Sarah & Vittorio (Royals of Valleria #9)
Page 1
Sarah & Vittorio (Royals of Valleria #9)
Marianne Knightly
Contents
Acknowledgments
Also by Marianne Knightly
Synopsis
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
A Note from the Author
About the Author
Also by Marianne Knightly
Additional Acknowledgements
Copyright
Sarah & Vittorio (Royals of Valleria #9)
Copyright © 2018 by Marianne Knightly
Cover Design: Marianne Knightly
ISBN# 978-1942729112
All Rights Reserved.
* * *
Thank you for downloading this ebook. This ebook remains the copyrighted property of the author and may not be reproduced, scanned, or distributed for any commercial or non-commercial use without permission from the author. Quotes used in reviews are the exception. No alteration of content is allowed. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, places, and events are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual places, events, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Acknowledgments
Huge thank you to my readers—Yes, you!—for being so amazingly patient over the last year. I know you’ve waited a long time for this next Royals book and I hope you love it.
Last, but definitely not least, special thanks to my editor, Jami Gold. You. Are. Awesome.
Also by Marianne Knightly
Sign up for Marianne’s newsletter for exclusive news about sales and releases!
* * *
Royals of Valleria Series
Book 1: Alexander & Rebecca
Book 2: Marcello & Grace
Book 3: Arianna & Finn
Book 4: Charlotte & Nate
Book 5: A Royal Holiday (Novella)
Book 6: Catharine & Edward
Book 7: Royally Ever After
Book 8: Lorenzo & Lily
Book 9: Sarah & Vittorio
Book 10: (coming soon)
* * *
Box Set: Books 1-3
Box Set: Books 4-6
Box Set: Books 7-9 (coming soon)
* * *
Royals of Valleria Short Stories (exclusively for e-newsletter subscribers)
Story 1: Delusional
Story 2: (coming soon)
* * *
Seaside Valleria Series
Book 1: Rush (Hector & Millie) (coming soon)
Book 2: Ripple (Persy & Sully) (coming soon)
Book 3: (coming soon)
* * *
The Italian Shipping Millionaires Series
Book 1: Dante
Book 2: Adrian
Book 3: Giovanni
Book 4: Luc
Box Set: Books 1-4
* * *
Copyright © 2018 Marianne Knightly
To M. You’re beautiful, amazing, hilarious, and you’ll get through, darling. It’s a hard road ahead, but you’ll make it. Fuck, yeah, you will.
Synopsis
Welcome to Valleria, a country as old as the fall of the Roman Empire. The reigning king and patriarch rules with his beloved queen. Nine children, now grown, ranging from the eldest twins to the youngest son, watch over the country they love and care for. Bound by honor, duty, and each other, follow their lives as they fall in love, face tragedies, and triumph against the evils facing them.
* * *
Can a one-night stand become one night of forever?
* * *
Princess Sarah of Valleria, ambassador to Italy, has been known to date a man or two in her time (though not at the same time—well, except that once, which was completely an accident), and she makes no apologies for it. One morning, however, she wakes up with a sexy man in her bed.
Who turns out to be an Italian prince.
Prince Vittorio “Rio” Baziano never thought a night at a charity ball would end up with him in bed with a wildcat. When morning dawns, and it becomes clear she isn’t just the flighty socialite he thought she was, and he’s not the random Italian she thought he was, he’ll have a lot to answer for.
After all, he is a prince.
Once the press picks up on their royal romance, and the pictures and videos start circulating from the night before, they decide the best thing to do is to ride out the scrutiny. They’ll fake a fairytale romance for one month, and then they’ll part ways.
One month to manage the fallout and convince royal relations to back their scheme.
One month to pretend to like each other, then break up gracefully.
One month isn’t so long at all, is it?
After all, it’s not like they’ll fall in love with each other.
With the paparazzi on their tails and their families reacting in devious and threatening ways, can they look past the fake to forever?
Chapter One
Princess Sarah of Valleria drifted slowly into consciousness. Light, bright and blinding, had her scrunching her eyelids tighter, as if that would make the room darker. A horrid taste—morning breath to the extreme—coated her tongue. Her head pounded like a jackhammer.
Rat-a-tat-tat.
Rat-a-tat-tat.
Rat-a-tat-tat.
She groaned and tried to turn when something banded around her belly, holding her still.
Something warm.
Something strong.
Something strangely familiar.
Something also strangely comforting.
She blinked her eyes open and tilted her head down. Her heart started beating rapidly, and her eyes widened, then winced against the light.
It was a hand. A man’s hand. His olive skin pressed against her slightly-less-olive-hued body.
