Redeemed by His Stolen Bride Read online

  Married for revenge...

  But is she the key to the Spaniard’s redemption?

  Seeking vengeance, billionaire Gabriel isn’t above stealing his rival’s fiancée for himself! His plan seems complete when, to support her struggling mother, sweet, penniless Leonora agrees to his ruthless proposal. But at his luxury villa, he’s blindsided by their powerful attraction—and her innocence!

  Gabriel only offers passion, but behind his arrogant pride, Leonora discovers his loyalty matches her own. She sees the honorable man Gabriel could be, if he’s prepared to give her more than just pleasure...

  Leonora caught Gabriel’s eye and his gaze dropped to her mouth and he suddenly looked...hungry.

  Leonora’s heart thumped. Was he going to kiss her right here? Now? She wasn’t ready—but then the look on his face passed and he kept walking.

  Leonora stayed silent, following where he led her, through a confusing labyrinth of corridors. She could see now why he might like his very sparse and elegant apartment. It was a direct contrast to what he’d grown up with. That was why she’d liked it.

  He came back then with a glass of what looked like champagne in one hand and water in the other. He handed her the tall, elegant flute and said, “Dinner will be ready in a short while, but first I have a proposal to put to you.”

  Leonora took a sip of champagne and it fizzed down her throat. She swallowed, genuinely intrigued. “A proposal?”

  He looked at her carefully. “Yes, Leonora. A proposal. Of marriage.”

  Rival Spanish Brothers

  Billionaire brothers at odds...have picked their Cinderella brides!

  When your sibling is also your greatest rival, nothing is easy. Blood may bind Lazaro and Gabriel together, but a lifelong feud continues to tear them apart. As they battle to find a bride, the Spaniards begin to realize that maybe family—and not their fortune—is everything. But it will take their convenient wives to show them!

  It’s a race down the aisle for...

  Lazaro and Skye

  Confessions of a Pregnant Cinderella

  Gabriel and Leonora

  Redeemed by His Stolen Bride

  Available now!

  Abby Green

  Redeemed by His Stolen Bride

  Irish author Abby Green ended a very glamorous career in film and TV—which really consisted of a lot of standing in the rain outside actors’ trailers—to pursue her love of romance. After she’d bombarded Harlequin with manuscripts they kindly accepted one, and an author was born. She lives in Dublin, Ireland, and loves any excuse for distraction. Visit abby-green.com or email [email protected].

  Books by Abby Green

  Harlequin Presents

  The Virgin’s Debt to Pay

  Awakened by the Scarred Italian

  Conveniently Wed!

  Claiming His Wedding Night Consequence

  One Night With Consequences

  An Innocent, A Seduction, A Secret

  Wedlocked!

  Claimed for the De Carillo Twins

  Brides for Billionaires

  Married for the Tycoon’s Empire

  Rival Spanish Brothers

  Confessions of a Pregnant Cinderella

  Rulers of the Desert

  A Diamond for the Sheikh’s Mistress

  A Christmas Bride for the King

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

  This is for Heidi Rice, who came up with the idea of giving the jilted fiancée from Confessions of a Pregnant Cinderella her own story. X

  Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  EPILOGUE

  EXCERPT FROM THEIR ROYAL WEDDING BARGAIN BY MICHELLE CONDER

  CHAPTER ONE

  LEONORA FLORES DE LA VEGA couldn’t seem to take her eyes off the man standing at the back of the crowd in the glittering ballroom. He towered over everyone around him, putting him at well over six feet.

  He was also scowling, which only made his hawkish good looks even more forbidding and intimidating. And even from here Leonora was aware of his sheer masculine magnetism. As if there was an invisible thread tugging her attention to him whether she liked it or not.

  She knew who Gabriel Ortega Cruz y Torres was. Everyone did. He came from one of Spain’s most noble and oldest families. They owned huge swathes of the country and generated an income from banking, vineyards and real estate—just to name a few enterprises.

  He was an intensely private man, but even so he had a reputation for being as ruthless in the bedroom as he was in business. Single, he was considered one of the most eligible bachelors in Europe, if not the world. But he appeared to be in no hurry to settle down. And when he did it would be with an undeniably well-connected woman who breathed the same rarefied air as he did.

  And why should that even concern her? Leonora chastised herself. She might come from a family almost as well-connected as Gabriel’s, but there the similarity ended. Her family had lost their fortune, and had been subsisting on scraps and the funds from opening up their castillo just outside Madrid. It was an ignominious state of affairs. And one that was becoming increasingly unsustainable.

  She had never spoken to Gabriel Torres and was never likely to. A man like him wouldn’t lower himself to consort with someone from a family of very faded glory. But she’d always been aware of him. From the moment she’d first laid eyes on him when he’d been about twenty-one and she’d been twelve. She’d watched him play polo—that had been before her family had lost everything due to her father’s gambling habit, a long-standing source of shame that had kept her parents from venturing out in public for years.

