âYou are so beautiful. Iâve wanted you for so long.â
âIf you did you hid it well from me,â she pointed out helplessly.
âIâve surrendered ⦠I canât hide it any more.â
Floraâs mouth ran dry. Clad in silk boxers that defined more than they concealed, Angelo was an intimidating sight for a woman who was still a virgin. Of course that was not a truth that she was eager to brandish. Her lack of experience was more an accident of fate than a deliberate choice, for she had not got close enough to consider intimacy with anyone since her engagement had been broken off three years earlier.
âIâm not beautiful,â she told him almost defiantly, unwilling to trust him or any man.
Angelo suddenly smiled, and his lean dark face lit up with a brilliance that made her heartbeat pick up speed as he came down beside her on the bed. âI think you are, and Iâm only interested in my own opinion.â[satish]
SECRETLY PREGNANT
With this ring, I claim my baby!
The amazing new trilogy
by best-selling Modern⢠author
Lynne Graham
The charming and pretty English village of Charlbury St Helens is home to three young women whose Cinderella lives are about to be turned upside down ⦠by three of the wealthiest, most handsome and impossibly arrogant men in Europe!
Jemima, Flora and Jess arenât looking for love, but all have babies very much in mind. Jemima already has a young son, Flora is hoping to adopt her late half-sisterâs little daughter, and Jess just longs to be a mum.
But whether they have or want a baby, all the girls must marry ultimate alpha males to keep their dreams ⦠And Alejandro, Angelo and Cesario are not about to be tamed!
SECRETLY PREGNANT
NAÃVE BRIDE, DEFIANT WIFE:
Jemima and Alejandroâs story
FLORAâS DEFIANCE:
Flora and Angeloâs story
JESSâS PROMISE:
Jess and Cesarioâs story
ANGELO VAN ZAAL studied the nine-month-old child that the nurse had brought to him. The little girl was golden-haired with the wide, pansy-blue eyes of a china doll, and the minute she saw him she smiled in happy recognition. The innocence of that trusting smile cut Angelo as sharply as a knife, for few children could have been subjected to a tougher start in life than little Mariska. Only a dark bruise and a scratch on one cheek bore witness to the fact that she had been miraculously thrown clear in her special car seat from the accident in which both of her parents had died.
âI understand that you are not related by blood to Mariska,â the female doctor by his side remarked.
âHer father, Willem, was my stepbrother, but I thought of him as my brother and I treated him as such,â Angelo stated with the clarity for which he was famed in the business world. âI consider Mariska to be part of my family and Iâm keen to adopt her.â
âThe social worker in charge of her case did mention that you have been involved in Mariskaâs life since she was bornââ
âI did what I could to support Willem and his wife, Julie. I only wish it had been enough,â he imparted with a wry twist of his mouth, as he knew that the medical staff would be well aware of the state in which Mariskaâs parents had been at the time of the crash. He was merely grateful that the sordid truth had not appeared in the newspapers.
Angelo van Zaal was an extraordinarily handsome man, the doctor reflected with an appreciative glance. He was also extremely wealthy, the bearer of a name famous for its benevolence in the field of philanthropy. Nevertheless, the steel magnate was equally well known for his ruthless cutting edge and success as a businessman. According to the press, a procession of international fashion models entertained him outside working hours. In looks, he had inherited his Spanish motherâs black hair and darker skin tone rather than his Dutch fatherâs fair colouring. But his eyes were a bright burning blue, as lucid as a flawless sapphire and enhanced by a frame of lush ebony lashes that gave his gaze spectacular impact. Tall, at several inches over six feet, and well built, he had attracted a good deal of notice from female staff and patients alike as they walked through the hospital to the childrenâs ward. He was also, as far as the doctor was aware, still a single man.
âThe hospital has had several enquiries about Mariskaâs welfare from her aunt, Flora Bennett. I understand that she is Julieâs older sister.â
Angeloâs superb bone structure took on a forbidding aspect. At the same time, he had a mental flash of eyes the colour of emeralds, skin as impossibly white as milk and the sort of lush full pink mouth that could plunge a man into an erotic daydream. Flora was a tall, feisty redhead with the kind of sensual appeal that would have entrapped a less wary and experienced male. As he had on previous occasions, Angelo crushed that provocative thought and shook himself free of it in exasperation. âA half-sister,â he pronounced quietly. âShe and Julie had the same father.â