Tara Pammi - A Touch of Temptation

The limo came to a stop in front of the plush New York Plaza Hotel, where the awards ceremony was being held. Kimberly could hear the hushed roar of the crowd outside. Before she could blink, Diego had opened a small velvet box.

Drawing a painful breath, she tucked herself further into her seat, her heart pounding behind her ribcage. He’d done this on purpose—waited until the last minute.

The diamond twinkled in the dark, every cut and glitter of it breathtaking. There was an accompanying band of white gold, exquisitely simple in contrast to the glittering diamond.

Alarm twisted her stomach into a knot. That simple band could very well be an invisible shackle, binding her to him. And it could unlock every impossible hope, every dangerous dream she had so ruthlessly squashed in order to survive.

“I don’t want to wear it. I don’t know what you think this achieves…”

“There is very little I have asked of you or will ever ask of you. But when it comes to our child I won’t settle. I will never be that boy who was denied his rights ever again.” He shrugged—a casual movement—in complete control of himself. “I want my child to be recognized as mine. You had the perfect chance to do that in your press statement. You didn’t. So now we will do it my way.”

THE SENSATIONAL STANTON SISTERS

Notoriety has a new name!

The exploits of the famous—or should that be infamous —Stanton Sisters are guaranteed to sell newspapers the world over.

While they are physically identical, the sisters are as different as night and day.

Olivia Stanton can create scandal from thin air, but this bad girl is desperate to be oh-so-good. Until she comes face to face with the one man whose dark looks are a temptation too far!

Kimberly Stanton is a stunning socialite with a brilliant head for business. But when her dirty little secret comes back to haunt her Kim’s entire life is turned upside down!

One thing’s for sure—both deserve the middle name ‘trouble’ with a capital T!

And what of the men sent to tame them?

We wish them luck!

Last month you read Tara Pammi’s stunning debut in:

A HINT OF SCANDALOctober 2013

This month read Olivia’s story in:

A TOUCH OF TEMPTATIONNovember 2013

A Touch of Temptation

Tara Pammi

www.millsandboon.co.uk

TARA PAMMIcan’t remember a moment when she wasn’t lost in a book—especially a Mills & Boon ®romance, which provided so much more excitement to a teenager than a mathematics textbook. It was only years later, while struggling with her two-hundred-page thesis in a basement lab, that Tara realised what she really wanted to do: write a romance novel. She already had the requirements—a wild imagination and a love for the written word.

Tara lives in Colorado, with the most co-operative man on the planet and two daughters. Her husband and daughters are the only things that stand between Tara and a full-blown hermit life with only books for company.

Tara would love to hear from readers. She can be reached at tara.pammi@gmail.com or at her website: www.tarapammi.com

Recent titles by the same author:

A HINT OF SCANDAL

(The Sensational Stanton Sisters)

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

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To the man who started it all—my father—for giving me my love of books, for never holding me back, for always believing that there was nothing I couldn’t do if I set my mind to it.

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

CHAPTER ONE

KIMBERLY STANTON STARED at the white rectangle of plastic on the gleaming marble counter in the ladies’ bathroom. Terror coated her throat as though it might come to life and take a bite out of her. It looked alien, out of place amidst the lavender potpourri, the crystal lamp settings and the glossy chrome fixtures.

The few minutes stretched like an eternity. The quiet lull of voices outside was exaggerated into distorted echoes.

Her heart beat faster and louder. A painful tug in her lower belly stole her breath. She clutched the cold granite vanity unit and clenched the muscles in her legs, willing herself to hold on.

The scariest word she had ever encountered appeared on the stick.

Pregnant.

No confusing colors or symbols that meant you had to peek again at the box discarded in terrified panic.

Simple, plain English.

Her heart leaped into her throat. Her legs shaking beneath her, she leaned against one of the stalls behind her, dipped her head low and forced herself to breathe past the deafening whoosh in her ears.

Her one mistake, which technically she had committed twice, couldn’t haunt her for the rest of her life, could it?

But she couldn’t change the consequences. She had never been naïve or stupid enough to wish it either.

She flicked the gleaming chrome tap open and dangled her fingers under the ice-cold water. The sound of the water hitting the sink drowned out the sound of her heartbeat, helping her focus on her breathing.

In, out. In, out...

She closed the tap. Straightening up, she was about to reach for the hand towel when she looked at the mirror and froze.

She stared at her reflection, noting the dark circles under her eyes, the lack of color in her face, the skin pulled tautly over her bones. Drops of water seeped through the thin silk of her blouse to her skin beneath.

She looked as if she was on the brink of a nervous breakdown. And maybe she was. But she didn’t have time now. The breakdown had to wait. She touched the tips of her fingers to her temple and pressed. The cold from her almost numb fingers seeped into her overheated skin.

She had no time to deal with this now. She had to compartmentalize—set it aside until she was alone, until she was equipped to think logically, until the shock making her jittery all over faded into nothing more than a numbing ache.

And when it did she would assess the situation again with a clear head, take the necessary action to equip herself better to handle it. It wasn’t as if she didn’t have any experience with dealing with shock and pain.

Although why she had chosen this particular moment to take the test when the pregnancy kit had been burning a rectangular hole in her handbag for more than a week was anybody’s guess. Or maybe she was having another momentary collapse of her rational thinking circuits.

She had been having those moments a lot lately.

She pulled her lip-gloss out of her clutch and reapplied it with shaking fingers. She ran a hand over her suit. The silky material under her fingers rooted her back to reality.

She needed to get back out there. She needed to circulate among the guests—a specially put together group of investors she had researched for more than six months. Investors who had shown interest in her web startup The Daily Help.