The Italian's Wife

by Lynne Graham

  why he had hired a nanny to take care of Timothy. And, if their marriage

  did fall apart, she would be better off if she was already employed.

  Rio phoned her every day, often twice a day. She lived for his calls,

  woke up every time she turned over in bed and found him missing and just

  counted the hours until he was due back. But, wanting to surprise him

  with actual results, she told him nothing about the Italian lessons she

  was already taking and kept her plans to find a job to herself. After

  signing up with a couple of office recruitment agencies, she devoted the

  remainder of the week to Timothy.

  The evening of Rio's return, Holly went to the airport to meet him off

  his flight. It was a last-minute decision and the limousine had already

  left to pick him up, so she had to call a cab. The cab got caught up in

  traffic and, fearing that she had missed him, Holly had a frantic rush

  through the airport. Her heart leapt at first sight of Rio's lean, dark,

  devastating features as he strode into view with Ezio in his wake, and

  then, out of nowhere, it seemed, came

  Christabel.

  Holly fell to a stricken halt as the beautiful blonde surged forward to

  intercept Rio and engage his attention. Holly stood there unnoticed,

  shattered by Christabel's sudden appearance and the suspicion that such

  an encounter could only have been prearranged.

  With equal abruptness, Holly turned and walked away

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  again. Still in shock, she went into a cafe, bought herself a cup of

  coffee and sat over it, determined not to go home until she had calmed

  down. Why had Christabel come to meet Rio off his flight? How had the

  other woman known where he would be? Furious anger welled up in Holly

  and festered into a rage like nothing she had ever known. Who was the

  wife? Who was the 'other woman'? All Holly knew as she finally set off

  home again was that throughout the week she had been made to feel more

  like Rio's mistress than his wife!

  By the time that Holly finally arrived back at the town house it was

  getting late. As she crossed the hall Rio appeared in the doorway of the

  library. Shorn of his jacket and tie, his black hair tousled, he looked

  rather less smooth and self-assured than he had when she had seen him

  earlier that evening. His lean, strong face was taut. His dark golden

  eyes scorched over her like a flame thrower's.

  'Where the hell have you been all evening?' Rio's opening demand

  disconcerted her, for she had lost track of time while she had seethed

  at the airport.

  'Out...' Awarding him the most minimal glance, Holly threw her head

  high, her gaze feverishly bright.

  'Sarah told me that you went to meet me at the airport.'

  'Well, I won't be making that mistake again,' Holly informed him from

  between gritted teeth. 'Tell me, is this house a Christabel-free zone or

  can I expect to trip over her here as well? After all, she appears to be

  welcome everywhere else, certainly more welcome than I am!'

  Rio tensed. 'So you did see Christabel with me at the airport.'

  'My goodness...you are so quick on the uptake!' Holly fired back at him.

  Rio straightened to his full commanding height, narrowed golden eyes

  pinned to her furious and flushed face.

  'Do you realise how worried I've been about you?' he condemned,

  sidestepping the issue of Christabel with infuriating dexterity. 'I got

  in at seven. It's now eleven!'

  'You're lucky I came home at all!' Frustrated rage was climbing so high

  inside Holly that she could hardly get the words out.

  'Am I? I'm not going to stand here and argue with you in the hall,' Rio

  breathed glacially, throwing wide the door of the library in invitation.

  'Is the room soundproof?' Holly enquired sarcastically.

  As Rio thrust the door closed he reached for her hand. 'What on earth

  has got into you?'

  Holly yanked her fingers free. 'I've had about all I can take for one

  week. At your request I went to visit your mother, and do you know who

  she had staying with her?'

  'I haven't a clue,' Winged ebony brows pleated as he lounged in an

  attitude of outrageous cool against the edge of his desk, Rio surveyed

  her in expectation of receiving the answer.

  'Your ex-fiancée, although there's not a lot of the "ex" about her this

  week!' Holly snapped angrily. 'I don't feel like your wife. Your

  mother's been entertaining Christabel as an honoured guest but I got the

  frozen mitt, not to mention a lot of embarrassing questions that you

  should have

  foreseen-'

  'Dio mio...Christabel was down at the Priory?' Rio queried in surprise.

  'I want to know what she was doing at the airport tonight!' Holly

  informed him.

  'It was my fault that Christabel had to ambush me like that,' Rio stated

  with flat emphasis, his beautiful mouth compressing. 'I refused to

  accept her calls. But certain matters did have to be resolved.'

  'Like what?' Holly could have done without knowing

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  that Christabel had been bombarding him with phone calls as well.

