Latin Lovers: Italian Playboys: Bought for the Marriage Bed / The Italian GP's Bride / The Italian's Defiant Mistress

Latin Lovers: Italian Playboys: Bought for the Marriage Bed / The Italian GP's Bride / The Italian's Defiant Mistress
Kate Hardy

India Grey

MELANIE MILBURNE

Tall, dark, Italian and handsome! Wealthy bachelors who love the ladies, these men are in for a passionate happy ending… Marc Marcello wants his late brother’s child and is prepared to marry the baby’s avaricious mother. But he mistakes shy virginal librarian Nina for her twin and she’ll do anything for her niece…even wed a stranger! Orlando De Luca is a classic Italian bachelor – smooth, handsome and charming!Eleanor Forrest sees his playboy ways and tries to resist…but it’s too easy to be tempted by the dashing Dr Luca! Eve has come to Florence for information and darkly good-looking multi-millionaire Raphael di Lazaro holds the answers.Surrounded by glamour and decadence, Eve is out of her depth, especially when she realises Raphael wants her – as his mistress!

Smooth, good-looking, charming and

wealthy, these Italians have it all—except

the right women

Latin Lovers ITALIAN PLAYBOYS

Three fabulous stories from reader

favourites Melanie Milburne, Kate Hardy

& India Grey

Latin Lovers Italian Playboys

Bought for the Marriage Bed

Melanie Milburne

The Italian’s GP Bride

Kate Hardy

The Italian’s Defiant Mistress

India Grey

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

Bought for the Marriage Bed

Melanie Milburne

About the Author

MELANIE MILBURNE says: “I am married to a surgeon, Steve, and have two gorgeous sons, Paul and Phil. I live in Hobart, Tasmania, where I enjoy an active life as a long-distance runner and a nationally ranked top ten Master’s swimmer. I also have a Master’s Degree in Education, but my children totally turned me off the idea of teaching! When not running or swimming I write, and when I’m not doing all of the above I’m reading. And if someone could invent a way for me to read during a four-kilometre swim I’d be even happier!”

CHAPTER ONE

NINA stared at her twin sister in shock. ‘You surely don’t mean to go through with it?’

Nadia gave her a defiant look from beneath lashes heavy with thick black mascara. ‘I can’t cope with a baby. Besides, I never really wanted her in the first place.’

‘But Georgia is so young!’ Nina protested. ‘How can you possibly think of giving her away?’

‘It’s easy.’ Nadia pouted. ‘This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If I don’t take it with both hands it might never come again.’

‘But she’s only four months old!’ Nina cried. ‘Surely you owe it to Andre’s memory to raise her.’

‘I owe him nothing!’ Nadia spat. ‘You seem to be forgetting that he refused to acknowledge her as his child. He wouldn’t even agree to a paternity test, no doubt because he didn’t want to upset that cow of a fiancée of his.’ She paced the room angrily. ‘I should’ve known he wasn’t to be trusted. The Marcello males are known for their playboy lifestyle; you have only to look at yesterday’s paper to realise that.’

Nina was well aware of the photograph of Marc Marcello, Andre’s older brother, in the Sydney weekend broadsheet. It was rare for a week to go past without some reference to his billionaire fast-paced fast-women lifestyle. His dark good looks had been the first thing she’d noticed when she’d opened the paper.

‘Does Marc Marcello know about your intention to give his niece up for adoption?’ she asked her sister.

Nadia turned back to face her. ‘I wrote to his father in Italy a few weeks ago but he flatly refused to acknowledge Georgia as his granddaughter. So this time I sent a photo of her. That should set the cat among the pigeons, when he sees how like Andre she is. I felt the need to twist the knife since it’s his precious son’s fault my life has been stuffed up.’

‘But surely—’

Nadia gave her a bristling look. ‘As far as I’m concerned, I want nothing more to do with the Marcello family. I gave them a chance to claim Georgia but they brushed me off. That’s why I’m leaving now to get on with Plan B.’

‘Leaving?’ Nina stared at her in consternation. ‘Leaving to go where?’

‘America.’

‘But what about Georgia?’ she gasped, her heart tripping in alarm. ‘You’re surely not thinking of …’ She couldn’t even frame the rest of the words.

Nadia gave a dismissive shrug of one shoulder. ‘You can look after her for a month or two—you do most of the time anyway. Besides, it’s clear she loves you more than me, so I don’t see why I shouldn’t hand her over to you temporarily. You can take care of her until someone adopts her.’

Nina’s stomach rolled over painfully. It was hard for her to imagine her sister having so little regard for the tiny infant who lay sleeping in the pram near the window. How could she be so unfeeling as to walk away from her own baby?

‘Look—’ she tried to reason with her ‘—I know you’re upset; it’s only been a few months since Andre … went.’

Nadia turned on her furiously. ‘What’s with the euphemism? Andre didn’t go somewhere—he died.’

Nina swallowed. ‘I—I know.’

‘I’m just glad he took his stupid fiancée with him,’ Nadia added in a surly tone.

‘You surely don’t mean that?’

Nadia’s features twisted in bitterness. ‘Of course I mean it. I hate the Marcello family and anyone connected to them.’ She tossed her mane of blonde hair over one shoulder and looked back at her sister. ‘I have a chance at a new life with Bryce Falkirk in America. He loves me and has promised me a part in one of his films. This will be my chance at the big screen. I’d be a fool to let it slip out of my hands. And if I play my cards right he might even ask me to marry him.’

‘Have you told him about Georgia?’

Nadia rolled her eyes. ‘Are you nuts? Of course I didn’t tell him. He thinks Georgia is your child.’

Nina stared at her in alarm. ‘How can you even consider the possibility of marrying the man without telling him of your past?’

Nadia gave her sister a cutting look. ‘Bryce wouldn’t have considered being involved with me at all if I’d told him anything like that. He thinks the sun shines from my “childlike innocent” eyes, and I’m going to make sure he keeps thinking that way, even if I have to lie through my teeth every day to ensure he does.’