At the Ruthless Billionaire's Command

by Carole Mortimer

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Two reasons.’

  ‘Which are?’

  ‘Silvio contacted me shortly after you had gone to sleep. He and Raphael discovered Richardson was booked on a flight to Dubai.’

  Her eyes widened. ‘He was fleeing the country?’

  ‘I believe in the beginning, with your father dead, he thought he could weather the storm and his life here in England would go on as before, with no one any the wiser as to what he had done. But—’

  ‘But yesterday I alerted him to the fact that wasn’t going to happen.’ She winced. ‘I’m so sorry, Gregorio. I just wanted him to know I wasn’t as stupid as he thought I was, but all I did was give him the opportunity to leave England as soon as possible.’

  ‘Do not feel bad about that. Richardson’s response to your warning was damning in the extreme. Besides,’ he added with satisfaction, ‘he is now in police custody, after an anonymous phone call informing them he was booked onto the Dubai flight.’

  She gave a shudder. ‘He’s a lawyer, Gregorio—do you think the charges against him will stick or will he manage to wriggle out of them?’

  ‘His attack on you will certainly stick. The FSA will also be very interested in Richardson’s behaviour. Especially as I have now given them all the information I have so far on his having embezzled money from Fairbanks Industries. It may take some time but, yes, I believe eventually Richardson will be made to answer for all his crimes.’

  Lia gave a shaky sigh. ‘I can’t believe it’s over.’

  ‘In time it will be,’ Gregorio cautioned again.

  Lia had no doubt that with the powerful Gregorio de la Cruz’s involvement that time would come sooner rather than later, and that David would one day end up in jail—as he fully deserved to.

  ‘You said there was a second reason you wanted to be here when I woke up?’ she reminded him softly.

  Gregorio felt the frown lift from his brow. ‘I believe you are suffering under a misapprehension in regard to something you overheard me say earlier.’

  Lia’s tension was immediate in the wariness of her expression. ‘Oh...?’

  He nodded. ‘I am not...comfortable with emotions.’

  She smiled ruefully. ‘I noticed.’

  ‘Let me finish, Lia,’ he reproved gently. ‘Sebastien was being his usual irritating younger brother self this morning.’

  ‘Obviously I can’t speak from personal experience, but I believe that’s part of a sibling’s job description.’

  ‘Perhaps,’ Gregorio allowed dryly. ‘Sebastien seems to think it is, at least.’ He sobered. ‘What I said to him, about resolving the situation with Richardson so that you could return to your apartment, was not meant as literally as I believe you have taken it.’

  She frowned her puzzlement. ‘I don’t understand...’

  ‘Nor did I until I tried to find a reason why you were being so dismissive of me,’ he admitted. ‘Lia, you were the one who brought an end to our...relationship.’

  ‘Our going to bed together, you mean? Well... Yes.’ Her gaze didn’t quite meet his. ‘It was clouding the issue. Obviously, having known and liked my father, you feel some sort of responsibility towards me. But I assure you—’

  ‘I feel concern for you, not responsibility.’

  ‘Oh.’

  He nodded. ‘I realise some of my actions and comments may have come across that way to you, but I assure you that responsibility is the last thing I feel when I look at you or touch you.’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘Now you are worrying me,’ he drawled. ‘The Lia Fairbanks I know always has plenty to say on any subject,’ he explained as she frowned. ‘Lia, has it occurred to you that I could just as easily mistake your responses to me as gratitude?’

  Her eyes widened. ‘You think I went to bed with you out of gratitude?’

  He smiled slightly. ‘What I think is that we should start being honest with each other, so that in future we avoid these misunderstandings.’

  The only words Lia heard were in future. That implied the two of them were going to have a future. Maybe not as anything more than friends, but even friendship was better than responsibility or gratitude.

  ‘I’m waiting for you to start being honest,’ she prompted after several long seconds of silence.

  Gregorio chuckled at her guardedness. ‘I have been honest with you from the beginning. I told you when we met again last week that I’d wanted you from the first night I saw you in Mancini’s with your father and Richardson.’

  ‘And now you’ve had me.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I... This is in the spirit of honesty, you understand?’

  ‘I understand.’

  ‘Well. I... You’re only the second man I’ve... Well, that I’ve...’

  His brows rose. ‘I am only your second lover?’

  ‘Yes.’ Lia breathed a sigh of relief that she didn’t actually have to say the words. ‘And in comparison the first one was awful,’ she said with feeling. ‘Not that I’m comparing you to David in any way,’ she added quickly. ‘I just want you to know that our lovemaking was spectacular. Wonderful. Special.’

  ‘In the spirit of honesty?’

  She frowned up at him. ‘Are you mocking me?’

  ‘Not at all.’ Gregorio chuckled. ‘In the spirit of the same honesty, can I say that our lovemaking was—Lia...?’ He prompted against the fingertips she had placed over his lips.

