Bound By The Billionaire's Vows
‘I have a condition…’Can she agree to her husband’s terms?When heiress Skye learns her marriage to Matteo was built on lies, she demands a divorce. A pawn in his revenge, Skye’s heart shattered when she discovered her husband’s game. The clock is ticking; she needs his signature. But Matteo is not willing to let Skye go so easily—the price of her freedom is one last night together!
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“I have a condition...”
Can she agree to her husband’s terms?
When heiress Skye learns her marriage to Matteo was built on lies, she demands a divorce. A pawn in his revenge, Skye’s heart shattered when she discovered her husband’s game. The clock is ticking; she needs his signature. But Matteo is not willing to let Skye go so easily—the price of her freedom is one last night together!
CLARE CONNELLY was raised in small-town Australia among a family of avid readers. She spent much of her childhood up a tree, Mills & Boon book in hand. Clare is married to her own real-life hero and they live in a bungalow near the sea with their two children. She is frequently found staring into space—a surefire sign that she is in the world of her characters. She has a penchant for French food and ice-cold champagne, and Mills & Boon novels continue to be her favourite ever books. Writing for Modern Romance is a long-held dream. Clare can be contacted via clareconnelly.com or at her Facebook page.
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Her Wedding Night Surrender
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.
ISBN: 978-1-474-07242-7
BOUND BY THE BILLIONAIRE’S VOWS
© 2018 Clare Connelly
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
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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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For Arlene, who is courage, strength
and resilience personified.
Not to mention a very dear friend.
Contents
Six years earlier
‘CAN YOU SEE IT, Matteo?’
The newspapers loved to say that Matteo Vin Santo didn’t have a heart, but they were wrong.
Observing his grandfather lying weak and pale against the ordinary hospital bed-sheets was making that very organ clutch and grip painfully. The certainty that the man had only hours left to live was ripping it apart completely.
‘See what, Nonno?’
‘Nonno?’ Alfonso Vin Santo smiled, but his lips were chapped and the pain turned the instinctive gesture into a wince. ‘You haven’t called me that in a long time.’
Matteo didn’t respond. His eyes fell to his grandfather’s hands. Hands that had shaped a corporate empire; hands that had been at the helm during its demise. He looked away, focusing on the uninspiring view of the outskirts of Florence.
‘See the water? You always loved the way the sun bounced off it, no?’
Matteo’s eyes swept shut. Though they were in a linoleum-floored hospital room, he pictured exactly what his grandfather was seeing. The view from the terrace of Il Grande Fortuna, the hotel they’d once owned in Rome, overlooking the Tiber in one direction and the Vatican in the other.
Anger—a familiar response when he thought of the hotel—churned his gut. It was fierce in that moment, so fierce it almost took his breath away.
‘Yes. It’s beautiful.’
‘It is more than beautiful. It is perfect.’ Alfonso sighed and then a ghost flickered across his face. A moment of clarity that brought with it pain. ‘It was my fault.’
‘No, Nonno.’ Matteo didn’t mention that bastard Johnson’s name. There was no need to hurt his grandfather further at the end of his life. But
