скачать книгу бесплатно
The Spaniard's Pregnant Bride
Maisey Yates
“You will be mine. You will be my wife.”With her identity concealed, Allegra Valenti enters Italy’s most glorious masquerade ball determined to make happy memories to sustain her through her impending, cold arranged betrothal. But a passionate encounter with a masked stranger leads to far reaching consequences that tear apart her dutiful life.Brooding Spanish Duke Cristian Acosta cannot believe the masked siren he finally let his guard down for was his best-friend’s sister – the pampered heiress he grew up despising. Now, to safeguard the Acosta legacy, Cristian must adorn Allegra with a trinket of his own – a gold wedding band!
“You’ll be mine. You’ll be my wife.”
With her identity concealed, Allegra Valenti enters Italy’s most glorious masquerade ball determined to make happy memories to sustain her through her impending coldly arranged betrothal. But a passionate encounter with a masked stranger has consequences that tear apart her dutiful life.
Brooding Spanish duke Cristian Acosta cannot believe the masked siren he let his guard down for was his best friend’s sister—the pampered heiress he grew up despising. To safeguard the Acosta legacy, Cristian must adorn Allegra with a trinket of his own—a gold wedding band!
Allegra walked over to the door and opened it. Then her heart fell into her feet. She tried to keep her face straight as she stared into the dark, uncompromising gaze of Cristian Acosta.
He couldn’t know. He couldn’t. She refused to believe it.
Though standing there, looking up at him and those coal-black eyes, she wondered how she hadn’t known it was him the moment he’d walked into that ballroom.
He’d looked like Death come to collect then. And he looked like it now.
His black brows were locked together, as was his hard, square jaw. His lips, usually the softest-looking thing about him, were pressed into a grim line.
He filled the space, and he wasn’t even in it yet. So tall, so impossibly broad. He made her feel small. He made her feel weak. He made her feel like he was looking straight through her.
That brief moment of hope was crushed beneath the weight of that stare. That knowing, intense stare. For just a second, she’d had freedom.
And now, there was Cristian.
“Did you come to congratulate me on my upcoming marriage? Because if so—”
“I am not here to play games with you. Were you ever going to tell me?”
“About...” Her throat was completely dry and excuses were swirling around her head like foxes chasing their tails.
“The baby,” he said.
One stolen moment of extraordinary passion leads to dramatic consequences in this stunning new trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Maisey Yates in...
Heirs Before Vows
Claiming their legacy with a diamond ring!
Three of the world’s most impressive and powerful bachelors, connected by fate and friendship, are about to find their lives changed irrevocably!
No one could have expected the shocking consequences that now lead these determined alpha males down the aisle…
…as expectant fathers!
Find out what happens in…
The Spaniard’s Pregnant Bride
October 2016
The Prince’s Pregnant Mistress
December 2016
This stunning trilogy concludes with...
The Italian’s Pregnant Virgin
January 2017
The Spaniard’s Pregnant Bride
Maisey Yates
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
MAISEY YATES is a New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty romance novels. She has a coffee habit she has no interest in kicking, and a slight Pinterest addiction. She lives with her husband and children in the Pacific Northwest. When Maisey isn’t writing she can be found singing in the grocery store, shopping for shoes online and probably not doing dishes. Check out her website, maiseyyates.com (http://www.maiseyyates.com/).
Books by Maisey Yates
Mills & Boon Modern Romance
Carides’s Forgotten Wife
Bound to the Warrior King
Married for Amaris Heir
His Diamond of Convenience
To Defy a Sheikh
One Night to Risk It All
Forged in the Desert Heat
His Ring Is Not Enough
The Couple Who Fooled the World
A Game of Vows
The Chatsfield
Sheikh’s Desert Duty
One Night With Consequences
Married for Amari’s Heir
Princes of Petras
A Christmas Vow of Seduction
The Queen’s New Year Secret
Secret Heirs of Powerful Men
Heir to a Desert Legacy
Heir to a Dark Inheritance
Visit the Author Profile page at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk) for more titles.
To everyone who said “You shouldn’t” and “You can’t.” You gave me a reason to prove that I should and I could.
Contents
Cover (#uce857dfc-ebfe-52e4-acf2-455f8c513bae)
Back Cover Text (#u1b5ad1eb-6ce1-5fa8-a402-be2c1e14c858)
Introduction (#u42d2ce24-bc1e-5fc5-9e53-e5124b68a154)
Heirs Before Vows (#u9035534e-7076-5e23-9647-8e00c1e5dafd)
Title Page (#uca79109d-6d16-50cd-84bc-2b7c7518bb09)
About the Author (#u7c177bcf-e6ae-5bcb-99e4-9fa9cacf0900)
Dedication (#u97f3f3d5-4b9a-5571-b7ee-b9c86a2ec181)
CHAPTER ONE (#ud095c440-52e9-5b96-bd83-6b2d8932bbd6)
CHAPTER TWO (#ue4d2c135-6443-578d-9266-8f61de215846)
CHAPTER THREE (#u79358de4-9513-5680-bacd-a3e888ebe77a)
CHAPTER FOUR (#u0ce7b487-5c3f-53ec-b0ba-b2cb0e648bca)
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)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_f2eb9ab2-497b-56d9-bd47-28f4dfd60b3a)
HE WAS DEATH come to take her away. At least, that was what he looked like as he descended the sweeping stairs of the Venetian ballroom, his black cloak billowing behind him, his blunt fingertips brushing the elegant marble banister. Allegra felt it like a touch against her skin, and for the rest of her life she would wonder at the strength of it.
He was masked, like everyone else in attendance, but that was where the similarity between him and anyone else—or indeed, him and any mortal—ended.
He was not wearing the bright silks of many of the men there, rather he was dressed all in black. The mask that covered his face was of some sort of glittering midnight material, cut into the shape of a skull. His skin must have been painted a deep charcoal beneath it, because she could catch no sight of man or even a trace of humanity in the small spaces between the intricately fashioned metal.
She wasn’t the only woman to be struck dumb by his appearance—a ripple ran through the room. Resplendent, silk-wrapped creatures were all quivering in anticipation of a look, a glance. Allegra was no exception. Her identity hidden behind the beautiful painted designs on her face, she allowed herself the indulgence to look at him.
The party, being held in one of the most beautiful and historic hotels in Venice, was hosted by one of her brother’s business associates. It was one of the most sought-after invitations in the world, and those attending were the elite.
Italy’s oldest, wealthiest families. Old money and new. Eligible heiresses who held whole rooms captive with a saucy glance.
She supposed she was part of them. Her father was old money and new. Nobility with a lineage that could be traced back to the Renaissance. But unlike his father before him, he’d taken that position and spun it into gold. Had taken crumbling, inherited properties and reinvigorated them as his business, pushing him to the height of the social and financial stratosphere.
Her brother, Renzo, had only brought the Valenti family higher, taking her father’s company global and increasing their wealth by leaps and bounds.
Still, Allegra didn’t feel like she was one of these women. Didn’t feel seductive or vibrant. She felt...caged.
But this was supposed to be her chance. Her chance to lose her virginity to a man that she chose, rather than to the prince that she was promised to marry, who did nothing to heat her blood or fire her imagination.
Perhaps such a sin would send Allegra straight to hell. Though, who better to take her there than the devil himself? He was here, after all. And with his entrance into the room he had affected her more deeply, more profoundly, than her arranged fiancé ever had.
She started to take a step toward the staircase, and then stopped. Her heart was pounding so hard she thought she might be sick. Who did she think she was? She was not the kind of woman to approach a strange man at a party.
To approach him and flirt and ask him to—
