Innocent in the Billionaire's Bed

by Clare Connelly

  A sob bubbled inside her chest and she dug her nails into her palms again, trying to quell it.

  ‘But you weren’t there, and when I heard you had been fired I felt guilt and despair in measures I have never known. I didn’t protect you. I left you to face the firing squad.’

  ‘It wasn’t your job to protect me,’ she said with stoic determination.

  ‘No, but it is my privilege to want to,’ he corrected quietly. ‘I had arrogantly assumed you would be there, waiting for me to make my grand gesture and sweep you off your feet.’

  ‘I would have quit if he hadn’t fired me,’ she said with a small shake of her head. ‘I betrayed him.’

  ‘You were trying to do a favour for Cressida,’ he pointed out. ‘You weren’t to know she was using you so that she could marry that dropkick.’

  Tilly swallowed. ‘Anyway,’ she said softly, her heart and mind fogged from all that he’d said, unsure how to proceed, ‘it’s done.’

  ‘How is your brother?’ he asked.

  She started, shifting her eyes to his. ‘I... He’s okay,’ she said, though she was guilty there too, for she had been so caught up with her own sadness that she’d barely checked in with Jack.

  ‘Matilda?’ he said, and she pulled a face.

  ‘Tilly, please. The only time I’m called Matilda is when my parents are really, really angry with me.’

  His smile flickered but it was reserved; uncertainty sat heavily around his shoulders. ‘Tilly,’ he said, the word low and deep.

  Her nerves clenched.

  ‘I was angry with you, and yet I am so lucky. I get to fall in love with you not once, but twice.’

  She looked at him in confusion.

  ‘The woman I met on the island, whom I loved instantly and completely—the woman who opened her heart to me and buried herself deep in mine. And now you and everything about you I don’t yet know. Who are your family? What are your dreams? I want to know, and I want to love all of you. Will you let me?’

  She let out a small sound. A sob? A laugh? She couldn’t have determined, but it was accompanied by a watery smile and a nod of her head.

  ‘I didn’t want to lie to you,’ she whispered. ‘As soon as I knew how serious we were I wanted to tell you, but there was the money and... It all happened so fast.’

  ‘I know this,’ he said, stroking her hair. ‘Tilly, I am sorry you lost your job. And if it’s any consolation I believe Art would welcome you back with a flowery speech that would even outdo me.’ He grinned.

  She smiled. ‘His is not an easy office to run.’

  ‘I can imagine.’ Rio nodded. ‘But, as you are not working now, perhaps you would consider coming with me. Now. Tonight.’

  ‘Coming with you where?’

  His smile spread across his face like butter on warm toast. ‘Into our future, mi amore.’

  * * *

  ‘You never told me how Art took the news?’ Tilly murmured, her eyes trained on the water, looking for the first sign of Prim’amore.

  He squeezed her hand and she looked up at him, her heart tripping over itself with its spasming response to the love in his eyes.

  ‘I softened the blow a bit.’

  She lifted a brow, waiting for him to continue.

  ‘Arketà,’ he explained. ‘Why do I need two islands?’

  Her smile was broad. ‘You sold him your island?’

  ‘I have it on good authority that two is excessive.’ He grinned. ‘It is a much better buy for him. It already has infrastructure and it is an easier commute to the mainland.’

  ‘That was kind of you,’ she said, but embarrassment at the unceremonious way she’d been dumped from her job still made her cringe.

  Rio understood. ‘When you are ready, we will visit him together. He was wrong to fire you, and even more wrong to blame you for his daughter’s duplicity. I believe he is aware of that, and regrets his actions.’

  She shrugged, her eyes turning back to the water, seeking the island. ‘I worked for him a long time. I really came to care for him. It’s strange to think that he blamed me... And yet without me it would have been a lot more difficult for Cressida to run off and get married.’

  ‘Do you think that would have stopped her?’

  Tilly lifted her eyes to his, her expression thoughtful. ‘No,’ she said finally, shaking her head. ‘When Cressida wants something, nothing will stand in her way.’

  ‘Speaking of weddings...’ He changed the subject subtly. ‘I thought we could marry on the island. But, on reflection, this presents two problems.’

