The Lady's Man

The Lady's Man
Stephanie Howard

ROYAL AFFAIRRuling passions…As far as Lady Caterina was concerned, Matthew Allenby was a crook and a charlatan! He used lies and flattery to ease his way into the golden circle of the San Rinaldo royal family.But, for the sake of one of her beloved charities, Caterina was forced to work alongside him–only to discover that she was far from immune to his lethal charm. And at least one of her suspicions was being confirmed: Matthew Allenby was a thief–a thief of hearts!Romancing a royal was easy, marriage another affair!

“I think you’re making a big mistake.” (#uc7663fe3-5958-5430-baec-ea5ed5ef0f04)Letter to Reader (#u004f2166-4029-532f-9eae-0298116bd41e)Title Page (#ub0789fd2-a290-5dd5-9c24-08d6c4c151ed)About the Author (#ua1e0ad70-7782-5eac-871f-a20092c88982)CHAPTER ONE (#uecbfc717-754a-507c-9112-c14b8f52df9f)CHAPTER TWO (#uecaf6ef3-f46c-50fa-a632-7cb07cf0ebba)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)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

“I think you’re making a big mistake.”

“A mistake?”

“It wouldn’t work.”

He feigned innocence. “Why on earth not?”

“You really need to ask?” Lady Caterina grimaced as she elaborated. “We’re not even capable of conducting a civil conversation. How on earth could we possibly contemplate working together?”

Matthew smiled. “Think of it as a challenge.”

Caterina did not smile back. “There are challenges and challenges. And this one, I’m afraid, just doesn’t appeal to me.”

Dear Reader,

Welcome to ROYAL AFFAIR! By appointment to her loyal readers, Stephanie Howard has created a blue-blooded trilogy of romeos, rebels and royalty. It follows the fortunes of the San Rinaldo royal family: Damiano, the Duke of San Rinaldo, his brother, Count Leone, and their sister, Lady Caterina. Together the three of them are dedicated to their country, people and family. But it takes only one thing to turn their perfectly ordered lives upside down: love!

COUNT LEONE MONTECRESPI, the younger brother of the ruling Duke, is a habitual heartbreaker. A playboy of the old school: love them, leave them and on no account, marry them. But will small-town American girl, Carrie Dunn, be the one to finally get him up the aisle?

LADY CATERINA MONTECRESPI, Leone and Damiano’s baby sister, has swom off men since her last disastrous encounter with the opposite sex. And Matthew Allenby is hardly the man to change her mind. As far as Caterina is concerned, he’s a crook and a charlatan. Unfortunately he’s also proving irresistible!

The DUKE OF SAN RINALDO, DAMIANO MONTECRESPI, had married Sofia to secure his dukedom and produce an heir. But duty for Sofia is a cold bed partner—she wants Damiano to love her as much as he does their baby son, Alessandro. Is a happy ending to their fairy-tale romance too much to ask for?

Each of these books contains its own stand-alone romance, as well as making up a great trilogy. Follow Leone and Carrie’s tale in The Colorado Countess. In The Lady’s Man, it’s Caterina and Matthew’s turn. And finally, The Duke’s Wife features Sofia and Damiano’s story—not forgetting little baby Alessandrol

Happy Reading!

The Lady’s Man

Stephanie Howard

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

Stephanie Howard was born and brought up in Dundee, Scotland, and educated at the London School of Economics. For ten years she worked as a joumalist in London on a variety of women’s magazines, among them Woman’s Own, and was latterly editor of the now defunct Honey. She has spent many years living and working abroad—in Italy, Malaysia, the Philippines and in the Middle East.

THE MONTECRESPI ROYAL FAMILY TREE

CHAPTER ONE

CATERINA was furious. White-knuckle furious. As she marched down the corridor like some unstoppable human tornado, her glossy light brown bob swinging in time to her fury, there was no doubt about it, she was spoiling for a fight.

‘How dare he?’ she was muttering. ‘I’ve had enough of his interfering!’ Her fists were clenched, her blue eyes sparking. ‘Well, this time I’m putting my foot down! He’s not getting away with it!’

Luckily the corridor down which she was marching was empty. The only eyes and ears to bear witness to her tirade were the unseeing, unhearing ones depicted in the portraits—of bishops and princes and generals of old—that hung in their carved frames from the silk-upholstered walls. For the corridor in question was the splendid west-wing corridor of the fabulous Palazzo Verde, home for three hundred years of the illustrious Montecrespis, hereditary rulers of the little dukedom of San Rinaldo—the west wing being where the current Duke had his private quarters.

