by Lynne Graham
‘All I’m asking you to do is come clean with me,’ Rio murmured lightly, as though what he was asking should be easy for her to do. ‘Tell me what’s going on…’
Ellie’s slim figure tensed. ‘It’s not that simple, Rio.’
An ebony brow quirked in disagreement. ‘It is a very simple matter that you are making difficult out of sheer stubbornness.’
‘No, it is a private matter between Beppe and me,’ she countered. ‘Ask him to explain things.’
His intent gaze narrowed. ‘You must know that I will not do anything more to upset him.’
‘And I will not break his confidence without his permission, so we’re at an impasse—’
‘Have some wine,’ Rio suggested wryly, strolling over to the drinks cabinet and giving her a choice.
‘Rosé, but it won’t loosen my tongue,’ she warned him doggedly, but the extreme tension in her knees holding her stiff gave way a tad, reminding her that her meeting with Beppe and the walk had exhausted her.
‘Help me out here… I am trying to be civilised,’ Rio informed her.
‘There was nothing civilised about the way you stuffed me in your car,’ Ellie reminded him drily as she settled down on a sofa.
‘Per l’amor di Dio, I never said I was perfect, principessa.’
‘Why do you call me that?’ she demanded abruptly as he settled a moisture-beaded wine glass into her hand, momentarily standing so close to her that the scent of him assailed her: hot, musky male laced with a hint of spicy cologne. A very faint shiver ricocheted through her.
Rio grinned and it was an unexpectedly boyish grin of keen amusement. ‘Because the way you walk with your little superior nose in the air gives you that look. You remind me of the rich girls I used to watch when I was a penniless teenager. Oh, they looked at me, but they wouldn’t have dirtied their lily-white hands by touching me.’
‘I was never a rich girl,’ Ellie parried uncomfortably, studying him with grass-green eyes that were luminous in the filtered sunshine and alive with curiosity. ‘I grew up in my grandmother’s working-class home and there were no airs or graces there.’
‘Cio nonostante… Nonetheless you ooze that rich-girl quality of disdain,’ Rio told her with assurance. ‘And it sets my teeth on edge—’
‘Everything about me sets your teeth on edge,’ Ellie pointed out wryly while she wondered about his background, because she was surprised that he had ever been penniless and on the outside looking in at the more prosperous. ‘We annoy each other.’
‘Beppe,’ he reminded her darkly. ‘Talk.’
In a sudden movement, Ellie stood up again because he was making her feel trapped. She understood exactly where he was coming from but she couldn’t answer his questions. His godfather could have enlightened him and had chosen not to. Beppe’s silence spoke for him. Clearly he had no desire to admit to Rio that he had had an extramarital affair or that that liaison could have led to the conception of a child.
‘I don’t back down, Ellie,’ Rio murmured from close by and every skin cell in her body jumped at the knock-on effect of that deep accented drawl of his, goosebumps rising on her bare arms. ‘I won’t let you go until you fill in the blanks—’
‘Well, then, you’re going to be stuck with me!’ Ellie exclaimed in growing frustration. ‘Because I’m not going to talk—’
Rio removed the glass from her fingers and set it aside. ‘Maybe talking’s a total waste of time for us, principessa.’
‘And what’s that supposed to mean?’ Ellie demanded thinly even though she had a very good idea.
Rio scored a light forefinger across her compressed lower lip. ‘You’re pushing it defying me. I don’t have your patience—’
Ellie threw her head back, corkscrew curls tumbling across her pale brow, green eyes sharp with frustration and defensiveness. ‘Don’t touch me!’ she warned him curtly.
‘No, not a shred of patience,’ Rio asserted with hypnotic quietness, reaching for her with scorching dark golden eyes of sensual threat.
CHAPTER FOUR
‘I CAME INTO this house with you because I trusted you,’ Ellie declared starkly, twisting away.
‘No, you don’t. You don’t trust me,’ Rio assured her with grim amusement. ‘You most probably came into the house because you don’t like arguments in public and you are nervous of how far I would go to win.’
