VITTORIO'S RUNAWAY BRIDE

by Kimberley Reeves

  He headed for the kitchen to get the coffee started then changed his mind and turned around. Whatever was wrong between them had to be hashed out and dealt with so he could stop feeling as if his world was going to come crashing down around his shoulders any minute now. Logan didn’t even make it to the hallway before his cell phone went off. He hurried into the living room, cursing under his breath when he couldn’t find the blasted thing and finally located it on the fireplace mantel where he must have left it after talking to Grady earlier that morning. Logan checked the caller I.D., cursing again before answering it.

  Shelby was just pulling on her robe when she heard the incessant ringing of Logan’s phone. Heaving a sigh, she hobbled into the bathroom to relieve herself and run a brush through her hair. She knew what an enormous responsibility it was to run a corporation the size of Vittorio Enterprises but sometimes she really had to fight the urge to take that obnoxious phone and flush it down the toilet. It didn’t seem to matter what time of day or night it was, Logan always made himself available to calm whatever storm was brewing.

  She couldn’t even begin to count how many romantic dinners or nights at the theatre had been cut short because he had to take a call. For the most part she really hadn’t minded the interruptions because she was proud that her husband was such an important man and she’d also genuinely enjoyed listening to his strong, authoritative voice as he worked out how to avert the most recent crisis. Still, there were times when she wished she had him all to herself without having to worry when the inevitable phone call would come.

  Shelby shuffled down the hallway, careful not to put too much weight on the injured ankle. She’d done some serious thinking before she’d nodded off to sleep and had come to the conclusion she needed to scrape up the courage to come right out and confront Logan about his affair. It wasn’t going to be easy to hear him confirm it but if everything was out in the open they’d at least have a chance of repairing the damage that had been done. Shelby felt good about her decision and was anxious to get it over with but the sound of Logan’s deep voice coming from the living room told her he was still on the phone.

  She started for the kitchen to put the coffee on and decided to peek her head into the living room first just to let him know she was awake. Considering she’d eaten the entire omelet he’d made for her earlier, she was surprised to find that she ravenous. Shelby smiled to herself. No doubt the amorous love making had something to do with the sudden increase in appetite. She stood just inside doorway, admiring the sleek muscles in his bare back as Logan stared out the window and continued his conversation, unaware that he was being watched. Her heart fluttered and for a moment she was so overwhelmed by the enormous rush of love she felt for him she could barely breathe.

  Shelby lingered for a few more seconds then started to back out of the room. She hadn’t really been paying attention to what Logan was saying but she could tell by the way he was talking that it wasn’t business. It had to be his mother or his sister, Milana, because his voice always took on a calmer, gentler tone whenever he spoke to the female members of his family. She’d always found it endearing the way the Vittorio men treated their women, as if they were made of glass and needed to be handled with the greatest of care.

  Not wanting to intrude on a private conversation, Shelby turned to go when something he said caught her attention. With a sinking heart, she inched close enough to hear and immediately wished she hadn’t. It wasn’t his mother or sister Logan was talking to but some woman named Alicia, and by the sound of it she was upset with him for breaking off a date. That same agonizing pain she’d felt when she saw Logan and his mistress leaving the hotel viciously ripped at her heart, and though her mind screamed at her to leave so she didn’t have to hear anymore, her legs stubbornly refused to move.

  “I know what I told you,” Logan said evenly, “but my circumstances have changed and I am no longer free to escort you to the ball. I am sorry, but you will just have to find someone else to take you or attend by yourself.” There was a moment of silence as he listened to Alicia’s pleading. “No, I cannot stop by to discuss it, Alicia, I am not even in town. I have some business to finish up that may take a few more days…”

  “Business,” Shelby croaked.

  Logan whirled around to find a visibly shaken Shelby looking at him as if he was some sort of monster. “I have to go,” he muttered into the phone before tossing it onto one of the chairs. “Cara, it is not…”

  “That’s all I am to you, business?”

  He took a step towards her. “That is not what I meant. I just did not see any reason to involve her in my personal affairs.”

  “Affairs,” she bit out, “what an interesting choice of words. It’s her, isn’t it? Alicia is the blonde you’ve been seeing behind my back.”

  Logan drew in a sharp breath. “How did you know she was a blonde?”

  Shelby’s face crumbled. “So it’s true, you admit that you’ve been having an affair with her. Oh, Logan, how could you? How could you come here pretending you wanted to save our marriage when you’re still involved with that woman?”

  “Per l’amor del Dio,” he said with a shake of his head. “I admit to no such thing. I merely asked how you knew she was blonde and from that you conclude I am carrying on an affair?”

  Shelby’s voice came out as little more than a squeak. “I saw you with her.”

