Читать книгу Modern Romance April 2017 Books 1-4 - Линн Грэхем, Annie West - Страница 17

CHAPTER SEVEN

‘I JUST NEVER thought I’d see the day,’ Polly carolled with a misty smile as she stepped back to scrutinise Ellie’s appearance. ‘You’re getting married. I thought you were all set to be a spinster with a string of important letters after your name and a cat.’

Ellie had thought that too but she didn’t admit it. She had never compromised on what she wanted from a man until Rio had literally crashed into her life at Polly’s wedding. And that encounter had altered her image of herself and softened her rigid views. She had gradually begun to appreciate that she was lonely and that there was something hollow about achievements and more painful about trials when she had nobody to share those experiences with. Only now she was putting herself out there in a way she never had before, taking a risk on getting attached to a male who against all the odds appealed to her more than any other for no sane reason that she could find.

For Rio, she had lied for the first time in her life. She had told her father that she loved Rio but in actuality she had no idea what she felt for him. At first she had thought it was a mad infatuation but her thirst for information about him and her craving when he was absent had not faded. Surely an infatuation would have long since died from lack of fuel? All she really knew for certain was that Rio absolutely fascinated her, drew her and compelled her. And he made her feel more with him than she had felt in a lifetime of sensibly repressing strong emotions that unsettled her. And Rio had always specialised in seriously unsettling her.

She had been impressed even more when Rio had accurately forecast her father’s every reaction to their marital plans and the stages of it. Beppe had initially been taken aback and had urged her not to rush into anything, but then Beppe had also confided that had he been free when he had met Ellie’s mother he would have rushed to marry her. He had also admitted that he thoroughly understood the powerful life-enhancing effect of falling madly in love. And ultimately he had decided that as far as family growth went he could wish for no more than to see his daughter married to a young man he had always valued.

‘Rio will grow with you by his side,’ Beppe had forecast loftily. ‘You make him think, you make him question what he truly wants from life. And what he has always wanted most of all is a family.’

Ellie gazed into the mirror and wondered if she was pregnant, if she could give Rio what he supposedly most wanted. But was that what Rio most wanted? Cavorting with all those women seemed a funny way of going about attaining a stable family life. Tomorrow morning, however, she would carry out the pregnancy test she had already purchased. She was both excited and scared by the idea. But most of all she was wondering how Rio would feel, regardless of what the result was.

She had naively assumed that she would see a great deal more of Rio once their relationship was out in the open, but Rio had flown out to Dharia to settle some complicated dispute about oil well rights and although he had urged her to accompany him and she would’ve loved to see her sister sooner, she had refused. Why? Girly though it was, she had wanted to work with the wedding planner Beppe had hired and make her individual choices while also being available to ensure her gown fitted perfectly. After all, she was only planning to marry once.

And her dress fitted like a dream. The corset top had been chosen with Rio in mind. She just knew Rio would revel in hooks and laces and cleavage. The long skirt skimmed down in a flattering cut over her curvy hips and fanned out below the knee. Her feet were shod in Polly’s gift, a pair of enchanting high-heeled sandals studded with pearls.

‘Rashad really likes Rio and the men will be able to go off together when you visit and give us peace to gossip,’ Polly remarked happily.

Ellie hid a smile because Polly was sometimes so innocent. The very last thing Ellie could imagine wanting just then was to be deprived of Rio’s company. After all, he had been more absent than present since the wedding fervour kicked off. Beppe had held a series of social evenings to introduce his long-lost daughter to friends and relatives. Rio had dutifully attended those evenings before he flew out to Dharia, but Ellie’s need to respect Beppe’s boundaries had ensured that the bridal couple had little time alone together. Predictably, Rio had been much less accepting about the simple reality that she did not feel free to leave the palazzo to spend the night with him and possibly Ellie’s insistence on restraint had kept him from hurrying back to Tuscany.

