Rio watched her go.
An interesting woman, he had to admit. Even now, as she marched out of his life, back straight, shoulders squared, head up. Even her posture made it clear she’d been wrongfully treated.
That she wasn’t wearing shoes spoiled the effect.
It made him grin.
He lost sight of her once she’d turned the corner; a few seconds later, he heard the front door slam hard enough to make it rattle.
Okay.
She was gone.
Good. Excellent. Out of his home, out of his hair, out of his life.
“Good night, Ms. Orsini,” he murmured. “It’s a pleasure to have seen the last of you.”
What time was it, anyway? He’d left his watch somewhere before he’d started digging. Never mind. He’d search for it in the morning. Right now, he was going to have that long-awaited cold beer, take a shower, put together a meal because, by now, he was hungry as a bear. Then he’d drive to the airport.
Forget that.
He was tired. Simpler to spend the night here and fly home in the morning.
Rio yawned, stretched, headed for the kitchen. There were half a dozen bottles of beer in the fridge; he chose one at random, rummaged in a drawer, found an opener and yanked off the cap.
The first swallow went down cold, wet and welcome. He took another while he tried to find a way to describe the afternoon.
Unusual? Interesting? He smiled. A little of each, all thanks to Isabella Orsini.
He’d expected Izzy the Gardener.
What he’d got was Isabella the—the what?
She was a bundle of contradictions, charming one minute, prickly the next. Businesslike, then bumbling.
Hot as a woman could be, and then as innocent as a virgin. Unless the innocent thing had been an act. Unless she liked playing with fire, or she liked teasing a man until he went berserk, or—
What did it matter? She was gone.
And it was harmless to think about the possibility that she really was innocent.
That he’d have been the first man to touch her. To learn her secrets. To bring her pleasure again and again, because he would have done that, he’d have shown her what passion could be …
Merda.
Rio slapped the bottle on the counter and headed for the stairs. A shower would set things right, followed by the thickest steak in the freezer, and—
And, where was her car?
He paused on the second floor landing.
She’d come by car. She’d told him so, that confused tale about Manhattan traffic and highway traffic and the rabbit. Then, where was it? Why had she come down that long driveway on foot? He hadn’t thought about it before but now, he wondered.
Maybe she’d parked outside the gates. He couldn’t come up with a reason she would and, anyway, it wasn’t his problem.
Not his problem at all.
He went up another few steps.
Yes, but where was her car?
He hesitated. Then he cursed under his breath, went down the steps, pulled open the front door and saw—
Nothing.
An empty driveway. The tall trees that lined it. The iron gate in the distance. Everything seemed eerie under the glow of the outside lights that had automatically come on at dusk.
The area past the gate was black. A moon as thin as the blade of a scythe hung in the sky but it didn’t do much to illuminate the night.
Okay. He’d check. Obviously, her car had been parked on the narrow road outside the gate. It, and she, would be long gone but—
But, he’d check.
He trotted down the driveway. Reached the gate. Pushed against it, but the thing had chosen this moment to stay firmly closed. Rio cursed again. Fumbled for the number pad so he could key in the security code. The gate swung slowly open but so what? He had no idea what he was looking for, what he expected to see …
Hell.
A slender figure was marching along the road. A slender, distant figure, lit by a sliver of moonlight ghosting through the trees.
He had no doubt it was Isabella Orsini.
“Idiot,” he growled, as he stepped into the middle of the road and shouted her name.
No reaction. Either she hadn’t heard him, or she wasn’t going to acknowledge that she had.
“Isabella!” he yelled again. “Damnit, Isabella, what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Still no answer. And she didn’t stop walking. He knew she’d heard him; he’d shouted loud enough to silence the cricket symphony in the shrubs, but Isabella was not a cricket.
She was a woman determined to prove she was fearless.
Or daft.
Rio’s vote was for “daft.” A woman alone, on a dark country road …
Grimly, he started after her. He walked fast. Then he trotted. He’d just broken into a run when headlights appeared, coming toward him. Toward her. Their light spilled over her and, for the first time, she hesitated.
The vehicle slowed. She looked at it. The driver must have said something. Did she want a ride, maybe.
Don’t say yes, Rio thought, and ran faster. Whatever you do, Iz, do not say—
She wasn’t.
She was saying “no.” He couldn’t hear her but he could see it. She was shaking her head, shaking it harder and now the vehicle stopped—Rio flew down the road.
Don’t panic.
The words sang in Isabella’s head. Do not panic! Do not let every Grade D horror flick you saw as a teenager take over your common sense.
The driver who’d pulled over and asked if she needed a ride was just trying to be helpful. That he’d called her “little girl,” that he looked like a sumo wrestler version of Jack the Ripper, meant nothing.
Stop that, Isabella!
The man’s weight was his affair. And she didn’t even know what Jack the Ripper looked like. Nobody did. She was letting her imagination run away with her …
Isabella’s heart leaped into her throat.
Sumo Jack opened his door. “You ain’t bein’ very friendly,” he said as he heaved his bulk out of the car, “an’ here I am, just tryin’ to be helpful.”
