The Royal House of Niroli: Secret Heirs: Bride by Royal Appointment / A Royal Bride at the Sheikh's Command

The Royal House of Niroli: Secret Heirs: Bride by Royal Appointment / A Royal Bride at the Sheikh's Command
Raye Morgan

PENNY JORDAN

Shocking revelations become red-hot affairs as Niroli’s new king is crowned!Bride by Royal AppointmentIllegitimate Adam vows to become king in revenge on the family who shunned his mother. Yet blind Elena is instantly drawn to him and her heart-strings are tugged by his vulnerable little son. Can she replace his vendetta with desire?A Royal Bride at the Sheikh’s Command Sheikh Kadir, the last heir to Niroli’s throne, must trade the desert for an island paradise and find himself a queen! Natalia is up to the challenge. And being bedded by a barbarian excites her more than she ever expected… The richest royal family in the world – united by blood and passion, torn apart by deceit and desire

The Royal HOUSE OF NIROLI

Secret Heirs

Bride by Royal Appointment

RAYE MORGAN

A Royal Bride at the Sheikh’s Command

PENNY JORDAN

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

Bride by Royal Appointment

RAYE MORGAN

The Royal House of Niroli

SEMPRE APPASSIONATO,

SEMPRE FIERO

Always passionate, always proud

The richest royal family in the world— united by blood and passion, torn apart by deceit and desire

Complete your collection with all four books!

The Royal House of Niroli: Scandalous Seductions

The Royal House of Niroli: Billion Dollar Bargains

The Royal House of Niroli: Innocent Mistresses

The Royal House of Niroli: Secret Heirs

WELCOME TO NIROLI!

Nestled in the azure blue of the Mediterranean, the majestic island of Niroli has prospered for centuries. The Fierezza men have worn the crown with passion and pride since the Middle Ages. But now, as the King’s health declines, and his two sons have been tragically killed, the crown is in jeopardy.

The clock is ticking—a new heir must be found before the King is forced to abdicate. By royal decree the internationally scattered members of the Fierezza family are summoned to claim their destiny. But any person who takes the throne must do so according to ‘The Rules of the Royal House of Niroli’. Soon secrets and rivalries emerge as the descendants of this ancient royal line vie for position and power. Only a true Fierezza can become ruler—a person dedicated to their country, their people … and their eternal love!

To CB, for friendship and sweet reason.

Thanks for being there!

CHAPTER ONE

THE kid was going to fall right over the edge.

Adam Ryder’s anger at his son was barely leashed and he was fighting to hold it back. They’d come here for sightseeing, like all the other tourists strolling around them, but Adam wasn’t thinking much about history as he climbed into the ruins of an ancient Roman villa on a site overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The island of Niroli seemed to be crammed with castles and old crumbling walls and all sorts of antique relics but that wasn’t what he’d come for.

Actually, he’d come to this particular location because it wasn’t too far from the hotel and looked to be a good place to let his six-year old son, Jeremy, loose to run off some of the excess energy that was making him such a pain to be around.

But his reason for being on Niroli, a destination he’d avoided all his life? Ah, that was harder to explain.

Still, even he had to admit the island had a magic quality. He’d felt it right away as they’d stepped off the flight from NewYork. The air seemed softer. The sunlight seemed to make things sparkle with possibilities. All of which immediately made him wary. He couldn’t let things like that seduce him away from his goal.

After all, to put it plainly, he’d come to Niroli to do a little fund-raising. He needed money to save his company—big money—and he was willing to do almost anything to get it, including accepting an unusual offer that had been made to him—the crown of this little island country. And there was nothing magical about that.

Meanwhile, he had to deal with Jeremy. He’d brought the boy along hoping to create a few bonding opportunities, but his interest in that project was waning fast. The thing was, the nanny he’d hired to come along and take care of his son had quit right there in the airport, loudly declaring she couldn’t stand the boy just moments before boarding the plane.

Adam kept remembering the odd, slightly triumphant smile on Jeremy’s face as she had stormed away. He’d faced off grown men in bar fights in his younger days with hardly a quiver of fear, but the look on his son’s face, just before departing all known civilization with only him in tow, still sent shivers down his spine. He knew how to handle adults, both male and female. But what was he going to do with this kid?

“Take him out and let him run,” the woman at the concierge desk at the hotel had suggested.

