by Lynne Graham
Fierce protectiveness slivered through Ellie as she looked back at him, all the love she had for him enveloping her. ‘I love you no matter what you came from. I love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone or anything and I like Rio as a name. And only now understanding why it was so important for you to give our child a safer, happier start in life…well, it only makes me love you even more!’
Rio was transfixed. He had been prepared for Ellie to flinch and be repulsed by the sleazy facts of his birth and ancestry and then pretend that they didn’t matter even when it was obvious that they did. He certainly hadn’t expected her to tell him that she loved him without reservation.
‘Don’t you realise,’ she murmured gruffly, her throat thickening, so great was her emotion, ‘that you should be proud of what you’ve achieved from such a tough beginning in life? It genuinely makes me feel incredibly proud of you.’
Rio studied her, lustrous dark golden eyes with a suspicious shine, lean, darkly handsome face clenched hard. ‘You mean…all that?’
Ellie rose from her seat, empowered by his stillness, his uncharacteristic uncertainty. Never had she loved him more or understood him better. Franca and her family had taught him to be ashamed of his birth and background and she marvelled at their unwitting cruelty over something that he could not have influenced as she crossed the room and wrapped both arms tightly round him.
‘Hug time?’ Rio interpreted shakily, hoping she didn’t catch the break in his voice, because in his whole life he had never known such a relief as the moment when Ellie told him that she loved him no matter what. It was the unconditional love he had sought without ever knowing it and suddenly he didn’t feel alone and pitched against the world any longer.
‘Hug time,’ Ellie confirmed unevenly, winding round him like a vine. ‘I’m really sorry I misunderstood what I saw with you and Franca. I sort of went haywire. I knew she was your first love and I thought maybe—’
‘No.’ Rio shuddered at the thought. ‘She’s happily married to a radiographer at the hospital and has two other children. But she developed a guilt complex about me when she finally got into rehab and started to rebuild her life. She says part of the recovery therapy was the need to mend fences with those she had wronged while she was still drinking but she could never face getting in touch with me after what she had done.’
‘So, when she met you again—’
‘It all came spilling out.’ Rio sighed heavily. ‘And I had to listen. It would have been cruel to tell her that it was very old history for me and that I no longer cared. I kept on saying that we had both made mistakes and weren’t suited in any case but she kept on and on and on talking and crying—’
‘I’m glad I didn’t interrupt. Listening was the right thing to do. That was kind because I’m sure you were very uncomfortable and if I could’ve seen your face, I would’ve known that, but I could only see her face. When did you become that sensitive without me noticing?’ Ellie asked in honest surprise.
‘Oh, that probably happened when I realised I was in love with you. I then decided that I wanted to be the perfect husband—’
‘You are…but I’m a very imperfect, distrustful wife,’ Ellie mumbled in shame, burying her hot face in his shoulder, drinking in the familiar scent of him with an enormous sense of relief combined with sheer wonderment. He loved her? Her gorgeous, passion-filled, outrageously exciting husband loved her? He didn’t find her too boring or sensible? Jealous and possessive? She was ecstatic with wondering happiness. ‘So what happened with your mother when you did meet her?’
‘There was a piece in the newspaper about me being found when I was abandoned and she always knew where I was. When I began to make money she looked me up,’ he confided grimly. ‘And that’s all she wanted… Money. She told me a lot of lies. I found out that although she had weaned herself off her own addiction, she made a living by dealing drugs to others. I had nothing more to do with her—’
‘That must have hurt.’ Ellie sighed in sympathy.
‘It is what it is. Getting off drugs didn’t magically turn her into a nice or caring woman.’ Rio shrugged. ‘As to my potential father? I was an accident. Probably one of her customers. She had no idea.’
‘It really doesn’t matter to me,’ Ellie emphasised. ‘I wasn’t only saying that. What matters to me is the man you are now and I love him. I even love you a little more for being kind to Franca, which you must’ve found trying.’
