Forbidden: The Billionaire's Virgin Princess. Lucy Monroe
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Lucy Monroe started reading at age four. After she’d gone through the children’s books at home, Lucy’s mother caught her reading adult novels pilfered from the higher shelves on the bookcase…alas, it was nine years before she got her hands on a Mills & Boon® romance her older sister had brought home. She loves to create the strong alpha males and independent women that people Mills & Boon® books. When she’s not immersed in a romance novel (whether reading or writing it), she enjoys travel with her family, having tea with the neighbours, gardening, and visits from her numerous nieces and nephews.
Lucy loves to hear from readers. Visit her website at www.LucyMonroe.com
Dear Reader
Can you believe Mills & Boon is celebrating its hundredth year of publication? I can and I can’t. You see, I find it easy to accept that a publisher who has brought so much pleasure to so many (including myself) has done so successfully for an entire century. But in the same vein I find it amazing that a publisher who has been at it so long is so incredibly in tune with current readers. Mills & Boon has allowed me to explore issues facing today’s woman that other publishers are unwilling to consider. Modern™ Romance does exactly that.
Call me sappy, if you like, but it brings tears to my eyes to realise that FORBIDDEN: THE BILLIONAIRE’S VIRGIN PRINCESS is part of such a legacy. I am truly honoured that Mills & Boon has allowed me to bring Sebastian and Lina alive for readers in this, their hundredth year. Just as M&B has grown and changed with the times, Lina is looking for a modern life—even though she’s a princess from a very old family. Sebastian doesn’t think they have a future, and that eats at a heart already made cynical by life. But in the end I think this modern-day alpha will find that love is a more powerful force than he ever imagined.
Blessings and love to you all as we celebrate M&B’s centenary!
Lucy
FORBIDDEN: THE BILLIONAIRE’S VIRGIN PRINCESS
BY
LUCY MONROE
For all the readers who wanted Hawk’s story.
Thank you for writing me. And with special thanks
to Mills & Boon for letting this, my twentieth story
for them, be part of their amazing 100 years
and still going legacy!
CHAPTER ONE
LINA MARWAN stood on the edge of the bridge, her eyes shut as she searched for her center.
A slight breeze caressed her sun warmed skin. It was a beautiful day to be alive. She released the railing and nothing stood between her and open air…a fifty-foot drop to the rushing waters of the river below.
Adrenaline coursed through her at the thought of what she was about to do. Her breaths came in short pants and sweat formed on her temples and palms. She curled her fingers into fists and then released them several times as she forced her lungs into a more relaxed rhythm.
Loud voices from behind her disturbed the peace she was trying to attain. Opening her eyes, she looked back over her shoulder and saw him.
Sebastian Hawk.
The last person she expected to see at this moment in her life. The last man she expected, or wanted, to see ever again. Before, or after, death. God wouldn’t be so cruel as to put her and the deceitful bastard in the same part of heaven.
Well, there was nothing for it. He was here and it would only be a matter of seconds before he convinced the officials holding him off the bridge into letting him come for her.
She faced forward again, spread her arms like wings and let her body fall forward as the sound of Sebastian’s roar echoed off the ravine’s rocky walls.
Soaring through the air like a bird diving for its prey, memories from eight years before flooded Lina’s mind in a reel-to-reel play of her time with Sebastian Hawk.
Headed toward the University Center, Lina rushed across the quad. She was late for the meeting, but it couldn’t be helped. She’d had to ditch her bodyguard. Again. He was reading a book on Ancient Egypt on the ground floor of the library. He believed she was in a study group meeting in one of the rooms on the second floor. If the poor man knew how many hours he spent in the library while she was elsewhere, they would both be in a lot of trouble.
He was easy to fool. Too easy for her ego. In his mind her high grade point average attested unequivocally to many hours spent studying. She did study, just not nearly as much as he believed. However, like her father and far too many other men from her country, her guard did not believe a woman could get the grades she did without putting a huge effort into the task. All of the guards in her current security detail were similarly afflicted in their thinking.
When she had discovered the benefits to this particular formerly annoying trait she had been grateful for her father’s insistence on supplying her bodyguards from her home country for the first time.
Raised in America since she was six, she’d often chafed at the attitudes exhibited by her Marwanian guards. Then she had arrived at university and discovered how easy it was to gain temporary freedom on the pretext of studying. She grinned. Life might not be perfect, but it certainly was fun.
Her grin changed to a grimace as she ran into a rock wall dressed like a man.
She bounced backward, landing right on her bum in the grass. “Ooof.”
“Are you all right?” Oh, wow. The rock wall had a voice that made her insides ping.
She looked up…and up…a couple of inches over six feet of rippling muscle, until their eyes met. His were gray. A dark, mysterious gunmetal gray. Though, right at that moment, their expression was perfectly readable. They were lit with concern. For her.
Nice.
Her smile returned and she stuck her hand out. “Fine. Thanks. Give me a lift?”
His lips quirked. “Certainly.” He reached toward her and their hands connected.
Starbursts might have gone off, she wasn’t sure. Because the momentum from his tug landed her body against his and her senses went supernova. Her dazzled brain registered that his mouth was still curved in that half-curve. She wondered what he’d look like with a full-blown smile. Devastating, probably. She probably wouldn’t survive it.
“You sure you’re okay?” he asked, looking really concerned now.
And darned if she didn’t really like that. “Wonderful.”
“You don’t need help to remain standing?”
“No.” Did she look like she needed help?
“Then, maybe you’d like to let go? Not that I mind the close contact.” Warm amusement laced his words.
“I should…let go I mean.” But her body made no effort to move backward.
He laughed. “My name is Sebastian Hawk.”
Ulp. His laughter sent shivers through her as she found herself mesmerized by the absolutely gorgeous smile that accompanied it. Okay, so she’d survived a close encounter with his smile, but wasn’t so sure about her mental faculties.
This man was very destructive to rational thought processes.
“And you are?”
Right. Very bad for normal brain activity.
“Oh, I’m Lina Marwan.” She never used her complete name Lina bin Fahd al Marwan anymore.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lina,” he said as he gently set her away