VITTORIO'S RUNAWAY BRIDE

by Kimberley Reeves

  It was too much for Logan; watching Shelby’s breasts jut up as her back arched, seeing the dazed look on her face as the climax hit its peak and then the helpless whimpers as it began to subside. It fueled the burning need in his own body, a need that could only be satisfied by burying himself in her feminine warmth. He maneuvered himself over her, thrusting hard and deep, clenching his teeth against the incredible tightness as her muscles clamped around him and sent a violent shudder coursing through him. He’d never known such triumph, such glory in claiming a woman before, but he hadn’t expected her to be a virgin and he was elated to know he was her first, her only.

  “Mio Dio,” he muttered, lifting his hips and surging into her once more. If he’d thought the first penetrating thrust had been exquisitely pleasurable, the second one was equally so, and for a moment he was unable to move as Shelby’s internal heat mounted, wrapping itself around his throbbing flesh in a torturous form of ecstasy. Her slender fingers dug into his shoulders when he finally drew back then slowly impaled her, repeating the motion over and over until she was writhing beneath him, her eyes raw with hunger.

  “I want it all,” she whispered hoarsely. “Give me what I want, what I need. Everything, Logan, everything.”

  Logan groaned as his mouth crushed down on hers, greedily taking the love she offered and exalted by the rush of emotion that filled his heart as he gave it back. Shelby’s words had unleashed something primal inside him, something he’d kept carefully guarded since the first time his heart had been bruised by a woman and he’d understood the vulnerability of setting it free. But he let loose of it now, making love to her with a fierceness that should have frightened them both. Logan gave Shelby everything; his body, his heart, his soul, and with that final devastating explosion of sensations he also gave her the power to hurt him.

  ***

  “Are you sure you want to do this, Logan? She walked out without an explanation and divorced you, and if what you suspect is true then she has also been unfaithful.”

  Logan didn’t even spare a glance for his brother. “I am doing this, Simon, with or without the family’s support.” He snapped the suitcase shut and set it beside the bed. “And if you must know, we are not divorced.”

  “What? But you said her attorney sent you the papers to sign months ago.”

  Logan picked up the suitcase, grabbed his garment bag and headed downstairs with Simon following on his heels. “I did not sign them. As part of the divorce decree, Shelby was to give up all property purchased during our marriage and she has not done that yet.”

  “You must be joking,” Simon replied in obvious disbelief. “Have you really become so bitter and vindictive that you would take her car? She left everything else behind; her clothes, her jewelry, even the bank account you had set up for her. Why would you begrudge her a car you have no need for?”

  Logan stopped in the foyer and faced his brother. “It was the only way I could stop the divorce from going through.”

  “What about her affair with another man, how will you be able to move past that?”

  “There is no proof of an affair,” Logan said with a challenging lift of his chin. “Grady has had someone watching her house for a week now and there has not been one visitor.”

  Simon ignored the warning look Logan shot him. “It has been six months, perhaps they are no longer together. A woman who professes to love you then leaves without…” He stopped abruptly, shaking his head.

  “So big brother, you are thinking about your own wife and the misunderstandings that almost separated you for good?”

  “I guess you are right,” Simon conceded. “If you truly love her then you must find a way to make it work.”

  “Shelby is my heart,” Logan said, but there was no life in his voice.

  He turned and left his brother standing there, too concerned with what lay ahead of him to even notice the worried frown on Simon’s face. Grady made the trip with him but didn’t offer his opinion on whether Logan was doing the right thing or not. Logan had been careful not to expose his emotions whenever he was around his family; it was bad enough that they knew he was hurting without giving them proof positive he was being torn apart by Shelby’s desertion. But Grady had been there for him, a staunch friend, not judging or asking any questions during those first few weeks when Logan had been barely functional.

  “I left the name of the hotel and my room number in the glove box,” Grady said after they’d driven in relative silence for over two hours. “Of course you can always reach me on the cell phone, but I thought I’d stick around for a few days and soak up some sun.”

  “I thought you were driving back with…who did you say is watching Shelby’s house?”

  “Mason. And yes, I am going to drive back with him, but not until Sunday.”

  Logan didn’t take his eyes off the road. “You think she is going to refuse to come home and I will…not handle it well.”

  “I want to be here if you need a friend, that’s true, but it’s not because I’m convinced you’ll fail with Shelby. I’ve known you a long time, Logan, and I’ve never seen you lose when you went after something you really wanted.”

  “But we are not talking about what I want, are we? What I want will not matter if Shelby does not want it too.”

