A book in the International Grooms series, 2009

Dear Reader,

When I started writing the first book in my Rinucci series, five years ago, I had no idea what an enjoyable task it was going to be. But as the work developed I discovered that the real joy was not just six attractive heroes, but the feeling of being drawn into a large, united family, where people will do anything for each other. As Dante Rinucci says, “There’s nothing to compare with the feeling that you have the whole tribe behind you.”

So when it came to writing a seventh Rinucci book I was really glad to go back to the Villa Rinucci in Naples and meet all my old friends again.

Dante is a cousin, not a brother, but since his parents died he has lived part of the time at the villa, and has come to see Hope and Toni as extra parents. He’s a man practiced in keeping secrets, since beneath the laughing exterior he’s concealing the tragic knowledge that he might be suffering from an inherited ailment that could lie dormant for years, then suddenly end his life or render him mentally disabled. Of the two, it’s the second one he fears.

To cope, he lives for the moment, avoiding long-term commitments, until he meets the one woman he can love deeply enough to risk the future, and whose own love is deep enough to take the risk with him.

So here’s the seventh Rinucci, as crazy, charming and infuriating-but also as passionately loving-as the others.

Warmest wishes,

Lucy Gordon

HORNS blared, lights flashed in the darkness and Ferne ground her hands together as the cab battled its way through the slow-moving Milan traffic.

‘Oh no! I’m going to miss the train. Please!’