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Prologue

Rose had a sixth sense She knew all about instinct and intuition and why it was vital to pay attention to silent warnings So hen instinct screamed keep away from Dante Formosa, was he the one et really close to? He’d done nothing to encourage her Apart fro to notice a pale Celt in a sea of sloe-eyed beauties

Rose’s body didn’t care It craved the touch of thehis touch, was…safe, Rose concluded as she watched the most brutally physical uests She worked with his horses every day, so she kneasn’t a bad man It was just that Dante was a force of nature, like a threatening storm

She was in no danger from the stor of the stable about the to her brothers, she was a spiky, aard tomboy

Rose was blessed with six brothers, all of them fierce and all of them polo players, and all thankfully too far away on a e her today If they’d seen her in this lacey girly brides free as per the bride’s instructions, they’d laugh their heads off

Truth be told, she didn’t go to h-tone occasion, even though it was being held on the beach The a, the Russian billionaire who had founded the Blood and Thunder polo teaood from across the world

And then there was Rose

Lately come from a remote farm in Ireland, where the most prized fashion ite used to life on the glamorous subtropical island of Isla Celeste, where fashion was so to titillate the jaded palate when it had tired of caviar and chane The tanned and slender one percent of the world’s elite were currently flashing their impeccably curated bodies on the dance floor, while Rose was barricaded behind the cake table, where she could avoid small talk—of which she had precisely none—or worse, the inevitable offer of a pity dance with the wallflower at the party fro man Not that there were many of those here Most were polo players, and all were spectacularly gorgeous…especially the one she was keeping track of from the shadows Dante stood out, Rose had decided, because of his gri physicality

Sexuality, don’t you mean?

Yes Well, refocus Rose She was here to support the bride, not to weigh up the field of runners and riders And now Dante had caught her staring at hilass of le at her when every eligible woman at the party would kill to attract his attention? She worked for him He’d never shown any interest before He arrived at dahen she started training his horses Cantering into the indoor arena on his handsome black stallion, he’d rein in, issue instructions, and then go She doubted he’d even recognize her in a different setting

But he was heading straight for her and holding her frowning stare as he wove his way through the dancing couples Her body responded eagerly Her body asting its ti more The only action Rose had seen so far on Isla Celeste was a fumble in the tack room with one of the stable lads “It’s the tradition,” he said when she’d pushed him away “Fresh meat has to be sampled”