"She will come back," she promised. "She just needs time to sort her head out." "Not her heart?" The dry distinction made Charley wince. "I'm sure she loves you," she persisted. "She's just not ready to commit to marriage." If you just give her time, then I— Black eyebrows with a fascinating silken gloss gave her a curious look. "Are you actually standing there, Miss Jones, suggesting that I should wait for Adelina to sort her head out?" Well, was she? Lifting her chin, "If you love her—yes," she insisted. "Then you are a romantic fool because it is not going to happen." He moved suddenly, straightening away from the desk. "There is a wedding arranged for next Saturday morning, and I intend to make sure that it goes ahead." Without a bride? Charley stared at him. "You mean—you're going to find her and drag her back to marry you?" A silly kind of laugh left her throat at the very image of Adelina being dragged by this man down the church aisle, kicking and screaming. ‘No.’ Reaching behind him, his long fingers picked Adelina's letter up again—this time to fold it with slow, neat precision. "I mean to replace her with someone else."I want reparation for being taken for an idiot, and if that means putting you in Adelina's wedding dress and marrying you in her place, then that is what is going to happen."
View MoreHello readers!!!
Just before we begin, it is important to let you all know that this book is a collection of 10 amazing romance stories all by BLAZE NUKKO. The end of each story only leads to the beginning of another love journey.
Here is the sequence for the collection:
1. Marrying My Best Friend's Fiancee
2. Pure Lust
3. Mr Handsome's Addiction
4. All For The Baby
5. A Virgin for His Desires
6. Claimed By The Greek Lord
7. The CEO's Sex Mate
8. Lustful Desires
9. Revengeful Marriage
10. A Virgin Widow.
Also note that I will always leave a note at the beginning and the end of each story to help you stay on track.
So if you are ready for a mind-blowing romantic journey, then let's begin!!!!!
Marrying My Best Friend's Fiancee
The whole pre-wedding party thing was revving up like a gigantic engine, and Charley had never felt less like partying in her entire life.
Now a night at La Scala, dear God, she thought heavily. For here she stood surrounded by luxury in this posh Milan hotel suite, about to put on a posh designer dress that must have cost more money than she dared let herself think about, so she could look the part for a posh gala evening spent at La Scala, while back home in England the family business was about to go under, taking everything they owned along with it.
She had not wanted to come to her best friend’s wedding, but her father had insisted. Her brother Charles had gone a whole step further and become really angry. "Don’t be stupid," he snapped at her. "Do you want Dad to feel worse than he already does about this mess?" "Go to Adelina’s wedding as planned," he’d instructed, "and while you’re there, wish her all the damn best from me with her super-rich catch."
It had been said with such bite that it made Charley wince to recall him saying it. Charles was never going to forgive her best friend for falling in love with another man.
Then Adelina and her parents had put even more pressure on her to come to Milan, and in the end, it had been easier to give in and do what everyone wanted her to do when all she’d wanted to do was be by her father’s side supporting him.
But instead she had to shimmy into this dress, Charley told herself, puffing back an unruly curl when it flopped across one eye as she settled the straps onto her shoulders, then turning to the mirror to check out the finished effect.
What she saw reflected back at her sent instant horror pouring into her expressive face. The dress was way too clingy in all the wrong places, and the silver-grey color looked awful against her pale skin! And it was not for the first time in her twenty-two years that she wished with all her heart that she were a delicate and sweet-boned brunette like Adelina.
But she wasn’t. She was a long, curvy redhead with an unruly long mop of glossy chestnut curls that just refused to stay confined, no matter how much torture she put herself through in an effort to pin them up. Add skin so startlingly white it looked dreadful against the silver-threaded grey silk, and it was like looking at a ghost!
When Adelina had bought the dress a couple of months ago to wear to her betrothal party, she’d looked fabulous in it—pure sensation on legs. Yesterday, she’d tossed it at Charley in disgust. "I don’t know why I bought it." I hate the color. "The length is not right, and my boobs don’t fill it."
Well, there was no chance of that problem here, Charley thought, her small white teeth biting down into her full bottom lip as she hitched the tightly fitted basque top further up the pale plump slopes of the breasts and grimly thanked the boning in the bodice for helping it to stay put.
The rest, she saw on second inspection, didn’t cling quite as badly as she’d first thought it did, and—face it, Charley—she then firmly told herself, Beggars cannot be choosers, girl, so you should—
The sudden knock at her suite door diverted her attention. "Are you ready, Charlotte?" Adelina’s mother called out. "We must not be late for La Scala."
"Certainly not," Charley thought dryly. "Just one more minute!" she called back.
La Scala waited for no man, not even the higher echelons of Italian society she was about to mingle with; she mocked as she slid her feet into a pair of high, slender silver mules, then turned to apply a coating of clear gloss to her lips. She refused point-blank to use the seductive red color that Adelina had supplied along with the dress.
Standing back to give her reflection the final once-over, she suddenly found the humor in standing here in her ill-fitting borrowed feathers and laughed for the first time in weeks. All she needed now was for her best friend to toss her that fabulous diamond ring her betrothed had presented her with, and she’d be sorted. All family debts were paid via the first pawn brokerage she could find.
But Adelina wasn’t quite that giving—not that Charley resented her for that. Adelina Alonzo had been her closest friend since the day they had both found themselves stuck in the same strict English boarding school, feeling like a pair of aliens dropped in there from outer space. Adelina had come to the school directly from a carefree lifestyle in Sydney with her Italian-born parents. They’d gone from ordinary to mega-rich overnight when an uncle in England died suddenly, making Adelina’s father the main beneficiary of the London-based Alonzo Inc.
Whereas Charley, well, she had been sent to the same school after her mother had caused a terrible scandal by having an affair with their local, very married MP. She had been so mercilessly teased and bullied at her old school about the affair that her father had decided to remove her from the situation by placing her in a school hundreds of miles away from the fuss.
Did it stop the teasing? No, it didn’t. Did she tell her father that? No, she did not, because he’d already been too cast down by the scandal and the fact that their mother had walked out and left them, taking with her what funds she could grab. So Adelina had become her close friend and confidante. They looked out for each other. Adelina was the black-haired, black-eyed spitfire with a solid grounding in good Australian spunk, and Charley was the much quieter one, with her natural spirit squashed by the bullies and a mother who’d never bothered to get in touch again after she’d walked out.
From the age of twelve to their present age of twenty-two, she and Adelina rarely did anything without the other one knowing about it. Now her friend was about to marry into one of Italy’s finest families, and, despite not wanting to be here, Charley was ready to shelve her own worries and do whatever it was going to take to help make Adelina’s wedding day next week absolutely perfect. It was Adelina’s family who’d paid to bring her over here. They had provided her with everything from room and board to clothes to suit every glittering occasion, even if they were Adelina’s cast-offs.
And she was grateful to them—she was, because she could not have afforded to come otherwise, no matter what her father had said. So here she was, one week into a two-week sabbatical from family troubles, joining in the partying run-up to Adelina’s glossy marriage to her super-rich, super-sophisticated beau.
