Claiming His Secret Love-Child: The Marciano Love-Child / The Italian Billionaire's Secret Love-Child / The Rich Man's Love-Child
The Marciano Love-ChildAlessandro Marciano threw Scarlett out on the street without a second glance – she had betrayed him! Now he has returned – to claim the woman who lit his desire like no other. He has a proposition for Scarlett: he’ll bankrupt her or bed her. The choice is hers. But when Alessandro is faced with Scarlett’s child, his son, there isn’t a choice at all…The Italian Billionaire’s Secret Love-Child Charlie Chandler gave herself body and soul to her dark and handsome Mediterranean lover. But her dreams were shattered when she discovered the truth – the Italian who had seduced her was ruthless tycoon Riccardo di Napoli. Once Riccardo discovered pregnancy had been the consequence of their passion, nothing would stop him from claiming the child – and Charlie – as his own!The Rich Man’s Love-Child Flynn MacCormac never wanted to see Caitlin Burns again. But she has an explosive revelation – she was pregnant when she left him! Flynn can’t send her away a second time. He doesn’t trust her, but they share a passion nothing can destroy…
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He couldn’t, wouldn’t, ignore his own child… nor the baby’s mother!
Claiming His Secret Love-Child
Three exhilarating romances from three
fabulous Mills & Boon authors!
Claiming His Secret Love-Child
THE MARCIANO
LOVE-CHILD
MELANIE MILBURNE
THE ITALIAN
BILLIONAIRE’S SECRET
LOVE-CHILD
CATHY WILLIAMS
THE RICH MAN’S
LOVE-CHILD
MAGGIE COX
THE MARCIANO
LOVE-CHILD
MELANIE MILBURNE
About the Author
MELANIE MILBURNE is married to a surgeon, Steve, and has two gorgeous sons, Paul and Phil. She lives in Hobart, Tasmania, where she enjoys an active life as a long-distance runner and a nationally ranked top ten Master’s swimmer. She also has a master’s degree in education, but her children totally turned her off the idea of teaching! When not running or swimming she writes, and when she’s not doing all of the above she’s reading. And if someone could invent a way for her to read during a four-kilometre swim she’d be even happier!
Don’t miss Melanie’s latest novel, The Wedding Charade and The Man with the Locked Away Heart, available from the Mills & Boon® Modern™ and Medical™ series in February and March 2011.
Dedicated to Jocey Anderson, Sue Mayne
and Katrina Henry, three wonderful members
of Talays Aussi Master’s Swimming team,
who have bought each and every one of my books
so far. Thank you for being such faithful supporters
both in and out of the pool.
Happy reading and swimming!
CHAPTER ONE
IT HAD started just like any other Monday morning. Scarlett dropped three-year-old Matthew, at crèche after the usual tearful and heart-wrenching ‘don’t leave me, I miss you too much’ routine, before fighting her way through heavy traffic to her small interior-design studio in Woollahra. And just like any other Monday morning her business partner and best friend, Roxanne Hartley, handed her a double-strength latte on her way in the door and asked her how her weekend had been.
‘Don’t ask,’ Scarlett said wearily, and took a reviving sip of the creamy latte.
‘So I take it the blind date your sister set up for you wasn’t a success?’ Roxanne said as she perched on the edge of Scarlett’s desk.
Scarlett rolled her eyes expressively. ‘Depends what you mean by a blind date. Clearly this guy’s idea was to turn up blind drunk. He slurred his way through his sob story about his ex-wife for an hour and a half, until I finally managed to escape.’
‘Poor you,’ Roxanne said in empathy. ‘But don’t give up yet. There’s got to be someone decent out there for you.’
‘Decent would be good,’ Scarlett said, booting up her computer. ‘A good father-figure for Matthew would be good, too, but as soon as men hear I have a three-year-old son they seem to lose interest.’
‘Yes, well, men today can be so shallow,’ Roxanne agreed. ‘They won’t commit, and they want sex on tap.’
‘Tell me about it,’ Scarlett said as she clicked on her computer mouse to activate the screen to check her list of appointments. She put her glasses on and blinked, once, twice, three times, her heart giving a quick, hard thud when she saw that name staring back at her.
‘What’s wrong?’ Roxanne asked in a guileless tone.
Scarlett swivelled her chair to look up at her business partner, her face going pale with shock. ‘You made an appointment for me to meet with Alessandro Marciano?’ she choked.
Roxanne grinned at her excitedly. ‘Yes. I wanted it to be a surprise, otherwise I would have called you over the weekend to tell you about it. He phoned on Friday afternoon just after you’d left. It’s a huge contract, Scarlett. He’s worth zillions, and if we get the deal think of what it will do for us. We’ll be featured in every interior-design magazine across the globe. We won’t have to pay rent any more, we’ll be able to buy the building, no—’ She clasped her hands together in glee and added, ‘—we’ll be able to buy the whole street!’
Scarlett sprang to her feet, almost spilling her latte over her keyboard in the process. ‘I’m not seeing him,’ she said through tight lips. ‘I don’t want the contract. I want nothing to do with it.’
Roxanne slapped the side of her head as if she couldn’t believe what she had just heard. ‘Have you happened to look at our financial statements recently?’ she asked as she slipped down off the desk. ‘Come on, Scarlett, our business loan is stretched to the limit, you know it is. I know things are often a bit slow in January, while everyone is still on summer holidays, but this is a chance in a lifetime. This is just what we need right now. Alessandro Marciano has bought the old Arlington Hotel building in the city. He’s going to turn it into a luxury hotel, with three floors of penthouse apartments for the super rich. And he wants us to do the interior design. Us! Can you believe it? It’s like winning the lottery.’
‘I can’t see him, Roxanne,’ Scarlett insisted. ‘Please don’t ask it of me.’
A light bulb seemed to come on in Roxanne’s head as she peered at Scarlett. ‘Hang on a minute, what… Have you dated him in the past or something?’
‘More than dated,’ Scarlett answered with a dark frown.
Roxanne gave her a probing look. ‘What do you mean “more than dated?”’
