The Italian's Wife

by Lynne Graham

  responsibility, but she was part of my life for a long time and I felt

  that I had to help her,' Rio stated harshly.

  'So what did you do with her?'

  'I took her to the foundation hospital and contacted her family. Two

  days after that Christabel signed herself into a rehabilitation clinic.

  She's still there.'

  Recalling all the nasty thoughts she had had about the other woman,

  Holly felt sincerely ashamed. Christabel had genuine problems that she

  needed help to cope with and Rio had done the right thing in giving her

  his support.

  'Did she go off the rails because you ditched her?' Holly mumbled uneasily.

  'No. Her sister, Gwen, was able to tell me that her drug and alcohol

  abuse had begun well before she met me.' His darkly handsome features

  serious, Rio released his breath slowly. 'I did think she drank too much

  sometimes but I'm afraid I didn't recognise it as a problem and she

  didn't confide in me. However, her sister was very frank...'

  'Did she blame you for Christabel's problems?'

  'No, far from it. Apparently, Christabel was confused about her sexual

  orientation when she was a teenager. More recently, she was terrified

  that she was losing her looks and

  struggling to keep an increasingly heavy drug habit hidden,' Rio revealed.

  'So where did you fit into her life?'

  'According to Gwen, Christabel saw me as a financial security blanket

  for her future.' Rio grimaced at that tag. 'My defection faced her with

  realities she had refused to deal with and now she's having to deal with

  them. Her sister's a psychologist and she says that's much more

  healthy.'

  'I heard that she had recently lost out on some big modelling contract

  as well,' Holly remarked uncomfortably.

  'Gwen mentioned that too. Said there'd been rumours about Christabel's

  lifestyle. Naturally. People talk.'

  Holly stood there several feet from him, struggling to

  face her own reality, but it was a daunting one. She had

  fudged Rio without even giving him the chance to defend

  himself and she was ashamed that she had had so little faith

  in him.

  'I'm sorry...I'm so sorry I just walked out the way I did,' Holly

  muttered shakily. 'I was really jealous of Christabel and what I thought

  you must've had with her. I felt like second-best, and then when I met

  her down at the Priory-'

  'I wish you'd told me about that encounter-'

  'She said she wanted you back and that I'd come between you, and that

  really upset me-'

  'Of course it did because you don't think enough of yourself,' Rio

  breathed not quite steadily, reaching out for her hands and drawing her

  closer. 'And that's my fault-'

  'No, it's not,' Holly sighed, her hands quivering in his. 'If I'd

  mentioned Christabel's threats then maybe you would've understood why I

  was so sensitive about her-'

  'There was never any chance of a reconciliation. But if I'd been more

  honest with you you'd have found that easier

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  to accept.' Brilliant dark eyes scanning her troubled face his hands

  tightened their grip on hers. "The truth is,, I didn't know what hit me

  when I met you. I couldn't think of anything else but you and I told

  myself I was unsettled after what had happened with Christabel-'

  'Naturally you were...I mean, that's OK,' Holly hastened to reassure him

  because she was so grateful he was holding her hands and still talking

  to her after the manner in which she had left their home.

  'No, it wasn't OK, cara. I wasn't giving you what you deserved. I don't

  know when or how I fell in love with you but I was in deep very fast.

  You must've noticed that I couldn't let you out of my sight...did you

  think that was normal?'

  'Normal? I felt the same way.' And all the time her mind was reaching

  back to what he had said just before that. 'I fell in love with you'.

  Had he really said that or had she imagined that he had said that?

  'There was the most explosive attraction between us right from the start

  and the lust I could handle,' Rio asserted wryly. 'But I couldn't

  acknowledge that I was seriously involved because that would've meant

  admitting that I was this pretty stupid and potentially shallow guy who

  almost married a woman he didn't really love-'

  'You didn't really love Christabel?'

  'I believed I loved her but we were never close, not the way you and I

  are, but I didn't know what that closeness was until I found it with

  you, cara.'' Rio confessed, dark golden eyes troubled. 'I got over

  Christabel too quickly. And it might seem strange to you but I was

  ashamed of that...and it made me very wary about what I was feeling for

  you.'

  'Yeah...you told me you liked me-'

  'But the cool-guy act went out the window when you

  disappeared,' Rio broke in feelingly. 'I was tearing my hair out. I was

  desperate. I couldn't work. I couldn't sleep. I was haunting homeless

  shelters...you just have no idea what I went through the first two weeks

  you were missing!' But, gazing up into the over-bright shimmer of those

  speaking dark eyes resting with such loving intensity on her face, she

  did have an idea and she ached for him even as the first stirrings of

  joy began to wing through her.