‘When you have me wondering if we could contrive to have sex in my car without being picked up on a charge of public indecency, we have a problem, principessa,’ Rio had complained the night before when he had joined them with Polly and Rashad for a quiet prewedding dinner. ‘You need to learn to be more selfish and put us first.’

‘No,’ she had said. ‘You need to learn that anticipation can act as an aphrodisiac.’

‘But I don’t need one of those,’ Rio had responded with sardonic bite.

An abstracted smile tilted Ellie’s lips now.

‘You’re nuts about him. I don’t know how I didn’t spot it at my wedding—’

‘Your attention was elsewhere...on your bridegroom? And I’m not what you call “nuts” about him—’

‘Oh, you so are,’ Polly contradicted. ‘Everything you’ve done just screams it, Ellie. You are not the sort of woman who meets a man and marries him within a couple of weeks unless he rocks your world...’

‘People change,’ Ellie argued and, eager to change the subject, added, ‘isn’t it really sad that we still haven’t managed to find our missing sister? She could have been with us here today...’

Tracking down Lucy had so far proved difficult because she lived a travelling life, moving around a lot and surviving on casual jobs.

‘We’ll find her eventually,’ Polly said soothingly. ‘And it’ll be very exciting when we do. Haven’t you been tempted to look in her envelope and see what ring she was left and what name is attached to it? It could possibly help us to locate her.’

‘No, I was trusted with that envelope and I wouldn’t open it,’ Ellie swore. ‘How would you ever explain that to her when we finally met?’

‘We could use steam to open it,’ Polly suggested, colouring lightly at Ellie’s raised brows.

‘No, we should respect her privacy,’ Ellie decreed.

Ellie descended the stairs smiling at her father, who stood at the foot beaming with pride. Beppe could not compliment her on her appearance enough. They travelled to the church in a limousine. She paused on the steps in the morning sunshine and she breathed in deep and slow, recognising that the elation she was feeling was happiness and marvelling at it while also fearing the undeniable storms ahead. She knew that she and Rio would argue and tussle and that there would be many times when she wanted to strangle him. That was normal life, she told herself prosaically, but true happiness was so rare a sensation for her that she wanted to make the most of it while she was feeling it.

Rio turned from the altar to get the full effect of his bride. And Ellie was stunning with her coppery hair swept up and her green eyes gleaming with intelligence above her sultry mouth. As for the dress, well, he was extremely impressed by that surprisingly sexy corset, which defined his bride’s splendid curves to perfection. No, getting married didn’t feel half as bad as he had dimly expected. He had thought he might feel trapped but the prospect of peeling Ellie out of that corset was more than equal to the challenge of surrendering his freedom.

Her hand trembled in his when he grasped it to thread on the wedding ring. She had worn her engagement ring on her other hand. And like Beppe’s family emerald, which she had brought out to Italy with her, it was another emerald to reflect the colour of her eyes, an emerald teamed with white diamonds but not over large because Ellie didn’t like flashy jewellery and had wanted something she could occasionally wear to work. So sensible, his Ellie, Rio thought wryly, wondering just when he had started thinking of her as his. When he’d imagined her pregnant with his child and liked the idea? When he saw her walking down the aisle towards him? Or when he realised that he was her first lover and strangely determined to be her last?

Of course, he knew why he was marrying her. With Ellie, the sex was on another level even though it had gone wrong the one and only time it had happened. She stood up to him, she talked back, she was his equal in every way. But more importantly she had signed a prenup contract ringed with so many iron hoops of protection that an escape artist couldn’t have undermined it. If Ellie liked money, he had plenty of it and there were worse weaknesses for a woman to have, he reasoned. She could have been the unfaithful type, forever in search of the next big thrill. She could’ve been the uncaring, uncommitted type but he’d already seen her bonding happily with Beppe and witnessed just how close she was to her sister. And if there was to be a baby Rio was convinced that she would always and without hesitation do right by their child. The ability and the desire to be a good mother was the most imperative trait of all that a woman could have, he reflected with sombre conviction.

