by Lynne Graham
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 he
r. 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 h
im 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.