The Playboy's Fugitive Bride Read Online Free PDF Page A

Tuesday morning, he’d place her and her suitcase by the side of the road, lick his lips, and get back on his Casanovian journey as if she never even crossed his path.
     
    Did she really think he was that gullible? Massimo thought as he navigated the SUV along a slippery country road.  He knew she had no intentions of surrendering her virginity—willingly, that is.  And he knew he’d have no trouble convincing her to spread her legs for him if he so desired.  He wasn’t yet sure if she was worth the trouble.
    She claimed she’d never offered herself to a man before.  It’s possible she was telling the truth.  Judging from her extravagant outfit, it was also possible that this virgin act was her MO to riches.  And her little speech about Hotel Andreas bleeding her bank account, yeah right.  How many wealthy idiots had she conned before?  How many were out there scratching their heads wondering where she and their millions had disappeared to?
    Again, his thoughts went to his half brother.  After the shock of learning that he had a sibling had dissolved, Massimo had begun digging into the boy’s background.  Galen Carmichael was under the impression that his father died before he was born.  He had no idea he was the progeny of one of the richest and most powerful men in the world.  Having no interest in forming a relationship with him, Massimo had not contacted him.
    Massimo assumed that a ‘nondisclosure of paternity’ was one of the deals his father had made with his whore, Judith Carmichael, when she disappeared from Granite Falls twenty-odd years ago with Galen already planted in her belly.  Luciano had supported Galen financially and had provided him with as excellent an education as he’d provided Massimo, but the old man had left absolutely nothing for his bastard son.
    Massimo gritted his teeth at the memory of walking into his father’s office and finding him on the couch with Judith.  He was only nine years old, and although he couldn’t understand what he’d witnessed, he’d known that it was wrong.  It was the beginning of his estranged relationship with his father.  Massimo never told his mother about the affair between his father and his secretary, but he was certain she knew.  Women had a way of sensing these things.
    Massimo wondered if Judith had revealed the identity of his father to her son before her death, late last year.  If that were the case, then he could understand Galen’s interest in the vast empire their father had left behind.  But then again, he thought as he stopped at a four-way stop, neither Galen nor Judith would have had knowledge of the contents of Luciano’s last will and testament.
    But if his assumptions were correct about the boy learning that Luciano was his father, and that he might have hired Nia—not to stop Massimo from gaining control of his inheritance, but so Galen could gain inside information about Andretti business—Massimo swore he’d bury both of them alive.
    If they were indeed coconspirators, what was Nia’s role in the plot?  Was she just for hire or was she Galen’s woman whom he’d pawned out?  Had he seen her in a picture with Galen, maybe in the background of a photo his surveillance crew had sent him?  Is that why her eyes seemed so familiar to him?
    He had so many questions, and only two days to put this sexy Sylk puzzle together.  By Friday…  Damn!
    Massimo applied the brakes as he came up on another intersection.  Dafne, his fiancée, was arriving from Bellagio on Friday to sign the contracts on their marriage arrangement and settle in before they exchanged vows on Monday.  His original plan was to fly to Italy tomorrow and finalize the deal there, but at his attorney’s insistence that the contract be signed on U.S. soil, he’d arranged for her to come here.  He would have to inform Dafne of the change in plans as soon as he got the chance.  He couldn’t very well have his potential lover and his potential