  “That’s just it. I think Shelby does want to be with you. I also think she loves you and that she never stopped.”

  Something deep in Logan’s gut wrenched. If only he could believe that. “Then why did she leave?”

  “That, my friend, is what I believe is the real issue. If you can figure that out, I think you’ll have a fighting chance of saving your marriage.”

  “So you do not believe she left because she did not love me or because of another man?”

  “No, I don’t,” Grady said firmly. “I’ve never seen any woman look at a man the way Shelby looks at you, as if the sun rises and falls on that pretty face of yours. And just for the record, I’d bet my life she hasn’t been unfaithful, it’s not in her nature.”

  Logan arched a brow. “And just what would you know about my wife’s nature?”

  Grady chuckled. “Spoken like the jealous husband you are. We’re almost there so if there’s any other words of advice you need, better ask me now.”

  “Much as I hate to admit it, talking about it has helped.”

  Twenty minutes later, having dropped Grady off at the hotel, Logan was on his way to Shelby’s house. It couldn’t have been more than ten miles up the road, but even that short of a drive seemed to take an eternity. He wasn’t sure what he was going to say once he got there, he only knew he wasn’t going to leave without her.

  ***

  She’d fantasized about Logan driving up to her house so many times that Shelby didn’t think anything of it when his black Aston Martin pulled into the driveway and came to a stop. It didn’t even start to register that she wasn’t imagining the door opening and Logan stepping out until he glanced up and saw her standing on the deck. Even then she might not have believed her own eyes if he hadn’t looked so different.

  He’d lost weight and the formidable air that made Logan seem so intimidating to others was missing. His gait, which had always been purposeful and confident, faltered after the first few steps as if he wasn’t quite sure of where he was going. But it was the stony expression he wore that concerned her the most because the Logan Vittorio she knew had never been able to look at her without showing some sort of emotion. Even on those few occasions when they’d had a disagreement, he’d never turned that hardened look on her and for the first time since she’d met him, Shelby felt a small tremor of fear.

  She stood rooted to the spot, her heart pounding at an alarming rate as he made his way up the stairs leading to the deck. It seemed to take forever before he reached the top and for a few breathless moments they simply stared at each other before Logan closed the distance between them, stopping only when he was so close she had to tip her head back to look at him.

&nb
sp; “Are you well, cara?”

  The sound of his voice swept over her like a warm caress making her shiver in spite of the afternoon heat. Shelby nodded mutely, unable to dislodge the enormous boulder in her throat. It didn’t help that he seemed at a loss for words too, or that his fathomless dark eyes held her spellbound and breathless making it impossible to form a single thought other than how much she still loved him. She was still gazing up at him when something in Logan’s expression suddenly shifted and Shelby hastily looked away. She’d forgotten how easily he read her emotions.

  “You shouldn’t have come,” Shelby said, hating how feeble her voice sounded.

  “So I could spend the rest of my life wondering why my wife left me? No, carissima, you and I have great deal to discuss.”

  A familiar searing pain settled deep in her chest, the one that had started the day she witnessed Logan escorting his lover from the hotel. Along with the pain came the bitterness and jealousy, and the memory of the all the tears she’d cried, and the endless nights when she’d ached for him knowing he’d probably wasted no time in finding solace in the arms of someone else. Holding fast to those memories she looked up at him, her eyes as cold as her heart.

  “What difference could it possibly make now? It’s over, Logan. We’re divorced and…”

  “There was no divorce, Shelby.”

  “Wh-what? What do you mean there was no divorce? I signed the papers and forfeited my rights to everything, there wasn’t any reason for it not to be granted.”

  “You did not fulfill your part of the decree so I did not sign it.”

  “That’s not true and you know it. I didn’t take anything when I left so how can you say I didn’t fulfill my part?”

  “You took the car,” Logan said, bracing himself for the angry words that were sure to come.

  Shelby gave him a blank stare. “You can’t be serious.”

  “Believe me, cara mia, I am very serious.”

  “But you gave it to me as a wedding gift! I can’t believe you’re being so petty, Logan. I’m just surprised you didn’t ask me to return my wedding ring, after all you gave that to me too.” Shelby instantly regretted mentioning the ring when Logan glanced at her hand then turned his gaze back to her.

  “You still wear it?”

  Logan’s heart soared. If she was still wearing his ring it had to mean she’d never stopped loving him, didn’t it? Keeping the car was understandable since it was the only one she had and he owned four others, but there was no reason to keep the ring unless it meant something to her. The fact that she’d not only kept it but was still wearing it even after she thought the divorce had gone through was highly significant. Whatever Shelby’s reasons for leaving, it wasn’t because she’d fallen out of love with him.