  'She's living in an apartment I own and hasn't yet found other

  accommodation-'

  'She's living in an apartment you own...?' Holly was aghast at that

  news. 'But you broke up with her weeks ago. She's famous. She must earn

  a fortune as a model and you're trying to tell me she can't find

  somewhere to rent?'

  'She hasn't had the time. She's been in Paris.'

  'She should have been out flat-hunting, then, not sucking up to your

  mother for sympathy! I'll be in one of your guest rooms until you've

  thought up a better story!' Holly told him fierily, wrenching the door

  open. 'And you still haven't explained how she knew where and when to

  find you tonight.'

  Rio released his breath in a long-suffering masculine hiss that set her

  teeth on edge even more. 'It's common knowledge that I was in New York

  this week...and I usually fly home on Fridays at that hour.'

  Holly's usually generous mouth closed tight as a coffin lid and she set

  off upstairs regardless, her slender back rigid. Of course, Christabel

  would know his movements better than she did. The blonde had been in

  Rio's life a lot longer. But Holly was fed up with being wrongfooted by

  Christabel, first with Rio's mother, who had made it quite clear where

  her loyalty lay, and then with Rio himself. Rio was acting as if she was

  being unreasonable, but worst of all he had taken the blame for that

  encounter at the airport himself. Holly would have been much happier had

  he bestowed blame on his former girlfriend.

  When Rio strode into their bedroom Holly was slamming through drawers in

  search of a nightdress.

  'You're not sleeping apart from me,' Rio told her.

  'Watch me,' Holly advised.

  'Do you have any idea how much I was looking forward to coming home to

  you tonight?' Rio demanded in a roughened undertone.

  Her eyes stung with sudden tears and she closed them tight. Could she

  believe that? She had devoted the entire afternoon to beautifying

  herself and getting all dressed up fo
r his benefit. And then she had

  seen Christabel, gorgeous blonde mane trailing and legs as long as a

  racetrack on display, and she had known she could not compete. But also

  that she should not have to compete.

  'Everywhere I turn she's there where she shouldn't be-' 'I'm amazed that

  Christabel had the nerve to visit my mother,' Rio confessed, his anger

  audible. 'That shouldn't have happened and, believe me, now that I know

  it has, it won't happen again, bella mia.' Holly gulped. 'I don't know

  what to believe any more-' Slowly Rio eased her round to face him and

  scanned her shuttered face. He ran caressing fingers down the taut line

  of her cheekbone, laced them gently into her hair and turned her

  strained gaze up to his. 'You have to learn to trust me. Christabel's in

  the past. I've started a new life with you and Timothy.'

  Denying herself closer contact with the heat and strength of that hard,

  muscular frame of his, Holly drew in a slow, sustaining breath. 'I can

  only accept that if you promise me that you won't have anything more to

  do with her.'

  'No problem...' Appraising her with smouldering golden eyes, sculpted

  mouth in a sensual curve, Rio backed her over to the bed with predatory

  determination and an innate sense of good timing. 'Why would I want

  another woman when I've got everything I want and need at home?'

  Holly wondered why, if that was true, he still wouldn't talk about why

  he had broken off his engagement. But then, perhaps from Rio's point of

  view there had been no great

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  drama involved and he genuinely had nothing more to say on the subject.

  Possibly he had known for some time that the relationship wasn't working

  out and giving up on it had not been a sudden decision on his part. Why

  hadn't that possibility occurred to her before?

  Having dealt with her own anxiety and triumphed, Holly concentrated

  instead on the hammering acceleration of her own heartbeat and the knot

  of enervating anticipation tightening low in her pelvis. She only had to

  look at Rio to want him.

  Rio laughed with vibrant amusement when she practically tore his shirt

  getting it off him. 'You missed me,' he told her with immense satisfaction.

  'Maybe...'

  'I want to hear you admit it...' He took her readily parted lips in a

  passionate demonstration of hunger and her senses leapt and her wanton

  body flowed and surged under the powerful masculine demand of his. 'Well?'

  'Can't talk right now...better things to do,' she confided, running a

  provocative hand down over a taut, muscular male thigh, feeling him jerk

  with a satisfaction as old as time itself and a knowledge of her own

  feminine power.

  'Who taught you to do that?' Rio groaned, straining against her with

  unconcealed sexual need and extracting her from her dress with more

  haste than cool.

  'You did...'

  Hours later, in the dawn light, she watched him sleep. Jet lag had

  felled him where nothing else could. Jet lag, added to a couple hours of

  insatiable lovemaking. Yes, he had definitely missed her. In bed. She

  squashed the snipey little voice that came up with that unnecessary

  addition. Instead she contemplated Rio, lying with one long bronzed,

  hair-roughened thigh clear of the crumpled sheet, six feet four inches

  of golden masculinity so gorgeous that she still could not quite credit

  that he was her husband. She kissed a smooth brown shoulder, rubbed her

  cheek there with sensuous pleasure, revelling in the familiar musky

  scent and

  feel of his skin.

