Secret Prince's Christmas Seduction

Claimed by the prince

For Christmas or forever?

Sicilian chambermaid Antonietta prides herself on her discretion, so she’s mortified by her inappropriate reaction to her hotel’s newest guest! Antonietta has no idea Rafael is the notorious prince of Tulano. All she knows is that his touch lights her up more brightly than a Christmas tree.

Their unexpected connection floors cynical Rafe. All he can offer is a temporary festive seduction before resuming his royal duties. But unwrapping the precious gift of Antonietta’s virginity changes everything. Rafe must choose—his crown, or Antonietta...

CAROL MARINELLI recently filled in a form asking for her job title. Thrilled to be able to put down her answer, she put ‘writer’. Then it asked what Carol did for relaxation, and she put down the truth—‘writing’. The third question asked for her hobbies. Well, not wanting to look obsessed, she crossed her fingers and answered ‘swimming’—but, given that the chlorine in the pool does terrible things to her highlights, I’m sure you can guess the real answer!

Also by Carol Marinelli

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Claimed for the Sheikh’s Shock Son

The Sicilian’s Surprise Love-Child

Billionaires & One-Night Heirs miniseries

The Innocent’s Secret Baby

Bound by the Sultan’s Baby

Sicilian’s Baby of Shame

Ruthless Royal Sheikhs miniseries

Captive for the Sheikh’s Pleasure

The Ruthless Devereux Brothers miniseries

The Innocent’s Shock Pregnancy

The Billionaire’s Christmas Cinderella

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.

Secret Prince’s Christmas Seduction

Carol Marinelli

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-08849-7

SECRET PRINCE’S CHRISTMAS SEDUCTION

© 2019 Carol Marinelli

Published in Great Britain 2019

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

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Version: 2020-03-02

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Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Note to Readers

PROLOGUE

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

EPILOGUE

Extract

About the Publisher

PROLOGUE

‘THANKS, BUT I’M really hoping to be spending Christmas with my family.’ Realising that she might have come across as ungrateful, Antonietta immediately apologised. ‘It’s very kind of you to invite me, but...’

‘I get it.’ Aurora shrugged as she carried on helping Antonietta to unpack. ‘You didn’t come to Silibri to spend Christmas Day with the Messinas.’

‘Ah, but you’re a Caruso now!’ Antonietta smiled.

The cemetery in the village of Silibri, where Antonietta had loved to wander, held many names, but there were a few constants, and Caruso, Messina and Ricci were the prominent ones.

Especially Ricci.

The Ricci family extended across the south-west region of Sicily and beyond, but Silibri was its epicentre. Antonietta’s father, who was the chief fire officer and a prominent landowner, was well connected and held in high regard.

‘Do you know...?’ Antonietta paused in hanging up the few clothes she owned. ‘If I had married Sylvester then I wouldn’t even have had to change my surname. I would still be Antonietta Ricci.’

‘Yes, and you would be married to your second cousin and living in a property on the grounds of your father’s home, with Sylvester working for him.’

‘True...’ Antonietta started to say, but then faltered.

She had run away on her wedding day, five years ago, in rather spectacular style—climbing out of the bedroom window as her father waited outside to take her to the packed church. Sylvester was popular in the village, and a member of her extended family, so the fallout had been dire—her family had rejected her completely. Letters and emails had gone unanswered and her mother hung up on her whenever she called to try and make her case.

She had spent four years living and working in France, but though she had persisted with the language, and made friends there, it had never felt like home. So she had come back to Silibri, for Aurora and Nico’s wedding, but there had been no welcome committee to greet her. Instead she had been shunned by both her immediate and extended family.

Rejecting Sylvester, and so publicly, had been taken as a rejection of them and their closed family values and traditions.

Since Nico and Aurora’s wedding she had been working at Nico’s grand hotel in Rome, as a chambermaid. But Rome was not home either, and she had often confided to her friend how she missed Silibri.

Antonietta had wanted one final chance to make amends, and Aurora had offered a solution—she could work as a chambermaid in Nico’s new hotel in Silibri while training part-time as a massage therapist. The old monastery there had been painstakingly rebuilt, and refurbished to Nico’s exacting standards, and it was more a luxurious retreat than a hotel. To train there would be a career boost indeed.

