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Engaged For Her Enemy's Heir
Kate Hewitt
Surrendering to the Italian billionaireWhen ruthless Rafael Vitali learns the woman in his bed is the daughter of his sworn enemy, he can’t get her out of his penthouse quick enough. But when Allegra reveals she’s pregnant, Rafael seizes the opportunity to assert his control. He insists Allegra move to Sicily… as his wife!Allegra’s night of abandon with Rafael shattered the life she once knew. His claim over her body, and their unborn child, is undeniable but giving him a claim over her fragile heart is beyond foolish…yet the temptation he poses is wildly, wickedly irresistible…When one night…leads to pregnancy!
Surrendering to the Italian billionaire
When ruthless Rafael Vitali learns the woman in his bed is the daughter of his sworn enemy, he can’t get her out of his penthouse quick enough. But when Allegra reveals she’s pregnant, Rafael seizes the opportunity to assert his control. He insists Allegra move to Sicily...as his wife!
Allegra’s night of abandon with Rafael shattered the life she once knew. His claim over her body, and their unborn child, is undeniable, but giving him a claim over her fragile heart is beyond foolish—yet the temptation he poses is wildly, wickedly irresistible...
‘You are so beautiful. So lovely.’
With gentle hands Rafael pushed her disordered curls away from her face, his fingers skimming across her skin, exploring her features. Allegra closed her eyes, submitting to his touch, revelling in it. The feel of his fingers on her face felt as intimate as a kiss, his touch so gentle and reverent it made her ache in an entirely new way. He slid his hands lower, each touch a question, his fingers feeling her collarbone and then his palm moulding to the curve of her breast.
‘A different kind of music,’ he murmured, his mouth following the trail of his hand, and she laughed, the sound shaky and breathless.
Yes, this was new music, and he was teaching her its breathtaking melody. She’d thought that in this moment she might feel fear, or at least uncertainty, but she didn’t. She felt wonderful, and she wanted to keep feeling wonderful—to come alive under someone’s hands and feel as close to another person as she could. For one night. One moment. When would she ever get a chance like this again?
Somehow Rafael had managed to slip her dress from her shoulders, and now her upper half was bare to him. He bent his head, nudging aside her bra with his tongue, and she gasped aloud. The feel of him against her sensitised flesh was a jolt to her whole body.
‘Oh...’ The single syllable held a world of newly gained knowledge as pleasure pierced her with sweet arrows. Her hands roved over his back, drawing him closer to her.
Desire was an insistent pulse inside her. Of their own accord her hips rose, welcoming the knowing touch of his hand. His fingers brushed her underwear and she bit off a gasp.
She’d had no idea...
One Night With Consequences (#u50af1ed2-49b3-5011-958e-d8dd043254d2)
When one night...leads to pregnancy!
When succumbing to a night of unbridled desire it’s impossible to think past the morning after!
But, with the sheets barely settled, that little blue line appears on the pregnancy test and it doesn’t take long to realise that one night of white-hot passion has turned into a lifetime of consequences!
Only one question remains:
How do you tell a man you’ve just met that you’re about to share more than just his bed?
Find out in:
Crowned for the Prince’s Heir by Sharon Kendrick
The Sheikh’s Baby Scandal by Carol Marinelli
A Ring for Vincenzo’s Heir by Jennie Lucas
Claiming His Christmas Consequence by Michelle Smart
The Guardian’s Virgin Ward by Caitlin Crews
A Child Claimed by Gold by Rachael Thomas
The Consequence of His Vengeance by Jennie Lucas
Secrets of a Billionaire’s Mistress by Sharon Kendrick
The Boss’s Nine-Month Negotiation by Maya Blake
The Pregnant Kavakos Bride by Sharon Kendrick
A Ring for the Greek’s Baby by Melanie Milburne
Look for more One Night With Consequences stories coming soon!
Engaged for Her Enemy’s Heir
Kate Hewitt
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
After spending three years as a die-hard New Yorker, KATE HEWITT now lives in a small village in the English Lake District with her husband, their five children and a golden retriever. In addition to writing intensely emotional stories she loves reading, baking, and playing chess with her son—she has yet to win against him, but she continues to try. Learn more about Kate at kate-hewitt.com (http://kate-hewitt.com/).
Books by Kate Hewitt
Mills & Boon Modern Romance
Moretti’s Marriage Command
Inherited by Ferranti
Seduced by a Sheikh
The Secret Heir of Alazar
The Forced Bride of Alazar
The Billionaire’s Legacy
A Di Sione for the Greek’s Pleasure
Secret Heirs of Billionaires
Demetriou Demands His Child
One Night With Consequences
Larenzo’s Christmas Baby
The Marakaios Brides
The Marakaios Marriage
The Marakaios Baby
Rivals to the Crown of Kadar
Captured by the Sheikh
Commanded by the Sheikh
Visit the Author Profile page
at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk) for more titles.
