Raffaele is a bad guy, who is happy to be a bad guy and Maya doesn’t want anything to do with him which is unfortunate when he owns all her parents’ debts. Will she marry him and agree to have a child with him so that he can buy her grandparents’ company?

Nothing between this diametrically opposed couple goes to plan. But when Raffaele drops his cool front and shows her what he hides from the world, Maya will be intrigued and her defences will drop. Is Raffaele capable of change and growth? Can he handle a crisis? Is Maya capable of forgiveness? I very much enjoyed writing this story because i always love a bad guy hero in need of redemption.

UPDATE (March 2020): Maya and Raffaele’s story will be called “The Italian In Need Of An Heir“.

Excerpts From the Book

What do you think I intend to do with them?

‘Lucia married a fool. They’re in debt to their eyeballs and I own their debts. What do you think I intend to do with them?’

‘I couldn’t care less,’ Raffaele countered truthfully while thinking about that offer of Aldo’s business empire. A fading technology company in need of a fresh innovative makeover, the sort of business challenge he most enjoyed. That attracted him, not the money, no, it was the sheer challenge of rebuilding, redesigning, reenergising that kicked his shrewd brain into activity for the first time since he had entered the room.

‘And if you want the other company which will dovetail perfectly with mine, you marry the beauty. I know that nothing less than a beauty would tempt a man of your…shall we say…appetites?’ Aldo savoured, delighted by the reality that he had contrived to freeze Raffaele in his tracks and that the homework he had done on the nature of his great-grandson had paid off.

Who was Raffaele Manzini?

Yet suddenly she was trapped in a corner with an offer of a rescue that had come out of left field at her when she least expected it. He had spelt out what he would do for her family. He had been blunt. He would settle all the debts, an almost unimaginable concept to Maya, who had been struggling for so long and for so many years to keep those debts at bay and protect her family. And then Raffaele Mancini came along, evidently wealthy enough to the point where money could be flung around wastefully because her family was deep in debt and it would take an enormous amount to settle what they owed.

Seemingly he could afford it. Who was Raffaele Manzini?  She looked him up on her phone and broke out in goosebumps when she found out. He was so rich he belonged to the tribe of the super-rich.  What her family owed would barely be pocket change for him.  In fact, in asking her to marry him he was scraping the bottom of the barrel because he was a male who appeared to inhabit an exclusive world featuring crowned heads and oil-rich billionaires. But then he was only asking her because her mother had been born a Parisi. Who she was, what she was, were immaterial facts to him because it wasn’t personal to him, it was simply business.

It’s too late:

‘You’re right. I saw what I wanted and went for it. I’ve never had to think about moral boundaries or consequences such as this before and now that I have, I see that I went wrong. But I didn’t realise that until I met you,’ Raffaele bit out in a rasping undertone.’ Unhappily, I can’t change anything I did now. It’s too late.’