“The flower shop. The cottage in Cornwall. Even this miserable flat.” He held up a sheaf of legal papers. “All of it was collateral for a loan I gave him five years ago. The same week I left you.”
Then his real father had appeared. The old man had shown Lily photos of Rio’s real fiancée — a shipping heiress. “Step aside, little flower,” the tycoon had sneered. “Or he loses everything.”
By nightfall, she was installed in his Athenian penthouse — a palace of glass and marble overlooking the Acropolis. Her room was down the hall from his. The bed was cold. She lay awake, staring at the ceiling, remembering the boy who’d once brought her wildflowers and told her she was enough.
“She has your temper,” Rio said.
He grinned. “Then she’s perfect.”
“I didn’t leave,” she whispered. “Your father—”
“Bought it last year. It’s empty.” His smile was the one she remembered — warm, boyish, full of wonder. “I was waiting for the right gardener.” The garden by the Aegean was bursting with peonies, roses, and wild herbs. Lily knelt in the soil, sun-warmed and happy, while Rio held their newborn daughter — a squalling, dark-haired miracle named Eleni. lynne graham books
The silence was absolute.
To save her family’s legacy, a down-on-her-luck florist agrees to a cold, temporary marriage with the ruthless billionaire who once broke her heart — but she never expected to fall for him again. Chapter One Rio Karras didn’t ask. He demanded.
“What?” she whispered, hating the tremor in her voice. “The flower shop
She laughed — a broken, hysterical sound. “You’re insane.”
The ceremony was a blur of candles and chanting. When Rio slid a diamond band onto her finger, his thumb brushed her palm, and she felt a shock of heat she despised. Later, at the reception, he kept her close. His hand on the small of her back. His voice low in her ear. Smile. They’re watching. You look beautiful when you’re furious.
“I protected it.” His jaw tightened. “Until he died, I never called in the debt. Now I need something from you, Lily. And I will take it.” “All of it was collateral for a loan