The Italian Duke's Virgin Mistress

The Italian Duke's Virgin Mistress
PENNY JORDAN

From dowdy frump…to stunning siren!Charley would do anything to keep her wages coming in to support her impoverished sisters and nephews – even if that meant working in Italy for the demanding and commanding Duke Raphael Della Striozzi…Raphael couldn’t see how a woman so artistic would be seen dead in her cheap high street clothes. It was straight off to a designer boutique for her! But it was in Raphael’s bedroom Charlotte’s complete transformation took place – from shy, dowdy virgin to confident, beautiful…mistress!Needed: The World’s Most Eligible Billionaires Three penniless sisters, pure and proud… but about to be purchased!

‘You will need a working wardrobe commensurate with your position,’ Raphael informed her.

Charley looked at him. ‘I have plenty of clothes at home that my sisters can send out to me.’

Raphael raised one eyebrow in a way that made her face burn. ‘Let me guess: these clothes that you have at home are dull, plain garments that are two sizes too big for you? Si? They will not be suitable for your new role. You will be dealing with artists and craftsmen who value beauty,’ he emphasised. ‘Why does the thought of wearing beautiful clothes fill you with such panic? Most women—’

‘I am not most women, and it does not fill me with panic,’ Charley denied. But of course he was right. She couldn’t tell him that she was afraid of beautiful clothes because she knew they would only underline how unworthy she was of wearing them.

‘You have already agreed to work under my direction and to abide by my conditions,’ Raphael reminded her.

‘As your project manager, not with you telling me what to wear,’ Charley retorted. ‘Work clothes for me mean a sturdy pair of boots and a properly fitting hard hat.’

‘You shall have those, of course, but I hardly think that even you would want to dress in such things for dinner.’

Best-selling Modern Romance™ author Penny Jordan brings you an exciting new trilogy…

NEEDED: THE WORLD’S MOST ELIGIBLE BILLIONAIRES

Three penniless sisters, pure and proud…but about to be purchased!

With bills that need to be paid, a house about to be repossessed and little twin boys to feed, sisters Lizzie, Charley and Ruby refuse to drown in their debts. They will hold their heads up high and fight to feed their family!

But three of the richest, most ruthless men in the world are about to enter their lives…

Pure, proud, but penniless, how far will the sisters go to save the ones they love?

Lizzie’s story—

THE WEALTHY GREEK’S CONTRACT WIFE

Ilios Manos is Greek and ruthless. A dangerous combination! Lizzie owes him thousands, but he’ll take her as his wife in payment.

Charley’s story—

THE ITALIAN DUKE’S VIRGIN MISTRESS

When project manager Charley is hired by demanding Raphael Della Striozzi, he’s adamant she must have a makeover! Now the dowdy frump has been transformed, she’s sexy enough for another role: his mistress!

Look out for Ruby’s story, coming soon!

The

Italian Duke’s

Virgin Mistress

By

Penny Jordan

MILLS & BOON®

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

Penny Jordan has been writing for more than twenty years and has an outstanding record: over 175 novels published, including the phenomenally successful A PERFECT FAMILY, TO LOVE, HONOUR AND BETRAY, THE PERFECT SINNER and POWER PLAY, which hit the Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller lists. Penny Jordan was born in Preston, Lancashire, and now lives in rural Cheshire.

Recent titles by the same author:

A BRIDE FOR HIS MAJESTY’S PLEASURE

THE SICILIAN BOSS’S MISTRESS

(#ulink_abaa313e-b35e-533b-b8db-b40af60ad8d3)

THE SICILIAN’S BABY BARGAIN

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CAPTIVE AT THE SICILIAN BILLIONAIRE’S COMMAND

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TAKEN BY THE SHEIKH

THE SHEIKH’S BLACKMAILED MISTRESS

VIRGIN FOR THE BILLIONAIRE’S TAKING

* (#ulink_478bf24e-988a-54b8-a0d5-9a61fd600162)The Leopardi Brothers

CHAPTER ONE

‘ARE you Charlotte Wareham, the project manager from Kentham Brothers?’

Charlotte—Charley—Wareham looked up from her laptop, blinking in the strong Italian spring sunshine. She had only just returned from a snatched, very late lunch—a sandwich and a cup of delicious cappuccino in a local café. Her meeting with the two civic dignitaries responsible for the restoration project on a derelict public garden, to be completed for the five hundredth anniversary of the garden’s creation, which she would be overseeing, had overrun badly.

The man now towering over her, whom she hadn’t met before, and who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, was plainly angry—very angry indeed—as he gestured towards the cheap faux stone urns and other replica samples she had shipped over for client inspection.

‘And what, may I ask, are these vile abominations?’ he demanded.

It wasn’t his anger, though, that had a coil of shocked disbelief tightening her whole body. Dimly she recognised that the sharp, swift pang of sensation possessing her was instinctive female recognition of a man so alpha that no woman could or would even want to deny him.

This was a man born to stand head and shoulders above his peers—a man born to produce strong sons in his own image—a man born to take the woman of his choice to his bed and to give her such pleasure there that she would be bound to him by the mere memory for the rest of her life.

She must have been sitting in the sun for too long, Charley decided shakily. Such thoughts were certainly not something she was normally prone to—quite the opposite.