Against her naked body.
Other things filtered in then, too.
A soft ache between her thighs, and his warm body—and hard cock—pressed against her back.
She froze.
Shit.
Shit, shit, shit!
Where was she? She stared around wildly. Four-poster bed, thick stone walls, antique furniture.
The castle. She was still in the castle where she’d attended the charity ball last night.
Last night! What the fuck had happened last night?
“Shit!” Her voice was raspy and dry.
She started squirming away, and the arm holding her tightened even more, stealing her breath.
She spoke, her words stilted and gasping. “Let. Go.”
His voice, low and gruff, rumbled something unintelligible and he nuzzled into her hair.
She did have excellent hair—a rich golden blonde, a few shades darker than her mother’s—but that didn’t give him the right to nuzzle it.
Only she decided who was a nuzzler, and she’d decided just then that he wouldn’t be one of them.
Though, given her current circumstances, it was probably silly to deny him a nuzzle when he’d probably done quite a bit more to her.
Shit! Why couldn’t she remember what happened?
She’d had nights like this before, where she ended
up in bed with a man she barely knew. Her Royal Protection Service agents were always nearby, to ensure no one took advantage of her or harmed her in any way.
But having security didn’t mean she didn’t have fun.
Usually, she didn’t drink so much. However, last night, she’d been celebrating. It had taken months to hammer out the new trade agreement between Valleria and Italy. Months of not being taken seriously because she was a ‘woman’ and a ‘princess’ and veiled insults about her getting the ambassador’s position due to nepotism. Months of avoiding scandal and being the ‘good’ princess, because one more scandal or piece of gossip attached to her name would make the deal fall through.
So, last night, the deal nearly done but for Valleria’s signature on it, she’d celebrated.
Apparently, she’d celebrated a little too much.
She gripped his hand and tore it away from her body. He mumbled something and shifted onto his back, the sheet drifting down to just below his belly button—an innie—and tented over his rather, er, impressive erection. Her eyes widened.
Well, hell. No wonder she ached down there. If that had been inside her, she was surprised she wasn’t aching worse.
Her gaze moved up his body. His chest and defined abs were coated in dark chest hair. She loved chest hair on a man, and he had a good amount but it wasn’t extreme. Perfect.
She glanced at his sleeping face, a lock of his black hair obscuring one eye. A square face set in granite, full lips, and a nose that sported a bump on the bridge, as if it had been broken at one time and hadn’t quite healed straight.
He was, in a word, gorgeous.
Shit.
She whimpered and slid out of bed, holding the sheet to her. As more of the sheet came loose from around the seriously-hot-but-unknown man in bed, she continued to wrap it around her body. Unfortunately, covering herself meant uncovering him and—oh my—his cock was just as impressive as she’d imagined it would be.
She licked her dry lips and imagined licking him like a lollipop. Taking that male beauty in her hand, then her mouth and…
Focus, Sarah!
She again looked wildly around the room. Her breath hitched as she took in the destruction around her. Their clothes were in trailing piles leading from the door to the bed. She found her underwear (ripped to shreds, oh dear), and her lacy silk bra (intact but a little worse for wear).
She slipped on the strapless bra and arranged the cups around her breasts. She tried to hook it closed behind her one-handed, while still trying to hold the sheet around her. This, unfortunately, resulted in her fumbling with the sheet and doing a strange hopping dance while trying to put on her bra.
Why someone didn’t invent a decent front-clasping bra was beyond her. Why women were forced to contort their bodies into odd angles just to get a bra on was ridiculous, in her opinion.
Sarah, it must be said, did have a lot of opinions, about a lot of things.
Perhaps she’d ask her sister Cat, a fashion designer, to create the ultimate bra for women.
Exasperated, Sarah gripped the ends of the bedsheet in her teeth so her hands could be free to hook the bra closed behind her.
“Need some help?”
She yelped at the sound of his husky, sleepy, Italian voice, the sheet falling from her lips. With one arm around her breasts holding the still-unhooked bra to her, she grabbed the sheet again. Fortunately, it hadn’t slipped past her waist.
Her breath sawed in and out of her lungs, and her hair flopped in a wild mass around her face. She blew out a breath, which shifted one lock out of her eyes. “W-what?”
He lounged casually on the bed, his body propped up on one arm. An amused grin formed on his face.
Amused!
Didn’t he know who she was? Didn’t he know the shitstorm that could fall down on her, and even him—but most importantly her—if they didn’t manage this situation?
