The Billionaire Takes a Bride

The Billionaire Takes a Bride
Liz Fielding

Caught by a tycoon!Billionaire Richard Mallory has spent his life swarmed by beautiful but unsuitable women. Now, just when he's given up on ever meeting Ms. Right, he finds Ginny–in his bedroom! She's different–natural, honest-looking, innocent…. So what's she doing in his apartment?Ginny was only trying to do a small favor for her best friend, Sophie, and now her little white lie has landed her in a whole heap of trouble! She has to spend the entire day with the handsome tycoon. But could one day ultimately lead to a lifetime…?

“If you tell me what you’re looking for I might be able to help?” A voice, low and gravelly, had emerged from the heaped-up quilt.

Then more of the man emerged as he propped himself up on one arm. Naked shoulders, a naked chest with a splattering of dark hair that arrowed down to a hard, flat stomach….

“Um….” Ginny murmured, mesmerised.

“I’m sorry?” One of Richard Mallory’s brows kinked upwards. “I didn’t quite catch that.”

She swallowed hard. There was nothing to do but bluff it out and hope for the best.

“I was looking for my hamster.”

Dear Reader,

Quiet, studious Ginny Lautour and Sophie Harrington, privileged, lively, the natural class “princess,” were the two girls least likely to be friends. But Sophie’s natural kindness in rescuing a lost soul on her first day at school and clever Ginny’s aptitude for getting Sophie out of trouble forged the kind of bond that lasts a lifetime. So when Sophie begs for Ginny’s help to save her job, even though it means breaking into her sexy billionaire playboy neighbor’s apartment, she doesn’t hesitate.

And everything would have been fine if Richard Mallory was—as promised—away for the weekend. But then Sophie wasn’t being entirely honest with her best friend. She wasn’t in trouble. Just matchmaking!

As Sophie discovers, however, when you tell a big fat fib, even if it is with the best of intentions, it’s likely to come back and bite you. Homeless, jobless and with Ginny honeymooning with her beloved Richard, Sophie has no one to turn to. For the first time ever she has to live on what she can earn and, with Christmas coming, the only job on offer is that of dog walker to gorgeous grouch Gabriel York. But it’s the season for miracles and once he offers her a home, no matter how temporary, all things are possible.

I do hope you enjoy reading how best friends Ginny and Sophie find their very special happy endings in The Billionaire Takes a Bride and A Surprise Christmas Proposal.

With love,

Liz

The Billionaire Takes a Bride

Liz Fielding

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

For the ladies of the eHarlequin Writers’ Auxiliary and Hamster Circle. Thanks for the laughs.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER ONE

THIS was a mistake. A big mistake. Every cell in Ginny’s body was slamming on the brakes, digging in its heels, trying to claw its way back behind the safety of the rain-soaked hedge that divided her roof top terrace from the raked perfection of Richard Mallory’s Japanese garden, with its mossy rocks, carp pool and paper-walled pavilion.

Previous perfection.

Her boots had left deep impressions in the damp gravel. So much for stealth.

She was not cut out for burglary. Even her clothes were wrong. She should have been in svelte black and wearing lightweight tennis shoes that made no noise, her hair bolted down under a tight ski cap…

Oh, for heaven’s sake. It was the middle of the morning and the last thing she wanted to look like was a burglar.

In the unlikely event that she was discovered it was important that she looked exactly what she was. A distressed neighbour looking for her lost pet…

Somebody totally innocent. And an innocent person didn’t change shoes, or happen to be wearing the appropriate clothing to battle through a hedge. Her lace-ups, baggy jeans and a loose shirt in an eye-gouging purple—fifty pence from her favourite charity shop—screamed innocent. Of everything except bad taste.

She groaned.

Distressed was right.

She had promised herself that she would never volunteer to do anything like this ever again. Not even for Sophie. Famous last words.

Her mouth hadn’t been paying attention.

She took a deep steadying breath and firmly beat back the urgent desire to bolt. It would be fine. She had every angle covered and this was for a friend. A friend in trouble.

A friend who was always in trouble.

A friend who’d always been there for her, she reminded herself.

She took another deep breath, then stepped through the open French windows into the empty room.

‘Er, hello?’

Her voice emerged as a painful croak. A bit like a frog with laryngitis. She had her story all ready in the unlikely event that someone answered, but that didn’t stop her heart from pounding like the entire timpani section of the London Philharmonic…

‘Anyone home?’

The only response was the faint whirr of a washing machine hitting the spin cycle.

Apart from that no sound of any kind.