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  He shrugged, adding, “She met Enzo at a social function two years after we’d broken up. They’d had a fling that left her pregnant as a result. Like his other lover, he had no interest in marrying Sylvana, but that baby needed to be supported, too.”

  “Didn’t his affair with your ex-lover come between you?” she asked, needing to know because the other man who might have told her—who should have told her—was gone.

  “My brother and I were different people then,” he said quietly. “With Sylvana, I confused love with sex. Once I knew what she was about, I didn’t respect her—neither did Enzo. I didn’t…” Jio sighed, then admitted, “I didn’t care who used her, or how she allowed herself to get used. Are you disgusted yet?”

  She stared at him with clear eyes and an open heart. “Jio, everything you and your brother did somehow led you both to me. My reaction seeing you with her? It was more about my insecurity. My feelings for you. Not so much about what had happened in your past. Yes, I was shocked that both of you were involved with the same woman once, but…should that affect what we have now?”

  “God no!” The look in his eyes begged her belief. “A different life began for me that night we kissed on the beach, Golden. In the moonlight. I haven’t looked back since.”

  “I saw the look on her face, Jio. Sylvana—she regrets the one that got away,” Golden mused.

  He kissed her hand. “She did me a favor. Had she stayed with me, I would have lost out on you.”

  Tears stung her eyes to feel his hand shake. To hear the certainty in his words. She gave his hand an answering tug.

  “I’m sorry, Golden. This is revealing and unpleasant and not the right time, but I’ve kept things too long. I’ve got nothing more to lose. All I can give you now is the honesty you ask for. It’s all I have left.”

  “It’s no wonder the day we met…you saw me as someone who trapped your brother into marrying her by getting pregnant.”

  Jio smiled. “I know my brother had more than a hand in things, beautiful. It wasn’t just you. I was jealous at his good fortune in finding you. In any case, he supported his children, but damn it—you were the only woman he wanted to marry.”

  “Are you saying that if he dumped me…?”

  “I’d have come courting.” Jio chuckled. “Maybe.”

  He traced her pouty mouth with a fingertip. “God, how I envied him his happiness. His good luck. That’s why I was so rude to you.”

  “Hm. I’m getting this much closer to figuring out how your brain ticks, Jio,” Golden said with a soft laugh.

  He squeezed her hand, kissed it—rubbed his stubbly cheek against her palm. “That night I left your bed—I swear I didn’t want to leave that way, but I knew I couldn’t give you more. Most of all, I knew I couldn’t give you the baby you had your heart set on.”

  “So why did you marry me, then?” she asked him, perplexed.

  “Did you give me a choice, woman?” he demanded in disbelief.

  She blushed.

  “Then I thought—well, since you wanted me so badly, I thought that if I er…broke my medical condition to you gently, you’d consider in vitro fertilization. Or even adoption. But then all hell broke loose with Sylvana showing up. Blurting out my sperm count then and there wasn’t going to make the situation better.”

  “I don’t love you for your swimmers, you silly man!”

  “Thank God for that! Of course, now I know I can have other children, Lily is just going to have to share the wealth with her new brother. Or sister.”

  “Have you come all the way here, only to leave us again?” She breathed, struggling to recover from his battering of tender words. “Now that you’ve got your heir, and a spare?”

  He hooked a finger under her chin and searched her eyes. “I’d rather have a family.”

  She gazed at up at him, his precious face swimming in her tears. “Then I’ve got good news for you, Jio. If it’s all the same to you? I’d rather not raise another Falcone baby alone—oh. Ohh!”

  “What?” Jio asked, alarmed. “Cara, what?”

  She grabbed his hand and placed it on her stomach. “Ooh, the cuteness. Jio, there it is! Do you feel it?”

  A couple of drop-kicks bounced against Jio’s fingers. “What is going on? Feels like popcorn popping in there!” He beamed a smile at her. “I’ve got news for you too, sweetheart. I’m not leaving my baby behind! Stay married to me, and I spend the rest of my days making sure you have everything you could need, or want,” he bargained persuasively. “How’s that for a lifetime plan, hmm?”

  Tears plopped down her cheeks. “I want your love, too. I can’t help it. I’m that greedy!”

  “You’ve had that for a long time,” he said, and lifted her hand to his lips. His lashes lowering as his kiss lingered on her skin in solemn beats made every muscle in her body quiver.

  Holding her hand against his chest, next to his heart, Jio stared into her face with thoughtful eyes. “I haven’t been around much, but I’m here now, with open arms. I’m hoping you’ll let me stay.”

  “What about your jet? Your flight plan?”

  “I gave my pilots three months off, with pay. Then I flew out here on a commercial jet. Coach class, like any other mortal so I can be reminded of how the other half lives. Are you proud of me?”

  Golden laughed. “So very proud. How do you like it down here so far?”

  “It’s the happiest place on earth.” His mouth took hers in a scorcher of a kiss.

