A Shameful Consequence

A Shameful Consequence
CAROL MARINELLI

Nine-month wedding night scandal!Nico Eliades is back on the idyllic Greek island of Xanos to uncover long-buried family secrets. He can’t help but notice a bride in a crumpled wedding dress sitting on the steps of his hotel… Constantine’s orchestrated marriage is over before the wedding night.A humiliated virgin bride, she longs to feel desired, and at Nico’s skilled hands she experiences white-hot passion. But their one night brings more than just shame on Constantine and her family… Constantine has no choice but to reveal her bombshell to Nico – yet still her fingers tremble as she dials the number for Eliades Enterprises… The Secrets of Xanos Two brothers alike in charisma and power; separated at birth and seeking revenge…

THE SECRETS OF XANOS

Two brothers alike in charisma and power; separated at birth and seeking revenge …

Nico—the good twin

Brought up to be a good Greek boy,

he’s always felt like an outsider. He’s turned his back

on his parents’ fortune to become one of Xanos’

most powerful exports.

Nothing will stand in the way of him discovering

the truth—until he stumbles upon a virgin bride …

an encounter that has shameful consequences …

Zander—the forgotten twin

He took his chances on the streets rather than

spend another moment under his cruel father’s roof.

He’s pulled himself up by the bootstraps and is

unrivalled in business—and the bedroom!

He wants the best people around him, and

Charlotte is the best PA! But she works for his rival …

unless he can tempt her over to the dark side …

Look out for Zander’s story

AN INDECENT PROPOSITION

Coming soon!

‘I will not be your long-time lover. I am no one’s escape …’ He saw her eyes shutter. ‘But I will be with you tonight.’

‘Just tonight?’ She wanted more than that.

‘Only tonight …’ He looked at her, his eyes roaming the body he had been thinking about for hours now. A virgin bride, who would stay that way if not for him. ‘You come to my bed. I will show you all you miss out on if you choose to live this lie …’

‘I have no choice.’

‘Always we have choices,’ Nico said, and this was his—to choose not to examine his feelings tonight. His mind was black and here was light. The streets of Xanos had unsettled him, stirred emotions that he sorely wanted gone. He wanted diversion and here it had been delivered to him—in the shape of a tear-streaked, beautiful virgin.

About the Author

CAROL MARINELLI recently filled in a form where she was asked for her job title and was thrilled, after all these years, to be able to put down her answer as ‘writer’.

Then it asked what Carol did for relaxation and, after chewing her pen for a moment, Carol put down the truth—’writing’. The third question asked, ‘What are your hobbies?’ Well, not wanting to look obsessed or, worse still, boring, she crossed the fingers on her free hand and answered ‘swimming and tennis’. But, given that the chlorine in the pool does terrible things to her highlights, and the closest she’s got to a tennis racket in the last couple of years is watching the Australian Open, I’m sure you can guess the real answer!

Recent titles by the same author:

HEART OF THE DESERT

THE DEVIL WEARS KOLOVSKY

Carol also writes for Mills & Boon

Medical

Romance!

Did you know these are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

A Shameful

Consequence

Carol Marinelli

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

PROLOGUE

‘TONIGHT they have their own rooms,’ Alexandros said. ‘Separate rooms.’

‘What harm …?’ Roula started and then stopped—she had learnt not to question Alexandros’s decisions, but on this one she had to stand up to him. It would be cruel to separate the babies, so she tried another route. ‘They will wake you with their tears.’

‘Let them cry—that is the way they will learn that at night you are with me.’ He ran a hand between her thighs, told her that tonight there would be no excuses, not that he listened when she made them.

Her only relief was the slam of the door when he left to spend the day sitting outside the taverna, playing cards and drinking, but Roula’s relief lasted just a moment before the countdown started—dreading his return.

Seventeen and the mother of twins, they were her only shining light. More beautiful than any other babies, she could watch them sleep for hours, the little snubs of their noses, pushed up by their fingers as they sucked on their thumbs, eyelashes so long that they met the curve of their cheeks. Sometimes one would open his eyes to look at the other. Huge black eyes would gaze at his brother, soothed by what he saw, and then close again.

Mirror image twins, the midwife had told Roula when she’d delivered them. Identical, but opposite, one right handed the other left, their soft baby hair swirled to the right on Nico, to the left on little Alexandros.

At almost a year, still they shared a cot, screaming if she tried to separate them. Even if their cribs were pushed together, their protests would not abate. Now tonight he would force them into separate rooms.