It was an opportunity that Antonietta didn’t want to miss—but, given the level of animosity towards her, it was clear she would struggle to live in the village. Aurora had had a solution to that too—there was a small stone cottage, set on the cliff-edge, and Aurora had said she was more than welcome to use it.

‘The internet connection is terrible there and it’s too close to the helipad and hangar for the guests,’ Aurora had explained, ‘so it’s just sitting empty.’

‘Hopefully I shan’t need it for too long,’ Antonietta had replied. ‘Once my family know that I’m back and working...’

She had seen the doubtful look flicker in her dear friend’s eyes. The same doubtful look that flickered now, as Antonietta insisted she would be back with her family for the festivities.

‘Antonietta...?’

She heard the question in her friend’s voice and braced herself. Aurora was as outspoken as Antonietta was quiet, but till now her friend had refrained from stating the obvious.

‘It’s been five years since your family have spoken to you...’

‘I know that,’ Antonietta said. ‘But it’s not as if I’ve actually given them much opportunity to do so.’

‘You came back for my wedding,’ Aurora pointed out. ‘And you were ignored by them.’

‘I think they were just shocked to see me. But once they know I’m properly here, that I’m back for good...’

Aurora sat down on the bed but Antonietta remained standing, not wanting to have the conversation that was to come.

‘It’s been years,’ Aurora said again. ‘You were only twenty-one when it happened, and now you are close to turning twenty-six! Isn’t it time to stop beating yourself up?’

‘But I’m not,’ Antonietta said. ‘It’s been an amazing five years. I’ve travelled and I’ve learnt a new language. It’s not as if I’m walking around in sackcloth and ashes—most of the time life is wonderful. It’s just at...’

Just at other times.

Times that should surely be spent with family.

‘Christmas is especially hard,’ Antonietta admitted. ‘It is then that I miss them the most. And I find it hard to believe that they don’t think of me and miss me also. Especially my mother. I want to give them one final chance...’

‘Fair enough—but what about fun?’ Aurora persisted. ‘I get that it hasn’t been all doom and gloom, but you haven’t spoken of any friends. I never hear you saying you’re going on a date...’

‘You never dated anyone until Nico,’ Antonietta said rather defensively.

‘Only because I have loved Nico my entire life,’ Aurora said. ‘No one compared. But at least I tried once...’

They both laughed as they recalled Aurora’s attempt to get over Nico by getting off with a fireman, but then Antonietta’s laughter died away. There was a very good reason she hadn’t dated. One that she hadn’t even shared with her closest friend. It wasn’t just the fact that Sylvester was her second cousin that had caused Antonietta to flee on her wedding day. It had been her dread of their wedding night.

Sylvester’s kisses had repulsed Antonietta, and the rough, urgent roaming of his hands had terrified her. And her reluctance to partake had infuriated him.

It had all come to a head for Antonietta in the weeks before the planned wedding, when she had come to dread time spent alone with her fiancé. On more than a couple of occasions he had almost overpowered her, and Antonietta had been forced to plead with Sylvester and say that she was saving herself for her wedding night.

‘Frigida,’ he had called her angrily.

And very possibly she was, Antonietta had concluded, because to this day the thought of being intimate with a man left her cold.

At the time she had tried voicing her fears about it to her mamma, but her advice had been less than reassuring. Her mamma had told her that once she was married it was her wifely duty to perform ‘once a week to keep him happy’.

As the wedding night had loomed closer, so had Antonietta’s sense of dread. And that feeling of dread, whenever she thought of kissing a man, let alone being intimate with a man, had stayed with her.

She wished she could speak about it with Aurora. But her friend was so confident with her sexuality, and so deliriously happy in her marriage that instead of confiding in her, Antonietta remained eternally private and kept the darkest part of her soul to herself.

‘It’s time to live a little,’ Aurora pushed now.

‘I agree.’ Antonietta nodded, even if she didn’t quite believe it herself. ‘But first I have to give my parents this chance to forgive me.’

‘For what, Antonietta?’ Aurora was blunt. ‘Sylvester was your second cousin; the fact is they just wanted to keep their money in the family and keep the Ricci name strong—’

‘Even so...’ It was Antonietta who interrupted now. ‘I shamed my parents in front of their entire family. I left Sylvester standing at the altar! You saw the fallout, Aurora...’

‘Yes...’

