Jennifer Hayward - The Divorce Party

“You threw your fifty-thousand-dollar engagement ring off the Brooklyn Bridge?”

Lilly shows up to her lavish divorce party with one goal in mind—to leave as quickly as possible minus a husband! Except he has other plans…and Riccardo De Campo isn’t easy to say “no” to.

Forced back into Riccardo’s glittering, gossip-fueled world, the price of perfection is still too high and Lilly’s old insecurities resurface. An unexpected consequence of their reunion raises the stakes even higher, and the media’s golden couple must finally confront the truth behind the headlines.

Lilly squared her shoulders and pulled in a deep breath as Riccardo stopped in front of them. He leaned down and brushed a kiss against her cheek.

“Late and wearing pink. One would think you’re deliberately trying to antagonize me, Lilly.”

Her pulse sped into overdrive. “Maybe I’m celebrating my new-found freedom.”

“Ah, but you don’t have it yet,” he countered, moving his lips to the other cheek. “And you aren’t putting me in the kind of mood to grant it to you.”

Lilly was aware of the eyes on them as he pulled back and stung her face with a reprimanding look that made her feel like a fifth-grader. “Don’t play games with me, Riccardo,” she said quietly. “I will turn around and walk out of here so fast you won’t know what hit you.”

His dark eyes glinted and his mouth tipped up at the corners. “You’ve already done that, tesoro, and now you’re back.”

JENNIFER HAYWARDhas been a fan of romance and adventure since filching her sister’s Mills & Boon ®Presents novels to escape her teenage angst.

Jennifer penned her first romance at nineteen. When it was rejected, she bristled at her mother’s suggestion that she needed more life experience. She went on to complete a journalism degree, before settling into a career in public relations. Years of working alongside powerful, charismatic CEOs and travelling the world provided perfect fodder for creating the arrogant alpha males she loves to write about.

A suitable amount of life experience under her belt, she sat down and conjured up the sexiest, most delicious Italian wine magnate she could imagine, had him make his biggest mistake and gave him a wife on the run. That story, THE DIVORCE PARTY, won her Harlequin’s So You Think You Can Write contest and a book contract. Turns out Mother knew best.

A native of Canada’s gorgeous east coast, Jennifer now lives in Toronto with her Viking husband and their young Viking-in-training. She considers the meetings of her ten-year-old book club, comprising some of the most amazing women she’s ever met, as sacrosanct dates in her calendar. And some day they will have their monthly meeting at her fantasy beach house, waves lapping at their feet, wine glasses in hand.

You can find Jennifer on Facebook and Twitter.

This is Jennifer’s stunning debut, we hope you love it as much as we do!

Did you know these are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

The Divorce Party

Jennifer Hayward

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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Dear Reader

This story begins on a cold winter day with a cup of coffee, a newspaper and a real-life party that sparked a tale that just had to be told.

On the front page of my newspaper that morning was the story of a lavish divorce party a Manhattan billionaire was throwing to celebrate the end of his three-year marriage. The embossed invitations, the incredibly civilized approach to the end of a union due to irreconcilable differences fascinated me. What would bring a couple to this point? Why would anyone want to end their marriage in front of family and friends?

I started to wonder—what if the billionaire didn’t really want a divorce? What if what he really wanted was his wife back and this was the only way he could get her in the same room with him? What if they were madly in love but the very act of being together destroyed them? Could this marriage ever be saved?

My billionare became sexy Italian wine magnate, Riccardo De Campo, and his feisty, on-the-run wife, Lilly.

I’ve dreamed of writing romances for as long as I can remember, but the story of Riccardo and Lilly’s tempestuous relationship was special. It got me out of bed one night to write the first chapter while I was knee-deep in another book and wouldn’t let me go until I’d written ‘the end.’

I entered Riccardo and Lilly’s story, The Divorce Party, in Harlequin’s 2012 So You Think You Can Write contest, hoping others would love it as much as I did. Never dreaming the De Campos would capture the imagination of so many people and win me the publishing contract I’ve always wanted. Every minute of that journey was magical.

I’ve had a hard time letting Riccardo and Lilly go. I hope you do, too.

Enjoy!

Jennifer

I’d love to hear from you! I can be reached at

www.jenniferhaywardromance.com.

or on Twitter: @jenhayward_

For my husband, Johan,

who gave me the chance to fly.

And Sharon Kendrick, Connie Flynn and Linda Style for being the most amazing mentors a writer could have.

Contents

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

EPILOGUE

EXCERPT

CHAPTER ONE

IT WAS GOING to be bad.

Lilly Anderson winced and put a hand to her pounding head. If she held herself in just that position, with the pressure building in her head like the vicious storms that picked up intensity across the plains of the midwest, it might not become a full-on migraine.

Might not.

Except staying in the dim confines of Riccardo’s Rolls-Royce, driven by his long-time driver Tony, wasn’t an option tonight. She was late for her own divorce party. Excessively late for the one thing that would give her what she wanted above all else. Her freedom from her husband.

“Oh, my God.”

Her twin sister Alex made a sound low in her throat. “How can they print this stuff?”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Alex, read it to me.”

“It’s Jay Kaiken’s column. You don’t want me to.”

“Read it.”

“Okay, but I warned you.” She cleared her throat. “In what’s expected to be the most scandalous, juiciest, talked-about water cooler event of the season, billionaire wine magnate Riccardo De Campo and former Iowa farmgirl-turned-sports-physiotherapist Lilly De Campo host their divorce party tonight. I once suggested they were the only passionately in love couple left in New York. But apparently even that fairytale doesn’t actually exist. Rumors of heartthrob Riccardo’s infidelity surfaced and this once solid marriage ended up in the toilet. So it’s with mixed feelings that I bid this partnership adieu tonight. I have the invite and will bring you all the salacious details.”