If only she could remember if people had seen them together, and if anyone had taken any pictures of them together. The trade deal was nearly complete, but…
“Need some help?”
She jerked from her thoughts.
Help? From him? No, she did not need help from him and his gorgeous nude body, or long, strong hands, or…
Focus, Sarah!
She rolled her shoulders back, then shook her face slightly to shift her hair back without having to let go of the bra or bedsheet. In her most dignified princess pose—the most dignified one she could manage naked in a strange room with a strange man wearing only a sheet—she gave him a haughty look.
“I do not require your assistance. I am perfectly fine, thank you very much.”
He gave her a look-over, head-to-toe, long and slow, and she fought the shiver that his gaze caused.
His annoying grin got deeper. “Yes, you are quite fine. Come back to bed.” He patted the mattress next to him. “We’ll go another round.”
Another round.
Another round.
Something vague and fuzzy crept into the recesses of her mind. She’d heard that phrase last night. Given the state of things this morning, she guessed it had to do with alcohol, but couldn’t be sure. Though, it could well have been about another round in bed with him.
“What’s wrong?”
She glanced up and met his eyes. His grin was gone and he sat up. “What?”
“You’re frowning. What’s wrong?”
She blinked. What’s wrong? What’s wrong? Was he honestly so clueless?
Men.
“Are you serious?”
Now he was frowning. “Not making a joke, bella.”
Bella. Beautiful. He thought she was beautiful.
She was, but something about the way he said it meant more.
She shook her head. She didn’t have time for this. She had to find out what had happened, and if anyone had seen them. Her security was usually quick to stop anything incriminating, but if anyone got compromising pictures of them, she’d be in trouble. Even just a photo of them in each other’s arms would be bad enough. Hell, her own sister-in-law, Rebecca, had gotten raked over the coals by the media when she’d tripped and fallen into her brother Alex’s arms. They weren’t a couple then, and Rebecca had almost lost her job because of it.
This situation could be a million times worse, because she’d been dubbed the ‘party princess’ before. That meant certain members of the media were just waiting for a slip-up, waiting for one photo—even an innocent one—that they could twist into something that sold papers.
She yelped as she spied a phone on the floor near the bed. Since it wasn’t hers, it had to be his. Oh God. Had he taken pictures or—gulp—video?
She pressed a button and a screen popped up for his fingerprint or backup code.
She held up the phone and shook it slightly. “What’s the code for your phone?”
His head jerked. “What?”
“The code! I need it.”
“Why? Need to make a call?”
She did. She had to call her Royal Protection Service agents to come get her. They shouldn’t be far. In fact… “Joseph!”
The man in the bed swung his legs over the side, his face shocked. “My name’s not Joseph and you know that, bella.”
“I wasn’t talking to you.” She turned and stalked towards the door.
“Don’t open that.”
She turned and glared at him. “Would you be quiet? I need to find Joseph. He should be waiting outside.”
The hot, naked man stood, his face hard. “Who the fuck is Joseph? What the fuck is going on?”
She waved an arm at him and opened the door the barest sliver. She pressed her eye against the slit and saw an agent several feet away.
She sagged in relief, not only because help was nearby but because that help was a woman. “Adrienne.”
Her agent was already walking towards her before she finished speaking. “Ma’am. Are you all right?”
That was a loaded question. “Yes. Where’s Jos
eph? Is there anything online?”
The door flew open and her mystery man stood there scowling, a towel wrapped around his waist. “What the fuck?”
Adrienne didn’t blink, bless her. “Sir.” She turned back to Sarah. “Agent Callaway’s monitoring the situation. Right now, there’s nothing online, but we don’t believe it will stay that way.”
“Did you post shit online?”
Sarah turned to her mystery man, her mouth open. “Why would I post anything online? I’m trying to make sure nothing does, which is why I want your phone code. If you took pictures or video of me, I want them off your phone, out of the cloud, and erased from all existence.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “Why the fuck would I want shit posted online? I want to check your phone to see if you posted anything.”
She made a slight choking sound. “How dare you assume that of me!”
“Jesus. Really? I know your type.”
Her words were ominously even. “My type?”
He gave her another look-over, this one not shiver-inducing but rage-inducing and full of derision. “Typical blonde socialite out for a good time. It happens to me all the time. I mean, don’t you know who I am?”
She countered immediately. “Don’t you know who I am?”
The blinked at each other in the moments-long silence. It appeared neither of them knew who the other was.
She didn’t know how to feel about that. Had they known last night but both forgotten? Or, since he seemed to remember last night more than she did, did he remember everything but who she was? Was she that forgettable? Was her body the only thing memorable about her?