DEAR READER LETTER
By Sharon Kendrick
One hundred. Doesnât matter how many times I say it, I still canât believe thatâs how many books Iâve written. Itâs a fabulous feeling but more fabulous still is the news that Mills & Boon are issuing every single one of my backlist as digital titles. Wow. I canât wait to share all my stories with you - which are as vivid to me now as when I wrote them.
Thereâs BOUGHT FOR HER HUSBAND, with its outrageously macho Greek hero and A SCANDAL, A SECRET AND A BABY featuring a very sexy Tuscan. THE SHEIKHâS HEIR proved so popular with readers that it spent two weeks on the USA Today charts andâ¦well, I could go on, but Iâll leave you to discover them for yourselves.
I remember the first line of my very first book: âSo youâve come to Australia looking for a husband?â Actually, the heroine had gone to Australia escape men, but guess what? She found a husband all the same! The man who inspired that book rang me up recently and when I told him I was beginning my 100th story and couldnât decide what to write, he said, âWhy donât you go back to where it all started?â
So I did. And thatâs how A ROYAL VOW OF CONVENIENCE was born. It opens in beautiful Queensland and moves to England and New York. Itâs about a runaway princess and the enigmatic billionaire who is infuriated by her, yet who winds up rescuing her. But then, she goes and rescues him⦠Wouldnât you know it?
Iâll end by saying how very grateful I am to have a career I love, and to thank each and every one of you who has supported me along the way. You really are very dear readers.
Love,
Sharon xxx
SHARON KENDRICK once won a national writing competition, describing her ideal date: being flown to an exotic island by a gorgeous and powerful man. Little did she realise that sheÂd just wandered into her dream job! Today she writes for Mills & Boon, featuring her often stubborn but always to-die-for heroes and the women who bring them to their knees. She believes that the best books are those you never want to end. Just like lifeâ¦
The Mediterranean Princeâs Passion
Sharon Kendrick
Mills & Boon are proud to present a thrilling digital collection of all Sharon Kendrickâs novels and novellas for us to celebrate the publication of her amazing and awesome 100th book! Sharon is known worldwide for her likeable, spirited heroines and her gorgeous, utterly masculine heroes.
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
EPILOGUE
IT WAS just a dazzle of white set against the endless sapphire, but the sun was blinding her too much to see clearly. Ellaâs eyes fluttered to a close in protest. Maybe she had imagined it. Like a person hallucinating an oasis in the desert, perhaps her mind had conjured up an image on the empty sea that surrounded them. Some sign of life other than the birds that circled and cawed in a sky as blue as the waters beneath.
âMark.â She croaked the unfamiliar name through lips so parched they felt as if they had never tasted liquid before. âMark, are you there?â She racked her brains for one of the womenâs names. âHelen!â
But there was no answer, and maybe that wasnât so surprising, for the throb, throb, throb of loud music from the lower deck drowned the sound of her feeble words. She could hear the muffled sound of girlish, drunken giggling drifting upwards. She moaned.
How long? How long since she had drunk anything? She knew she ought to go and get some water, but her legs felt as though they had been filled with lead. She lifted a heavy hand to try to brush the weight of damp hair that flopped so annoyingly against her cheek, but it fell uselessly to her side.
She was going to die. She knew she was.
She could feel the strength slowly ebbing from her body. Her ears were roaring and the weak flutter of her heart beat rapidly against her breast. Her skin was on fire, it was burningâ¦burningâ¦burningâ¦
Below, the cool, darkened interior of the cabin beckoned to her enticingly, but an instinct even stronger than her need to escape the sun stopped her from giving in to it. Down there lay chaos, and no chance for escape, but at least here on deck someone might see her.
Her eyes began to close.
Please, God, let someone see herâ¦
His dark hair ruffled by the breeze and his strong body relaxed, Nico stared at the horizon, his eyes suddenly narrowing as the flash of something on the horizon caught his attention.
A boat? Where there should be no boat? Here in the protected waters on this side of Mardivino? His mouth tightened. Modern-day bandits? Seeking access to the tax haven guarded so jealously by the super-rich? The island had a long history of being beseiged by bounty-hunters and their modern-day counterpartsâthe paparazziâand his face darkened. Where the hell were the Marine Patrol when you needed them?
But the devil-may-care facet of his character made his pulse begin to race with excitement. Ignoringâalmost relishingâthe potential danger to himself, he reached for the throttle and his jet-ski sped forward, roaring in a spray of foam towards the stricken craft, which bobbed like a childâs toy on the waves.
As his craft approached he could see a figure lying on the deck, and as he drew alongside he could see that it was a woman and that she appeared to be sunbathing. Tawny limbs and tawny hair. Slim and supple, with the tight lushness of youth. It took him precisely two seconds to assess whether or not this was a ploy and she the decoy. It was an age-old method he had encountered before; it came with the territory he inhabited.
But she was not sunbathing. Something was very wrongâNico could see that from her slumped and unmoving