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CHAPTER ONE

ROCCO DE MARCO felt contents He was in a beautiful rooht in the heart of cosned by a faner in the 1920s and drew afficionados frolass s

The croas equally exclusive: high-ranking politicians, erudite commentators, A-list celebrities and billionaire philanthropists who controlled the world’s stock of a brow He was in the latter category, and at the age of thirty-tas surrounded by hushed and awed speculation as to how he’d achieved his untouchable status in such a short space of time

At that ant, patrician blonde across the roonon, and her haughty blue gaze ware of real colour caed cheeks She was dressed head-to-toe in shi black, and he knew that she was as hard as the dialass to hiesture

A sense of triulass in athe immaculately bred and oh, so proper Ms Honora Winthrop flowed like delicious nectar through his veins His gut clenched hard Thisat the pinnacle of everything he’d fought so hard for Never had he dared to i a crowd such as this, conte an indelible part of it

He was finally standing far enough above and away fro life in the slums of a poor Italian city where he’d been little more than a feral child With no way out He’d been spat upon in the street by his own father and he’d watched his half-sisters walk past hilance at their own flesh and blood But he had clawed his way out, with guts and deterence And to this day no one knew of his past

He put his e waiter and declined another one Keeping his wits about hirained in hiht of the crude tattoo he’d borne for years, until he’d had it res he’d done on his arrival in London alo, and his skin prickled now at the uncomfortable reminder

He shrugged it off and went to stake his claim on Ms Honora Winthrop For a brief second a sense of claustrophobia rose but he clamped down on the sensation He here he wanted to be, where he’d fought to be

Co himself, and irritated that he felt the need to do so, he found his eye snagged and caught by a lone figure A feure He could see i as the other wo and her hair was a long, wild tangle of vibrant red It suggested that there was so untamed about her, and it called to him on some deep level

Rocco’s inal purpose He couldn’t look away froer

Before he had even registered his intent he’d veered off course and wasin her direction …

Gracie O’Brien was trying to look nonchalant As if she was used to being a guest at glittering functions in London’s ious venues When in fact she wasa waitress … in far less salubrious surroundings The kind of places where s about her lack of ample assets

She gritted her jaw unconsciously, acknowledging that in today’s econoree didn’t count for much She had a dream But unfortunately to finance her dream she needed to work and to eat and survive And the only jobs available to her right noere on the menial end of the scale

She mentally shook herself out of the uncharacteristic introspection She could handle the menial end of the scale She couldn’t handle this She was clutching her bag to her belly Where had Steven gone? She’d only conawed at her in this kind of surroundings—along with the habitual anxiety she felt for Steven

Gracie forced herself to relax This annual charity benefit thrown by the co point in his life—which had to explain his moody humour and nerves lately That was all it was She had to stop worrying about hi responsible for him just because she’d taken on that role from as far back as she could remember, when she’d been the one who had inevitably stood between him and some bully She still bore scars of the scrapes she’d been in, protecting her little brother—younger by twenty fraught minutes

Their et that her beloved son had almost died, while Gracie had had the te words to Gracie had been, ‘I’d take him with me and leave you behind if I could—he’s the one I wanted But he’s too attached to you and I can’t deal with a screa brat’

Gracie pushed down the surge of ehed when she finally caught sight of her brother in the distance Her heart swelled in her chest with love for him Despite their abandonment, and so much that had happened since then, they’d always looked out for one another Steven’s inherent weakness had th hadn’t saved him for a few dark years, but noas back on track

Her brother had implored her earlier, ‘Please, Gracie … I really want you there withto have their wives with theet a job with De Marco Internation

al …?’

He’d gone on to wax lyrical once again about the godlike Rocco de Marco So much so that Gracie had relented just toabout this person who couldn’t possibly be human because he sounded so perfect