  He’d missed her taste so much. And that tongue of hers lacing around his? Delicious as ever! A bit wilder than he remembered, but he knew the perfect way to use it, calm it, and tame it.

  “Mmm!” She drew back and smacked her lips. “Can you plow a field as good as you kiss?”

  “I can’t wait to show you all of my plowing skills, darling. Speaking of plowing, I hope to propose a new business venture with the beautiful owner of a Maui orchard.”

  “Oh?”

  He nodded and tweaked her chin. “Mm-hmm. Wild Sea Winery. I’ll be the resident wine-maker. What do you think?”

  She glowed. “Jio, I think the owner will approve.”

  “Now, there will be times where you’ll have to travel with me, Golden,” he said, hopeful. “To my working vineyards, and to our other homes. I can’t always be without you and our children, but I promise you wherever I go, whatever project I’m developing there, I’ll have a home for you and the children to be with me, too. And I will keep travel to a minimum.”

  “We’ll make it work.” She followed up her promise to him with a hug.

  Jio felt every second of his dreams color to life as she held him close. He showered kisses on her forehead, her cheeks, her lips and murmured, “And when we get out of here and get you safe and warm, will you let me rub your back and kiss your…” He detailed a sexy piece of bedroom business into her ear.

  He loved how she squirmed on the ground. No doubt tamping down the surge of lust that fountained into her sweet spot where he proposed to do some amazing things. With his tongue.

  “Whew!” Golden fanned herself. “How does a girl say ‘no’ to that?”

  “Oh, for Pete’s sake!” Gado said as he burst into the cave and stumbled upon their embrace. “You two aren’t getting married again, are you?”

  Jio’s brows crinkled in confusion. “Getting married again?”

  “Third time lucky,” Golden smiled up at her brother. He strode around to her side and gazed down at her, his brows stamped together in concern. “Sorry, Gado. I won’t be able to walk down the aisle as Naomi’s maid of honor on your special day. I’ve hurt my ankle.”

  “Who wants to see a pregnant whale waddling down the aisle anyway?” Gado retorted, lifting up the edge of blanket that covered her elevated ankle so he could look at it.

  She made a half-hearted lunge at him with a balled up fist, but was stayed by Jio’s hand on her shoulder. She looked at him. He smiled at her, feeling a love so pure his heart flooded over with ha
ppiness.

  “I love you, Jio.”

  “I love you, too, beautiful. Let’s go home. Our daughter is waiting.” He scooped her up in his arms while Gado collected the two bags of coffee. “Um, what is your brother talking about? Us getting married again?”

  “Naomi sent those divorce papers to your lawyers by accident. We’re officially divorced.”

  “Are you kidding me?” he demanded. Then he shook his head and laughed. “So we’ll make arrangements for a third wedding. Is that it? Is there anything else I should know?” His eyes teased her as he repeated the question she’d once asked him in a fit of despair.

  “Uh, there is one other thing…”

  “That’s not all?” He lifted an eyebrow, and studied her for bit. “I’ve got a feeling…I should probably be sitting down for this one.”

  “You’ll have a hard time getting back up again,” Golden teased, and traced his adored features with her fingers, secure in the knowledge that the man she loved—her ex-husband who’d once been her marriage-of-convenience husband, who then became her real husband, who she then divorced by mistake, but who was now her husband-to-be again—would be around. For always. “We’re having twins…”

  Thank you for your purchase of Bargain Bride, Billionaire Groom! I hope you’ve enjoyed Golden and Jiovanni’s story. Each title in my sexy Island Moonlight Collection means to sweep you off to the tropics with seduction that begins on a Hawaiian island, and ends in happily ever after. Come feel the love under an island moon. Mahalo nui loa!

  Lelani Black

  Warming you up December 2012 on Amazon/Kindle

  Doctor, Doctor (Book 2)

  sexy*hot*humorous

  Audrina and Dane

  Since when do hot millionaire doctors kidnap their housekeepers and hold them for ransom? They don’t. Not really. But when Audrina Lee’s slacker brother steals a valuable painting from Dr. Dane Love’s beachfront estate—a man they both work for—the good doctor “kidnaps” her and holds her for counter ransom. Sort of. Audrina plays along with the hunky doc’s ruse to get his artwork back, and makes herself right at home in his seaside villa. Now her heart’s in danger of being stolen, too, because the good doctor is turning out to be one very bad boy.

  ****

  About the author:

  Lelani Black dreams of growing coffee and macadamia nut trees with her husband on their little acre of property in a Hawaiian island paradise. While awake, this business office manager keeps busy and entertained with her writing, her kids, her organic garden, a flock of cute hens, a lily pond full of friendly koi—and her supportive and amazing husband.

  Lelani is a multi-published author who writes red-hot erotic romances for a New York publisher.

  www.lelaniblack.com

  Table of 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

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen