Angelina’s composed demeanor belies a fierce spirit that Benedetto is inescapably, irresistibly drawn to. For so long, secluded in his luxurious castle, he’s believed himself as monstrous as the rumors make him out to be. But Angelina isn’t afraid. Can he match her courage to become the husband she deserves?
USA TODAY Bestselling Author
Dear Reader,
I have always loved fairy tales.
As a child I used to curl up with old books of fairy tales I found on the topmost out-of-reach shelves, hidden away from small hands because they weren’t the sweet goodness-and-light stories. I was drawn to the dark ones. The ones that didn’t always end happily, or without great sacrifice, left their mark on me.
Over time, I found myself thinking a lot about those marks, and how to turn the darkest tales into something hopeful instead.
The story of Bluebeard is dark. Sometimes known as the robber bridegroom, the nobleman in the tale has a habit of killing his wives, and the various stories about him can be read as cautionary tales. Sometimes the caution is against too much curiosity on the part of the doomed wives. Sometimes it’s a warning against trusting a rich and powerful man.
Sounds like the beginning of a Harlequin Presents to me!
This is my attempt to give Bluebeard—and his last and most courageous wife—the happy ending they deserve. I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it!
Happy reading!
Caitlin
Once Upon a Temptation
Will they live passionately ever after?
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a billionaire—or eight! Each billionaire had riches beyond your wildest imagination. Still, they were each missing something: love. But the path to true love is never easy…even if you’re one of the world’s richest men!
Inspired by fairy tales like Beauty and the Beast and Little Red Riding Hood, the Once Upon a Temptation collection will take you on a passion-filled journey of ultimate escapism.
Fall in love with…
Cinderella’s Royal Secret by Lynne Graham
Beauty and Her One-Night Baby by Dani Collins
Shy Queen in the Royal Spotlight by Natalie Anderson
Claimed in the Italian’s Castle by Caitlin Crews
Expecting His Billion-Dollar Scandal by Cathy Williams
Taming the Big Bad Billionaire by Pippa Roscoe
The Flaw in His Marriage Plan by Tara Pammi
His Innocent’s Passionate Awakening by Melanie Milburne
Claimed in the Italian’s Castle
Caitlin Crews
USA TODAY bestselling and RITA® Award–nominated author Caitlin Crews loves writing romance. She teaches her favorite romance novels in creative-writing classes at places like UCLA Extension’s prestigious Writers’ Program, where she finally gets to utilize the MA and PhD in English literature she received from the University of York in England. She currently lives in the Pacific Northwest with her very own hero and too many pets. Visit her at caitlincrews.com.
Books by Caitlin Crews
Harlequin Presents
The Italian’s Pregnant Cinderella
Conveniently Wed!
My Bought Virgin Wife
One Night With Consequences
Secrets of His Forbidden Cinderella
Secret Heirs of Billionaires
Unwrapping the Innocent’s Secret
Bound to the Desert King
Sheikh’s Secret Love-Child
The Combe Family Scandals
The Italian’s Twin Consequences
Untamed Billionaire’s Innocent Bride
His Two Royal Secrets
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
To the fairy-tale heroines who didn’t get to be princesses.
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 ONE
This door you might not open, and you did;
So enter now, and see for what slight thing
You are betrayed… Here is no treasure hid,
No cauldron, no clear crystal mirroring
The sought-for Truth, no heads of women slain
For greed like yours, no writhings of distress;
But only what you see… Look yet again:
An empty room, cobwebbed and comfortless.
Yet this alone out of my life I kept
Unto myself, lest any know me quite;
And you did so profane me when you crept
Unto the threshold of this room tonight
That I must never more behold your face.
This now is yours. I seek another place.
—Edna St. Vincent Millay, Bluebeard
HER SISTERS WERE in a dither.
This was not an unusual state of affairs. Petronella and Dorothea Charteris had never met a molehill they couldn’t make into the Alps. Angelina, the younger sister they preferred to exclude from anything and everything, usually ignored them.
But as Angelina slipped through the servants’ passageway this evening, racing to change for dinner after another long day of hiding from her family in this petri dish they called their home, she paused. Because she could hear the rise and fall of her sisters’ voices a little too well, and they weren’t discussing one of their usual topics—like why they were cruelly sequestered away in the family mausoleum as their youth and vitality slipped away…
Because it never occurred to them to leave and make their own way, as Angelina planned to do, when they could sit at home and complain instead.
“We shall be slaughtered in our sleep!” Petronella screeched.
Angelina paused, there on the other side of the paper-thin wall of the drawing room, because that sounded extreme. Even for the notably dramatic Petronella.
“It will be me, I am sure of it,” Dorothea pronounced in the trembling tones of an Early Christian Martyr. Her happy place, in other words. “He will spirit me away, and no. No, Petronella. Do not attempt to make this better.” Angelina could hear nothing that suggested Petronella had attempted anything of the kind. “It will be a sacrifice—but one I am prepared to make for the sake of our family!”
Angelina blinked. Dorothea preferred to talk about sacrifices rather than make any, in her experience. What on earth was going on?
Petronella wailed, then. Like a banshee—a sound she had spent a whole summer some years back perfecting, waking everyone round the clock with what their mother had icily called that caterwauling. That had been the summer Petronella had wanted to go on a Pilates retreat to Bali with the loose group of pointless women of indiscernible means she called friends—when she wasn’t posting competing selfies on social media. Petronella had claimed the screams had nothing at all to do with Papa’s refusal to fund her trip.
“Everything is
