Vinn Gagliardi has everything he desires...
Except for his wife!
Vinn wants his estranged wife, Ailsa, back on his arm. And given that she ran out of their marriage, he’s not above blackmailing her into agreeing to his plan—a temporary reunion that will end on his terms! But passionate Ailsa meets his fire with fire. Now the challenge is on for Vinn to entice her into succumbing to his scorching seduction!
MELANIE MILBURNE read her first Mills & Boon novel at the age of seventeen, in between studies for her final exams. After completing a master’s degree in education she decided to write a novel, and thus her career as a romance author was born. Melanie is an ambassador for the Australian Childhood Foundation and a keen dog-lover and trainer. She enjoys long walks in the Tasmanian bush. In 2015 Melanie won the Holt Medallion—a prestigious award honouring outstanding literary talent.
Also by Melanie Milburne
The Temporary Mrs MarchettiWedding Night with Her EnemyA Ring for the Greek’s BabyThe Tycoon’s Marriage DealA Virgin for a Vow
The Ravensdale Scandals miniseries
Ravensdale’s Defiant CaptiveAwakening the Ravensdale HeiressEngaged to Her Ravensdale EnemyThe Most Scandalous Ravensdale
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.
ISBN: 978-1-474-07194-9
BLACKMAILED INTO THE MARRIAGE BED
© 2018 Melanie Milburne
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
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To Franca Poli, thank you for being such a loyal fan.
This Italian hero is for you,
even though I know you already have one. Xxxx
CHAPTER ONE
AILSA DECIDED THERE was only one thing worse than having to see Vinn Gagliardi after almost two years of separation, and that was being made to wait to see him.
And wait.
And wait.
And wait.
Not a couple of minutes. Not ten or fifteen or even twenty, but a whole stomach-knotting, nerve-jangling hour that crawled by like a wet century.
Ailsa pretended to read every glossy magazine Vinn’s young and impossibly glamorous receptionist had artfully fanned on the handcrafted coffee table in front of her. She drank the perfectly brewed coffee and then the sparkling lemon-infused mineral water. She ignored the bowl of breath mints and chewed her nails instead. Right down to her elbow, and if Vinn didn’t open his office door soon her shoulder would be next.
Of course he was doing it deliberately. She could picture him sitting behind his acre of French polished desk, idly passing the time sketching new furniture designs, a lazy smile tilting his mouth as he enjoyed every excruciating minute of the torture she was enduring out here at the prospect of seeing him again.
Ailsa squeezed her eyes shut, trying to rid her mind of the image of his smiling mouth. Oh, dear God, his mouth. The things his mouth had made her feel. The places on her body his mouth had kissed and caressed and left tingling for hours after.
No. No. No. Must not think about his mouth. She repeated the mantra she had been saying for the last twenty-two months. She was over him. Over. Him. There was a thick black line through her relationship with Vinn Gagliardi, and she had been the one to put it there.