Purchased By The Billionaire

by Helen Bianchin

• ISBN13: 9780373233274
• ISBN10: 0373233272
• Edition: Large
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-09-01
• Publisher: Harlequin

Summary

Kayla removed Spanish billionaire Duardo Alvarez's wedding ring after just seventy-two hours of marriage.

But now desperate circumstances have forced Kayla to beg her ex-husband for help. Duardo's price is high: marry him again, or he'll walk away.

Excerpts

"YOU did...what?"Kayla's features paled as consternation meshed with disbelief, then magnified into a sense of dread."You think it was easy for me to go to Duardo Alvarez andbeg?" Defensive anger rose to the surface, and something else...rage.Jacob's words fell with hammer-like pain, and for a few brief seconds she hovered between retaliatory anger and despair.Duardo Alvarez.The mention of his name was enough to send ice slithering down the length of her spine.Bad boy made good, now billionaire entrepreneur with homes in several major cities around the world.Her ex-husband...and the last person on earth likely to help her, or her brother."Why in hell would you do that?" 'I had no choice!" Jacob's expression revealed a torment that twisted her stomach muscles into a painful ball.Oh, dear God.The last time she'd seen her ex-husband had been at her father's funeral.A deeply sorrowful occasion with few genuine mourners, several curiosity-seek-ers...and she'd been too stunned with shocked grief to do anything other than act on autopilot.She hadn't had contact with Duardo since. Didn't want any."Dammit, Jacob! Howcouldyou?"He didn't answer. But then he had no need. And right now there was no time for further argument or castigation. In nine minutes she had to catch a train into the city. Or be late.Kayla caught up her jacket, slung the strap of her bag over one shoulder and turned towards him. "We'll continue this discussion later."Jacob offered a slip of paper. "Duardo's number. Call him by midday."Hell would freeze over first. "Please.'Jacob's eyes were dark, desperate, and she pocketed the number."You ask too much." Way too much. More than she could give.Without a further word she left the small two-bedroom walk-up for the hard inner-city pavement in one of the city's less salubrious suburbs. Old terraced houses lined the street, each in various stages of decay and neglect.A far cry from her former life. Five years ago the Enright-Smythe family had numbered high among Sydney's rich and famous. Kayla, at twenty-two, held a degree in business management and had took out a handsome salary for a token position in the 'firm'.A member of the 'young social-set," she attended every party in town, spent an outrageous sum on clothes, travelled, and was seen on the arm of a different man every week.Until Duardo Alvarez entered the field. In his mid-thirties and cloaked in sophistication, on the rise within the city's financial sector, his youthful past hinted at association with the shady underbelly of New York.He was everything Kayla's parents didn't want for their only daughter.All the more reason, in her year of tilting at windmills, coupled with boredom, for deliberately setting Duardo in her sights.He excited her. So, too, did a sense of the forbidden. Winning him over became a game. Holding him off took enormous self-restraint. She succeeded, and in a moment of sheer madness she accepted his proposal to fly to Hawaii and marry him.Seventy-two hours later the marriage was over. Courtesy of Benjamin Enright-Smythe's ultimatum and her mother's death...a heart attack which put Blanche Enright-Smythe into Intensive Care and took her life.A tragic loss for which Benjamin attributed the blame to his daughter, referring privately and publicly to the marriage asKayla's folly.Her father's denunciation speared a stake through Kayla's heart and left her racked with guilt at the thought that her whirlwind marriage might have contributed to Blanche's death. Confidante and friend, Blanche had always been there for her, frequently acting as a calming buffer between two clashing personalities...Benjamin's arrogance and Kayla's defiance.In the devastating numbness that followed Blanche's funeral, she stood at her father's side, comforted Jacob and somehow managed to get through each day. Wanting, needing the comfort of the one man who could h