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A Touch of Notoriety (Buenos Aires Nights Book 2) Kindle Edition
Rules are made to be broken
Beth Blake used to have a perfectly normal life in London until a secret from the past thrusts her into notoriety and she finds herself in Argentina under thewatchful eye of a bodyguard. Controlling, insufferable and sinfully sexy to boot, Raphael Cordoba is a thorn in her independent side!
Guarding Beth should be easy for Raphael—as longas he remembers the golden rule: do not touch the client, especially when she's the sister of your best friend! But feisty Beth requires a particular attentiveness that brings the illicit temptation of her even closer….
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarlequin Presents
- Publication dateMay 1, 2013
- File size1854 KB
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Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Beth looked up to smile at the handsome young man who, until a few moments ago, had been sitting at a neighbouring table enjoying a cup of coffee at the same outside cafe in the San Telmo area of Buenos Aires, and shooting her the occasional admiring glance from beautiful chocolate-brown eyes.
But before she could respond she saw a movement out of the corner of her eye as another man approached at a speed totally at odds with his overwhelming height and muscular build. Two seconds later one of the younger man's arms was twisted painfully up behind his back, totally immobilising him.
'Raphael!' Beth muttered in embarrassed protest as she rose to her feet, very tall and slim in a black T-shirt and denims beneath her brown leather jacket.
Raphael didn't so much as glance at her. 'Back off,' he ordered the startled young man coldly, not easing his grip for a second, his expression grimly detached.
'You're the one who should back off, Raphael!' Beth shot him an exasperated glance. 'In fact, you shouldn't even be here ' So much for believing she had managed to escape for even a short time; she should have known that Raphael Cordoba would eventually track her down and ruin her few moments of peace!
'Is this man bothering you?' The young Argentinian braved the other man's wrath as he now spoke to her in heavily accented English.
Was Raphael Cordoba bothering her?
Raphael Cordoba had been 'bothering' Beth since the moment she first met him! And not just because she hated having him dog her footsteps day and night
Over six feet of male perfectiondark hair framing a chiselled face dominated by piercing blue eyes that any male model would envy, broad shoulders and a leanly muscled body that not even the three-piece suits Raphael habitually wore could disguisewas apt to do that to a woman!
'I thought only to talk to you?' The younger man grimaced, obviously as overwhelmed by the forceful Raphael as Beth was.
'I know.' Beth shot Raphael a censorious glance.
'It is safe to leave you with this man?'
'Safer than with you, you'
'Raphael, please!' Beth reproved wearily, having to admire the younger man's persistence in the face of Raphael's fierce displeasure. 'It's complicated,' she excused as she smiled at the other man reassuringly. 'But it's okayhe doesn't have any intention of harming me.'
'You are sure?'
'She is sure,' Raphael answered the younger man grimly, with a deadly expression she was also sure would be in those piercing blue eyes currently hidden behind black mirror-shaded wraparound sunglasses.
And if there was one thing Beth was very sure of, it was that Raphael Cordoba wasn't going to harm her. The opposite, in fact; he was her bodyguard, employed by Cesar Navarro, and here to ensure that no one else harmed her.
Or rather, that no one harmed Gabriela Navarro, the young woman everyone now believed Beth to be. Except Beth herself.
Just a week ago she had been quietly going about her life in England, enjoying her new job working Monday to Friday in a London publishing house, and feeling only mildly anxious that her sister, Grace, had flown to Argentina for the weekend with her new boss, the breathtakingly handsome billionaire Cesar Navarro, in his private jet. Never in a million years could Beth ever have guessed that Grace's stay in Buenos Aires would have such a profound effect on her own life!
But here she was only days later, also in Buenos Aires, the blood tests having convinced everyoneexcept Beth herself!that she was Gabriela, the daughter of Carlos and Esther Navarro, who had been abducted twenty-one years ago.
And Raphael Cordoba, previously Cesar Navarro's own personal bodyguard, now watched over Beth's every move. To the point, it seemed, of attacking handsome young men who had only wanted to talk to her!
'Let him go, Raphael,' Beth muttered wearily, knowing her few minutes of freedom were very definitely over. 'I'm leaving now anyway,' she assured him heavily. 'I think the milk has gone sour in my coffee!' She drew some money from her shoulder bag and threw it down onto the tabletop to cover the cost of her drink before walking off without so much as a second glance at either man. Why bother, when she was never going to be allowed to sit and talk to the younger manit was safer for him if she didn'tand she knew if she left Raphael would only be a few steps behind her?
As he had been only a few steps behind her in the days since those blood tests had supposedly proven Beth was the missing Gabriela Navarro. Beth clung to that 'supposedly'. She had to. Because she absolutely refused to accept the results of those blood tests until Cesar Navarro's investigations had found some other form of proof to back up that claim.