  She hadn’t been able to take her eyes off Gabriel that day. He’d been so vital. So alive. He and the horse had moved as one, with awesome athleticism and grace. But it had been the expression on his face that had caught her—so intense and focused.

  She’d overheard one of the opposing team say, ‘Hey, Torres, lighten up. It’s just a friendly game.’

  He’d said nothing, just glowered at the man. Leonora could remember feeling an ache near her heart, as if she’d wanted to soothe him somehow...make him smile.

  Which was ridiculous.

  She became aware of the hubbub in the ballroom. Of the hundreds of eyes looking at her. And suddenly she came out of her reverie and back into the present moment. A moment that was going to change her life for ever.

  A spurt of panic clutched at her gut and she breathed through it.

  She was doing this for her family. For Matías. She had no choice. She was their only hope of redemption.

  A light sweat broke out on her palms as she forced her gaze away from the man at the back of the room and found the man she should be looking at. Her fiancé. Lazaro Sanchez. He was devilishly handsome, with overlong dark blond hair and mesmerisingly unusual green eyes. Tall. He was almost as tall as—

  She shook her head briefly. No. She had to stop thinking about him. She was about to become engaged to this man. This man she hardly knew, if she was honest. They’d had some dates. She didn’t feel anything when she looked at him. Not like...him.

  But Lazaro was kind and respectful. And, more importantly, he was prepared to bail her family out of their quag
mire of debts and in so doing restore their respectability and secure Matías’s future. In return... Well, Leonora was cynical enough to recognise ruthless ambition when she saw it. Lazaro Sanchez wanted to marry her in order to achieve a level of acceptance into the world she inhabited. Her only currency now was as a trophy to someone like him and she had no choice but to accept it.

  She noticed then that Lazaro had a glowering expression on his face, not unlike the one on Gabriel Torres’s. Something about that caught in Leonora’s mind, but before she could unpick what it meant she realised that one of Lazaro’s staff was making a motion, as if to say, It’s time.

  She tried to get his attention, ‘Lazaro?’

  He looked at her. Still glowering.

  ‘Are you all right?’ she asked. ‘You look very fierce.’

  His expression cleared. He held out a hand and she slipped hers into his. Nothing. No effect. She berated herself again. People in this world didn’t marry for love or chemistry. They married strategically. Exactly as she was doing.

  ‘Yes, fine...just a little preoccupied,’ he said.

  Unable to help herself, Leonora glanced back across the room, and this time Gabriel Torres’s dark, compelling gaze met hers. A flash of heat went straight through her abdomen. Her fingers tightened reflexively around Lazaro’s.

  ‘Are you okay?’ he asked her.

  A surge of guilt blasted her. How could she be so compelled by another man when she was about to commit publicly to this one? She looked at Lazaro and forced a smile. ‘Yes, I’m fine.’

  His hand tightened around hers. ‘I’m glad you have agreed to marry me, Leonora. I think we can have a good marriage, I think we can be...happy.’

  Did he?

  A semi-hysterical bubble rose up inside her. She had a sense of the massive room closing in around her, suffocating her. Lazaro let go of her hand and slipped his arm around her waist. The feeling of claustrophobia got worse.

  His hand tightened on her waist, almost painfully, and Leonora hissed at him. ‘Lazaro—’

  He looked at her with a strange expression on his face, his eyes burning.

  ‘You’re hurting me.’

  Immediately he released his grip. ‘I’m sorry.’

  Leonora forced a smile. The sooner they got this announcement over with, the sooner she could get out of this room and get some air. She resolutely forced herself to keep her eyes averted from where Gabriel Torres stood, towering over everyone else around him. Powerful. Magnetic. Disturbing.

  A waiter approached with champagne and she took two glasses, handing one to Lazaro. She saw movement nearby and said, ‘Your advisors are making motions that it’s time to make the announcement. Ready?’

  Lazaro looked at her, and she clung to the resolve she could see in his eyes.

  He clinked his glass to hers. ‘Yes, let’s do it.’

  He put his arm around her waist again and Leonora forced a smile through the lingering claustrophobia. He started speaking, but she didn’t really take in his words, letting them roll over her.

  Against every effort, her eye was drawn back across the crowd to where Gabriel Torres stood. He was still watching her, with a disconcertingly intense gaze. Leonora started to tremble lightly under the force of it.

  Suddenly a voice rang out. ‘Wait! Stop!’

  It shook Leonora out of her trance. It was a woman, who’d pushed through the crowd near the dais. She was being held back by security guards. She was dressed like the wait staff, in a white shirt and black skirt. Vibrant red hair, up in a bun. She was very pretty. Bright blue eyes.

  She was looking at Lazaro, and then she said, ‘You need to know something. I’m pregnant. With your child.’

  For long seconds time was suspended, and then everything seemed to go into slow motion as Leonora felt Lazaro’s arm leave her waist. She watched as the woman said something else, not hearing what it was through the buzzing in her head.

  Lazaro stepped down off the dais to talk to the woman, holding her arm. She looked very petite next to him. Vaguely, ridiculously, Leonora appreciated that they looked good together.

