Rebecca Winters - Doorstep Twins / The Cowboy's Adopted Daughter - Doorstep Twins

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www.millsandboon.co.uk

From brooding bachelors to doting dads!

Join in the tears and triumphs as these couples get a crash course in parenting adorable children

in…

DOORSTEP TWINS

by Rebecca Winters

And the next instalment of

The Brides of Bella Rosa:

THE COWBOY’S ADOPTED DAUGHTER

by Patricia Thayer

Enjoy our new 2-in-1 editions of stories by your favourite authors— for double the romance!

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REBECCA WINTERS, whose family of four children has now swelled to include five beautiful grandchildren, lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the land of the Rocky Mountains. With canyons and high Alpine meadows full of wildflowers, she never runs out of places to explore. They, plus her favourite vacation spots in Europe, often end up as backgrounds for her Mills & Boon ®Romance novels because writing is her passion, along with her family and church.

Rebecca loves to hear from her readers. If you wish to e-mail her, please visit her website at www.cleanromances.com

Before I started writing Andreas and Vincenzo’s stories I had an experience that gave me the idea for it, and I’d like to share it with you.

When I was in high school my girlfriend and I had planned to go to Hawaii for the summer and work at jobs already promised to us. We’d saved our money and had bought our airline tickets. It was something we’d been planning for months. The night before we were supposed to fly out my girlfriend called, telling me she couldn’t go after all because she was getting married to a guy she’d fallen in love with on their first date! I don’t think they’d been on more than two dates when she phoned me. I’m happy to report that I recovered from my disappointment and that they’re still married after fifty-one years.

In my novel, love hits Andreas and Gabi exactly the same way. Two exceptional people are going down separate roads full tilt when they suddenly collide—and in seconds their worlds and those around them change for ever. This love story is set on the gorgeous Greek island of Crete.

Enjoy!

Rebecca Winters

“I’M SORRY, Ms. Turner, but Kyrie Simonides says he can’t fit you in today. If you’ll come next Tuesday at three o’clock?”

Gabi’s hand tightened around the leather strap of her taupe handbag. “I won’t be in Athens then.” The outcome of this visit would determine how soon she left Greece…that was if she were allowed to see him now.

She fought not to lose her composure in front of the retirement-age-looking receptionist who was probably paid a lot of money not to lose hers. “After waiting over three hours for him, surely he can take another five minutes to talk to me.”

The woman with heavy streaks of silver in her hair shook her head. “It’s the weekend. He should have left Athens an hour ago.”

At twenty after six on a hot Friday evening Gabi could believe it, but she hadn’t come this far to be put off. There was too much at stake. Taking a calming breath, she said, “I didn’t want to have to say this to you, but he’s left me no choice. Please tell him it’s a matter of life and death.”

Because it was the truth and her eyes didn’t blink, the receptionist’s expression underwent a subtle change. “If this is some kind of a joke, I’m afraid it will backfire on you.”

“This is no joke,” Gabi replied, standing her ground at five feet five in her comfortable two-piece cotton suit of pale lemon. She’d already undergone a thorough vetting and security check upon entering the building, so the receptionist knew she didn’t pose a threat.

After a slight hesitation the taller woman, clearly in a dilemma, got up from her desk and walked with a decided limp back to her boss’s office. That was progress.

While businessmen came and went from his private domain on top of the building complex in downtown Athens, she’d been continually ignored until now. If Gabi had just come out with it in the first place, it might not have taken her most of the day to get results, but she’d wanted to protect him.

Gabi only knew three facts about the thirty-three-year-old Andreas Simonides: First, he was the reputed new force majeure at the internationally renowned Simonides Corporation whose holdings were tied up in all areas of metallurgy, including aluminum, copper and plastics.

Her source confided that their vast fortune, accumulated over many decades, included the ownership of eighty companies. With a population of twelve thousand employees, the Simonides family ruled over a virtual empire extending beyond Greece.

Second, if the picture in the newspaper didn’t lie, he was an exceptionally attractive male.

The third fact wasn’t public knowledge. In truth no one knew what Gabi knew…not even the man himself. But once they talked, his life would change forever whether he liked it or not.

While she stood there anticipating their first meeting, she heard the woman’s footsteps. “Kyrie Simonides will give you two minutes, no more.”

“I’ll take them!”

“You go down the hall and through the double doors.”

“Thank you very much,” she said with heartfelt sincerity, then rushed around the reception desk, her golden jaw-length curls bouncing. At first she didn’t see anyone as she entered his elegant inner sanctum.

“Life and death you said?” came a voice of male irony from behind her. Though deep, it had an appealing vibrant quality.

She spun around to discover a tall man shrugging into an expensive-looking gray suit jacket he’d just taken from a closet. The play of ripcord muscle in his arms and shoulders beneath a dazzling white shirt attested to the fact that he didn’t spend all his time in the confines of an office. Helpless to do otherwise, her gaze fell lower to the fabric of his trousers molding powerful thighs.

“I’m waiting, Ms. Turner.”

Heat stole into her cheeks to be caught staring like that. She lifted her head, but her voice caught as she looked up into eyes of iron gray, half veiled by long black lashes that gave him an aloof quality.

He possessed a healthy head of mediumcropped black hair and an olive complexion. Rugged of feature, his dark Greek looks fascinated her. The picture she’d seen of him hadn’t picked up the slight scar partially hidden in his left eyebrow, or the lines of experience she could detect around his eyes and wide male mouth. They revealed a life that had known every emotion.

“You’re a difficult man to reach.”

After shutting the closet door, he walked across the room to his private elevator. “I’m on my way out. Since you refused to come back next Tuesday, say what you have to say before I leave.” He’d already stepped inside the lift, ready to push the button. No doubt he had a helicopter on the roof waiting to fly him to some exotic vacation spot for the weekend.

Standing next to him, she’d never felt more diminutive. Even if she didn’t have an appointment, his condescension was too much. But because she might never have another opportunity to get this close to him, she hid her reaction.

Without wasting time she opened her handbag and pulled out a manila envelope. Since he made no move to take it, she undid the flap and removed the contents.

Beneath a set of DNA results lay the front page of a year-old Greek newspaper revealing him aboard the Simonides yacht, surrounded by a crush of people partying the night away. Gabi’s elder half sister Thea, whose dark Grecian beauty stood out from the other women on board, was among the crowd captured in the photo. The headline read, “New CEO at Simonides is cause for celebration.”