VITTORIO'S RUNAWAY BRIDE

by Kimberley Reeves

  Logan silenced her with a long, very thorough kiss. “Never say that again,” he growled softly, then devoured her lips hungrily until she was soft and pliant in his arms and making the most delicious sounds in the back of her throat. “Io vogtio te…I want you,” he rasped hoarsely. “I want to lay you back across our bed and spread your lovely thighs…”

  “Logan, stop,” she pleaded.

  “Why, my darling, when you so obviously want it too?”

  Shelby let out a soft sigh as his lips trailed down the side of her throat. “I do want you,” she said breathlessly, “but we have a house full of guests waiting for us.”

  Logan lifted his head, locking his eyes to hers. “Family, Shelby. They are your family as well as mine and they love you.” He pressed a kiss to her lips. “They were worried about you, cara. Yes, they were concerned for me but only because they knew how much I missed you, and I promise you if there was any anger on their part it was only because they didn’t understand why you left any more than I did.”

  “Did you tell them?”

  “Shelby, I…” his voice faltered for a moment.

  He’d never lied to her before, at least not until his omission about Alicia’s sexual advances, but he’d already decided to address that issue with her later. He’d felt guilty enough telling his family the little white lie about why Shelby had left him, but that one he could live with. If he and Shelby were ever going to regain the trust they’d once had in each other, he’d have to confess what he’d done.

  “Shelby,” he started again, “I think there is something you should know…about what I told my family when you left. I may have…no, I purposely led them to believe it was my fault.”

  Shelby’s eyes widened. “Why would you do that?”

  “Do not be angry with me, cara mia, I only meant to protect you.”

  “Angry? Logan Vittorio, you are the most honorable man I’ve ever know and going against your own principles so your family wouldn’t be resentful towards me is just about the sweetest thing you’ve ever done.”

  “Does this mean you are ready to go back downstairs and join the family?”

  “Not quite,” she said with a sexy smile.

  “Madre Di Dio, have mercy,” he muttered when Shelby unzipped her dress and let it drop to the floor.

  If there had ever been a time when she looked more beautiful, Logan couldn’t remember it. Sitting at the one of the round tables that was perched close to the pool, laughing at something Milana had said, she looked truly happy. Her cheeks were still flushed with color from their very abbreviated, albeit extremely ardent love-making session, and her lips were slightly swollen from the passionate kisses they’d shared.

  Her eyes kept wandering back to him, making promises he fully intended to make her keep later when they were alone. And every time her elegant fingers closed around the glass of wine, Logan had to bite back a groan at the memory of them curling around his heated flesh as she guided him into her moist opening.

  “It does not fade with time,” his brother Simon said as he followed Logan’s gaze.

  “The love I have for my wife?”

  “No, that will only continue to grow stronger.” Simon smiled warmly at his own wife, Lilly. “I was talking about that helpless feeling you get when you look at her, as if you are drowning and have forgotten how to swim.”

  “It is not a feeling I am at ease with,” Logan admitted. “It scares me sometimes, loving her so much that I am lost without her.”

  “Then you need to find out what made her leave you and make sure it does not happen again.”

  “I know why she left. Shelby saw me coming out of the Grand Marquis with Alicia Delatorre and thought I was having an affair.” Logan rushed to explain when Simon’s eyes narrowed in silent accusation. “It was a complete misunderstanding, I swear. I was meeting Richard, for lunch and he asked if I could stop by the hotel and pick her up on the way.”

  “Shelby should have asked you about it instead of running away without giving you the chance to explain.”

  Logan looked at his brother with the same accusatory expression Simon had given him. “You mean the way Lilly waited around for your explanation when she thought you were having a fling with Gabriella?”

  “Is it my fault women tend to respond with emotion, not logical thinking,” Simon said with a touch of self-righteousness.

  “No, but I did not deliberately set out to make Shelby jealous as you did with Lilly. At least you were able to convince your wife it was simply a foolish ploy on your part to make her see how much she loved you.”

  “It was foolish,” Simon grimaced, “and it was game that nearly destroyed what we had together.”

  “I think I have done something even worse and now I am afraid it is going to come back to haunt me. I was not entirely honest about Alicia Delatorre.”

  “You did not tell her about escorting Alicia to the art gallery and a business dinner? Logan, how could you omit something like that after she told you that seeing you and Alicia together was the reason she left?”

