A Passionate Affair

A Passionate Affair
Anne Mather

Mills & Boon are excited to present The Anne Mather Collection – the complete works by this classic author made available to download for the very first time! These books span six decades of a phenomenal writing career, and every story is available to read unedited and untouched from their original release. Whirlwind wife…Cassandra has sworn off men – for good! Her failed marriage brought her nothing but pain, and she won’t set herself up for heartache again. But when she meets handsome Jay Ravek, she can’t help but surrender to their fiery passion body and soul…In no time at all, Cassandra finds herself married to Jay! But her wounded heart is still fragile, and when his behaviour becomes increasingly secretive, Cassandra begins to wonder - can she trust this man she knows so little about…? Have they married too quickly?!

Mills & Boon is proud to present a fabulous

collection of fantastic novels by

bestselling, much loved author

ANNE MATHER

Anne has a stellar record of achievement within the

publishing industry, having written over one hundred

and sixty books, with worldwide sales of more than

forty-eight MILLION copies in multiple languages.

This amazing collection of classic stories offers a chance

for readers to recapture the pleasure Anne’s powerful,

passionate writing has given.

We are sure you will love them all!

I’ve always wanted to write—which is not to say I’ve always wanted to be a professional writer. On the contrary, for years I only wrote for my own pleasure and it wasn’t until my husband suggested sending one of my stories to a publisher that we put several publishers’ names into a hat and pulled one out. The rest, as they say, is history. And now, one hundred and sixty-two books later, I’m literally—excuse the pun— staggered by what’s happened.

I had written all through my infant and junior years and on into my teens, the stories changing from children’s adventures to torrid gypsy passions. My mother used to gather these manuscripts up from time to time, when my bedroom became too untidy, and dispose of them! In those days, I used not to finish any of the stories and Caroline, my first published novel, was the first I’d ever completed. I was newly married then and my daughter was just a baby, and it was quite a job juggling my household chores and scribbling away in exercise books every chance I got. Not very professional, as you can imagine, but that’s the way it was.

These days, I have a bit more time to devote to my work, but that first love of writing has never changed. I can’t imagine not having a current book on the typewriter—yes, it’s my husband who transcribes everything on to the computer. He’s my partner in both life and work and I depend on his good sense more than I care to admit.

We have two grown-up children, a son and a daughter, and two almost grown-up grandchildren, Abi and Ben. My e-mail address is mystic-am@msn.com (mailto:mystic-am@msn.com) and I’d be happy to hear from any of my wonderful readers.

A Passionate Affair

Anne Mather

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

Table of Contents

Cover (#u2657972f-cba1-56fb-8a95-e6284207cdf5)

About the Author (#u6079bb34-0468-5135-b12b-492d4d08c06f)

Title Page (#u2d10cf4f-0232-53db-89d4-8401591863f8)

CHAPTER ONE (#u4c5340d3-45c7-5aa6-b3a5-f37eb6a96ba2)

CHAPTER TWO (#ud0634c9c-d215-5901-946b-c1302e64472d)

CHAPTER THREE (#ufb4f1a76-f8ff-5cf4-ad17-77d2ce03f372)

CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_9367c810-7f7e-5762-9ba3-501f98bbe43f)

‘WHO did you say that man was?’

Cassandra tried not to give her words emphasis, but Liz was too highly attuned to the inflections in her tone to be deceived for long.

‘What man?’ she asked, turning a rather bemused face from her contemplation of the large square canvas in front of her, and Cassandra signalled with her eyes, the object of her enquiry evident. ‘Oh—you mean Jay Ravek!’ Liz’s mouth assumed a sardonic twist. ‘Darling, don’t think of it. Don’t even consider it. He’s far too uncivilised for you.’

‘Uncivilised?’ Discretion gave way to mild incredulity, as Cassandra allowed her gaze to rest briefly on the tall dark man presently in conversation with Damon Stafford, near the entrance to the gallery. She shrugged. ‘He looks highly civilised to me.’

‘Don’t they always?’ Liz adopted a thoughtful pose. ‘I mean,’ she went on, ‘who would think, looking at a tiger, looking at its lean symmetry, at its grace and beauty, that it was the most unscrupulous predator ever created?’

Cassandra sighed. ‘All right, Liz, you’ve made your point—about tigers, anyway. But just because you may be strongly into cats at the moment, that has no bearing on my question about Jay Ravek.’

‘Oh, but it does.’ Liz’s long-nailed fingers curved about her arm. ‘Cass, my love, I know what you’ve said, and believe me, I can guess how you feel. But getting involved with a man like Jay Ravek—–’

‘Who said anything about getting involved?’ Cassandra’s brows arched impatiently. ‘Liz, you must stop treating me like a china doll! I’m not. I never have been. If I were, Mike would have broken me long ago.’

Liz studied her friend’s face with genuine concern. ‘But you’re not denying that Mike has left you with a—how shall I say it?—a chip on your shoulder, hasn’t he?’ She paused. ‘Not all men are like Mike, Cass. Remember that.’

‘I do remember it.’ Cassandra felt vaguely indignant that Liz should feel it necessary to speak to her in this way. ‘Look—if I’d let Mike poison my mind, I wouldn’t be interested in any other man, would I?’

‘No.’ Liz conceded that point. ‘But I just don’t want you to get hurt again, that’s all. And—well, Jay Ravek has quite a reputation for hurting people, women particularly.’