Ellie emerged from the church on Rio’s arm. A crowd of people were crushed into the street outside. Fleeting introductions were made while the photographer fluttered around. They were congratulated and showered with rice.

In the midst of the noise and excitement, Ellie suddenly noticed two blondes wielding their camera phones and giggling like drains as they urged Rio to look at them and smile. And it was them, unmistakably the identical twins who had gambolled naked on Rio’s bed in that Dharian hotel two years earlier. Ellie’s throat convulsed. She couldn’t have been mistaken, she thought angrily. They were highly noticeable women, blonde, beautiful twins, whippet thin and impossibly sparkly and effervescent in a way that was seen as ultrafeminine. Rio had actually invited the twins to their wedding. Ellie paled and compressed bloodless lips while the perplexed photographer urged her to smile.

She settled almost dizzily into the limousine beside Rio and looked at him. How could he do this to her? How could he be so insensitive to her feelings? Those blondes reminded her of the most humiliating moment of her life. Before Rio had opened the door to that hotel room she had been on a high, feeling like a sexy, attractive woman for the first time ever and ready to move forward, no longer feeling like the drab, clever redhead whom few men approached. And her first glimpse of the giggly twins on his bed had cut her like a knife, making her feel ridiculous and pathetic and useless.

‘Cosa c’e di sbagliato? What’s wrong?’ Rio asked as the car moved off to whisk them back to the palazzo where the reception was being held.

And Ellie didn’t know what to say. After all, he was entitled to a sexual past and in marrying him she had accepted that past. Exes at a wedding, well, not exactly what you wanted but not always avoidable either. But did the twins recognise her as the shocked woman in that doorway two years back? And would they mention that to anyone? Have a good giggle about it? She cringed inside herself and said nothing.

‘Nothing’s wrong,’ she assured him quietly. ‘It’s just all the wedding hullabaloo. When it comes all together, it leaves you feeling shell-shocked.’

‘I didn’t invite Becky and Roz,’ Rio breathed impatiently, cutting through her pretence.

So, he had noticed the twins. Well, really, how could he have missed them bouncing up and down with excitement only a few feet from him, determined to be noticed by him? Yet he had somehow contrived not to look once in their direction, nor had he shown the smallest hint of self-consciousness. But then why would he?

‘Is that their names?’ Ellie queried with a wooden lack of expression.

‘I told the wedding planner to contact Rashad for the list of our university friends because I haven’t kept up with their addresses,’ Rio explained. ‘They were invited to your sister’s wedding and that’s probably how they ended up at ours. If I’d taken a greater personal interest, I would’ve left them off the list.’

If anything, Ellie had grown even stiffer. ‘Of course, if they’re uni friends, why would you leave them out?’

‘Ellie, you’re putting out more sub-zero chills than a freezer,’ Rio said with sardonic bite. ‘But I can’t change the past and neither can you.’

‘I didn’t realise the twins had ever been actual friends of yours,’ Ellie admitted stonily, not best pleased to hear that information. ‘Probably because I’ve never slept with any of my male friends.’

‘Sadly, I wasn’t quite so particular,’ Rio countered in the same measured tone. ‘And neither were they. In those days I could only cope with casual—’

Her smooth brow indented. ‘And why was that?’

Rio squared his broad shoulders and settled back with a sigh. ‘I set up a property venture when I was nineteen. Beppe was pressuring me to go to university to study business but I thought I could take a shortcut to success,’ he admitted wryly. ‘My business partner, Jax, had the security of a wealthy background. The property market was booming and we were doing very well, which is when I met a gorgeous brunette. I fell in love with Franca, asked her to marry me and we moved in together.’

