So Close and No Closer

‘I worked because I felt I had to prove to myself that I wasn’t still the same selfish, heedless child Julian had married. I never had any desire to become a successful business-women. I just wanted to prove that I was a person in my own right…and now I have proved it! There’ll be plenty to keep me occupied here running this house, helping you. I don’t know much about computers yet, but I can always learn.’

She felt him tense and wondered what she had said, looking at him uncertainly and asking hesitantly, ‘What’s wrong?’

‘I want you again,’ he told her thickly. ‘Oh, Rue, what is it that you do to me?’

‘I don’t know,’ she told him mock-seriously, ‘but you have exactly the same effect on me.’ She turned to him and moved her body against him. ‘Make love to me again, Neil, and prove to me that I’m not dreaming all this.’

‘If you are, we’re dreaming it together,’ he muttered against her mouth. ‘I love you, Rue, and I’m never going to stop proving it to you—never.’

‘I believe you,’ she told him, and it was true!

* * * * *

Now, read on for a tantalizing excerpt of Michelle Smart’s next book,

BILLIONAIRE’S BABY OF REDEMPTION

The final book in her Rings of Vengeance trilogy!

When Javier learns his explosive night with Sophie left her pregnant, he’s adamant they wed! But warm, compassionate Sophie demands more. Can Javier accept that giving them his all is the key to his redemption?

Keep reading to get a glimpse of

BILLIONAIRE’S BABY OF REDEMPTION

CHAPTER ONE

JAVIER CASILLAS KEPT his eyes fixed on the wide corridor ahead of him, jaw clenched, feet working automatically. He could feel the eyes upon him; had felt them all evening in the private box he shared with his twin. He’d steeled himself for it. His wildly infamous parentage meant the media spotlight was something he’d learned to endure but the past two months had magnified that spotlight by a thousand.

HE WOULD GIVE them exactly what he had always given them. Nothing.

He had not allowed a flicker of emotion to pass his face throughout the performance.

Inside, the rage had built. He’d watched Freya, the woman he’d intended to marry, put on the performance of her life, listened to the rapturous applause and all he had wanted to do was go home and beat the hell out of his punching bag.

Tonight was the culmination of a long-standing dream between Javier and his twin brother, Luis. A decade ago they’d finally had the funds to purchase the crumbling Madrid theatre and

ballet school their prima ballerina mother had spent her childhood learning to dance at, buying the ballet company with it. They’d renamed it Compania de Ballet de Casillas in her memory and set about turning it into one of the most eminent ballet companies in Europe. They’d then bought another parcel of land close to it and built on it a brand new state-of-the-art theatre and ballet school. Tonight was its grand opening. The world’s media was out in force but instead of focussing on the theatre and ballet company and celebrating Clara Casillas’s memory, their focus was on Javier and his ex-fiancée.

The whole damn world knew she’d left him for his oldest friend.

What the whole world did not yet know was that Benjamin Guillem had stolen her in a sick game of revenge or that Freya had been happy to be stolen.

They were welcome to each other. Freya meant nothing to Javier. She never had.

The corridor he walked through on his way to the after-show party forked. About to turn left with the group he was with, which included members of the Spanish royal family, Javier felt a hand settle on his shoulder and steer him firmly in the other direction.

No one other than his twin would have dared touch him in such a manner.

‘What’s the matter?’ Javier asked, staring at his brother with suspicion as they walked.

‘I wanted to talk to you alone,’ Luis replied.

There was something in his brother’s tone that lifted the hairs on the nape of his neck.

Tension had simmered between them since his twin’s foolhardy trip to the Caribbean. How Luis thought that marrying Benjamin’s sister would restore their reputations was still, well over a month on, beyond Javier’s comprehension. Although wildly different from him in both looks and personality, his brother usually had excellent judgement. His opinion was the only one Javier ever thought worthy of consideration.

Fortunately his brother had seen sense at the last minute and returned to Madrid as a single man but things had not been right between them since.