  Now Logan was really confused. “I do not understand. I took her once to Mancini’s a few weeks ago and to an art exhibit last month, are you saying you were at one of those places?”

  She stared at him in disbelief, the rolling pain inside her so acute she clutched at her stomach. “You took her to our restaurant where people we know were sure to see you?”

  The pieces of the puzzle weren’t quite coming together and Shelby looked so distraught he was concerned about her getting physically ill. Logan went to her and led her to the sofa insisting that they talk this out in spite of her protests that she was done talking and wanted him to leave. He could see the tears pooling in her eyes and the way her chin quivered, and if he wasn’t so sure she’d fight him like a wildcat he would have taken her in his arms and held her there until that horrible look of desolation left her beautiful face. Instead he had to content himself with holding one small hand in his.

  “Now, we shall start from the beginning. First of all, I am not having an affair with Alicia.”

  “I heard what you said on the phone, Logan. You had plans to take her to a ball and you admitted yourself that you had been out with her before.”

  “As a friend,” he said insistently, “nothing more. Her husband is an old college friend and an important client that I acquired shortly before you left. His business in Italy has kept him out of the country for over a month now and she asked me to accompany her to a few engagements she had already obligated herself to so that she would not have to go alone. Shelby, look at me,” he said softly. When her green eyes lifted to his, Logan’s chest tightened. “Mio bello, do not look at me as if you do not believe a word I am saying.”

  “How can I believe you,” she cried, “I saw you with my own eyes. I saw you and that…that woman!”

  “When, cara mia?”

  “The day I left you,” Shelby replied, unsuccessfully trying to blink back the tears.

  Logan searched his mind but had no recollection of having been alone with Alicia that day. “You must be mistaken. Richard Delatorre, her husband, was still in the country at that time. I had a late lunch with him and Alicia…” Logan stopped, a sudden and very vivid memory flashing before his eyes. “Oh, mia tesoro,” he said tenderly, “my poor darling, you saw us coming out of the hotel, didn’t you?”

  Shelby nodded. “You had your arm around her,” she said in trembling voice. “I saw you leave the hotel and get in a limousine with her and I…I was so hurt, so heartbroken to know you’d slept with another women.”

  “Shelby, I…”

  “No, you have to let me say this.
I blamed myself too because I realized you wouldn’t have turned to her at all if I’d been able to…” Shelby’s voice faltered as a new round of tears flooded her eyes. She drew in a deep breath and finished. “If I had been able to satisfy you in bed you wouldn’t have felt the need to find someone who could.”

  “Mio Dio,” he rasped hoarsely, “you thought you did not satisfy me?” Logan scooped her up and set her on his lap so fast she didn’t get the chance to protest. “Listen very carefully, Shelby. I went to the hotel to pick up Alicia at her husband’s request because he was running late for our lunch date, and the only reason I had my arm around her is because she was wearing a pair of ridiculously high heels and I was afraid she would fall down the stairs and break her neck.”

  Shelby looked at him with uncertainty. “She’s a beautiful woman and you’ve been spending time with her. Maybe what I saw was perfectly innocent, but what about the other times you were alone with her?”

  “I was not alone with her, cara. The dinner at Mancini’s was with three other couples, all mutual associates of mine and Richard’s. The art exhibit was a showing for one of Alicia’s friends and I only went with her because she begged me to. I felt sorry for her because Richard was supposed to have been back by then.”

  “And the ball?”

  “A charity event that I did not particularly care to attend but felt obligated to. Alicia was practically in tears because she did not want to go alone and since I was already going, I agreed to be her escort.”

  “Are you…attracted to her?”

  Logan’s lip twitched in amusement. “Attracted to a woman who flaunts her body and bats her eyelashes at every male she comes in contact with? Not likely. Besides, why would I want a woman like that when I have you? You are the one I want, Shelby, the only woman I want sharing my life and my bed.”

  Shelby threw her arms around his neck and let out a painful sob. “Oh Logan, how can you ever forgive me for the horrible way I’ve behaved?”

  Logan hugged her to him. “Just say it is over so we can go home. I have missed you so much, mia moglie, it was a struggle to get through each day and ten times harder to get through the long nights.”

  “It was the same for me.”

  “Promise me you will never do anything like this again. If something upsets you, you must tell me so we can work it out together.”

  “Together,” she repeated with a happy sigh. “I love you, Logan, with all my heart.” She tipped her head back, hoping to hear those same words pour from his lips.

  “Thank God,” Logan said on a sigh as he lowered his head and kissed her.

  ***

  Logan poured a glass of wine and went out on the deck to watch the sunset while Shelby took a shower. He tried to convince himself he had nothing to feel guilty about. She’d believed what he’d said about Alicia because he really was being honest when he told her he wasn’t attracted to the woman. It was what he didn’t say that nagged at him and made Logan wonder if he’d done the right thing in keeping the whole truth from Shelby.

