The Bravo Billionaire. Christine Rimmer

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      “Ms. Rimmer has developed into a major, major talent.”

      —Romantic Times Magazine

      His every move was so purposeful, so sure and so determined.

      His body was so strong and hard and big. Everything he did, he did better than anyone else.

      He had a law degree from Stanford, and a business degree from one of those snooty eastern colleges. He’d shot a charging rhino, wrestled alligators. He’d made love to the most beautiful women in the world, taken his father’s millions and turned them into billions.

      And once, long, long ago, he had been six years old. A little boy. A boy who woke up in the middle of the night and went into his baby brother’s room.

      Where he had been found the next morning, out cold on the floor, a large bloody bruise on the left side of his head.

      And the baby—vanished. Forever…

      “Famed for her deliciously different characters, Ms. Rimmer keeps the…love sizzling hot.”

      —Romantic Times Magazine

      CONVENIENTLY YOURS: Cast of Characters

      A Bravo Family Saga

      THE NINE-MONTH MARRIAGE

       —Cash Bravo and Abby Heller

      MARRIAGE BY NECESSITY

       —Nate Bravo and Megan kane

      PRACTICALLY MARRIED

       —Zach Bravo and Tess DeMarley

      MARRIED BY ACCIDENT

       —Melinda Bravo and Cole Yuma

      THE MILLIONAIRE SHE MARRIED

       —Jenna Bravo and Mack McGarrity

      THE M.D. SHE HAD TO MARRY

       —Lacey Bravo and Logan Severance

      THE MARRIAGE AGREEMENT

       —Marsh Bravo and Tory Winningham

      And watch for…

      MARRIAGE: OVERBOARD

       —Gwen Bravo McMillan and Rafe McMillan

      (Weekly serial at www.eHarlequin.com)

      THE MARRIAGE CONSPIRACY

       —Dekker (Smith) Bravo and Joleen Tilly

      (Coming in October only from Silhouette Special Edition)

      The Bravo Billionaire

      Christine Rimmer

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      Dear Reader,

      I can hardly believe it. This book, The Bravo Billionaire, marks the eighth in my series of stories about the Bravo family. The first seven books, as you may know, appeared in the Silhouette Special Edition line. I started out thinking I was going to write only three Bravo books—the stories of three cousins: Cash, Nate and Zach.

      So much for what I started out thinking. Your response to the Bravos has been so enthusiastic, how could I help but write more Bravo tales?

      With The Bravo Billionaire, I had a great time creating a new branch—the L.A. branch—of the Bravo family. They are fabulously wealthy, and they live in a huge hilltop Bel Air mansion called Angel’s Crest. The hero, Jonas, is the man who has everything—except love, family and companionship. He swears he doesn’t want those things. But that’s before his mother’s will forces him into close contact with Emma Lynn Hewitt. Emma, a west Texas dog groomer with a heart as big as her home state, is determined to make of Jonas a kinder, gentler, better man….

      I do hope you enjoy this bigger-than-ever Bravo tale.

      All my very best,

      For Steve,

      always.

      Contents

      Chapter 1

      Chapter 2

      Chapter 3

      Chapter 4

      Chapter 5

      Chapter 6

      Chapter 7

      Chapter 8

      Chapter 9

      Chapter 10

      Chapter 11

      Chapter 12

      Chapter 13

      Chapter 14

      Chapter 15

      Chapter 16

      Chapter 17

      Chapter 18

      Chapter 19

      Chapter 20

      Chapter 21

      Chapter 22

      Chapter 23

      Chapter 24

      Chapter 25

      Chapter 1

      Jonas Bravo did not like to wait.

      Make no mistake. He knew how to wait. He was actually quite good at waiting—when he considered the wait worth it, when it would mean a fat return on an iffy investment, or a plum contract in his pocket.

      He could wait and he had waited. But he refused to wait unnecessarily, when waiting, as he saw it, would get him nowhere.

      People who made Jonas wait unnecessarily never did it more than once. Because the famous Bravo Billionaire had ways of showing his displeasure. He could do it with a look, with a certain inner stillness—a look and a stillness that made the object of his displeasure wonder just what kinds of scary, crazy things Jonas Bravo might do if pushed too far. They all knew the stories about him, about what he and his family had been through when he was a child, and the wild things he’d done during the earlier years of his manhood. So they wondered—and they worried.

      And they didn’t displease him again.

      Apparently, the receptionist at McAllister, Quinn and Associates, Attorneys at Law, had been warned not to make Jonas wait. Young, faultlessly groomed and predictably gorgeous, she glanced up when he got off the elevator, which opened about ten yards from her desk. Her stunning china-blue eyes went round as dinner plates as she regarded him across the expanse of parquet floor and good Oriental rugs.

      She bounced to her feet. “Mr. Bravo. This way. Mr. McAllister is waiting for you.” She bustled to the big elaborately carved double doors that led to the inner sanctum and quickly pulled one of the doors wide. Jonas gave her a curt nod and went through, heading down the wide wood-paneled hallway toward Ambrose McAllister’s corner office.

      The receptionist rushed along in his wake. “Um, Mr. Bravo. Mr. McAllister asked me to show you to the—”

      Jonas froze her in her tracks with a sharp backward glance. “I can find my own way.”

      “Oh. Well. Of course, whatever you—”

      “Thanks.” He didn’t have to look behind him again to know that she had returned to the reception area where she belonged. He passed a few secretaries’ nooks. Ambrose’s minions looked up, muttered swift, respectful, Hello, Mr. Bravos and went back to what they were supposed to be doing.

      Ambrose’s door opened just before Jonas reached it. The lawyer who had handled the personal legal affairs of the Los Angeles Bravos for over three decades didn’t miss a beat.