  'Dio mio...I went to hell and back. I was worried sick. I thought I

  might never find you or Timothy again-'

  'Eventually I would've gone to see a solicitor, but doing that and

  talking about a divorce...it would have been so final and I couldn't

  face it yet,' Holly confided chokily, her voice breaking up on her as

  she realised how near she had come to losing everything she cared about.

  Rio wrapped his arms tightly round her and held her so close that she

  could hardly breathe, but at that instant it was what she needed more

  than anything else. 'I'd have fought a divorce. There's nothing I

  wouldn't have done to get you and Timothy back,' he swore above her

  head. 'I'd have begged you to come home. Don't you realise how happy

  I've been with you? Couldn't you feel that...see it?' And she had felt

  it, seen it so often, she recognised with a shamed stirring of regret.

  He had been so caring, so tender and romantic, but without the words of

  love she had been afraid to simply trust in his behaviour. 'You said you

  liked me...and that bit about getting fond of me,' she reminded him. It

  was so unemotional and it was like you saying that you could never, ever

  fall in love with someone like me.' Rio winced and looked down at her

  with more than a hint of embarrassment. 'I just didn't know what else to

  say to you. It wasn't meant the way you took it. I was very wary of that

  word "love" that soon after breaking up with Christabel--'

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  'And you deliberately misled me about that-'

  'Yes, because I sensed you'd say no otherwise. Didn't you start

  wondering what planet I was from when I asked you to marry me only a few

  days after I had met you?' Rio muttered with rueful self-mockery. 'I

  jumped on the first excuse I got to hang on to you and Timothy. Where is

  he, by the way?
'

  'In bed...you can see him if you want.' Holly looked up at him, her

  heart in her eyes, for she was so happy with what he was telling her

  about his feelings. He wasn't trying to hide anything now. He was

  admitting that he had been confused and acting out of character but

  letting her know that his most driving motivation had been to keep her

  in his life. 'I love you so much.'

  'I love you too, tesoro mio.'

  Holly took him upstairs to see Timothy, who was still awake. His lashes

  lifted on sleepy eyes and he stared at them. Then her son sat up and

  with sudden startling energy tried to claw his way up the side of the

  cot into standing position. What was more, what he had often tried but

  never yet succeeded at, actually worked on this occasion.

  'When did he learn to do that?' Rio demanded.

  "That's the first time he's managed it.'

  Clasping the cot bars, big blue eyes very wide, looking as surprised as

  a baby could be at finding himself fully vertical, Timothy gave them a

  huge grin. But then he made the strategic error of letting go of the top

  bar and he fell back onto his bottom with a howl of disappointment.

  With a husky laugh of amusement, Rio lifted Timothy up into his arms.

  'You were brilliant...Mum and I were really impressed!'

  After that excitement, it took a while to persuade Timothy back into the

  notion of going to sleep but eventually tiredness won the day.

  'Mum and Dad will be home soon,' Holly told Rio at

  the top of the stairs.

  'No, they won't be. They're spending the night in a local

  hotel-'

  Holly blinked in confusion. 'I beg your pardon?'

  'I made my first visit here yesterday afternoon while you were out

  shopping with Timothy,' Rio confided rather tautly. 'Your parents

  invited me in and gave me the third degree. They suggested I visit this

  evening when they would be out, but they were worried that that wouldn't

  give us long enough to talk over our differences-'

  'I don't believe this...Mum and Dad didn't breathe a word to me!' Holly

  gasped.

  'It was spelt out to me that I was going to have a battle persuading you

  to come back to me, so I came up with the

  hotel idea-'

  'Putting them out of their own home?' Holly exclaimed in dismay.

  'They've never stayed in a hotel in their lives!'

  'I know...they told me.' Rio smiled down at her with considerable

  amusement. 'And your mother was thrilled at

  the prospect.'

  'You are so sneaky. You got them on your side-'

  'We're quits. You've got my mother on yours.' Rio

  traded wryly.

  'Like heck I have-'

  'Is this your bedroom? Oh, I love all the flowers and the frills,' Rio

  teased, grasping her hand and tugging her inch by Inch over the

  threshold and closing the door.

  He meshed his fingers slowly into her bronze ringlets, beautiful dark

  golden eyes bright with adoring intensity as he gazed down at her. He

  brought his mouth down with immense tenderness on hers and she trembled.

