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PROLOGUE
DONE!
Maddie Ryan straightened, hot and sweaty beneath the sun that blazed frorubby hands on her curvy hips Every leaf and blooed in attractive groupings around the arcaded courtyard The ancient central stone fountain was beautifully restored and finally working, sending a silvery plu back into the shallow stone basin, creating lovely water music
Everything was ready for tonight’s party and her first iardener was successfully coiven by her best friend since schooldays, Amanda
Thinking of Arinned It was an unlikely friendship—everyone had said so—the tomboy and the fastidious, delicate blonde beauty But it had worked On leaving school, Alah horticultural college, hadn’t been envious, just happy for her—especially when she’d fallen in love and married a fabulously wealthy Greek tycoon
Then, threeday ‘How do you like the idea of a well-paid working holiday? Cristos has bought this fabulous villa just outside Athens The house is perfect but the grounds are a neglectedMoorish Could you take the cole ‘He’d do anything to please me He’s not like your normal Greek male; he treats women as if they have minds of their own!’
Toland with a fat cheque, a tan, and a bunch of happy memories—and the hope that her mother had fielded at least a couple of responses to her adverts in the local press while she’d been away
Turning to ation system that kept the planters watered, she noticed the stout wooden door that led fro out her lower lip, she huffed away the strands of cara with the thick upsweep of her lashes and got an unimpeded view of the hunk—no other description fitted—who had sauntered into the courtyard
Like her, he was dressed casually Alainst her skimpy cotton shorts, and an ancient black vest top that except for size matched her own One of the locals, she deduced as he strolled towards her, looking for casual work But, unlike the late adolescents she’d hired to help with the heavy stuff, this guy looked older—thirty-four or-five at a guess
Out of work, with a wife and a brood of young children? Looking to pick up a few days’ pay? What a waste With looks like his he would never want for work as a uarantee weak knees in the fe ht hint of sensuality, she listed to herself Adding, as he caed with sinfully long dark lashes
Those fascinating eyes held a question as he halted in front of her, and Maddie had to s an annoying constriction in her throat as she apologised with genuine sincerity ‘The project’s finished We’re no longer hiring I’m sorry’
‘Is that so?’ He didn’t look disappointed He actually s Fresh perspiration broke out on her short upper lip A dark eyebrow quirked ‘And you are?’
‘Mad’ Qualifying that quickly, in case he thought she really was, she went on, ‘Maddie Ryan Project designer’ Christened Madeleine because her ed for a daughter she could dress in pretty clothes and bring up to be ultra-fe but Mad—or Maddie, at a pinch—and could clearly ree of three or four, when her poorpink and frilly for her birthday party She had gone stiff as a board, screairly
She adored her parents, but she idolised her big brothers, and had always set out to prove she could do anything they could do—fro a home-made raft across the lake on the estate where her dad was ened herself to having a to plasters adorning her coltish legs, untaht possible
‘So you are English?’ The sexy golden eyes wandered over her, and, nodding the affirmative, Maddie felt her flesh quiver as his eyes swept back up to fuse with hers In all of her twenty-two years no man had ever had this effect on her, and the unaccustoid ‘Do you speakhot sizzling through her veins Then his eyes dropped to her wide mouth, lips parted as she puzzled over why he should ask that His attractively accented voice had implied more than mere politeness ‘I am interested to kno you relayed your wishes to your workers’
‘Oh—that!’ Maddie relaxed Friendly question Friendly she could handle, no problem She’d had plenty of e Been best e boys But never a serious boyfriend None of her irl They’d treated her as one of them—come to her with any problems, discussed stuff—but when it cairlies who could siland
Speedwell-blue eyes smiled ‘No, I don’t speak Greek I picked up a feords frorin, her neat freckle-banded nose wrinkling ‘—but I sort of guessed they’re not words one would use in polite coardener Cristos hired—is pretty fluent in English, and he translated for me’
Her voice tailed off Flustered, she noted that he didn’t seee conversation Had he si to co? Because he was back toinventory of her too-bountiful body again, his eyes lingering too long for her coed hem of her skimpy shorts
Pressing her knees close together, to guard against a decidedly perverse instinct to shift theeous, power-packed rangy body, she decided to get rid of hied in a husky tone she didn’t recognise as her own ‘Did you want somethi
ng? Can I help you?’
Worryingly, he moved just that little bit closer His broad shoulders lifted infinitesi like oiled silk, as it made her wonder what that skin would feel like beneath her fingers