His Rules: Ludlow Nights - Book1 (A Ludlow Nights Romance) (23 page)

A Ludlow Nights Story

Once soccer star Olivier Conti fixes his mind on something he sets about getting it. And as soon as he spots Anastacia Morgan, he knows she is the perfect woman for him. Winning her heart is a hard-won battle but he falls hard for Anastacia and she falls for him. They are madly in love, so what on earth can go wrong?

Since pitching head first into crazy love Anastacia's life is one mind-bending rollercoaster. In the space of a day she's meets her father for the first time, discovers she has a family and agrees to marry Olivier Conti, at some time in the dim and distant future.

However, as the song says, the course of true love never does run smoothly. As Olivier and Anastacia move their advertising shoot to Paris for the Ferranti Boutique hotel campaign, an unwelcome blast from her romantic past plunges Anastacia into emotional turmoil.

And she's not the only one having trouble with a man, style guru Danni Pebbles joins her best friend in Paris and discovers the powerful and wealthy Pascale Wolfe is determined to give her a run for her money - but that just makes Danni even more determined to keep him at arm’s length.

However, they quickly find that they are an equal match in terms of an attraction that will not be denied by mutual bad temper and sheer stubbornness, but when an old enemy from Pascale's past begins stalking Danni, Anastacia and Olivier and Pascale combine forces to keep her safe...

When I saw you I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew

William Shakespeare

Olivier Conti was a very happy man.

Very happy.

Anastacia Morgan loved him. She might believe and
say
she loved him. But did she trust him? He wasn't so sure she did, yet. The woman he loved was as jittery about love, about intimacy, as he was about abseiling. Throwing himself off the top of a mountain had never appealed. And until she'd met him, love had never appealed to Anastacia either.

They'd tied up and finished the London shoot for their ad campaign. And now the team were waiting for the interior decorators to finish in the Ferranti Boutique hotel in Paris.

In their relationship things were going well, too. Anastacia appeared happy, and he was happy, but something was bugging him. His instinct told him that she was waiting for him to make one wrong move. She'd already ordered him not to dream about wedding bells or the pitter-patter of tiny feet anytime soon. Fair enough. He'd jumped the first hurdle. He had her promise herself to him, so he'd take it nice and slow and steady. His goal was to get her far enough down the road to happy-ever-after that she'd accept his engagement ring. He'd been irritated and annoyed when she'd refused to fly to Rome for the weekend to meet his mother and his sisters. When he'd become irritated, Anastacia had become incredibly, cool. His sister Michelle had already spilled the beans about Anastacia to Mama Conti. Plus, his
madre
was keen to meet the woman who had been pictured kissing her son so passionately in the street, in public. He winced. His mama would not be an easy sell. He knew she only wanted what was best for him. And what was best for him, according to his
madre
, was a nice Italian girl. A nice Italian girl like Olivia Cavallini.

He'd gone out with the girl twice and kissed her once. Events which hardly constituted wedding bells. But he knew his mother was very keen on Olivia, the daughter of her closest friends. The idea of Olivier and Olivia, the way their names sounded together, had made his sisters howl with laughter, and he'd laughed himself at the ridiculousness of the situation. The thought entered his head that he should call Olivia and tell her he'd met the woman he wanted to marry. But then he decided against that bright idea, there was no point in making something out of nothing.

That morning over coffee, the woman he loved had accused him of trying to control her.

He wasn't trying to control Anastacia? Was he? He wanted to be a part of her life. A big part. While she was still determined to run her own life exactly as she'd always done. He knew her need to be independent was a direct result of her background, her past. Although she still hadn't made all of that past clear to him, not yet. And one of the things that bugged him was her refusal to let him spend the night in her bed, which meant most nights they slept in his. Why he felt... hurt, about something that shouldn't matter, he'd no idea. She was basically living with him, but they were not living together. So this morning Anastacia had raced out the door to work, leaving him at a loose end.

This was why he was driving out of London on his way to Ludlow Hall to have lunch with his pal, Nico. And he wanted to have a little chat with Nico about a number of other things. The first thing was about Christopher Rucker, and why Nico hadn't told him about Anastacia's father. Anastacia still hadn't met her step-mother and half-sisters. She wasn't ready, she said. Fair enough. But Christopher was pushing. The man needed to learn that if he pushed Anastacia, she would shove back, hard. Since he was a friend of Christopher Rucker, maybe a word in Nico's ear might be a good idea.

He slid the car into fifth and put his foot down.

He was going to handle Anastacia, and sort out her father at the same time.

That wasn't controlling.

Was it?