‘Well, doesn’t that just say it all about you?’ Ellie quipped.
‘You know nothing about me yet you still judge,’ Rio condemned.
Ellie stilled, disconcerted by that criticism, and Rio took advantage of her momentary abstraction. His arm curved to her spine and he yanked her close, bringing her up against the hard, unyielding strength of his lean, powerful body, and her hormones leapt as though he had electrified her. His mouth nibbled along the plump fullness of her lower lip and all of a sudden she couldn’t breathe for anticipation. Her lips parted for him, letting his tongue plunge deep, and an aching sweetness that drowned every thought rose from the very heart of her. Something in the furthest reaches of her brain was saying no, no, no, but all the rest of her was in open rebellion.
It was the kiss to end all kisses, fit to eradicate any previous kiss because no man had ever made Ellie’s head swim with a kiss before. She felt dizzy and delirious, utterly unlike herself, adrenalin charging through her veins and lighting her up as though she had crossed the finishing line of a race. Her fingers delved freely into his springy black hair, sheer delight at the freedom to touch him consuming her.
Overwhelmed by her response, Rio tensed, wondering when it would end and abandoning any plan to stage a slow seduction scene. He had never wanted any woman as he wanted Ellie Dixon. Need was already flaming through him like a burning torch. One hand at the shallow indentation of her spine, he ground against her, so hard, so ready, so overpoweringly hungry for the damp release of her body that he trembled. It didn’t make sense to him. Yes, she was a challenge, but no woman had ever come between Rio and his wits. He was in control, he was always in control, but this one time, he wasn’t. Shouldn’t that worry him? He shelved the question, too much lost in the moment to waste time considering the drawbacks and inconsistencies. He brought Ellie down on the sofa and kissed her with unashamed passion.
‘What are we…doing?’ Ellie mumbled through swollen lips as Rio whipped off her top, exposing the heavy-duty white lace confection she wore to confine the breasts that she considered to be too large. It was a stupid question and she knew it and the sight of her own almost bare flesh unnerved her and filled her with discomfiture.
‘Sta’ zitto… Shut up!’ Rio urged, burying his face between those utterly magnificent breasts while wrestling with a bra that had more restrictive hooks than a corset. If she talked, she would talk herself out of it, he thought in consternation, and he looked down into her beautiful eyes, emerald as the most precious of jewels, and told her to close them.
‘You are incredible’ was wrenched from him, breaking his self-imposed silence as he studied the lush creamy swell of her glorious breasts. An awed fingertip brushed a large pink nipple already pouting for his attention. He wanted to carry her up to his bedroom, spread her out and enjoy her as she should be enjoyed but he didn’t want to break the spell.
Instead he bent his dark head and succumbed to the considerable allure of her breasts. He whisked his tongue over a rigid bud the colour of a tea rose and teased the tortured peak, loving the way she shifted under him, instantly responsive to his every caress.
Ellie had fallen so deep that she was drowning in the world of sensation she had always denied herself. The hunger in her for more was unbearable. Her breasts throbbed, sending messages to the lush damp place between her shifting thighs. Her hips lifted in frustration. She wanted Rio everywhere at once. She wanted the impossible. She also wanted his clothes off with a strength of craving that shook her because it was not as though she was a stranger to the male anatomy. In frustration, she hauled at the shoulders of
his jacket and he reared back from her with a sudden surprised laugh and peeled it off to pitch it on the floor.
‘And the shirt,’ Ellie instructed him shakily, scarcely believing what she was doing, what she was participating in, and unable to dwell on it lest her caution yank her back from the edge. And she wanted Rio, she wanted him so much that she was weak from the wanting and the never-ending wondering and longing that had dogged her since the day they had first met.
