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The Sicilian's Surprise Wife
Tara Pammi
The Suave Sicilian: Married for RevengeStefan Bianco is a man with one thing on his mind. Revenge. And the last person he expects to see hanging on the arm of his nemesis? The stunning Clio Norwood; the only woman to ever resist his near-lethal brand of seduction.Clio’s life has become a mere shadow of what it once was. But Stefan’s searing gaze returns her to the fiery, passionate woman he once knew. Clio has the key to his revenge, and Stefan has the key to her freedom…but only if he agrees to her shocking proposal!Society WeddingsThe world’s sexiest billionaires finally say 'I do'! Society Weddings: The world’s sexiest billionaires finally say “I do”! Dedicated bachelors and firm friends Rocco Mondelli, Christian Markos, Stefan Bianco and Zayed Al Afzal have made their marks on the worlds of business and pleasure. Marriage was never something they were ever after…but things change and now they’ll have to do whatever it takes to get themselves to the church on time!Yet nothing is as easy as it seems…and the women these four have set their sights on have plans of their own!You are cordially invited to:The marriage of Rocco Mondelli & Olivia Fitzgerald in The Italian’s Deal for I DoThe marriage of Christian Markos & Alessandra Mondelli in The Greek’s Pregnant BrideThe marriage of Stefan Bianco & Clio Redgrave in The Sicilian’s Surprise WifeThe marriage of Sheikh Zayed Al Afzal & Princess Nadia Amani in The Sheikh’s Wedding ContractSo RSVP and get ready to enjoy the pinnacle of luxury and opulence as the world’s sexiest billionaires finally say ‘I do’…Praise for Tara PammiThe Man to be Reckoned With 4.5* RT Book ReviewPammi’s romance is a bittersweet tale, set on a grand English manor. Her enigmatic, loner hero bent on revenge and innocent, intelligent heroine wanting forgiveness play their roles perfectly. But it’s the intensely heart-wrenching conclusion that’s the perfect icing on this drama cake.The True King of Dahaar 4.5* RT Book ReviewExotic locales and ostentatious riches enhance this disturbing, poignant second-chance desert romance. The willful, broken Arabian prince and offbeat Middle-Eastern heroine doctor both harbor destructive secrets and thwarted passion in this painfully sincere twist-of-fate tale.A Deal with Demakis 4.5* RT Book ReviewPammi’s romance is a losing (but entertaining!) battle of wills, set on a jewel in the Greek Isles. It stars a know-it-all, emotionally damaged Greek tycoon and a down-but-not-out heroine, whose interludes are meteoric.
Together with their families
Clio Norwood
and
Stefan Bianco
Invite you to join them as they become
Mr & Mrs
June 2015
The Chatsfield
New York, New York
Reception to follow
… but only if Stefan can claim his unexpected bride!
Dedicated bachelors Rocco Mondelli, Christian Markos, Stefan Bianco and Zayed Al Afzal met and bonded at university, wreaking havoc amongst the female population. In the decade since graduating they’ve made their mark on the worlds of business and pleasure, becoming wealthy and powerful.
Marriage has never been something Rocco, Christian, Stefan or Zayed were ever after … But things change, and now they’ll have to do whatever it takes to get themselves to the church on time!
Yet nothing is as easy as it seems … and the women these four have set their sights on have plans of their own!
Your embossed invitation is in the mail and you are cordially invited to:
The marriage of
Rocco Mondelli and Olivia Fitzgerald April 2015
The marriage of
Christian Markos and Alessandra Mondelli May 2015
The marriage of
Stefan Bianco and Clio Norwood June 2015
The marriage of
Sheikh Zayed Al Afzal and Princess Nadia Amani July 2015
So RSVP and get ready to enjoy the pinnacle of luxury and opulence as the world’s sexiest billionaires finally say ‘I do’…
The Sicilian’s Surprise Wife
Tara Pammi
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
TARA PAMMI can’t remember a moment when she wasn’t lost in a book—especially a romance, which was much more exciting than a mathematics textbook. Years later, Tara’s wild imagination and love for the written word revealed what she really wanted to do. Now she pairs Alpha males who think they know everything with strong women who knock that theory and them off their feet!
For the three wonderful ladies who made working on this book such a treat—Andie, Jen and Michelle.
Contents
Cover (#u44713ff3-6347-53a8-abb8-f85aa648e22f)
Introduction (#ub24a4992-ca6a-51ee-bb6b-28984fb66a4b)
Society Weddings (#u9a23829d-8d18-523f-8dd3-ddbda77553de)
Title Page (#ud3847fd7-0507-56b8-8801-48e4d71e34fc)
About the Author (#ua58ff88f-13f8-5d30-af3f-9c2d76e05284)
Dedication (#u5f666985-c43a-5757-8c1d-70127a58d0c6)
CHAPTER ONE (#uc01ca2b7-d371-540b-86d1-86522311e87f)
CHAPTER TWO (#u474e499e-172d-5a93-a4d2-37b5c852ab5c)
CHAPTER THREE (#u4d7d89af-c064-584f-a653-c40466522f18)
CHAPTER FOUR (#uf2b54488-4d0d-5ac4-bef3-d42a84408bfe)
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)
DELETED SCENE (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_04822761-0797-5509-a90b-52b047312a38)
SHE FELT LIKE GLASS, stretched so tightly that a gentle tap could shatter her forever.
Clutching her wrap tight in her fingers, Clio Norwood looked around for her fiancé, Jackson.
Ashley, his secretary, who had arrived unannounced and interrupted their meeting with a client Jackson was determined to add to his cap, was nowhere to be seen either. Something distasteful hovered in the back of Clio’s mind, as if waiting to strike.
With the small get-together of the ultrarich in full swing atop the Empire State Building, Manhattan glittered around them.
