Exclusive Excerpt: My Fake Italian Marriage

Escape to Tuscany with my latest release, My Fake Italian Marriage. Read on for an exclusive excerpt.

 

“I could murder Vicente,” Cleo hissed. “I told you this would happen! Lies always have a way of catching up.” She blew out a long, steadying breath. “How can they believe we’re married? We’ve barely known each other a couple of weeks!”
“My parents were married just a few weeks after they met,” Luca explained. And it had been love at first sight for his brother too. “It happens.”
She eyed him sceptically. “Well, you can walk right back in there and tell them it was all a big misunderstanding.” She hefted up her suitcase. “I’m going to take a long, hot shower, and hope that by the time I get out you’ve fixed this.”
She began to climb the stairs, and he hurried after her, taking the steps two at a time. “Wait!”
She paused to face him.
“We could use this to our advantage. If my father thinks I’ve married, he’ll be more willing to hand over the business.” He flashed her a grin. “He’ll see you as one of the family and be less likely to fight for control of the vineyard.”
She set her suitcase down. “Are you insane? We can’t pretend to be married. The wine show was one thing, but this affects our real lives. When I go back to London in a few weeks, what are you going to tell everyone? Will you tell them the truth – that this was all a con?”
“I will tell them that you came to your senses and left me. No one who knows me will be surprised.”
She shook her head. “It’ll never work. Just think: your parents will expect us to sleep together.” She fixed him with a stern look. “And no way are we repeating this morning.”
“We will stay in my apartment in town, instead of here. I have a guest bedroom. No one will know we aren’t sharing a bed.” She shook her head, but he sensed her resolve weakening, and went in for the kill. “You’ve already agreed to stay on for the next few weeks. How hard can it be to keep up a pretence for that time?” Then he pulled out his trump card, appealing to her soft heart. “Look at how much stronger my father is because of this news. We only need a few weeks more for him to regain his health and for him to accept the staff changes. Think how you’ll be helping a sick, old man.”
Cleo glanced up the stairs as if looking for an escape. Then she sighed. “I must be crazy to even consider this.”
Yes! This could work. He could feel it in his bones. They had everything to win, and nothing to lose.
“If this gets out, how am I ever going to explain this back home?” she asked.
Though she said it more to herself, he answered for her, full of confidence now. “It won’t get out.”
She sucked her lower lip between her teeth, and his cock stirred. Not now, he instructed it firmly.
She pinned him with a steely gaze. “That’s what you said about Evan. And Graziano. And everyone at the wine show. Now the whole of Montalcino will know… where will it end?”
“Is that a no?”
“It’s not a yes.” She turned away. “Give me half an hour to think about it.”
He grinned. “You know, I somehow imagined that if I ever proposed to a woman, she’d jump at the chance to marry me.”
“And I somehow imagined that if a man ever proposed to me, he’d be on his knees, with a ring in his hands. Looks like neither of us is going to get what we imagined.”

My Fake Italian Marriage is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iBooks and Google Play.