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,
We know how much you love Harlequin® Presents®, so this month we wanted to treat you to something extra special—a second classic story by the same author for free!
Once you have finished reading A Scandal, a Secret, a Baby, just turn the page for another scandalous tale of celebrity from Sharon Kendrick.
This month, indulge yourself with double the reading pleasure!
With love,
The Presents Editors
Sharon Kendrick
A Scandal, A Secret, A Baby
Table of Contents
A Scandal, A Secret, A Baby
Marriage Scandal, Showbiz Baby!
All about the author…Sharon Kendrick
SHARON KENDRICK started storytelling at the age of eleven and has never really stopped. She likes to write fast-paced, feel-good romances with heroes who are so sexy they’ll make your toes curl!
Born in west London, she now lives in the beautiful city of Winchester—where she can see the cathedral from her window (but only if she stands on tip-toe). She has two children, Celia and Patrick, and her passions include music, books, cooking and eating—and drifting off into wonderful daydreams while she works out new plots!
Visit Sharon at www.sharonkendrick.com.
Other titles by Sharon Kendrick available in ebook:
Harlequin Presents®
3101—BACK IN THE HEADLINES (Scandal in the Spotlight)
3088—A TAINTED BEAUTY (What His Money Can’t Buy)
3082—PLAYING THE GREEK’S GAME (What His Money Can’t Buy)
A Scandal, A Secret, A Baby
To Ruth Nehrebecka, who is a great inspiration (as well as being enviably blonde and effortlessly stylish!)
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
EPILOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
DANTE D’AREZZO KNEW the exact moment his ex-fiancée walked into the cathedral. He heard the silence which fell and the whisper which followed.
‘Look, there’s Justina Perry.’
And the murmured response. ‘Oh, wow!’
Dante could feel the punch of his heart as people turned their heads to look at her, to see if she’d changed. They wanted to know if she had any new lines on her face—or whether those lines had been ironed out by surgery. They wanted to know if she was heavier. Or lighter. They wanted to know every damned thing about her, because once she had been famous and fame made people think they owned you.
Dante knew that. He knew that only too damned well. Hadn’t he watched from the sidelines long enough to learn about the darker aspects of fame? The way it corrupted and corroded and spread into normal life like some sort of toxic acid?
His powerful body tight with tension, he watched her sinuous progress down the wide aisle of Norwich Cathedral, where the wedding of her ex-bandmate was shortly to take place. Her dark hair had been coiled into an elaborate confection at the back of her head and she was wearing an oriental-looking gown of pale satin, lavishly embroidered with dragons and flowers. At first glance the dress seemed disappointingly demure—until she moved forward on a pair of towering heels and a thigh-high split revealed the tantalising flash of one long, bare leg.
An unwanted wave of desire swept over him, quickly followed by a powerful surge of anger. So she still liked to show herself off like some kind of cheap puttana, did she? Did she still enjoy the sensation of other men watching her and wanting her—fantasising about that sinner’s body coupled with the soulful face of a dark angel?
But his anger was not enough to diminish the exquisite ache in his body, and he watched as she took her place in one of the front rows, turning to smile at the person next to her as she sank down onto the pew. The embroidered satin stretched over her delicious bottom and all Dante could think about was how long it had been. Five long years since he’d seen her. More than enough time for him to have become immune to her feline appeal. So why was his heart thundering as he watched her staring up at the altar? Why was the hardening at his groin so pronounced that he was having to cover it up with his hymn sheet?
He tried to think about something else as the marriage service began—but it wasn’t easy. Not when this wedding seemed even longer than weddings usually were—probably because the groom just happened to be a duke. Dante always played the part expected of him, and usually he would have been an exemplary and attentive guest. But today, his attention was focussed elsewhere and all the way through the service his thoughts kept straying back to Justina.
Justina writhing beneath him on a snow-white bed.
Justina with her ebony hair and magnolia skin and those amazing amber eyes.
He remembered the sweet tightness of her body. Those tiny little nipples which had been made to fit so perfectly inside a man’s mouth. Briefly he shook his head, for those thoughts disturbed him. He wanted to forget that for the first and only time in his life he’d made a mistake. His broken engagement was the only failure in a life which had been charted with resounding success. He was a proud man of noble Tuscan heritage. His ancestors had been scholars, soldiers and diplomats—an aristocratic line which had always been land-rich but cash-poor. But then Dante had become head of the family’s business interests and had taken them soaring into the stratosphere.
These days the D’Arezzo family owned property over most of the globe, in addition to their vast vineyards in the beautiful countryside outside Florence. Dante had everything a man could possibly want, and yet inside his heart was empty.