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The Billionaires' Club: Return of Her Italian Duke (The Billionaire’s Club) / Bound to Her Greek Billionaire (The Billionaire’s Club) / Whisked Away by Her Sicilian Boss (The Billionaire’s Club)
Rebecca Winters
The Billionaires’ Club Return of Her Italian Duke When Gemma Rizzo applied to become pastry chef at the gorgeous Italian castello where she grew up, she never expected to get the job. But neither did she expect to find that her new boss was silver-eyed billionaire Vincenzo Gagliardi – the man who left her broken-hearted! Bound to Her Greek Billionaire When Lys Theron inherits a hotel in Crete, her life is changed forever! Especially as she has to share ownership with gorgeous Greek billionaire Takis Manolis. Instantly attracted to stunning Lys, Takis can see only one way to protect both his family and his reputation—make her his temporary fiancée! Whisked Away by Her Sicilian Boss Princess Tuccianna Leonardi has fled from her arranged marriage and desperately needs a place to hide from her family. So, when gorgeous Sicilian billionaire Cesare Donati offers her a job as his hotel’s new pastry chef, it seems like all Tuccia’s prayers have been answered.
About the Author (#uff2540e9-06fc-5938-821c-300bb99b0b22)
REBECCA WINTERS lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. With canyons and high alpine meadows full of wildflowers, she never runs out of places to explore. They, plus her favourite vacation spots in Europe, often end up as backgrounds for her romance novels—because writing is her passion, along with her family and church. Rebecca loves to hear from readers. If you wish to email her, please visit her website at cleanromances.com (http://www.cleanromances.com).
The Billionaires’ Club
Return of Her Italian Duke
Bound to Her Greek Billionaire
Whisked Away by Her Sicilian Boss
Rebecca Winters
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-09307-1
THE BILLIONAIRES’ CLUB
Return Of Her Italian Duke © 2017 Rebecca Winters Bound To Her Greek Billionaire © 2017 Rebecca Winters Whisked Away By Her Sicilian Boss © 2017 Rebecca Winter
Published in Great Britain 2019
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.
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www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Table of Contents
Cover (#u3dd7369b-bb0d-52fd-bd91-896ea3d3f20c)
About the Authors (#uce5e0e54-7194-5ccd-a2f5-cde01a0cd396)
Title Page (#u49625651-7ece-5fe9-80d2-eebb8f90f8ba)
Copyright (#u1f954a20-2a43-55b2-ae00-789610712e6f)
Return of Her Italian Duke (#u786ede0a-3fa3-5fa0-a1f6-7ee274f82af9)
Back Cover Text (#u946eb45f-bd1c-5027-9bc2-d7cb5065ee08)
Dedication (#u8e2a1ccf-c9e2-585f-86b6-aeaaea9b7431)
CHAPTER ONE (#u4fad49c5-ab09-5550-926c-7f7de607a168)
CHAPTER TWO (#u01fe3c93-9826-5809-9adf-c5683e86002e)
CHAPTER THREE (#uc4e583ac-bedb-554a-a33e-4bed20ff176f)
CHAPTER FOUR (#ud7690f08-309c-5ba9-a605-5563c9be9c43)
CHAPTER FIVE (#u60e98fb6-74d4-5dbe-a284-189a49248dfa)
CHAPTER SIX (#uc4ae7cfc-fe98-5e14-a273-a5cf957bcc0e)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#ucb017b9c-b325-55c6-97f2-5824783603c8)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#u5b64016f-eeae-5848-9431-6ced609d3f12)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
Bound to Her Greek Billionaire (#litres_trial_promo)
Back Cover Text (#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)
Whisked Away by Her Sicilian Boss (#litres_trial_promo)
Back Cover Text (#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)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Return of Her Italian Duke (#uff2540e9-06fc-5938-821c-300bb99b0b22)
Rebecca Winters
The duke she’s never forgotten...
When Gemma Rizzo applied to become pastry chef at the gorgeous Italian castello where she grew up, she never expected to get the job. But neither did she expect to find that her new boss was silver-eyed billionaire Vincenzo Gagliardi—the man who left her brokenhearted!
