Yuletide Reunion. Sharon Kendrick

      

      Dear Reader,

      One hundred. Doesn’t matter how many times I say it, I still can’t believe that’s how many books I’ve written. It’s a fabulous feeling but more fabulous still is the news that Mills & Boon are issuing every single one of my backlist as digital titles. Wow. I can’t wait to share all my stories with you - which are as vivid to me now as when I wrote them.

      There’s BOUGHT FOR HER HUSBAND, with its outrageously macho Greek hero and A SCANDAL, A SECRET AND A BABY featuring a very sexy Tuscan. THE SHEIKH’S HEIR proved so popular with readers that it spent two weeks on the USA Today charts and…well, I could go on, but I’ll leave you to discover them for yourselves.

      I remember the first line of my very first book: “So you’ve come to Australia looking for a husband?” Actually, the heroine had gone to Australia to escape men, but guess what? She found a husband all the same! The man who inspired that book rang me up recently and when I told him I was beginning my 100th story and couldn’t decide what to write, he said, “Why don’t you go back to where it all started?”

      So I did. And that’s how A ROYAL VOW OF CONVENIENCE was born. It opens in beautiful Queensland and moves to England and New York. It’s about a runaway princess and the enigmatic billionaire who is infuriated by her, yet who winds up rescuing her. But then, she goes and rescues him… Wouldn’t you know it?

      I’ll end by saying how very grateful I am to have a career I love, and to thank each and every one of you who has supported me along the way. You really are very dear readers.

      Love,

      Sharon xxx

       Mills & Boon are proud to present a thrilling digital collection of all Sharon Kendrick’s novels and novellas for us to celebrate the publication of her amazing and awesome 100th book! Sharon is known worldwide for her likeable, spirited heroines and her gorgeous, utterly masculine heroes.

      SHARON KENDRICK once won a national writing competition, describing her ideal date: being flown to an exotic island by a gorgeous and powerful man. Little did she realise that she’d just wandered into her dream job! Today she writes for Mills & Boon, featuring her often stubborn but always to-die-for heroes and the women who bring them to their knees. She believes that the best books are those you never want to end. Just like life…

      Yuletide Reunion

      Sharon Kendrick

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      MILLS & BOON

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       Contents

       Cover

       Dear Reader

       About the Author

       Title Page

       CHAPTER ONE

       CHAPTER TWO

       CHAPTER THREE

       CHAPTER FOUR

       CHAPTER FIVE

       CHAPTER SIX

       CHAPTER SEVEN

       Copyright

       CHAPTER ONE

      THE first time Clemmie saw Aleck Cutler, she knew she had to have him.

      There was only one tiny obstacle in the way—he just happened to be dating someone else at the time.

      Worse. He might only be eighteen years old, but apparently he was serious about the girl. Everybody said so. Very, very serious.

      Clemmie didn’t believe them. Not at first. People didn’t get married at eighteen, for goodness’ sake, so it couldn’t be that serious, could it? Okay, people could fall in love at eighteen, but they didn’t generally get married. What would be the point?

      And anyway, Clemmie thought, staring hard at her fountain pen. He couldn’t possibly be in love with Alison Fleming, even if he thought he was. Because that wasn’t part of Clemmie’s life plan. He was going to fall in love with her, just as she had fallen love with him the first time she saw him. When he had held the door open for her and said, ‘Hi,’ his greeny-blue eyes crinkling at the corners as he gave her the most irresistible smile imaginable.

      It was like being touched by magic—there was no other way to describe it. And if Aleck hadn’t realised yet what was as obvious to Clemmie as the writing on the wall—namely, that they were made for each other—well, he soon would!

      Clemmie gave a great sigh as she glanced down at the open textbook in front of her. She was bored; that was the trouble. She had been bored for a whole month—ever since she had joined the sixth-form of Ashfield High. A month of trying to get used to a new house, a new town, new school, new stepfather...

      Clemmie bit her lip and picked up her pen to write, but found herself unable to concentrate and put it down again almost immediately. She stared out of the window across the school playing fields. It wasn’t as though she didn’t like her stepfather—she did. Dan was a good man, who loved her mother, and her mother deserved that love. Clemmie’s father had died when she was little, and it had been a real struggle for her mother. It was just...

      Clemmie sighed once more as she retied the ribbon at the end of one thick, shiny plait. Did the two of them have to be quite so ecstatic about each other all the time, and in front of her?

      It wasn’t that they were constantly pawing at each other, or kissing, or anything like that. Just that sometimes the way her mother gazed at Dan, and the way that he gazed back at her—well, it just made Clemmie think she shouldn’t even be in the same building, let alone the same room!

      The