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CHAPTER ONE

THE BOTTLE WAS cold, but not nearly as cold as the ice around her heart Rosa lifted the chane to her lips and drank another mouthful as she tried to dull the pain She wanted to wake up and find that the past few days hadn’t happened She wanted to be the person she thought she’d always been And she wanted that toweringher with that dark and unsettling stare of his

The flashing lights and loud iddy—orfrom the moment she’d walked in She wasn’t really used to the sharp, bubbly flavour and she didn’t really like it—ht up on the wines of Sicily which were rich and warm and red Or at least, she’d been allowed the occasional half-glassful, topped up ater—watched over by the fiercely protective eyes of her two brothers

Except that they were not really her brothers, were they? Fro of them as her half-brothers

Rosa gripped the neck of the bottle, a shudder running down her spine as she forced herself to confront the unbelievable truth That nothing was as it seeain The discovery had been brutal and she’d found out in the worst possible way that she’d been living a lie all her life

And she was nothing but a fake

‘Mademoiselle? You are ready?’

Wordlessly, Rosa nodded as the nightclub attendant gestured towards the podiu to pole dance all evening It would be fair to say thatan absolute hash of it, despite the fact that they were slim and blonde and incredibly fit But then, all the women on this part of the French Riviera looked like that Rosa was the one who stood out like a sore thuenerous curves—which were currently spilling out of her brand-new crimson dress

She placed one leg rather unsteadily on the podiu if she would be able to dance in the kind of heels she wouldn’t have dared wear back home in her native Sicily But who cared if she stu she’d ever worn? Not her Tonight she was going to shrug off the old Rosa, who had cared so ht she was going to eher skin so that nobody could hurt her ever again On this privileged strip of French coastline known as the Côte d’Azur, she would enisable creature—and her transformation would be complete

She took another slug of chane and put the bottle down, but as she stepped up onto the podiuaze locked with the man on the other side of the club—the one with the dark hair and the powerful body He was still watching her—and solittered in the depths of his eyes made Rosa’s stoht him that it was rude to stare like that? And even nore that poor wo herself over him

Theher pelvis towards it, the way she’d watched the others do She’d never even seen a pole dance before tonight—nor would she ever have dared enter a competition for enthusiastic amateurs But shock could make a person behave in a hich was completely out of character

Snaking one leg around the slippery pole, she began to ainst her bare thigh The alcohol was relaxing her and the hypnotic beat of the an to suck her in And suddenly it was easy Easy to lose herself in the sensual sway of the et about her own particular heartache Her movements seemed instinctive—as if she had been born to dance this way As if rubbing her body against a static piece ofher eyes, she raised her leg even higher and tipped her head back, so that she could feel her long hair brushing against the floor She began to grind her hips in slow and sensuous circles against the pole and, inexplicably, could feel the slow burning heat of exciteroin

Through her drea noise as she slid up and down in time to theenthusiastically as she clutched the pole and writhed against it But Rosa didn’t care as shouting—she just kept her eyes tightly closed and gave the dance everything she’d got It was theshe’d ever done and it wasn’t until the e crowd of e to watch her