The Renegade Billionaire

The Renegade Billionaire
Rebecca Winters

One night to change their lives… A runaway child is missing, and as it’s on his Greek island, rebel billionaire Stavros Konstantinos finds himself caught up in the search, alongside pretty tour guide Andrea Linford... Their heroic rescue mission over, they begin to explore the spark between them. Andrea always thought love happened to other people—but after two bliss-filled days with Stavros she knows her feelings run deep. Is Andrea brave enough to throw off her past and step into the future—with Stavros by her side?

“What if I want you to stay?” His husky tone played havoc with her senses.

She took a fortifying breath. “Forgive me for being blunt, but I can’t afford to stay.” I’m far too attracted to you.

How could she feel this strongly about him when it hadn’t been that long ago Ferrante had died? She didn’t want to know the pain of loving someone again, and was shocked at the strength of her feelings for him already. A prominent man like Stavros Konstantinos could have his pick of any woman, but he could never be serious about her. It wasn’t worth risking her heart to stay around any longer—especially when she’d be leaving the country with her father in the not too distant future.

The Renegade Billionaire

Rebecca Winters

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

REBECCA WINTERS lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. With canyons and high alpine meadows full of wildflowers, she never runs out of places to explore. They, plus her favourite vacation spots in Europe, often end up as backgrounds for her romance novels, because writing is her passion, along with her family and church.

Rebecca loves to hear from readers. If you wish to e-mail her, please visit her website at: cleanromances.com (http://cleanromances.com).

To my wonderful children, who put up with me while I write books of the heart. They know I love them, but they also know my mind is often somewhere deep into a love story of my own concoction.

Contents

Cover (#u1b397750-64d0-546d-9779-ee86cd08fd8e)

Introduction (#u2ea97bc9-1c26-5c22-b116-cd188a81e2e6)

Title Page (#u019f07d3-cfb5-53c2-9474-61d06f7cbc27)

About the Author (#u15e02d61-f199-590b-84fb-31c0c9b48386)

Dedication (#ubec8f2c6-4733-5434-a09f-2cc5dc447a53)

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

Extract (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER ONE (#u24e72b93-916c-53d2-8afb-699f50d266f4)

AFTER WASHING THE sweat from his body, Stavros Konstantinos wrapped a towel around his hips and walked out on his terrace. The view of the blue Aegean from his private villa atop pine-covered Mount Ypsarion always renewed him.

Because of another of many such impasses, today’s board meeting in Thessaloniki on the Greek mainland had ended early for him. His proposal for a new product to be manufactured and marketed by the Konstantinos Marble Corporation had met with total defeat.

At that point a blackness had swept through him. The sickness that had been coming on for the past year had finally caught up to him. Depression was a feeling he’d never known before, but he couldn’t label it as anything else.

Knowing that his family members who made up the majority of the board still lived and operated as if it were 1950, he hadn’t expected any other result. With the exception of his elder brother, Leon, everyone else down to the last cousin was against any new innovations and refused to hear him out. They were afraid of change.

That was fine with him. In his free time he’d had a new plant built on his own land. Now that the family had refused to listen to him and wanted no part of it, he and his two partners, Theo and Zander, would be starting production on Monday.

Since he’d gotten nowhere with the members of the board, he’d told them he was resigning from his position as managing director of the corporation immediately. As of now, all ties were severed, including his position on the board. He suggested they should start looking for a replacement ASAP.

Just saying those words helped to drive some of the blackness away. He’d been in a cage, but no longer.

While every member sat there in utter shock at his announcement, he excused himself from the meeting in Thessaloniki and took the helicopter back to his villa on Thassos Island. En route, he checked his phone messages and discovered another text message waiting for him from Tina Nasso, the woman he’d stopped seeing three months ago.

Since he’d never responded to any of her messages, why would she text him again? Was she so desperate?

This separation from u can’t go on, Stavros. You’ve been so cruel. I haven’t seen u or even heard your voice in three months! You haven’t texted me back once. I have to talk to you! This is important. Tina.

This text meant she was still pressing for him to change his mind. His black brows came together. Christina Nasso, the woman his parents had expected him to marry, didn’t know how to let something go that could never have worked out. With no intention of answering this text either, he deleted it.

Parental pressure had driven him to spend some time with her, but there was no attraction on his part. He had the gut feeling her parents were still pressuring her because they’d wanted an alliance between both families. Just as his parents had planned on him marrying her, it was no secret the prominent Nasso shipping family from Kavala wanted Stavros for their son-in-law. Both family businesses were closely connected.

But when she’d wanted a deeper intimacy with him, he couldn’t pretend feelings he didn’t have. Though he hadn’t wanted to hurt her, he’d had to tell her the truth. He wasn’t in love with her and they both needed to be free.

Stavros had told his parents the same thing after they’d demanded an explanation. His great mistake was humoring them from the beginning. Never again. They could wait, but a marriage with Tina wouldn’t happen.

Today he’d felt the consequences of his actions. His refusal to go on seeing her had caused a serious rift, one he’d felt at the board meeting when his father had influenced his uncles and cousins to close ranks against his new business venture instead of embracing it.

As for Tina, his hope was that one day she’d meet someone her family would approve of. She was an attractive woman with much to offer a man who wanted to marry her. But Stavros wasn’t that man. One day, Tina would realize it and move on. Like salt that had lost its savor, every relationship he’d had with a woman had been missing the essential ingredient for happiness.

The only thing that brought him any pleasure right now was spending every bit of time on his new business. Stavros’s company wouldn’t be in competition with his family’s, but there would be fireworks when they found out he’d gone ahead with production. One of theirs was doing something on his own and they couldn’t tolerate it. But it shouldn’t be a surprise to them. He rarely bowed to the dictates of his autocratic father or his great-uncles.

For his mother’s sake, he’d tried where Tina was concerned. But once she’d learned that her younger son wasn’t enamored of the Nasso girl, he’d found disfavor in her eyes too. He took a deep breath. Today had turned out to be a day like no other. From here on out, his life was going to go in directions no one would be happy about except him.

So be it!

On his way to the kitchen to quench his thirst, his cell phone rang. If it was Tina calling because he hadn’t answered her text, she would find out exactly how he felt when she realized he intended to go on ignoring any and all phone calls or texts from her.

But when he looked at the caller ID, he saw it was the manager of quarry three on Thassos Island phoning on his private line. He clicked on. “What’s up, Gus?”