A marriage of convenience will save Adriana’s family estate. But soon, her convenient engagement with the Viscount Rochester (aka Rob) becomes inconveniently irresistible!

Read on for an exclusive extract from Falling For His Stand-In Fiancée by Nina Milne…

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Perhaps he should refuse to see her, but that would be rude. Stella must have some reason for being here. Only one way to find out. ‘Send her in,’ he said.

To his own irritation he could feel the thump of his heart against his ribs, as anticipation churned inside him. Then there was a perfunctory knock on the door, Mariella pushed the door open and ushered Stella in, nodded at Max and retreated.

He rose to his feet, actually glad that his desk separated them, gave him a barrier to absorb the impact of seeing her.

She tugged the scarf off her head and pushed the sunglasses atop her blonde hair in an impatient gesture and for a long moment they stood staring at each other. Stella looked different, every bit as beautiful but there was something he couldn’t put his finger on, a subtle change. Her blue eyes held a certain something he couldn’t decipher, the gloss of her hair held an extra lustre. But what hadn’t changed was the instant charge, the magnetic pull of attraction, the urge to take up where they left off.

Her blonde hair was pulled back and then caught in a clip, tendrils escaping to frame her face. Blue eyes studied his face, as if she too was drinking him in, eyes that were shadowed with a trepidation that had been absent in Dubai.

‘Stella. This is unexpected.’

‘Yes.’ Her lips twisted up into a smile that held wryness.  ‘I saw the article about your first date.’ The article had come out two days ago, headlined with. ‘Spotted in the Wild – CEO Max Durante and heiress Dora Fitzgerald. Is it a date? The notoriously single CEO of InScreen certainly looked smitten as the possible couple … blah blah. ‘And I’m not here to make trouble.’

‘Then why are you here?’ He saw her hands curl into fists as though she were digging her nails into her palms, saw her shoulders pull back as she took a step backwards as if in preparation to turn and run and a sense of foreboding trickled through him.

‘I’m pregnant.’ There was a moment where the penny failed to drop where he could only look at her in bewilderment and she continued. ‘With your baby.’

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Falling For His Stand-In Fiancée by Nina Milne

By Lauren Gardiner