Hired For His Royal Revenge

LORRAINE HALL is a part-time hermit and full-time writer. She was born with an old soul and her head in the clouds, which, it turns out, is the perfect combination to spend her days creating thunderous alpha heroes and the fierce, determined heroines who win their hearts. She lives in a potentially haunted house with her soulmate and rambunctious band of hermits-in-training. When she’s not writing romance, she’s reading it. Books by Lorraine Hall The Prince’s Royal Wedding Demand Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk. Hired for His Royal Revenge Lorraine Hall www.millsandboon.co.uk ISBN: 978-0-008-92876-6 HIRED FOR HIS ROYAL REVENGE © 2023 by Lorraine Hall Published in Great Britain 2023by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental. By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher. ® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries. www.millsandboon.co.uk Note to Readers This ebook contains the following accessibility features which, if supported by your device, can be accessed via your ereader/accessibility settings: Change of font size and line height Change of background and font colours Change of font Change justification Text to speech His gaze raked over her as he stood in front of her. Something uncomfortable and unwelcome jittered in her chest as his dark golden gaze met hers. She wanted to run, but the self-preservation instinct she had so much pride in was no match for the way his gaze pinned her to the spot. “Al, I presume?” he said, his voice smooth and sounding vaguely...amused. Al didn’t have a clue what would be amusing about the situation. She felt a bit like she’d placed her life into his hands, and she hadn’t even spoken. She gave herself a second to catch her bearings, to focus on the task at hand and not the gold of his eyes. The feeling of being trapped and wanting to lean into it. She tried to speak in her usual insouciant low tones, but found her voice much higher than it should be. “Yes, I’m Al.” His beautiful mouth curved, likely at the shake in her tone. “Excellent.” Secrets of the Kalyva Crown It started with a royal revenge... Banished following the execution of his parents, Lysias has spent years plotting revenge on the surviving royal of a bloody coup, King Diamandis. Now justice is finally within reach, as he has hired someone to pose as the king’s long-lost sister... King Diamandis believed he was the sole surviving member of his royal family. Ruling with an ironclad fist was the only way he knew how to continue their legacy. Until his whole world is tilted on its axis by his supposed sister’s royal return... Soon, both of their carefully constructed plans and lives will be thrown into complete disarray—by love! Read Lysias and Al’s story inHired for His Royal RevengeAvailable now! And look for Diamandis and Katarina’s story Coming soon! For anyone who ever had a crush on Dimitri. Contents Cover About the Author Booklist Title Page Copyright Note to Readers Introduction Secrets of the Kalyva Crown Dedication CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN CHAPTER ELEVEN CHAPTER TWELVE CHAPTER THIRTEEN CHAPTER FOURTEEN CHAPTER FIFTEEN CHAPTER SIXTEEN CHAPTER SEVENTEEN CHAPTER EIGHTEEN EPILOGUE Extract About the Publisher CHAPTER ONE AL ASSUMED SHE’D once had a real name and a last name, but she didn’t know it. And never would. She had vague memories as a small child of being called Alexandra and being taught how to survive by various people on the streets. Some were kind, some were cruel, some were indifferent, but she had survived. That was all that mattered most days. She did not remember anything before being on the streets, so like most of the others she’d met, she assumed her parents were dead or indifferent. Neither mattered. They were gone and she was here. One of the best methods of survival on the dangerous streets of Athens was to pass herself off as a boy. Even now, at twenty-four, her short stature and small frame meant she could be believed as a teenage boy rather than a grown woman if she dressed and held herself accordingly. As she did now. She wore tattered baggy pants that hid the shape of her hips. Over her shirts, she wore an oversized coat that gave bulk to her shoulders. Add threadbare boots and shaggy hair pulled back with a small tie, and no one ever questioned her. She leaned against the corner of a building on a tourist-laden street and surveyed