The Billionaire's Cinderella Contract by Michelle Smart

Author:Michelle Smart
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2020-07-07T18:22:15+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

MONTE CLEURE, THE tiny principality beloved of the rich and famous, was so much more than Mia had imagined. Driving through its pristine streets was a voyage of discovery on how the superrich lived. The shops and cafés and the people bustling through them, all glittering under the weight of gold and diamonds, made Bond Street look downmarket. Even the pocket-sized dogs being walked sparkled in their diamond-encrusted collars. The Mediterranean gleamed under the blazing sun, but not as brightly as the supersized yachts that filled the harbour. For such a small country, everything about it was supersized. Apart from the dogs.

A short drive through verdant countryside and then Damián murmured, ‘There it is.’

She squinted. And then her mouth dropped open.

Mostly hidden through the thick trees, her first glimpse of the villa. Having studied it so thoroughly, she’d assumed she knew what to expect. All the pictures and videos in the world could not do it justice. For something that was only thirty-odd years old, it stood like a proud Spanish castle from a bygone age.

Soon the trees thinned and huge iron gates lay before them. And a dozen paparazzo lining the road.

‘Turn to me,’ Damián murmured, squeezing her hand. Their hands had been locked the entire journey, from the moment they’d left his apartment.

She did as he said and rested her head on his shoulder, which was no hardship at all. When he wrapped his huge arm around her, she sighed and burrowed her cheek deeper into him, happily breathing in his gorgeous scent.

When he’d thought she would welcome the exposure of being seen on his arm he’d arranged for a car without tinted windows to collect them. He’d since had that replaced with a car with windows that were as dark as they could legally get away with. When the party started tomorrow they wouldn’t leave so they could return and make a grand entrance in front of the press. They would stay in the villa. The press were forbidden from passing the iron gates. She would be free from the cameras’ lenses.

Gravel crunched beneath the tyres and Mia found her eyes so glued to the villa that the vineyards and olive groves they passed barely registered.

Painted a pale yellow with a terracotta roof, the villa, which had twenty-one luxury suites, was shaped like a squared-off horseshoe with arches and pillars galore. Peeking through the dense perimeter of trees were the terracotta roofs of the adjoining buildings.

As they crawled through landscaped gardens, her heart soared at the abundance of colourful flowers, beautiful fountains and statues all melding together.

The car came to a stop.

‘Are you ready for this?’ Damián asked.

She met his gaze, swallowed and nodded, but inside she quailed. How was she supposed to pull this off, even if she was wearing an outfit that cost more than her monthly mortgage payment?

Until that moment, Damián’s wealth had been too fantastical to be real. The billions he was worth had been mere numbers. Even his apartment, which screamed money, had been just an apartment.

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