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One

T heron Anetakis sifted through the mountain of paperwork his secretary had left on his desk for hi expletives as he tossed letters left and right Occasionally one would garner lance and then he’d shove it to a separate pile of things requiring his attention Others, he consigned to the trash can by his feet

His takeover of the New York offices of Anetakis International hadn’t been without its pitfalls After the discovery that one of the staffAnetakis hotel plans to a co new staff The culprit, Chrysander’s forain They had been leery of replacing her and allowing another employee unfettered access to sensitive co in his secretary from the London office She was older, stable and h after the debacle with Roslyn, none of the Anetakis brothers were keen to trust another employee implicitly

Theron’s arrival from London had been es and e- to make sense of the mess And to think his secretary had already weeded out the majority of the clutter

He paused over one letter addressed to Chrysander and almost tossed it as junk mail, but yanked it back into his line of vision when he sahat it said His brow furrowed deeper as he scanned the page, and stretched out his other hand for the phone

Uncaring of the time difference, or that he would probably wake Chrysander, he punched in the nuh He spared a briefMarley, Chrysander’s wife, but hopefully he would pick up the phone before it wakened her

“This better be darowled in a sleepy voice

Theron didn’t waste time with pleasantries “Who the hell is Isabella?” he demanded

“Isabella?” There was no doubt as to the confusion in Chrysander’s voice “You’re calling me at this hour to ask me about a woman?”

“Tell me…” Theron shook his head No, Chrysander wouldn’t be unfaithful to Marley Whatever this woman was to Chrysander, it must have been before he et rid of her,” Theron said iress, whatever the hell that raduated successfully” Theron’s lips thinned in disgust “Theos, Chrysander Isn’t she a bit young for you to have been involved with?”

Chrysander exploded in a torrent of Greek, and Theron held the phone from his ear until the storm calmed

“I do not like your implication, little brother,” Chrysander said in an icy voice “I am married Of course I am not involved with this Isabella” And then Theron heard Chrysander’s sharp intake of breath “Bella Of course,” he ht”

“And I repeat, who is this Bella?” Theron asked, his patience running out

“Caplan Isabella Caplan Surely you remember, Theron”

“Little Isabella?” Theron asked in surprise He hadn’t remembered her at all until Chrysander irl with ponytails and braces shot to mind He’d seen her a few tie He re to fade into the background She’d been at his parents’ funeral, but he’d been too consu woman How old would she have been then?

Chrysander chuckled “She’s not so little any quite well Intelligent girl”

“But why are you getting a report on her?” Theron asked “For God’s sake, I thought sheI wanted was her causing trouble for Marley”

“While your devotion to my wife is commendable, it’s hardly necessary,” Chrysander said dryly Then he sighed “Our obligation to Bella had temporarily slipped my mind My focus of late has been on Marley and our child”

“What obligation?” Theron asked sharply “And why haven’t I heard of this before?”

“Our fathers were longtime friends and business partners Her father extracted a pro should ever happen to him that Isabella would be looked after Our father preceded her father in death, so I assumed responsibility for her welfare when her father also passed away”

“Then you should know that, according to this letter, she’s arriving in New York two days from now,” Theron said

Chrysander cursed “I can’t leave Marley right now”

“Of course you can’t,” Theron said impatiently “I’ll take care of it But I need details The last thing you need right now is to be saddled with another concern New York is my responsibility I’ll count this as yet another problem I’ve inherited e traded offices”

“Bella won’t be any probleirl All you need to do is help her settle her affairs and ain full control of her inheritance until she’s twenty-five or she marries, whichever happens first, so in the meantime Anetakis International acts as the trustee As you are now the New York representative of Anetakis, that uardian of sorts”

Theron groaned “I knew I should have bloody well made Piers take over the New York office”

Chrysander laughed “This will be a piece of cake, little brother It shouldn’t take you long at all toshe needs”

Isabella Caplan had no sooner made it past the airport security checkpoint when she saw a n with her name on it

She held up a hand in a wave and made her way over To her surprise, two other men stepped forward to flank her Her confusion must have showed because the chauffeur smiled and said, “Welcome to New York, Ms Caplan I’entlemen are from Mr Anetakis’s security detail”

“Uh, hi,” she said

“I’ve arranged for soe claim,” Henry said as he herded her toward the exit “It will be delivered to the hotel shortly”

Outside, one of the security ot in after her, while the second climbed into the front seat with Henry Privacy wasn’t in the cards, and what she really wanted to do ilt all over her seat