Much as she had come to like Carlos and Esther Navarro these past few days, Beth was still sure there had to have been some sort of mistake. Her parentsher real parents, James and Carla Lawrencehad loved her. Her adoptive parents, the Blakes, had also loved her. Having to accept that she was neither Elizabeth Lawrence nor Beth Blake, but someone else completely, was enough to make Beth's stomach clench and her hands tremble every time she thought about it.
And, despite her verbal protests, she thought about it a lot.
In the meantime, Cesar Navarro had placed his own bodyguard, Raphael Cordoba, the man who also happened to be Cesar's closest friend, as Beth's shadow.
Cesar Navarro.
Now there, although Beth would never openly admit it, was another man she found totally intimidating. Another man?
Oh, yes, much as Beth liked to pretend otherwise, she found Raphael Cordoba beyond intimidating. All six feet and several more inches of him. There was a predatory stillness about the man, from the top of his military-short black hair, those piercing blue eyes set in that swarthy and startlingly handsome face, to those wide muscled shoulders and washboard chest, tapered waist, powerful thighs, and down the long, long length of his legs, and all shown to advantage in those expensively tailored suits he always wore.
At thirty-three, Raphael Cordoba looked exactly what he was; ex Argentinian military, and scary as hell!
To complicate matters even further, her sister, Grace, was busy making preparations for her wedding to Cesar Navarro next month. And happy as Beth was for her sister, because even she could see how much Grace loved the handsome Argentiniana depth of love that was unmis-takeably returned by that normally coldly aloof manit also made Beth feel more trapped than ever, when what she really wanted to do was pack her bags and go back to England and just forget all of the Navarro family existed.
Which was never going to happen. Even if Beth could have made good her escape, she couldn't escape Grace's engagement and future marriage to Cesar Navarro. And no matter how much Beth might believe she was and only ever had been Elizabeth Lawrence before being adopted by the Blakes, she could never hurt Carlos and Esther Navarro by disappearingas their baby daughter had twenty-one years agoin that cruel way.
Fortunately she didn't have to allow for that concern in regard to hurting Raphael Cordoba's feelings! 'Will you just back off?' she snapped at him now as she sensed him walkingstriding with that predatory grace that was such an inborn part of himclose behind her.
Instead he fell into step beside her. 'It was very foolish of you to disappear from Cesar's apartment in that thoughtless way.'
Beth winced at the rebuke. 'I felt as if I was slowly being suffocated!'
Raphael's mouth tightened. 'You still should not have worried Esther in that way.'
How did he do that? How did Raphael know exactly the right thing to say to make Beth feel guilty?
Because impossible, unbearable, as her current situation was for her, Beth didn't want to hurt the couple who had already suffered so much. To the extent that once Cesar was old enough to go to university, and despite their love for each other, Esther and Carlos had no longer been able to live together with the ghost of their beloved baby daughter standing so painfully between them.
A beloved daughter the couple now sincerely believed to have been returned to them in Beth.
It was a belief Beth simply didn'tcouldn'taccept.
Not least because, at almost twenty-four, she felt like a fish out of water in the opulent lifestyle the Navarros all enjoyed so naturally. And while she had grown fond of the two older Navarros these past few days, and enjoyed nothing more than challenging Cesar Navarro's haughty arrogance, she innately knew she didn't really belong here. With the Navarro family. Or in Argentina itself. She was English through and through, and comfortable in her own skin, as a product of her well-off but far from wealthy adoptive parents, Clive and Heather Blake.
Nevertheless, Beth was totally awareas was Raphael!of the effect the supposed return of their daughter had had on the older Navarros' relationship. After years of living apart, Carlos in Buenos Aires and Esther in the US where she grew up, the couple had been sharing a bedroom in Cesar's apartment since Grace had returned to Buenos Aires with Beth at her side.
Beth sighed heavily. 'I'm sorry, okay? I just needed some time to myself.'
Raphael looked down at Beth Blake from behind the mirrored shades of his sunglasses, easily able to read the emotions flitting across her expressiveand extremely beautifulface. A part of him even sympathised with her obvious bewilderment at being taken to be the newly returned Gabriela Navarro. But the medical proof of blood tests could not be easily denied, and, as a childhood friend of Cesar's, Raphael knew how important this ...
