A Pawn in the Playboy's Game

A grand master of seduction…

Alessandro Falcone is notorious for winning—in every pursuit. Being forced back to Scotland on business is an inconvenience for the billionaire bachelor, but he’ll get in, get what he wants and get out—until the delectable Laura Reid becomes a welcome distraction on the long, cold Highland nights…

Laura may be the opposite of the glossy women Alessandro usually favors, but her voluptuous figure and fresh-faced innocence have an allure that make her even more of a challenge.

And in the game of seduction—this playboy always wins!

“So,” Alessandro drawled, handing Laura a glass, “are you going to remain standing by the door like a sentry, or are you going to sit down and say what you have to say?”

His fingers had brushed against hers, and every muscle and nerve in her body had reacted.

“You never mentioned how long you intended to stay in Scotland…” She inched her way toward the table and sat down.

“Undecided. Why? Do I make you feel uncomfortable? I wouldn’t want to put a spoke in the wheel, but—” he shrugged, sipped his drink and looked at her over the rim of his glass “—needs must.”

“What needs?”

“That’s a somewhat leading question, wouldn’t you say?” If they were referring to his needs, then he might very well meet them by staying. Because suddenly he had a vivid image of her in his bed, sprawled in all her glorious, lush beauty, her delicate, heart-shaped face heated with desire, her body his for the taking.

CHAPTER ONE

‘DON’T KNOW WHAT you’re doing here.’ Roberto Falcone glared at his son. He had shuffled to the front door and now he remained standing in front of it like a bouncer blocking entry to a club. ‘Told you not to bother coming and meant it.’

Alessandro felt that familiar tension invade his body, the way it always did on those occasions when he was in his father’s company. Usually, though, they at least managed pleasantries before he felt like spinning on his heel and walking as fast as he could in the opposite direction. This time, there was no polite surface small talk and Alessandro braced himself for an impossibly difficult weekend.

Which they would both have to endure because there was no choice.

‘Are you going to let me in or are we going to have this conversation on the doorstep? Because if we are, I’ll get my coat from the car. I’d rather not die from frostbite just yet.’

‘You won’t die from frostbite,’ Roberto Falcone scoffed. ‘It’s practically tropical here.’

Alessandro didn’t bother to argue. He’d had a lot of experience when it came to disagreeing with his father. Roberto Falcone might be eighty years old but there was nothing he gave up without a fight, and arguing about whether eight degrees Celsius counted as cold or not was just one of those things. He was a hardy soul who lived in Scotland and thought that blizzard conditions were a bracing challenge. Real men cleared snowdrifts half-naked and barefoot! His son was a softie who lived in London and switched on the central heating the second the sun went behind a cloud.

And never the twain would meet.

Which was why duty visits were limited to three times a year and lasted as long as it took for the limited well of polite conversation to run dry.

Except this was more than a duty visit and he had known that his father wasn’t going to make things easy.

‘I’ll get my coat.’

‘Don’t bother. Now that you’ve landed here, I suppose I don’t have much choice but to let you in, but if you think that I’m going to be heading down to London with you, then you’ve got another think coming. I’m not budging.’

In the cold, gathering gloom, they stared at one another, Alessandro’s expression veiled, his father’s fiercely determined.

‘We’ll discuss this when I’m inside,’ Alessandro said. ‘Why have you answered the door? Where’s Fergus?’

‘It’s the weekend. Man deserves a break.’

‘You had a stroke six months ago and you’re still recovering from a fractured pelvis. The man’s paid enough to give up his breaks.’

Roberto scowled but Alessandro didn’t back down. Frankly, this wasn’t the time for pussyfooting round the issue. Like it or not, his father was going to return to London with him in three days’ time. The contents of the house could be packed up and shipped south once the place had been vacated.