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Chapter 1

“MR WINTERBORNE, A WOMAN IS here to see you”

Rhys looked up from the stack of letters on his desk with a scowl

His personal secretary, Mrs Fernsby, stood at the threshold of his private office, her eyes sharp behind round spectacles She was a tidy hen of a woed and just a bit plump

“You know I don’t receive visitors at this hour” It was hismail in uninterrupted silence

“Yes, sir, but the visitor is a lady, and she—”

“I don’t care if she’s the bloody Queen,” he snapped “Send her away”

Mrs Fernsby’s lips pinched into a disapproving hyphen She left pro the floor like the staccato of gunfire

Rhys returned his attention to the letter in front of hi his temper was a luxury he rarely permitted hilooht and heartbeat, and made him want to lash out at anyone within reach

All because of a woman he had known better than to want

Lady Helen Ravenela wo he was not

Their engageed to ruin it The last tiressive, finally kissing her the way he’d wanted to for so long She had gone stiff in his ar him Her disdain couldn’t have been er on his

The next day, Kathleen, Lady Trenear, who had been married to Helen’s late brother, had come to inform hiraine

“She never wants to see you again,” Kathleen had informed him bluntly

Rhys couldn’t bla the betrothal Obviously they were a ns of God that he should take the daughter of a titled English fareat fortune, Rhys didn’t have the deportentleman Nor did he have the appearance of one, with his swarthy coman’s brawn

By the age of thirty, he had built Winterborne’s, his father’s sest department store He owned factories, warehouses, fars He was on the boards of shipping and railway companies But no matter what he achieved, he would never overcorocer’s son

His thoughts were interrupted by another knock at the door Incredulously he glanced up as Mrs Fernsby walked back into his office

“What do you want?” he demanded

The secretary straightened her spectacles as she replied resolutely “Unless you wish to have the lady re until you speak with her”