Sneak Peek Sunday

The Playboy's Fugitive Bride
Sneak Peek - Sunday, October 20, 2013


Nia stepped off the elevator and into the lobby of the hotel in time to see the concierge hand Massimo a piece of paper she assumed was her bill.

I belong to him now, she thought as she watched him scrawl his signature on the receipt. He had bought her, just as he bought companies, yachts, jets, or whatever his avaricious heart desired. There was no turning back now, just as there had been no turning back six years ago when he reneged on the business agreement between their fathers.

Memories assailed Nia as she strolled ahead of the bellboy who carried her bags. She remembered how relieved her father had been the day he signed the contract with Luciano Andretti. She also remembered how worried he’d been in the months leading up to that day. By the time Luciano had agreed to help, her father had already mortgaged their family home and had cashed in his retirement and his children’s college funds to keep the mill open.

According to Luciano, a paper mill—one of the remaining few in New England—was an asset to Andretti Industries. There had been plans to expand beyond paper production, plans that would be financially beneficial to both parties. But Massimo apparently thought differently, and after being told that the new CEO of Andretti Industries was no longer interested in honoring the contract with West Gate Paper Mills, her father had turned to a loan shark for help. When that money evaporated, the bank foreclosed on the mill, putting her father and a hundred and fifty other employees out of work. The final blow came when the bank foreclosed on their house, leaving her family homeless.

It hadn’t eased Nia’s pain when she’d learned that the new owner had renovated the mill, rehired most of the former employees, and turned it into the most prosperous in the area. Her father was already dead and she and Aaron had been forced to leave the only home they’d ever known.

And now to fulfill her father’s request to take care of Aaron, she’d offered to become of all things—Massimo Andretti’s whore. His property. His eagerness to shell out four million dollars—well, two, since she wouldn’t be around to collect the other two million—just for the pleasure of bedding her gave her pause. Did he find her that irresistible? And should she trust him to adhere to the terms of their agreement?

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