He moved suddenly, turned to her, and gripped her arms; she glimpsed the desperation in his eyes as he dragged her against his chest. "I will do whatever it takes to win you back, Kalila." "You are my wife, the love of my life, and I won’t let you go." His warm breath fanning the curls that framed her face, he pressed his lips to her temple, his eyes briefly closing as if in pain."I have told my father to name his brother Sulim as the interim ruler of Qubbah in the event of his dying before Hazem comes of age." Kate stared at him, shocked beyond words. "But... but why?" she finally stumbled.I thought that you were to rule until Hazem was older. "You are the King’s only son, and it is your duty." Ahsan shook his head. "My first duty is to my wife, and my father agrees." Even if he did not, I would still be here for you."Don't you understand, Kalila?" he asked urgently. "You are more important to me than Qubbah, my father, everything." You, me, and Hazem are a family, and the only thin
The still silence in the garden that followed his astounding statement was broken by the piercingly sweet song of a blackbird. Kate licked her suddenly dry lips, her heart beating so fast she was sure it would explode. "I don’t understand.""It’s quite simple." He sounded impatient and stared at her haughtily. But to her amazement, streaks of dull color highlighted his cheekbones, and his eyes veered from hers as if he were afraid to meet her gaze. "I love you, Kate."Her rebuttal was fierce and immediate. "No, you don’t.""I should have known you would want to argue about it, Kalila." A little of his tension left him, and his smile stole her breath."You don’t love me," she said again. It was probably some cruel trick, and she had more sense than to be fooled. "You married me for Hazem." You love Farrah. Malika said so.Malika said a lot of things, most of them untrue. Ahsan’s voice was suddenly harsh."But not the things she said about me," Kate said thickly. "My mother was a prosti
The blue sky was dotted with cotton wool clouds, and the warm breeze carried a scent of lavender and old-fashioned roses. There was no place on earth more beautiful than Ingledean on a spring day, Kate mused—except an oasis in the middle of the desert, where palm trees provided shade from the scorching sun and an azure pool glinted beneath a cloudless sky.She had been home for a month—although Ingledean no longer felt like home without Hazem. The image of his huge brown eyes and impish smile caused the familiar agonizing pain in her chest, and she bit down hard on her lip, tasted blood, and cursed the tears that slid unchecked down her face. She couldn’t cry forever. Somehow she was going to have to find the strength to move on, pick up the threads of her life, or maybe make a new one, far away from Ingledean and all its memories. But since she had left Qubbah, a terrible lassitude had settled on her, and she could not plan anything when the only two people she loved were far away on
In less than an hour, she was expected to attend the lavish dinner organized in honor of King Kabir’s recovery and his return as supreme ruler of Qubbah. And somehow she was going to have to do so without revealing that she was breaking up inside, which Kate acknowledged despairingly as she stared in the mirror at her paper-white face and red-rimmed eyes.When she first returned to the palace after her explosive confrontation with Malika, she locked herself in her dressing room and recalled, in stunned disbelief, everything the young Arab woman had told her. Could it be true? Had Ahsan always intended to divorce her once he’d gained custody of Hazem and marry his beautiful advisor?She did not know how long she’d sat there, but eventually her maid had knocked on the door and reminded her that it was time to prepare for the banquet. She should have made the excuse that she was ill—no one who saw her pallor would fail to believe her. But the steely backbone of pride that had seen her th
Despite the warmth of the early-evening sunshine, Kate shivered. "You’re talking nonsense," she said firmly, striving to sound confident despite the sudden lurch of her heart. She was perfectly aware of why Ahsan had married her, but he had given no hint that he wanted a divorce. Ahsan told me he was never engaged to you. She lifted her chin and glared at Malika, trying to ignore the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach."He wasn’t," Malika agreed, looking surprised. "I was engaged to Farhan; Ahsan was engaged to Farrah."The world seemed to tilt alarmingly for a few seconds, and Kate actually gripped the edge of the wall for support. Ahsan and Farrah! It couldn’t possibly be true, could it? "Jamila told me that Ahsan was in love with his fiancée," she said faintly. "She doesn’t know why the marriage didn’t take place."Malika gave a careless shrug. ‘Jamila knows. Everyone at the palace knows that Ahsan adored Farrah and that she eloped with his brother on the eve of their wedding.
He was suddenly aware that the children had finished their dance and everyone was waiting for his response. Kate had turned her head to him, frowning at his inattention, and he quickly clapped his hands in applause. Once the dancers had filed out of the marquee, his personal assistant Zaid appeared at his side and informed him that a group of local potters had brought their best work for his gracious inspection. Stifling a sigh, he led the royal party out into the blazing sunshine.The garden party continued all afternoon, and Ahsan was not in the best of moods when he strode back to the palace. He suddenly realized that he was too far ahead and slowed his pace, waiting for Kate to catch up with him. He frowned when he noted how pale she looked beneath her wide-brimmed hat. She made no attempt to speed up, and the dejected droop of her shoulders fueled his impatience."I appreciate that an afternoon spent admiring traditional crafts and customs is not likely to top your list of exciti
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