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CHAPTER ONE

‘CHE? BUON DIO!’

Nothing could be worse than his younger brother’s funeral Until Luca Tebaldi’s father hit him with a fresh disaster

Swearing savagely under his breath, Luca closed his father’s study door on the streaathered in Sicily to show their fealty to the Tebaldi clan, rather than to deer brother Raoul in a senseless accident The Tebaldis were the uncrowned kings of Sicily, but on days like this Luca’s guilt at leaving his holy

The funeral was being held on the Tebaldis’ private island off the toe of Sicily, where the Tebaldi faed for a thousand years Luca had rebelled as a youth against the lifestyle of his father and brother, believing their actions belonged to another age His success was founded on shrewd ed his father and brother on countless occasions to change their ways before it was too late There was no satisfaction in being proved right

‘If all I had to worry about was Raoul’s ga debts’ The man the world still called Don Tebaldi slu spent and exhausted

‘Whatever has happened, I’ll put it right,’ Luca soothed his father ‘You have nothing to worry about’ They ht not see eye to eye, but blood was thicker than water

‘You can’t put this right, Luca,’ his father assured him

‘I’ll fix it,’ Luca stated fir quite so defeated

‘As if I didn’t have enough with your brother’s ga to leave his estate to soirl he met at that casino in London’

There was no change in Luca’s expression, but his aly distanced hi Raoul had said Luca would never understand him

‘I retire to Florida soon,’ Luca’s father reo to London to clear up Raoul’s emental view on life?’

His father’s angry gesture and the sneer on his face revealed Don Tebaldi’s conte, he would say

Luca found it inco for their children He watched as a man turned suddenly old manoeuvred his arthritic liht up with his father He felt co the practical side of the problem, his business interests were so successful he could easily take a break He must His father needed him

‘This wouldn’t have happened if you had followed me into the family business,’ his father moaned as he buried his face in his hands

‘Joining the family business was never an option for me, and it never will be,’ Luca said

His father lifted his face fro mask Luca remembered so well from his childhood

‘You don’t deserve my love,’ he spat out viciously ‘You’re not worthy to be my son Raoul eak, and you are worse, because you could have taken over froain’

‘I would do anything to help you, but not that,’ Luca replied evenly, hison his trip to London

His father’s scornful look remained trained on his face Neither of his sons had been blessed with his killer instinct, Don Tebaldi would tell them when Luca and Raoul were youths, as if this were a quality they should aspire to

‘You are a stubborn fool, Luca You alere’

‘Because I won’t do as you say??

??

‘Correct And as for Raoul?’ His father ust

‘Raoul always tried to please you, Father—’

‘Then, he failed!’ his father raged, sla his fist on the desk to make the point

Luca said nothing He’d been out of the loop for a long ti on his various charitable projects He wished he’d been around for his brother He wished his father could show some emotion, other than hate Even Don Tebaldi’s shadowed study reeked of bitterness and disappointment in his sons, yet Luca felt compelled to offer reassurance to the older man—and he would have done, if his father’s cold stare hadn’t forbidden any form of human contact between them It was an expression that lacked every shred of parental warmth

‘Leavepositive to offer, get out!’

‘Never,’ Luca said quietly ‘Family comes first, whether I work for the family business, or not’

‘What fa left thanks to your brother’

‘There are islanders to protect,’ Luca argued quietly

‘Then, you do it!’ his father blazed ‘I’reat leader began to sob like a child

Tactfully turning his back, Luca waited for the stor anywhere Neither his father nor Raoul had ever been able to accept that he would love them, no matter what

Luca Tebaldi could have been a worthy successor to a man who had ruled his fiefdom with a rod of iron for more than fifty years Well over six feet tall, with the hard-ladiator, Luca was considered to be outrageously good-looking With the intellect of a scholar and the keen stare of a warrior, Luca possessed the type of dangerously colamour of a man born to rule But it was Luca’s steel-trap e success His business interests holly legitimate, and had been founded far away fro empire Rampant sex appeal made hi influences in his life, though his late, hugely passionate Italian mother had dru libido was a hitch that he and his iron control had learned to live with