Isabella’s heart leaped in her throat. Run, she told herself, run, run, run …
“There you are, sweetheart.”
That voice. Husky, lightly accented. “Matteo,” Isabella sobbed, and went straight into Rio’s arms.
Rio held her close against him. His heart was hammering, and not only from his crazed sprint.
“Baby,” he murmured, “it’s okay.”
For a few seconds, nothing existed but the night and the woman burrowing against him. Then, Rio cleared his throat and looked at the guy standing next to a battered pickup. He was big and beefy. Still, under that beef there probably were slabs of muscle, but that wasn’t what troubled him.
It was the way the guy stood there, motionless, his eyes hard and fixed on Isabella.
Rio’s blood pounded.
I can take you, you SOB, he thought—but what if he couldn’t? He wasn’t a fool; he knew how to box. He was strong, his body was hard. He knew that fury at what might have happened would fuel him.
But the guy might get lucky, and win the confrontation. And if he did, what would happen to Isabella?
So Rio swallowed his rage, cleared his throat, forced a smile to his lips.
“Thanks, man,” he said. Isabella stiffened against him. Rio held her even closer, hoping the unspoken warning to keep quiet would get through to her. “Offering to help my lady was really decent.”
Nothing. The hulking figure didn’t speak, didn’t move.
Isabella shivered.
“We had an argument. She was angry as a hornet and she took off.” A quick grin, this one man-to-man. “You know how it goes.”
The guy shifted from one massive leg to the other. Rio waited; he was sure the man’s brain was as undersized as his body was massive. Would he take the easy out—or would he come at them?
Rio almost wished
he would …
No. He couldn’t risk something happening to the woman trembling in his arms. Better to give the hulk the chance to hang on to whatever it was he called his honor.
Rio looked into Isabella’s face.
“Sweetheart?” She looked up at him. Her eyes were wide with fear. He wanted to kiss her and tell her everything was going to be fine, soothe her until the terror left her and she sighed and melted against him …
But the thing to do now was to get moving.
“Baby,” he said, “let’s go home, okay?”
The big man in the road shifted his weight again.
“You need to keep an eye on your woman,” he said in a low voice. “Anythin’ can happen, a woman walkin’ around alone out here at night.”
Rio nodded. “Yeah. Thanks again. You take care, dude, okay?” He slid his arm to Isabella’s waist. “Come on,” he said so quietly that only she would hear him. “Start walking. Come on, Iz. That’s it. Left. Right. Left. Right. Faster. The way you did when you and your ego marched out of my house.”
That did it.
He felt the strength coming back into her. She’d have jerked away, but he’d expected her to react, hell, he’d counted on it, and he kept her where he wanted her, right in the curve of his arm.
“My ego had nothing to do with it,” she whispered, but without as much heat as he’d have liked.
“We can argue that later. For now, just keep going.”
“Is he—is he going to let us?”
“He will, if he’s got half a brain. He knows I’ll plaster the road with him if he tries anything.”
“He outweighs you by two hundred pounds.”
“Three,” Rio said, “but who’s counting?”
She gave a watery little laugh, which was what he’d hoped. The last thing he needed was for her to go into shock.
They walked. And walked, both of them listening for the truck, waiting for it to pass them. The gate was only a couple of hundred yards away but it seemed like miles.
Isabella’s footsteps became hurried. Rio held her steady.
“Slow down. That’s it. Just stay at an even pace. We’re just a couple who made up after a quarrel and we’re on our happy way home.”
“If only he’d pass us—”
The pickup did, roaring by just as they reached the gate, its oversize tires kicking up a swirl of dust and leaves. Rio shoved her through, locked the gate after them, and Isabella flung her arms around him.
He stood absolutely still for what seemed a very long time. Then he gathered her against him, tilted her face to his and gently brushed his lips over hers.
“Easy, cara,” he said softly. “Everything’s fine now.”
“Ohmygod,” she said, her voice shaking, “ohmygod …”
Her face was pale, her eyes enormous. He wanted to kiss her again, kiss her until the fear left her, until she clung to him not just for comfort but for the pleasure of being wrapped in his arms.
The thought made no sense and he knew it. He dealt with it by frowning, clasping her elbows and giving her a not-too-gentle shake.
“What in hell were you thinking? This isn’t a city, or hadn’t you noticed? There are no sidewalks, no people, no lights!”
“Oh, that’s it! Blame me when it’s your fault that—that—” The false bravado faded. “I didn’t think,” she whispered. “I just wanted to—to get away. To find the train station.”
Rio blinked. “The train station? I thought you came by car.”
“I did. It wasn’t mine. It was—”
“Anna’s,” he said carefully.
“Yes. But—it drove into a ditch.”
Despite everything, Rio had to laugh.
“The car drove itself into a ditch?”
“I told you, there was a rabbit in the road. I think it was a rabbit. It had a long, skinny nose and a long, skinny tail, and it just suddenly appeared in front of me.”
“An opossum,” he said, as if it mattered.
“And, of course, I didn’t want to hit it.”
Rio thought of the possum carcasses that littered every country road he’d ever seen, of the trucks and cars that hit them, of the drivers who never noticed or, if they noticed, never cared.
