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The Italian's Unexpected Love-Child
Miranda Lee
She resisted him once…But this billionaire is playing to win!A luxury villa on Capri will be the latest jewel in playboy Leonardo Fabrizzi’s crown, until he discovers Veronica Hanson stands to inherit it. She’s the only woman to ever resist his charms, but he’s determined to tempt her into sensual surrender! He seduces her cleverly and slowly and their explosive chemistry is spectacular. But so are the consequences when Veronica reveals she’s pregnant!
She resisted him once...
But this billionaire is playing to win!
A luxury villa on Capri will be the latest jewel in playboy Leonardo Fabrizzi’s crown—until he discovers Veronica Hanson stands to inherit it. She’s the only woman to ever resist his charms, but he’s determined to tempt her into sensual surrender! He seduces her cleverly and slowly, and their explosive chemistry is spectacular. But so are the consequences when Veronica reveals she’s pregnant!
Enjoy this entertaining story of pregnancy and passion!
Born and raised in the Australian bush, MIRANDA LEE was boarding-school-educated, and briefly pursued a career in classical music before moving to Sydney and embracing the world of computers. Happily married, with three daughters, she began writing when family commitments kept her at home. She likes to create stories that are believable, modern, fast-paced and sexy. Her interests include meaty sagas, doing word puzzles, gambling and going to the movies.
Also by Miranda Lee (#u1fb875c8-6713-5890-9303-ec164a92ab67)
A Man Without Mercy
Taken Over by the Billionaire
Rich, Ruthless and Renowned miniseries
The Italian’s Ruthless Seduction
The Billionaire’s Ruthless Affair
The Playboy’s Ruthless Pursuit
Marrying a Tycoon miniseries
The Magnate’s Tempestuous Marriage
The Tycoon’s Outrageous Proposal
The Tycoon’s Scandalous Proposition
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk).
The Italian’s Unexpected Love-Child
Miranda Lee
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-07260-1
THE ITALIAN’S UNEXPECTED LOVE-CHILD
© 2018 Miranda Lee
Published in Great Britain 2018
by 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 (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
To my daughter Veronica, who has read all my books,
and said nice things about every single one.
Contents
Cover (#uc023e9f9-429c-554a-998e-5e314c55418c)
Back Cover Text (#u4c8cb878-2fd4-56fa-93fe-25bcb69cd7e0)
About the Author (#ua73bbed0-07a0-55d8-b0eb-f483747ecab0)
Booklist (#u5a3437de-277d-5f59-8612-6e89a1453892)
Title Page (#udfccbf6d-907d-53eb-ba25-d3290a50e83d)
Copyright (#u1effed37-95b3-5e22-9f7e-8eb9f19e18e9)
Dedication (#u7d9cd777-3e7b-5e00-8561-1f21f56effcc)
PROLOGUE (#uac9ef78b-de18-5f5f-b5c5-6c4db7d10449)
CHAPTER ONE (#ufd9189ca-2113-5049-bc3f-2943ae291a1c)
CHAPTER TWO (#ua17fea8f-1f60-5643-98ed-eda1e1017b44)
CHAPTER THREE (#u91ab8c83-c520-5b0e-b228-b35e39f90877)
CHAPTER FOUR (#uf46ef1ae-4e3e-537a-ac6b-3407d4962762)
CHAPTER FIVE (#u37c97cfe-bab7-55c8-a1ba-80501a7b4e1b)
CHAPTER SIX (#ubcfde6e2-8a70-5093-b984-7680fc62f146)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#u2f8f1d89-0969-5f0f-9d56-28a4aca3cb0f)
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)
CHAPTER SIXTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINETEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
PROLOGUE (#u1fb875c8-6713-5890-9303-ec164a92ab67)
LAURENCE SHOOK HIS head as he read the investigator’s report for the second time. Frustration consumed him, along with dismay. He’d assumed his daughter would be married by now. Married with children. She was twenty-eight, after all. Twenty-eight and beautiful. Very beautiful.
His eyes moved over to the photo attached to the report, his heart filling with pride when he saw that his genes had produced a truly gorgeous creature. Gorgeous, but childless.
Such a waste!
Sighing, he returned to re-read the report.
Veronica had been engaged three years earlier to a doctor she’d met at the children’s hospital she worked in. She was a physiotherapist and her fiancé an orthopaedic surgeon. Tragically, he’d been killed in a motorcycle accident two weeks before their wedding. After that, there was no evidence of her ever dating anyone again. She didn’t even seem to have many friends. She’d become a loner, still living with her mother and not doing much of anything besides work, which she did from home now, rather than in hospitals.
Laurence understood grief. He’d been devastated when his wife of forty years had died several years ago, not of the cancer—which they’d both expected would take her, given she’d carried a dangerous cancer gene—but of a stroke. He’d retreated into himself after that, retiring permanently to the holiday home they’d bought together on the Isle of Capri, never looking at another woman, never wanting to move on, as the saying went. But he’d been seventy-two at the time of her death, not in his twenties. His daughter was still young, for pity’s sake.
But she wouldn’t stay young for ever. Men could father children for a long time, but women had a biological clock ticking away in their bodies.
As a geneticist, Laurence knew all about human bodies and human genes. His in-depth knowledge on the subject was the reason behind his having donated his sperm to Veronica’s mother in the first place. His gesture had been inspired more by hubris than caring, however. Male ego. He hadn’t wanted to go to his grave without passing on his oh-so-brilliant genes.
Laurence shook his head from side to side, remorse filling his soul, as well as guilt. He should have contacted his daughter after Ruth died. Then he would have been there for her when her fiancé had been killed.
But it was too late now, he accepted wretchedly.
He was dying himself—ironically, of cancer. Liver cancer. Too late to do anything, really. His prognosis was not good. Advanced liver cancer was not very forgiving, though he only had himself to blame. After Ruth had died, he’d drunk far too much for far too long.
‘I did knock,’ a male voice intruded. ‘But you didn’t answer.’
Laurence looked up and smiled.
‘Leonardo! How lovely to see you. What brings you home so soon after your last visit?’
‘It’s Papa’s seventy-fifth birthday tomorrow,’ Leonardo said as he walked along the terrace and sat down in the afternoon sunshine, sighing appreciatively as he gazed out at the sparkling blue Mediterranean. ‘Dio, Laurence. What a lucky man you are to have a view like this.’
Laurence glanced over at his visitor with admiring eyes. How well Leonardo looked. How handsome. And how full of life. Of course, Leonardo was only thirty-two, and a man of many talents—not least of which was everything women would find both fascinating and irresistible.
This last thought evoked a deep thoughtfulness.
‘Mamma said she invited you to the party but you declined. It seems you have to go back to England tomorrow to see your doctor.’
‘Yes, that’s right,’ Laurence agreed as he folded the report carefully so that Leonardo couldn’t see it. ‘My liver’s playing up.’
‘You do look a little jaundiced. Is it serious?’
Laurence shrugged. ‘At my age, everything is serious. So, have you to come to play chess and listen to some decent music, or to try to buy my home again?’
Leonardo laughed. ‘Can I do all three?’
‘You can try. But my answer to selling this place will be no, as usual. When I’m dead and gone you can buy it.’
Leonardo looked startled, then uncharacteristically sombre. ‘I hope that won’t be for some years yet, my friend.’
