A Ring to Secure His Heir Read online

  Rosie required no second bidding. She went to the front door, stepped out onto the brightly lit verandah, its undeniable charm carefully conserved during the renovation, and hurried down the steps. The big craft was just landing and she waited on the lawn for her first glimpse of Alexius. He sprang out of the helicopter: big, dark, devastatingly handsome, hers, and her heart leapt with the happiness as much a part of her now as her ready smile and laughter.

  ‘You’re late,’ she told the light of her life nonetheless.

  Alexius sent her a slashing grin of amusement. ‘I had to collect your present before I left Athens. You look shockingly beautiful, Mrs Stavroulakis.’

  ‘I should—it was a shockingly expensive dress, and let’s not forget the diamonds,’ she urged ruefully.

  ‘Will you never learn to accept a compliment gracefully?’ he teased as he urged her up the steps into the house with Bas making sneak attacks on his trouser legs.

  ‘Probably not.’

  Pausing only to greet Socrates and Kasma, who had parked herself on her great-grandfather’s lap with her favourite storybook, Alexius swept his wife upstairs to their room and kissed her breathless, pausing to look down at her with adoring eyes and a certain question.

  ‘No, we don’t have time,’ she informed him firmly, subduing the surge of heat at her feminine core, ignoring the tightening of her tender breasts.

  He stripped without ceremony and headed into the shower, talking all the way, telling her what he had been doing, whom he had met, what they had said with the new openness that had begun to dissolve his reserve soon after their marriage. He trusted her, he valued her, he needed her. Rosie was aware of her husband’s love in a hundred different ways every day of their marriage.

  ‘Happy anniversary, agape mou,’ Alexius breathed when he was fully dressed. ‘Your present’s downstairs.’

  ‘Yours is right here.’ Rosie patted her stomach complacently.

  Disconcerted, Alexius blinked and then his stunning silver eyes shone with brilliance as he grasped her meaning. ‘We’re pregnant?’

  ‘We are,’ Rosie confirmed proudly. ‘I haven’t told Grandad yet.’

  ‘You wonderful, wonderful woman,’ Alexius told her with his heart in his eyes.

  They walked downstairs hand in hand to find Kasma and Bas hovering over a pet carrier in the hall.

  ‘Your present,’ Alexius explained, bending down to unlock the door of the carrier just as a shrill little bark sounded within.

  A tiny white chihuahua puppy bounced out, barking like mad at Bas when he got too close in his efforts to investigate this strange spectacle.

  ‘I thought it was time that Bas got the chance to enjoy the civilising effects of sharing his life with a good woman,’ Alexius divulged with a wicked smile tugging at the corners of his charismatic mouth that only deepened as the aggressive advances of the lively puppy drove Bas into retreat below an occasional table.

  Rosie laughed and wrapped her arms round her husband. ‘Is that what I did to you? Drove you into retreat?’

  ‘But I came out fighting,’ Alexius breathed, closing his arms round her and kissing her in spite of their daughter’s revolted kissy-kissy sounds behind them. ‘I love you so much.’

  ‘And I love you,’ Rosie murmured, her heart still racing while she thought about the guests due to arrive and the party still to come, all those hours to be got through before she could be alone with the man she loved again. Anticipation, however, brought an edge to the excitement that he never failed to arouse.

  * * * * *

  All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.

  All Rights Reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises II BV/S.à.r.l. The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the prior consent of the publisher in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  ® and TM 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.

  First published in Great Britain 2012

  by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited.

  Harlequin (UK) Limited, Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road,

  Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR

  © Lynne Graham 2012

  eISBN: 978-1-408-97468-1

  Table of Contents

  Excerpt

  About the Author

  Title Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Epilogue

  Copyright