Generally, it must be said, visitors to the Duke’s private office—for that was where Caterina was currently headed—tended to proceed down the corridor at a more respectful pace and quite often with a sense of awe at their surroundings. But Caterina, at this moment, was feeling far from respectful and she was unlikely to be awed for she was used to these surroundings. For the man she was on her way to see, His Grace, the Duke- of San Rinaldo, just so happened to be her brother.

Not that her feelings right now were particularly sisterly either. As she reached the panelled door that led to his office, she flung it open impatiently and strode across the threshold.

‘Damiano!’ she bellowed. ‘I’ve got a bone to pick with you!’

The only person in the room, however, was Rosa, Damiano’s pretty young secretary. She’d been sitting at her desk, quietly working at her word processor, but she leapt to her feet now like a poor startled frog.

‘Lady Caterina, I’m sorry,’ she started to explain, curtsying, ‘but I’m afraid His Grace isn’t here at the moment.’

Normally Caterina would have chastised her for curtsying, for she had told her a hundred times that it really wasn’t necessary. But right now she had other, more pressing matters on her mind.

‘Isn’t here?’ She swept furiously across the huge room, totally disregarding what Rosa had just told her, and thrust her head round the door of his private inner office. ‘He’s got to be here! I made an appointment!’

But, appointment or not, there was definitely no Damiano, though Caterina continued to stand in the doorway for a moment, her china-blue eyes angrily scouring every corner as though she might detect him hiding under the carpet.

‘Damn him!’ she muttered. ‘He knew I was coming!’

Then she turned back to Rosa, scowling like a gorgon. ‘Where has he gone? What’s going on here? Why didn’t somebody let me know?’

Poor Rosa, who took pride in being the very soul of efficiency and who had never seen Caterina in such a ferocious mood before—the Duke’s twenty-five-year-old sister was normally easygoing and friendly-blushed in dismay at this implicit accusation.

‘I—I don’t know, m’lady,’ she stuttered. ‘I wasn’t told anything. I—’

But that was as far as she got. She was stopped in her tracks as a male voice said, ‘Don’t worry about it, Rosa. I’ll take charge of things from here.’

The two young women turned as one in the direction of the speaker, who was standing in the doorway that led from the west-wing corridor. And as their eyes fell on his dark, commanding figure one of them smiled and one of them did not.

The one who did not was Caterina. Well, one didn’t generally smile at the sudden appearance of a viper, and a viper was precisely what Caterina saw as she looked, with a rush of loathing, into Matthew Allenby’s face.

If he was a viper, however, he was a viper with biceps, for Matthew Allenby positively exuded ruthless power. Tall and muscularly built, he possessed an arrogant self-assurance that shone, as sharp as a razor, from the iron-grey eyes. Eyes that could stop you in your tracks with just the force of a single glance.

He could also stop you in your tracks just with the way he looked. For, as even Caterina would not have denied, he really was quite outrageously attractive. Dark hair, thick and glossy, wide, sensual mouth, the lines of his tanned face sculpted and powerful. And he had an aura of danger and mystery about him that most women, Caterina suspected, found irresistibly seductive.

Most women, that was, very definitely excluding her! Though as she looked at him now and he met her eyes and smiled at her with that habitual air of casual superiority she felt, as always, the threat of the danger that lurked in him and knew it would be wise to keep him safely at arm’s length. She loathed him but she found him deeply unsettling.

She flicked him a cool look. ‘So you plan on taking charge? Well, I’m sorry, Mr Allenby, but you’ll be doing no such thing.’

‘Forgive me, Lady Caterina, but I rather think I will.’

As he addressed her, as protocol demanded he inclined his head slightly, but the amused, superior smile not for one moment left his face. He had this knack, as Caterina had noted on many occasions, of going through the motions of showing the respect due to her position—for she had most assuredly never told him not to bother with the formalities!—while apparently showing not a crumb of respect for her personally. Abominable man, she thought now, her skin prickling with antipathy.

There were a number of reasons why Caterina loathed Matthew Allenby. For a start, he was arrogant and too clever by half. He was a shameless social climber and he had too much influence over her brother.

An Englishman of unknown origins, for his background was swathed in mystery, he had come to San Rinaldo just under a year ago to advise on some building projects that the Duke was involved in. For, though still only in his mid-thirties, he was an internationally renowned architect, though Caterina had heard stories that he’d got where he was by ruthlessly sticking knives into the backs of his rivals.

At any rate, his association with the Duke had strengthened. Pretty soon, it seemed, he was spending far more time here, in the sunny little Mediterranean dukedom of San Rinaldo, than he spent in his own, more rainy homeland. But, though she detested all he was, this wouldn’t normally have bothered Caterina, for her path and Matthew’s very rarely crossed, in spite of the fact that, in addition to his town office, these days he also had an office at the palace.