Rio tilted up her face, dark golden eyes adoring. ‘There could never be another woman for me, Ellie. I’ve never loved like this. I didn’t know I even could love like this but you’re everything I ever wanted in a woman…even if I didn’t realise that until I met you the second time.’
‘We just fought,’ Ellie groaned.
‘And I got more of a kick out of fighting with you than I got out of any affair I’ve ever had,’ Rio confessed. ‘But the hunger for you was overwhelming… I couldn’t fight that—’
Ellie lifted warm eyes to his lean, strong face, glorying in his scorching appraisal. ‘I couldn’t either. I always keep my feet firmly on the ground and then I met you and everything, including me, went crazy—’
‘But we’ve had so much enjoyment out of each other,’ Rio commented with appreciation. ‘On levels I didn’t even know there could be between a man and a woman. Before you, it was all about sex for me—’
‘Oh, I know that.’ Ellie flushed. ‘In Dharia—’
Rio winced. ‘I was a jerk…but I had never wanted any woman the way I wanted you that night and I was on a high and then it all went pear-shaped, thanks to the twins—’
‘Perhaps we both needed another couple of years to be ready for something more serious,’ Ellie suggested forgivingly.
‘Dio mio, I love you!’ Rio swore passionately in receipt of the face-saving, utterly unearned excuse she was giving him and appreciating her generosity. He gathered her into his arms and almost squeezed her with his enthusiasm into suffocation. ‘Really, really love you and I can’t wait for the baby now that I know for sure that I have you by my side…’
‘Well, when you ordered that giant train set in Venice and told me there was no reason why a little girl shouldn’t enjoy it as much as a little boy I kind of guessed that our baby would be welcomed,’ Ellie confided as he smoothly edged her down onto the bed. ‘Nap time for pregnant Ellie, is it?’
‘No. No rest for the imperfect wife,’ Rio teased with a charismatic slashing grin as he looked down at her flushed, smiling face. ‘Adriano was so relieved when you and then I showed up. He hates the house being empty because he has nothing to do and he’s been fretting about Beppe. He’s making dinner for seven, which gives us a few hours to fill—’
Ellie’s eyes widened at that implication. ‘You mean, you were so sure of yourself when you arrived here that you just went ahead and ordered dinner?’ she exclaimed in disbelief.
‘I wasn’t prepared to leave here without you and if you refused to leave I had a case out in the car to enable me to stay here with you,’ Rio explained without hesitation. ‘When I want something, principessa… I don’t quit and I don’t surrender and I do believe that I would fight to the death to keep you in my life.’
‘At heart you’re a romantic,’ Ellie told him with satisfaction and approval. ‘When I came here, I was fighting for you too—’
Rio interrupted her in Italian to tell her argumentatively that walking out of their marital home had been a dreadful, shocking action to take.
Ellie refused to apologise. ‘I was trying to make a statement, draw a line for you. Maybe it was a little extreme but I was hurting so badly—’
‘I don’t need a damn line, woman… I’ve got you in the flesh!’ Rio told her aggressively. ‘And it was not only extreme but also forbidden. You are not allowed to walk out on me ever again in this lifetime!’
‘Is that a fact?’
‘Sì… You’re my wife, the centre of my world, my everything. You don’t walk out. You sta
y and shout.’
Ellie breathed in deep, helplessly touched by that instruction. ‘I’ll shout the next time,’ she promised.
‘There won’t be a next time!’ Rio spelled out feelingly. ‘Promise me—’
‘Sì… I can promise that,’ Ellie whispered, running adoring fingers through his cropped black hair and down one proud cheekbone to rest against his wilful lower lip. ‘You’re mine. I’m never going to walk away from you again.’
‘Or drive off in my sports car,’ Rio instructed. ‘It’s far too fast and powerful on these roads when you’re not used to it.’
‘I liked it—’
‘No. I want you safe, bella mia.’
