LITMIR.BIZ

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careful supervision, and plenty to keep him occupied. Her daughter, Suzy, was as copper-haired as her mother and was as calm as her brother was over-active. A tolerant baby, she slept when she was expected to sleep, and played in an orderly manner. Maddie was grateful she had a nanny to give her a break when she needed one, or wanted to spend time alone with Giannis.

      Giannis adored his children. From the instant the twins had arrived in the world, with remarkably little fuss, Giannis had been a devoted father. Some of their most happy moments had been family ones, when they’d fooled around with the twins, or paused to marvel at a first word or step. Time and love had given Maddie a lot more confidence in herself and in her marriage.

      Krista had been through rehab and had recently married a Hollywood movie mogul twice her age. She was regularly featured in glossy magazines, wearing the latest fashion and arriving at the most exclusive events. She seemed happy, which pleased Maddie, who sometimes felt a little guilty about the extent of her own blissful contentment.

      Giannis had been nagged out of being a workaholic. When he had discovered that babies had bodyclocks that disliked changing time-zones he’d begun to travel a lot less. Also, he disliked being away from his family for longer than a couple of days. They spent a great deal of time on the island of Libos, where Dorkas was a regular visitor to their home. Once the children reached school age, however, Giannis and Maddie were planning on settling at Harriston Hall during the week, for Maddie wanted them to enjoy an English education. Here, at the old fortress in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco, was where they always came to relax and take advantage of just being with each other.

      With the help of the children’s nanny Maddie put the twins to bed for the night. That afternoon she had had a massage and beauty session. Now she shed her casual clothing and dressed to impress in a flimsy lingerie set, followed by an azure-blue cocktail dress and high heels. Smoothing the stretchy fabric over her hips, she smiled when she heard the helicopter coming in to land. It had taken hard work and will-power, and a personal trainer, but she had regained her waist. When Giannis walked in she was posed by the terrace doors.

      ‘I have died and gone to heaven,’ Giannis murmured, his deeply appreciative gaze locked to his red-headed temptress of a wife. ‘You look fit to ravish.’

      ‘You didn’t spend long with the twins.’

      ‘For once in their lives they’re both fast asleep on schedule,’ he told her huskily. ‘And, wonderful though my son and daughter are, it’s been three long days since I saw my wife.’

      ‘You’ve been counting?’

      Giannis curved an admiring hand to the full curve of her derrière and eased her up against his lithe, powerful frame. For a moment he just held her close, with the affection that was becoming more and more natural to him. When he lifted his handsome dark head again, his dark golden eyes smouldered with possessive heat over her lovely face. ‘When I’m away I miss you. You’ve changed my life around, agape mou.’

      ‘And there’s me thinking I was being so subtle,’ Maddie teased, leaning into him with alacrity, loving the familiar feel and warmth of him.

      Giannis set her back from him and lifted her wrist to clasp around it a shimmering diamond bracelet adorned with the letter M. ‘Happy birthday.’

      ‘It’s gorgeous.’

      ‘Like that outfit,’ Giannis remarked huskily, stepping back from the temptation of getting too close to her shapely body. ‘Hamid is waiting to serve a very fancy meal in honour of your special day.’

      Maddie stretched up to kiss him, and that one taste led to another taste, and then she started wrenching at his tie—until she too remembered the birthday meal, and strove to behave with greater self-discipline.

      ‘I love you very much, Mrs Petrakos,’ Giannis murmured over the exquisitely presented dinner. ‘How am I doing in the hero stakes?’

      ‘You’ll have to show me,’ Maddie whispered, her attention glued to his lean, dark face with sensual intent.

      ‘So you work on a basis of continual assessment?’ Giannis drawled with a wicked grin.

      Mid-meal, the long, languishing looks, the flirtation and the ever-increasing urge to touch triumphed, and they vanished into the bedroom. Giannis kissed her breathless and told her that she was the most irresistible woman alive. Maddie thought about how much she adored him, and decided that exercise would do her much more good than dessert.

       One Night...Nine-Month Scandal

      Sarah Morgan

      USA Today bestselling author SARAH MORGAN writes lively, sexy stories for both the Mills & Boon Modern and Medical Romance lines. As a child, Sarah dreamed of being a writer and, although she took a few interesting detours on the way, she is now living that dream. With her writing career, she has successfully combined business with pleasure and she firmly believes that reading romance is one of the most satisfying and fat-free escapist pleasures available.

       Chapter One

      ‘I DON’T care if he’s on a conference call, this is urgent!’

      The voice outside his office belonged to his lawyer and Alekos paused in mid-sentence as the door burst open.

      Dmitri stood there, papers in his hand, his face a strange shade of scarlet.

      ‘I’ll call you back,’ Alekos drawled and hit the button to disconnect himself from his team in New York and London. ‘Given that I’ve never seen you run anywhere in the ten years you’ve worked for me, I assume you’re the bearer of bad tidings. A tanker has sunk?’

      ‘Quickly.’ The normally calm, steady Dmitri sprinted across the spacious office, banged into the desk and spilled the papers over the floor. ‘Switch on your computer.’

      ‘I’m already online.’ Intrigued, Alekos shifted his gaze to his computer screen. ‘What am I supposed to be looking at?’

      ‘Go to eBay,’ Dmitri said in a strangled voice. ‘Right now. We have three minutes left to bid.’

      Alekos didn’t waste time pointing out that placing bids with an online auction-house didn’t usually form part of his working day. Instead he accessed the site with a few taps of his fingers.

      ‘Diamond,’ Dmitri croaked. ‘Type in “large, white diamond”.’

      A premonition forming in his mind, Alekos stabbed the keys. No; she couldn’t have. She wouldn’t have.

      As the page sprang onto his screen, he swore softly in Greek while Dmitri sank uninvited onto the nearest chair. ‘Am I right? Is it the Zagorakis diamond? Being sold on eBay?’

      Alekos stared at the stone and felt emotion punch deep in his gut. Just seeing that ring made him think of her, and thinking of her set off a chain reaction in his body that shocked him with its intensity. He struggled to shake off the instantaneous assault on his senses triggered by those rebel thoughts. Even after four years of absence she could still do this to him, he thought grimly. ‘It’s the diamond. You’re sure she is the seller?’

      ‘It would appear so. If the stone had come on the market before now we would have been notified. I have a team checking it out right now, but the bids have already reached a million dollars. Why eBay?’ Bending down, Dmitri gathered together the papers he’d dropped. ‘Why not Christie’s or Sotheby’s, or one of the big, reputable auction-houses? It’s a very strange decision.’

      ‘Not strange.’ His eyes fixed on the screen, Alekos laughed. ‘It’s entirely in character. She’d never go to Christie’s or Sotheby’s.’ Her down to earth approach had been one of the things he’d found so

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