by Sarah Morgan
‘Are you sure?’ Her smile was wobbly. ‘The real me gets me in trouble every time.’
‘Never with me. You’re forgetting that I grew up with fake. I grew up watching my mother turn herself inside out in an attempt to please my father.’
Taylor touched his face. ‘You’ve never talked about her.’
‘She worked so hard to make him love her.’ His raw confession startled her and she eased away so she could look at him.
‘You don’t have to tell me this.’
‘I want to. I want you to understand. But I’m not good at this—I’ve never talked to anyone.’
‘Why do you say she was fake?’
‘He hurt her again and again and she just came back for more and tried to be who she thought he wanted her to be. He travelled a lot and I used to dread him coming home. She went from being a relatively stable normal parent to an insecure mess. She’d walk into my room at all hours, sometimes she’d even wake me up, and she’d always be dressed in something different, wanting to know how she looked. “You have your grandfather’s sense of style, Luca, tell me if this works. Will he like me in this?”’ His handsome face revealed the strain. ‘For a while, when I was very young, I actually thought that to be loved you had to wear the right clothes. And every time my father rejected her she’d study his latest girlfriend and try and copy the look and she’d ask me again, “Is this better? Do you think he’ll like this?” And when he didn’t I always blamed myself. Maybe if I’d told her to wear pink instead of cream. Or wear her hair up instead of down. Maybe if I’d got it right, she wouldn’t have spent the whole night crying.’
Appalled, Taylor slid her fingers into his.
He’d shouldered responsibility for his parents’ marriage. He’d taken on his mother’s pain.
‘No wonder you didn’t want commitment.’
‘To me, commitment meant being responsible for someone’s feelings. It meant tying yourself in knots to be what someone else wanted you to be. It was about losing your sense of self. I had to watch her suffer every single day of my life growing up.’ His voice was raw. ‘I saw that love was manipulative and painful. I decided early on I didn’t want that.’
‘No. I can see why you wouldn’t.’ Taylor hesitated and then put her hand on his cheek. ‘I’m no expert, but if love exists I don’t think that was it.’
‘I know it wasn’t.’ He leaned his forehead against hers and she gave an unsteady laugh.
‘What a pair we are. We did this to give us both respectability. Thanks to me, your respectability has been blown apart. I don’t think it quite worked out the way either of us planned.’
‘I’m bored with being respectable. It makes me irritable. I want to be who I really am and I want to be it with you.’ Sliding his hand around her back, he pulled her hard against him. ‘How do you feel about doing this for real?’ He breathed the words against her lips. ‘We can spend the rest of our lives being disreputable together. We can live wickedly ever after.’
It sounded so impossibly good that tears filled her eyes and she blinked them away. ‘Is that really what you want?’
‘Yes. I love you, Taylor Carmichael Corretti. I love you for better and for worse—preferably worse, by the way.’ His eyes glittered into hers. ‘I love a bad girl. Think about it—if I marry you we can spend the rest of our lives shocking people.’
She kissed him, half laughing, half crying and loving him more than she’d thought it was possible to love a person. ‘We’ll be tomorrow’s headlines.’
‘You’re with me now. You don’t care if you’re tomorrow’s headlines. Come on, Teresa, let’s go and break a few rules together, with or without clothes. Your choice.’
She was smiling but the feeling of warmth grew and spread through her veins. ‘Do you mean it? What you just said?’
‘About it being real? About wanting to marry you? Definitely.’
‘No one has ever loved me before. No one. You’re not just worried about losing the new face of Corretti?’
‘This isn’t just the face of Corretti—’ he stroked her cheeks with his thumbs, his eyes warm as he looked at her ‘—it’s the face I want to see every night when I go to sleep and the face I want to see every morning when I wake up.’
The lump grew in her throat. ‘I never knew you were so poetic.’
‘Neither did I. I’m shocking myself.’ He grinned and kissed her on the mouth until she pulled away.
‘I love you too, but I’m worried I’ll destroy your reputation. What about the board—’
‘The board can sort themselves out. I’ve proved I can do it. I’ve increased their profits. Besides, hotels are boring.’ He stifled a yawn. ‘It’s time my brother Matteo came back and got on with the job he’s paid to do. All this respectability is making me uncomfortable. The other day they used the word sobriety in the same breath as my name. Can you believe that?’
Taylor gave a choked laugh. ‘But what will you do? You’re so brilliant and talented—will you focus on the fashion business?’
‘I’ll do what I do best which is living life to the full. Want to live it with me, dolcezza?’
She didn’t need to think about it. Not even for a second. ‘Yes,’ she said simply, ‘yes, I do.’
‘Bene. In that case I take you, Taylor Carmichael, to have and to hold, to sin and misbehave with until too much hot sex doth leave us breathless and knackered. How does that sound to you?’
Laughing, unbelievably happy, she wrapped her arms round his neck. ‘It sounds just perfect.’
Read on for an exclusive interview with Sarah Morgan!
