CHAPTER EIGHT
Married for the Italian’s Heir
Rachael Thomas
She’d pay the price with two words. I do.
After a shocking media exposé reveals that the compelling stranger she lost her virginity to is debauched bachelor Dante Mancini, Piper Riley is stunned! Their unexpected but exquisite night has left them inextricably bound...
When Dante learns that Piper is pregnant, the heartless playboy sees the perfect opportunity to restore his business reputation—by making Piper his wife! But Piper won’t settle for anything less than happy-every-after. Dante must overcome his past to prove to Piper—and the world—that this is more than a convenient match...
‘I am in need of a wife and you are carrying my child—which makes you the perfect choice.’
‘In need of a wife?’ Piper stumbled over the word ‘wife’, hardly able to believe Dante wanted her to become his wife. How could a self-professed playboy, a man who had the wealth, power and looks to have any woman he wanted, want to marry her?
‘I am in negotiations for a business deal which I can only pull off if I am seen to be a man with family values. I need a wife—a woman I am seen with in public…one who can be discreet. Because that untimely piece in Celebrity Spy! has made those negotiations somewhat difficult. What better way to prove I am a man of family honour than to stand by the woman who is carrying my child?’
‘You make it all sound like a business deal.’
‘That, cara, is precisely what it will be. You came for money and support and you will now get both—providing we are seen out in public as the perfect couple. The world must believe we are madly in love. In return you will have the honour of being the woman who tamed Dante Mancini.’
Dante looked at her, saw her face pale and watched her eyes close, provoking images of her beneath him as passion had driven her wild and he’d unwittingly claimed her as his. Now she would pay the price of acting the part of a seductress when she’d been nothing more than an innocent virgin. She’d pay the price with two words. I do.