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

‘He came here,’ Nina said through clenched teeth.

‘Who?’

‘You damn well know who!’ She felt close to screaming. ‘Marc in-your-face Marcello.’ ‘I thought he might.’

‘How can you be so casual about this?’ Nina cried. ‘He thinks I’m you, for God’s sake!’

Nadia hooted with laughter. ‘Does he really? How amusing.’

‘Well, guess what—I’m not laughing,’ Nina ground out. ‘And you’d better get back here as soon as you can and sort it out.’

‘I’m not coming back,’ Nadia said determinedly. ‘Bryce is expecting me in LA tomorrow. Why don’t you just tell him who you are and be done with it?’

Nina whooshed out a breath. ‘Because he wants Georgia, that’s why.’

‘Does he now?’ Nadia’s sugar-sweet voice grated along Nina’s shredded nerves. ‘So the photograph did the trick then.’ ‘What do you mean?’

Nina heard the sound of her sister’s long artificial nails tapping a nearby surface as if she was mentally planning something.

‘He’ll have to pay, of course, but it’s where she belongs anyway. Think of how rich she’ll be when she comes of age, an entire family of billionaire merchant bankers to call on for a loan or two.’

‘I can’t believe you can be so unfeeling about this,’ Nina said reproachfully. ‘Do you know what he means to do?’

‘What?’ Nadia’s tone sounded bored.

‘He’s forcing me—I mean you—to marry him, which is really me because you’ve flown the coop and he doesn’t realise it, and I’m up to my neck in lies and I don’t know if I can face it because I have no idea how to handle men like Marc Marcello and I have work commitments and no childcare and—’

‘Whoa!’ Nadia interjected. ‘Slow down; you lost me at the marriage bit. What do you mean he wants to marry you?’

‘Not me—you!’ Nina shrilled. ‘He thinks he’s forcing you into a paper marriage.’

‘A paper marriage?’

‘He wants to adopt Georgia and is prepared to marry me—I mean you—to do it.’

‘And you agreed?’ Nadia sounded surprised.

‘He didn’t really leave me with much choice,’ Nina answered resentfully. ‘He threatened to expose you as an incompetent mother and you gave him all the evidence he needed by hurting Georgia the way you did. It was just pure luck that he didn’t notice—’

‘What’s he paying you?’ Nadia asked.

Nina gritted her teeth at her sister’s total lack of remorse. How could Nadia be more concerned about money than her own baby?

‘Even if I have to starve I am not taking his money,’ she bit out. ‘He thinks he can buy me but no way is some overindulged playboy going to—’

‘Tell him you’ve changed your mind,’ Nadia said, interrupting her again. ‘Tell him you want ten million.’

‘Ten million?’ Nina shrieked. ‘I will do no such—’

‘Then you’re a fool,’ Nadia said. ‘He’s a billionaire, Nina. You can name your price. He’ll pay it.’

‘No, absolutely not. This marriage thing is bad enough.’ She let out a ragged breath and added, ‘Besides, I feel sick at the thought of what he’s going to do when he finds out he’s got the wrong person.’

‘Don’t tell him.’

‘What?’ Nina squeaked. ‘You expect me to go through with it?’

‘You want Georgia, don’t you?’ Nadia said. ‘Here’s your chance to keep her with a whole trailer load of money thrown in. In fact, if you play your cards right we could both really scoop up big time on this.’

Nina didn’t care too much for her twin’s mercenary tone. ‘What do you mean?’

Nadia gave a soft little chuckle that sent a river of unease up her spine. ‘You are about to marry a billionaire. You will have access to cash, lots and lots of cash. I’ve been doing some checking up on Bryce and he’s not quite in the same league as your Marc. But we can make up for that with some clever accounting on your part once you are married.’

Nina cleared the blockage in her tight throat. ‘Nadia, I can’t marry Marc Marcello! It wouldn’t be legal!’

‘Who’s going to know?’ Nadia asked airily. ‘As far as I recall, I didn’t tell Andre I had a twin, so his brother is unlikely to ever find out unless you tell him or he sees us together, which is hardly likely as I’m going to be on the other side of the globe. No, the more I think about this the better it sounds. We both stand to benefit. You get to keep Georgia and I get compensated by a regular income provided by your very rich husband.’

Nina felt her stomach drop in panic. ‘Nadia, please don’t do this to me. I can’t marry a man who hates the very air I breathe!’

‘He doesn’t hate you, he hates me,’ Nadia pointed out. ‘Anyway, once he gets to know you he might even fancy you, or at least he might if you’d whack on a bit of make-up and something other than a shapeless tracksuit from time to time.’

‘I can’t afford the sort of scraps of fabric you usually pipe yourself into,’ Nina said sourly.

‘Come on, Nina. Think about it. This is a chance in a lifetime. You’ve always wanted to get married and have kids. What are you complaining about?’

‘I would have liked to choose the groom for myself, that’s what I’m complaining about!’ Nina shot back. ‘And I wanted a church wedding, not some hole and corner affair at the local registry office.’

‘You’re such a hopeless romantic. Do you think a marriage has any more hope of survival if it’s performed in a church? Come on—get in the real world, Nina. Marrying a billionaire should more than make up for the absence of a dress and veil and the blessing of a priest.’

‘Yeah, well, somehow it just doesn’t,’ she answered. ‘I wanted more out of life than a rich husband.’

‘You could spend your whole life looking for love like our mother did and, just like her, never find it,’ Nadia said. ‘If I were you I’d grasp at this with both hands and make the most of it.’

‘But I’m not you, am I?’ Nina reminded her coolly. ‘No.’ A hint of amusement entered Nadia’s voice again. ‘But Marc Marcello doesn’t know that, does he?’

CHAPTER FOUR

NINA called in sick at the library the next day in order to sort out childcare arrangements but her efforts were not encouraging. As she didn’t have a car, she was limited to using a private centre whose fees were extortionate. She had no choice but to make the booking, hoping that her niece would cope with the change without too much fuss.

The next two days passed without any further contact from Marc. At times Nina wondered if she’d imagined the whole thing, so unreal it seemed, but on the third day a letter arrived, the first page of the thick document informing her that the marriage ceremony would be on July the fifteenth.

She felt her spine buckle in trepidation. It seemed there was no way out. She would have to marry Marc in order to keep Georgia. She would have to continue to deceive him, even though in doing so she was going to be fuelling his hatred even more.

The thought of pretending to be her sister for months, maybe even years on end, terrified her but she couldn’t see any alternative. It was incredible to think that a few simple words stood between her and her freedom. If she told him: ‘I am not Georgia’s mother’, the marriage would be called off.

Five words and she would be free.

Five simple words that would grant her instant freedom, but take away her niece—permanently.