A couple of shirt buttons came loose of their stitching as Rio ripped off the shirt with an almost joyful air of abandonment. He was all lean muscle sheathed in sleek bronzed skin from his wide shoulders to his narrow waist and she stared helplessly entranced and surprised at her visceral reaction to his masculinity. As the shirt dropped, he smiled at her in a way he had never smiled before and that slanting, teasing grin was purebred enticement on his darkly beautiful face. Indeed that smile had so much appeal that she sat up and hauled him down towards her to claim his devastating mouth for herself again.
He lay on his side, kissing her breathless and she revelled in every kiss and the brush of his skilled fingers over her wildly sensitised breasts. He pushed up her skirt and traced the edges of her panties, teasing, tormenting, making her agonisingly aware of just how desperate she was to be touched. A finger slid beneath the lace and stroked her swollen folds. She was wet, so wet she was embarrassed by her body and its screaming eagerness. A fingertip circled her and suddenly there was no room for embarrassment, no room for anything but her own gasping, jerking response. He took away that final barrier and explored her.
He shimmied down the sofa and used his mouth on that tender place between her thighs and if lying still had been a challenge before it soon became an impossible challenge for Ellie. Her fingers clawed into his luxuriant black hair, her body dancing and twisting to the powerful drumbeat of desire. The sensations he evoked were excruciatingly intense and only heightened the tormenting ache of need building deep in her pelvis. Heat gathered and mounted uncontrollably at the heart of her and then, taking her entirely by surprise, exploded outwards in a violent climax of sweet, shattering pleasure.
‘Madre di Dio… I can’t wait to be inside you, bella mia,’ Rio said huskily, rearranging her and sliding fluidly between her parted thighs. ‘I am so hungry for you.’
Do I want this? Ellie asked herself and she knew she didn’t need to ask that question because when she looked up into Rio’s gorgeous dark eyes she was ready to agree to do anything he wanted to do. It was as though she were in a dream without a past or a future or even a present. She felt as though there was nothing but that moment and she liked it that way.
Rio tilted her back and drove into her with a single powerful thrust. And Ellie twisted her head to one side and bit her lip because it hurt, it hurt much more than she had expected, and that burning sting of pain wrenched a muffled little moan of discomfort from between her gritted teeth.
‘Something wrong?’ Rio rasped, lifting his tousled dark head. ‘Dio mio, you are so tight you feel like a virgin!’
‘I am!’ Ellie gasped before she could think better of making that admission.
Rio had already sunk as deep as he could get into her tiny body and he froze in shock to gaze down at her. ‘A virgin?’ he echoed in ringing disbelief. ‘How can you be a virgin?’
Ellie wrinkled her nose. ‘Oh, just get it over with, for goodness’ sake,’ she told him in desperation.
Stunned by that irreverent urging, Rio took several seconds to absorb what had happened. She was a virgin? How was that possible? And why hadn’t he noticed anything different about her? He shifted position, withdrawing and then slowly gliding back. Get it over with? What was he? An ordeal to be endured?
The friction of his movement created a little hum of pulsing sensation low in Ellie’s body. She shut her eyes tight, refusing to think, indeed terrified to allow herself to think about what she had just done, what she had just allowed him to do. And while she was battening down her mental hatches, Rio was putting every atom of skill he possessed into rescuing the situation. But he was hugely aroused and working alone because Ellie lay there under him like a little felled tree.
He pushed her knees up and ground down into her, delving deeper, setting an insistent rhythm that she couldn’t ignore. Her hips lifted but much against her will because she was set on simply tolerating him. A frenzied heat began to build and she fought it off as though it were a forest fire. Her hips rose involuntarily and he slammed down into her, sending a startling pulse of pleasure through her. Her heart thumped like crazy, the ability to breathe stolen from her as he picked up speed and force and dominated her. Wild excitement surged and gripped her but much against her will. Her hands bit into his shoulders and then slid caressingly down his muscular back as this time she sensed the peak she was reaching towards.
A chain reaction of convulsions claimed her and she cried out as the ripples of ecstasy spread in a blinding moment of release that consumed her. Rio shuddered and held her tight and bit out something raw and rough in Italian, his powerful body surging into hers. Within seconds, however, she was free again, watching in a daze as Rio sprang off the sofa to fix his trousers and reach for his shirt.
