Billionaire's Second Chance in Paris, page 1
Sons of a Parisian Dynasty
Claiming their legacy. Finding their family. Meeting their match!
With the retirement of their patriarch, the renowned Causcelle triplets are taking over an aristocratic empire! These gorgeous yet media-shy billionaires are stepping into the spotlight to make their mark on Paris.
Firstborn Nic has taken over the hotel branch of the business—and immediately caused a scandal with the company’s new attorney! While Raoul is heading up the rest of the corporation—at least until mysteriously absent Jean-Louis can be found...
But while these brooding siblings are taking the business world by storm, their hearts are completely off-limits—when you’re this wealthy, love always comes with a catch, right? Until they meet the women who show them just how wrong they are!
Find out who tames Nic in
Capturing the CEO’s Guarded Heart
See the return of Jean-Louis in
Falling for Her Secret Billionaire
And dive into Raoul’s story in
Billionaire’s Second Chance in Paris
All available now!
Dear Reader,
This trilogy, Sons of a Parisian Dynasty, begins with the mention of a crime in the background of book one that is fully exposed by book three, Billionaire’s Second Chance in Paris, which puts the hero and heroine in difficulty.
I love an element of uncertainty involved in the romance and hope you love it, too.
Enjoy!
Rebecca Winters
Billionaire’s Second Chance in Paris
Rebecca Winters
Rebecca Winters lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. With canyons and high alpine meadows full of wildflowers, she never runs out of places to explore. They, plus her favorite vacation spots in Europe, often end up as backgrounds for her romance novels—because writing is her passion, along with her family and church. Rebecca loves to hear from readers. If you wish to email her, please visit her website at rebeccawinters.net.
Books by Rebecca Winters
Harlequin Romance
Sons of a Parisian Dynasty
Capturing the CEO’s Guarded Heart
Falling for Her Secret Billionaire
The Baldasseri Royals
Reclaiming the Prince’s Heart
Falling for the Baldasseri Prince
Second Chance with His Princess
Secrets of a Billionaire
The Greek’s Secret Heir
Unmasking the Secret Prince
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
This book is dedicated to my darling sister Kathie, who loves a dose of danger in some of the romances she reads. She has always championed my writing.
Praise for Rebecca Winters
“This is the first book that I have read by this author but definitely not the last as it is an amazing story. I definitely recommend this book as it is so well written and definitely worth reading.”
—Goodreads on How to Propose to a Princess
Contents
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
EXCERPT FROM CINDERELLA’S SECRET FLING BY MICHELLE DOUGLAS
PROLOGUE
Causcelle Estate, La Racineuse,
eastern France, ten years earlier
FOR ONCE, seventeen-year-old Fleurine Dumotte had the house to herself. Her out-of-control father would be working at the Causcelle dairy until late, thank goodness. Her sweet, wonderful mother had gone to town in La Racineuse with her two siblings to shop. She’d be gone a long time. Fleurine had volunteered to do the laundry for the five-member household in order to be alone.
Knowing there wasn’t a moment to lose, she did her chores in record time. Then she got busy making bread, shaping pieces of it into five-inch boy figures. Normally she placed raisins down their tummies to look like buttons. But these were for Raoul Causcelle, so she baked the figures without adornment.
After they cooled, she put tiny dobs of frosting for buttons and added little pépites de chocolat. She’d made his favorite milk bread mannele. He loved the chocolate on top. It would be her going-away gift to him, but no one could ever know about it. Not even her mother. Her terrifying father forbade her from being with any boy, so her feelings for Raoul had always remained a secret from everyone.
He’d seen her in town helping with the marketing yesterday and had asked her to meet him at the west hay barn at the end of his work today. They could talk one last time while he did his chores, but her excitement was swallowed up in despair. The day after tomorrow he’d be leaving home with his brothers to go to college in Paris hundreds of miles away.
Fleurine had been born and raised on the Causcelle estate. All the kids in the area had gone to the same schools. She and Raoul were eleven months apart. Over the last two years he’d found dozens of ways to meet her accidentally at school and on her way home after the bell rang.
The knowledge that Raoul was leaving had become unbearable, and she’d wanted to do something for him. After wrapping the mannele in a bag, she cleaned up the kitchen so her father would never know what she’d done. Next, Fleurine hurried into the bedroom she shared with her thirteen-year-old sister, Emma. Their eleven-year-old brother, Marti, had his own room.
Fleurine had no choice but to put on one of her ugly white dresses that fell below the knee. It had long sleeves that looked like a nursing uniform from a hundred years ago. He’d never seen her in anything else. She wished she were allowed to go to mass like her friends and wear something pretty. How she hated her brown shoes that laced up to the ankles. So many wishes had never been fulfilled...
