next millionaire wife

hired for the evening, a

left the house. Having ma

side door and strode aroun

y fond cousin whose lean dark sophistication and reputed rakish life made he

Marriage diverts your energy away from your ambition, and I h

ething teasing like, May Allah help him when he does, for I know the feeli

en like that because he'd s

een a long time before she'd come to understand tha

ooks pretty impressive.'

t sail into the harbour tonight while

ht for very exclusive guests whom he had seduced into taking a tour of the new resort, wi

it has to be the biggest i

leep so many peop

d with a frown. 'There's another yacht

ed, aware that the resort was fast be

hook his head. 'It's more

e likely to belong to one of Petronades' rich cron

em, Leona acknowledged.

tors San Estéban had grown into a large, custom-built holiday resort, which

id back into her head Le

had he ever invested in any of her f

he turned her attention to

people strolled, enjoying the l

she could remember strol

ll due to the necessity of conforming to expectations regarding women. Hassan occupied the august positi

man's exclusive hierar

think twice before she went anywhere, especially alone. Strolling just for the sake of just doing it wou

i

't gone out much because

to why she was in London

san's pretty English Sh

ave up every freedom to

she didn't want to offend Arab sensibilities by having her failed mar

de Leona smile now, becau

n it had become once sh

ed the end of the street

ral large yachts moored u

howboat for the party. Yet it was the yacht moored next to it that caught her

also shrouded in complete

f it was crouching there lik

n its nex

n its nex

n driving along the top

n gates, which cordoned off the ar

to join her. It was even darker here than she had expected it to be, and she

e unlit boat to

rm. As they walked toward

uard manning the gates merely nodded his dark head and let

us chap,' Eth

s that set butterflies fluttering inside her stomach. Okay, she tried to reason

ould suffer an atta

r brain was trying to insi

party. It was so dark and s

d to echo with

the word, she questione

as everything sinister all

he was twenty-nine years

-olds did: party when

Ethan remarked as they

arger

o look. Despite the toug

her. She could feel her heart pumping unevenly against her breast, and just about

ard it-nothing more than

to make her go perfectly

rkness itself seemed to t

swaying bef

on the back of her neck

jerkily. 'I don't

ered tersely.

er, and another, emerging from the shadows until they turned themselves a

ark robes, with dark

she breathed. '

the day she'd married Hassan. She was British. She had married an Arab who

ht in gold to political fana

ave remembered earlier,

sense, she realised, as E

ainst

ging gently. Here, beneath the shadow of the other, the ring of men was stea

ried, and she could almost

what was go

n at her. 'When I give the w

unge for them and try to

ape. 'No,' she protested,

t do it. They might

ound back at her, then,

and almost in the same mo

en closes

r watching all three men topple to the ground in a huddle, the rest of the ring

ark-eyed, she was just abo

a state of raw panic she swung round in its direction, expecting someone t

aving her standing here alo

at she truly stopped fun

appening to Ethan-all conn

e only her eyes in

r lurking beneath the dark robes he was wearing. His skin was the colour of sun-ripened olives, h

thin, straight and

eathed his name i

her came directly from an