The De Santis Marriage

Michelle Reid

Step into a world of sophistication and glamour, where sinfully seductive heroes await you in luxurious international locations.Blackmailed and bedded for a baby!Italian tycoon Luciano De Santis is breathtaking in every way – he has dark goodlooks, a decadent jetsetting lifestyle, power and success – and a devastating effect on women. Now Luc needs a bride – and he’s demanding ordinary virgin Lizzy Hadley as his wife! He’s trapped her, blackmailed her, and he’s determined to claim her – and as Lizzy’s family owe him millions of pounds, she won’t be able to refuse.But there’s one condition of the De Santis marriage that Luc forgot to mention – when she becomes his wife, she must produce an heir!

‘You will marry me, just as everything has been arranged already,’ he countered. ‘You willaccept with grace anything I choose to bestow on you, and youwillnot go back to work.’

Lizzy swung to face him and was shocked by the kick she received low in her gut because he was so— ‘Y-you can’t just slot me into Bianca’s place just like that,’ she fed, over what her body was trying to make her feel. ‘The authorities won’t allow it!’

‘At the risk of sounding boringly repetitive, money talks.’

Money talks. And so it did. ‘I think I hate you,’ she whispered.

‘Nevertheless you will take up Bianca’s place with pride and dignity, and fool the world into thinking it was you and I who discovered we couldn’t live without each other. And you will not pay me back with anything other than with our first child, seeded in your womb. With that goal in mind you will come to our marriage bed with warmth and honesty—which means you will not fight against what we both desire.’

Michelle Reid grew up on the southern edges of Manchester, the youngest in a family of five lively children. Now she lives in the beautiful county of Cheshire, with her busy executive husband and two grown-up daughters. She loves reading, the ballet, and playing tennis when she gets the chance. She hates cooking, cleaning, and despises ironing! Sleep she can do without, and produces some of her best written work during the early hours of the morning.

Recent titles by the same author:

THE MARKONOS BRIDE

THE ITALIAN’S FUTURE BRIDE

THE DE SANTIS MARRIAGE

BY

MICHELLE REID

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

CHAPTER ONE

THE WHOLE pre-wedding party thing was revving up like a gigantic engine and Lizzy had never felt less like partying in her entire life.

Now a night at La Scala, dear God, she thought heavily. For here she stood surrounded by luxury in this posh Milan hotel suite, about to put on a posh designer dress that must have cost more money than she dared let herself think about, so she could look the part for a posh gala evening spent at La Scala, while back home in England the family business was about to go under taking everything they owned along with it.

She had not wanted to come to her best friend’s wedding but her father had insisted. Her brother Matthew had gone a whole step further and become really angry. ‘Don’t be stupid,’ he’d snapped at her. ‘Do you want Dad to feel worse than he already does about this mess? Go to Bianca’s wedding as planned,’ he’d instructed, ‘and while you’re there wish her all the damn best from me with her super-rich catch.’

It had been said with such bite it made Lizzy wince to recall him saying it. Matthew was never going to forgive her best friend for falling in love with another man.

Then Bianca and her parents had put even more pressure on her to come to Milan and in the end it had been easier to give in and do what everyone wanted her to do when all she’d wanted to do was to be at her father’s side supporting him.

But instead she had to shimmy into this dress, Lizzy told herself, puffing back an unruly curl when it flopped across one eye as she settled the straps onto her shoulders then turned to the mirror to check out the finished effect.

What she saw reflected back at her sent instant horror pouring into her expr