The Greek Billionaire's Innocent Princess Read Online Free Page A

ago when she had recounted tales of the time she had worked here before
    he had been born. As a child he had listened in awe to her description of the huge rooms and
    opulent décor, and as he’d looked around the cramped, run-down apartment block where they
    had lived it had seemed impossible that such a grand place existed.

    He walked to the far end of the garden and was about to turn back when he recalled a distant
    memory his mother had told him of a gate in the wall, and a path that led from the palace to the
    beach. With a faint, self-derisive smile on his lips at his curiosity Nikos took one of the Chinese
    lanterns that illuminated the path and held it aloft as he walked back to the wall. The gate was
    tucked into a corner, and well disguised by the rose bushes that grew around it. He pushed it,
    expecting it to be locked, but when it opened he was sufficiently intrigued to follow the path that
    led from it.

    The ground sloped steeply down until it disappeared between an opening in the rocks. Nikos had
    to duck his head as he entered the cave. It was dry inside, he noted, when he swung the lantern
    from side to side. Obviously the tide never came up this far. The air smelled faintly of seaweed
    and through the cave he could see the sea shimmering silver in the moonlight, but as he emerged
    onto the beach he stopped abruptly, and his heart kicked in his chest. For a moment he wondered
    if his mind was playing tricks on him, but the woman standing a few feet away from him was
    undoubtedly real, and her hourglass figure was instantly recognisable—even without her clothes.

    Kitty swam right across the bay and back again with clean, strong strokes and then flipped onto
    her back and stared up at the moon, and the crystal stars that studded the midnight sky. She felt
    bold and empowered—as unashamedly naked as Eve had been in the Garden of Eden. There was
    something wickedly sensuous about the silken slide of the water over her bare limbs. She loved
    swimming and in the water she felt as light and graceful as a water nymph—at peace with her
    body instead of hating it for not conforming to the model slender form she had tried, through
    numerous diets and exercise regimes, to acquire.

    Vasilis wouldn’t be so ready to taunt her about her supposed sexual hang-ups if he could see her
    now, she thought as she turned onto her front and allowed the waves to carry her back to the
    shore. The beach was shadowed and mysterious in the moonlight. The huge boulders that stood
    guard at either end of the cove loomed like faceless giants, but despite the darkness and her
    short-sightedness Kitty could distinctly make out the figure of a man, and her heart almost leapt
    from her chest.

    Dear God! Had Vasilis followed her? Fear uncoiled in the pit of her stomach, a wave caught her
    unawares and dragged her under, and she bobbed back to the surface gagging from the salt water
    she’d swallowed but desperate not to cough and attract the attention of the intruder. It had to be
    Vasilis. Few of the other guests at the ball were aware of the path leading from the palace to the
    beach, but Vasilis knew about it and had come here several times with her brothers.

    The prospect of meeting her tormentor on the secluded beach sent a shiver of trepidation down
    Kitty’s spine. She had seen the way he’d looked at her on the terrace, his lecherous grin that had
    changed to anger when she’d made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with him. Vasilis would
    not have dared lay a finger on her outside the ballroom, but here there was no one to help her—
    or hear her scream.

    Clouds drifted across the moon, blotting out its brilliant gleam and plunging the beach into pitch
    blackness, and, seizing her chance, Kitty tore up the sand and crouched behind a rock. Her breath
    came in shallow gasps and her heart was pounding when the figure strolled down towards the
    water’s edge.

    ‘Hello, Rina,’ he drawled. ‘This is the second time