Holiday With The Mystery Italian
Winning the ultimate prize…Since the accident that paralyzed him, Italian tycoon Mauro Evans vowed to embrace life. So when he stars in a dating show for charity, picking prickly journalist Amber Harris as the winner to take on holiday is a challenge he can’t resist!In Amber’s experience, relationships equal pain, so she’s determined to ignore her attraction to charismatic Mauro. But his bravery and strength threaten to tear down her defences, giving her a new Christmas dream – ringing in the New Year with wedding bells!
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Winning the ultimate prize...
Since the accident that paralyzed him, Italian tycoon Mauro Evans vowed to embrace life. So when he stars in a dating show for charity, picking prickly journalist Amber Harris as the winner to take on holiday is a challenge he can’t resist!
In Amber’s experience, relationships equal pain, so she’s determined to ignore her attraction to charismatic Mauro. But his bravery and strength threaten to tear down her defenses, giving her a new Christmas dream—ringing in the New Year with wedding bells!
“Why are you angry that I paid you a compliment?”
Amber sighed, shaking her head. “I’m not angry that you complimented me, Mauro. I’m angry that you lied to me.”
“When?” Taken aback, she stopped for a moment. “When did I lie?” he asked again.
“You called me beautiful. And I know that that’s not me. So don’t do it. Please.”
“I’m sorry,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders as he leaned back against the side of the pool. “I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“And that’s the point, isn’t it? It could have been anyone. I bet you’ve used that line a dozen times before, haven’t you?”
“Amber, I think you’re being—”
“I’m sorry, Mauro, I need to get showered.” She boosted out of the pool and walked away.
By the time Mauro came into the house from the pool, she was showered, caffeinated and had regained some of her composure.
“I’m sorry,” she said as he wheeled into the living space where she was sitting with an espresso and the English papers.
He shrugged. “No need to apologize. But, you know, I’ve given it some thought,” he said. “And I honestly think you’re a very beautiful woman.”
“Well, okay,” Amber said with a small smile. “As long as you’ve thought about it.”
When my husband whisked me away to Sicily on our honeymoon, I knew that it would be the perfect place to set a story. The beaches are beautiful, the mountains dramatic and the local cuisine mouthwatering. It was a real treat to revisit my photos and memories to bring Mauro and Amber’s story to life.
Special thanks go to my sister Rosie, not only for recommending the honeymoon destination in the first place, but for answering endless questions and providing Italian translations ever since—grazie mille!
I hope you enjoy visiting Sicily with Mauro and Amber as much as I did! If you’re interested in seeing more of photos and inspiration, you can check out my Pinterest board at Pinterest.com/elliedarkins.
Lots of love,
Ellie Darkins
ELLIE DARKINS spent her formative years devouring romance novels, and after completing her English degree, she decided to make a living from her love of books. As a writer and editor, her work now entails dreaming up romantic proposals, hot dates with alpha males and trips to the past with dashing heroes. When she’s not working, she can usually be found running around after her toddler, volunteering at her local library or escaping all the above with a good book and a vanilla latte.
For Matilda
Contents
‘LAST BUT NOT LEAST, contestant number three, here’s your question: As a gold-medal-winning ParaGames swimmer...’ he paused for whoops from the enthusiastic audience ‘...I obviously spend a lot of time in the water. If you were a sea creature, what would you be and why?’
Amber suppressed an eye-roll. Seriously, this show couldn’t be any cheesier if it tried. She had thought when she’d arrived that the flashing lights and tinsel-bedecked set were tacky enough, but this guy’s titillating questions were taking the cringe factor to a new level. She just had to play along, she reminded herself, and get this over with. A charity gig was a charity gig, and when you worked in the media, even as a lowly newspaper columnist, you sometimes found yourself doing something completely embarrassing in aid of a kids’ charity. Like appearing on a celebrity version of the country’s best-loved dating show.
Luckily, with the answers she’d prepared, there was no way that this ‘eligible bachelor’ was going to pick her, even if the whole thing hadn’t been scripted by the producers, so it was just a case of answering this last question, posing for a quick photo, and getting back to her laptop and her deadline. She still hadn’t finished her latest column. Well, she hadn’t actually started it yet—she had a mailbox full of ‘Dear Amber’ letters, and still had to choose the most interesting to feature on the magazine’s website.
She took a deep breath and tried to remember the answer to the bachelor’s final question that she’d written and memorised when she’d been emailed in advance.
‘A killer whale,’ she said, sotto voce. No doubt the man on the other side of the screen, not to mention the producers, had been hoping for something a little sexier. Something about mermaids and their shells and their penchant for handsome princes, or firefly jellyfishes lighting up the ocean. She’d considered several contenders for her answer, each designed to ensure that she would be the last contestant that this eligible bachelor would be interested in. ParaGames swimmer. That definitely rang a bell—Mauro someone. Welsh surname. She spent an hour every morning in her local pool, and had watched hours of footage of the international sports and para championships held in London a few summers ago. He’d won a clutch of medals, featured in a fly-on-the-wall documentary about his training regime and then been the face of various food and sportswear brands in the years since.