  Less patient, she pushed forward into the sleek, hard, familiar strength

  of his muscular frame. It felt so good just to be held but

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  even more glorious to know that she was truly loved and to feel the

  unmistakable shudder of response that went through him as she kissed him

  back.

  'You are so beautiful and I love you so much it hurts,' he husked

  against her reddened lips, his breath fanning her cheekbone. 'And every

  time I think that I might never have met you it terrifies the life out

  of me, amore.'

  'I love you too,' she moaned, shamelessly eager to express that love,

  hands sliding beneath his sweater to glide over his hard ribcage, making

  him jerk against her and haul her even closer.

  And then the excitement took over and clothes were shed with breathless

  energy between frantic bouts of kissing. There was a whole extra

  dimension to their loving, for they had spent three utterly miserable

  weeks apart, and being together again felt like a very special gift. In

  the aftermath of the passion, they lay locked together, full of peace

  and contentment.

  Holly struggled to recall what they had been talking about earlier and

  blushed at the ease with which she had forgotten that conversation.

  'What was that you said about your mother being on my side?' she

  whispered curiously.

  'She came up to London because she was upset about the way she'd treated

  you, and that's how I found out that you'd met Christabel,' Rio

  explained lazily, propping himself up on one elbow to gaze down at her.

  'So, when my parent discovered that you'd already walked out on me, all

  I got was a very humiliating lecture about how she wasn't at all

  surprised. How could you tell her that I said I might get fond of you?'

  Helpless amusement filtered through Holly, for she was now remembering

  that Alice Lombardi had said that the only explanation for her son's

  behaviour was that he had fallen madly in love with her. 'Serves you right.'

  Rio dealt her a rueful scrutiny. 'I never did apologise for letting you

  go down to the Priory alone. It's just that my mother does rather

  dramatise events, bella mia-'

  'You told her nothing about me-'

  'I told her everything in London. She had the smelling salts out, but

  you now stand high in her estimation as the female who rescued me from a

  scarlet woman and saved the family name from scandal,' he told her with

  a wicked grin. 'When she heard you'd been taking Italian lessons she was

  even more convinced I didn't deserve you-'

  'How did you find out about them?' Holly gasped and then she groaned.

  'Oh, no, I forgot to cancel them!'

  'Relax. Your teacher phoned and I used the same excuse with her that I

  used for our nanny's benefit. Family emergency. I couldn't tell anyone

  that you might not be returning because I couldn't face that

  possibility,' Rio confided.

  'If you'd told me the truth about your broken engagement it would never

  have happened...'

  His darkly handsome features tensed. 'I didn't want you thinking less of

  me,' he muttered tautly.

  'Think less of you? How?'

  Dark colour now scored his superb cheekbones. 'I just thought you'd

  think less of me if you knew the truth. My fiancée turning to another

  woman... It may sound stupid to you, but I was afraid it might take the

  stars out of your eyes when you looked at me,' he finally completed in a

  distinct tone of embarrassment.

  'And you liked the stars?'

  Rio nodded in serious and steady confirmation.

  'I still have the stars.' Holly linked her arms round him and loved him

  more than she had ever loved him for admitting that to her. So there he

  was, totally gorgeous and sexy and everything she had ever dreamt of,

  and yet he could suffer from insecurity too.

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  'I'm crazy about you, tesoro mio. You be sure to tell me if you ever

  find those stars blinking out.'

  'You'll have to spoil me rotten...'

  'No problem. Spoiling you usually means spoiling me too.' Rio gav
e her

  his husky, sexy laugh and eased her back into more intimate connection

  with him again.

  Holly was entirely hooked on the message of loving intent in his

  possessive gaze. Just as well he didn't know how many stars there

  were...enough to last two lifetimes, she thought happily. And then he

  kissed her and the stars turned into fireworks again and she thought no

  more.

  Eighteen months later, Holly glanced into the nursery at the town house

  to see Alice Lombardi literally swamped with young children. Seated

  between the twins' cots with Timothy on her knee, her mother-in-law was

  reading a story out loud.

  Timothy was almost two and a half years old and, only the day before,

  Holly and Rio's dearest wish had come true. Jeff had not contested their

  application and the court had granted the adoption order. Alice had

  flown over from Florence simply to attend the hearing. Rio was now

  officially Timothy's adoptive father and Timothy had the same right to

  the Lombardi name as his baby sisters, Amalia and Battista. They had all

  celebrated with a special dinner the night before.