

  But, no. Mr Big didn’t run his life according to diaries. Apparently he didn’t need to because he was so clever that he could remember everything without the benefit of reminders. Besides, no one was allowed into his office when he was absent—although the Barbie doll had worked for him for four days a few months ago and knew for a fact that he didn’t use any diaries. Because he was brilliant and didn’t need them.

  The Barbie doll had since peered into the office twice, smiled apologetically and repeated what she had previously said—as though lateness and discourtesy were winning selling points that the entire staff happily accepted and so, therefore, should she.

  Mouth tight, Alice looked around her, from her smaller office through the dividing glass partition into Gabriel Cabrera’s much bigger, much more impressive one.

  When she had been told where she would be temping, Alice had been thrilled. The offices were situated in the most stunning building in the city. The Shard was a testimony to architectural brilliance with magnificent views over London. People paid to go up it. The bars and restaurants there were booked up weeks in advance.

  And now she would be working there. True, her contract was only for six weeks, but she had been told that there was a chance of being made permanent if she did well. He had a reputation for hiring and firing, the woman at the agency had added, but Alice was good at what she did. Better than good. By the time she’d arrived at the building at precisely eight-forty-five that morning, she had made up her mind that she would do her damnedest to secure a permanent position there.

  Her last job had been pleasant and reasonably well paid, but the surroundings had been mediocre and the chances of advancement non-existent. This job, should she manage to get it, promised a career that might actually move in an upward direction.

  Right now, she thought that she wouldn’t be going anywhere if her new boss didn’t show up, except back to her little shared house in Shepherd’s Bush with one wasted day behind her. She probably wouldn’t even be paid for her time because no one would sign off her work sheet if she didn’t actually do any work. She wondered whether his reputation as a hirer and firer wasn’t actually a case of him being left in the lurch every three weeks because his secretaries got fed up dealing with his so-called brilliance. Not so much a case of him firing his secretaries as his secretaries firing him.

  She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirrored wall that occupied one section of her office and frowned at the image reflected back: her neat outfit and unremarkable looks did not seem to gel with the glossy, snappy image of the other employees she had seen as she had been channelled onto the directors’ floor. She could have landed on a film set. The guys all wore snappy, expensive suits and the women were largely blonde and achingly good-looking in a polished, well-groomed way. Young, thrusting, career graduates who all had the full package of looks, ambition and brains. Even the secretaries and clerks who kept the wheels of the machinery oiled and running were just as glamorous. These were people who dressed for their surroundings.

  She, on the other hand...

  Brown eyes, brown hair falling straigh
t to her shoulders, and she was far too tall, even in her flat, black pumps. Something about her grey suit and white blouse screamed lack of flair, although when she had stuck it on that morning she had been quietly pleased at the professional image she projected. It had certainly made a change from the more casual gear she had become accustomed to wearing at her last job. Now, here, she just looked vaguely...drab.

  For the first time she wondered whether the gleaming CV in her handbag and her confidence in her abilities were going to be enough. An eccentric and insane employer who surrounded himself with glamour models might just find her a little on the boring side.

  She swept aside the nudge of insecurity trying to push itself to the forefront. This wasn’t a fashion parade and she wasn’t competing with anyone in the looks stakes. This was a job, and she was good at what she did. She picked things up easily; she had an agile brain. When it came to work, those were the things that mattered.

  She hunkered down for the long haul.

  It was nearly midday, and she was bracing herself for an awkward conversation with one of his employees about his whereabouts, when the door to her office was pushed open.

  And in he came. Her new boss, Gabriel Cabrera. And nothing had prepared her for him. Tall, well over six foot, he was the most sinfully good-looking man she had ever set eyes on. His hair was slightly too long, which lent him a rakish air, and the perfection of his dark, chiselled features was indecent. He emanated power and a sort of restless energy that left her temporarily lost for words. Then she gathered herself and held out her hand in greeting.

  ‘Who are you?’ Gabriel stopped abruptly and frowned at her. ‘And why are you here?’

  Alice dropped her hand and bared her teeth in a polite smile. This was the man she would be working for and she didn’t want to kick things off on the wrong foot—but, in her head, she added to the list of pejorative descriptions which had been growing steadily ‘rude and fancies himself’.