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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2017 by Sienna Snow

  Excerpt from Rule Changer copyright © 2017 by Sienna Snow

  Cover copyright © 2017 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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  First published as an ebook and as a print on demand: March 2017

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  ISBN 978-1-4555-6877-2 (print on demand edition)

  ISBN 978-1-4555-6878-9 (ebook)

  E3-20170124_DANF

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Also by Sienna Snow

  A Preview of “Rule Changer”

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  Newsletters

  To Nishi, for being one of my biggest fans even before I published anything.

  To Leah, Lauren, and Iris. You three are what everyone wishes for in best friends.

  Last but not least, to Hitesh. Thank you for always supporting me and pushing me to achieve my dreams.

  CHAPTER ONE

  “Ms. Castra, once you sign, I can file all the necessary documents.”

  My fingers gripped my pen as I scanned the forms. The moment I wrote my name on the papers, I’d begin the process of making up for all my mistakes.

  The mistakes I’d never have admitted to if I hadn’t gone through the terror of the last six months.

  But could I do it? Could I end something that started more than ten years ago, something that meant the world to me?

  I set my pen down, took a deep breath, and looked up at my assistant, Rachel. Her face told me she wasn’t happy with my decision, but would do what I asked.

  “You don’t have to execute this now. You can wait until you get home, and then decide.”

  Swallowing the lump in my throat, I pushed back from the patio table and walked to the balcony railing of my family’s Italian villa.

  Church bells rang in the distance, signaling the end of mass at the duomo, the cathedral marking the center of the town’s square.

  I clutched the balcony railing overlooking the busy streets of the city of my birth, Milan. The summer heat dampened my skin with a light sheen and made me long for the cooler weather in the city of my heart.

  Boston.

  There I wasn’t the rebel daughter of one of Italy’s most renowned families, who got into more trouble than necessary. In Boston, I was a well-respected, successful entrepreneur who ran two multinational corporations and had friends who loved me more than my own mother.

  I also had…

  Lex.

  A painful ache clenched my heart. He’d made so many sacrifices for me over the past years; now it was my turn.

  He deserves a fresh start, Milla.

  Six months ago, the only thing I took seriously in my life was my work. I lived by the motto “work hard, play harder.”

  My perspective completely changed after I was kidnapped as part of a plot to steal security software my company had developed for the US government. I’d left Boston hoping to forget the pain and devastation in my life, only to learn I couldn’t run from my problems. The longer I waited to face them, the more I hurt the one person who meant the world to me.

  “Ms. Castra. I need you to tell me what our next steps are.”

  I released the railing, pushed a strand of hair behind my ear, and turned toward Rachel. Without another word and before I lost my nerve, I walked over to the table, picked up the pen, and signed my name.

  “It’s done,” I whispered, trying to keep the tremor out of my voice.

  “I’ll take care of contacting your attorney.” Rachel gathered the papers and left the terrace.

  I let my head and shoulders drop as I settled my hands on the back of my chair.

  My fingers went to the collar of my shirt and rested on the necklace underneath. I closed my eyes, and a vision of Lex’s piercing blue ones staring back at me appeared. The eyes I’d spent hours looking into. The ones that used to know all my secrets and saw deep inside me to the real Milla. To the girl who was nothing like she appeared in the press.

  How was I going to live without him? Without the long talks and laughter or the heated arguments or the feel of his body against mine?

  Or the orgasms he pulls from you with the slightest graze of his whip.

  I shivered, pushing the last image back. I couldn’t go there right now.

  The hardest part would be the day when he had someone else by his side. A woman who could give him the pleasure and satisfaction I once had and couldn’t anymore.

  I wiped a stray tear from my cheek when my phone buzzed in the back pocket of my jeans. I pulled it out and answered.

  “Hello.”

  “Hey there, mera behna. I miss you.” My heart lightened at the sound of my best friend’s voice and the standard Hindi greeting she gave me.

  Arya Rey Dane was my sister in everything but blood. We were two girls from completely different backgrounds who became best friends and created the world’s first female-founded, billion-dollar technology development firm. Ditching high school was the only thing on our agendas the day we met, and now we couldn’t imagine a life without each other.

  After an incident during my fifteenth birthday, where a few of my friends and I got drunk and ran half naked through the streets of Milan, my parents decided to teach me a lesson and send me to boarding school. Their biggest mistake was believing that by sending me to a school run by nuns halfway across the globe, I would miss home and start behaving. They should’ve kept me in Italy, where th
e nuns are much more hard-core. I got into more trouble in California than I could ever have at any of the convents in Italy.

