Contracted for the Petrakis Heir Read online

  “I’m pregnant.”

  But this baby bombshell is nothing compared to Adoni’s scandalous solution!

  A positive pregnancy test isn’t the only reminder Alice has of her one scorching night with Adoni Petrakis. As she defiantly tells him the news, memories of his skilled touch overwhelm her! The contract he draws up—to claim her, and his child—is utterly shocking. As is her realization that she’s still powerfully, inescapably, in thrall to this vengeful Greek!

  Growing up near the beach, ANNIE WEST spent lots of time observing tall, burnished lifeguards—early research! Now she spends her days fantasising about gorgeous men and their love lives. Annie has been a reader all her life. She also loves travel, long walks, good company and great food. You can contact her at [email protected] or via PO Box 1041, Warners Bay, NSW 2282, Australia.

  Also by Annie West

  The Sinner’s Marriage Redemption

  Seducing His Enemy’s Daughter

  A Vow to Secure His Legacy

  The Flaw in Raffaele’s Revenge

  The Desert King’s Secret Heir

  The Desert King’s Captive Bride

  The Princess Seductions miniseries

  His Majesty’s Temporary Bride

  The Greek’s Forbidden Princess

  Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

  Contracted for the Petrakis Heir

  Annie West

  www.millsandboon.co.uk

  ISBN: 978-1-474-07185-7

  CONTRACTED FOR THE PETRAKIS HEIR

  © 2018 Annie West

  Published in Great Britain 2018

  by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

  All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

  By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

  ® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.

  www.millsandboon.co.uk

  With smiles and thanks to Anna C for both prodding and cheering and Efthalia P for the Greek!

  Contents

  Cover

  Back Cover Text

  About the Author

  Booklist

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  EPILOGUE

  Extract

  CHAPTER ONE

  ADONI PETRAKIS SURVEYED the crowd filling the ballroom of his flagship London hotel. Initially the guests had been on their best behaviour for the wedding ceremony, partly from finding themselves in such a prestigious venue. There had been open-mouthed stares at the soaring antique glass domed ceiling, the recently refurbished hand-blown chandeliers and the other elegant furnishings.

  Now the mood bordered on raucous. His school friend Leo’s new English in-laws were letting down their hair with abandon.

  Adoni’s gaze cut to Leo and his bride, now changed out of their church clothes, surrounded by a phalanx of groomsmen playing a drinking game. There was a flurry of bridesmaids in ostentatiously frilled dresses that ranged from pale lemon to a particularly bilious shade of mustard. A braying laugh from one of them scraped like fingernails across a blackboard and Adoni shuddered.

  Now the formalities were over, the cake cut, photos taken and speeches delivered, there was nothing keeping him. He’d done his bit, offering Leo the premises for the event and attending in person, even dancing with the bride.

  He lifted one shoulder, easing the old stiffness in his collarbone. It had been a long week. A long month for that matter, and while he wasn’t ready for bed, nor was he inclined to stay for an increasingly rowdy party. This group had little in common with a man whose life was devoted to business.

  If there’d been a woman here he found attractive he might have invited her up to his suite for a private celebration. There wasn’t. The only really pretty women were either attached or looked at him with dollar signs in their eyes.

  He’d learned his lesson long ago with that breed.

  Instead he crossed the room, wished the happy couple all the best, kissed the flushed bride on both cheeks then left. A nod to the hotel events coordinator who was keeping an eye on the evening, then Adoni was in the blessed peace of the atrium.

  Since he didn’t have company for the night, he’d look over that new contract. Or maybe use the gym.

  He was restless, his thoughts on the couple who’d just pledged their lives to each other. And, inevitably, on his own hastily cancelled wedding years ago. His mouth firmed.

  He sure as hell didn’t carry a torch for Chryssa. Yet it was strange how, all evening, his mind had backtracked to that half-forgotten past, when life had seemed straightforward and he’d believed in love.

  A lifetime ago.

  He keyed in the code for his private lift to the owner’s suite. The doors slid open and he stepped inside. Seconds later a figure catapulted into the small space, slamming against him in a slither of satin and a cloud of pungent hairspray.

  Adoni’s nostrils pinched and a sneeze escaped.

  ‘I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?’ a husky voice whispered near his chin. ‘But please, don’t give me away.’ Instead of moving back the girl pressed closer, hip to his thigh, hand clawing his sleeve.

  ‘Give you away?’

  ‘Please. He’ll hear.’ She reached out a pale hand and jabbed the button to make the door close. As soon as it did she released her grip and sank back into the corner.

  ‘Are you okay?’ Adoni’s voice sharpened. Her head was downcast but the tension in her shoulders and the frenetic pulse at the base of her throat spoke of fear. ‘Has someone hurt you?’

  ‘Hurt me?’ She shook her head and straightened away from the wall, swaying a little. ‘No, though I’m sure he’d like to strangle me if he could. He hates me and he’s a vicious little toad.’

