Riley didn’t understand the situation. No thanks to Callie, he’d made it his business. That was too bad since the last thing she intended to do was satisfy his curiosity.
“You ought to know if anyone does,” she said under her breath, but he heard her.
“You mean about moving on? You’re right. I’ve done a lot of that in my time.”
“I know. You were the topic of conversation on the set when it was rumored Don Juan was going to be doubling for Cory. In your honor someone coined the phrase, ‘Lover today, gone tomorrow.’ What’s funny is, the women still keep coming back for more, don’t they.”
“Just like Colin. How many months did you string him along? A dozen maybe?”
“At least it lasted longer than your track record of…what is it? Twenty-four hours before you’re off and running with a pathetic new hopeful?”
Ignoring her barb he said, “At least my conscience is clear knowing I don’t work them over for a year at a time like you did with Colin. It’ll probably take another twelve months out of his life just to undo the damage.”
“Thank you for the compliment.”
His white smile devastated her. “You’re welcome. So who’s the new man?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Your next victim. The one you wanted so desperately, you discarded poor, pathetic Colin whom you used shamelessly I might add.”
Her body tautened. “Give me twenty-four hours. By then I’ll have come up with a name,” she mocked.
His hand whipped out to grasp her arm. With one simple tug she fell on his chest. “You’ve got all of them down to the last second. I don’t have to be anywhere else until Monday morning.”
The wicked glint in his eye caused her heart to turn over. “No, Riley—I didn’t mea—”
“Hush,” he whispered against her lips. “Don’t lie to me now and spoil it. We’ve both been waiting for this moment since that day on the set. Let’s see how long it takes us to kiss each other out of our systems, shall we?”
His hands cupped her face, then his mouth covered hers. He made it impossible for her to escape his all-out invasion of her senses. Cocooned against his rock-hard frame, the pleasure was exquisite. Almost beyond bearing.
He rolled over on her to deepen their kiss. She moaned in ecstasy and clung to him, unable to stop what was happening.
Once Callie had told her that kissing Nicco was like being consumed by fire. He brought her rapture to die for.
Ann hadn’t been able to relate to her sister’s experience. In fact she feared she would never know the kind of mindless passion that swept you away, body and soul.
That was because she hadn’t met Riley Garrow yet.
Tonight he made her feel as if she’d come alive for the first time. The last twenty-eight years had been nothing more than a prelude.
His mouth was doing incredible things to her. “Riley—” she gasped feverishly.
“I know.” He groaned. “I feel the same way you do,” he read her mind. “Twenty-four hours isn’t going to do it for either of us. The only solution is to get married.”
Her green eyes flew open in shock. “Married—”
“It’s a foreign concept to me, too.”
The comment tore her to shreds. She took a shuddering breath. “I don’t want to marry you.”
His silvery gaze seemed to probe the deepest recesses of her being, sending a voluptuous shiver through her body.
“I don’t want to marry you, either, but it’s the only way I’ll go to bed with a woman like you. Since it’s what we’re both dying for, we have no other choice.”
Her face went a scorched red. She tried to wiggle out from under him, to no avail. “I didn’t fall asleep next to the baby as some sort of invitation!”
He made what sounded like a purr deep in his throat. “The invitation I’m talking about happened a long time ago, when we first looked into each other’s eyes.
“Uh-uh-uh—” He silenced her mouth with another soul-destroying kiss. “Don’t insult my intelligence by denying it. Once we’re married the fire will burn itself out. It always does. Ask my father whose passion drove him to marry on three separate occasions. One by one they disappeared when the excitement was over.”
“Riley—” she cried in pain because his mother had abandoned him, but he kept on talking.
“At the point where you and I would rather do anything else than go to bed with each other, then we’ll be able to look at our situation rationally. You can divorce me. I’ll give you all my worldly goods and we’ll part company with no bad feelings.”
“That’s horrible!”
The beautiful, cynical man holding her in his arms terrified her. At the same time she wept for the child inside of him who must have gone through so much trauma growing up.
He gave an elegant shrug of his broad shoulders. “It’s better than living in sin, so Sister Francesca tells me.”
Ann stared up at him, heartsick over his admissions. “Who’s Sister Francesca?”
His gray eyes softened like the early morning mist on the ocean. “She took care of me in the hospital. Afraid I was in danger of losing my immortal soul, she admonished me to settle down with the next woman who took my fancy. She said it was the only way for me to be redeemed.
“I thought about what she said.” Riley’s sensual mouth lifted at one corner. “Little did I know the heartless Ms. Annabelle Lassiter with her impressive collection of male scalps, would be the first woman I’d meet after leaving Sister Francesca’s presence.”
Suddenly lines marred his striking features. “You and I both know you took a lot more than my fancy that day. You owe me,” he whispered savagely before kissing her long and hard.
He was insane.
Yet her desire for him drove away every instinct for self-preservation. It seemed she was the one insane with needs he’d brought to life.