  “I did tell her about it. What I neglected to tell her was that Richard’s wife has been coming on to me since the first time I met her. She even came to my office and propositioned me.”

  “Mio Dio,” Simon groaned, “why did you agree to escort the woman anywhere after she pulled something like that?”

  “It was stupid, I know,” Logan said miserably. “I had hoped that by showing her I had no interest in having an affair with her, she would stop trying to seduce me and we could have an amicable relationship. I did not want to lose Richard’s friendship or his business and I was concerned that if Alicia and I could not be in the same room without feeling uncomfortable with each other, Richard would begin to question it.”

  “But she has not gotten the message?”

  “No, and now I am worried she will do or say something to make Shelby think her suspicions were valid.”

  “Then you have to head it off at the pass, Logan. Tell Shelby what this woman has done so she has no reason to believe you are hiding something.”

  Logan’s eyes wandered back to Shelby. “Tell her Alicia came to my office and all but begged me to have sex with her? Madre di Dio, how could any woman hear something like that and not question whether I had given Alicia reason to believe I wanted it too?”

  “Did you?”

  “Siete insano?” Logan’s temper flared. “Have you completely lost your mind? The woman makes my skin crawl! Even if I was attracted to her, I love my wife and would never hurt Shelby that way.”

  “Then tell her, Logan. Tell her everything you have told me and so she has nothing to worry about.”

  “I do not want to her to give her any reason for doubting me again,” Logan agreed.

  “So you will tell her?”

  “Yes.”

  “When?”

  Logan shot his brother a wilting glare. “Tomorrow, is that soon enough to suit you?”

  Simon’s eyes turned to his wife, Lilly. “See to it that you do not delay having the conversation. Trust me on this, Logan. The longer you put it off, the greater chance you take of losing her again.”

  ****

  He couldn’t do it. How could he tell Shelby about Alicia’s attempts to seduce him when he’d neglected to say anything about it before they’d left the beach house? It was especially damning to have remained silent after she’d overheard him talking to Alicia on the phone. To make matters worse, last night as they were getting ready for bed, she’d apologized again for not trusting him. In his own defense, Logan had attempted to tell her but he’d gotten a little sidetracked.

  “I have something I need to talk to you about,” he’d said as Shelby was turning down the bed covers.

  Apparently, she had no desire to talk. In response, she’d given him a sexy smile then untied her robe and let it drop to the floor. His eyes followed her feline movements as she crawled onto the bed and stretched out, her glorious mane of hair splayed acr
oss the pillow. It took Logan’s breath away to see his wife offering herself up to him so wantonly, and every male hormone in his body ached to claim her in a most uncivilized manner.

  “You are not making this very easy,” he said as he slipped between the sheets. He turned on his side, propping himself on one elbow. “We really do need to talk,” he made a second attempt.

  Shelby stuck out her bottom lip in a pretty pout as she feathered one hand across his chest. “I thought you wanted to make a baby,” she said in a husky whisper.

  Logan had no defense against her words and an even greater weakness for the seductive way she pressed her hips into his. But it was the soft purring sound she made in the back of her throat as she nuzzled her nose into his neck that threw him over the edge. Shelby let out a surprised squeak when he rolled on top of her and roughly kneed her legs apart then plunged into her with a primal growl. He possessed her in a way he never had before, driving himself into her, each forceful stroke branding her as his, only his.

  Shelby’s heart soared because she knew exactly what he was doing. Logan was binding her to him in the most intimate way possible and she exalted in his ardent love making and the intensely fierce expression on his handsome face. She smiled to herself as she matched each furious thrust of his hips with a fury of her own. He was so deeply masculine, her passionate husband, so completely convinced that the only way to prove she belonged to him was through the physical joining of their bodies.

  She accepted his need to claim her, not just because it satisfied something in his own heart and soul but because it fulfilled something deep inside her as well. Maybe it was a silly old fashioned notion but she liked the idea that she belonged to her husband and that he considered her his prized possession.

  What made it right in her eyes was that Logan somehow tempered that possessive streak by allowing her the freedom to be herself too. And that, Shelby was finally beginning to understand, was the reason she and Logan were so perfect together, why their love for each other burned just as strong now as it ever had.

  “I love you,” she whispered, after their passion had been spent and she lay in his arms.

  “You have changed,” Logan said, pulling her more snuggly to his side. “The way you make love now is…different. Why is that, cara mia?”

  “Different, yes,” she agreed, “but it’s better now, isn’t it?”