  With a gasp she clapped a hand over her mouth and looked up. Unfocused eyes of slate blue met his. Eyes that might have been pretty if it weren’t for the huge swathe of too-bright azure eye shadow and the most enormous pair of false eyelashes weighting her lids. She looked like a startled trollop.

  ‘I didn’t mean to say that out loud.’ She frowned up at him suspiciously as if he’d coaxed the words from her.

  ‘He sounds like a man to avoid.’

  ‘Oh, he is.’ The girl nodded so emphatically another acrid wave of hairspray assaulted him. She was a girl. Eighteen maybe, twenty max, and trying to look older with that brash make-up. ‘If I’d known he was going to be here I’d never have said yes to Emily. Discretion is the better part of valour, after all.’

  ‘Emily?’ Adoni crossed his arms and settled his shoulders against the wall, intrigued. Why this unprepossessing female caught his curiosity, he couldn’t say. But he was in no hurry. There was nothing waiting in his suite except work and a good brandy.

  ‘The bride.’ The frown became a scowl. ‘Weren’t you at the wedding? I thought I saw you on the other side of the room looking all dark and brooding.’ She leaned closer, her gaze intent, and beneath the sharp hairspray smell he caught a hint of something delicate.

  She swayed back again. ‘I’m sure it was you. The silly sisters were tittering with excitement, egging each other on to ask you to dance.’

  ‘Silly sisters?’

  ‘The other bridesmaids.’

  ‘Ah.’ No wonder she looked vaguely familiar. This was the bridesmaid who’d sat on the end of the long table, her dress of dark yellow tinged with green making her look slightly nauseous. Or maybe she was nauseous.

  ‘Are you sick?’

  ‘Only of the company in there.’ Again those eyes grew huge and her hand hovered over her mouth.

  Adoni watched, fascinated despite himself, as she blinked and stood s traighter, the top of her head reaching the level of his mouth.

  ‘It must be the champagne,’ she murmured, her hand dropping. ‘Who’d have thought it? I only had two glasses. Would that do it?’ She tilted her head, surveying him owlishly.

  ‘Do what?’ Adoni repressed a smile.

  ‘Make me so loqua...’ Her brows knotted in concentration. ‘Talkative. Normally I think before I speak. Always.’

  He folded his arms over his chest. ‘It depends how much you usually drink.’

  ‘I don’t. Tonight was my first taste of champagne.’

  ‘Then yes, it probably is.’ Diverted as he was, her friends would be looking for her. ‘Isn’t it time you went back?’

  She shuddered and clutched his sleeve. ‘No! Not till he’s gone.’ She looked at the controls. ‘Why aren’t we moving?’ She slammed her hand onto the up button. ‘I’m sorry. I hope you want to go up. I’ll go anywhere so long as it’s away from him.’

  ‘The toad?’

  ‘Yes! How did you know?’ Her face broke into a wide smile that hit him in the solar plexus. When she smiled he saw something that even the plastered-on make-up couldn’t conceal. ‘Dark and brooding and clever too! I like you, Mr...?’

  ‘Petrakis. Adoni Petrakis.’

  Again those eyes rounded. ‘Adoni?’

  He nodded, waiting for the usual gushing excitement. He’d never had trouble attracting women but since he’d built his fortune...

  ‘As in Adonis?’

  ‘It’s a Greek name.’

  ‘Of course it is, but it’s all wrong for you.’ She squinted up at him, her lips pursed in a moue of concentration that looked surprisingly sexy, despite the bright shade of coral lipstick that clashed horribly with her pale skin. ‘You’re no Adonis.’

  Adoni stared down at her. He was accustomed to flattery from women, not disappointment.

  ‘You know who Adonis was?’

  She waved a dismissive hand as if he interrupted her thought processes. ‘In Greek mythology he was a gorgeous young man, loved by Aphrodite and later killed by a boar.’ She bit her lip. ‘Or maybe by someone else, I can’t remember. But you’re not an Adonis.’

  Adoni couldn’t keep his smile back. Had he ever met a woman who spoke to him like this? Not flattering and eager? ‘Not pretty enough?’

  Again that disparaging wave of her hand. ‘No one could call you pretty.’ Her voice rang with certainty. ‘Handsome yes, but in a tough, dangerous sort of way. And those wicked eyebrows.’ She lifted a hand towards his face but stopped short of touching him. ‘More like Ares, god of war. Sexy but hard.’

  The doors slid open behind her and she turned while Adoni was still trying to work out if he’d just been insulted or complimented.

  ‘Oh, this is nice.’ She drifted out of the lift into the foyer of his private suite, peering through the open door to the vast sitting room. ‘Do you think it would be okay for me to stay here for a bit till he’s gone?’

  She moved forward, catching her shoe on the hand-knotted rug. Arms windmilling, she swayed till Adoni strode over and caught her upper arm. Her flesh was cool and smooth as silk.

  ‘Are you sure you only had two glasses of champagne?’