Ellie dragged in a startled breath, for what he had just admitted was the very last thing she had expected to hear from him. After all, she had simply assumed that Rio had always played the field without ever pausing to settle on one particular woman. Learning different shook her up, learning that he had found that one particular woman years earlier and presumably lost her again filled her with insecurity.

Rio skimmed narrowed dark eyes over the pale, still triangle of her face and his shapely mouth twisted. ‘The property market stalled and I was overstretched. I still believe I could have made it through but Jax pulled out and hung me out to dry...and Franca, who had been screwing him behind my back and who very much liked the luxuries of life, ran off with him.’

Ellie winced and dropped her gaze, imagining the sting of that double blow of financial loss and treachery. ‘I’m really sorry that that happened to you,’ she murmured ruefully. ‘It must’ve been very hard to pick yourself up after that experience.’

‘It taught me a valuable lesson. At university I learned enough to ensure that I would never leave myself that vulnerable in business again,’ he confided. ‘I succeeded but after Franca, I avoided any kind of serious involvement with women. What the twins offered suited me at the time. No strings.’

‘I can understand that,’ she conceded reluctantly. ‘You know...er...that night at Polly’s wedding, after we parted... I’ve always wondered what happened—’

‘You don’t want to know,’ Rio cut in succinctly, his tone cold as ice water.

And in telling her that he had told her everything there was to know, she acknowledged in consternation, just as suddenly furious with him. She had rejected him that night and had raced back to her room at the palace to take refuge in time-honoured tears and self-recriminations. But Rio had taken solace where he could find it and what right had she to object? Finding that out annoyed and disturbed her though. Rio could divide sex from emotion and treat sex like an athletic pursuit and he had done so for years before he met her. Could Rio really change? Could he switch back to the young, optimistic male he must once have been when he fell in love with Franca? And what exactly did it take to make Rio fall in love?

Rio was watching Ellie as the limo drove through the palazzo gates. Her delicate little profile was set, her brain running at a mile a minute on thoughts he didn’t want to share. Maybe he should have lied. But lies would catch up with him sooner or later. Did she realise that she really wanted him to be perfect? Prince Charming straight out of a fairy story? And that he could never be perfect? Frustration and growing anger raged through his lean, powerful frame. He could not pretend to be something he was not in an attempt to impress her. And why would he want to anyway? Ellie would smell a rat sooner than most women because she was always looking below the surface, weighing pros and cons, picking up on inconsistencies, seeking out flaws. And he had still to confess his biggest flaw of all to a woman who had chattered animatedly about how her discovery of Beppe would now enable her to chart the previously unknown paternal half of her medical history.

In the greeting line, Becky and Roz made much of Rio and their previous acquaintance while acting as if they had never laid eyes on Ellie before. They didn’t recognise her, she registered with relief, didn’t remember her at all from that fleeting glimpse of her in the hotel doorway that night. But instead of being relieved at that realisation, Ellie was angry with Rio and angry with herself. She had agonised so much over that night and she had been so hurt but their backfired encounter had not had a similar effect on Rio’s tough hide. She needed to guard herself from being too emotional and vulnerable around him. She had to toughen up, she told herself urgently.

Polly whisked her off after the meal. ‘What on earth’s wrong between you and Rio?’ she demanded.

‘There’s nothing wrong—’

‘Even Rashad’s noticed the atmosphere and to be honest he’s not usually that quick to notice that sort of stuff,’ her sister admitted.

And Ellie spilled the whole story from its start two years earlier to the presence of the twins at the wedding. She was too upset to hold it all in any longer and Polly’s shocked face spoke for her. It was several minutes before she could even move her sister on from repeatedly saying ‘Both of them?’ as if she had never heard or dreamt of such behaviour before. Her attitude did nothing to improve Ellie’s mood.

‘And that night you met...?’ Polly pressed. ‘He told you that?’

‘Yes, Polly,’ Ellie confirmed wearily. ‘I’ve married an unashamed man whore.’