  She couldn’t hear what they were saying, and then the woman was being led away.

  Lazaro turned back to look at her, his expression veering between shock, anger and contrition.

  He came back up on to the dais and said something to the crowd—she wasn’t sure what. Too many feelings were rolling over her—chief of which, she was ashamed to admit, was a sense of relief. But that was quickly eclipsed when she looked around and saw the crowd whispering. Some people were looking at her with pity and others with something far less benign. A malicious glee at the fall of one of their own.

  She’d tried to buy her way out of debt and shame and now she felt as exposed as if she were naked. And he was still there. At the back. Looking at her with a grim expression.

  She turned away and saw Lazaro. She backed away and then she stopped. Maybe this was just some hideous case of mistaken identity.

  ‘Is it true?’

  But Lazaro said nothing, and his silence said everything.

  He looked guilty.

  He held out a hand. ‘Leonora, please...let me explain.’

  It was real.

  She became aware of the burn of humiliation. She shook her head. ‘I can’t agree to marry you. Not now.’

  She sent up a silent thank you that her parents weren’t there to witness this moment. Or Matías. He would see that she was upset and that would upset him.

  She cast a look around, instinctively seeking an escape route. All she saw were judgemental eyes. Mocking eyes.

  She looked at Lazaro for one last time, dismay and humiliation scoring her insides like a knife. ‘How could you do this to me? In front of all these people?’

  Without waiting for a response, she put her glass down on the nearest surface and turned and fled, making for the nearest exit with no clue where to go.

  The first thing she saw was a Ladies’ sign, and she followed it to the bathroom, which was mercifully empty. She locked herself into a stall and sat down on the closed toilet.

  She was trembling, her heart pounding. She forced herself to take deep breaths, and just as she was starting to feel marginally calmer the door opened. It sounded as if at least three women were coming in, all chattering. About her and Lazaro.

  ‘Who’d marry her now? She’s so desperate she was willing to marry some nouveau riche billionaire...’

  ‘Where did Sanchez even come from?’

  ‘Some say he grew up on the streets.’

  ‘The de la Vegas can’t survive this. All they have is her and that brother of hers, who everyone knows is a—’

  At the mention of Leonora’s beloved brother she opened the door and stepped out of the stall, coming face-to-face with the three gossipers. The chatter stopped instantly.

  One blanched, one went red, but the other one was totally unrepentant. Leonora was too upset to speak. She just watched as they collected their things and walked out in silence, taking no sense of satisfaction in having routed them because she knew they’d only start gossiping again as soon as they were out of earshot.

  She went over to the sink and put her hands on the counter, looking at herself in the mirror but only vaguely registering that her outward appearance—relatively calm—belied the storm inside. She could only give thanks that the women hadn’t witnessed her falling apart.

  She took a deep breath and ran some cold water over her hands and wrists. She hoped that by the time she emerged there would be no one else waiting to witness her walk of shame.

  At that instant a face popped into her head. Gabriel Torres. His hawk-like features were as vivid as if he were standing in front of her. She went hot and then cold at the thought of him having witnessed her public humiliation.

  But she wouldn’t see him again. B
ecause she wouldn’t be emerging in public for a long time.

  She took a breath and steeled herself before heading back out and into the lobby, hoping for a discreet getaway.

  * * *

  Where was she?

  Gabriel Torres looked left and right outside the function room, but there was no sign of the dark-haired woman in the long strapless red dress. The dress that clung to her elegant curves in a way that had made his blood pound for the first time in a long time. The compulsion to follow her prickled over his skin now; he wasn’t someone normally given to such impetuosity.

  He had only come here this evening to see for himself what Lazaro Sanchez was up to, because he didn’t trust the man as far as he could throw him. Especially when everything he did seemed to be designed personally to get under Gabriel’s skin. And because they were both involved in a very competitive and lucrative bid for a public project.

  Recently Sanchez had even gone so far as to concoct a story that he and Gabriel were half-brothers. He’d accosted Gabriel at an event they’d both attended and when Gabriel had tried to walk away, disgusted at the insinuation that they could be related, Sanchez had stopped him, telling him of a day, many years before, when he had confronted Gabriel’s father, claiming to be his son.

  To Gabriel’s surprise and shock he’d remembered the incident—and the skinny kid who had been waiting for them outside a restaurant in central Madrid. It had been his birthday—one of the very rare occasions when his dysfunctional family had put on a united front.

  Gabriel had never been naïve about either of his parents. It was quite possible that his serially philandering father might have sired a bastard along the way. For a family like the Cruz y Torres, whose vast dynasty stretched back to the Middle Ages, such occurrences by opportunists were frequent and, frankly, to be expected.

  So, for all he knew, Sanchez could be his brother but he suspected it was more likely to be a ruse to get under Gabriel’s skin.

  Ironically enough, Gabriel’s father was at this event too, this evening, but Gabriel had ignored him. They barely tolerated each other at the best of times, and he’d had no doubt that the only reason his father had been there was probably the free-flowing booze or a woman.

 
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