Her first instinct is to run, but when Vincenzo finally reveals the devastating truth of what caused him to flee eleven years before, Gemma must decide if she can trust the haunted man she never stopped loving...
To my darling daughter Dominique, a wonderful
romance writer who has an editor’s instinct and insight
to keep her mother’s writing on track and believable.
She too is a Dumas lover.
We’re both Francophiles at heart.
CHAPTER ONE (#uff2540e9-06fc-5938-821c-300bb99b0b22)
Castello di Lombardi, ten years ago
AT TWO IN the morning, Vincenzo Gagliardi, newly turned eighteen, quickly dressed in jeans and a hoodie he pulled over his black hair. The long sleeves covered the bruises on his arms. He could feel the welts still smarting on his back and legs as he slid his pack over his shoulders. Then he looked around his room one more time, glancing at the bed.
A vision of Gemma, the woman who’d been entwined in his arms there the night before, wouldn’t leave his mind. After the pleasure they’d given each other despite his wounds, and the plans he’d envisioned for their future, it killed him to think he had to leave her at all. But the difficulties with his father made his flight necessary. Worse, he couldn’t tell her where he was going or why. It was for her own protection.
Once his father, the acting Duca di Lombardi, started looking for him, he’d interrogate everyone, including Gemma, and he would be able to tell if she was lying or not. If the girl he’d grown up with from earliest childhood knew nothing about his disappearance, then his father would sense it and have to believe her.
Arrivederci, Gemma, his heart moaned. Ti amo.
Making sure no one saw him, he hurried through the fourteenth-century castello to Dimi’s room in the other tower. His cousin had left his bedroom door open. Closer than brothers, they’d been planning Vincenzo’s disappearance for a year.
Dimi was waiting for him. “You’re late and must go now! I’ve been watching from the parapet. The guard with the dog won’t be walking past the entrance for another seven minutes.”
“This is it, cousin. Remember—when I’m established in New York, I’ll contact you. Look for the phone number through an ad in the help wanted of Il Giorno’s classified section. Be sure to call me on a throwaway phone.”
Dimi nodded.
“It won’t be long before you turn eighteen. I’ll wire you money so you can join me. And as soon as I reach my destination, I’ll phone our grandfather so he won’t worry.” Both boys were the grandsons of the cancer-stricken Emanuele Gagliardi, the old Duca di Lombardi, who no longer could function and verged on death.
His cousin’s eyes teared up. “Che Dio di benedica, Vincenzo.”
He tried to clear his throat. “God be with you, too, Dimi. Promise me you’ll keep an eye on Gemma.”
“You know I will.”
Vincenzo hated this situation that took him away from her, but there was no going back. He thanked his cousin for his sacrifice, hating their gut-wrenching separation and the horrible position he’d been put in. But they both agreed the danger was too great to do anything else.
As they hugged hard, Vincenzo realized that he could barely see through the tears. The deep well of shame and pain because he hadn’t been able to protect his mother was something he would have to carry for the rest of his life. Gemma was better off without him.
Because of Dimi’s loyalty, no one would ever know where he’d gone. This was the way it had to be.
Now that Vincenzo had been forced to cut himself off from the world he knew, the need to make money had taken hold of his life and had become his raison d’être.
* * *
Gemma lay in bed, wide-awake, at six in the morning, reliving the moments she’d spent with Vincenzo the night before last. When she’d heard he’d suffered injuries from a fall off his horse, she hadn’t been able to resist slipping up to his tower bedroom to see if he was all right.
Despite his physical pain, they’d tried to love each other until he’d told her she needed to get back to her room. Gemma had wanted to stay the entire night with him and couldn’t understand why he’d been so insistent she leave. She’d wanted to lie in his arms forever.
It was painful to have to tear herself away from him. After making sure no guards were watching, she slipped down the winding staircase at the back of the castello to reach the rooms where she and her mother lived behind the kitchen.
Yesterday after school she hadn’t seen him at all, and she feared his injuries were worse. If she didn’t spot him in the back courtyard today after she got home, she’d go up to his room again tonight to find out why.