“Think before you say yes or no,” he whispered in her hair where he’d buried his face. “Depending on your answer, I’m out of here.”
Out of here?
His threat filled her with consternation. She moaned in confusion and tried to get up, but he held her down.
“Riley—I don’t understand—”
His eyes had darkened to pewter. “You’re an intelligent woman. You figure it out.”
If he meant what she thought he meant…
Aghast, her hands gripped his shoulders. “Y-you can’t leave Italy now—not after Nicco’s hired you to ride for the team!”
“Nothing’s in writing yet.”
She was starting to be afraid. “He invited you to his home! He’s treated you like—like family!”
“And I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. Just remember he has a great head for business which is why he’ll take it in his stride when I tell him personal reasons have forced me to look elsewhere for work. Being the remarkable man he is, he’ll understand.”
Ann shook her head in fear. “You wouldn’t do that!”
He kissed both sides of her mouth, driving her crazy with desire. “In the last year I’ve been approached by two major companies. All I have to do is make a phone call.”
Angry tears filled her eyes. “After everything Nicco has done for you, you would actually ride for the competition?”
“A man has to make his living somehow.” His grimace convinced her he was serious.
Riley might be a fabulous cyclist, but after what Callie had confided in the car, there were hidden factors having to do with Riley’s father that had prompted Nicco to go out of his way for him.
If Riley turned him down now to represent a rival company, it would be like throwing everything back in Nicco’s face. She couldn’t bear for her brother-in-law to be hurt like that.
Ann had watched the two of them interact at dinner. They were like old friends who were comfortable with each other and enjoyed the same things.
For two men who’d come from such different backgrounds and circumstances, they w
ere so much alike, it was uncanny.
In her opinion one of the worst things in the world was to be disappointed in someone. Nicco had been so wonderful to her. In all honesty it made her ill to contemplate his being disillusioned about a man he genuinely admired.
How dare Riley put her in this position. “This is blackmail!”
“Call it whatever you wish,” he said in an offhand manner.
Her hands balled into fists. “If I were foolish enough to marry you, where would we live?”
“Right here,” he said in a smooth tone.
“On the barge?” Her voice came out more like a squeak.
“That’s right. It’s my home now.”
She found the strength to push away from him and sit up. “Nicco gave you his favorite possession in the whole world?”
“Let’s just say he made an offer I found too attractive to pass up. So I’ve arranged to rent it from him for an indefinite period.”
For Nicco to trust Riley to this degree meant his feelings ran even deeper than Ann had realized.
New fears attacked her body.
“Don’t you mean until you’re killed in one of your death-defying maneuvers on the track?”
Deep laughter rumbled out of him. “If we haven’t divorced by then, a fatal crash will save us the trouble. In the meantime we’re looking at as much loving as we can fit in. When I’m not at work, I’m all yours, sweetheart.”
“I’m not your sweetheart.”
She rolled away from him and stood up. The barge might be roped to the pier but she was so shaken, she felt like they were in a hurricane.
A tension-filled silence permeated the bedroom.
“Does that mean the answer is no?” He lay there like a sleek black panther watching his prey through feral eyes before he pounced. Her heart leaped in her chest.
“Do you have to have it right this second?” she cried.
“If you’d been the one lying helpless in a hospital bed for two months, you’d understand my impatience to get on with the business of living.”
Ever since he’d told them about his accident, Ann had been trying not to imagine what that awful period of pain and skin grafts must have been like for him.
In a lightning move he got to his feet and reached for his keys on the dresser. “I’ll take you back to the palace. Let’s go.”
Her heart thudded with every step as she followed him out of the bedroom and through the cabin to the front of the barge.
He put the plank in place so she could reach the riverbank without getting wet. But when she would have started across, he picked her up in a fireman’s lift and carried her to his car as if she were weightless.
After lowering her into the passenger seat, he kissed the nerve throbbing out of control at the base of her throat. Damn him for knowing where and how to touch her so all she wanted was him!
Once he’d climbed in behind the wheel and started the car, he didn’t look at her again. When they reached street level she could see that the sun had come up over the horizon. Another beautiful fall day had dawned, but she was too full of apprehension to enjoy it.
Riley on the other hand appeared totally relaxed. He drove as if their vehicle was part of him, yet she sensed a certain determination about the set of his body that unnerved her. The closer they drew to the preserve without his saying anything, the more anxious she grew.
If she didn’t agree to marry him, would he really renege on his plans to become part of the Danelli racing team?
Sooner than she would have liked, they’d pulled up to the west wing entrance of the palace. To her horror, he got out of the car at the same time she did.
She swung around in alarm. “Where are you going?”
“Inside. Last night your sister invited me for breakfast since there were no groceries on board. This will be the perfect time to tell Nicco about my decision to sign up with a different company.”
So saying, he walked up the steps ahead of her and entered the palace as if he lived there.
Ann scrambled after him, terrified for what he was about to do. Those long swift strides of his had her running to keep him in her sights. Because he’d been here to dinner, he knew where to go.