  ‘I really don’t want to hear how I measured up to the legion of women you’ve had in your bed.’ She grimaced.

  ‘I seem to recall that a Roman legion comprised about five thousand soldiers, and while I have been sexually active for some years, I very much doubt the total of my bed partners comes anywhere near that number.’

  ‘You are mocking me!’

  ‘Only a little,’ Gregorio acknowledged huskily. ‘And only because I am honoured to have been your second lover—especially as the first was such a failure.’ His voice lowered. ‘What I would really like above all things is to be your last lover too.’

  ‘Sorry?’ Lia’s mouth had gone dry. Did Gregorio mean...? Was he asking...?

  No, of course he wasn’t. Gregorio didn’t do for ever. She must have misunderstood him.

  ‘Lia...’ His hands moved up to cradle each side of her face as he looked down at her intently. ‘Beautiful Lia. Our lovemaking was spectacular to me too. Wonderful. Most of all, special.’

  ‘It was?’ Lia wasn’t sure she was still breathing. She couldn’t possibly be awake.

  ‘It was,’ Gregorio confirmed gently. ‘I wanted you from the moment I saw you, but in just a few days I have also fallen in love with you.’

  Her eyes widened. ‘You love me?’

  ‘So very much.’ Gregorio had only realised how much earlier, when he had contemplated the huge gap Lia would leave not only in his hotel suite but in his life, his heart, when the time came for her to leave and return to her own apartment.

  Lia swallowed. ‘Really?’

  ‘Really,’ he confirmed. ‘Perhaps I always did. I have never believed in love at first sight, but...’ He leant over to pull open a drawer in the bedside cabinet and remove something from inside. ‘This is the handkerchief I used to wipe the blood from my cheek the day you slapped my face at the funeral.’

  ‘You keep it in your bedside drawer?’

  ‘Silvio gave it to me that day.’ He smiled ruefully. ‘I placed it in this drawer when I returned home, and it has been here beside me every night since.’ He dropped the handkerchief back in the drawer. ‘I couldn’t bear to part with it.’

  ‘You love me?’

  ‘I do.’ He nodded. ‘More than life itself. Rather than wanting you to leave, as you believe, if I could I would keep you here with me for ever. But all of this is too soon for you.’ He sighed. ‘You lost your father such a short time ago. Your engagement ended badly. You need time to heal. To make a life for yourself. To prove to yourself that you can make a life for yours
elf.’

  ‘You can understand that?’

  His smile became warmer. ‘You would not be the Lia I love if you did not feel that way.’

  She looked up at him searchingly, noting the love and pride shining in his eyes as he steadily returned her gaze, leaving himself and his emotions wide open for her to see.

  ‘Gregorio.’ She reached up and touched his cheek. ‘I’ve fallen in love with you, too.’ She spoke clearly, firmly, wanting there to be no more misunderstandings between them. ‘I love you,’ she said. ‘So very much.’

  Gregorio felt as if someone had punched him in the chest, stealing all the breath from his lungs and rendering him incapable of speech. Lia loved him?

  ‘How can you possibly...?’ He was finally able to force words past his shock. ‘You cannot possibly... You believed... You accused me of...’

  ‘Yes. Yes. Yes. And yes,’ Lia acknowledged emotionally. ‘I did, and I believed all of those things. And still I fell in love with you. Because you’re none of those things, Gregorio. You’re honourable. Truthful. Protective. You have been nothing but kind to me even in the face of my less than gracious behaviour towards you. How could I not fall in love with you?’

  ‘Dios mio...’ Gregorio continued speaking in Spanish as he buried his face against her throat.

  ‘I have no idea what you’re saying, but I don’t care because I’m sure it’s something beautiful.’ Lia laughed happily, her arm about his shoulders as she clung to him.

  He lifted his head, his mouth now only inches away from Lia’s. ‘I said you are beautiful. My heart. My world.’

  ‘I love you, Gregorio. I love you so very much.’

  She lifted her head and claimed his lips with her own.

  * * *

  ‘I said you would be bossy in bed,’ Gregorio murmured indulgently a long time later, when the two of them were lying naked in bed together, Gregorio on his back, Lia nestled against his side with her head on his shoulder.

  Their lovemaking had necessarily been gentle, because of the cast on Lia’s arm, but no less beautiful because of it. Perhaps more so, because they had taken the time to explore and appreciate every inch of each other. Not just in passion and pleasure, but in love.

  ‘Lia, when this is over there is a question I wish to ask you.’

  Lia felt as if her heart had leapt into her throat. ‘Why can’t you ask me now?’

  ‘For all the reasons I stated earlier.’ He sighed. ‘I want you to be sure—very sure—when you give me your answer.’

  She frowned. ‘And what happens in the meantime? Between us, I mean? Do we go our separate ways and meet up again in three months’ time, say, to see if we both still feel the same way?’

  ‘No!’ Gregorio’s arms tightened about her possessively. ‘Absolutely not. We will see each other every day. And we will share the same bed every night,’ he stated firmly.

