âYour money means nothing to me, Sander, nothing at all,â she told him truthfully, adding for good measure, âAnd neither do you. For me, the fact that you choose to think in terms of money simply underlines all the reasons why I am not prepared to allow my sons anywhere near you unless I am there.â
âThat is how you feel, but what about how they might feel?â Sander pressed her. âA good mother would never behave so selfishly. She would put her childrenâs interests first.â
How speedily Sander had turned the tables on her, Ruby recognised. What had begun at least on her part as a challenge to him, which she had been confident would make him back down, had turned into a double-edged sword which right now he was wielding very skilfully against her, cutting what she had thought was secure ground away from under her feet.
âI amâ¦they need their mothââ she started.
âThey are my sons,â Sander interrupted her angrily. âAnd I mean to have them. If I have to marry you to facilitate that, then so be it. But make no mistake, Ruby. I intend to have my sons.â
Best-selling Modern⢠Romance authorPenny Jordan brings you an exciting new trilogyâ¦
NEEDED: THE WORLDâSMOST ELIGIBLE BILLIONAIRES
Three penniless sisters, pure and proudâ¦but about to be purchased!
With bills that need to be paid,
a house about to be repossessed and little twin boys to feed, sisters Lizzie, Charley and Ruby refuse to drown in their debts. They will hold their heads up high and fight to feed their family!
But three of the richest, most ruthless men in the world
are about to enter their livesâ¦
Pure, proud, but penniless,
how far will the sisters go to save the ones they love?
Lizzieâs storyâ
THE WEALTHY GREEKâS CONTRACT WIFE
Ilios Manos is Greek and ruthless.A dangerous combination! Lizzie owes him thousands,but heâll take her as his wife in payment.
Charleyâs storyâ
THE ITALIAN DUKEâS VIRGIN MISTRESS
When project manager Charley is hired by demandingRaphael Della Striozzi, heâs adamant she must have amakeover! Now the dowdy frump has been transformed,sheâs sexy enough for another role: his mistress!
Rubyâs storyâ
MARRIAGE: TO CLAIM HIS TWINS
Out of the blue, Alexander Konstantinakos has turnedup at Rubyâs house to take his twin sons back to Greece!Ruby will do anything to keep her boys by her sideâeven marry Sander!
Marriage: To Claim His Twins
by
ALEXANDER KONSTANTINAKOS, powerful, formidable, billionaire head of an internationally renowned container shipping line originally founded by his late grandfather, stood in the middle of the elegantly luxurious drawing room of his home on the Greek Ionian island of Theopolis, his gaze riveted on the faces of the twin boys in the photograph he was holding.
Two black-haired, olive-skinned and dark-eyed identical faces looked back at him, their mother kneeling down beside them. The three of them were shabbily dressed in cheap-looking clothes.
Tall, dark-haired, with the features of two thousand years of alpha-male warriors and victors sculpted into the bones of his handsome face the same way that their determination was sculpted into his psyche, he stood in the now silent room, the accusation his sister had just made was still echoing through his head.
âThey have to be your sons,â she had accused Nikos, their younger brother. âThey have our family features stamped on them, and you were at university in Manchester.â
AlexanderâSander to his familyâdidnât need to keep gazing at the photograph Elena had taken with her mobile phone on her way through Manchester Airport after visiting her husbandâs family to confirm her statement, or to memorise the boysâ faces. They were already carved into his memory for all time.
âI donât know anything about them,â his younger brother Nikos denied, breaking the silence. âThey arenât mine, Sander, I promise you. Please believe me.â
âOf course theyâre yours,â Elena corrected their younger brother. âJust look at those faces. Nikos is lying, Sander. Those children are of our blood.â
Sander looked at his younger sister and brother, on the verge of quarrelling just as they had always done as children. There were only two years between them, but he had been born five years before Elena and seven before Nikos, and after their grandfatherâs death as the only adult family member left in their lives he had naturally taken on the responsibility of acting as a father figure to them. That had often meant arbitrating between them when they argued.
This time, though, it wasnât arbitration that was called for.
Sander looked at the photograph again and then announced curtly, âOf our blood, but not of Nikosâs making. Nikos is speaking the truth. The children are not his.â
Elena stared at him.
âHow can you know that?â
Sander turned towards the windows and looked beyond them to where the horizon met the deep blue of the Aegean Sea. Outwardly he might appear calm, but inside his chest his heart was thudding with fury. Inside his head images were forming, memories he had thought well buried surfacing.