If the fates weren’t against her, Callie and Nicco might have decided to sleep in this morning. She prayed they weren’t up yet.
He disappeared through the tall French doors to the dining room. “Oh, good, Riley. You’re here!” she heard her sister cry with real pleasure.
“You’re just in time for my wife’s hot apple fritters,” Nicco chimed in. “While we eat, we can go over the stats from the latest race at Assen in the Netherlands. Where’s Ann by the way?”
Ann burst into the room with so much momentum, the door swung against the stopper. The noise reverberated in every direction causing the dogs to moan.
Her family looked over at her in stunned surprise.
“I—I’m sorry,” her voice faltered. “I didn’t mean for that to happen.”
Nicco grinned. “You must be hungry this morning. Come and sit down.”
Riley didn’t budge. “Callie? Forgive me, but I wonder if I could talk to your husband in private for a few minutes.”
Silence fell over the room.
“Of course.” She got up from the chair. “I’ll go in the kitchen and make some more fritters. Come on, Ann. You can help me.”
“No—”
Both Callie and Nicco eyed her as if they’d never seen her before. Riley’s back was still toward her. If she didn’t stop him right now, he was going to hurt the two people Ann cared about most in the world.
“Sorry,” she said again. “Nothing’s coming out right. Riley has this outdated notion that he should go to a male relative to ask for…my hand.” Immediately Callie’s expression changed to one of joy. “Since dad’s not alive, he insists on talking to you, Nicco.”
Her brother-in-law studied both of them for a long moment.
“You have every right to think what you’re thinking,” Riley said in a solemn tone, “but I respect Ann too much to anticipate our vows. The truth is, I waited for Ann to wake up so I could drive her home. To my surprise she didn’t come back to the land of the living until seven this morning. Since then we’ve been talking about our feelings.”
Ann’s eyes closed tightly. They’d communicated all right. She felt like she’d been drugged by his touch.
“If it hadn’t been for my accident, we would have gotten together much sooner.”
If only it were the truth, Riley.
“I did a lot of thinking in that hospital. Before I could do anything about Ann, I realized I needed to get on with my career plans first so I’d have something concrete to offer her.”
His lies were as outrageous as hers. They held her family spellbound.
“Finding her living beneath your roof came as a miraculous shock. I decided fate had placed her in my path a second time for a reason. We’re planning to be married as soon as possible. It would be lovely to have your blessing.”
Nicco cocked his head. “Since I kidnapped my bride and held her captive for a month while I courted her, I would be the last person to question your decision.”
He turned to Callie and reached for her hand which he kissed. “What do you think your father would say, darling?”
“Dad didn’t think any man was good enough for his girls. Of course he hadn’t met you or Riley.”
She got out of the chair. After kissing her husband on the lips, she walked around the table. “Welcome to the family, Riley. I couldn’t be happier.” She gave him a big hug.
“Amen to that.” Nicco stood up and shook his hand. Ann could tell he was secretly pleased. “If you’re in need of a priest, Father Luigi is available. He married my brother Enzo.”
“That would be perfect!” Callie kept her arms around both men. “He and Maria will want to stand as witnesses. So will your parents. We’ll need about a week to organize.”
Riley turned to Ann who’d
been watching the three of them from a distance. He really was the most attractive man in existence. She would never get her fill of looking at him and he knew it!
Remember the marriage will only be temporary.
As Riley had said, when they reached a point where they’d rather do anything else than go to bed with each other, then it was all over. She wondered how long it would take before his desire for her waned. Probably not much more than twenty-four hours.
“I want what you want, sweetheart. Shall we set the date for next Saturday?”
Riley had said the one thing to convince Nicco he was dead serious about their forthcoming marriage. For someone who didn’t love Ann and would make her a widow long before there was an opportunity to become a mother, Riley was carrying things too far.
His silver eyes pierced hers like lasers, daring her to say no.
Haunted by that unbelievable reality, she forced herself to nod. “Does that give you enough time to include someone you’d like to be there?”
She’d asked the question because her family was listening. They expected her to behave like an excited bride-to-be in the planning stages.
“Yes.”
Ann’s heart started to hammer. She wanted to ask if it was his mother, but she didn’t dare.
It really was going to happen. She was going to become his wife!
CHAPTER SIX
THE next week passed in a blur of preparations orchestrated by Callie who was crazy about Riley. Ann had no desire to buy any new clothes, but her sister insisted she do some shopping to augment her wardrobe. They found her wedding dress on Wednesday.
“I can tell you one thing, Annabelle Lassiter. You’re not going to be married in jeans and an old top the way I was!” Her sister was emphatic about that. “This white chiffon is dreamy and looks like it was made for you.”
Ann liked it well enough. The last thing she wanted was a traditional bridal gown with a train. Riley would find it mockable.
The normal length chiffon with the high neck and long sleeves would do fine. Handing the saleswoman her credit card, she said she’d take it.
“I think a garland of orange blossoms would be perfect for your hair.”
Rush to the Altar Page 8