‘You were a virgin?’ Rio repeated incredulously, because innocence and Ellie were a combination that refused to compute in his brain.
Wincing, Ellie sat up and pushed down her skirt. Her panties were lying on the tiles but she had no intention of trying to reclaim them in front of him. She was shell-shocked and shattered by what had taken place. She couldn’t believe she had had sex with Rio. Just then in the aftermath it looked like the worst decision ever after a lifetime of vigilant caution.
‘A virgin?’ Rio prompted again as if a virgin were as improbable as a glimpse of a unicorn. ‘So, why give it up to me?’
‘Maybe I wanted to lose it with someone who would put me off further experimentation,’ Ellie suggested with honeyed derision. ‘Stop acting as if you’ve been grievously assaulted by a virgin, Rio. I can’t be the first you’ve been with—’
‘You are!’ Rio contradicted accusingly, taken aback by her gutsy attitude.
Ellie stood up, very discreetly retrieved her underwear and, quite deliberately ignoring him, went off in search of a cloakroom. It actually hurt to walk, she acknowledged in shock. She ached as though they had had sex for hours. The experience felt less like an introduction and more like a lesson. Be careful of what you wish for, she told herself unhappily. He had leapt off that sofa as though he had been electrocuted. Innocence was clearly a hanging offence in Rio’s book.
Another much more worrying fact was screaming along the edge of Rio’s ragged nerves while he paced the hall, waiting impatiently for Ellie to reappear. He had never met a woman like Ellie and he was very certain that he never wanted to meet another. She drove him crazy. She made him do and say things he never did or said with anyone else. She screwed with his brain, unleashed his temper and sent him racing off the edge of sanity. She had the seductive powers of a temptress and yet how could that be when she had self-evidently had no sexual experience whatsoever? He was terrific in bed and he knew that but she had behaved as though he were useless. So, why did he want her to stay the night? Simply to rescue his ego? And what about Beppe? And what about the lack of a condom? He groaned out loud in frustration and raked his fingers through his cropped black curls. Rio felt raw.
Only innate courage persuaded Ellie out of the sanctuary of the cloakroom because in reality she wanted to curl up and die somewhere well out of Rio’s sight and reach. She didn’t want to see him again; she didn’t want to have to speak to him again either. She simply wanted to forget what had happened and continue her holiday.
‘Please drive me back to my hotel,’ she said woodenly, refusing to look directly at him.
‘Are you on the pill? Or any other form of contraception?’ Rio asked her with startling abruptness.
Ellie almost flinched. She had spent a year taking contracept
ive pills after her sobering experience with Rio at her sister’s wedding. She had feared meeting that level of temptation again and as a result had taken sensible precautions to protect herself in the future. Sadly, however, she had suffered side effects from the medication and had stopped taking the pills.
‘No. I’m not.’ Ellie shook her head slowly and walked back into the reception room to sit down again, because she felt literally weak with shock and anxiety. ‘How could we both be so stupid?’
‘There are still…options,’ Rio selected in a grim undertone.
Ellie’s head reared up, fiery corkscrew curls tumbling back from her white forehead, accentuating her bright green eyes. ‘Don’t you dare suggest options to me! I’m a doctor, sworn to protect life,’ she shot back at him.
‘I didn’t say that that was what I wanted. Accidenti! We are not reckless teenagers but we behaved as though we were,’ Rio intoned in open exasperation. ‘When we get together it is as though we are cursed. Let us hope there are no consequences…’
CHAPTER FIVE
ELLIE BREATHED IN deeply and slowly released her breath in the hope of chasing away the brain fog afflicting her ability to think. She was struggling to perform little mental calculations around her menstrual cycle, very quickly realising that their timing had been little short of catastrophic. She had chosen the worst possible moment to abandon her usual caution, she recognised in steadily deepening dismay.