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CHAPTER ONE

AS TWO of the ain pressed questions that had already been answered Atreus let his attention stray to the Art Deco bronze on the far side of the boardroom It was of a voluptuous Spanish dancer, only half-clad in what

When Atreus had first taken over as CEO of the family business he had been stunned by the sexy statue, which had seerandfather’s stern, old-fashioned outlook on life

‘She reminded me of my first love,’ the old man had confided with a faraway look in his faded eyes ‘She married someone else’

Atreus could not i to him The woe to shake off Ever since he’d been a teenager he had been relentlessly hunted by gold-digging beauties ould throw themselves in his path in attempts to ensnare him and his wealth Black-haired, with eyes dark as sloes, and six foot three inches in height, Atreus had always been an object of desire By the time he had twice become the unhappy focus of false paternity claims he had decided that he would onlyto match his own His late father, Achilles, had set his only son a chilling exae of forty, when he had inexplicably gone off the rails by abandoning his wife and only child to run off with an artist’son tables Froance had ruled the lives of both Atreus’s parents, and he had lost his early childhood to their excesses After that, raised almost entirely by his strict paternal uncle and aunt, Atreus had been deeply suspicious of any inner proht and narrow That had been his father’s fatal flaw; it would not be his

Regardless of that fact, the Art Deco bronze had contrived recently to acquire a strange significance for Atreus It reminded him of an episode some weeks earlier that had taken place on his country estate On a warh the woods he had co in the river Her presence on private land had infuriated him After all, he had paid a fortune for the seclusion of his large estate, and he euard his privacy from trespassers and camera lenses Ironically, ever since then the memory of the brunette’s indescribably lush and creamy curves had had an extraordinarily erotic hold on him—awake and asleep Yet she had been a wohtest reseant blondes who usually attracted him…

In fact she had not been his type in any way, Atreus acknowledged ier, Lindy Ry oer, she was also a well-respected member of the local co skirts and wintry woollens Atreus had been tough on her in the woods, for at first he had been convinced that she had deliberately schemed—like so many women before her—to set up their encounter Once he’d appreciated that she was no cunning tey He’d been anored those olive branches and failed to make use of the phone number he had included

His hts had stayed focused on the Ryman woman, Atreus suddenly wondered if he should offer her coht would be out of ht well be the best cure for what afflicted hiical to succueously unsuitable for him in every way…

‘You dulance at Ben

‘She was getting serious Why do women always do that?’ Ben enquired, with the pained expression of a male continually tortured by besotted females

Look in the mirror, Lindy almost told him She could still recall when she had fallen under the enchanty frame That had been way back when they’d first eonholeship Some of the best days of her life had been wasted while she’d wished that she was tiny, cute and giggly instead of shy, sensible and quiet Since then Lindy had got over hi hi line of beauties Ben didn’t want coood time A City of London trader, he had a successful career and all the worldly trappings that ranged froym Yet Ben never really seeed ruefully