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Valdez's Bartered Bride
Rachael Thomas
Blackmailed into marriage…by Christmas!Genealogist Lydia Carter-Wilson is horrified by the debts her father has run up in her name. Then magnate Raul Valdez approaches her with an outrageous proposition. If she helps him claim his inheritance, he’ll pay off her debts and save her tarnished reputation. But there’s a catch. If she fails, she will marry Raul on Christmas Eve!No matter their instant and electrifying attraction, Lydia knows Raul’s proposal amounts to blackmail. Yet faced with an impossible choice – risking ruin or becoming Raul’s bartered bride – Lydia finds she cannot resist her desire to make a deal with the dark-hearted billionaire…!
Blackmailed into marriage...by Christmas!
Genealogist Lydia Carter-Wilson is horrified by the debts her father has run up in her name. Then magnate Raul Valdez approaches her with an outrageous proposition. If she helps him claim his inheritance, he’ll pay off her debts and save her tarnished reputation. But there’s a catch. If she fails, she will marry Raul on Christmas Eve!
No matter their instant and electrifying attraction, Lydia knows Raul’s proposal amounts to blackmail. Yet faced with an impossible choice—risking ruin or becoming Raul’s bartered bride—Lydia finds she cannot resist her desire to make a deal with the dark-hearted billionaire!
‘Don’t you dare laugh at me!’ Indignation hurtled out with those words, all but lashing at Raul, and he reluctantly pushed away the image of this woman in his bed.
‘Maybe a little laughter is how we need to deal with this situation. Now, please sit down. The poor waitress has no idea if we are staying or going.’ He tried to instil some order into their meeting—which didn’t feel anything like a business lunch.
He liked the way Lydia’s brunette hair moved: slipping over her shoulder, those loose curls bouncing with the movement, and the way she tucked it back behind her ears. There was an air of vulnerability about her, but he didn’t buy into that at all. There was no way this fiery creature was vulnerable. Spoilt and used to getting her way, yes, but vulnerable? No.
‘I’m not entirely sure being forced into marriage is a laughing matter.’
She fixed those gorgeous eyes on his face, her full lips pouting slightly, making him briefly wish this was a date and that by the end of the evening he would be able to kiss them.
Savagely he pushed those thoughts aside. This was not a time to become distracted. ‘Then on that we agree.’
Introducing a sizzling and sexy new duet from Rachael Thomas
Convenient Christmas Brides
Estranged brothers Raul Valdez and Maximiliano Martinez are about to unlock some dark and hidden secrets. But with Christmas around the corner first comes seduction!
Lydia Carter-Wilson finds herself blackmailed into an engagement by Raul Valdez in
Valdez’s Bartered Bride
Available now!
Maximiliano’s life is turned upside down when his estranged wife announces she is carrying his heir in
Martinez’s Pregnant Wife
Coming soon!
Valdez’s Bartered Bride
Rachael Thomas
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
RACHAEL THOMAS has always loved reading romance, and is thrilled to be a Mills & Boon author. She lives and works on a farm in Wales—a far cry from the glamour of a Mills & Boon Modern Romance story—but that makes slipping into her characters’ worlds all the more appealing. When she’s not writing, or working on the farm, she enjoys photography and visiting historical castles and grand houses. Visit her at rachaelthomas.co.uk (http://www.rachaelthomas.co.uk).
Books by Rachael Thomas
Mills & Boon Modern Romance
The Sheikh’s Last Mistress
New Year at the Boss’s Bidding
Craving Her Enemy’s Touch
Claimed by the Sheikh
A Deal Before the Altar
The Secret Billionaires
Di Marcello’s Secret Son
One Night With Consequences
A Child Claimed by Gold
From One Night to Wife
Brides for Billionaires
Married for the Italian’s Heir
The Billionaire’s Legacy
To Blackmail a Di Sione
Visit the Author Profile page at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk) for more titles.
For Marie Dry and the happy memories of the fun time we spent in Madrid and Seville.
Contents
Cover (#u8b1f13c2-54f6-59a9-9457-196557450b88)
Back Cover Text (#u68511b8c-35f1-51ae-9ba1-74d585917b3a)
Introduction (#u466d3f60-f263-5153-80a9-8e0785be6b47)
Convenient Christmas Brides (#uc5f245c6-36ab-5ba3-9e85-b10671e01f74)
Title Page (#u7105dc0d-5f21-566b-85bc-fb959c4f8861)
About the Author (#u25479fd3-262c-5294-8417-540483a5c0ac)
Dedication (#ube18bf82-8fde-5485-8deb-ba96aa682e0d)
PROLOGUE (#u7e2a8890-b93f-53e9-b592-0d4f1bd9430e)
CHAPTER ONE (#u630ced5a-c56e-539e-bac8-f0047d6a10c0)
CHAPTER TWO (#u545edf8e-ab52-5a79-aeac-04b4c1066095)
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)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
PROLOGUE (#u56a92ce7-7b40-5544-93f5-530e610dd2e5)
Middle of September, two months earlier
‘DO YOU REALLY expect me to go through with it?’ Raul Valdez’s voice thundered around the room, his Spanish words fluid and fast.