Usually, the vibrant, unrelenting pulse of the city that had become home to Clio over the past decade filled her with unending spirit for life. It had kept her going even when she had been struggling after graduation from Columbia University. And had helped her swallow her failures and her naive, broken expectations of making it by herself in the city that never slept.
But tonight, even New York couldn’t puncture the bubble of dread that had begun to pervade her of late.
Jackson had returned last night after three weeks from an overseas trip and had been in a stinker of a mood as he liked to call it, because he had missed out on some real estate deal.
They had barely exchanged a word all day today as she had been at work. When she had returned to the posh flat they had been living in for the past year, he had commanded her to get ready for this party tonight.
Commanded and not asked, much less requested. A pattern that was becoming more and more obvious to Clio. Still, she knew the stress of his business, understood the driving need to make one’s mark in the world, so she had given in.
Even if she was still bone tired from the out-of-season flu she had had a week ago.
Tonight, Jackson needed her help to convince Mrs. Alcott, an old friend of her parents’, to hire him as her personal investment banker. With her estates in Britain and substantial family business, Jane Alcott would be a coup for Jackson’s already flourishing career.
But they hadn’t even greeted Jane properly before Ashley had approached Jackson with a desperate glint in her eye.
Loath to create a scene, Clio had clenched her teeth and smiled serenely even as she saw the curious looks and stifled whispers among Jackson’s clients’ wives and girlfriends. Even the utter kindness of Jane’s question if everything was all right between Jackson and her had been unbearable.
What was going on with him? What was going on between them?
Because Clio knew with a nauseating clarity that Ashley was just the tip of the iceberg for what was going on between her and Jackson.
Suddenly, it felt blatantly scandalous of Ashley to drag him away with a barely disguised proprietary claim on him.
Squaring her shoulders, Clio let her long stride eat up the space. She hated creating a scene, hated the pitying and speculative glances that had been coming her way far too frequently the past few months, but she had endured it all silently.
Tonight, she had had enough. She stilled as a tall, commanding figure came into her focus.
Clio blinked, the impact of those jade green eyes and generous but scornful mouth instantaneous.
Stefan Bianco.
Her first instinct was to head for the elevator before he could see her, leave the party. Even her parents, with their disapprovingly stifling silence, would have been welcome. She didn’t want the man she had known a long time ago, one of her oldest friends, to see her tonight.
Stefan, Christian, Rocco and Zayed made up the Columbia Four—the four young men she had known when they had all been at university together, who had turned into supersuccessful, ultrawealthy, sought-after bachelors for whom the world was a playground and its most beautiful women were playthings.
But before they had all become successful in their own right, she had known them, had seen them every day for four years, and had shared her deepest fears and hopes with them.
And the fact that she wanted to run away from one of the few people who had genuinely known her, had understood her, left a bitter taste in her mouth.
Was she that much of a failure, then? Was she running away from Stefan or was she running away from what she had become?
* * *
Stefan Bianco looked around at the glittering cityscape of Manhattan and gritted his jaw tight.
The vibrant pulse of it, the memories from almost a decade ago everywhere he looked, his own sheer naïveté when he had studied at Columbia with his other three friends—the memories rose up around him like a specter that wouldn’t let him breathe easy even for a few minutes.
And yet, as the head of a multimillion luxury real estate company, New York was unavoidable even though he tried to reduce the number of times he came here.
But this time, he had a reason for being at this exact party, on top of the Empire State Building.
It was high time he found a way to stop Jackson Smith.
The memory of his executive assistant Marco’s whitened face as he lay against the hospital bed after his suicide attempt, Marco’s five-year-old daughter’s chubby face wreathed in confusion as she asked Stefan about what had happened to her papa...
The powerlessness he had felt was like acid in his stomach.
Jackson had swindled Marco out of his savings, pushed him to bankruptcy, until his assistant had lost everything, had seen no way out...
The eviscerating self-doubt, the sense of being an utter failure, of letting down everyone that had counted on him—looking into Marco’s eyes had been like looking at his own reflection of a few years ago.
Guilt corroded his insides. If only he had found a way to stop Jackson years ago when he had swindled Stefan himself...
It had been the worst time of his life—Serena’s betrayal, his guilt driving him to not return to his parents in Sicily and the around-the-clock hours he had worked to secure a deal...
He had lost the little he had made because of Jackson’s treachery. He would have been in Marco’s place if it hadn’t been for his friends Rocco, Christian and Zayed anchoring him, if he hadn’t already been woken up to the reality of life by Serena, the woman who had professed to love him.
This time Jackson needed to be stopped, whatever it took.
As though Stefan thinking Jackson’s name invoked the very devil himself, the American laughed in a group not two feet from where Stefan stood.
A short blonde, dressed in jeans and a tight T-shirt, dragged Jackson away, interrupting the conversation. His craggy face tight with tension, Jackson leaned toward another woman in the group, a tall redhead, and whispered something.
An apology, Stefan assumed. That didn’t quite work, given the way the woman flinched and turned her head away. More curious than ever, Stefan looked on as the woman’s bare shoulders stiffened, bones jutting out of her shoulders.
Everything about her posture screamed tension and something more. Jackson let himself be dragged away even as the tall woman stood ramrod straight, her head held high and so perfectly still that Stefan wondered if she would break if someone blew a wisp of breath her way.
Her face wreathed in shadows, there was a quiet dignity to her. And then he noticed her hair. Even tucked away from that angular face and scrunched tight into an elaborate knot, that red hair was as unmistakable as the narrow, upturned nose and stubborn tilt of the chin.
That face would be perfectly oval and her eyes green, like glittering emeralds. When she smiled, one corner of her mouth turned upward in a crooked slant.