And before Ellie could demand that she had the right to influence what he drove in the interests of his safety, Rio kissed her with all the passion of his relief, love and desire for her and her impressionable toes curled. Take that, sensible Dr Ellie, she thought in wonderment that he truly was hers after all her anxiety and distrust, and then a thought occurred and she wrenched her mouth free…
‘You never apologised for calling me a gold-digger!’ she reminded him hotly.
‘Of course I didn’t.’ Rio slowly shook his handsome dark head in apparent amazement at that reminder. ‘That would have been owning up to flawed judgement or stupidity and it would’ve made you think less of me, so I decided to tough it out because I was trying to win you over to wanting to keep me by that stage.’
‘Nothing would make me think less of you, you stupid man,’ Ellie mumbled before she locked her lips to his again, his instant forgiveness procured, and there was no further conversation or indeed argument for quite some time. The excitement of their reconciliation powered the passion and the promises with buoyant happiness and fresh appreciation of the love they had found where they least expected it.
EPILOGUE
POLLY GROANED. ‘I’M OUT of my depth here. What do we do about this situation?’
Ellie groaned too. ‘Mind our own business for now. If the sister we haven’t even met has a thoroughly wicked and dishonest father, it’s not our place to tell her so. Lucy doesn’t know us or trust us yet. She’s found her dad and, at the very least, probably thinks very highly of him and, at worst, really loves him because he’s been kind to her—’
‘But what if he’s just using her for some reason?’ Polly proclaimed emotively. ‘Doesn’t she deserve to know he went to prison for fraud?’
‘We need to establish a relationship with her as sisters first,’ Ellie opined, crossing the terrace of her Italian home to prevent her fiery little daughter from striking the younger prince of Dharia, tall, sturdy Hassan, aged two, for taking one of her dolls and wheeling his toy tractor over the top of it with little-boy glee.
Across the terrace, his older brother, Karim, the crown prince of Dharia, shouted at his little brother in Arabic.
‘He’s telling him off,’ Polly translated. ‘He’s so like Rashad, very well behaved.’
‘That’s never going to be my problem with Teresina,’ Ellie whispered. ‘She’s always ready to fight for what she wants. It’s a continual battle.’
‘Well, you mix two pretty opinionated people like you and Rio and that’s what you get,’ Polly pointed out cheerfully. ‘She’s gorgeous with that hair though.’
Ellie smiled at her daughter, who was two years old now. Born of parents who both had curly hair, Teresina had miraculously straight shoulder-length black hair and eyes that were a lighter green than her mother’s. She was small and slight in build and had learned to walk at nine months old. She was lively and quick-tempered and the greatest joy in Ellie’s world, for she had never realised just how much she would love her child.
In the three years that Ellie had been married, her whole life had changed and she had not a single regret. She spoke fluent Italian and had secured her dream job in the hospital where Beppe had been treated and where she was now continuing her training as a doctor specialising in children’s ailments. Beppe had made an excellent recovery and had, under considerable protest, begun walking to take exercise. She had grown very close to her father and was profoundly grateful to have found him in time to get to know him.
They had finally contrived to trace their long-lost sister to Greece, where she was living with her birth father, who appeared to be a most unsavoury man. But Ellie was convinced that considerable tact had to be utilised where their unknown sister was concerned and Polly and Ellie had yet to work out how to best approach Lucy without frightening her off. Ellie was in favour of sending the ruby ring with a letter introducing themselves and inviting contact. How that would go down was anyone’s guess but at least it couldn’t be seen as threatening or interfering.
Ellie had grown no keener on shopping in recent years, because if she wasn’t at work she was exulting in precious family time and certainly didn’t want to waste that time shopping and preening. Ellie had always dressed for comfort and she was still doing it. For that reason, Polly was still buying her clothes and now Rio was doing it too and her wardrobe was bursting at the seams with designer garments she only wore at the occasional swanky event Rio attended. On the jewellery front, however, her collection could almost have rivalled the jewellery of Dharia’s royal family. Rio never went anywhere and came back without gifts for her and Teresina, and soon he would have a third little person to buy for, Ellie thought with quiet contentment. And she had finally told her sister the story of their grandmother’s diamond brooch and Polly had simply laughed and dismissed the matter without concern, more worried that Ellie had had to deal with their uncle’s spite without support.
