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Claiming His Christmas Consequence
Michelle Smart
You have one new message…Know this Catalina. You might be a princess, you might be wearing my ring, you might have taken 200,000 euros of my money… but you are carrying my child, and I will find you.Catalina had never stepped out of line, until one stolen Christmas night of irresistible passion with French billionaire Nathanial Giroud changed her life forever.Now, hidden in the Pyrenees, Catalina is determined to protect the small life growing within her from the anguish of her own royal upbringing. Even if she has to defy the husband she so desperately craves!When one night…leads to pregnancy!
“You have one new message...”
“Know this, Catalina. You might be a princess, you might be wearing my ring, you might have taken 200,000 euros of my money...but you are carrying my child, and I will find you.”
Catalina had never stepped out of line, until one stolen Christmas night of irresistible passion with French billionaire Nathanial Giroud changed her life forever.
Now, hidden in the Pyrenees, Catalina is determined to protect the small life growing within her from the anguish of her own royal upbringing. Even if she has to defy the husband she so desperately craves!
‘I am staying in the palace tonight, in the same wing as you,’ Nathaniel said quietly, his breath blowing against the sensitive lobe of Catalina’s ear.
‘How…?’ It was a fight to breathe, let alone talk. ‘How do you know which wing I’m in?’
‘Because I made it my business to know.’ He inhaled deeply and she knew it was her scent he breathed in so greedily.
He kept his hold on her hand as he stepped back and gazed down at her.
He had a magnetism she had felt from their first introduction all those years ago.
He was the only man she had ever wondered about…
‘At one o’clock I will come to your door.’ He pressed a kiss to her knuckles. ‘I know your companion has the adjoining room, so I will not knock. I will be there, but I will leave our fate in your hands. If you don’t open it I will go back to my room and you can pretend I was never there. But before you make that decision of whether or not to open the door ask yourself this—when was the last time you did something solely for yourself that wasn’t bound up in duty? You’re a princess, Catalina, but tonight I can teach you how to be a woman too.’
One Night With Consequences (#ulink_54e0a56f-7174-5ada-b881-ea1cc3d70814)
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:
Her Nine Month Confession by Kim Lawrence An Heir Fit for a King by Abby Green Larenzo’s Christmas Baby by Kate Hewitt An Illicit Night with the Greek by Susanna Carr A Vow to Secure His Legacy by Annie West Bound to the Tuscan Billionaire by Susan Stephens The Shock Cassano Baby by Andie Brock The Greek’s Nine-Month Redemption by Maisey Yates An Heir to Make a Marriage by Abby Green 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
Look for more One Night With Consequences coming soon!
Claiming His Christmas Consequence
Michelle Smart
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
MICHELLE SMART’s love affair with books started when she was a baby, when she would cuddle them in her cot. A voracious reader of all genres, she found her love of romance established when she stumbled across her first Mills & Boon book at the age of twelve. She’s been reading—and writing them—ever since. Michelle lives in Northamptonshire, with her husband and two young smarties.
Books by Michelle Smart
Mills & Boon Modern Romance
The Russian’s Ultimatum
The Rings That Bind
The Perfect Cazorla Wife
Wedlocked!
Wedded, Bedded, Betrayed
The Kalliakis Crown
Talos Claims His Virgin
Theseus Discovers His Heir
Helios Crowns His Mistress
Society Weddings
The Greek’s Pregnant Bride
The Irresistible Sicilians
What a Sicilian Husband Wants
The Sicilian’s Unexpected Duty
Taming the Notorious Sicilian
Visit the Author Profile page at millsandboon.co.uk (http://millsandboon.co.uk/) for more titles.
