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Chapter 22
Fiona Brand
Some bonds can’t be broken
When billionaire Gabriel Messena sees that former fling Gemma O’Neill might be settling down with another man, he knows he has to act fast. He wants her, and he’ll use any excuse to get her back. Luckily, he needs a fiancée to regain control of his family’s business, and he wants Gemma for the part.
Gabriel’s proposition is truly unexpected, though exactly what Gemma needs to secure permanent custody of her daughter. Their daughter. Being back in Gabriel’s bed is amazing, but once he finds out what she’s kept from him, how long will the honeymoon last?
FIONA BRAND lives in the sunny bay of Islands, New Zealand. Now that both her sons are grown, she continues to love writing books and gardening. After a lifechanging time in which she met Christ, she has undertaken study for a bachelor of theology and has become a member of The Order of St. Luke, Christ’s healing ministry.
Once again huge thanks to my editor, Stacy Boyd.
To the Lord, who helps and supports me in all things—especially writing. Thank you.
Come to me all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
—Matthew 11: 28, 29
Zane Atraeus Dates Good-time Girl....
The tabloid headline halted billionaire banker and entrepreneur Gabriel Messena in his tracks.
A subtle tension gripped him as he paid the attendant at the Auckland International Airport newsstand and flipped the scandal sheet open to verify just which good-time girl, exactly, his wild cousin Zane Atraeus had been dating this time.
His gaze was drawn to the color photo that went with the story. Every muscle in his body tightened as he studied familiar Titian hair, creamy skin and dark eyes; a long, sensually curved body that possessed the engaging grace of a dancer.
Not just any woman, Gabriel thought with a bleak sense of inevitability as he studied the cheerful glint of Gemma O’Neill’s gaze. Once again, Zane was dating his woman.
Emotion, sharp and clarifying, clenched his stomach muscles and banded his chest. When he had first discovered that Zane was dating Gemma, he had checked out the situation and had been satisfied that the dating was on a strictly business level. Although, according to the tabloid, at some point that had changed.
The attraction Zane felt for Gemma was a no-brainer. She was gorgeous and smart, with an impulsive nature and a fascinating bluntness that had captivated Gabriel when she had worked on the Messena estate as a gardener. Although, he couldn’t understand what drew Gemma, who had never seemed to be the A-list party-girl type, to his younger, wilder cousin.
Jaw taut, he examined the fierce sense of possession that gripped him, the powerful desire to claim Gemma as his own, despite the fact that he hadn’t seen her in almost six years. His growing fury that Zane, who had women lining up—and, apparently, enough time in his schedule to date them all—just couldn’t seem to leave his former personal assistant alone.
Damn, he thought mildly. He had no problem identifying the emotion that held him in thrall, destroying his normal clarity. He was jealous of Zane: searingly, primitively jealous.
It was an emotion that made no sense given the length of time that had passed and the fact that what he and Gemma had shared had been nothing more than a steamy encounter that had spanned a few incandescent hours.
Hours that were still etched in his memory because they were literally the last fling of his carefree youth. Two days later his father had been killed in a car accident along with his mistress, the beautiful Katherine Lyon, a woman who had also happened to be the family housekeeper.
Amidst the grief and the scandal, the responsibility of managing the family bank, his volatile family and
