The Bitch

by Jackie Collins

Overview

“Collins’ novels are an over-the top, steamy delight. Clearly she had as much fun writing them as we do reading them.” - The Guardian

Fontaine Khaled, former jet-setting supermodel with an insatiable sexual appetite, returns in the much-anticipated follow-up to the international bestseller, The Stud. Divorced from her financier husband following a string of salacious scandals in London surrounding her nightclub, Hobo, Fontaine’s now single and ready for adventure, but young men and anonymous amore are all this ballsy British beauty bargains for. Then Greek playboy Nico Constantine enters the picture. . .

This devastatingly handsome charmer is still reeling from the tragic loss that propelled him into a lifestyle of heavy spending, wanton womanizing, and a dangerous dalliance with gambling that has essentially cost him everything. While hatching a plan to pay back his debt, he encounters the incomparable Fontaine, and he can’t deny his immediate and intense passion for her when he makes her steamy acquaintance on a flight from New York to London.

While Nico needs to use Fontaine to stay alive on the streets, in her bed is where he truly comes alive. But can Fontaine, with her deep distrust for men in general, see beyond his scheming and into his heart?

The bitch is back, baby. . . But she’s met her match in Nico.

As this wild tour de force rollercoasters from Greece to Los Angeles, from Las Vegas to New York to London, will love prevail? Or will temptation get the best of them?


Already read The Bitch? Try more by Jackie Collins.

The Stud Series

1. The Stud
2. The Bitch

The Lucky Santangelo series

1. Chances
2. Lucky
3. Lady Boss
4. Vendetta: Lucky's Revenge
5. Dangerous Kiss
6. Drop Dead Beautiful
7. Poor Little Bitch Girl
8. Goddess of Vengeance
9. Confessions of a Wild Child - Lucky: The Early Years
10. The Santangelos
11. A Santangelo Story

The World is Full series

1. The World is Full of Married Men
2. The World is Full of Divorced Women

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780985745929
Publisher:	Chances, Inc.
Publication date:	04/17/2012
Series:	The Stud , #2
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	133
Sales rank:	439,616
File size:	857 KB

About the Author

There have been many imitators, but only ever one Jackie Collins!

The iconic author has been called a “raunchy moralist” by the late director Louis Malle and “Hollywood’s own Marcel Proust” by Vanity Fair magazine.

With over half a billion copies of her books sold in more than forty countries, and with thirty-one New York Times bestsellers to her credit, she is one of the world’s top-selling novelists.

From glamorous Beverly Hills bedrooms to Hollywood movie studios; from glittering rock concerts in London to the yachts of Russian billionaires, Jackie Collins chronicles the scandalous lives of the rich, famous and infamous from the inside looking out.

“I write about real people in disguise,” she once said. “If anything, my characters are toned down - the truth is much more bizarre!”

Born in in London, England, her first novel, The World is Full of Married Men established Collins as an author who dared to step where no other female writer had gone before. She followed it with one successful title after another, including The Stud and The Bitch, both adapted into films starring her actress sister, Joan Collins. Jackie found her stride when she published Chances, the first installment in a sprawling family saga introducing the strong, sexy and powerful Lucky Santangelo. Soon after came the seminal 80s blockbuster, Hollywood Wives which was adapted into one of ABCs highest rated mini-series. Jackie continued on a wild writing streak, satisfying her devoted readers with hit after hit, including Lady Boss, Hollywood Kids, Poor Little Bitch Girl and The Power Trip among many others. Jackie was a long time supporter of AIDS Project LA, HIV & AIDS research and equality for the LGBT community. She was widely known for writing characters who reflected a whole spectrum of society.

Jackie was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) by the Queen of England in 2013 for her services to literature and charity. When accepting the honor she said to the Queen, “Not bad for a school drop-out” - a revelation capturing her belief that both passion and determination can lead to big dreams coming true!

In addition to her long and lustrous career, Jackie valued her family above all else, including her three daughters and six grandchildren. She wrote every one of her manuscripts by hand, as well as being widely known for her photographic skills, constantly documenting family, friends and her celebrity circle.

Jackie died of breast cancer on September 19th 2015, six years after being given a stage 4 diagnosis, which she chose to keep private until the final weeks of her life. During that time, she continued to write five more books and traveled the world on yearly book tours. In her last interview before her death, Jackie said "I want people to see me as an example of strength - and doing things my way...'"

Jackie Collins was a creative force, a mentor and trailblazer in fiction, and an inspiration to all who knew her, in addition to the millions of readers whose lives she enriched through her novels for decades.

A compelling documentary about Jackie's life and trailblazing career - Lady Boss-The Jackie Collins Story, produced by Academy Award Winning Passion Pictures, CNN Films, BBC Arts & AGC productions - will be released in 2021.

Visit Jackie's website at www.JackieCollins.com to delve into Jackie's world and sign up for the #GetYourJackieCollinsOn newsletter - for book promos, all the latest news on all things Jackie and bonus exclusives!!

