It started with an island romance...
...and led to one very surprising consequence!
More at home with a book than on the beach, Dr. Anna Gray has stepped out of her comfort zone to help her mother prepare her Wedding Island resort for its first event. But when delicious Leo di Marquez sails onto La Isla Marina, Anna is tempted into dropping her guard, one kiss at a time—and with unexpected consequences!
Wedding Island
A romantic place in the Mediterranean weaves its magic!
La Isla Marina is hosting its first ever wedding and everything needs to be perfect! So estranged sisters Anna and Rosa are returning home to help their mother add the sparkle that the idyllic Mediterranean island deserves. But finding love was never meant to be on the agenda for either sister...until now!
And as the island works its magic the sisters find their way back to each other and the happily-ever-afters they never knew they deserved!
Find out more in
Baby Surprise for the Spanish Billionaire
A spontaneously romantic fling with playboy Leo has surprising consequences...
Available March 2018!
Island Fling to Forever
Reunited with her old flame, Rosa discovers that second chances really are possible!
Available April 2018!
Dear Reader,
A few books ago I worked with the lovely Sophie Pembroke and Scarlet Wilson on a Summer Weddings trilogy. It was the first time I’d worked with other authors and I loved the experience—plotting together, seeing my characters and the settings we’d worked on together through different eyes, and reading their wonderful books at the end of it! I’ve always had a real fondness for Expecting the Earl’s Baby, my contribution to that trilogy, so when Sophie suggested we work together on a duet, I jumped at the opportunity.
We decided to write about sisters again—two sisters completely opposite to each other, two sisters who fell out so completely they haven’t spoken for three years—and then we put those sisters on a tiny island so they had to deal with each other and all those reasons for falling out. But we’re romance writers so we needed some other characters on the island to shake things up, including the kind of strong, sexy men who ensure our sisters have a chance of getting their happy endings. My heroine, Anna, is very serious and responsible, so when her mother calls her in a panic needing her help she drops everything and rushes to La Isla Marina (our Wedding Island) to save the day. But when she meets playboy Leo di Marquez, work is the last thing on her mind...
I absolutely adored writing Leo and Anna’s story. I hope you love it as much as I do.
Best wishes,
Jessica
BABY SURPRISE FOR THE SPANISH BILLIONAIRE
Jessica Gilmore
A former au pair, bookseller, marketing manager and seafront trader, Jessica Gilmore now works for an environmental charity in York, England. Married with one daughter, one fluffy dog and two dog-loathing cats, she spends her time avoiding housework and can usually be found with her nose in a book. Jessica writes emotional romance with a hint of humor, a splash of sunshine and a great deal of delicious food—and equally delicious heroes!
Books by Jessica Gilmore
Harlequin Romance
Summer at Villa Rosa
A Proposal from the Crown Prince
Maids Under the Mistletoe
Her New Year Baby Secret
The Life Swap
Unveiling the Bridesmaid
In the Boss’s Castle
Summer Weddings
Expecting the Earl’s Baby
His Reluctant Cinderella
The Heiress’s Secret Baby
A Will, a Wish...a Proposal
Proposal at the Winter Ball
The Sheikh’s Pregnant Bride
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
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For Katy! That was fun! Let’s do it again sometime...
Praise for
Jessica Gilmore
“The story is well developed...the emotions make you feel the story and breathe life into the pages. This is a wonderful love story sure to bring a smile to your heart.”
—Harlequin Junkie on Her New Year Baby Secret
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
EXCERPT FROM BEAUTY AND HER BOSS BY JENNIFER FAYE
CHAPTER ONE
ANNA GRAY CLASPED her coffee cup in both hands, stepped gingerly out onto the creaking veranda and stared around in dismay. The island resort had looked charmingly ramshackle in the purple of twilight when she’d first arrived last night, but daylight revealed a very different picture. The low, white bungalows dotted around, each in its own private grove, should have made a beautiful scene, but even the mellow sun of an early May morning couldn’t paint La Isla Marina in flattering colours.
From her vantage point Anna could see all around right to the very tip of the island. The administrative buildings, including her mother’s living quarters, were here at the palatial villa that marked the island’s centre point, the swimming pools, tennis courts and relaxation areas all interspersed amongst the bungalows. If she stood on her tiptoes, Anna could just see the deep blue of the sea and the friendly waving of the palms that marked the beach boundaries. It was all so very nearly idyllic.
Very nearly... Until she looked a little closer and saw the reality behind the charm; the paint peeling off the whitewashed bungalows, the green shutters battered and hanging at odd angles. La Isla Marina was known for its lush greenery and profusion of flowers, but right now it resembled a jungle, not an upmarket resort. What had happened? True, everything had been a little faded when she was last here for her abuelo’s funeral three years ago, but the hotel had still been recognisable as the idyllic magical place where she had run free every childhood summer.
The old familiar guilt prickled through her. She knew how disorganised her mother was, she should have foreseen this, not needed a tearful phone call begging her to come and help out.
