CoCo Abelli is the last woman Rian Dalton wants to protect. A spoiled heiress to a designer shoe empire with a reputation for hard partying and getting into trouble? Nope, Rian wants nothing to do with CoCo's kind of trouble. Especially when she has...
NO TURNING BACK NOW,” his brother said, helping him adjust his tie because his own hands were shaking so hard. “You look great, little brother.”
Rian looked to Kane and gripped his arm gratefully. “Thanks for everything. You’re the reason I turned into anyone halfway decent. You made sure I was fed, safe, even got me my first job.”
Kane’s eyes watered but he covered with a gruff “Don’t be going all mushy on me now.” But then he added, “You didn’t need me to be who you were meant to be. You were always a good kid and you’re an even better man.”
The wedding march started and he knew this was the moment he’d always been waiting for, even if he’d never known it. The woman of his dreams was going to marry him today. He could hardly believe it. A lot had happened in the year since Barto Calvino had taken his shot at CoCo and it was dizzying to try to put it all in a timeline but the highlights were simple and profound.
CoCo was now a full-fledged partner in the Abelli shoe empire, making waves with her beautiful, feminine heels that everyone seemed to want to have—helped in no small part by Laci wearing Abelli heels exclusively on her newest tour—and CoCo had realized that she’d been hiding behind a party lifestyle to keep from admitting that she was afraid of failing. Now it was hard to remember when CoCo had been a hard-core party animal because today, she was a businesswoman and artist. Except behind closed doors, then she returned to her wild roots and did things that made Rian worship at her feet.
Enzo, determined to make things right as best he could, named the newest line the Calvino and donated every cent of the sales to a scholarship fund in Vincent’s name for aspiring designers with Italian ancestry and humble beginnings. It’d made Enzo feel good to associate something positive with Vincent instead of the unfortunate stain his son had caused, all because of something Enzo had done when he’d been young and too ambitious to see beyond his actions.
“You ready to do this?” Kane asked.
Rian met his brother’s inquisitive look with a resolute one of his own. “I’m more than ready, brother. Let’s do this.”
“All right, then. Let’s go.”
Today was the start of the rest of his life, and Rian, for one, couldn’t wait to get things rolling.
He and CoCo had a lifetime of lovin’, fightin’ and baby-makin’ to do and he didn’t want to waste another minute.
* * * * * THE END * * * * * I love happy ending.... I'm glad I'm able to finish my first book up. Stay tuned for the new one 👇
Read the prologue below
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The rules of engagement...
When Cristiano Marchetti proposes to former mistress Alice Piper, the deal has an expiry date. He has six months to fulfil the conditions of his grandmother’s will. But the hotelier has another agenda—exacting revenge on Alice for daring to walk away seven years before!
Alice needs the financial security her enemy is providing, but soon their every clash is a shockingly tempting encounter. Yet as she uncovers the man beneath the hard-hearted exterior, the future Mrs. Marchetti wonders if she could break the rules of their engagement...and walk down the aisle as more than Cristiano’s temporary bride!
Alice brought her gaze back up to Cristiano’s glittering one. “You’re surely not going to go through with this...are you?”
A smile that wasn’t quite a smile courted with the edges of his mouth. “But of course. It is what Nonna wanted. Who am I to disregard her last wishes?”
Alice frowned so hard she could have frightened off twenty ampoules of Botox. “What happens if I don’t agree?”
“To me?” He gave a careless shrug. “Nothing other than a few shares in the company that will pass to a relative if I don’t comply with the terms of the will.”
Alice wondered how important those shares were to him. Was his easy-come-easy-go shrug disguising deeper, far more urgent motivations? Enough to marry someone he now hated? She sent her tongue out over lips so dry it felt like she was licking talcum powder. “So...why would you want to marry someone who clearly doesn’t want to marry you?”
His dark-as-night gaze gleamed, making Alice’s belly shudder. “You know why.”
Alice arched one of her brows, trying to ignore the pulsing heat his words evoked deep in her feminine core. “Revenge, Cristiano? I thought you were a civilized man.”