  Her own body ached and she smiled with sleepy pride in that reality.

  Christabel was history. He had convinced her. If seeing his ex-fiancée

  after so long had not upset him, what was she worrying about? He might

  not love her but he certainly seemed happy with her, and in the early

  hours he had still been demanding to know what she had been doing at the

  airport to get back to the house so late. He had been worried about her,

  worried that she had seen him with Christabel, worried that she, Holly,

  might be upset. He always liked to know exactly where she was. Why

  hadn't she noticed how possessive he could be, how protective?

  When she woke up again Timothy was nestled up against her, fast asleep.

  Fully dressed in tight-fitting black jeans and a husky sweater, Rio

  absorbed her surprise at her son's presence from his stance at the foot

  of the bed.

  'I heard him crying and he stopped the minute he saw me. Sarah had

  already fed him, so I brought him in here. I played with him for a while

  and then I took him into the bathroom while I went for a shower. Never

  again,' Rio groaned feelingly.

  'What happened?'

  'First, he yanked a towel down over himself and screamed the place down,

  then he pulled a drawer out and got his hand stuck in it...and, when I

  took a peek out of the shower because I thought he was being too quiet,

  he was trying to eat the box of plasters he must've sneaked out of the

  drawer!'

  Unconcerned by the furore he had caused, Timothy slept on, looking angelic.

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  Rio came down on the side of the bed, lean, powerful face taut. 'He

  really scared me. Suppose he had got his hands on something dangerous or

  choked on the plasters?'

  'But he didn't,' Holly soothed, touched that he had missed Timothy

  enough after a week's absence to bring her son back to their room to

  play with him. 'He's just at an age where he needs a lot of watching.'

  'I'll be a lot more cautious in the future, cara mia,' Rio swore. 'But

  it's just as well for him that nature made him cute and appealing

  because I almost shouted at him.'

  Holly killed a guilty smile at that assurance. She definitely would have

  shouted out of sheer relief that Timothy had not got hold of anything

  more dangerous.

  Five days later, an hour after Rio had left for a meeting in the City,

  Holly received a call from one of the recruitment agencies she had

  signed up with. An insurance company was willing to interview her for a

  receptionist's position. As the first agency Holly had approached had

  pointed out the paucity of her qualifications, the implication being

  that she was aspiring too high, Holly was thrilled just to be in line

  for consideration.

  The interview was set up for noon that day. But at a quarter to eleven

  when Holly was coming downstairs, elegant in a fitted black suit, Rio

  breezed through the door. 'How do you fancy going to the races, bella

  mia?' he enquired.

  Holly sighed. 'If you mean right now, I've got an appointment.'

  'Reschedule it,' Rio told her carelessly.

  'I can't-'

  'Oh, yes, you can. You haven't learned how to be a Lombardi wife yet.'

  Rio gave her a breathtaking smile of amusement that made her heart skip

  a beat. 'With the sole

  exception of Timothy, I expect you to drop everything to be with me when

  I'm free.'

  _ Holly worried at her lower lip for a second or two and hardened her

  heart to the sheer vibrant appeal of him. 'So what was all that about mer />
  needing to lead my own life when you're away on business?'

  'I don't always practise what I preach. And you may not have noticed,

  Mrs Lombardi, but I am not away. What are you fussing about?' Rio

  mocked. 'A hair appointment?'

  'I wasn't going to mention it yet but I have a job interview...that's

  not something I can rearrange.' Holly gave him an apologetic smile.

  Rio stilled. In fact, not only did he still, he also stared, dark golden

  eyes fixing to her as if she had announced an intention of going

  bungee-jumping with a frayed rope. 'An interview for a.. .job! If this

  is a joke, where's the punchline?'

  Holly stiffened. 'Why would it be a joke?' Rio regarded her levelly. 'I

  don't want you to work. Why would you look for a job? It's not just a

  question of what I want either. What about Timothy?'

  'Most women work,' Holly replied defensively. 'Anyway, the position is

  only part-time.'

  '"Most women" are not my wife. What is this job?' 'Receptionist.'

  'Are you even remotely aware of how wealthy we are?' Rio prompted in a

  charged and incredulous undertone. 'I'm not wealthy...you are.'

  'It would be quite inappropriate for you to take an employment

  opportunity from someone else who really needs it, and that's my last

  word on the subject.'