  Logan cupped her face in his hands so she couldn’t look away from him. “You never took it off, did you?”

  Shelby desperately searched her mind for a reasonable excuse but nothing came to her. She couldn’t tell him the truth, that it would be like twisting the knife in an open wound, but there was no plausible lie she could think of and with his eyes locked to hers, Logan would see right through it anyway. Stuck between a rock and hard spot, she gave the simplest answer she could.

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  Shelby would have done anything at that moment to get away from Logan so she wouldn’t have to answer his questions but she’d seen that look of determination on his face before and knew he wasn’t going anywhere until he got what he wanted. The problem was, she didn’t know what he wanted. Had he broken it off with his lover and decided reconciliation with his wife was in order? Or had he simply folded under the pressure he must be getting from his family?

  His traditional Italian parents would have frowned on a divorce and counseled him to work it out. The sad part was they would never understand why she’d walked away because no matter how much she was suffering for it, Shelby loved Logan’s family and would never break their hearts by letting them know what he’d done. Besides, she carried just as much of the shame as Logan did. If she’d been the wife he needed, he wouldn’t have gone looking for another woman, though she wasn’t exactly sure what she could have done differently to prevent it.

  “Shelby, I am waiting for an answer. Why have you never taken it off?”

  Her eyes stung from unshed tears and there was a quiver in her voice when she spoke, but somehow she managed to answer him. “You know why, Logan. I love you, I always have.”

  Chapter 3

  “Mio bello,” Logan murmured, slanting his mouth over hers.

  This was the part where Shelby was supposed to push him away and tell him it didn’t make any difference, that it was still over. Except that when she put her palms on his chest she could feel how fast his heart was racing and it made her own pulse jump. Shelby’s eyes closed of their own volition, her lips parting as he claimed her mouth in a slow, seductive kiss. If the sensations Logan aroused in her had crept up on her slowly she might have been able to maintain at least a small amount of indifference, but of course that was impossible. They slammed into her all at once, just as they’d always done whenever he kissed her.

  The heat of his body seeped into her skin, chasing away the chill that had become such a part of her life. She filled her lungs with his masculine scent and let it breathe new life into her while the taste of him fed her starving heart. Shelby couldn’t get enough of him and when Logan wrapped his arms around her and crushed her to his chest, her body exploded in a kaleidoscope of heat and desire and an aching need so powerful she would have let him take her right there without even the slightest resistance.

  She wanted him, wanted to feel him sink into her body so desperately she lost sight of everything, including the reason she’d fled their marriage to begin with. Shelby molded herself to him, gently moving her hips from side to side until he was so hard she could feel him even through the thick denim of his jeans. She sifted her fingers through his hair, pulling Logan’s mouth down hard against hers, telling him in every way she knew how just how much she needed him. For a few glorious moments Shelby felt his love wrap around her like a protective cloak before it was abruptly snatched away from her.

  Logan yanked his head back as if he’d been struck, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. “Just where in the hell did you learn moves like that?”

  Still caught up in the drunken effect he had on her, it took Shelby several seconds to catch on to what he was implying. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “You know what it means,” he said gruffly. “I want to know who has been giving my wife lessons in seduction.”

  Stung by his accusation Shelby tried to wriggle out of his grasp but she was no match for his strength, and with ridiculous ease he subdued her by pulling her even closer. Pinned as she was between his powerful arms and broad chest, she could do little more than glare at him. What right did he have to question her fidelity? From the moment he’d taken her hand and led her out onto the dance floor, she’d thought of no other man but Logan. And while he’d probably been enjoying his freedom the past six months, Shelby had spent her days and nights crying her eyes out and nursing a broken heart that didn’t have a chance in hell of healing itself.

  What he deserved to hear was that she’d found someone else who’d taught her not to be afraid of the passion inside herself and that she wanted him to leave. He deserved to feel the life being crushed out of him by the image of his wife in another man’s arms, to have his entire world shattered by the knowledge that she hadn’t loved him enough to remain faithful. Then maybe he’d experience a little of the hell she’d been going through.

  But somewhere between the time she decided to blast him with lies that would tear him apart and the time she opened her mouth to let them fly, something behind those dark eyes of his wavered. It didn’t last long, a fraction of a second at best, but it was long enough for Shelby to see a vulnerable side of Logan she’d never known existed. Maybe he didn’t love
her in the same way she loved him but she was his wife, and if Logan believed she’d so much as let another man touch her, that masculine pride that was so much a part of him would be completely destroyed.