The sound of a car coming down the drive sent Ellie leaping upright.
‘I’ll watch the kids,’ Polly proffered. ‘Go on…greet him and make his day! Rio’s so romantic.’
Rashad climbed out of the passenger seat. The friendship he and Rio had formed while at university had only deepened when the men married sisters who liked to see each other regularly.
Rio’s sizzling smile broke out as Ellie threw herself at him and wrapped her arms round his neck as if she hadn’t seen him in a week. He was a little disconcerted because he had only left her early that morning and she wasn’t usually given to any public displays of affection.
‘You missed me?’ he whispered, wondering if something was worrying her.
‘A little. I’ve got news,’ Ellie murmured soft and low. ‘Let’s go upstairs.’
‘Is this about your sister Lucy?’
‘No, nothing new there. Polly still wants to jump in the royal jet and land on Lucy’s doorstep and explode into her life,’ Ellie told him ruefully. ‘But I think she’s beginning to come round to a more diplomatic approach.’
As Rashad, the king of Dharia, strolled past them to join his wife and two sons Ellie gripped Rio’s hand and practically dragged him up to their bedroom.
‘You’re beginning to worry me,’ Rio confided, shooting a glance at Ellie’s glowing face and registering that whatever had happened, it couldn’t be anything bad.
‘We’re pregnant again!’ Ellie announced with delight.
Rio blinked and nodded very slowly. ‘I wasn’t aware we were even trying…’
‘I didn’t want to put pressure on you so I didn’t mention that I wasn’t taking anything,’ Ellie revealed cheerfully.
Rio almost laughed out loud. Put pressure on him? Nothing could keep him away from Ellie. He adored her. But he still compressed his lips and said, ‘It might have been nice to be asked…to have discussed this as a couple,’ he remarked, rather woodenly because he still wanted to laugh.
Ellie’s face fell as if he’d slapped it. ‘I didn’t think of that. I know how much you love having Teresina and I want to have my family while I’m still young and I would like them close together in age.’ She chewed uncomfortably at her lower lip. ‘I suppose I should’ve said something—’
Rio grinned. ‘I was only joking. I’m delighted,’ he assured her with heartfelt enthusiasm. ‘The more t
he merrier—’
‘Polly’s pregnant again too. She’s very keen to have a daughter,’ she confided. ‘I’ll tell her about me over dinner, so don’t go breaking my news ahead of me like you did the last time with that phone call.’
Rio linked his arms round her slim waist. ‘It’s my news too, principessa. I did figure in the conception.’
Ellie beamed up at him approvingly. ‘Yes, you’re wonderfully fertile—’
‘Good to know I’m useful for something—’
‘And spectacularly good at the action part,’ Ellie whispered lovingly, hands running below his jacket to skate possessively over his hard muscled chest and then lowering in a much more intimate caress.
Rio shed his jacket and his shirt in record time. ‘I won’t sulk about not being consulted on the extending-the-family issue,’ he admitted huskily. ‘I know Dr Ellie was in the driving seat worrying that I might suffer from performance anxiety in bed for the first time in my life. In short, I’m perfectly happy to be used and useful.’
‘I know you are,’ Ellie told him cheerfully, shimmying out of her dress even faster, her eyes full of love and appreciation as she fasted her gaze on his lean, bronzed body, the passion that always simmered below the surface of their marriage gripping both of them with its scorching intensity. ‘Did I ever tell you how much I love you?’
‘Not since last night.’ Rio studied his wife with wondering admiration and marvelled that he had found her, that she had married him, learned to love him and overlooked his every flaw. Loving Ellie had brought him untold riches in the happiness stakes and he would never ever take it for granted because he had lived too long without that security. ‘But if you want to be competitive, you couldn’t possibly love me as much as I love you…’