Apparently a huge fight had broken out in the church. Antonietta hadn’t hung around to witness it, though; she had timed it so she had been on the train out of Silibri by then.

‘I miss having a family.’ It was the simple truth. ‘They are not perfect—I know that—but I miss having them in my life. And even if we cannot reconcile I feel there is unfinished business between us. Even if it is a final goodbye then I want it to be said face to face.’

‘Well, the offer’s there if you change your mind,’ Aurora said. ‘Nico and I want Gabe to celebrate his first Christmas in Silibri...’ Her voice trailed off as she pulled a swathe of scarlet fabric from Antonietta’s case. ‘This is beautiful—where did you get it?’

‘Paris.’ Antonietta smiled and ran her hands fondly over the fabric. ‘I bought it just after I arrived there.’ It had been a late summer’s day and, having just written to her parents, she had been buoyed by the prospect of reconciliation. ‘I was walking through Place Saint-Pierre and I wandered into a fabric store.’

She had decided to celebrate her happy mood and there amongst the brocades and velvets she had found a bolt of stunning crimson silk and bought a length.

‘You have had it all this time and done nothing with it?’ Aurora checked as Antonietta wrapped it back in its tissue paper and placed it in the bottom drawer of a heavy wooden chest. ‘You cannot leave this hiding in a drawer.’

‘I might make some cushions with it.’

‘Cushions?’ Aurora was aghast. ‘That fabric deserves to be made into a dress and taken out!’

‘Oh? And when will I ever wear it?’

‘As a last resort you can wear it in your coffin,’ Aurora said with typical Sicilian dark humour. ‘You can lie there dead and people can say Look how beautiful she almost was! Give it to me and let me make something with it.’

Aurora was a brilliant seamstress, and would certainly make something beautiful, but it was almost reluctantly that Antonietta handed over the fabric.

‘Let me get your measurements,’ Aurora said.

‘I don’t have a tape measure.’

But of course Aurora did. And so, instead of unpacking, Antonietta stood, feeling awkward and shy in her underwear, holding her long, straight black hair up as Aurora took her measurements down to the last detail.

‘You are so slim,’ Aurora said as she wrote them all down. ‘One of my legs is the size of your waist.’

‘Rubbish!’

They were lifelong best friends and complete opposites. Aurora was all rippling curls and curves, and she exuded confidence, whereas Antonietta was as reserved and as slender as her shadow that now fell on the stone wall. The evening was cool, rather than cold, but the year was certainly moving into winter, and she shivered as Aurora took her time, writing down the measurements.

Antonietta tried to hurry her along. ‘Nico will be here for you soon,’ she warned.

He was checking on the hotel while Aurora helped her settle in, but soon his helicopter would come to return both him and Aurora to their residence in Rome.

‘Aren’t you going to drop in and visit your parents before you head back?’

‘I am avoiding them.’ Aurora rolled her eyes. ‘Can you believe they want Nico to employ my lazy, good-for-nothing brother as chief groundskeeper for the Old Monastery?’

Antonietta laughed. Aurora’s brother was lazy indeed.

‘It’s no joke,’ Aurora said. ‘You would need a scythe to get to work if Nico relented. My brother is as bone idle as yours, but of course now me and Nico are married he seems to think that Nico owes him a job!’

‘I hope Nico didn’t feel obliged to employ me...’

‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ Aurora cut her off. ‘You are a hard worker and the Old Monastery is lucky to have you.’

Even so, it was a huge favour for them to give her this cottage as she worked on making amends for the past.

The sound of Nico’s chopper starting up made Aurora look out of the window. ‘There he is...’ She kissed her friend on both cheeks and gave her a hug. ‘Good luck starting work and I’ll see you on Christmas Eve—if not before. And I mean it, Antonietta. If things don’t work out with your family, the offer to join us is there.’

‘Thank you,’ Antonietta said. ‘But Christmas is still a couple of months away; there is plenty of time for things to sort themselves out.’

‘You’ll be okay?’ Aurora checked. ‘You really are a bit cut off here.’

‘I’ll be fine,’ Antonietta assured her. ‘Thanks so much for this.’

Nico did not come into the cottage; instead he headed straight to the chopper and Antonietta watched as Aurora joined him. They were clearly both happy to be heading back to Rome and little Gabe, who would soon be turning one. She was glad that Nico hadn’t dropped in. She was starting work soon, and didn’t want her co-workers thinking that she had a direct line to the boss through her friend.