Product details
- ASIN : B00B0A5WN4
- Publisher : Harlequin Presents; Original edition (May 1, 2013)
- Publication date : May 1, 2013
- Language : English
- File size : 1854 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 191 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #282,735 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #9,153 in Women's Romance Fiction
- #16,160 in Romantic Suspense (Books)
- #17,354 in Romantic Suspense (Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
NEW Pre-order Highland Dragons anthology - Release date June 28th 2024
NEW Pre-order RUFUS (Wynter Hearts 1) Release July 31st 2024
NEW Pre-order Hidden Passion (Regency Men in Love 3) Release May 31st 2024
Carole is a USA Today Bestselling Author, Amazon #1 Bestselling Author, and an International Bestselling author. She has written 285 romance novels in the Contemporary, Historical and Paranormal genres. Carole is the recipient of the Romantic Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award. Was awarded a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award in 2017. An Entertainment Weekly Top 10 Romance Author—ever. She is a 2014 Romantic Times Pioneer of Romance. She was also recognized by Queen Elizabeth II in 2012, for her “outstanding service to literature”.
Wynter Hearts -
Rufus (Wynter Hearts 1)
Regency Men in Love
Hidden Lover (Regency Men in Love 1)
Hidden Desire (Regency Men in Love 2)
hidden Passion (Regency Men in Love 3)
Ruthless Regency Dukes:
The Wager (Ruthless Regency Dukes 1)
The Mistress (Ruthless Regency Dukes 2)
The Widow (Ruthless Regency Dukes 3)
The Guardian (Ruthless Regency Dukes 4)
The Hero (Ruthless Regency Dukes 5)
The Ghost (Ruthless Regency Dukes 6)
Series complete
Kingston Security
Kingston’s Ransom (Kingston Security 1)
Kingston’s Captive (Kingston Security 2)
Kingston's Redemption (Kingston Security 3)
Kingston’s Enigma (Kingston Security 4)
Kingston’s Salvation (Kingston Security 5)
Kingston’s Obsession (Kingston Security 6)
Kingston’s Rival (Kingston Security 7)
More books to come in this series
Regency Scandal
WANTON (Regency Scandal 1)
WILD (Regency Scandal 2)
WAYWARD (Regency Scandal 3)
SINFUL (Regency Scandal 4
Russian Dragon Heat
VLADIMIR (Russian Dragon Heat 1)
VAUGH (Russian Dragon Heat 2)
VIKTOR (Russian Dragon Heat 3)
More books to come in this series
Dance with the Devil:
MATTEO (Dance with the Devil 1)
LEON (Dance with the Devil 2)
KILLIAN (Dance with the Devil 3)
JERICHO (Dance with the Devil 4
KIERAN (Dance with the Devil 5)
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A Touch of Notoriety by Carole Mortimer is a sequel to A Taste of the Forbidden, part of the "Buenos Aires Nights" series. Grace & Cesar from book one are preparing to marry, and her adopted sister, Beth, has accompanied her to Cesar's estate in Buenos Aires.
The Navarros, Cesar's parents, are struck by Beth's resemblance to what could've been their daughter who was taken from them at the age of two. After blood tests are done, they confirm that she is indeed the baby they lost so many years ago. However, Beth can't believe that it's true. She's lived her entire life as someone else's child. Even though her parents died when she was younger and she went to live with a foster family, she still can't reconcile what she knows with the new 'family' that has found her.
Even though it hurts the Navarros, they realize that she has to return to England in order to make sense of things, but they cannot send her alone after having just gotten her back. So they send along their head of security (and best friend to Cesar), Raphael Cordoba.
Beth is frustrated. Not only is she expected to just fall into this family as if they're her own, but she has this man... this frustratingly irritating man - joining her as she makes her way back home. When she finds out that he's not only her bodyguard, but will also be trying to find definitive evidence of her heritage, she is incensed. She only agrees to the arrangement so that she can end the tension and make life a little easier on the Navarros, who she cares about even if she's not their daughter.
She admits to Raphael that the only way she can be completely convinced of her true origins is to see that the 'real' Elizabeth Blake died all those years ago. He quickly finds out the truth, and her world is forever changed.
Not just because she is perhaps not who she thinks she is, but because this man who challenges her at every turn has tempted her to shed her innocent past and fall into his bed. Raphael has been attracted to Beth since she walked into Cesar's childhood home. Her fiery independence has been a thorn in his side, but also drew her to him even more inexplicably. On the night he discusses with her what he finds out about her past, she decides it's time to act upon their mutual sparks.
He pulls away for many reasons, but the most damning reason is that she can see right through his tough exterior to the boy who had been hurt and estranged from his own family. Until he can make things right in his own world, how can he ask her - while she is struggling with her own issues - to be a part of his life?
This book was very old-school, which is completely NOT a bad thing. Not chaste by any means, but more intense than erotic. A really good story, and an easy way to spend an afternoon.
Reviewed at HarlequinJunkie.com
MY HUSBAND BOUGHT THEM DIRECT FROM THEM EVERY MONTH. I HAVE THEM ALL. HE BUILD A SPECIAL BOOKCASE FOR THEM. EASY TO READ WITH YOUNG CHILDREN.