Maya Blake: Marriage Made of Secrets

After the confetti settles…

It takes an earthquake for billionaire businessman Cesare di Goia to realize what’s important in life. His wife may have become a stranger, but he’s determined to keep his young daughter close.

Returning to the luxurious Lake Como palazzo with her daughter, Ava di Goia feels like an outsider in what was once their home. Although the bond between them is still undeniable, the memories, tarnished rings and broken promises make it clear that the secrets that drove them apart are still unresolved.…

‘You think I’m without emotion,cara?’Cesare queried softly.

The hairs on her arms rose in desperate foreboding. ‘Not where I’m concerned. When it comes to me, you’re as emotional as a plank of wood.’

His eyes narrowed. Almost in slow motion Ava watched his hands leave his pockets, reach up and curl around her arms.

‘What are you doing?’ Her question squeaked out as he captured her nape.

He didn’t answer—at least not verbally. The slow burn in his eyes and the steady pressure of his fingers on her skin told its own story.

‘Cesare!’

Electric heat, wicked and powerful, snapped through her, zapping awake her senses with a force so potent she gasped. She should want to move away from it. Should work harder to release herself from the powerful, chaotic destruction.

Instead she found herself straining up to meet the havoc-causing mouth descending towards hers, pressing herself up against the heat of the rock-hard body.

MAYA BLAKEfell in love with the world of the alpha male and the strong, aspirational heroine when she borrowed her sister’s Mills & Boon ®at age thirteen. Shortly thereafter the dream to plot a happy ending for her own characters was born. Writing for Harlequin Mills & Boon is a dream come true. Maya lives in South East England with her husband and two kids. Reading is an absolute passion, but when she isn’t lost in a book she likes to swim, cycle, travel and Tweet!

You can get in touch with her via e-mail

at mayablake@ymail.com, or on Twitter:

www.twitter.com/mayablake

Recent titles by the same author:

THE SINFUL ART OF REVENGE

THE PRICE OF SUCCESS

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

Marriage Made of Secrets

Maya Blake

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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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

EPILOGUE

EXCERPT

CHAPTER ONE

‘SIGNORA?’

The voice, hesitant but insistent, jerked Ava from deep sleep. Momentarily disoriented, she pushed a swathe of Titian hair off her forehead but the nightmare...that nightmare...clung to the edges of her consciousness.

‘I’m sorry to disturb you but Signore di Goia is on the phone. Again.’ The stewardess, dressed in the emerald silk suit that displayed her employer’s unique insignia, held out the sleek black phone. Ava eyed the phone, the same one she’d been presented with three times since the di Goia jet took off from Bali almost eight hours ago.

Different emotions replaced her irritation, dispersing the last of her dream-fuelled anxiety. The lingering sense of loss, which dogged her whenever she thought of Cesare, rose to mingle with the almost helpless excitement that thoughts of him elicited...

For a few seconds she forgot the heart-rending devastation she’d left behind. Her mind crowded with the forceful presence of the man at the end of the phone. A man who despite being thousands of miles away, had the power to make her breath catch. The man who she knew within the depths of her soul she was losing with every second that passed.

‘Please tell him, again, that I’ll speak to him when we land.’ She needed to conserve every ounce of her strength for what lay ahead.

The stewardess looked bewildered. ‘But...he insists.’ No doubt she’d never encountered another living being who refused to fall at Cesare di Goia’s feet. Especially when that being was currently ensconced in unspeakably sumptuous luxury that barely began to epitomise the mind-boggling scale of the di Goia experience.

All around her, from the deep burgundy leather club chairs, the shiny cream marble tables to the bespoke silk-trimmed cashmere throws that graced every seat on the jet that could easily have carried several dozen passengers, Cesare di Goia’s wealth and influence made itself forcefully blatant.

‘Signora?’ the anxious stewardess pressed.

Guilt for her predicament made Ava reach for the phone.

‘Cesare.’ She held her breath.

‘Now you deign to answer my calls,’ came the deep, tight voice.

‘Why should I take your call when you’ve been avoiding mine for over two weeks now? You told me you’d return to Bali last week.’ The ease with which he’d put her off made her hand tighten on the phone. It was with much the same afterthought that he’d conducted their marriage for the last year.

‘I was delayed in Abu Dhabi. Unavoidably,’ he added tautly.

Unavoidably. How many times had she heard that before? ‘Of course. Was that all?’

An exhalation of ire came down the line. ‘No, that is not all. Explain yourself,’ came the unyielding command.

‘I take it you mean: why have I commandeered your plane?’

‘Sì. This was not the plan.’

‘I know, but my plans have changed too. Unavoidably,’ she replied with a lightness she didn’t feel.

‘In what way have your plans changed?’ he bit out.

‘If you’d bothered to pick up the phone in the last two weeks, I would’ve told you.’

‘We have spoken in the last two weeks—’

‘No, Cesare, you called twice, both times to tell me you were postponing your return...’ Her voice threatened to break as memories flooded her mind—her endless phone calls to Cesare’s assistant to make sure his calendar was kept clear, shopping for the most enticing outfits and making sure the chef at the luxury rented villa in Bali prepared his favourite foods. She’d planned everything to the last detail...all in an effort to save her marriage. Only to have it backfire spectacularly. ‘Anyway, I’m saving you the trouble of making the long trip, or of coming up with another excuse. Goodbye, Cesare.’

‘Ava—’

She pressed the end button, cutting off the growled warning. She’d barely exhaled when the phone rang again. Carefully, she set it down on the table, unanswered.

The stunned look on the stewardess’s face made Ava smile, despite the rush of her thundering pulse. ‘Don’t worry, his bark is worse than his bite.’

The woman coughed out an incoherent sound before hastily retreating to her station at the front of the plane.

With not quite steady hands, Ava poured a glass of water from the crystal-cut jug and took a tiny sip. Yes, Cesare ruled his world with unquestionable domination. But she’d never been one to ask how high? when told to jump, a fact which had, in the past, both intrigued and infuriated Cesare.