Redeemed by His Stolen Bride

by Abby Green

  She expected to hear the door closing behind Gabriel as he made his hasty escape now she’d uttered the word love, so she wasn’t prepared when she felt his hands on her and he swung her around to face him, his eyes more intense that she’d ever seen them.

  ‘What did you just say?’

  She hiccupped.

  Gabriel took her over to a couch and sat down, pulling her with him. He took her hands in his. ‘What did you say, Leo?’

  Her vision was blurry. ‘I said, I won’t do it for anything less than love.’

  He gripped her hands tight. ‘Are you saying that you love me?’

  She debated denying it for a second. But how could she? She’d just exposed herself spectacularly. She nodded.

  Gabriel let her hands go and rubbed the tears she’d shed from her cheeks with his thumbs. She couldn’t read his expression. It was something she’d never seen before. A kind of emotional nakedness.

  He looked at her. ‘I love you, Leo.’

  At first his words didn’t impact, and then they did. She pulled back instinctively, disbelieving. ‘You don’t. You’re just saying that.’

  He shook his head. ‘I’m not lying. I would never lie to you.’

  ‘But you don’t believe in love. You never wanted it.’

  ‘I didn’t. Until a dark-haired temptress captivated me and ruined me for any other woman. I think I fell in love with you the moment I saw you that night in the hotel. I’ve never had such a visceral reaction to anyone. I had to know you, follow you. Have you. And the next morning I knew that this was different. I wanted more.’

  Leonora looked at him, searching his eyes, his face. Searching out insincerity. But she couldn’t see it. She could only see him.

  ‘Why didn’t you say something?’

  ‘Why didn’t you?’ he countered.

  She flushed. ‘I was scared.’

  He said, ‘I was in denial. I kept thinking my feelings for you were strong just because you were my wife. It was natural. Expected. I only realised what they truly were when you suggested a divorce... I was so angry. I suspected you of marrying me solely to secure your family’s fortune. But mostly I was hurt, and I had to acknowledge that you only had the power to hurt me because I’d fallen for you. And then afterwards...when you closed yourself off...’

  ‘I’m sorry... It was too hard. I was afraid of what would spill out if you touched me. I was barely holding it together. But that night... I couldn’t not touch you.’

  ‘And then you left.’

  She took his hand. ‘Because I knew that I wouldn’t survive a loveless marriage. That’s my weakness.’

  He shook his head. ‘It’s not weak. It was self-preservation. I was the one who was weak. I was prepared to bully you into staying married to me in the hope that if you agreed to try for a family you’d learn to love me.’

  Leonora took her hand from his. ‘There’s a very strong possibility that we won’t ever have children, Gabriel, no matter what we try. If that happens...how do you know I’ll be enough for you? What will you do about having no heirs?’

  Gabriel took her hand back, lacing his fingers with hers. ‘You are enough for me. If we never have a family but I have you that’s all I need. I’ve met with my board and we’ve drawn up a document that details what will happen in the event of my having no heirs. The Cruz y Torres name won’t die out. It’s a brand now, and brands last far longer and far more effectively than mere humans. And I’ve also been in touch with Lazaro Sanchez.’

  Leonora instinctively held tighter to Gabriel’s hand. ‘And?’

  He smiled a rueful smile. ‘He is my half-brother. I did the DNA test. He wants nothing to do with the family name or any inheritance. It’s a point of pride with him. Even when I told him our situation, and that any children he has might be the only heirs to the Cruz y Torres name. We’ve also teamed up for a bid on the marketplace. We’re going to work together.’

  Leonora shook her head, as if that might help her to understand everything Gabriel had just told her. ‘You did all of that...before you knew...?’

  ‘That you loved me? Yes, I did. I’m not as selfless as you. I wasn’t prepared to let you walk away. Ever. You’re mine.’

  Leonora’s vision was blurring again.

  Gabriel said, ‘You haven’t actually said it yet.’

  ‘What?’ Leonora could hardly speak over the way her heart was expanding in her chest.

  ‘That you love me.’

  Leonora moved so that she was straddling Gabriel’s lap. She cupped his face with both hands and pressed a kiss to his mouth. The she pulled back. ‘I love you, Gabriel Ortega Cruz y Torres. With all my heart. Is that good enough?’

  His hands cupped her buttocks and he expertly manoeuvred her so that she was under him on the couch. He smiled down at her and she could see the sheer love and joy in his eyes, on his face.

  He said, ‘I want for ever, Leo, is that good enough?’

  Leonora looked up at him and saw the intensity blazing from his face and in his eyes. But a tendril of doubt and fear made her say, ‘What if we don’t—?’

  But Gabriel cut her off with his mouth. With a kiss. He pulled back. ‘For ever, Leo. No matter what. You are all I need. Anything else will be a bonus.’

  She looked up at Gabriel. She saw love and commitment in his gaze. It had been there for weeks, but she hadn’t wanted to believe in it. She’d shut it out.

  She smiled up at him and wound her arms around his neck as tears pricked her eyes. ‘For ever it is, then.’

