TRADITIONAL GREEK HUSBANDS
Notorious Greek tycoons seek brides!
Childhood friends Neo and Zephyr worked themselves up from the slums of Athens and made their fortune on Wall Street!
They fought hard for their freedom and their fortune. Now, like brothers, they rely only on one another.
Together they hold onto their Greek traditionsâ¦and the time has come for them to claim their brides!
In May, Neoâs story: THE SHY BRIDE
This month meet Zephyr in: THE GREEKâS PREGNANT LOVER
LUCY MONROE started reading at the age of four. After going through the childrensâ books at home, her mother caught her reading adult novels pilfered from the higher shelves on the bookcaseâ¦alas, it was nine years before she got her hands on a Mills & Boon>® Romance her older sister had brought home. She loves to create the strong alpha males and independent women who people Mills & Boon books. When sheâs not immersed in a romance novel (whether reading or writing it), she enjoys travel with her family, having tea with the neighbours, gardening, and visits from her numerous nieces and nephews.
Lucy loves to hear from her readers: e-mail [email protected] or visit www.LucyMonroe.com
ZEPHYR NIKOS looked out over the Port of Seattle, remembering his arrival here with Neo Stamos over a decade before. Things had been very different then. Everything Zephyr owned fit in the single tattered duffel bag heâd carried. He still had that duffel bag stored in the back of his oversized walk-in closet, behind the designer suits and top-of-the-line workout gear.
It was a small reminder of where he had come from, and where he would never be again.
They had been so sure this was the place to start their new life, the one that would move them as far from the backstreets of Athens as a man could get. And theyâd been right.
Two Greek boys from the wrong side of the tracks had built not just a business, but an empire worth billions of dollars. They dined in the finest restaurants, traveled by private jet and rubbed shoulders with the richest and most powerful people in the world. Theyâd realized their dreams and then some.
And now Neo was in love and getting married.
As much as everyone else saw Zephyr as more easygoing than Neo, he wasnât surprised his friend had found domestic bliss first. Zephyr wasnât sure he would ever find anything like it. In fact, he was near positive he wouldnât. Oh, he might marry someday, but it wouldnât be a hearts-and-flowers event, just another business transaction. Just like how heâd been conceived.
He had learned early that a smile made as effective a mask as a blank stare, but thatâs all it wasâ¦a mask.
His heart had turned to stone a long time ago, though he guarded that secret as well as he guarded all his others. Secrets he would never allow into the light of day.
Even Neo did not know the painful truth about Zephyrâs past. His friend and business partner believed Zephyr had had a similar childhood to his own before theyâd met in the orphanage at the age of ten. Neo could not imagine anything worse than his own messed-up childhood and Zephyr wanted to keep it that way. The pain and shame of his past had no place in the new life heâd built for himself.
Neo had hated the orphanage. However, once Zephyr accepted his mother was not coming back for him, it had been the first step in distancing himself from a life he wished he could forget. His father had thought nothing of selling Zephyrâs motherâs âfavorsâ along with the other women who âworkedâ for him in the business that supplemented his less than stellar income from the family olive groves. And he cared nothing for the illegitimate son that had resulted from his own âsampling of the merchandise.â
When Zephyrâs mother had first left him at the orphanage so she could pursue a life away from his fatherâs brothel, his innocent child self had been sure she would come back. Heâd missed her and cried and prayed every day she would return. A few weeks later, she had. To visit. No matter how much that small boy had tearfully begged her to take him with her, she had once again left him behind.
It had taken him a few visits, but eventually, heâd realized he was no longer part of his motherâs life. And she was no longer part of his. Which even a small boy, barely old enough to attend school, had been able to recognize as freedom from being a whoreâs son. An orphan, at least, had no past.
Heâd learned to hide his. From everyone.
He would have stayed in the orphanage until he finished school, but the monster whose blood tainted his own had decided an illegitimate son was better than no son at all. And Zephyr had had to leave. Now his best friend, Neo, had gone with him and they had made their own lives on the streets of Athens until lying about their ages to join a cargo shipâs crew.