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      The Illegitimate King

      by

      Dear Reader,

      As I wrote the last words in The Illegitimate King, the book that wraps up THE CASTALDINI CROWN trilogy, I found myself sighing in pleasure and regret. To have come to the satisfying end of a family saga that has been all I thought about for five months made me feel at once elated and wistful. I’ve fallen in love with each of my magnificent heroes. It was as wonderful to have known them as it was hard to leave them behind.

      Then I remembered that I can always open the books and revisit them and that I can and will create more one-woman men who are everything a woman might dream of. Men who are powerful in character and passion as well as in sensitivity, who are towers of strength and tenderness at once.

      The Illegitimate King’s hero, Ferruccio Selvaggio, aka the Savage Iron Man, is such a man, but he surprised even me as I wrote his story. He was bent on revenge, but the side of him that longed for love and family overwhelmed his harsh intentions at every turn. I loved him that tiny bit more for having triumphed over unimaginable horrors and hardships to become the incredible man who would become Castaldini’s king and the one man his heroine, Clarissa, could love.

      I hope that reading their story will give you as much pleasure as writing it gave me.

      I would love to hear from you at [email protected]. You can also visit me on the web at www.oliviagates. com.

      Thank you for reading.

       Olivia Gates

      Olivia Gates has always pursued creative passions – painting, singing and many handicrafts. She still does, but only one of her passions grew gratifying enough, consuming enough, to become an ongoing career: writing.

      She is most fulfilled when she is creating worlds and conflicts for her characters, then exploring and untangling them bit by bit, sharing her protagonists’ every heart-wrenching heartache and hope, their every heart-pounding doubt and trial, until she leads them to an indisputably earned and gloriously satisfying happy ending.

      When she’s not writing, she is a doctor, a wife to her own alpha male and a mother to one brilliant girl and one demanding angora cat. visit Olivia at www.oliviagates. com.

      At the end of this trilogy, I again dedicate it to the two ladies who made it possible for me to write it.

      My phenomenal editor, Natashya Wilson.

      And Melissa Jeglinski, a wonderful lady and Desire’s former senior editor.

      Thanks, ladies. It’s been a fantastic ride.

      Prologue

       Six years ago

      “So gods do walk the earth!”

      Clarissa D’Agostino frowned at her friend’s breathless exclamation as she dabbed at the stain on the décolleté of her lavender chiffon gown.

      She cursed herself for biting into that overripe plum. Way to go, making a fool of herself when she was supposed to be Castaldini’s princess, all grown up and fit for court appearances at last. It seemed that four years in the States and graduating at the top of her class from Harvard Business School hadn’t done a thing to improve her ability to handle public appearances.

      She grimaced at the visible stain. “What are you going on about?”

      “I’m all about that…god over there!”

      Clarissa swung around. Not to search out the proclaimed deity, but to check her best friend for signs of intoxication.

      She found Luci fanning herself. “And I thought his profile was hard-hitting. His full-frontal assault is devastating.”

      Clarissa gaped at her. Luciana Montgomery, whose feminist outlook and American side dominated her Castaldinian roots, was the last woman she knew who’d drool over a man. She’d never seen Luci react like this to anyone—not in the States, where they’d gone to college together and where hunks had regularly pursued the vivacious redhead, and not in Castaldini, which was crawling with gorgeous men. The only men Luci had ever even said were drool-worthy were Clarissa’s brothers and a few of her cousins. And she hadn’t reacted this way to any of them. It was weird, seeing her

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