To Geoff & Jan, with thanks and love for all the support and encouragement. xxx
Contents
Cover (#ueb26d76b-fd94-5442-8a77-67835967b5e6)
Back Cover Text (#u615c750a-d528-539e-a012-38846808b159)
Introduction (#u4cd3eb73-c98a-5a42-837f-5e8594bbeb63)
One Night With Consequences (#ulink_83a191f3-cf93-50f2-9b32-b38f17b1d890)
Title Page (#u9204e447-251e-539c-b6ae-032d74c6325d)
About the Author (#u13783c14-5b31-5dd3-b5b6-50bfeb81bef6)
Dedication (#u95e65f76-9c95-5e52-a552-413d9df9e914)
CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_5543d9aa-abe8-54a4-9d03-cd53ad79ebc2)
CHAPTER TWO (#ulink_a7e158f8-a85a-5ce5-ab85-096c87f29ef4)
CHAPTER THREE (#ulink_61d57bee-f8de-57da-95aa-aa973e3ab21d)
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)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_4d1250f6-0a4d-55d0-bc3a-54148a86cf60)
‘YOU WERE RIGHT to end your engagement,’ Nathaniel Giroud murmured, nodding lazily at the dance floor where Prince Helios and his bride were dancing together, clearly enjoying themselves. ‘Helios would have made you unhappy.’
Princess Catalina Fernandez took a long drink of her champagne. There was the faintest tremor in her hand. ‘How can you be so sure?’
‘No chemistry.’ He paused before adding, ‘Not like the chemistry between you and I.’
Her heart-shaped chin pointed forward and she pushed her chair back from the table they were sitting alone at, the motion sending a small waft of her sultry scent into his path.
He longed to smell every part of her.
‘We cannot have this conversation,’ she said quietly. ‘What you are implying is impossible.’
He rested a hand on hers before she could get to her feet. ‘Why is it impossible?’
‘You know why.’ She slid her hand away and met his gaze. ‘I must save myself for my husband. My purity is my gift for him.’
‘A gift?’ The concept was so ludicrous he almost laughed but this was no laughing matter. He thought of Catalina’s brother, heir to the throne of Monte Cleure, sleeping his way around Europe without an ounce of penitence, allowing himself—and being allowed by their father—all the hedonistic delights he would deny his own sister on account of nothing more than the fact she had been born a woman.
Now she’d been dumped by Helios, whatever the sanitised whitewash of the official press release might have said, the rumours suggested she was promised to an aging Swedish duke. Nathaniel had no qualms about seducing her. Catalina wanted him. He knew it. And she knew it too.
‘So you are nothing but a possession?’
Confusion flittered in her dark eyes.
‘Is that what you’re saying?’ he pressed. ‘That you don’t have autonomy over your own body? Are you nothing but a vessel for the next generation?’
‘It isn’t like that. I am a princess. This is my life. It’s what I was born to be.’
‘You are also a woman.’
Her delicate throat moved.
He leaned a little closer, brushing his arm against hers, moving in for the kill.
Princess Catalina was a breed apart from all women. That she had class and poise went without saying but she was also incredibly beautiful too. And she carried herself with such stillness. Looking at her was like gazing at a portrait come to life. Tall and raven-haired with sultry eyes like melted chocolate, she had skin that seemed never to have sat in the sun, like clear, flawless alabaster. Today she was dressed beautifully in a knee-length peach dress that emphasised her full breasts and tiny waist without showing an inch of unnecessary flesh. Her hair had been piled into a wide, round bun on the top of her head, the effect of it all bringing to mind sixties glamour. It was a look only she could pull off.
She was a woman without flaws.
But, of course, every person in the world had flaws, and he itched to discover what hers could be.
The rumours that her father, the King of Monte Cleure, was planning to snub Helios’s wedding had proven true. With Catalina’s brother now having disappeared with his latest pneumatically enhanced girlfriend, Nathaniel knew this would be his one and only shot with her.
‘Your first time should be special. It should be with a man who will worship you and take care of you, not some cold-blooded aristocrat doing his duty.’
‘I’m an aristocrat,’ she said, the same quiver he could feel in her delectable body so close to his own echoing in her voice.
‘Ah, but you’re different—beneath your icy exterior runs blood of lava.’
Spotting the Swedish duke making his way to their table, Nathaniel stood up.
Catalina stared at him, obviously confused by his abruptness.
‘Your rumoured fiancé is heading our way. I suspect he’s going to ask you to dance.’
Her gaze flitted to the aging duke.
‘He’s not my fiancé.’ She gave a long exhale. ‘Not yet.’
‘Then there is nothing to stop you dancing with me.’ He extended his hand to her, palm up.