  Lia could barely hold back her smile of happiness.

  Gregorio loved her. She loved him.

  And whether Gregorio ever asked her that question or not was unimportant, because she had absolutely no doubt they would be spending the rest of their lives together.

  EPILOGUE

  Three months later

  ‘YOU LOOK BEAUTIFUL,’ Cathy said emotionally as she adjusted Lia’s veil outside the church in her role as matron of honour.

  Today was the happiest day of Lia’s life. The day she and Gregorio were to be married.

  She glanced down at the engagement ring she had transferred to her right hand for the duration of the ceremony. A solitaire yellow diamond, as Gregorio had said it would be. To Lia it was a symbol of their love and happiness together, and a promise for their future.

  ‘Do stop fidgeting, Rick,’ Cathy teased her husband as he stood beside Lia, ready to escort her inside the church and give her into Gregorio’s safekeeping for the rest of their lives together. ‘You look gorgeous,’ she reassured him with a light kiss to his lips.

  Lia found it hard to believe that this was happening. Six months ago she had thought her world was coming to an end—now she knew it was just beginning.

  This was the first day of the rest of her life with Gregorio, as his wife.

  ‘Ready?’ Cathy prompted brightly.

  ‘Oh, yes,’ Lia confirmed without hesitation.

  The last three months had been a rollercoaster of emotions. Gregorio’s telling her he loved her. David’s arrest and charges of embezzlement and fraud having been added to the charge of grievous bodily harm for his attack on Lia. Her days being occupied with making a success of her job at the Exemplar Hotel—which she had. And all her nights being spent in Gregorio’s arms.

  Throughout it all Gregorio had been the constant. Always there. And always, always assuring her of his deep love for her.

  Today was their wedding day. A day when they would reaffirm their love for each other before family and friends.

  She placed her hand on Rick’s forearm before stepping forward, which was the signal for the two ushers to open the church doors and for ‘The Wedding March’ to be played.

  And there, waiting for her at the altar, stood Gregorio, love and pride shining unreservedly in his eyes as he looked at her.

  An unshakable love Lia knew she would return for the rest of her life.

  * * * * *

  EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT

  Charlotte Adair has spent her life locked away – but once freed, she finds the one man she’s ever loved, billionaire Rafe Costa, is now blind, believes she betrayed him, and is bent on a vengeful seduction! Weeks after their scorching encounter he learns she’s pregnant—with twins! Rafe steals Charlotte away, but she is a far from biddable prisoner. She is irresistible, defiant—and Rafe must seduce her into compliance!

  Read on for a sneak preview of Maisey Yates’s book

  THE ITALIAN’S PREGNANT PRISONER

  The final part of her Once Upon a Seduction… trilogy

  Charlotte hadn’t touched a man since Rafe. She’d had no interest.

  She needed to find some interest. Because she was going to have a normal life. Whatever she did, it would be her choice. And that was the point.

  She didn’t know what answers she had expected to find here. Right now, the only clear answer seemed to be that her body, her heart, was still affected by him.

  He excused himself from the group, and suddenly, he was walking her way. And she froze. Like a deer caught in the headlights. Or rather, like a woman staring at Rafe Costa.

  She certainly wasn’t the only woman staring. He moved with fluid grace, and if she didn’t know better, she would never have known his sight was impaired at all.

  He was coming closer, and as he did her heart tripped over itself, her hands beginning to shake. She wished she could touch him.

  Oh, she wanted it more than anything. In that moment, she wanted it more than her next breath. To put her hands on Rafe Costa’s face one more time. To kiss those lips again. To place her hand over his chest and see if she could still make his heart race.

  It was easy to forget that her stepmother had told her how Rafe had left, taking an incentive offered by her father to end his tenure there earlier. It was easy to forget that and remember instead the way it had felt when he had kissed her. Touched her. The way she had pleaded with him to take her virginity, to make her his in every way.

  Really, he had never wanted her. He had simply been toying with her.

  She should remember that. Her treacherous, traitorous body should remember that well. But it didn’t. Instead, it was fluttering. As if a host butterflies had been set loose inside her.

  Suddenly, he was there. So close that if she wanted to she could reach out and touch the edge of his sleeve with her fingertips.

  Could bump into him accidentally, just to make contact. He wouldn’t know it was her. He couldn’t.

  Suddenly, he turned. He was looking past her, his dark eyes unseeing, unfocused. But then, he reached out and unerringly grabbed hold of her wrist, dragging
her toward his muscular body.

  “Charlotte.”

  Don’t miss

  THE ITALIAN’S PREGNANT PRISONER

  By Maisey Yates

  Available October 2017

  www.millsandboon.co.uk

  Copyright ©2017 Maisey Yates

  ISBN: 978-1-474-05285-6

  AT THE RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE’S COMMAND

  © 2017 Carole Mortimer

  Published in Great Britain 2017

  by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

  All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

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