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Pregnant With The Billionaire's Baby: Valentino's Love-Child / Innocent Secretary...Accidentally Pregnant
CAROL MARINELLI
LUCY MONROE
Valentino’s Love-ChildSociety bachelor and former army sniper Ben Benedict moves between two worlds — from high-society Washington to the mean city streets, from tuxedos to Glocks. His powerful Virginia family wants him out of harm’s way, but Ben stays on the job, determined to make amends for a past that haunts him. And becomes a ticking time bomb Dr Anna Schuster is fighting demons of her own when she crosses paths with Agent Benedict.The two become adversaries — and lovers — as they search for an Al Qaeda operative bent on revenge. Ben must fight against time — and his own darkness — to rescue millions of innocents and the woman he loves from a virulent bioweapon in the hands of a dangerous enemy.Innocent Secretary…Accidentally PregnantEmma Stephenson thought all they’d be sharing was an office—not a bed! But she’s learning fast what being tycoon playboy Luca D’Amato’s personal assistant really means! And now she has to tell him she’s pregnant! Everything a man could want?
Valentino’s Love-Child
Their relationship is scorching and its intensity is unmatched… Only love can never be mentioned. But Valentino Grisafi’s stunning, intriguing American lover is testing his resolve.
He said he’d never marry again. His principles won’t allow it. The one person to tame the untamable Valentino is the woman now carrying his child…
Innocent Secretary…Accidentally Pregnant
Plain Emma Stephenson doesn’t look like a tycoon’s assistant, but for playboy Luca D’Amato, breaking through her nononsense attitude is his favorite new game. Emma thought all they’d be sharing was an office—not a bed! Now he’s offering her a promotion, and she’s trying to find the words to tell him…she’s pregnant!
Praise for USA TODAY bestselling author Lucy Monroe (#ulink_841611ce-3594-5975-a2a5-347d6afc159b)
“Monroe wows with her lust-at-first-sight love story. Her determined heroine and high-handed yet honorable hero will delight. Swank surroundings and detailed dialogue enliven, and the all-consuming first love scene is absorbing.”
—RT Book Reviews on A Virgin for His Prize
“This high-society romance is funny, sweet, sexy and all-American. A madcap, altruistic heiress and arrogant but honorable hero are the perfect fit.”
—RT Book Reviews on An Heiress for His Empire
Praise for USA TODAY bestselling author Carol Marinelli
“Marinelli’s heartrending tearjerker is a tale of two cultures. Her narrative is a sensual feast and the first love scene is awesome. The trust-building and eventual love between her two polar opposites is the pièce de résistance.”
—RT Book Reviews on Princess’s Secret Baby
“Marinelli’s romance is an exquisitely told modern-day fairy-tale, a delightful mix of laugh-out-loud pampered-princess antics and solemn realities. The first kiss between the ruthless, sexy Aussie lawyer and tempestuous Arabian royal temptress kicks off an erotic fantasy.”
—RT Book Reviews on Protecting the Desert Princess
Pregnant with the Billionaire’s Baby
Valentino’s Love-Child
Lucy Monroe
Innocent Secretary…Accidentally Pregnant
Carol Marinelli
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Table of Contents
Cover (#u70af94cc-0dff-5468-951e-e2bb9de5b2e0)
Back Cover Text (#u4773d73d-8c27-54d2-bdef-4bc2f395dd5a)
Praise (#ulink_4ce842f5-a19c-543a-a824-a61bffa77b3d)
Title Page (#u8d54268a-7bbb-58d2-96e3-f3f82a741ce8)
Valentino’s Love-Child (#ulink_5cfccf20-f726-5cce-aa34-a3330a0f50cd)
About the Author (#u87e17e26-a2bf-5353-ab31-75f207d6a70f)
CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_749290d4-e934-5f20-bcb6-0ea468143adb)
CHAPTER TWO (#ulink_84f08fe2-d7da-5007-a824-9e6df3f237a8)
CHAPTER THREE (#ulink_9c253bde-159c-5909-b07a-8a15947e1e03)
CHAPTER FOUR (#ulink_bf09a25b-36de-5a11-9507-7b6c3e9379b2)
CHAPTER FIVE (#ulink_b56ff555-7ede-51d9-8153-8c6392354e7d)
CHAPTER SIX (#ulink_7d70e479-f806-5dcf-a072-d29cebbb64cd)
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)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
Innocent Secretary… Accidentally Pregnant (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)
Dedication (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWO (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THREE (#litres_trial_promo)
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)
CHAPTER SIXTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
Valentino’s Love-Child (#ulink_23555c15-a1fa-5613-a959-326a465b26dc)
Lucy Monroe
USA TODAY bestselling author LUCY MONROE lives and writes in the gorgeous Pacific Northwest. While she loves her home, she delights in experiencing different cultures and places in her travels, which she happily shares with her readers through her books. A lifelong devotee of the romance genre, Lucy can’t imagine a more fulfilling career than writing. Visit her on the web at lucymonroe.com (http://www.lucymonroe.com).
CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_39a4239d-6280-58d3-95bc-4bd02230b37a)
VALENTINO GRISAFI BRUSHED a silky auburn curl away from where it blocked his view of his sleeping mistress’s face.
Mistress. An old-fashioned word for a very modern woman. Faith Williams would not appreciate the label. Were he to be foolish enough to use it within her hearing, she would no doubt let him know it too. His carina americana was no wilting flower.
Pretty American. Now, that suited her. But if he should let on he thought of her like a mistress? Ai-yi-yi.
Eyes the blue of a peacock feather would snap with temper while she lectured him on how inappropriate the term was. And he supposed she would have a point. He did not pay her bills. He did not buy her clothes. No matter how many hours they spent together here, she did not live in his Marsala apartment. She did not rely on him for anything but his company.
So, not his mistress. But not his girlfriend, either. Long-term commitment and love had no place between them. Theirs was a purely physical relationship, the duration and depth of which was dictated purely by convenience. Mostly his. Not that Faith had nothing to say in the matter.
She could walk away as easily as he and had no more incentive to make time in her schedule for him than vice versa. Luckily for them both, the relationship—such that it was—worked for each of them.
Perhaps they were friends also and he did not regret it, but that had come after. After he had discovered the way her sweet, curvaceous body responded to the slightest touch of his. After kisses that melted his brain and her resistance. After he had learned how much pleasure he could find basking in her generous sensuality, once unleashed.
The sex between them was phenomenal.
Which was no doubt why he could already feel the loss of the coming weeks.
Tracing her perfect oval features he leaned close to her ear. “Carina, you must wake.”
Her nose wrinkled and the luscious bow of her mouth twisted into a moue of denial, her exotically colored eyes remaining stubbornly closed. Her recently sated body not moving so much as a centimeter from its usual postcoital curled position.
“Come, bella mia. Waken.”
“If you’d come to my apartment, I could stay in bed sleeping while you had to get dressed and leave,” she grumbled into the pillow.
“Most nights, I leave as well, carina. You know this.” He liked to have breakfast with Giosue. His eight-year-old son was the light of Valentino’s life. “Besides, I am not waking you up to go. We need to talk.”
Faith’s eyelids fluttered, but her mouth did not slip from its downward arch.
“You are adorable like this, you know?”
That had her sitting up and staring at him with grumpy startlement, the tangerine, supersilky, Egyptian cotton sheet she’d insisted he use on his bed clutched to her chest. “Sane people do not find cranky attractive, Tino.”
Biting back a smile, he shrugged. “What can I say? I am different. Or perhaps it is you. I do not recall finding any of my other amantes so cute when they were irritable.”
He did not like using the word lover, but knew better than to refer to her as the equally ill-fitting title of mistress. And she had already cut him off at the knees for referring to her once as a bed partner. She said if he wanted to use such a clinical term, he should consider getting an anatomically accurate blow-up doll.
Why these thoughts were plaguing him tonight, he did not know. Defining her place in his life was not something he spent time doing, nor was he overly fond of labels. So why so preoccupied with them tonight?
“I have no interest in hearing about your past conquests Signor Grisafi.” Now she really looked out of sorts, her eyes starting to flash with temper.
“I apologize. But you know I was hardly an untried boy when we met.” He had already loved and lost a wife, not to mention the women who had warmed his cold bed after.
He and Faith had been together for a year, longer than he had been with any other woman since the death of his beloved Maura. But that hardly altered his past.
“Neither of us were virgins, but it’s bad form to discuss past relationships while in bed with your current lover.”
“You are so worried about following protocols, too,” he mocked.
He had never known someone less concerned with appearance and social niceties. His carina americana was the quintessential free spirit.
A small smile teased her lips at that. “Maybe not, but this is one social norm I’m one hundred percent behind.”
“Duly noted.”
“Good.” She curled up to him, snuggling against his chest, her hand resting casually on his upper thigh and causing no small reaction in his nether regions. “You said you didn’t wake me up to send me on my way?”