  EPILOGUE

  Three years later

  Lazaro Sanchez Torres’s hacienda in Andalusia

  ‘GETTING YOU TO agree to take on the Torres name was the most difficult negotiation I’ve ever conducted.’

  Lazaro grinned at his half-brother and clinked his beer bottle against Gabriel’s glass of water. ‘You didn’t think I was going to make it easy, did you?’

  Gabriel smiled back. ‘God, no. That would have been far too predictable. All I can say is that I’m glad we’re on the same side now. It makes life so much easier.’

  A moment passed between them. Deeply felt emotion. And then a baby’s gurgle made them both turn back to the tableau in front of them.

  Dragged out onto the back lawn of Lazaro’s hacienda was a couch, overlaid with colourful throws. On the couch sat Lazaro and Skye’s almost three-year-old son Max. He was looking very serious, because lying in each of his arms, propped up by cushions either side, was a baby, the two of them blinking contentedly and kicking their arms and legs in the shade under a huge tree. They were three months old.

  ‘Okay, Max, you’re doing so well—just another few seconds.’

  Leonora chuckled beside Skye, who had become a good friend. Her sister-in-law was moving around, getting lots of pictures from different angles with her camera.

  Leonora said, ‘Poor Max looks terrified.’

  Skye groaned and stood up. ‘He does, doesn’t he?’

  She was wearing faded loose dungarees and a bright yellow T-shirt that should have clashed with her red hair but didn’t. The swell of her second baby was evident under her clothes, at nearly eight months along.

  ‘Max, smile, sweetie! It’s okay—you won’t drop them. Honestly.’

  Tentatively Max smiled, his blond, slightly reddish hair blowing in the breeze. His blue-green eyes were full of pride at his responsibility as the older cousin.

  After another few shots Skye straightened up. ‘Okay, that should be loads to work with.’

  Skye, who had built up a name for herself as a talented portrait artist, was going to do a painting of Max and his baby cousins, Sofia and Pablo.

  After Leonora and Gabriel had made the decision to try IVF, it had taken two years and three painful miscarriages before it had worked, on their last attempt. Gabriel hadn’t wanted to
put Leonora through even another attempt but she’d insisted. And, happily, that last round had brought them a successful pregnancy and the twins, and every time Leonora looked at them her heart was so full of awe and love that she almost couldn’t breathe.

  An arm snaked around her waist now and she turned to look up at her husband. Her life.

  ‘Okay?’ he asked.

  She nodded, feeling emotional. She had a family now, and more fulfilment than anything she’d ever imagined or fantasised about. And a love that she knew would last for ever.

  ‘I’m fine. You?’

  Gabriel looked at her and she saw all her thoughts and feelings reflected in his eyes.

  ‘I’m fine too. More than fine. I love you, Leo.’

  ‘I love you too.’

  She reached up and pressed a kiss to Gabriel’s mouth, and he caught the back of her head, not letting her pull away, deepening the kiss.

  ‘Ugh, kissy-kissy.’

  They broke apart, laughing at Max’s disgusted pronouncement, and went to rescue their babies, taking one each.

  Lazaro said, all too innocently, as he scooped up his own son, ‘Honestly, I don’t know where he gets that from.’

  Skye rolled her eyes and came over to her husband putting her arms around his waist. ‘He gets it from seeing his mother being kissed by his father on a regular basis.’

  ‘Oh, and you’re a passive partner in that, are you? As I recall, this morning...’

  Gabriel and Leonora watched as Lazaro and Skye walked back into the hacienda, with Max perched on Lazaro’s shoulders. Their voices faded and Gabriel tugged Leonora over to the couch. The sun was setting, bathing everything in a golden and red glow.

  Leonora’s breasts were heavy with milk. Just as she became aware of that Sofia made a mewling sound. She deftly undid her sundress and placed Sofia on her breast. The small baby suckled hungrily, dark eyes gazing up at her mother.

  Pablo snuggled against his father’s chest, eyes closed. Leonora and Gabriel shared a look and smiled, not needing words to articulate the love flowing through them and their babies...

  * * *

  If you were swept away by Abby Green’s Redeemed by His Stolen Bride look out for the first installment in her Rival Spanish Brothers duet Confessions of a Pregnant Cinderella available now!

  And why not lose yourself in these other Abby Green stories?

  The Virgin’s Debt to Pay

  Claiming His Wedding Night Consequence

  An Innocent, A Seduction, A Secret

  Awakened by the Scarred Italian

  Available now!

  Keep reading for an excerpt from Their Royal Wedding Bargain by Michelle Conder.

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  Their Royal Wedding Bargain

  by Michelle Conder

  CHAPTER ONE

  TONIGHT WAS GOING to be a total disaster. Alexa could feel it.

  The Annual Santarian Children’s Charity ball, one of the most prestigious events on the international calendar, would commence in under an hour, and she felt sick with apprehension.

  ‘He’s here, Your Highness,’ Nasrin, her assistant-cum-lady’s-maid-cum-devoted-companion, murmured as she closed the bedroom door, a ripple of excitement evident in her quick steps as she returned to Alexa. ‘One of the chambermaids confirmed that the Prince of Santara has just entered the Summer Palace.’