‘If Rashad had ever done anything like that, nothing would persuade him to admit it to me,’ Polly declared wryly. ‘But at least Rio is honest, well, brutally so.’

‘I think he was just thoroughly fed up with me asking awkward questions.’

‘I suspect he’s already heard more than enough about that night and you shot him down in flames, which is not the sort of treatment he’s used to receiving from women,’ Polly pointed out grudgingly in Rio’s defence. ‘Let it go, Ellie. It’s in the past and you weren’t dating him or anything, so you can’t fairly hold it against him. He didn’t cheat on you. As for those blondes, ignore them, forget they’re here!’

Ellie knew that was sensible advice but something stubborn in her refused to back down. Hard reality was steadily taking the bloom off her wedding day.

Rio tugged her stiff, resisting body close as he swept her out onto the floor to open the dancing. He bent his arrogant dark head and whispered, ‘Do you know just how annoyed I’m getting with you?’

‘Do you know how annoyed I am with you?’ Ellie whispered back, unimpressed.

‘Are you always going to be this jealous and possessive of me?’ Rio enquired silkily.

A current of rage travelled through Ellie as hotly as a flame. ‘Are you? I seem to remember you threatening to beat up Bruno for buying me dinner—’

‘That was different,’ Rio asserted without hesitation. ‘We were already involved.’

Angry tears prickled behind Ellie’s lowered eyelids and she finally knew what was really wrong with her. She had got involved with Rio on an emotional level the very first night she met him. But he hadn’t got involved with her until she entered Beppe’s life and became what he initially saw as a threat to someone he cared about. Was he even involved with her now that he had married her? Or had he only married her to please Beppe and because she might be pregnant? And why was she only asking herself that now and worrying about the answer?

Rio caught her hand firmly in his as they left the floor, deftly weaving them through the clusters of guests addressing them, never pausing longer than a few polite seconds. Only when they reached the foot of the main staircase did Ellie question where he was taking her and she tried to wrench her hand free.

‘We’re going to sort this out in private,’ Rio delivered in a driven undertone.

‘There’s nothing to be sorted out,’ Ellie protested, trying once again and failing to free her fingers from his.

Determined not to be sidetracked, Rio headed for the opulent guest suite where Ellie had dressed for the wedding. He thrust the door shut behind him in a movement that sent dismay skimming through Ellie. She had not expected Rio to turn confrontational because she had assumed that the presence of their guests would control and inhibit him. The message she was getting now was that Rio’s temper was rarely repressed.

He dropped her hand and Ellie immediately made for the door. ‘We can’t do this in the middle of our wedding,’ she argued.

Rio cut off her escape by stepping in front of the door, which in turn sent Ellie stalking and rustling angrily in all her finery across the room towards the window. She flipped round, colour accentuating her cheekbones, green eyes very bright and defiant.

‘It’s our wedding and it’s almost over and we can do whatever we like,’ he told her grittily.

‘Do you have an off button?’ Ellie asked helplessly. ‘Because I think it’s time to hit it. Yes, this is our wedding and we have had a slight difference of opinion but I have done and said nothing anyone could criticise—’

‘I’m criticising you!’ Rio bit out harshly.

Ellie stared at him in shock, her lips falling open, because once again, Rio was blindsiding her and catching her unprepared. He had the most amazing eyes, stunning dark gold fringed with black curling lashes, and for a split second she was held fast by them while noting the aggressive angle of his strong jaw line, the faint black stubble already shadowing his bronzed skin and, finally, the ferocious determination stamped into his amazing bone structure.

‘I’m not perfect, Ellie, and I’m never going to be but I was prepared to give this my best shot—’

‘I never expected you to be perfect, for goodness’ sake!’ Ellie spluttered uncertainly as she moved warily back towards him. ‘Look, maybe I was a bit oversensitive but there’s absolutely no need for us to start having this out now! Let me go back downstairs before anyone notices we’re missing—’

‘No,’ Rio breathed with finality.

