A Scandal, a Secret, a Baby

A Scandal, a Secret, a Baby
Sharon Kendrik

One sinful night…Dante D’Arezzo is the last person famous songwriter Justina Perry wants to see at her best friend’s wedding. The wickedly sexy Italian is ruthless to the core. He broke her heart once; she won’t surrender to his insatiable desire again. But what Dante wants… One very big scandal!Justina’s pregnancy hits the front page and Dante knows he’s the father. He’ll make her pay for trying to keep his child from him. His Miss Independent is about to become completely dependent…on him! This Italian will claim his heir and – if he wants her – a wife!‘Sharon Kendrick has created a book for true romantics.’ – Genie, PA, Birmingham

One sinful night…

Dante D’Arezzo is the last person famous songwriter Justina Perry wants to see at her best friend’s wedding. The wickedly sexy Italian is ruthless to the core. He broke her heart once; she won’t surrender to his insatiable desire again. But what Dante wants…

One very big scandal!

Justina’s pregnancy hits the front page and Dante knows he’s the father. He’ll make her pay for trying to keep his child from him. His Miss Independent is about to become completely dependent…on him!

This Italian will claim his heir and—if he wants her—a wife!

Intently Dante stared at her, and he could feel the powerful beat of his heart. “Is there something you need to tell me?”

Justina nodded as a wave of emotion threatened to overwhelm her, but she held it back. Don’t act coy or ashamed or intimidated, she urged herself. Just deal with the facts. “Is that a roundabout way of asking whether you’re the father?”

“Am I?”

For a moment she hesitated, tempted to tell him that no, he wasn’t. But then she thought of the child she carried. The baby who was currently kicking beneath her fluttering heart as if it was trying out for a fetal football team. Could she willfully deny her child the knowledge of its father, just because that father didn’t love her?

“Yes,” she breathed—and then she said it again, so that there could be no going back.

“Yes, you are the father, Dante.”

Dear Reader (#ufae33ed9-f8f3-5cbb-9429-0db1cd429e30),

One hundred. Doesn’t matter how many times I say it, I still can’t believe that’s how many books I’ve written. It’s a fabulous feeling but more fabulous still is the news that Mills & Boon are issuing every single one of my backlist as digital titles. Wow. I can’t wait to share all my stories with you - which are as vivid to me now as when I wrote them.

There’s BOUGHT FOR HER HUSBAND, with its outrageously macho Greek hero and A SCANDAL, A SECRET AND A BABY featuring a very sexy Tuscan. THE SHEIKH’S HEIR proved so popular with readers that it spent two weeks on the USA Today charts and…well, I could go on, but I’ll leave you to discover them for yourselves.

I remember the first line of my very first book: “So you’ve come to Australia looking for a husband?” Actually, the heroine had gone to Australia to escape men, but guess what? She found a husband all the same! The man who inspired that book rang me up recently and when I told him I was beginning my 100

story and couldn’t decide what to write, he said, “Why don’t you go back to where it all started?”

So I did. And that’s how A ROYAL VOW OF CONVENIENCE was born. It opens in beautiful Queensland and moves to England and New York. It’s about a runaway princess and the enigmatic billionaire who is infuriated by her, yet who winds up rescuing her. But then, she goes and rescues him… Wouldn’t you know it?

I’ll end by saying how very grateful I am to have a career I love, and to thank each and every one of you who has supported me along the way. You really are very dear readers.

Love,

Sharon xxx

Mills & Boon are proud to present a thrilling digital collection of all Sharon Kendrick’s novels and novellas for us to celebrate the publication of her amazing and awesome 100th book! Sharon is known worldwide for her likeable, spirited heroines and her gorgeous, utterly masculine heroes.

SHARON KENDRICK once won a national writing competition, describing her ideal date: being flown to an exotic island by a gorgeous and powerful man. Little did she realise that she’d just wandered into her dream job! Today she writes for Mills & Boon, featuring her often stubborn but always to-die-for heroes and the women who bring them to their knees. She believes that the best books are those you never want to end. Just like life…

A Scandal, A Secret, A Baby

Sharon Kendrick

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

ISBN: 978-1-472-00173-3

A SCANDAL, A SECRET, A BABY

© 2013 Sharon Kendrick

Published in Great Britain 2013

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.

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

Version: 2018-07-18

To Ruth Nehrebecka, who is a great inspiration (as well as being enviably blonde and effortlessly stylish!)

Contents

Cover (#u7d0c4bb9-0cd2-5743-aa09-9124849a2fb1)

Back Cover Text (#udac0bd7d-2f70-55d3-bd46-72c67c536582)

Introduction (#u015431c2-2a07-5206-a5a8-45011a868c65)

Dear Reader (#u1196e2ef-db6a-5979-8c93-f9dbc75ac13f)

About the Author (#u4b145d01-45bd-5da5-be96-ec0f2fd4e1d0)

Title Page (#u89b7af16-3347-5c89-9f20-d04f84fb768d)

Dedication (#u9ca2532f-5ff3-5406-ab28-799a8b92742c)

CHAPTER ONE (#u6c6ec10b-e872-5322-ac3c-a3c4bf621269)

CHAPTER TWO (#u64bae428-7973-5ff5-884a-b4d0108adb93)

CHAPTER THREE (#u23d042f9-6dc7-58c3-aea4-f09a1abb9b5e)