So here he was, letting Jeremy run. And the boy certainly ran. Up and down and all over the ruins, his blond hair flying in the breeze. At least he seemed interested in the ruins. That was something. He’d spent the entire plane ride asking, “Are we there yet?” until Adam had had to bite down on his own hand to keep from yelling at him.

Now Jeremy was balancing on the viaduct that had once brought water to the villa, a portion of which came perilously close to the edge of the cliff. Adam frowned. He supposed he should do the parental thing and warn him about falling.

“Jeremy, don’t go out on the edge like that,” he called out. “It’s dangerous.”

The boy looked back at him and laughed. Adam shook his head. What six-year-old boy laughed like that, with that wicked tone, as though he relished torturing adults? The only thing he could think was that he’d better hire another, tougher nanny, and do it fast.

“Stay away from the edge.”

Jeremy turned from the viaduct, but he began to climb the crumbling exterior wall of the old villa instead. Adam started toward him. This was getting ridiculous. The kid was going to kill himself.

“Jeremy! Damn it, get down from there right now!”

Jeremy turned to climb higher—and fell right over the edge.

The shout that came from Adam seemed to rip through the walls of his chest. Shock and then sharp fear jolted through him and he began to run, cursing and praying at the same time. Oh, God! What if …?

He threw himself into the ruin and began to scramble up the steep wall, heading for the spot where Jeremy had gone over the edge. The Roman bricks crumbled under his feet, making for impossible climbing, but then he gained the harder ledge and vaulted up into position. Looking down, he braced himself for the sight of his son’s shattered body lying on the rocks, thirty feet below.

Instead, he saw Jeremy kneeling at the feet of a slender woman, petting what looked like a golden retriever, and from his new vantage point he could see that there was a shelf, a sort of patio area, that jutted out over the sea, not far beneath him.

He took a deep breath and let his shoulders sag, but relief was followed quickly by raw anger. Now he realized that Jeremy hadn’t fallen. He’d jumped. Adam let out an angry shout, then turned and made his way to the stone steps he noticed along the side. By the time he reached where the young woman was sitting on an old stone wall, Jeremy and the dog had gone on down to the rocky shore beneath and were now frolicking at the water’s edge.

His anger at his son was only made worse by his sense of frustration, and he swore, then turned grudgingly toward the woman.

“Sorry,” he muttered, just in case she was the type to take offense.

And then he stopped and looked again. She was quite striking. Her body was slim and graceful, her dark brown hair sleek and shining in the sunlight and braided with a silk scarf the color of spring leaves. Her neck seemed unusually long and slender, making him think of ballet dancers. He couldn’t see her eyes as she wore a pair of very dark and stylish Gucci sunglasses, but the features he could see could have been classically cut in fine porcelain. In direct contrast, her mouth was full and lush and sensual, and her chin tilted impudently.

“I hope my son didn’t bother you,” he said, his gaze sliding over the creamy skin of her bare arms.

Her blouse was lacy, her skirt a wide swath of emerald-green gauze. Her feet looked delicate in leather sandals, the toenails painted a pearly pink. There was an elf-like air of the forest sprite about her, though she was too tall and well rounded to be a fairy. Altogether, she was very much the most enchanting creature he’d seen in a long time. He turned toward her the way plants responded to sunlight—as though he had to have her in his life.

“Oh, no,” she responded pleasantly. “I enjoyed meeting him. He seems like a wonderful boy.”

“Wonderful? Hah.” That almost startled a laugh from him, but he liked her musical speaking voice with its faint accent adding a certain lilting charm. “I guess you didn’t really have time to get to know him,” he noted dryly.

A frown appeared between her neat eyebrows. “Is that supposed to be a joke?” she asked bluntly. “Why would you say such a thing about your own son?”

He hesitated. It probably did sound cold to someone who hadn’t been thoroughly annoyed by Jeremy yet. He had a pang of remorse. Maybe she was right and he was getting too cynical about the boy.

“Frustration, I guess,” he said, rubbing a hand through his sand-colored hair and giving her the up-from-under-his-eyebrows look that had been known to make grown women swoon like teenagers. “It’s been a long, wearing day.”

She didn’t swoon. In fact, her mouth thinned a bit. “Oh?” she said in a tone that bespoke impending boredom. It was obvious she hadn’t been charmed.