‘You don’t just tell me no like that and expect me to take it!’ Ellie argued furiously, trying to push him away from the door.

‘I keep on hoping that you’ll learn from experience,’ Rio growled, scooping her up, nudging a giant vase of flowers out of his path and planting her down squarely on the marble-topped side table behind her. ‘But you never do.’

‘This is getting ridiculous. Let me down,’ Ellie told him forcefully.

Rio pinned her in place even more effectively by pushing her knees apart and stepping between them to wedge himself even closer.

‘You may be physically stronger but you can’t bully me,’ Ellie informed him tartly.

‘I don’t want to bully you, principessa. I want you to start using your brain,’ Rio bit out impatiently, settling his big hands down on her bare shoulders. ‘It’s time to put sulky, moody Ellie away, ditch the negativity and look forward.’

‘I am neither sulky nor moody,’ Ellie pronounced with as much dignity as she could summon while seated as she was on a table, being held still. His hands were hot on her bare skin, sending odd little prickles of awareness travelling through her.

‘Bear in mind the fact that I’m not sulking about having had to marry a woman who could be a scheming little gold-digger,’ Rio urged, stunning her with that statement as his long fingers flexed expressively over her shoulders.

Her lips opened. ‘A...a gold—’

‘But I gave you the benefit of the doubt. When do you extend the same privilege to me?’ he demanded grimly.

Ellie tried to slide off the table but he forestalled her. Flushed by the undignified struggle and enraged by the label of gold-digger, she snapped, ‘Let me go!’

‘No. I’m keeping you right where I can see you and we’re having this out right now,’ Rio decreed.

‘How dare you call me a gold-digger?’ Ellie slung at him an octave higher.

‘What else am I going to call you when you still haven’t explained yourself? You see, I may not be perfect, Ellie but the news is that you’re not perfect either. You’ve had serious allegations made against you and although I’m now aware that an enquiry dismissed one set, there are still others in your background made by a family member,’ Rio reminded her caustically. ‘But I was prepared to overlook that history to marry you and give you a fair chance.’

Ellie had frozen where she sat and she didn’t know what to say or even where to begin. ‘You said you’d had to marry me,’ she said, instead of tackling his accusations head-on. ‘But you didn’t have to. I didn’t demand it. I wouldn’t have allowed my father to demand it either. It wasn’t necessary—’

‘It was necessary to me,’ Rio cut in ruthlessly. ‘I could not live with the chance that you could be pregnant. I had to ensure that we were a couple and that if there is a child, he or she will not grow up without me.’

‘So, this really is a shotgun marriage,’ Ellie breathed painfully.

‘No, it’s what we make of it and so far you’re doing your best to undermine us,’ Rio condemned.

‘You know the enquiry cleared my name,’ Ellie reminded him sharply. ‘How can you still think I could be a gold-digger?’

‘It’s all those shades of grey that lie between black and white,’ Rio commented reflectively. ‘What was your true intent when you befriended that old lady at the hospice where you were working?’

‘I didn’t befriend her. I was doing my job, acting as a sympathetic listener when there was nobody else available!’ Ellie told him angrily.

‘Maybe you would’ve got away with that inheritance had a complaint not been lodged against you and maybe you thought you could get away with it. Maybe you only looked up your father after you found out that he was a reasonably affluent man,’ Rio murmured lethally. ‘Who can tell? That’s what I mean about shades of grey. How can I know either way? But I still took a chance on you—’

Ellie relived the stress and worry she had endured when quite out of the blue, one of the patients she had been tending had altered her will and left her estate to Ellie instead. It had been wholly unexpected and she had not felt in any way that she deserved that bequest. She had reported it immediately but naturally the old lady’s nephew had lodged a complaint. It had been a nasty business and there had been nothing she could have done to avoid the ordeal. Rage and distress over Rio’s suggestions roared through her taut body. ‘I hate you!’ she gasped chokily.

