Rebecca Winters: To Win His Heart

“I would be if you hadn’t robbed us of our trip!” she replied. “It’s only fair you make up for it now. Who knows? I might meet an exciting playboy with husband potential! But the point is, when your brother finds out I’ve gone on a vacation with you, he’ll give up any idea he had about marriage to me.”

“Why is that?” His voice had taken on a darker tone.

Olivia’s impulsive nature had once again caused her to leap before she looked.

But this was serious business. The most serious of her existence.

It was Luc she loved with every fiber of her being. The longer he didn’t say anything, the more she realized that if she didn’t give him the right answer, she might just lose him forever….

Dear Reader,

I came from a family of five sisters and one brother. The four oldest girls were my parents’ first family. There was a space before my baby sister and baby brother came along.

My mother called the first four her little women, and gave each of us a Madame Alexander doll from the Little Women series based on the famous book by Louisa May Alcott. We may not have been quadruplets, but we were close in age and definitely felt a connection to each other.

In our early twenties, I recall a time when I took the train from Paris, France, where I’d been studying, to meet one of my sisters at the port in Genoa, Italy, where her ship came in from New York. Some of my choicest memories are our glorious adventures as two blond American sisters on vacation along the French and Italian Rivieras, dodging Mediterranean playboys.

When I conceived THE HUSBAND FUND trilogy for Harlequin Romance ®, I have no doubt the idea of triplet sisters coming to Europe on a lark to intentionally meet some gorgeous Riviera playboys sprang to life from my own family experiences at home and abroad.

Meet Greer, Olivia and Piper, three characters drawn from my imagination who probably have traits from all four of my wonderful, intelligent, talented sisters in their makeup.

Enjoy!

Rebecca Winters

Book 3: To Marry for Duty, Harlequin Romance #3835

www.rebeccawinters-author.com

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CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

August 2nd

Monza, Italy

“GOOD night, Cesar. I’ve had a spectacular time.”

After the party downstairs with his Formula I racing team, Cesar walked Olivia to her hotel room, but it irritated her when he looped his arms around her neck outside the door.

Since he never drank before a race, she knew for a fact it couldn’t be the effect of alcohol making him amorous all of a sudden.

Twenty-nine-year-old Cesar de Falcon, known as Cesar Villon when he used his paternal grandmother’s maiden name Villon to race, was all flash and excitement, the ultimate charmer, albeit one who was still too obsessed with his career to be taken seriously.

Neither during the night of the Monaco Grand Prix in June, or throughout the last two days in Monza prior to tomorrow’s race had Olivia led him to believe there was anything but friendship between them. There couldn’t be.

She was painfully in love with his elder brother, Lucien de Falcon.

Though that love wasn’t reciprocated, it didn’t matter. With her emotions involved elsewhere, she couldn’t let go with Cesar and kiss him for the sheer fun of being out with one of Europe’s most eligible and sought after playboys. Especially not this particular one.

When she’d come to Europe with her sisters in June, the highlight for Olivia had been to watch the Monaco Grand Prix where the legendary Cesar Villon had taken second place.

It was an absolute fluke that Cesar’s cousin, Max, had ended up marrying Greer, one of Olivia’s sisters, thus throwing their families together under the most unlikely and unexpected circumstances.

Because of her fascination with Formula I racing before meeting Cesar, she’d been thrilled and flattered by the famous driver’s eagerness to show her around. How many times in life did one get a chance to see firsthand what went on behind the scenes of the racing world? Especially with someone as well-known?

“I’ve had an even more wonderful time, ma belle. There’s no reason why it can’t continue now that we’re alone.”

“Yes, there is.” She averted her face in an attempt to prevent him from kissing her. “You have a big race tomorrow and need your beauty sleep.”

“Beauty sleep?” He chuckled before brushing his lips against the side of her cheek. “I intend to get some, but not by myself.” So saying, he trapped her against the door and kissed her.

Cesar was an attractive man, very persuasive, but she broke away before he could deepen the kiss. The look of surprise on his face let her know few women had ever resisted him.

“You’re not going to invite me in?” He gave her that wounded look so typical of Max, her new, all-Italian brother-in-law.

She smiled, needing to handle this with grace and discretion considering the fact that he was now Greer’s cousin-in-law. It wasn’t as if she could risk offending him by her rejection, knowing she would never see him again in this lifetime.

“No, cousin,” she said the word deliberately. “I’m not. I always sleep alone.”

“Always?” He looked shocked to the foundations.

“Always.”

“Not even with Fred?”

The mention of her ex-boyfriend, the one who’d followed Formula I racing on TV and had gotten her interested in the sport in the first place, made her chuckle. “Especially not Fred.”

“But this is unbelievable.”

Olivia burst into laughter. She couldn’t help it. “My sisters and I were taught to wait for marriage.”

“You mean to tell me Greer and Max—”

“Didn’t until their wedding night,” she finished the sentence for him.

Now it was his turn to laugh. “Then she lied to you.”

“No.” Olivia shook her head. “I would stake my life on it.” When she could see he wasn’t convinced she said, “Tell you what. After they’re back from their honeymoon, you can ask Max. He’ll tell you the truth.”

Cesar grinned. “What if you’re wrong?”

“I won’t be.”

“For the sake of argument, let’s assume you are,” he teased. “We’ll make this a bet. If I win—”

“You won’t!” she declared in a note of finality.

He was such a tease, it surprised her when he grasped her upper arms. “The German team thinks they’re going to win the Italian Grand Prix tomorrow, but by the end of the race I will be the one standing at the podium.