The women in their household weren’t allowed to wear makeup or perfume or cut their hair. All she could do was brush hers that hung down her back. She’d been forbidden to use ribbons or barrettes. Modern styles of clothes were out of the question. She could still hear her father say, “Fleur and Emma Dumotte, you’ll live in my house like proper daughters of the Jura-Souboz where your ancestors came from and obey my rules!”
His despotic eighteenth-century rules!
Not wanting to feel pain today, she raced out of the house with her gift and climbed on her bike. Raoul had always been a hard worker and obeyed his nice-looking widower father, who everyone knew had high expectations for him and his brothers. The country’s renowned billionaire Louis Causcelle kept his children close. Fleurine had seen him on several occasions but had never met him. She was pained by her father’s hatred for the patriarch of the Causcelle dynasty and his family, especially his triplet sons.
On her approach, she saw Raoul’s bike outside the barn. She rode hers around the back. She didn’t dare leave it where her father could see it from the road on his way home from the dairy.
“There you are, Fleurine,” she heard Raoul say while she rested her bike against the barn. He’d walked in through the back to find her. “I hoped you’d be able to make it.” His smile lit up her universe.
No one knew her as Fleurine. Only Raoul had started calling her that name last year. He’d said it was because her eyes reminded him of the violet flowers growing in the northern pasture. To her mind, her eyes were a boring gray with tinges of violet. But since he’d given her that name, she’d begun thinking of herself as Fleurine. He’d made it sound beautiful.
“Let’s take your bike inside.” They walked to the front with it and went in the barn where he shut the big door.
Raoul was fun and exciting. He was also so handsome it made her breath catch. His dancing black eyes and black hair thrilled her as much as his smile. Sometimes he resembled a dashing pirate. She’d always felt insipid around him by comparison.
No young men in school, let alone France, matched the looks of the tall, gorgeous and well-built Causcelle triplet sons. Her girlfriends had told her their pictures had been in all the newspapers and magazines and on TV, but her father didn’t allow radio, TV or printed matter in their home.
“I had to do the laundry first, or I would have come sooner. Here.” She handed him the bag. “I baked these for you.”
His intense gaze made her feel warm all over. He opened it and pulled out one of her treats. “Let’s find out if you’re still the best cook in France.”
Heat crept into her face. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“I swear I’m telling the truth. I’ve eaten your treats before. You could run your own five-star cooking school.” On that note he took a bite and ended up devouring the whole thing with those perfect white teeth. “Yup. You deserve the grand prize for these. Let me thank you properly and give you whatever you want.”
Whatever she wanted? Would that Fleurine had the temerity to tell him she wanted the one thing he could never give her. Her father had forbidden her and her siblings to have anything to do with the Causcelle family. If they ever did, they would pay the ultimate price. He terrified them. What an absurd, foolish girl she’d been to have secret dreams about a life with Raoul.
Fleurine had been dreading the moment when he would leave the estate. The end of th
“Mind if I thank you in the way I’ve wanted to for a long time?”
Something in his tone sounded different. “What do you mean?”
“Have you ever been kissed by one of the guys around here, Fleurine? Really kissed? I’ve noticed Remy and Thomas. They never leave you alone.”
“They’re just friends.” Her heart pounded in her throat.
“Do you put me in the same category as just a friend?”
She averted her eyes. “A good friend. Are you trying to embarrass me?”
“Anything but. I’d like to know if there’s some guy you’re interested in on the estate you’ve kept secret from me.”
“How can you ask me that?” Her voice shook. “You know my father.”
“Forget your father for a minute. Is there someone you care about and have been alone with?”
She shivered. “That’s private, Raoul.”
“So there is a guy—” He sounded upset.
Her head flew back. “What if I asked you if there’s a girl on the estate you’ve kissed?”
He shifted his weight. “Do you want to know the answer? Or aren’t you interested enough to find out?”
Fleurine shook her head. “I wouldn’t dare ask you. It’s none of my business.”
“Maybe it’s because you’re frightened of the answer. Yes, I’ve kissed a few.”
“I think I’d better go.”
She turned to leave, but he grasped her arm. “You are frightened.”
“Please, Raoul. I don’t know what you want from me.”
He inhaled sharply. “The truth. Nothing more, nothing less. For once in our lives, we’re truly alone. I know you’re frightened of your father, but he’s nowhere around to hear us.”
“What truth?” she cried, not understanding him. Something was wrong.
“That you love me as much as I love you!” The interior of the barn resounded with his declaration. “Isn’t love the reason you came at the risk of your father finding out? Isn’t love why you brought me this gift?”
A gasp escaped her lips. She backed away from him. “E-even if the answer were yes,” she said, “you couldn’t possibly love me, Raoul Causcelle. Not you, who could have any girl, I mean any girl, in the world. Are you telling the Dumotte daughter, who’s been told to go back to the dark ages where our family belongs, that you love me?”
