The Andreou Marriage Arrangement

The Andreou Marriage Arrangement
HELEN BIANCHIN

She wants her independence.He wants a good Greek wife! Loukas Andreou: a force to be reckoned with in business…and in the bedroom, as rumour has it. The same man who, to Alesha Karsouli’s horror, she must marry, according to the terms of her father’s will. She reluctantly concedes to a paper marriage, in which they will fulfil social obligations yet lead separate lives – but this naïve idea is soon dismissed…Loukas needs a wife who is doting in public. However, according to him, the only way to make that arrangement appear authentic is if she’s also his willing bride in private…

‘Yes or no, Alesha.’ His expression was unreadable, his eyes dark and unwavering as they regarded her.

It had to be yes. ‘I have no choice but to agree, subject to certain conditions.’

There was a strength apparent in her demeanour, a determination he could only admire, given she’d taken a king-hit about the true state of her father’s corporation.

‘Name them.’ His voice held a silkiness she chose to ignore.

‘I retain my position in Karsouli.’

Loukas inclined his head in agreement. ‘Naturally.’

Now for the cruncher. ‘A separate suite of rooms in whatever home we share.’

His gaze narrowed. ‘Your reason being…?’

‘A personal preference.’

He regarded her in silence for several timeless seconds. ‘The same bedroom, separate beds.’ He waited a beat. ‘Until you feel comfortable sharing mine.’

Helen Bianchin was born in New Zealand and travelled to Australia before marrying her Italian-born husband. After three years they moved, returned to New Zealand with their daughter, had two sons and then resettled in Australia. Encouraged by friends to recount anecdotes of her years as a tobacco share farmer’s wife living in an Italian community, Helen began setting words on paper and her first novel was published in 1975. An animal lover, she says her terrier and Persian cat regard her study as as much theirs as hers.

The Andreou Marriage Arrangement

BY

Helen Bianchin

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

Table of Contents

Cover Page (#u100ada4c-9f72-5b32-aeaa-358168d84c9e)

Excerpt (#ub31bf59e-9839-5ef6-82c3-46f2a2fa8093)

About The Author (#u3b618252-2dae-52bb-84fc-251926fd2df5)

Title Page (#u7fdaea4d-a4be-5c64-8a9b-d2a6d0264eca)

Chapter One (#u70a2245e-8b0a-5b16-bd84-2a1c6f35d8a7)

Chapter Two (#ub18e25a9-42e3-5a45-9631-0c53e71dde2b)

Chapter Three (#u2aa00335-25da-58d2-8f6d-02f4bf7b8045)

Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter One

ALESHA sat in stunned silence as the lawyer finished reading her late father’s will.

Surprise didn’t even begin to cut it.

What had Dimitri Karsouli been thinking in selling a twenty-five-per-cent share in the Karsouli Corporation to Loukas Andreou?

Worse…gifting Loukas a further twenty-five-per-cent share. Representing several hundred million dollars on today’s market.

Subject to marriage.

The breath caught in her throat as realization hit. Dear heaven. Her father had bought her a husband?

It was beyond comprehension.

Yet she was all too aware how her father’s mind worked; it didn’t take much to do the maths.

A year ago Alesha’s disastrous short-lived marriage had formally ended in divorce from a man who had professed to love her…only for her to discover to her cost that Seth Armitage’s main goal had been a stake in her father’s fortune and a free ride on the gravy train. It had devastated her and angered her father…more than she had known.

Dimitri, out of a sense of parental devotion, had clearly conspired to arrange what he perceived to be a fail-safe liaison for his daughter via marriage to a man who had his total approval. A man of integrity, trust, possessed of astute business nous, and a worthy companion.

Loukas Andreou, the inflexible omnipotent head of the Athens branch of the Andreou Corporation, whose financial interests included shipping and considerable ancillary assets worldwide.

Loukas, whose father Constantine had been Dimitri’s lifelong friend and associate…a man whose powerful image sprang so readily to Alesha’s mind, it was almost as if his presence became a tangible entity in the room.

In his late thirties, attractive, if one admired masculine warrior features, with the height, breadth of shoulder and facial bone structure that comprised angles and planes. Loukas had brilliant dark eyes and a mouth that promised much.

Sophisticated apparel did little to diminish an innate ruthlessness resting beneath the surface of his control.