Consequence of Their Dubai Night


 
 
 
 “I’m pregnant.” There was a moment where he could only look at her in bewilderment, and she continued, “With your baby.”
 Max rocked backward and tried to steady himself, failed and reached out to grasp the edge of his desk. He couldn’t be a father. Couldn’t...wouldn’t. Shouldn’t. His gaze dropped to her midriff, and for a moment, a sense of awe touched him, tried to thread through the panic. A baby, his baby, was growing inside Stella.
 “I get it’s a shock,” she said. “And as I said, I’m not here because I expect anything. I know that you have marriage plans, but I thought you should know. Because obviously one day the baby will ask me who his or her dad is and...”
 Her words cut through the electric chaos that was blindsiding his brain. He had spent his whole life wondering about the identity of a parent who had abandoned him, spent years piecing together information about a father whom he wished wasn’t his father. There was no way he would, could or should put any child through even a fraction of that.
 
 
 Dear Reader,
 I loved writing this book. Stella stuck in my head from my previous book, Falling for His Stand-In Fiancée. She is Adriana’s older sister, and the minute Adriana and Rob left my head, Stella was there asking for her story to be written.
 So I did.
 Stella is scared that her real self makes bad decisions that lead to tragic consequences and so she has built herself a poised, perfect persona to hide behind.
 But one night with Max and her whole carefully planned life is changed. Worse, Max gets under her skin and behind her persona.
 As for Max, he has never got over a childhood where abandonment was a constant, but he has fought his way to the top, and while he never planned on being a father, he will fight to make sure he has the chance to be a good one.
 But the rules of the fight soon change and they both end up fighting the idea of love.
 I hope you enjoy discovering whether love wins out!
 Nina x
 
 
 Consequence of Their Dubai Night
 Nina Milne
 
 
 
 Nina Milne has always dreamed of writing for Harlequin Romance—ever since she played libraries with her mother’s stacks of Harlequin romances as a child. On her way to this dream, Nina acquired an English degree, a hero of her own, three gorgeous children and—somehow!—an accountancy qualification. She lives in Brighton and has filled her house with stacks of books—her very own real library.
 Books by Nina Milne
 Harlequin Romance
 The Casseveti Inheritance
 Italian Escape with the CEO
 Whisked Away by the Italian Tycoon
 The Secret Casseveti Baby
 A Crown by Christmas
 Their Christmas Royal Wedding
 Hired Girlfriend, Pregnant Fiancée?
 Whisked Away by Her Millionaire Boss
 Baby on the Tycoon’s Doorstep
 Second Chance in Sri Lanka
 Falling for His Stand-In Fiancée 
 Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
 
 
 To Rosalind, my wonderful, all-singing, all-dancing mother-in-law. With love. xx
 
 
 Praise for Nina Milne
 “Their Christmas Royal Wedding is an escapist, enjoyable and emotional contemporary tale that will touch readers’ hearts with its beguiling blend of searing intensity, heart-warming drama and uplifting romance. Nina Milne writes with plenty of warmth and heart and she has penned a poignant and spellbinding romantic read.”
 —Goodreads
 
 
 Contents
 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
 EPILOGUE
 EXCERPT FROM CINDERELLA’S FORBIDDEN PRINCE BY RUBY BASU
 
 
 CHAPTER ONE
 MAX SAT ON the rooftop bar of the five-star hotel and looked out at the extravagant vastness of the Dubai skyline. The sheer size and scope of the architecture, the buildings that loomed and spiked and curved towards the night sky in an opulent dazzle of light caught his breath and for a moment at least distracted him from his thoughts.
 Thoughts that he had held at bay all day as he focused on his packed schedule of business meetings, his intent to open an office here significantly advanced. His streaming platform already had a growing audience in Dubai and after today he had a much better understanding of what to offer. Satisfaction rippled through him—today marked another step forward for his company, another step that was taking it inexorably to global success. A quote from a recent article ran through his mind.
 InScreen, the entertainment business founded by the charismatic Max Durante, is one of the hottest companies in the world, smashing analysts’ growth predictions this year.
 But not even the knowledge that his ambitions were being realised could edge out the emotions brought about by the letter he’d received three days ago, the words etched in his mind, running on a background repeat loop.
 Dear Max,
 I am delighted to inform you that we believe we have made progress in the search for your mother and we believe she may well be living in Mumbai.
 As you appreciate, Mumbai is a large city but we will endeavour to continue in our search.
 Not for the first time he wondered what he would actually do if the detective agency did find his mother, the woman who had left him in a cardboard box as a newborn baby. Sometimes he brooded at the cliché of it, wondered where she got the box from, what had been in it before she packaged him into it and left him outside a London fast food restaurant.
 Had she ordered something specially so that the box would fit a newborn baby? Or perhaps irony of irony it had been a parcel containing gifts? Or maybe she’d simply scoured the rubbish or recycling bins. It was one of the many questions that he’d considered time and again through his childhood.
 Along with the perennial