The guilt intensified. It wasn’t the unusual panic in her mother’s voice that had persuaded her, it was Anna’s own need for an escape, for time to think. If she hadn’t been nearing crisis point would she have stayed in Oxford and allowed her mother to struggle on alone? She knew the answer to that. Every time they spoke her mother asked when she’d have time to come and visit, and Anna always found an excuse to put her off. Visiting La Isla Marina knowing neither grandparent would be there to greet her had been too hard to contemplate—and it wasn’t as if she and Sancia were close. Nor, she knew, did Sancia have any intention of making an effort to come and visit Anna.
No, she’d responded to her mother’s pleas for her own selfish reasons, thinking a few weeks of relaxing in the sun, away from the pressures of Oxford, were just what she needed. Her heart sank as she looked around at the wild and untamed b
ushes. Relaxing was the last thing she was going to be able to do.
‘Good morning, querida, how did you sleep?’
Anna turned at the sound of her mother’s voice. ‘Great, thanks. I was tired after my journey.’ She eyed her mother critically, noting the extra grey threading through Sancia Garcia’s thick dark mane, the lines around her mother’s eyes, lines which hadn’t been there three years before. ‘How are you?’
‘Everything is wonderful.’ Anna stiffened as her mother flung her arms around her, pulling her in close. ‘I’m glad you’re here, querida. It’s been too long.’
‘Yes, well...’ Stepping back, Anna attempted to extract both herself and her miraculously unspilt coffee. ‘I’ve been busy, you know. With the book and teaching... What’s happened, Mama?’
‘Happened?’
Anna bit down on her irritation as her mother looked vaguely around the resort. This was how Sancia Garcia operated, floating through the world in a time and space of her own. She’d never seen why her daughters needed to be at school on time, or even why they needed to attend school if the sun was shining, why dinner should be planned and at a set time, the point of timetables. Anna hadn’t yet turned ten when she realised that if they were to be like other families she needed to take charge, to be responsible for both herself and her sister, Rosa. Her chest tightened. Nothing had changed; she was a fool to hope it ever would.
Sancia had even managed to separate from her husband in such a slow, dreamy way it almost seemed unintentional. And she never panicked, which was why her call for help was so out of character. Why Anna had booked the next flight over, leaving her father, her responsibilities, her teaching behind in Oxford. Not that Sancia seemed even slightly stressed now. Anna’s grip tightened even more, the heat from the cup almost scalding her; no doubt as soon as Anna had shown up Sancia had thankfully abdicated all responsibility to her once again. ‘To the hotel, Mama. It doesn’t look like there’s been any upkeep at all for goodness knows how long. How did it get to this stage?’
Sancia shrugged. ‘You know Pedro retired when your abuelo died, then Bonita retired also and they both ran this place like clockwork. It’s been hard to get staff to replace them, people who care, who stay. And everything happens at once, querida, one light breaks then another, then a toilet then the swimming pool filters and I just can’t keep on top of it all.’
‘No wonder bookings are down.’ The real wonder was that anyone had booked to stay here at all. ‘Why didn’t you ask for help before?’
‘You’re so busy, you have your own life, Anna, as does your sister. I didn’t want to worry you. I knew something would turn up and it has. This wedding will fix everything.’ Her mother clasped her hands. ‘The money, the publicity! The glamour! We can restore La Isla Marina to the way it was when I was young, when your grandparents first built the resort.’
The wedding. The magical ingredient on which her mother was banking all her hopes. The wedding she had agreed to host in exactly one month’s time despite the island not being anywhere near ready. It would be bad enough, Anna thought, if this were any normal wedding. Only her mother would blithely take on the exclusive wedding of a supermodel and her millionaire fiancé. These people looked down on five-star luxury, and right now the island would barely scrape two stars.
‘We have a lot of work to do before then. No one is going to want to have their dream wedding here, especially not some Internet sensation who posts every detail of their life online.’ Anna looked behind her, peering through the half-opened door that led into the office. A career spent researching in libraries, a life of compiling footnotes and organising sources meant Anna had some pretty kickass admin skills. Her mother most likely needed budgets, accounting, marketing and day-to-day working rotas as soon as possible and Anna was just the girl to sort that out for her.
Of course there was the little question of fifty-two bungalows needing a lick of paint, a damn good clean and some DIY. Hopefully there was no need for Anna to get her hands dirty; DIY was not her forte. Luckily her sister was handy with a toolkit. ‘When is Rosa getting here?’ Anna’s stomach clenched apprehensively as she waited for her mother to reply. She hadn’t seen her sister in several years either, only in her case there weren’t any weekly phone calls, not even the odd tag on social media. If Sancia had mentioned earlier that she had also begged Rosa to come and help, would Anna have agreed to come too? The truth was she had no idea. Three years was a long time, but she hadn’t forgotten a single one of the bitter words she and her sister had exchanged back then. She wasn’t eager for a repeat performance.