To my lovely editor, Victoria.
Thank you for all your help with this one!
Contents
Cover (#u88aef18d-af78-5554-a87f-8fc52059d75c)
Back Cover Text (#u7f1e750d-5349-5f40-a241-6b5b9511f9b0)
Introduction (#u2517b16e-1912-5cbb-9b52-642686f8555c)
One Night With Consequences (#u825db647-2751-5036-8762-bfe0e9f972f0)
Title Page (#u6212ddcc-f4ef-56bc-9956-696e3821b84c)
About the Author (#uaaeb7361-ff58-5956-a79f-dfc2fc45114c)
Dedication (#u11fc1083-ed53-5f34-a208-b3603743670e)
CHAPTER ONE (#u09d7cdd2-4a82-560b-9d41-ff8d55d2d5b2)
CHAPTER TWO (#ub79be8f4-72d9-506c-b0f7-3ccf4018d92d)
CHAPTER THREE (#ua7c31730-1f8e-545e-b5ff-3ae15378ecc3)
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)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#u50af1ed2-49b3-5011-958e-d8dd043254d2)
IT SEEMED AS if a funeral was just a chance for people to get drunk. Not that Allegra Wells had personal experience of such a thing. She’d stuck to sparkling water all evening and now stood on the sidelines of the opulent hotel ballroom in Rome where her father’s wake was being held and watched people booze it up. She could have felt bitter, or at least cynical, but all she could dredge up was a bone-aching, heart-deep weariness.
It shouldn’t be this way.
Fifteen years ago it wouldn’t have been.
She took a slug of water, half wishing it was alcohol that would burn its way down to her belly and make her finally feel something. Melt the ice she’d encased herself in for so long, so that numbness had become familiar, comforting. She didn’t even notice it most of the time, content with her life back in New York, small as it was. It was only now, surrounded by strangers and with her father dead, that she felt painfully conscious of her isolation in the world she’d always viewed at a safe distance. The father who had turned his back on her without a thought.
Her father’s second wife and stepdaughter Allegra knew, at least by sight. She’d never met them but she’d seen photos when, in moments of emotional weakness, she’d done an Internet search on her father. Alberto Mancini, CEO of Mancini Technologies. He was in the online tabloids often enough, because his second wife was young and socially ambitious—at least she seemed to be, from everything Allegra had seen and read online.
Her behaviour at the funeral, wearing black lace and dabbing her eyes with artful elegance, didn’t make Allegra think otherwise. She hadn’t spared Allegra so much as a glance, but then why would she? No one knew who Allegra was; she’d only known about the funeral because her father’s lawyer had contacted her.
Around her people swirled and chatted, caught up in their own intricate dance of social niceties. Allegra wondered why she stayed. What she was hoping to find here? What did she think she could gain? Her father was dead, but he’d been dead to her for fifteen years, or at least she’d been dead to him. No messages, no letters or texts or calls in all that time. Nothing, and that was what she grieved for now, not the man himself.
The father she’d lost a long time ago, whose death now made her remember and ache for all she’d missed out on over the years. Was that why she’d come? To find some sort of closure? To make sense of all the pain?
Allegra’s mother had been furious that she’d been attending, had seen it as a deep and personal betrayal. Just remembering Jennifer Wells’s icy silence made Allegra’s stomach cramp. Interactions with her mother were fraught at the best of times. Jennifer had never recovered from the way her husband had cut both her and Allegra out of his life, as neatly and completely as if he’d been wielding scissors. Although it hadn’t felt neat. It had felt bloody and agonising, thrust from a life of luxury and indulgence into one of deprivation and loneliness, trying to make sense of the sudden changes, her father’s absence, her mother’s tight-lipped explanations that had actually explained nothing.
‘Your father decided our marriage was over. There’s nothing I could do. He wants nothing to do with either of us any more. He won’t give us a penny.’
Just like that? Allegra had barely been able to believe it. Her father loved her. He swooped her up in her arms, he tickled her, called her his little flower. For years she had waited for him to call, text, write, anything. All she’d got, on and on, was silence.
And now she was here, and what was the point? Her father was gone, and no one here even knew who she was, or what she’d once been to him.
From across the room Allegra saw a flash of amber eyes, a wing of ink-black hair. A man was standing on the sidelines just as she was, on the other side of the room. Like her he was watching the crowds, and the look of contained emotion on his face echoed through Allegra, ringing a true, clear note.
She didn’t recognise him, had no idea what he’d been to her father or why he was there—yet something in him, the way he held himself apart, the guarded look in his eyes, resonated with her. Made her wonder. Of course, she wouldn’t talk to him. She’d always been shy, and her parents’ divorce had made it worse. Chatting up a stranger at the best of times verged on impossible.