Without thinking, he drew her close again, stroked his hand down her back.
“No,” he said carefully, “of course you didn’t.”
“So the car sort of, it sort of lost direction, and—”
“Where was this?”
“A long way from here. I had to walk. It’s why I was so late.”
“Why didn’t you phone? You do have a mobile phone, don’t you?”
“I didn’t want to ask Mr. D’Aquila for help. I didn’t want to give him any reason to doubt my ability to handle things.”
“Right. Which is why you figured being three hours late was better than calling and saying you needed a lift.”
Her eyes narrowed. She flattened her hands against his chest and managed to put some distance between them, but only because he let her.
“Thank you for your help, Mr. Rossi.”
“What happened to Matteo?”
“You can let go of me now.”
“So you can do what? Go for another moonlight stroll?”
Her teeth worried her bottom lip. She had a habit of doing that. He had a habit of wanting to kiss her whenever she did.
“I’ll take a bus.”
He laughed, and her eyes narrowed.
“No buses? Fine. I’ll phone for a taxi.”
He laughed again. Her eyes got even narrower. By now, they were icy slits.
“Ask nicely,” he said, “and I’ll drive you to the railroad station.”
The look she gave him suggested that she really wanted to ask him to do something anatomically impossible. He kept his face expressionless as he watched her struggle for control. Finally, she nodded in cool assent.
“I need a ride to the station.”
“That’s it? That’s asking nicely?”
Any minute now, she was going to slug him. The thought made his lips twitch.
“Mr. Rossi. Would you be so kind as to drive me to the station?”
He knew what response he wanted to make. No, he’d say, why should I do that when you can spend the night right here, in my bed?
Hell, he thought, and let go of her.
“No problem,” he said briskly, and headed toward the house and his truck, still parked in the driveway. She followed him and he opened the passenger door, left her to get inside on her own because touching her right now didn’t seem a good idea, went around to the driver’s side and slid behind the wheel.
They made the drive to town in silence. The place was buttoned up for the night. He put the windows down and heard crickets and the wind and, under it all, the distant sound of the sea.
When they reached the station, he shut off the engine and turned toward her.
“You want to tell me the location of that car-eating ditch?”
The look she shot him would have put glaciers on his stretch of beach.
“No.”
Rio shrugged. “Your choice. I figured I’d arrange for a tow but if you’d rather do it—”
“Good night, Mr. Rossi. I’d say thanks for everything but except for you coming along when I was having that—that conversation with that gentleman—”
“Nothing like a nice chat with a homicidal Neanderthal on a dark, deserted road,” Rio said lightly, as he went around to her side of the truck.
“I do not require your assistance.”
“No, I’m sure you don’t. Still, it’s late, the area is deserted, and though you may be up for another talk with a gentleman determined to prove himself harmless, I’m not. So give us both a break and behave while I walk you inside, okay?”
Isabella glared at the man holding her arm as if he owned her.
Matteo Rossi was insufferable!
If Rio D’Aquila was an arrogant bastard, she could only imagine
what he must be like if he could tolerate having someone like this work for him.
Still, there was something reassuring about Matteo Rossi’s hand at her elbow. It was late, it was dark, the place had a forlorn air to it but it wouldn’t, not once she was on the station platform. Surely, there’d be other passengers waiting …
Wrong.
There was a sign on the ticket booth.
Closed.
There would be no westbound trains to Penn Station tonight.
CHAPTER FIVE
ISABELLA stared at the sign.
Impossible. A train station, closed?
She went to the door, tried to force it open. It didn’t budge.
It was true, she thought numbly. Your heart really could drop to your toes.
Matteo, standing just behind her, muttered a word she couldn’t decipher. Just as well. It probably would have turned the tips of her ears pink.
And no wonder.
He was as eager to see her gone as she was to go.
“It can’t be closed,” she said, looking over her shoulder at him. “Trains run twenty-four hours a day.”
Rio’s thoughts were racing. Now what? He walked to the door and tried it.
It was locked.
“Subway trains run twenty-four hours a day,” he said. “But this isn’t a subway, and it isn’t Manhattan.”
She looked at him and all but rolled her eyes. He couldn’t blame her. Talk about useless comments …
And why had he done something so foolish as trying the door himself? Not foolish on the face of it, okay, but he’d had to close the slight distance between them and now he could feel her against him, smell her hair. Lemons? Something light and clean and feminine and, Dio, his all-male-all-the-time brain had gone to far more primitive stuff than what to do about this newest problem.
He took a step back, drew in a head-clearing breath of cool night air.
“This is turning into a comedy of errors,” she said coldly. “First the car. Then your employer not even having the courtesy to wait for me. Then you. And now, this.”
Rio bit back a groan. This was impossible. Who did he stand up for, himself—or himself? She’d just insulted both of them. But that was good. It brought him back to reality.
“Your car went off the road. Oh, sorry. It drove itself off the road. Never mind the rest—the traffic you should have anticipated, the directions you forgot to take with you. The point is, if you still had a car, we wouldn’t be standing in the middle of town, waiting for a train that isn’t going to come.”
The Real Rio D'Aquila Page 5