Innocent Sins

Innocent Sins
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. Innocence betrayed…Memories of a long-ago summer night still taunt Laura Neill. With all the provocative innocence of youth, she stole into her stepbrother Oliver's bedroom, and discovered love and fleeting happiness in his arms.Driven away by his apparent betrayal, it's been eight long years since Laura last visited home. Can she now face Oliver without confessing the aching love she still feels for him – or the secrets she's held all this time?

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.

Innocent Sins

Anne Mather

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

Table of Contents

Cover (#u9f356c4e-fd49-5009-a3fa-80edf44020c7)

About the Author (#ua5d9f655-e71e-5a4a-a4cc-8820c7ac02d1)

Title Page (#ub42ffcb8-a43d-5cf2-973e-8e80337b89b1)

CHAPTER ONE (#u9efc71f8-f637-507b-921e-0c6456860cf8)

CHAPTER TWO (#u4029966c-2bbd-53e1-afc4-96c5718fd06e)

CHAPTER THREE (#u850399b4-9bc9-5e1e-a72c-fe0cd76a78d4)

CHAPTER FOUR (#u0d8e4d63-8bad-58a2-ab9b-402126772e5d)

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)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_bb8261f9-ee51-5e82-b501-4c1a85398994)

OLIVER could hear the phone ringing as he vaulted up the steps to the front door. Light shone out through the fan-shaped skylight above, illuminating the crisp piles of snow that he guessed Thomas had cleared earlier in the day. But although he was fairly sure his manservant was at home it seemed obvious that the old man was not going to answer the call.

Which pointed to the fact that he knew who it was. Which, in turn, led Oliver to believe it must be his mother. Only if Stella had been ringing fairly constantly all day would Thomas choose to ignore the summons. He and Stella had never liked one another, and the fact that his mother had expected her son to return yesterday morning would perhaps explain her eagerness to ask him about his trip.

Or not.

Oliver’s mouth eased into a wry smile as he inserted his key in the lock. In his experience, Stella was seldom interested in anything that didn’t immediately affect her, and if she had been ringing on and off all day there was probably something personal on her mind.

The warmth that accompanied the opening of the door was welcome. Oliver would have preferred not to return to London in the middle of one of the coldest spells of the winter. Particularly since he’d spent the last three weeks sweltering in the extreme heat of the Malaysian jungle.

‘Mr Oliver!’

To his relief the phone stopped its shrill bleating at the same moment that Thomas Grayson appeared at the end of the long hallway that ran from front to back of the house. Although Oliver had tried to persuade the old man that such formality wasn’t necessary, Thomas insisted on addressing him that way.

Now Oliver hoisted the bag containing his camera equipment inside and, closing the door, leaned back against it for a moment’s rest. He didn’t often take the time to appreciate the elegant beauty of the narrow, four-storey Georgian house that was his home, but he was always relieved to find that nothing had changed in his absence.