The High-Society Wife

The High-Society Wife
HELEN BIANCHIN

Gianna and Franco Giancarlo had gone into their convenient society marriage with their eyes wide open. They acted the happy couple to create an alliance between their powerful, wealthy families–and dispel media gossip….A year later, things have changed: their marriage may not be real, but Franco's passion for his wife is…and Gianna has fallen in love with her husband!

With Valentine’s Day, February is always a romantic month. And we’ve got some great books in store for you….

The High-Society Wife by Helen Bianchin is the story of a marriage of convenience between two rich and powerful families…. But what this couple didn’t expect is for their marriage to become real! It’s also the first in our new miniseries RUTHLESS, where you’ll find commanding men, who stop at nothing to get what they want. Look out for more books coming soon! And if you love Italian men, don’t miss The Marchese’s Love-Child by Sara Craven, where our heroine is swept off her feet by a passionate tycoon.

If you just want to get away from it all, let us whisk you off to the beautiful Greek Islands in Julia James’s hard-hitting story Baby of Shame. What will happen when a businessman discovers that his night of passion with a young Englishwoman five years ago resulted in a son? The Caribbean is the destination for our couple in Anne Mather’s intriguing tale The Virgin’s Seduction.

Jane Porter has a dangerously sexy Sicilian for you in The Sicilian’s Defiant Mistress. This explosive reunion story promises to be dark and passionate! In Trish Morey’s Stolen by the Sheikh, the first in her new duet, THE ARRANGED BRIDES, a young woman is summoned to the palace of a demanding sheikh, who has plans for her future…. Don’t miss part two, coming in March.

See the inside front cover for a list of titles and book numbers.

Men who can’t be tamed…or so they think!

If you love strong, commanding men, you’ll love this brand-new miniseries. Meet the guy who breaks the rules to get exactly what he wants, because he is…

HARD-EDGED & HANDSOME

He’s the man who’s impossible to resist…

RICH & RAKISH

He’s got everything—and needs nobody, until he meets one woman…

He’s RUTHLESS!

In his pursuit of passion; in his world the winner takes all!

Brought to you by your favorite Harlequin Presents

authors!

The Billionaire Boss’s Forbidden Mistress

by Miranda Lee

#2524

The High-Society Wife

Helen Bianchin

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

All about the author…

Helen Bianchin

HELEN BIANCHIN grew up in New Zealand, an only child possessed by a vivid imagination and a love for reading. After four years of legal secretarial work, Helen embarked on a working holiday in Australia where she met her Italian-born husband, a tobacco sharefarmer in far north Queensland. His command of English was pitiful, and her command of Italian was nil. Fun? Oh yes! So too was being flung into cooking for workers immediately after marriage, stringing tobacco and living in primitive conditions.

It was a few years later when Helen, her husband and their daughter returned to New Zealand, settled in Auckland and added two sons to their family. Encouraged by friends to recount anecdotes of her years as a tobacco sharefarmer’s wife living in an Italian community, Helen began setting words on paper and her first novel was published in 1975.

Creating interesting characters and telling their stories remains as passionate a challenge for Helen as it did in the beginning of her writing career.

Spending time with family, reading and watching movies are high on Helen’s list of pleasures. An animal lover, Helen says her Maltese terrier and two Birman cats regard her study as much theirs as hers.

To Danilo, Lucia, Angelo and Peter

for their love and support through the years

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

EPILOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

‘SOMETHING bothers you?’

The male voice held a faintly inflected drawl, and Gianna met her husband’s dark gaze across the master bedroom with equanimity.

It was a spacious room with two walk-in wardrobes with adjoining dressing-rooms, and two en suite bathrooms. Beautifully carved antique furniture complemented plush furnishings in muted colours of cream and pale green.