BEHIND THE SCENES OF SICILY’S CORRETTI DYNASTY:
with Sarah Morgan
It’s such a huge world to create—an entire Sicilian dynasty. Did you discuss parts of it with the other writers?
Whenever you take part in a series like this it’s important to be consistent and link the books so, yes, there was discussion between the writers. We emailed back and forth discussing various aspects of the setting and characters and how we might bring it to life.
How does being part of the continuity differ from when you are writing your own stories?
When I write my own stories I create everything, including the setting, the characters, the backstory and the conflict. I don’t have to think—or worry—about anyone else. In a continuity, the authors are given a large volume of background information to work with and that can be very challenging. Although there is some flexibility and freedom within the brief, I have to remember that any changes I make might impact on someone else’s story. But I’m still writing a love story between two people and the focus is on their emotional journey so the basic process is the same.
What was the biggest challenge? And what did you most enjoy about it?
The biggest challenge is always being given an outline for two characters and the main plot points. Fortunately, I fell in love with these characters. From the moment I read the brief they came alive for me and I could “see” who they were and how their conflict would play out in the story.
As you wrote your hero and heroine, was there anything about them that surprised you?
I was surprised by just how bad Luca was. But I wasn’t alone in that. Taylor was surprised, too. So we spent the book being surprised together!
What was your favorite part of creating the world of Sicily’s most famous dynasty?
It was lovely to spend my day dreaming of Sicilian blue skies and the sparkling ocean, but the best part for me was writing the dialogue between the hero and heroine. I call this my “banter book.” Taylor and Luca had so much fun together, even during the most emotionally charged intense moments of the story, and I had so much fun writing it.
If you could have given your heroine one piece of advice before the opening pages of the book, what would it be?
Beware of wickedly hot men bearing champagne.
What was your hero’s biggest secret?
I never reveal a person’s secr
ets! I can tell you that Luca is not a man who feels the need to hide who he is from anyone, but there are things he prefers not to talk about.
What does your hero love most about the heroine?
Apart from her legs? That she’s every bit as bad as he is.
What does your heroine love most about your hero?
That he doesn’t care what other people think of him.
Which of the Correttis would you most like to meet and why?
Luca! He’s one of the most wickedly gorgeous heroes I’ve written and I love his sense of humor. I know a night with him would be something no woman would forget!
Preview
Please read on for a sneak peek at the next book in
SICILY’S CORRETTI DYNASTY,
A Shadow of Guilt by Abby Green, which features in
The Correttis: Revenge
available in June 2013.
A SHADOW OF GUILT
Abby Green
Gio lifted his arms and brought his hands to Valentina’s face, cupping her jaw, his thumbs wiping away the moisture from her cheeks. She knew she must look a sight, and Gio’s shirt had to be sodden from her tears and runny nose. But she didn’t care. A fierce burgeoning desire was rising within her, something which had been there before but had been put on ice for seven years.
For a long time it had been illicit and forbidden, guilty. But from the moment she’d seen him again it had flamed to life. Yet the contradiction had duelled within her: how could she hate him and want him at the same time? But now those questions faded in her head. Hate felt like a much more indefinable thing and the desire was there, stronger than hate, rushing through her blood and making her feel alive.
She lifted a hand and touched Gio’s hard jaw. He clenched it against her hand. Desire thickened the air around them, unmistakable. As if questioning it, Gio looked down at her, a small frown between his eyes, ‘Valentina?’
It was the same look he’d given her the other night when she’d exposed herself and she understood it now. He’d been asking the question then, unsure of what she’d been telling him with her body language. The knowledge was heady. He wanted her.
One of Valentina’s fingers touched Gio’s bottom lip, tracing its full, sensuous outline. Words were rising up within her, she couldn’t keep them back. ‘Gio…kiss me.’ She’d wanted this, ached for this for so long.
It was only after an interminable moment of nothing happening that she looked up into Gio’s eyes and saw something like torture in their dark green depths. He shook his head. ‘This is not a good idea. You don’t want this, not really.’
He wanted to kiss and plunder this woman before she changed her mind but he knew he couldn’t. She hated him already, she would despise him forever for this.
Valentina’s gaze narrowed on his. A light was dawning in her eyes. He braced himself for the moment when she would pull herself free and demand to know what the hell he was doing.
And then she said, ‘Damn you, Gio Corretti, kiss me.’
© Harlequin Books S.A. 2013
Special thanks and acknowledgement are given to Abby Green for her contribution to the Sicily’s Corretti Dynasty series
All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.
All Rights Reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises II B.V./S.à.r.l. The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the prior consent of the publisher in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
® andTM are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.
First published in Great Britain 2013
Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited,
Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
An Invitation to Sin © Harlequin Books S.A. 2013
Special thanks and acknowledgement are given to Sarah Morgan for her contribution to the Sicily’s Corretti Dynasty series
eISBN: 978-1-472-01520-4