  She sagged against him, one hand planted on his chest. ‘Absolutely. But I don’t think I’d better have any more. I feel a little...different.’ She blinked hazily up at him. ‘Do you think I’m behaving oddly?’

  What he thought was that, beneath the harsh make-up and the unflattering dress, this young woman was surprisingly appealing. And potentially vulnerable.

  ‘Your friends will be missing you.’

  She shook her head. ‘Not my friends and they won’t miss me. I don’t know anyone there, except Emily—she’s my cousin. And her parents. But they don’t have time for me. They never did. I’m just a ring-in because bridesmaid number seven had to bail at the last minute. Oh, and the toad—I know him.’ She grimaced. ‘But I don’t want to see him. Couldn’t I just sit quietly for a bit? I could sneak out and catch a train home but I do feel a bit wobbly.’

  Adoni scrutinised her. Clearly she couldn’t make her way home alone yet. She was far too trusting to be let out without someone to keep an eye on her.

  ‘Very well. Stay here and I’ll make us coffee.’

  ‘Lovely! I never thought of Ares being so domesticated. I think of him being all passion and fire.’ She beamed again, that huge, beatific smile, and to his astonishment Adoni found himself smiling back. She was talking nonsense but her sense of humour appealed. As did the fact she didn’t walk on eggshells around him.

  ‘Do you think I could use the bathroom?’

  ‘Of course. Down the corridor on the left.’

  The sitting room was empty when Adoni came back. He set the tray of coffee and sweet shortbread on a table, telling himself he’d been a fool to let her in. He didn’t know anything about her. Except that she couldn’t hold her champagne and did know a surprising amount of Greek mythology. He didn’t even know her name.

  He stalked from the room, doubt rising. Where was she?

  ‘Are you okay?’ He pounded on the bathroom door.

  ‘Sorry. I won’t be long.’

  ‘Are you sick?’ She’d seemed tipsy, not drunk, but perhaps he was wrong.

  ‘No. Not sick. Just sticky.’

  Sticky? Adoni scowled. That made no sense.

  The door opened and his visitor stepped out. She looked completely different. Shorter for a start, her shoes dangling from her hand.

  ‘I used the shower. I feel much better now.’ She stepped out into the corridor and tripped over the hem of her long dress, straight into his arms. Automatically Adoni caught her, but not before her soft breasts collided with his torso and her slim frame came to rest against him.

  ‘Oops. Sorry.’ She pulled back and smiled vaguely. ‘This dress is too long. It was made for someone else.’

  ‘Someone wearing shoes,’ he murmured, trying to shove the thought of her lithe body from his mind.

  ‘Ah.’ She nodded. ‘That explains it.’ She sniffed. ‘Is that coffee I smell?’ Before he could answer she lifted her trailing skirt so high he caught a tantalising amount of shapely, bare legs before she turned and, hand on the wall, made her way to the sitting room.

  Adoni took his time following. He’d been rocked by his response to the woman who’d emerged from the guest bathroom. Gone were the thick make-up and fake lashes. Without them he discovered a clear peaches and cream complexion that suited those dark blue eyes. Then there was a heart-shaped face and a pink mouth that looked too much like a cupid’s bow for comfort.

  Gone too was the elaborately curled and rigid hairstyle, threaded with mustard-yellow ribbon. Instead her dark hair lay straight and long around her shoulders. It was still wet, dripping at the ends, making the bodice of her dress water-stained and clingy.

  He swallowed as he watched her turn and sink abruptly onto the sofa, the lamplight caressing the unexpectedly sweet tilt of her breast beneath the wet fabric. Heat stirred in his groin at the astounding sexual allure of her gentle curves and bare face.

  Adoni frowned. His sex drive was healthy but such an instant, urgent response was rare. Especially as she wasn’t even trying to attract him.

  Was she?

  He’d met some devious women in his time, going to extraordinary lengths to snare him, but instinct told him this one was exactly what she seemed.

  ‘What’s your name?’ His voice emerged thick and abrupt but she didn’t seem to notice.

  ‘Alice. Alice Trehearn.’ She looked over her shoulder at him and, to his astonishment, the line of her throat, the angle of her neat chin and the curve of her smile fanned the fire in his belly to a needy, urgent blast of heat.

  ‘Don’t frown, though I have to say you look very sexy when you do, all macho and...’ Her words petered out and she squeezed her eyes shut. ‘Remind me never to drink champagne again.’

  Despite himself Adoni laughed. There was something so refreshing about a woman who spoke her mind.

  ‘How old are you, Alice?’ Suddenly it was important he find out.

  ‘Twenty-three next week.’ She turned away and poured milk into one of the coffees. ‘How old are you?’

  Relief filled him. With her unguarded behaviour he’d wondered if perhaps she was far younger. ‘Thirty-one.’ A lifetime apart from her in experience, but, he realised in shock, that didn’t dim his interest. His burgeoning interest. His trousers were too tight as he sat down opposite her.