âWhy did your family throw you out?â Leo enquired directly.
Grace gave him a wry glance. âI think you already know why.â
âBut that news should have come from you directly to me,â Leo told her grimly. âI had a right to know first!â
âAnd perhaps you wouldâve done were we in a relationship,â Grace countered quietly. âBut since weâre not, the situation is rather different.â
âIf youâre pregnant, we definitely have a relationship,â he contradicted.
Grace wrinkled her nose. âWell, I am having your baby,â she conceded reluctantly. âBut we donât have to have any kind of a relationship!â
âAnd how do you work that out?â Leo gritted, becoming steadily more annoyed by her dismissive attitude.
âI can manage fine on my own. Iâm very independent,â Grace informed him. âAnd as far as I know you donât legally have any say in the matter,â Grace went on, in an apologetic rather than challenging tone. âOnly married fathers have those kind of rights.â
âThen Iâll marry you.â
Grace groaned at that knee-jerk reaction. âDonât be silly, Leo. Strangers donât get married.â
Leo lifted his dark head high and surveyed her with glittering golden eyes that were mesmeric in their intensity. âI donât care how we go about it, but I want our child and I am prepared to do anything to make it happen.â
Introducing Lynne Grahamâs fabulous new duet, full of prestige, power and passion!
These are two alpha males you just wonât be able to put down.
The Notorious Greeks
⦠and the women they claim!
Whether itâs the boardroom or the bedroom, Leo and Bastien Zikos are masters of all they survey. Until they each meet a woman who has the temerity to deny them the one thing they most desperately crave â¦
In a true battle of wills, Lynne Graham whisks you away to glamorous destinations and epic tales of love in:
The Greek Demands His Heir August 2015
The Greek Commands His Mistress September 2015
LYNNE GRAHAM was born in Northern Ireland and has been a keen romance reader since her teens. She is very happily married, with an understanding husband who has learned to cook since she started to write! Her five children keep her on her toes. She has a very large dog, which knocks everything over, a very small terrier, which barks a lot, and two cats. When time allows, Lynne is a keen gardener.
CHAPTER ONE
âOH, YES, I should mention that last week I ran into your future father-in-law, Rodas,â Anatole Zikos said towards the end of the congratulatory phone call he had made to his son. âHe seemed a little twitchy about when you might...finally...be setting a date for the wedding. It has been three years, Leo. When are you planning to marry Marina?â
âSheâs meeting me for lunch today,â Leo divulged with some amusement, unperturbed by the hint of censure in his fatherâs deep voice. âNeither of us has any desire to sprint to the altar.â
âAfter three years, believe me, nobody will accuse you of sprinting,â Anatole said drily. âAre you sure you want to marry the girl?â
Leo Zikos frowned, level black brows lifting in surprise. âOf course I doââ
âI mean, itâs not as if you need Kouros Electronics these days.â
Leo stiffened. âItâs not a matter of need. Itâs a matter of common sense. Marina will make me the perfect wife.â
âThere is no such thing as a perfect wife, Leo.â
Thinking of his late and much-lamented mother, Leo clamped his wide sensual mouth firmly closed lest he say something he would regret, something that would shatter the closer relationship he had since attained with the older man. A wise man did not continually look back to a better-forgotten past, he reminded himself grimly, and Leoâs childhood in a deeply troubled and unhappy family home definitely fell into that category.
At the other end of the silent line, Anatole made a soft sound of frustration. âI want you to be happy in your marriage,â he admitted heavily.
âI will be,â Leo told his father with supreme assurance and he came off the phone smiling.
Life was good, in fact life was very good, Leo acknowledged with the slow-burning smile on his lean, darkly handsome face that many women found irresistible. He had just that morning closed a deal that had enriched him by millions, hence his fatherâs phone call. His father was quite correct in assuming that Leo did not need to marry Marina simply to inherit her fatherâs electronics company as a dowry. But then Leo had never wanted to marry Marina for her money.
At eighteen, a veteran of the wretched warfare between his ill-matched parents, Leo had drawn up a checklist of the attributes his future wife should have. Marina Kouros ticked literally every box. She was wealthy, beautiful and intelligent as well as being a product of the same exclusive upbringing he had enjoyed himself. They had a great deal in common but they were neither in love nor possessive of each other. Objectives like harmony and practicality would illuminate their shared future rather than dangerous passion and horrendous emotional storms. There would be no nasty surprises along the way with Marina, a young woman Leo had first met in nursery school.