Fascination: The Sicilian's Ruthless Marriage Revenge. Carole Mortimer

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      Brooding, darkly sexy and very demanding! These Sicilian heroes are every woman’s fantasy. Share our

      Fascination

      Three dramatic and intense romances brought to you by popular, beloved author Carole Mortimer

      About the Author

      CAROLE MORTIMER was born in England, the youngest of three children. She began writing in 1978, and has now written over one hundred and fifty books for Mills & Boon^®. Carole has six sons, Matthew, Joshua, Timothy, Michael, David and Peter. She says, “I’m happily married to Peter senior; we’re best friends as well as lovers, which is probably the best recipe for a successful relationship. We live in a lovely part of England.”

       Look out for Carole Mortimer’s new novels, which will be available soon from Mills & Boon^® Modern™.

       Carole

       Mortimer

      Fascination

      The Sicilian’s Ruthless

      Marriage Revenge

      At the Sicilian

      Count’s Command

      The Sicilian’s

      Innocent Mistress

      Carole Mortimer

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

       The Sicilian’s Ruthless

       Marriage Revenge

      Carole Mortimer

      PROLOGUE

      GONE.

      It was all gone.

      The money had been spent long ago. In the last year, his London apartment had gone too, plus the villa in France and his red Ferrari. All of them lost to the turn of a roulette wheel.

      It was a sickness; he knew it was. But, hard as he tried, it was a sickness he didn’t seem to be able to find a cure for.

      Last night he had lost the one thing that he had always sworn he would never use to finance his gambling, and he had let his family down in the worst way possible.

      Oh, God …!

      His hands tightened on the steering wheel of the car he drove—a hire-car; he had no money left to buy one of his own. His steering was instinctive as he negotiated the hairpin bends of the mountain road that took him away from Monte Carlo, the azure blue of the Mediterranean Sea sparkling invitingly far below. It was a journey which he knew, despite his efforts to fight the urge, he would make back again this evening, when the fever became too much for him and he once again returned to the fascination of the gaming tables.

      How would he ever be able to face his father and Robin, and tell them what he had done? How could he ever explain his betrayal?

      He couldn’t.

      After all the heartache he had already caused them, he really couldn’t!

      And that blue sea below did look so very inviting …

      Maybe he wouldn’t bother to turn the wheel at the next sharp bend. Maybe that was the answer to the sickness that possessed him, like a fever in his blood, drawing him back time and time again to Lady Luck.

      A lady that had completely abandoned him… .

      Over.

      It was all over.

      All her hopes and dreams meant nothing now that she knew Pierre had never loved her at all. Certainly he’d never had any intention of leaving his wife for her.

      She had believed him a year ago when he’d told her he loved her, hadn’t cared that he was a married man, only wanted to be with him, to be loved by him, to love him in return.

      She had been so sure that the son she had borne him three months ago would be the spur he needed to leave his wife. Instead, the coward had chosen to confess all to his wife, to beg her forgiveness in order to stay at her side!

      Her poor little son.

      Her Marco.

      She had brought shame and disgrace upon her family to bring him into the world. And it had all been for nothing. Pierre didn’t love her. Last night, as she’d lain replete in his arms after their lovemaking, and had begged him to come to her and their small son, he had told her the truth—that he had never loved her, that she had merely been a diversion, another conquest in a long list of such affairs.

      Tears streaked her face as she drove along the mountain road back to Monte Carlo and the family-owned hotel there. To her child. Her small, beautiful, fatherless child.

      He would be better off without her!

      She had no heart left now—knew that it was broken in two, that it would never mend.

      If she were no longer here, then her brother Cesare would care for Marco, would protect him from the stigma attached to his birth, would care for him as his own, safeguarding him, so that nothing and no one could ever hurt him.

      Could she do this? Could she end this now?

      End the pain of Pierre’s rejection?

      His lies had brought her to this desperation.

      His utter betrayal of a love she had thought so beautiful and perfect …!

      Yes, she accepted, as she looked at the Mediterranean glittering and beckoning so temptingly far beneath her, like a diamond. Yes, she could do this. She could drive off the edge of this cliff and end the pain once and for all.

      He had no idea there was a car approaching from the other direction. He only had time to register that neither of them had attempted to turn the bend in the road. The two vehicles met, joining with a crunch of screeching metal, then hurtled off into nothingness.

      He turned to look at the driver of the other car, to register the beauty of the young woman’s face, and she looked back at him with haunted dark eyes.

      And then the two vehicles began to fall, plunging down towards the deep, mesmerising depths of the Mediterranean… .

      CHAPTER ONE

      ‘THE WOMAN WITH Charles Ingram—do you know who she is?’ Cesare demanded harshly.

      ‘Sorry?’ Peter Sheldon, his male acquaintance, frowned his confusion.

      Cesare’s mouth tightened as he bit back his impatient reply. After all, despite being at a charity dinner, the two men had been in the middle of a business conversation when Cesare’s attention had wandered. He’d been captivated by the woman who stood across the room at Charles Ingram’s side, looking so glitteringly gorgeous.

      Next to Cesare’s bitterest enemy!

      Cesare gave a smile, which showed the even whiteness of his teeth against his olive skin, but which did not reach the darkness of his eyes. ‘I was merely wondering who the beautiful woman is accompanying Charles Ingram.’ he voiced more calmly, his tone deliberately neutral even as his narrow-eyed stare remained on the ill-matched pair.

      Charles Ingram was aged in his late fifties, silver-haired, and still a handsome man. In a room full of beautiful women wearing glittering jewellery and designer gowns, and elegantly suave men in tailored dinner suits, the tall, graceful woman who stood at Charles Ingram’s side still managed to stand out as extraordinary.

      Her hair