  “I missed you, too,” I said, trying to add a cheery tone to my response. I hadn’t told Arya of my plans for the future, and I wasn’t sure she’d let me go through with them if she knew.

  “What’s wrong?”

  How would she know that I was feeling sad?

  “Huh? What makes you think something is up?”

  “Well, for one, you responded to my question with a question. Second, your voice gave it away. Third, you didn’t answer me with your haughty Italian heiress greeting of ‘Pronto.’ You said ‘hello.’”

  I never used that phrase, and she knew it. It was a running joke between us from when a friend of ours vacationed in Rome and came back educating us on proper Italian etiquette.

  “Yes, yes, Miss Genius IQ. I forgot my Italian protocol. I’ve been hanging out with your half-Indian ass too long.”

  “My ass is huge right now, and you would know that if you were home. And don’t say we video chat, because it isn’t the same. I need the deliverer of my chocolate croissants here in Boston with me. Max doesn’t go to the same bakery as you do.”

  I couldn’t help but smile at the joy I heard hidden around the whining. She was finally going to have the family she’d wanted all her life.

  Arya had spent five years building herself up following the deterioration of her relationship and devastating loss of her babies. Finally, she had her fairy tale. After reuniting with the love of her life, she was expecting twins again.

  “I know, bella. I’ll be home soon to see the giant whale you’ve become with those boys.”

  “I miss you. He misses you.”

  My breath hitched.

  “Why would Max miss me? Isn’t he your husband?”

  “Don’t be a smart-ass.” Her voice grew stern.

  “I know, Ari. I’ll talk to him when I get back.” I hesitated for a second. “How is he?”

  “How do you expect? He’s been with the same woman for a decade, and she left him. Something we still haven’t discussed, by the way.”

  I cringed. I’d avoided any conversation regarding my relationship with Lex, especially the part where I’d kept it a secret and never told her he was the Dom I’d been with for years. Or that he was even more than my Dom.

  “Is he…is he…”

  Do I want to ask this question or get an answer? It would make my plan easier, but it won’t lessen the pain.

  “No, he isn’t seeing anyone, you moron. For some reason, he loves you and takes the commitment he made to you seriously.”

  Relief flooded me. “Pregnancy is making you bitchy.”

  “Yeah, well let me count the ways I am pissed off at the whole lot of you. First, my two best friends lied to me for years, pretending to see different people when they were together the whole time. Surrounding me with overwhelming sexual tension and making me think it was love unfulfilled.”

  I cringed. “Well there were personal reasons for all of that.”

  “Second, when I found out they were a couple, they left out a tiny detail that they were more than Dominant and submissive.”

  “Well, you see…”

  “Shut up. I’m not done.”

  “Sorry, I’ll zip it.” I motioned with my fingers on my lips and laughed at myself when I realized she couldn’t see me.

  “Third, my other best friend and sister-in-law, Carmen, has become a complete workaholic and has no time for me. Fourth, I don’t have you here to keep me sane while on bed rest and prevent me from killing my overprotective husband. And fifth…” Arya sniffed, and her voice cracked. “I’m scared out of my mind that I’ll lose these babies too.”

  My heart ached for her. She’d been through so much and by some miracle, she was pregnant again. “Don’t cry, mia sorella. I’ll be home soon.”

  “I’m sorry. I’m just a big, pregnant, hormonal fucking mess.”

  I shook my head and adjusted my phone to the other ear. “Language! Max is going to kill you if the first word those kids utter is ‘fuck’ or ‘shit.’ I thought you were working on your sailor’s mouth.”

  “Whatever,” she grumbled. “Try being ten thousand months pregnant and confined to a stupid bed.”

  I laughed. “You know you love every minute of it.”

  “I do, but I don’t have you to share it with,” she whined.

  The weight of the previous conversation shifted. Thank goodness, no more talk about Lex or me.

  “I’ll be home soon and come massage your fat feet and keep you company until my nephews come into the world.”

  “I’ll hold you to it. Okay, I better go before Max finds out I snuck out of the house.”

  “Why are you sneaking out of the house to call me?”

  “Um, you see…”

  “Ari,” I admonished with a grin.

  “I wanted to go baby shopping.”

  The girl thought she could pull one over me, but I was onto her tactics.

  “Not buying that. You hate shopping. What is going on, bella?”