  Retrieving the hairbrush from the old-fashioned vanity unit, Nasrin picked up a skein of Alexa’s long dark hair and met her wide-eyed gaze in the mirror. ‘This is so exciting. I can’t believe you’re actually going to do it.’

  Alexa couldn’t either; releasing a measured breath at the thought of what she intended to do, followed swiftly by the seizing of her stomach.

  Known for her cool, unflappable poise under pressure, she felt as if she was about to throw up the grilled cheese sandwich she’d had for lunch all over her custom-made designer gown.

  He was here. He was really here.

  Prince Rafaele of Santara, the King’s younger brother, had actually arrived. There had been whispers that he might not attend tonight, given that he’d created a scandal at this very event last year, embarrassing the King. But apparently nothing stopped the Rebel Prince of Santara from following his own path, and that was a trait that could work in her favour tonight so she should see it as a positive. Being a determined rule follower, she found that somewhat difficult, adding to her massive sense of self-doubt.

  How was she going to do it? How was she going to ask a prince with the reputation as a consummate playboy to marry her, even if she was a princess herself? Because that was what she intended to do. What she had to do if she wanted to appease her father.

  She and Nasrin had hatched the crazy eleventh-hour plan to propose a fake marriage—or engagement because, as she would explain to the Prince, she had no intention of actually going through with the wedding—two weeks ago when she had realised that her father was deadly serious about seeing her married as soon as possible.

  Of course she’d tried to argue with him. Tell him that she wasn’t ready, that she needed more time, but he had shaken his head and informed her that nothing she said would change his mind. As the Crown Princess of Berenia, and only remaining heir, he would not rest until she was settled.

  To be fair he had given her six months to create a list of possible marriageable contenders, but Alexa had dragged her feet, hoping he would forget all about it. On the night he’d told her he hadn’t forgotten at all, she and Nasrin had sat down to commiserate over a glass of Sauterne and a completely unrealistic rom-com at the end of a long working day.

  According to Nasrin the main actor looked like the dreamy Santarian Prince, his character replete with arrogant, bad boy tendencies and a super-hot body, and the idea had been born. In the film the hero had not wanted to marry the heroine, but love had won out in the end.

  Alexa knew from past experience that love rarely won out in the end, but fortunately that wasn’t what she required from the Prince.

  ‘It’s going to be fine, Princess Alexa; he’ll do it,’ Nasrin murmured, accurately reading the panic in her eyes for what it was. ‘Then you’ll have everything your heart desires.’

  Everything her heart desired?

  What she desired the most was time to make her own marriage match, and for her older brother to still be alive.

  Sol had been the true heir to the Berenian throne but since his tragic death three years ago that duty had fallen to her. And she wasn’t up to it, not yet anyway, and deep down she wondered if her father believed that she wasn’t up to it either, especially after the serious lapse in judgement she’d made when she was seventeen. Perhaps that was one of the reasons he was pushing so hard for her to marry right now. Why he was so determined to have it done.

  That, and to remove the stink of shame that still hovered over her after the King of Santara had abruptly ended their betrothal twelve months earlier. The ink hadn’t even dried on their marriage contract before he had pulled out and immediately married another woman—an outsider, no less—his actions stirring up centuries-old animosity between their nations and giving the BLF—the Berenian Liberation Front—just the excuse they needed to re-engage in h
ostilities with Santara.

  Her and King Jaeger’s brief, ill-fated betrothal hadn’t been a love-match by any stretch, but his rejection had still felt like yet another kick in the teeth for Alexa because she had liked him. She’d developed a massive crush on King Jaeger when he had saved her from an embarrassing experience on her first official engagement as her father’s consort. At thirteen, she’d been so nervous, decked out in a white tulle gown that had made her feel like a beautiful fairy, that she’d accidentally upended a full jug of cranberry juice all over herself. She’d frozen to the spot as the cold, sticky red liquid had drenched the front of her beautiful gown and chilled her skin. Before she’d been able to respond the newly crowned King of Santara had stepped in behind her and enveloped her in his jacket and whispered that everything would be okay.

  Mortified, Alexa had buried her scalding cheeks against his chest, allowing him to draw her from the room without anyone really noticing them. He’d instructed a servant to find her lady’s maid and then melted back into the party. Alexa hadn’t drunk cranberry juice since, and nor had she forgotten the King’s kindness. As she’d matured he’d become the epitome of her dream man: kind, loyal, compassionate and strong.

  His brother, by contrast, couldn’t be more different. The consummate good-time guy, Prince Rafaele moved from one lissom blonde to the next as if he was doing nothing more important than choosing a new tie to wear with his suit.

  ‘Having your hair up was a good choice,’ Nasrin said as she twisted the last of Alexa’s waist-length tresses into place. ‘It shows off the sheer panelling at the back of your dress to perfection.’

  ‘It’s not too revealing, is it?’ Alexa murmured, twisting on her padded stool to get a better view. She’d chosen her nude-coloured off-the-shoulder gown to attract as much attention as she dared, but she wasn’t used to wearing clothing that revealed so much skin.