  He’d gone to college with Richard Delatorre but hadn’t seen him for years, so when Logan ran into him about eight months ago he’d been excited about acquiring his business and renewing an old friendship. They’d met a couple of times, worked out the contracts, and agreed it would be nice to get together for dinner with their wives and celebrate. Richard was a good man with a pleasant sense of humor even if he was a bit on the conservative side, that’s why meeting Alicia for the first time had been such a shock to Logan.

  It was the week before Shelby left him and he’d arranged to stop by Richard’s house to drop off a copy of the final contracts, but when he arrived he was told by the housekeeper that Richard wasn’t home yet. She showed him into the sitting room then apparently informed Alicia he was there because he hadn’t been waiting more than a few minutes when she swept into the room.

  She’d obviously been sunning herself by the pool because she was wearing one of the skimpiest bikini’s Logan had ever seen and hadn’t bothered to cover up although she had a robe draped over her arm. He remembered standing there, careful to keep his eyes locked on her face, warning bells clanging inside his head as Alicia dropped the robe across the back of the sofa and sauntered over to introduce herself. Never in a million years would Shelby greet a guest dressed so scantily, not unless she was caught unaware and not without blushing all the way from her toes to the top of her pretty head.

  “Richard said you’d be stopping by and I’ve just been dying to meet you,” she cooed and held out a perfectly manicured hand. He hesitated just a fraction too long and Alicia laughed. “I don’t bite,” she batted her lashes, “unless you want me too, that is.”

  Logan stuck out his hand. “It is nice to meet you, Signora Delatorre,” he said formally.

  Her fingers curled around his palm, squeezing ever so slightly. “Call me Alicia. After all, any friend of Richard’s is a friend of mine.”

  Logan extracted his hand, feeling as if a snake had just coiled itself around it and had to resist the impulse to wipe it off on his trouser legs. He took a step backwards and glanced around, commenting on how beautiful the place was and asked if she’d been involved with the decorating. His ploy to put some distance between them worked for all of two seconds before Alicia moved in on the pretext of straightening a floral arrangement on the coffee table.

  She peered up at him in what Logan assumed was supposed to be a seductive manner but her bedroom eyes and pouty lips only revolted him. “I begged Richard to let me redo the whole house and add some color to the drab furnishings but he insisted my taste was too flamboyant, especially since a lot of his business associates are as uptight as he is.” She gave a little shrug and curved her lips into a sexy smile. “He said my talents were best confined to the bedroom and I could hardly argue with that now, could I?”

  “So he let you decorate the bedroom?” Logan asked, knowing full well the sexual innuendo was intentional.

  “Yes, and I’d love to show it to you sometime but I think I heard Richard coming in.”

  Instead of going around the sofa to retrieve her robe, Alicia leaned across it with exaggerated slowness to insure her bottom was presented to him in what could only be construed as an invitation. Logan wasn’t the least bit tempted and he suddenly felt doubly blessed that he had a wife who didn’t have eyes for anyone but him. At the thought of Shelby who had seduced him with nothing more than a shy smile, his expression softened. It was his misfortune that Alicia stood up at that precise moment and interpreted the look on his face as one of acceptance to her less than subtle proposition that he sleep with her.

  Chapter 6

  It hadn’t been a problem as long as her husband was around. It was amazing to watch really, the transformation that took place the moment Richard entered the room. Alicia instantly became the adoring wife, latching onto his arm like a limpet as if she was afraid there was some evil plot brewing to tear her away from him. How an intelligent man like Richard could have been duped by this woman was beyond Logan’s comprehension but it was obvious the man was crazy about her and thrived on the clinging vine routine.

  Logan decided it wasn’t his place or his responsibility to point out Alicia’s short comings and since he was confident he’d never be tempted to sample whatever goodies she was offering, he didn’t want to upset Shelby by telling her what happened whenever he found himself alone with Alicia for any length of time. He’d never given Shelby any cause to be jealous or feel insecure and for the most part he thought she was confident in their love for each other and their marriage. But that didn’t mean someone like Alicia couldn’t stir up the pot by giving him suggestive glances in front of Shelby and putting doubts in her head. No, he’d thought it best at the time not to worry his wife and because of that he’d nearly lost her.

  Logan had escaped his first encounter with Alicia because Richard happen to get home before she could make any further advances, and once he’d seen how she acted around
her husband he thought maybe he’d read her wrong or over reacted. The second incident wasn’t dismissed so easily, nor was any of the others. Richard was supposed to come to Logan’s office around five thirty for a late meeting so it didn’t surprise him when there was a tap on the door just a few minutes before the appointed time. He was, however, extremely agitated to see Alicia Delatorre slip through the doorway and lock it behind her before sauntering across the room.