  She jerked her head to his, her eyes showing that she didn’t completely understand. ‘Marry?’

  ‘Our wedding,’ he said with a nod, as though it were a foregone conclusion.

  She laughed. In the two days since he’d arrived at her apartment they’d barely been separated. But she was pretty sure she hadn’t missed a discussion about getting married.

  ‘Did I sleep through a proposal?’

  He blinked rapidly. ‘I told you, didn’t I? That I want to love you for ever?’

  She laughed. ‘Yes.’

  ‘What did you think that meant?’

  ‘I... That you love me?’ she replied with a shake of her head.

  ‘I said I would love you for ever, and I asked you to let me love you,’ he said, his lips twitching at the corners. ‘Is that not a proposal and an acceptance?’

  She tilted her head to the side. ‘I don’t recall a bended knee.’

  ‘I do,’ he grinned. ‘I was crouched at your feet, wasn’t I?’

  She slapped a hand to her forehead, her cheeks hurting from smiling so widely. And behind his shoulder she saw the tip of the volcano crest above the ocean, and then, rapidly, the island.

  Rafaelo turned the boat sharply, pushing it around into the cove that housed the cabin.

  She let her eyes drift back to Rio’s face and saw he was watching her.

  ‘We’ll see,’ she said with another laugh, too enthralled by being back at the island to give the conversation her full attention.

  As the boat slowed into the shallows Rio stood, moving to the back and pressing a button to let the anchor down. It made a mechanised noise as it began to drop, and then Rio leaped from the boat, landing with confident ease in the shallows of the ocean.

  He lifted a hand up to Tilly, and she looked at it for a brief moment before jumping overboard, happily landing on her feet before dropping into the water, grinning from ear to ear as the water wrapped her, fully clothed, in its depths.

  When she stood, he was looking at her as though she lost her mind—and he loved it. ‘You are utterly unique,’ he said with a shake of his head.

  On the boat, Rafaelo cackled softly. Tilly winked at him and then jumped up, pushing at Rio’s chest until he fell backwards into the water.

  He laughed as he splashed to the ground. ‘Why do I think life with you is going to leave very few dull moments?’

  ‘If any,’ she agreed with a nod.

  He stood, shaking his head and reaching down to scoop her up. And she let him carry her out of the water towards the beach. He deposited her wet feet on the sand and then paced back to the boat, taking their two small bags and carrying them easily towards her.

  She watched him, her heart soaring. Behind him the sun was dipping down, and everything was right in the world.

  ‘Let me stow these inside,’ he said.

  She nodded, tears of happiness clogging her throat. She waved at Rafaelo as he turned the boat back out to sea and found a path just to the left of the sun’s golden trail.

  When Rio returned, it was with an ice-cold bottle of champagne and two glasses.

  ‘After last time?’ she said with a rueful smile.

  ‘A small glass,’ he said. ‘I feel like celebrating.’

  ‘And what are we celebrating?’ she asked rhetorically, because fate and destiny had conspired to bring them every good thing in life.

  He crouched down, so that he
could better pop the champagne cork, but before he’d taken the foil from the top he reached for her hand.

  ‘I think you missed my proposal earlier. So let me ask you now, Matilda Morgan, if you will marry me? Marry me anywhere, any time, but be my wife for always. I want to save you from falling into volcanoes for the rest of our days.’

  She turned to look down at him and saw, for the first time, that he was holding a small velvet box. And it was saturated. Her cheeks flushed as she realised he must have had it with him when she’d ploughed him into the ocean.

  ‘Oh...’ She blinked, almost blinded by the solitaire diamond. It was surrounded by a circlet of green stones.

  ‘Like your eyes.’

  The words were a love song all on their own. She felt the rhythm and verse move over her and her heart danced.

  ‘I love it,’ she promised.

  ‘Will you wear it, Tilly? Knowing that you wear it as a sign that I belong to you and you belong to me?’

  She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

  ‘Will you marry me? In front of our family and friends?’

  She nodded again, her eyes sparkling. ‘Only if you marry me back.’

  His laugh filled her soul with happiness. ‘I will.’

