Abby Green - The Mediterranean Billionaires Blackmail Bar

Welcome to the December 2008 collection of Harlequin Presents!

This month, be sure to read Lynne Grahams The Greek Tycoons Disobedient Bride, the first book in her exciting new trilogy, VIRGIN BRIDES, ARROGANT HUSBANDS. Plus, dont miss the second installment of Sandra Martons THE SHEIKH TYCOONS series, The Sheikhs Rebellious Mistress. Get whisked off into a world of glamour, luxury and passion in Abby Greens The Mediterranean Billionaires Blackmail Bargain, in which innocent Alicia finds herself falling for hard-hearted Dante. Italian tycoon Luca OHagan will stop at nothing to make Alice his bride in Kim Lawrences The Italians Secretary Bride, and in Helen Brookss Ruthless Tycoon, Innocent Wife, virgin Marianne Carr will do anything to save her home, and ruthless Rafe Steed is on hand to help her. Things begin to heat up at the office for interior designer Merrow in Trish Wylies His Mistress, His Terms, when playboy Alex sets out to break all the rules. Independent Cally will have one night shell never forget with bad-boy billionaire Blake in Natalie Andersons Bought: One Night, One Marriage. And find out if Allie can thaw French doctor Remy de Brizats heart in Sara Cravens Bride of Desire. Happy reading!

Wed love to hear what you think about Presents. E-mail us at Presents@hmb.co.uk or join in the discussions at www.iheartpresents.com and www.sensationalromance.blogspot.com, where youll also find more information about books and authors!

Hes got her firmly in his sights and shes got only one chance of survivalsurrender to his blackmailand himin his bed!

Bedded byBlackmail

The big miniseries from Harlequin Presents

Dare you read it?

Abby Green

THE MEDITERRANEAN BILLIONAIRES BLACKMAIL BARGAIN

All about the author
Abby Green

ABBY GREEN deferred doing a social anthropology degree to work freelance as an assistant director in the Film and TV industrywhich is a social study in itself! Since then its been early starts, long hours and mucky fields, ugly car parks and wet-weather gearespecially working in Ireland. She has no bona fide qualifications but could probably help negotiate a peace agreement between two warring countries after years of dealing with recalcitrant actors.

She discovered a guide to writing romance one day, and decided to capitalize on her longtime love for Harlequin romances and attempt to follow in the footsteps of such authors as Kate Walker and Penny Jordan. Shes enjoying the excuse to be paid to sit inside, away from the elements. She lives in Dublin and hopes that you will enjoy her stories.

You can e-mail her at abbygreen3@yahoo.co.uk.

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

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER ONE

I AM

quite certain that if I had fathered a child I would be well aware of the fact, which, needless to say, would be none of your business, as you are a complete stranger. Now take your hand off me immediately.

Alicia Parker was still stunned into immobility by the sheer audacity of her actions, which had stopped this man in his tracks. She looked up into a face so savagely handsome that the breath left her body. All her poor muddled, overtired and over-wrought brain could formulate were impressions. Tall. Broad. Dark. Gorgeous. Sexy. Powerful. Sexy. Powerful.

Eyes as cold and dark as the night stared down with uncompromising arrogance and supreme assurance that sheand her preposterous accusationwere so far removed from his gilded life that she must be certifiably mad to accost him like this. His look could have turned her to iceand yet, awfully, Alicia didnt feel cold. She felt hot. All over.

And as she watched, struck dumb by any number of things, the very least of which was his overwhelming presence, Dante DAquanni calmly and disdainfully extricated the expensive cloth of his suit from her white knuckle grip, flicked a glance to his minions nearby and strode off and out of the mammoth building which housed his offices in London.

He was gone, as if spirited away, without a backward glance at the petite, dishevelled woman who stood gaping at his departing back. Whod had only the briefest of chances to get out a few words, her attempt to make him listen having failed abysmally.

Within seconds Alicia was surrounded by great hulking security guards and, without knowing exactly how, she found herself outside in the teeming rain and what had just happened seemed like a bluror a bad dream

Alicias soft mouth tightened into a grim line. Unfortunately, that day a week ago hadnt been a bad dream. It was a stark reality and the reason why she was now seated in a tiny rental car across the road from an exclusively opulent hotel near the shores of Lake Como in Italy. She even had the remnants of a cold as a result of getting soaked to the skin that day. Dante DAquanni had refused to hear her out then, but he wouldntcouldntrefuse to listen to her here

The sun had set some hours ago, but the sky was still a dark, bruised violet colour. That magical moment when day teetered into night had come and gone, its beauty unnoticed. And, across the road, the hotel quite literally glittered with luxuriousness, adding to this heightened sense of beauty.

Alicia was terrified. She was trying not to be bowled over by it. Trying not to let the pristine streets intimidate her, the unmistakable handsome foreigness of the smartly dressed people coming in and out of the hotel. But still not himyet. This was a million miles away from anywhere shed ever been, or anywhere she was ever likely to be. She closed her eyes for a second; they were gritty with tiredness, every limb ached with exhaustion. She knew she wasnt far from collapse, but didnt have the luxury of time to sleep, to catch her breath. She was existing in a haze, anger at his recent curt dismissal and sheer nerves keeping her going.

This was the only solution, and the only way she was going to get to see him, to force him to admit his responsibility. To admit to fathering her sisters unborn child. A sudden image of Melanies small, pale face against the hospital bed linen made Alicias breath stop painfully. She closed her eyes but the image got stronger and she could see with alarming vividness, the scary profusion of tubes and wires that had snaked around her too thin body with its small bump. Alicia felt tears threaten; if anything happened to herShe couldnt let it. Her eyes snapped open. She needed money now for Melanies treatment and Dante DAquanni would be made to accept the part hed played in this chain of events. Would be made to pay. He was their only option. Alicia was desperate.

Her sister had been involved in a horrific car crash while on her way to see this very man and somehow, miraculously, she and her baby had survived. But she had suffered a fractured pelvis, among other more minor internal injuries. With the complication of being pregnant, the result was that they desperately needed to get Melanie into the care of a consultant who had expert experience with pregnancies which had suffered trauma. He was based in central London and Alicia knew well that this kind of care came privately and with a hefty price tag.

With no other close family and no friends who had anything approaching that kind of money to call upon, it had left her no choice but to take this course of action. The ward sister, an old friend of Alicias from her nursing training days, had assured her that Melanie was stable and could be left for a short time. That assurance had led her to feel confident enough to make this drastic, desperate step, along with the promise that she would be notified the minute that any change occurred in Mels condition.

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