‘The debt needs to be repaid and, whether you like it or not, the contract your father made before his death with Henry Carter-Wilson still stands. As a member of the board I insist upon it.’ Carlos’s voice ripped through Raul, increasing his anger to an explosive level.
Raul swore savagely as he glared at the older man. ‘Come on, Carlos, we go back further than that.’
‘As a long-standing family friend, I urge you to stop looking for someone who doesn’t want to be found and marry the girl—as your father obviously intended.’
‘Marry her?’ Raul couldn’t believe he was hearing this, from Carlos of all people.
‘Repay the debt, then file for a divorce once the two years are up.’
Rage charged through Raul like a bull. How could his father have done this? But that wasn’t a question he needed to ask. He’d never been able to gain his father’s approval, had tried all his life to no avail. This was just one more stab at the son he’d never wanted.
‘You make it sound so easy.’ Raul drew in a deep breath and marched to the windows looking out over Madrid, basking in the late summer sunshine. On paper it did look easy, but marriage was the one thing he’d never wanted.
‘It is,’ Carlos replied, his tone neutral and matter-of-fact. ‘Two years living with a woman who, you’ve got to admit, is very beautiful, then you can file for a divorce.’
‘I have no intentions of marrying anyone. Ever.’ Raul strode across the office, the constraint of the walls making him feel more like a caged animal, trapped against its will. Anger at what his father had done mixed with the fear of being controlled by him still becoming a potent cocktail.
Raul stopped pacing and looked out over Madrid again, trying to control his temper. He stayed like that for several minutes, his back resolutely turned to Carlos Cardozo, the man who had been there for him more than his father ever had. His father. That was a joke.
He’d always known he’d been a disappointment to his father, but never had he expected such revelations after his sudden death. He’d never suspected his father had hated him, but then he’d never suspected his father had had another family—another son.
‘The only other option you have is to find your half-brother.’ Carlos’s calm voice brought him out of his dark thoughts and back to the present with a sharp jab of shock. ‘Which would mean sharing your inheritance—everything you have built this banking enterprise up to be.’
Raul whirled round. This had been a detail his father’s lawyer had revealed, one he’d kept secret since that day. How did Carlos know? ‘You know about him?’
‘Yes.’ Carlos looked him in the eye, challenging him to ask more.
‘How long?’ Raul took the challenge.
‘Long enough to know how this is affecting you now.’ Carlos’s voice softened a little as he walked over to him.
Raul had been in ignorance of his half-brother’s existence until his father’s will had been read out two months ago. It seemed Carlos had known the full facts of his father’s double life long ago.
‘And you didn’t think I should know?’ His anger rallied again as he glowered at Carlos, the taste of deception filling his mouth with its bitterness.
‘I never knew your father would make finding him a condition to you inheriting. Or that he would attach such a huge financial incentive to that task.’
Huge financial incentive.
That was an understatement.
‘That or marry a woman I barely know.’ Raul glowered at Carlos, suspicion rising at just how much this man knew.
‘Marriage would be the easier option.’
‘Is that so?’ Raul seriously doubted that. Besides, his brother was out there somewhere.
‘It is. You are your father’s son. Marriage will be easy for you. Far better than to share all you’ve worked for.’
Raul turned away again. His world had been tipped upside down and then inside out. In order to inherit the financial company he’d built into a world player, he had to clear one very large debt by either marrying the debtor’s daughter, or by acknowledging his half-brother and bringing him into the business as an equal, which would unlock funds that would clear the debt and keep the board of directors happy. If the debt wasn’t settled, the company would be sold to the highest bidder.
The fact that his father had even kept those funds hidden exposed the depths of calculation he had gone to, but that he was prepared to risk his company if the debt wasn’t settled, to risk the jobs of all the people who worked for Banco de Torrez, was a step too far. What the hell had he been doing loaning that kind of money and why was Carlos the only one privy to such information?
‘I could have told you my father would be so calculating, so manipulative—had I known about his other life.’ Raul found himself snarling those last two words, hating the anger that sliced through him with the sharpest of blades.
‘He’s your father—doesn’t that count for something?’ Carlos reached for him; the false show of sympathy and understanding in that gesture was too much. Raul moved away. This man was not the friend he’d always thought—not to him anyway.
‘I’m done with my father, so much so that I don’t give a damn about inheriting his company. I have built my own as well as expanded his. I don’t need this.’ Raul marched towards the door. As far as he was concerned the discussion was over; there was nothing more to say.
‘What about your mother?’ Carlos’s next words halted his steps, kept him from walking out for good.
