Excerpt: Copyrighted Material
Skye Marston knew that she was in trouble.
In fact, she had known it from three heartbeats into the conversation she had foolishly started with these two. She should never have stopped, never responded to their casually friendly greeting on her way into the room.
Their apparently casually friendly greeting. She had come into the bar on a whim. It had looked crowded, brightly lit and warm, in contrast to the cold wind and driving rain of the street outside. And she had wanted desperately to be with people. She had spent too much time on her own, and being on her own left her vulnerable to her unhappy thoughts.
Was it really less than a month since her father had broken down and admitted that his money problems were far worse than he had let on? That in an attempt to deal with them, he had made a real mess of things by 'borrowing' from his boss, Greek millionaire Cyril Antonakos, the owner of the hotels he managed -- and, even worse, he had now been found out. He faced a lengthy prison sentence if charges were pressed.
"I can't go to jail, Skye!" he had wept. "Not now, not with your mother so ill! It would kill her. She just can't manage without me. You have to help me!"
"I'll do anything I can, Dad." Skye had reacted instinctively, knowing there was nothing else she could say.
Her mother's heart condition had been a cause of great concern for some time, but lately her condition had deteriorated. Now it seemed that if the next operation she had didn't succeed, her only hope was a transplant. "Anything at all -- though I don't know what help I can be!"
But her father had known. Cyril Antonakos had already proposed a way out of the terrible trap in which Andrew Marston found himself. And Skye had listened in horror as he had revealed just how vital she was to their scheme. Cyril wanted an heir. To achieve that end, obviously he needed a wife and, as his last marriage had ended in an acrimonious divorce, he had selected Skye as the potential mother of his child. If she married him, gave him the heir he craved, he wouldn't prosecute.
In order to save Andrew Marston from imprisonment, she was being asked to marry a man older than her father.
And tomorrow she had to give him her answer. That was why she was here tonight. That was why she was out on her own, spending her one last night of freedom in the impersonal bright lights and busy streets of London. She could only pray that those bright lights -- and the crowded bars -- were enough to distract her from what tomorrow would bring.
Not giving herself time to reconsider, she had swung into the wide doorway, struggling with the big glass doors, pushing her way through the crowd, trying to reach the bar.
And immediately she had felt that she had made a mistake.
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The Antonakos Marriage by Kate Walker
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Reviews for "The Antonakos Marriage"
Rated » 3 Stars of 4 by reviewer Christy H. on November 9, 2006
Reviewer said » "This is the first book I've read by Kate Walker and it won't be the last!"
Rated » 4 Stars of 4 by reviewer Marilyn S. on June 23, 2006
Reviewer said » "...such tension, anger, turmoil and passion—as only Kate Walker can write."
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