Hometown:

Los Angeles, California

Date of Birth:

October 4, 1941

Place of Birth:

London, England

Website:

http://www.jackiecollins.com

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

Nico Constantine rose from the blackjack table, smiled all around, threw the pretty croupier a fifty-dollar tip, and pocketed twelve shiny gold five-hundred-dollar chips. A nice round six thousand dollars. Not bad for a fast half hour's work. Not good for someone who was already down two hundred thousand.

Nico surveyed the crowded Las Vegas casino. His intense dark eyes flicked back and forth among the assembled company. Little old ladies in floral dresses exhibiting surprising strength as their skinny arms pulled firmly on the slot machines. Florid couples — weak with excitement and too much sun — picking up a fast eighty or ninety dollars at the roulette tables. Strolling hookers — blank eyes alert for the big spenders. The big spenders themselves, in polyester leisure suits, screeching away in middle-American accents at the crap tables.

Nico smiled. Las Vegas always amused him. The hustle and the bustle. The win and the lose. The total unreality.

A carousel town set in the middle of arid desert. A blazing set of neon signs housing all the vices known to man. And a few unknown ones. In Las Vegas — if you could pay for it — you could get it. Just name it.

He lit a long narrow Havana cigar with a wafer-thin gold Dunhill lighter, and smiled and nodded at the people who went out of their way to catch his eye. A pit boss here, a cigarette girl there, a security guard on his rounds. Nico Constantine was a well-known man in Vegas. More important — Nico Constantine was a gentleman — and how many of those werethere left in the world?

He looked good. For forty-nine years of age he looked exceptionally good. Black hair — thick, curly, with slight traces of gray that only enhanced the jet. Black eyes — unfairly surrounded with thick black lashes. A strong nose. Dark olive skin beautifully tanned. A wideshouldered, thin-hipped body that would make many a younger man envious.

However, the most attractive thing about Nico was his style — his aura — his charisma.

Hand-finished, tailor-made three-piece suits in the very finest cloth. Silk shirts of exquisite quality. Italian-made shoes in glove-soft leather. Nothing but the best for Nico Constantine. It had been his motto since he was twenty years of age.

"Can I get you a drink, Mr. Constantine?" A cocktail waitress was at his side, long legs in black cobweb stockings, a wide mouth smiling and full of Las Vegas promise.

He grinned. Naturally he had wonderful teeth, and all his own, with just one vagabond gypsy cap. "Why not? I think vodka, on the rocks, be sure it's 90° proof." His black eyes flirted with her outrageously, and she loved every minute of it. Women always did. Women positively adored Nico Constantine — and he, in his turn, was certainly not averse to them. From a cocktail waitress to a princess, he treated them all the same. Flowers (always red roses); champagne (alwaysKrug); presents (small gold charms from Tiffany in New York, or, if they lasted more than a few weeks, little diamond trinkets from Cartier).

The cocktail waitress went off to get his drink.

Nico consulted his Patek Phillipe rose gold watch. It was eight o'clock. The evening was ahead of him. He would sip his drink, watch the action, and then he would step once again into the fray, and fate would decide his future.

Nico Constantine was born in 1930 in a poor suburb of Athens. He was the first brother to three sisters, and his childhood had been that of a small boy caught up in a sea of femininity. His sisters fussed, bullied and smothered him. His mother spoiled him, and various female relatives kissed, cuddled and catered to him at all times.

His father was away a lot, being a crewman on one of the fabulous Onassis yachts — so Nico became the little man of the family. He was a beautiful baby, a cute little toddler, a devastating young boy, and by the time he left school at fourteen, every female in the vicinity loved him madly.

His three sisters, not to forget his mother, guarded him ferociously. To them he was a prince.

When his father decided to take him away on a trip as a cabin boy, the entire family rebelled. No way was Nico to be allowed out of their sight. Absolutely no way.

His poor father argued, but to no avail, and Nico was given a job in a nearby fishing port, on the small dock, not a hundred yards from where one of his sisters worked scraping fish. She watched him like a hawk. If he so much as even talked to a member of the female sex she would appear, bossy and predatory.

The Constantine family desired to keep young Nico as innocent and untouched as possible. They worked on it as a team.

Nico meanwhile was growing up. His body was developing, his balls were dropping, his penis was growing, and most of the time he felt as horny as hell. Well who wouldn't, living in close proximity to four women? His sexual senses were assailed on every level. Naked breasts. Body hair. Creamy female smells. Underclothes hanging up to dry every way he turned.

By the time he was sixteen he was desperate. To jerk off was his only relief, but even that had to be planned like a military operation. Female eyes watched him constantly.

He realized he must run away, although it was a difficult decision to make. After all, leaving behind all that love and adoration...It had to be done though. He was being smothered, and it was the only answer. The only way he could become a real man.

He left on a Sunday night in December, 1947, and arrived in the city of Athens two days later, cold, tired, hungry, certain he had made a wrong move...

The Bitch. Copyright © by Jackie Collins. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.