The Playboy's Fugitive Bride Read Online Free PDF

wife sleeping under the same roof, could he?
    Massimo took a deep breath as he released the gas pedal and gassed the SUV forward.
    Desperation had pushed him into this marital agreement with Dafne Bellini, the daughter of a maid who worked at the Andretti home in Bellagio.  He and Dafne had been friends since they were both five years old.  She knew all his secrets.  Even though their relationship had suffered some enormous strains over the years, she remained one of the four people in the world he trusted with his life.
    So it was natural that he would turn to her after his breakup with Gabrielle had left him in a panic.  Massimo had been astonished when Dafne offered to marry him as long as he did not make their engagement public.  Except for that one encounter in their very distant past, neither of them had shown any sexual interest in each other.  Their friendship was far more important than sex, and to keep it that way, Dafne had specified that she would produce his heir through nonsexual means only.  Massimo could only hope that she would change her mind.  He could not live without sex for the next three years of his life.  No way in hell was that going to happen.
    The fact that Dafne knew why he had to marry gave her a lot of power over him.  Who knows what was going on in her mind now that she had him cornered up a tree like a leopard fleeing from a lion?  Massimo knew firsthand how power could change a person.  He hated being in this position, but he would be an idiot to surrender a company he’d spent most of his life building to a bastard half brother he despised.  He wanted nothing to do with the offspring of Judith Carmichael, the woman he blamed for his own mother’s untimely death.
    Immediately following the reading of his father’s will, Massimo had begun building his own empire.  The product was La Banca di Bianchi , a chain of European banks he’d established in his mother’s maiden name.  In addition, he owned several companies, and was a major shareholder in numerous financial corporations throughout the globe.  To guarantee that his interests were free and clear of Andretti Industries, he’d borrowed the investment funds from his friend, Bryce Fontaine, all of which he’d paid back with interest within two years.  He really didn’t need Andretti Industries, but he wasn’t about to walk away from a conglomeration whose success he’d been contributing to since he was eleven years old, and there was no way in hell he was going to give up the house where he was born and raised, and where the fondest memories of his mother still lingered.
    No Carmichael would ever set foot inside that house.
    That fact was the deciding element in his agreement to marry Dafne.  Nobody else but his lawyer, his two best friends, Bryce and Erik, and his cousin Adam knew he had to be married on or before next Saturday, but they were unaware of the deal between Dafne and him.  Just last night, Bryce had commended him for sticking it to his father by letting his inheritance go.  He was already a self-made billionaire, so why saddle himself with a wife—the one possession he’d sworn never ever to own?
    But being controlled for three years was a more palatable toxin than ultimate defeat, Massimo decided as he pulled off Route 80 onto Andreas Way in downtown Granite Falls and headed toward the hotel.
    Having Nia and Dafne under the same roof would leave room for questions, slipups, and revelations—revelations he preferred to keep from his half brother until he was unhappily married and holding the next generation of Andrettis in his arms.  Until he knew exactly what Nia wanted with him, it was best he kept the women apart.   It was a good thing Dafne wanted to keep their arrangement a secret.  It would be difficult to explain the presence of one young woman in his house when he was engaged to marry another.  To the world, he was still a bachelor, and he would remain thus for the next few days when