The Forbidden Innocent

The Forbidden Innocent
Sharon Kendrik

New bride at Blackwood Manor? Having spent her childhood in care, Ashley Jones has no one. She desperately needs her new live-in job as an author’s assistant. But she is filled with trepidation when she arrives at isolated Blackwood Manor and meets the formidable Jack Marchant.Ashley thinks she is just a drab nobody…but her heart goes out to anguished, tortured Jack. She has no idea what troubles him. But one day a private kiss becomes a passionate affair…an affair that is as secret as it is forbidden…The Powerful and the Pure When Beauty tames the brooding Beast…

This month, Ashley finds that secrets and desire are a potent combination:

All she could see was the sudden flintiness of his eyes—and the cold glint of pain at their depths. And she thought to her herself, Surely a man shouldn’t look like this just before he kisses you?

‘Jack, we mustn’t,’ she whispered.

‘Oh, but we must,’ he negated harshly, compelled by something far stronger than reason or the sudden frantic clamour of his conscience. ‘Because I think I’m going to go crazy unless we do.’

Dear Reader (#u4e78c337-dda4-5da1-b956-4e14af08d344),

One hundred. Doesn’t matter how many times I say it, I still can’t believe that’s how many books I’ve written. It’s a fabulous feeling but more fabulous still is the news that Mills & Boon are issuing every single one of my backlist as digital titles. Wow. I can’t wait to share all my stories with you - which are as vivid to me now as when I wrote them.

There’s BOUGHT FOR HER HUSBAND, with its outrageously macho Greek hero and A SCANDAL, A SECRET AND A BABY featuring a very sexy Tuscan. THE SHEIKH’S HEIR proved so popular with readers that it spent two weeks on the USA Today charts and…well, I could go on, but I’ll leave you to discover them for yourselves.

I remember the first line of my very first book: “So you’ve come to Australia looking for a husband?” Actually, the heroine had gone to Australia to escape men, but guess what? She found a husband all the same! The man who inspired that book rang me up recently and when I told him I was beginning my 100

story and couldn’t decide what to write, he said, “Why don’t you go back to where it all started?”

So I did. And that’s how A ROYAL VOW OF CONVENIENCE was born. It opens in beautiful Queensland and moves to England and New York. It’s about a runaway princess and the enigmatic billionaire who is infuriated by her, yet who winds up rescuing her. But then, she goes and rescues him… Wouldn’t you know it?

I’ll end by saying how very grateful I am to have a career I love, and to thank each and every one of you who has supported me along the way. You really are very dear readers.

Love,

Sharon xxx

Mills & Boon are proud to present a thrilling digital collection of all Sharon Kendrick’s novels and novellas for us to celebrate the publication of her amazing and awesome 100th book! Sharon is known worldwide for her likeable, spirited heroines and her gorgeous, utterly masculine heroes.

SHARON KENDRICK once won a national writing competition, describing her ideal date: being flown to an exotic island by a gorgeous and powerful man. Little did she realise that she’d just wandered into her dream job! Today she writes for Mills & Boon, featuring her often stubborn but always to-die-for heroes and the women who bring them to their knees. She believes that the best books are those you never want to end. Just like life…

Author Note

I came to Jane Eyre late. Unlike most people, I’d never read the book at school, where my tastes ran more to Orwell, Huxley and Shakespeare.

Novels become classics for a reason—but your age at the time of reading them will inevitably alter their impact. An impressionable young girl visiting a famous love-story for the first time is bound to view the book differently from a mature woman who has experienced love herself.

Yet such is the power of Brontë’s story that I was as swept away by it as any sixteen year old and, like Jane—I fell in love with Edward Rochester—the man with the brilliant black eyes and brooding presence.

Translating the story to the present day posed problems. It had to reflect the times while retaining it’s particular theme of forbidden love. A modern Jane would (I think) sleep with Edward. And a modern Edward would be unlikely to keep his wife imprisoned in an upstairs room!

But the essential elements remain: for me, their story was as much about a meeting of minds as a powerful passion which could not be denied. And all about the redemptive power of love, it’s ability to adapt—and to heal.

I hope you enjoy THE FORBIDDEN INNOCENT—and I’d love to hear your views on the story.

www.sharonkendrick.com

The Forbidden Innocent

Sharon Kendrick

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

This book is dedicated to Anna Wilson—

a brilliant wife, mother, daughter, doctor and friend.

Love lives on.

Contents

Cover (#uc29ec04d-98d6-51c4-9a1b-1f1413388b17)

Extract (#uebdb5be0-db9f-51fc-bfa8-8fbf390047f8)

Dear Reader (#u8730c259-e4a4-5897-b3df-26c3da5df643)

About the Author (#u0a96af55-115d-54b4-853f-559802d57767)

Title Page (#u8723f272-c5e0-5115-9534-d4ac4e741918)

Dedication (#u01853b28-ec3a-537c-81d0-e247e1ec12fc)

CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_51868f9f-284a-51ac-8cc5-ddf834a3aea4)

CHAPTER TWO (#ulink_d85cb30b-31ba-57e3-9a92-1304bac13cd6)

CHAPTER THREE (#ulink_1ff9bf58-b204-564c-a479-1d44c91217da)

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)

CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)