  “I have no complaints about how good it was before, Shelby.”

  “No…no complaints,” she said softly. “It’s never been anything but wonderful between us, but there was always a small part of me that I held back because I was afraid.”

  “Afraid of what, carissima?”

  “The same thing you were afraid of, Logan. I thought if I gave you everything, if I let myself go and loved you like I really wanted to, I’d lose a part of myself. And I was terrified there wouldn’t be any hope of picking up the pieces and going on with my life if our marriage didn’t work out.”

  “I was never afraid our marriage would not last,” he said with total conviction.

  “No, but you were afraid that you’d lose a part of yourself. You’re always in such control, Logan, and I know it was much harder for you to give that up than it was for me. But you did it. That first night at the beach house, I felt it.”

  “I could not keep it from you any longer,” he admitted. “When I realized I had not lost you, that you still loved me, I knew it was useless to even pretend there was any part of me that did not already belong to you.”

  “It’s the same for me. It seems so silly now, doesn’t it; believing we were holding onto something that we’d already given each other long ago?”

  “I was lost from the first moment I laid eyes you, mio bello.”

  “I don’t think I ever quite believed that.”

  “But you do now?”

  “Well,” she pressed herself more firmly to his side, “let’s just say it gets easier every time you make love to me like you did tonight.”

  “You need more convincing, do you?”

  “Mmmmm,” she purred when his hand glided up her side to cup her breast.

  “Do not take this the wrong way,” Logan murmured as he nibbled his way from her neck to her mouth, “but I hope it takes all night to convince you.”

  ***

  Simon sat across from his brother looking thoroughly disappointed. “You did not tell her.”

  “I tried last night but…it was the first time in over six months we were alone in our house, our own room and…” Logan shrugged, certain Simon could figure out the rest without going into details.

  “And this morning before you left for work? You had time then. What about when you went home for lunch? Or did you end up alone in your room again and get distracted by something more…enticing?”

  “She was still asleep when I left this morning,” Logan replied stiffly, “and I did not go home for lunch. I promised Shelby I would go with her to the doctor’s office, and afterwards…after we found out she was not pregnant, I did not have the heart to talk to her about Alicia.”

  “I am sorry, Logan. I remember how crushed Lilly was when she thought she was pregnant only to discover she was not.”

  “I am afraid Shelby took it better than I did,” he said grimly. “I was so sure…”

  Logan rose from his desk and wandered over to the glass wall that looked out over the city. She’d taken it much harder than he’d expected her to, but when the doctor told them she wasn’t pregnant it felt as if something deep inside of him had been wrenched out and shredded. He’d been strong for Shelby of course, assuring her they would keep trying, but he’d driven around for over an hour after dropping her off at the house because he’d been so deeply disappointed.

  “When the time is right it will happen,” Simon promised.

  Logan turned around. “You have omitted to say that it can never be right while there are still secrets between us.”

  “It was not an omission, little brother, I simply saw no need to point out what you already know to be true.”

  Chapter 9

  Shelby threw her arms around Logan’s neck. “I love it,” she beamed up at him. “But how did you get it done so fast?”

  Logan arched a brow. “You have to ask?”

  “I imagine it was a mixture of money and charm. I do so love you, Logan Vittorio. You’ve managed to come up with the one thing that could chase my blues away.”

  Shelby gave him a quick kiss before venturing across the room to examine all the brand new art supplies he’d had delivered to the Penthouse suite. The room that had once been a small study had been converted into an art studio and he’d furnished it with every conceivable artist tool she could imagine. And he’d accomplished it in only one day. For her.

  She’d been so upset after the doctor’s appointment the day before, she’d gone up to their room after Logan dropped her off and cried herself to sleep. She’d been bitterly disappointed to find out she wasn’t pregnant but it wasn’t just because she knew how much Logan wanted it. Shelby hadn’t even realized just how much she’d had her heart set on having a baby until she discovered she hadn’t conceived.

  She felt even worse now because Logan had tried so hard the night before to pull her out of the depression she’d allowed herself to sink into. He’d asked Alba to make her favorite dinner and he’d been so sweet and attentive both during the meal and afterwards when he’d coaxed her into taking a walk in the flower gardens. Even after all that, Shelby had turned her back on him when they’d gone to bed, making it clear that she didn’t want to make love. He hadn’t attempted to change her mind as she’d expected him to, but had merely curled himself around her and held her close.