The Italian Count's Defiant Bride

CATHERINE GEORGE

Литагент HarperCollins EUR

Step into a world of sophistication and glamour, where sinfully seductive heroes await you in luxurious international locations.Wedded and bedded by the Italian Count Count Francesco da Luca isn’t used to being made a fool of. When his wilful bride fled the marriage bed, he vowed she’d pay the debt owing him – a wedding night! But Alicia Cross is no longer the trembling, na?ve innocent he married – and she won’t be pushed around by the masterful Count.His runaway bride is proving to be more of a challenge than Francesco anticipated – until he discovers she’s still a virgin. The wedding night he wanted is his for the taking!

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International Billionaires coming in 2009

The Prince’s Waitress Wife by Sarah Morgan, February.

At the Argentinean Billionaire’s Bidding by India Grey, March.

The French Tycoon’s Pregnant Mistress by Abby Green, April.

The Ruthless Billionaire’s Virgin by Susan Stephens, May.

The Italian Count’s Defiant Bride by Catherine George, June.

The Sheikh’s Love-Child by Kate Hewitt, July.

Blackmailed into the Greek Tycoon’s Bed by Carol Marinelli, August.

The Virgin Secretary’s Impossible Boss by Carol Mortimer, September.

8 volumes in all to collect!

Catherine George was born in Wales, and early on developed a passion for reading which eventually fuelled her compulsion to write. Marriage to an engineer led to nine years in Brazil, but on his later travels the education of her son and daughter kept her in the UK. And, instead of constant reading to pass her lonely evenings, she began to write the first of her romantic novels. When not writing and reading she loves to cook, listen to opera and browse in antiques shops.

Recent titles by this author:

*CHRISTMAS REUNION THE MILLIONAIRE’S REBELLIOUS MISTRESSTHE MILLIONAIRE’S CONVENIENT BRIDETHE RICH MAN’S BRIDE

*In the anthology Married by Christmas

Dear Reader

Welcome to my contribution to InternationalBillionaires! Since I come from Wales, where Rugby is not just a game but almost a religion, I was only too delighted to write one of the stories.

Over the years my father, husband and son all played Rugby in the first fifteen at their various schools, and my brother captained his university team, which meant the game was in my blood from early childhood. It was soon the same for my son (who played at fly half), also for my daughter, who is as hotly enthusiastic a fan as her brother. They watch Six Nations matches together, kitted out in the red shirts of Wales and yelling their heads off for the home team. (I do my share of shouting, too.)

As a background to a romantic novel, the game of rugby football provides great heroes: big, muscular men, doing battle like gladiators in a packed arena, with fans cheering them on. So with them in mind the rest soon fell into place.

I hope you enjoy my Rugby story as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Happy reading!

Love

Catherine

THE ITALIAN COUNT’S DEFIANT BRIDE

BY

CATHERINE GEORGE

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

To rugby players of all nationalities,

with a special dedication to the men who wear the red shirts of Wales.

CHAPTER ONE

THE atmosphere in the city was electric. Alicia Cross felt it tingle in her veins as she joined the Welsh rugby fans streaming into Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium. As always they had arrived in their thousands to support their heroes, with the added excitement that today a victory against Italy would mean a step forward towards the holy grail of the Six Nations contest, the grand slam; victory over all five of