It felt odd, though, after Aurora had gone and she was truly alone.

The cottage was beautifully furnished, with a modern kitchen and a cosy living area, and she wandered through it, taking in not just the furnishings but the stunning view of the ocean from her bedroom. No beach was visible, just choppy waves and crashing foam. Despite the cool evening she opened the window, just to drown out the crippling silence that had descended since Aurora had left.

She was home, Antonietta told herself.

Not that it felt like it.

In truth, Silibri never had.

Antonietta had never quite felt she belonged.

CHAPTER ONE

Six weeks later

ANTONIETTA WAS UP long before the Sicilian winter sun. For a while she lay in the dark bedroom of her little stone cottage, listening to the sound of the waves rolling in and crashing on the rocks below. It might have worked in the meditation of monks of old, and it might be a tranquil backdrop for the guests, but it brought little peace to Antonietta.

It was two weeks until Christmas and since her return there had been little progress with her family. If anything the situation had worsened, with rude stares and muttered insults whenever she ventured into the village, and when she had gone to her parents’ home the door had been closed in her face by her father.

Yet she had glimpsed a pained look in her mother’s eyes from the hallway—as if her mamma had something she wanted to say.

It was for that reason Antonietta persisted.

Sylvester had married and moved away from the village, so there was little chance of bumping into him. And it was good to walk on the beach or in the hillsides she knew. Work was going incredibly well too; her colleagues were friendly and supportive and her training was first class.

Having showered, she went into her wardrobe to select her uniform. It varied—when she was working at the Oratory she wore white, but today she was working on cleaning the suites, so would need her regular uniform.

But as she went to take out her uniform her fingers lingered on the new addition to her wardrobe.

Yes, Aurora was a wonderful seamstress indeed, and the scarlet dress had arrived yesterday! However, just as Antonietta had been reluctant to hand over the fabric, she was even more reluctant to try it on. The dress was bold and sensual and everything she was not.

Still, there was not time for lingering. Her shift started soon, so she pulled out her uniform and got dressed.

The uniforms were actually stunning: the Persian orange linen went well with her olive skin and her slender figure suited the cut of the dress. Antonietta wore no make-up, either in or out of work, so getting ready didn’t take long. She pulled her hair into a neat ponytail and then, having slipped on a jacket, made her way across the grounds towards the monastery.

Her little cottage was quite some distance from the main building. Still, it was a pleasant walk, with the sky turning to navy as the sleepy stars readied themselves to fade for the day, and there was a crisp, salt-laden breeze coming in from the Mediterranean.

And there was already activity at the Old Monastery!

A couple of dark-suited gentlemen were walking around the perimeter of the building and Pino, the chief concierge, was looking very dapper this morning as he greeted her warmly. ‘Buongiorno, Antonietta.’

‘Buongiorno, Pino,’ she responded.

‘We have a new guest!’

The hotel housed many guests, but with the extra security visible Antonietta had already guessed there was a VIP in residence.

Pino loved to gossip and was determined to fill her in. ‘We are to address him as Signor Louis Dupont. However...’ Pino tapped the side of his nose ‘...the truth is he is really—’

‘Pino...’ Antonietta interrupted.

She adored Pino, and always arrived early to allow herself time to chat with him. Pino had recently lost his beloved wife of forty years, Rosa, and she knew that work was the only thing keeping him sane. Still, given that Antonietta was already a main source of gossip in the village, she refused to partake in it now.

‘If that is how he wants to be addressed, then that is enough for me.’

‘Fair enough,’ Pino said, and then he took a proper look at her. ‘How are you doing, Antonietta?’

‘I’m getting there,’ she said, touched that with all that was going on in his world he still took the time to ask about her. ‘How about you?’

‘I’m not looking forward to Christmas. Rosa always made it so special. It was her favourite time of the year.’

‘What will you do? Are you going to visit your daughter?’

‘No, it is her husband’s family’s turn this year, so I’ve told Francesca that I’ll work. I decided that would be better than sitting at home alone. What about you—has there been any progress with your family?’

‘None,’ Antonietta admitted. ‘I have been to the house several times but they still refuse to speak with me, and my trips to the village are less than pleasant. Perhaps it’s time I accept that I’m not wanted here.’