‘No, you don’t. You just don’t like being questioned and judged without a fair trial but it’s exactly what you do to me,’ Rio condemned levelly.

‘I don’t want to be married to you!’ Ellie slung at him wildly.

‘You don’t mean that,’ Rio assured her, the hands on her shoulders smoothing her delicate skin as he bent his head. ‘You want me as much as I want you.’

‘Stop telling me what I want, what I think!’ Ellie exclaimed in seething frustration.

‘Maybe I’m talking too much... Maybe I should be showing you,’ Rio husked, tipping her back a little and burying his mouth hotly in the smooth slope of her neck while his hands delved beneath her skirt and swept up over her thighs.

‘Stop it!’ Ellie hissed, struggling against the great wave of quivering weakness that assailed her as the heat of his lips and the teasing nip of his teeth grazed her sensitised flesh. ‘You’re not allowed to do this when we’re fighting!’

In answer, Rio crushed her angrily parted lips beneath his own, his tongue flicking the roof of her mouth and tangling with her own. The forbidden pulse at the heart of her pounded faster and hotter while honeyed liquidity pooled in her pelvis. His hands firm on her thighs, she squirmed on the table.

‘Rio!’ she cried in frustration.

He ripped the delicate panties out of his path and traced the damp wet folds between her parted thighs, and so much excitement surged up inside Ellie that she feared she might go up in flames. He had distracted her, she knew he had distracted her with sex and she knew she had to defend herself but in that instant nothing was more important to Ellie than the fierce, urgent demands of her own body.

‘We can’t...’ she moaned for her own benefit as much as his.

Rio sank his hands below her hips and lifted her to him as though she were a doll. He sank into her hard and fast and the sudden fullness of him boldly stretching her made her shudder and gasp. And then he moved with brutal efficiency, hitting some magical spot inside her that knew no shame and the treacherous excitement came in a drowning, remorseless flood that overwhelmed her. Her teeth dug into the shoulder of his jacket, her hands clawed any part of him she could reach. The pleasure was unbearable, pushing her relentlessly to the edge. Her body careened into a teeth-clenching climax that left her bereft of breath and he freed her as the final convulsions trammelled through her weakened body.

He disappeared off to the bathroom leaving her sagging on the table. He had taken precautions this time around, she registered in surprise. So, he was no longer willing to take that risk of conception with her, even though they were now married. Did Rio still want an escape route? Was he hoping she wasn’t pregnant? That he could still walk away?

And why wouldn’t he when he was convinced that she was a shameless gold-digger? Anger sizzled through Ellie. She had lost another battle with Rio. She slid, almost limp with satiation, off the table and retrieved one of her shoes, which had fallen off. Her torn underwear was nowhere to be seen and she had no spare clothing in the room since her suitcase had already been removed. With a grimace she smoothed down her dress and staggered slightly on cotton-wool legs in front of a mirror to check her hair.

‘You look fantastic, principessa,’ Rio said huskily, lazily, catching her hand in his. ‘And you’re my wife now—’

‘Not sure I want reminding of that right now—’

‘I like reminding you,’ Rio murmured, studying her with hungry dark golden eyes. ‘Smile, Ellie—’

‘No, Rio—’

‘Smile,’ Rio insisted. ‘It’s our wedding day and we should be making the most of it—’

‘Oh, I think you’ve already done that,’ Ellie told him before she could think better of that comment.

And Rio laughed with unholy amusement. ‘You’re mine. I needed the proof of it.’

All shaken up and fizzing with conflicting feelings and emotions, Ellie returned to the wedding festivities. Rio kept a hold of her, not letting her stray far from his side. Her body still felt hot and alien, the aftershock of forbidden pleasure and excitement still trapped inside her like a shameful secret. There was wanting and then there was wanting Rio, and he had just taught her that she was the one without the off switch when she needed it. That knowledge made her feel achingly vulnerable.