“Don’t talk about yourself that way, Fleurine.”
“You haven’t lived in my skin, Raoul. I’m the offspring of old man Dumotte who lights fires and would have been the first to set a torch to Jeanne d’Arc. Did you know he and the demented friends in their cult were the ones who set fire to the monastery when he was a young teenager?
“He helped murder all those monks to get rid of your father’s brother-in-law Gregoire. My father was taught to hate every Catholic before his family moved here from Switzerland and started working for your family. He’s forbidden our family from ever stepping inside a Catholic church.”
“I’ve suspected it for a long time.”
“He’s insane, but most of all he hates your father for marrying your mother.”
Raoul moved closer. His black eyes flashed. “What do you mean?”
“He wanted Delphine Ronfleur for himself, but she wanted your father and married him. My mother broke down one day and told me everything. She lives in fear of him. So do I. If she tries to leave or expose him, he has threatened to kill the whole family. Lately he’s been watching me.”
“I knew that was the reason why you’ve tried to be so careful around me,” Raoul murmured.
“Then, you should know there’s never been anyone else for me but you, and there never will be. But you’re the son of the man my father despises. I’m afraid you’re another object of his hatred now. Run to Paris while there’s still time and stay safe! He mustn’t ever see us alone together. I’m a nothing who’s not worthy of you, Raoul.”
“Don’t you ever say things like that, Fleurine.” He reached out and crushed her in his arms, holding her until her thrashing stopped, but her body kept heaving sobs. “I’ve always loved you and have sensed deep down you felt the same way. Let me kiss you so I can show you how I feel. We’ll deal with everything else later.”
Fleurine couldn’t believe this was happening. Raoul honestly loved her?
“Right now, we need this time together before I have to leave. Once I’m gone, we know letters and phone calls will be impossible.” He lowered his head. First, he planted soft kisses near her mouth then her lips. She kissed him back the same way. Slowly they melded.
Their kisses grew deeper and longer. She threw her arms around his neck and clung to him, exhilarated by new sensations of being kissed and held in his arms. If only this could go on forever.
“I love you, Fleurine. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t.”
“I won’t be able to live without you!” she cried, kissing him over and over again.
“All these years we’ve shared everything but this. I have plans for us. When I come home at Christmas, you’ll have turned eighteen the day before. I’ll make all the arrangements, and we’ll run away immediately to get married at the church in Paris. Your father won’t know what happened until it’s too late.”
“Oh, Raoul. Your father would never permit it.”
He kissed every feature. “Don’t worry. He married my mother in their teens and won’t be able to raise an argument. We’ll live in Paris in an apartment. You’re the smartest girl at school and can start college. We’ll go together, and I’ll pay for it, and after graduation we’ll buy our own home while I work for the family business. We’ll be away from your father and live the rest of our lives the way I’ve always dreamed.”
“If I thought that could happen...” She returned his kisses with shocking hunger.
Suddenly the barn door lifted. In the late-afternoon light she saw her father, a tall, powerfully built man with a ruddy complexion and beard. He held a hunting rifle aimed at Raoul.
“Get your hands off my daughter or I’ll shoot you dead this instant.”
Fleurine pulled out of Raoul’s arms. How had her father known she was here? “We weren’t doing anything wrong!” she cried in absolute horror. “I was just saying goodbye to him.”
She heard him cock the rifle. “Get in the truck, Fleur.”
“Don’t hurt him!” she screamed.
“Do as I say. If I ever catch the two of you together again, you’ll both be dead. You’ve shamed me, daughter.”
Knowing what he was capable of, she ran out of the barn to the truck. Before she got in, she threw up, terrified of what he’d do to Raoul. As she heaved her trembling body into the truck, her father got in on the other side. He put the rifle on the rack behind their heads.
When she looked back, she saw Raoul standing at the barn entrance.
Dieu merci he was still alive!
CHAPTER ONE
Paris, France,
late August, ten years later.
RAOUL CAUSCELLE ENTERED Causcelle headquarters. He climbed the marble staircase of the converted palace to the second floor and knocked on the private office door of the CEO.
The new head of the Causcelle empire looked up. “Raoul—”
“Eh bien, Pascal.”
“I’m glad you got my message. Thanks for coming. Since I knew you were already in town on business, this is perfect timing. I need your input.”
“I like dropping by my old stomping grounds. It gives me an excuse to see you.” Raoul walked into the office. They hugged before he sat down on a chair near the desk. “How’s Janelle and the family?”
“We couldn’t be better.”
“And Oncle Blaise?”
“Papa is still in heaven teaching at the university and writing more books. Tell me about my Oncle Louis.”
