Playing the Dutiful Wife

CAROL MARINELLI

‘We have made an application on behalf of Niklas Dos Santos to exercise his conjugal rights…’ Learning that the husband she’s tried to forget has spent the past year falsely imprisoned in Brazil and needs her to visit him is the last thing Meg Hamilton wants. But she will play her part in exchange for Niklas’s signature on the divorce papers!Except she hasn’t bargained on their mind-blowing connection being as undeniable as ever. Last time it led usually sensible Meg into a Las Vegas wedding chapel. This time the consequence of giving in to their chemistry will bind her to Niklas for ever…‘Carol is at the top of her game, I couldn’t put this book down!’ – Maurine, Maryland, USA

‘I’ve missed you so much.’

Meg was playing a part, Niklas got that, but as her lips met his cheek it did not matter that she was playing, for it was the first reprieve to his senses in months.

It was a kiss for others, and his mind tried to keep it at that—except her breath tasted of the outside. He drank it in, and the feel of her in his arms allowed temporary escape.

It was Meg who pulled back. Meg who stood with her cheeks burning red. There were tears of shame and hurt and anger in her eyes, and her lips pressed closed as one guard said something that made the other one laugh, and then a door opened and they walked into a small, simply furnished room. She couldn’t stand for very much longer, so she sat on a chair for a moment, honestly shaken.

Not just at the sight of him—not just at the shock of seeing Niklas with his hair cropped almost as short as the dark stubble on his chin, dressed in rough prison denim—but because he was still the most beautiful man she had ever seen.

‘Why would you come here?’ he demanded, and then she looked at him. He could see her green eyes flash with suppressed rage, and he heard the spit of her words when finally she answered him.

‘You’re entitled to me, apparently.’

About the Author

CAROL MARINELLI recently filled in a form where she was asked for her job title and was thrilled, after all these years, to be able to put down her answer as ‘writer’. Then it asked what Carol did for relaxation and, after chewing her pen for a moment, Carol put down the truth: ‘writing’. The third question asked, ‘What are your hobbies?’ Well, not wanting to look obsessed or, worse still, boring, she crossed the fingers on her free hand and answered ‘swimming and tennis’. But, given that the chlorine in the pool does terrible things to her highlights, and the closest she’s got to a tennis racket in the last couple of years is watching the Australian Open, I’m sure you can guess the real answer!

Recent titles by the same author:

BEHOLDEN TO THE THRONE* (#ulink_5b1cac2c-68ee-51aa-ae71-22ce90e6a6c6) BANISHED TO THE HAREM* (#ulink_5b1cac2c-68ee-51aa-ae71-22ce90e6a6c6) AN INDECENT PROPOSITION A SHAMEFUL CONSEQUENCE

(The Secrets of Xanos)

* (#ulink_3f06bf23-9c4c-56b4-b747-a593bd63e52b)linked titles

Carol also writes forMills & Boon® Medical Romance™!

Did you know these are also available as eBooks?Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

Playing the

Dutiful Wife

Carol Marinelli

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

CHAPTER ONE

‘I’M GOING TO have to go,’ Meg said to her mother. ‘They’ve finished boarding, so I’d better turn off my phone.’

‘You’ll be fine for a while yet.’ Ruth Hamilton persisted with their conversation. ‘Did you finish up the work for the Evans purchase?’

‘Yes.’ Meg tried to keep the edge from her voice. She really wanted just to turn off the phone and relax. Meg hated flying. Well, not all of it—just the take-off part. All she wanted to do was close her eyes and listen to music, take some nice calming breaths before the plane prepared for its departure from Sydney Airport—except, as usual, her mother wanted to talk about work. ‘Like I said,’ Meg said calmly, because if she so much as gave a hint that she was irritated her mum would want to know more, ‘everything is up-to-date.’

‘Good,’ Ruth said, but still she did not leave things there.

Meg coiled a