A.C. Arthur: A Private Affair

Rivals for the runways. Enemies in the industry. And for a single sinfully hot night, they’re about to indulge in the one thing they’re not allowed...each other.

Fashion executive Riley Gold knows that appearances are everything . And New Year’s Eve in Milan is no exception. If Riley’s going to have a reputation for being an “ice princess,” then she’s going to be flawless, glacier-cold perfection. Especially when Chaz Warren is here, looking too damn good, too damn sexy...and every inch the enemy .

Not only are their families fashion archrivals, but social media mogul Chaz Warren is a player—and the world knows it. But for one X-rated night, Riley will give in to the electric lust that’s always been crackling between them. All it takes is a searing kiss to turn the heat from simmering to full-on passion...

Riley thought one night with Chaz would be enough. But it’s not enough, not nearly. Now Riley and Chaz are having a private—and completely naughty—affair, and hiding the scandalizing truth from both the tabloids and their feuding families. But keeping her deliciously hot enemy close won’t just melt the ice around Riley’s heart...he could incinerate it completely.

Mills & Boon DARE publishes sexy romances featuring powerful alpha heroes and bold, fearless heroines exploring their deepest fantasies.

Four new Harlequin DARE titles are available each month, wherever ebooks are sold!

A.C. ARTHURis an award-winning author who livesin Baltimore, Maryland, with her husband, three children, grandson and English bulldog named Vader. An active imagination and a love for reading encouraged her to begin writing in high school and she hasn’t stopped since.

A Private Affair

A.C. Arthur

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-09927-1

A PRIVATE AFFAIR

© 2020 Artist C. Arthur

Published in Great Britain 2019

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Version: 2020-03-02

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Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Title Page

Copyright

Note to Readers

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 FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

About the Publisher

RILEY GOLD DIDN’T give a damn. She walked into the hotel ballroom knowing she was the best-dressed woman in the room.

Her dress was an RGold exclusive—black sheath, skew neck, half sleeve, back slit. The shoes were Louboutin crisscross pumps. Her shoulder-length honey-bronze highlighted hair was pulled up in a slick bun that had taken thirty minutes to perfect. Her makeup was simple, with dark eyes and matte berry-toned lips.

She was ready for the New Year’s Eve party sponsored by Design International —a global magazine that routinely featured the hottest designers worldwide. As the chief executive of market research and product development at Ronald Gold Fashions, Riley was representing the company at this party, even though she was on her annual vacation.

RGF was on top of the domestic fashion market and holding strong at the top five in the global market. The company her grandfather had built and her father now ran was everything to Riley. It was her life, as the tabloids never failed to remind everyone.

RGF’s Ice Princess Still as Frigid as Ever

That was the latest headline. A picture of her walking into RGF’s Manhattan headquarters beneath it. Riley could still see the bold-print letters splashed across the front of the magazine as if they’d been emblazoned on the insides of her eyelids. Despite the headline and the article she refused to read, Riley had taken extreme pride in the classy dove-gray pantsuit she’d been wearing in the picture. She’d learned a long time ago that appearances were everything. It didn’t matter if she felt like crap, as long as she was flawless on the outside.

Flawless and brilliant.

Riley crossed the room, smiling and waving at industry people she knew. She stopped for a quick double-cheek air kiss with an international textile associate and provided vague answers to a fashion blogger’s questions about what RGF had in store for New York Fashion Week. Her target was in sight and she was steadily making her way toward him—without looking as if she’d only come to this party to see him. Admittedly, he was a big part of the reason, but she didn’t have to act like it.

There had to be at least three hundred people in the hotel’s massive ballroom. A band played while staff weaved in and out of the guests with trays of hors d’oeuvres and flutes filled with champagne. Glitz and glamour were the theme on this New Year’s Eve, with some of the top names in fashion wearing signature gowns and tuxedos. The air buzzed with excitement—for the New Year as well as the upcoming fashion season.