  * * *

  And so it was that, two months to the day after leaving the island in such a state of despair, Tilly stood before her family, her friends, and even the Wyndhams, and promised to have and to hold Rio Mastrangelo for all her life.

  She didn’t see them, of course. Though two hundred guests had joined them on the island, and were standing on the beach sipping champagne and adoring the obviously in love couple, Tilly saw only Rio.

  She saw him as he was—the handsome billionaire who had devoted his skills to preserving buildings and objects of interest. She saw him as he had been—the boy with too much worry on his shoulders, who had loved and felt loved by one person on earth, the person who had spent years saying a slow, painful farewell to her only child. She saw him as he would be—her life partner, her lover and, yes, the father of her children.

  A smile curled her lips as she thought of the tiny life shielded in her belly.

  But that was her secret. A gift she would give him later, when they were all alone.

  Night fell and the guests remained. A blanket of stars shone overhead, and as Tilly pressed her body close to Rio’s and he wrapped his arms around her, holding her to him, a shooting star passed directly above the party, serenading it with wishes from heaven.

  Tilly blinked up at her husband and smiled.

  Their future was brighter than a thousand shooting stars.

  * * * * *

  EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT

  Leonidas Betancur was presumed dead after a plane crash, and he cannot recall the vows he made to his bride Susannah four years ago. But once tracked down, his memories resurface – and he’s ready to collect his belated wedding night! Susannah wants Leonidas to reclaim his empire and free her of his legacy. But dangerously attractive Leonidas steals her innocence with a touch… And the consequences of their passion will bind them together for ever!

  Read on for a sneak preview of Caitlin Crews’ next story

  A BABY TO BIND HIS BRIDE

  One Night With Consequences

  There was a discreet knock on the paneled door and the doctor stepped back into the room.

  “Congratulations, madame, monsieur,” the doctor said, nodding at each of them in turn while Susannah’s breath caught in her throat. “The test is positive. You are indeed pregnant, as you suspected.”

  She barely noticed when Leonidas escorted the doctor from the room. He could have been gone for hours. When he returned he shut the door behind him, enclosing them in the salon that had seemed spacious before, and that was when Susannah walked stiffly around the settee to sit on it.

  His dark, tawny gaze had changed, she noticed. It had gone molten. He still held himself still, though she could tell the difference in that, too. It was as if an electrical current ran through him now, charging the air all around him even while his mouth remained in an unsmiling line.dpg!

  And he looked at her as if she was naked. Stripped. Flesh and bone with nothing left to hide.

  “Is it so bad, then?” he asked in a mild sort of tone she didn’t believe at all.

  Susannah’s chest was so heavy, and she couldn’t tell if it was the crushing weight of misery or something far more dangerous. She held her belly with one hand as if it was already sticking out. As if the baby might start kicking at any second.

  “The Betancur family is a cage,” she told him, or the parquet floor beneath the area rug that stretched out in front of the fireplace, and it cost her to speak so precisely. So matter-of-factly. “I don’t want to live in a cage. There must be options.”

  “I am not a cage,” Leonidas said with quiet certainty. “The Betancur name has drawbacks, it is true, and most of them were at that gala tonight. But it is also not a cage. On the contrary. I own enough of the world that it is for all intents and purposes yours now. Literally.”

  “I don’t want the world.” She didn’t realize she’d shot to her feet until she was taking a step toward him, very much as if she thought she might take a swing at him next. As if she’d dare. “I don’t need you. I don’t want you. I want to be free.”

  He took her face in his hands, holding her fast, and this close his eyes were a storm. Ink dark with gold like lightning, and she felt the buzz of it. Everywhere.

  “This is as close as you’re going to get, little one,” he told her, the sound of that same madness in his gaze, his voice.

  And then he claimed her mouth with his.

  Don’t miss

  A BABY TO BIND HIS BRIDE

  By Caitlin Crews

  Available January 2018

  www.millsandboon.co.uk

  Copyright ©2017 Caitlin Crews

  ISBN: 978-1-474-05322-8

  INNOCENT IN THE BILLIONAIRE’S BED

  © 2017 Clare Connelly

  Published in Great Britain 2017

  by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

  All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

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