A book in the Baby On Board series, 2009

Dear Reader,

What can destroy love? Time, distance, forgetfulness, death? Those are questions that have always intrigued me.

I wrote Italian Tycoon, Secret Son as a journey of exploration. Mandy and Renzo never see what’s about to engulf them, until it’s too late.

I found myself learning from these two. I listened as they argued that it was too late for the love they had discovered in the face of death. Too much time had passed. How could they ever retrace their steps so far back, and start out again?

But I urged them not to give up, and in finding the way they also discovered the answer to the first question.

If the love is deep, nothing in the world can destroy it.

To me my characters are real people, and talking to them like that is a wonderful experience. It’s what makes writing romance so special, and why I’m especially glad that this book coincides with Harlequin’s sixtieth birthday. For six decades readers have enjoyed the pleasure that only a certain kind of emotional story can bring, and also benefited from the strength such a story can confer.

That strength is a vital part of Harlequin’s story. When times are tough, nothing can beat the joy of escaping to another world. I’m proud to be part of it.

Lucy Gordon

ONE thing was clear from the start.

Mandy Jenkins and Renzo Ruffini were fated to be combatants: to tease, taunt and infuriate each other, to jeer and bang their heads against the wall in mutual exasperation. And then to laugh and forget everything. Until the next time.

The truth was there the night they met, if either of them had been able to see it: the instant attraction hiding behind antagonism, the meeting of minds that took them both by surprise.