‘As soon as she can. She’s on an important assignment, you know. She said she wouldn’t be able to get here in the next two weeks but she’ll do her best to get here as soon as possible after that.’
Anna compressed her lips. Of course, whatever Rosa chose to do was important as far as their mother was concerned. She was always far more impressed by Rosa’s unconventional approach to life than by Anna’s achievements and qualifications. At twenty-eight she should be too old to be hurt by her mother’s lack of interest in all Anna had worked so hard for. But Anna hadn’t been able to help noticing that her mother’s apartment was filled with framed copies of Rosa’s photos—and she hadn’t seen one copy of her book anywhere.
‘Two weeks?’ Anna looked back over the half of the resort visible from the terrace and swallowed. There was no way they would be able to wait two weeks before starting the practical work. Which meant, unfamiliar as she was with a paintbrush, Anna had little choice. She was going to need to learn—and fast.
* * *
‘First things first,’ Anna muttered. With two cups more of her mother’s excellent coffee buzzing through her veins, she was almost raring to go. First they needed a list. Lists. Lists of repairs, lists of things they needed to make the bungalows suitable for a supermodel’s wedding guests, lists of everything that needed repairing. Which meant inspecting every bungalow, every path, every deckchair and table, the beach bars, the tennis courts... She needed another list of all the lists she needed to make.
She left Sancia in the kitchen checking all the crockery for chips, dents and suspicious stains, glad of the solitude after spending a whole morning alone with her mother for the first time in more years than Anna could remember. The hotel used to be so vibrant; filled with her grandparents, their long-time staff, visitors and guests. Now it was a ghost of its old self, just one cleaner, one groundsman and a cook in residence, a couple of maids journeying over from the mainland. No guests at all. Anna suppressed a shiver. It was too quiet. Maybe she would head over to the mainland today after all, even if she only went to the small village just a few hundred metres away across the narrow strip of sea to have lunch.
The island wasn’t very big, less than a mile from one end to the next, and it didn’t take Anna long to reach the sheltered beach overlooking the mainland. Palms fringed the delicate yellow sand and Anna paused, taking in a deep breath, tasting the salt of sea, the lemon wafting over from the citrus trees. The sea was so blue it almost hurt, a deep turquoise that tugged at her, enticing her closer and closer. She shucked off her shoes, stepping onto the soft sand, wiggling her toes into the warm grains. When had she last been barefooted outside? Holding out her arms, she closed her eyes, feeling the sun penetrating every atom, every cell, warming her straight to her bones. The dark hair and olive skin she had inherited from her mother never really felt warm enough in Oxford; they craved this contact with the Mediterranean sun, even an early May sun better than none.
She took another deep breath, her bones aching as they absorbed the longed-for heat, inhaling the scents that always conjured up the island. For the first time in a long while she felt as if she was home.
She jumped, pulled back to the job at hand as the sound of a vacuum cleaner buzzed through the air. She wasn’t on holiday, she was here to help her mother—and more importantly she was here to
forget her troubles. A month away from her classes, from her research, from expectations, might give her overtired mind the reboot it so desperately needed.
Anna pulled out her notebook. She might as well start off by checking the seaworthiness of the boats. The jetty was in the next cove along, situated by the natural rock harbour, which separated the gentle, sheltered mainland-facing beaches from the more rugged sea-facing ones. The wide wooden jetty housed all the small kayaks and rowing boats kept for guests who wanted to venture out in the safe strip of sea.
Pushing her refreshed feet back into her pumps, Anna followed the narrow path as it wound round the corner and past the trees until, pushing her way through a particularly overgrown fern, she emerged, blinking, onto the boardwalk, her hair falling over her eyes.
What is that? She skidded to a stop, staring at the jetty in disbelief. In addition to several kayaks pulled high onto the pebbly beach and the boats moored tightly to the wooden posts, a white and chrome boat sat proudly in the deeper water. It was large enough to be an ocean-going boat, but this was no practical craft. Every gleaming rail, every white sail, every fitting she could see screamed ‘rich man’s toy’ at her.
An equally gleaming dinghy was tied onto the jetty, a clear sign that someone had come ashore.
The island was private property, but occasionally day-trippers or passing boats did stop—and if they had money to spend were usually welcome. Anna looked around. She hadn’t seen anyone on the main path. ‘Hola!’ she called. ‘Hello. Can I help you?’
No answer.
She hesitated. The sign on the jetty clearly instructed visitors—in six different languages—to head straight along the main path to Reception. Not that there was anyone actually on Reception...
‘Dammit, as if I don’t have enough to do.’ What was her mother thinking? How could she possibly think a staff of four enough to get the island into shape for the season, let alone prepare for the wedding of the year? Sancia’s airy assurances that she had enough seasonal staff ready to start soon rang hollow. They should be here by now, painting, cleaning and making sure the island was in tip-top condition.
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