Lynne Graham Books Guide

He looked at her. Just looked. Then: “You still sleep on the left side of the bed.”

“You’re late,” she said flatly, because her heart was already splintering again just looking at him. “The funeral was three months ago.”

She’d been eighteen. He’d been a struggling law student, not the heir to a shipping empire. They’d made love in her father’s greenhouse, and Rio had said, “One day, I’ll build you a garden by the sea.”

“Rio—”

“I didn’t leave,” she whispered. “Your father—”

By nightfall, she was installed in his Athenian penthouse — a palace of glass and marble overlooking the Acropolis. Her room was down the hall from his. The bed was cold. She lay awake, staring at the ceiling, remembering the boy who’d once brought her wildflowers and told her she was enough.

“I protected it.” His jaw tightened. “Until he died, I never called in the debt. Now I need something from you, Lily. And I will take it.” lynne graham books

“Bought it last year. It’s empty.” His smile was the one she remembered — warm, boyish, full of wonder. “I was waiting for the right gardener.” The garden by the Aegean was bursting with peonies, roses, and wild herbs. Lily knelt in the soil, sun-warmed and happy, while Rio held their newborn daughter — a squalling, dark-haired miracle named Eleni.

The silence was absolute.

Lily laughed through her tears. “You already have a greenhouse?” He looked at her

Rio smiled. It didn’t reach his eyes. “Whatever you need to tell yourself, agapi mou .” The wedding was in a Greek chapel on a private island. Lily wore a simple ivory dress — not because Rio was cheap, but because he’d insisted she choose. “I won’t costume you,” he’d said coldly. “You’re not a possession. You’re an investment.”

Would you like a different trope (e.g., amnesia, runaway bride, Greek tycoon + innocent heroine) or a longer, chapter-by-chapter expansion?