  “Fine,” she muttered. “I snuck out to get chocolate from that shop you took me to in Little Italy. Max said I had to limit my sweets since the doc was worried about my sugar levels. But, Mil, he should know better than to keep a pregnant woman away from her cravings. Oh hell, I think I see his car.”

  “Don’t blame me if you get caught. I’m not the one who ditched her security detail to get a chocolate fix. I was the innocent recipient of your call.” I shook my head.

  The girl never gave Max a moment of peace, always getting into something or the other.

  I grunted to myself. I was one to talk.

  “I’ll keep you out of it. You’re in enough shit with Lex.”

  “Ari,” I exclaimed and then glanced at my watch. “Merda. Gotta go. I have to get ready for the ball tonight.”

  Arya sighed. “Such is the life of an Italian socialite.”

  “Bite me, Dane.”

  “Back at you, Duncan.”

  I winced and opened my mouth to respond, but she’d hung up.

  Well, that was nice of her to leave it like that. I tucked my phone back into my jeans pocket. I knew the moment she had me alone I was in so much trouble with her. I couldn’t blame her for wanting answers.

  I stepped away from the balcony area and walked toward the terrace stairs. A second before I crossed the threshold, my sister-in-law Leena reached the top, nearly slamming into me. She was windblown and out of breath.

  I grabbed hold of her arms, keeping her steady on her feet. “Whoa, there, pregnant lady. What’s going on?”

  She put a hand against her chest and then sat down on the nearest chair.

  “Milla, you have to be ready.” Leena rubbed her temples and tried to steady her breath. “I ran up here as soon as I heard.”

  This probably had something to do with Mamma; it always had something to do with Mamma.

  “Okay, you’re scaring me. Please tell me what’s going on.” I glanced at my watch again. “I’m going to be late if I don’t get ready for the gala soon.”

  Leena grasped my hand and tugged me toward her. “He’s here.”

  Okay, that’s a bit dramatic.

  “Who’s here?” I crouched in front of Leena.

  She glanced behind me as a deep voice spoke.

  “Your husband. And I’m here to take my wife home.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  My skin prickled as Lex’s deep Irish brogue washed over me. I closed my eyes for a moment and then opened them, staring at Leena’s shocked face.

  “You’re married?” she asked me.

  “Yes.” I nodded.

  “For how long?”

  “Ten years,” Lex answered, drawing Leena’s attention to him.

  “You kept it from us all these years?” She looked back at me, shaking her head. “I don’t understand. Why would you keep this from us? Didn’t we deserve to know? Especially
Marcello and Dominic?”

  I grimaced, hearing the underlying hurt in Leena’s question.

  “It’s complicated,” I whispered, not knowing what else to say.

  She watched me for a moment, not saying anything, then stood, bringing me up with her.

  “Mil, we can’t help you with this if you don’t let us in.” She gave Lex a wary smile over my shoulder. “I’ll leave you two alone to talk.” She kissed my forehead and then glared at me, telling me without words that I was in deep shit.

  At this moment, thinking about what I was going to tell my family was the least of my worries. All my attention was focused on the man behind me. How would I face him, knowing what I’d signed only fifteen minutes earlier?

  This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. I wanted to wait until I was back in Boston. Until I’d found a way to explain why I was breaking both of our hearts.

  I stared at the vines growing along the terrace walls.

  “Mil. Look at me,” Lex ordered, in the liquid-smooth way that made anyone listen, in or out of the courtroom.

  A shiver crept up my spine, and I pushed back the urge his mere presence brought forth, the desire to kneel and wait for direction. Six months apart and I still couldn’t resist his pull.

  I had to remain strong, or I wouldn’t be able to go through with my plans. This wasn’t about me anymore; it was about Lex and giving him a better life without me.

  “Why are you here, Lex?”

  “Can’t you even turn around and look at me, Mil?”

  I couldn’t. If I turned around, I’d want to touch him. My skin burned with the desire.

  At that moment, fingers glided along my bare arms, causing a desperate ache deep inside me. I held in a deep moan that tried to escape.

  “Look at me, baby,” he crooned.

  I willed my body to remain where it stood, but it betrayed me, and I turned to face him.

  His beautiful, almost piercing cobalt eyes burned into me, searching for answers to questions I couldn’t respond to or at least didn’t know how to.

  A golden tan shaded his skin, and sun streaks highlighted his blond hair, telling me he’d spent a few days at the beach. Who was he spending his time with? The only vacations he’d ever taken were with me.

  Don’t go there, Milla. It is none of your business. Especially after what you’ve started.