SEMPRE APPASSIONATO,
SEMPRE FIERO
Always passionate, always proud
The richest royal family in the world – united by blood and passion, torn apart by deceit and desire
THE OFFICIAL FIEREZZA FAMILY TREE
THE RULES OF
THE ROYAL HOUSE OF NIROLI
Rule 1: The ruler must be a moral leader. Any act which brings the Royal House into disrepute will rule a contender out of the succession to the throne.
Rule 2: No member of the Royal House may be joined in marriage without consent of the ruler. Any such union concluded results in exclusion and deprivation of honours and privileges.
Rule 3: No marriage is permitted if the interests of Niroli become compromised through the union.
Rule 4: It is not permitted for the ruler of Niroli to marry a person who has previously been divorced.
Rule 5: Marriage between members of the Royal House who are blood relations is forbidden.
Rule 6: The ruler directs the education of all members of the Royal House, even when the general care of the children belongs to their parents.
Rule 7: Without the approval or consent of the ruler, no member of the Royal House can make debts over the possibility of payment.
Rule 8: No member of the Royal House can accept inheritance nor any donation without the consent and approval of the ruler.
Rule 9: The ruler of Niroli must dedicate his life to the Kingdom. Therefore he is not permitted to have a profession.
Rule 10: Members of the Royal House must reside in Niroli or in a country approved by the ruler. However the ruler must reside in Niroli.
THE ROYAL HOUSE OF NIROLI
The Future King’s Pregnant Mistress PENNY JORDAN
Surgeon Prince, Ordinary Wife MELANIE MILBURNE
Bought by the Billionaire Prince CAROL MARINELLI
The Tycoon’s Princess Bride NATASHA OAKLEY
Expecting His Royal Baby SUSAN STEPHENS
The Prince’s Forbidden Virgin ROBYN DONALD
Bride by Royal Appointment RAYE MORGAN
A Royal Bride at the Sheikh’s Command PENNY JORDAN
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The Future King’s Pregnant Mistress
PENNY JORDAN
MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PENNY JORDAN
has been writing for more than twenty years and has an outstanding record: over one hundred and thirty novels published, including the phenomenally successful A Perfect Family, To Love, Honour & Betray, The Perfect Sinner and Power Play which hit The Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller lists. Penny Jordan was born in Preston, Lancashire, and now lives in rural Cheshire.
CHAPTER ONE
MARCO opened his eyes, and looked at the bedside clock: three o’clock in the morning. He’d been dreaming about Niroli—and his grandfather, the king. His heart was still drumming insistently inside his chest, its beat driven by the adrenalin surges of challenge and excitement that reliving one of his past youthful arguments with his grandfather had brought him.
It had been in the aftermath of one of those arguments that Marco had made his decision to prove to himself, and to his grandfather, that he was capable of achieving success somewhere other than Niroli and without his grandfather’s influence and patronage. He had been twenty-two then. Now he was thirty-six, and he and his grandfather had long since made a peace—of a sort—even if the older man had never really understood his grandson’s refusal to change his mind about his vow to make his own way in the world. Marco had been determined that his success would come not as the grandson of the King of Niroli but via his own hard work. As simple Marco Fierezza, a young European entrepreneur, he had used his shrewd grasp of finance to become one of the City of London’s most lauded financiers and a billionaire.
In the last few years it had caused Marco a certain amount of wry amusement to note how his grandfather had turned to him for financial advice with regard to his own private wealth, whilst claiming that their blood tie absolved him of paying for Marco’s services! The truth was, his grandfather was a wily old fox who wasn’t above using whatever means he could to coerce others into doing what he wanted, often claiming that what he did was done for the good of Niroli, rather than himself.
Niroli!
Outside, the icy cold rain of London rattled against the windows of his Eaton Square apartment, and Marco felt a sudden sharp pang of longing for the beautiful Mediterranean island his family had ruled for so many generations: a sun-drenched jewel of green and gold in an aquamarine sea, from where dark volcanic mountains rose up wreathed in silvery clouds.
The same sea that had claimed the lives of his parents, he reminded himself sombrely, and which had not
