Expectant Bride

'As for the newspaper foolish enough to print that rubbish, I shall sue,' Dio continued with chilling cool. 'My lawyers tell me I can hang them out to dry, and hang them I will." Involuntarily, Ellie shivered. 'Why bother?' 'When anyone attacks you, they're attacking me. Your reputation is at stake. I will defend it'

'Well, don't feel you have to on my account,' Ellie muttered limply. 'Sticks and stones and all that—'

'They'll settle out of court and print a retraction. They will also make some worthy charity a most handsome donation.' Dio gazed searchingly at the pale delicacy of her set profile and curved her even closer. 'And before I'm finished with them, they'll also reveal their source.

Ellie glanced at him in sudden hope, and then her eyes fell again. 'Journalists never do that.'

'You'd be surprised what they do behind closed doors when the pressure is great enough,' Dio asserted wryly. 'How are you feeling now?'

'That...that I want to be on my own,' Ellie confessed rue¬fully.

Dio tensed.

‘I’m sorry. I just do.' Gently detaching herself from him, Ellie rose to her feet. ‘I’ll go for a walk.'

‘I’ll come with you.'

Ellie skimmed him a pained glance. 'No.' She could see his frustration, feel it. And she loved him so much. If she didn't she wouldn't be in so much pain. But she needed time to wind down and come to terms with what had happened between them.

Ellie took the path down the beach house. Once she reached the warm soft sand on the beach, she kicked off her shoes and walked along through the surf whispering onto the shore. The sun shone blinding silvered reflections on the sea. It was hotter than it had been on her last visit. But she loved the heat. It seemed to drive out the chill inside her.

Here they were on the very first day of their honeymoon and Helena had already practically torn them apart, she reflected with a shiver. Dio had indeed been outraged by such lurid invasive publicity. And, whether she liked the role or not, Ellie now knew that she had become Dio's Achilles' heel. He was a very proud man, and she didn't want him to be any less proud. But they had had yet another violent and destructive argument and she had got precisely nowhere.  How many more could they afford to have before Dio decided that their marriage had no future?

Ellie was far along the beach, sitting in the shade of a rocky outcrop, when she saw Dio striding towards her with lithe, long-limbed grace. He was carrying a picnic hamper.

'I did ask to be on my own,' Ellie reminded him gently.

'You've been on your own for three hours, pethi mou.'  Black eyes held hers levelly. 'Now you need to eat.'

'Did the book Nathan made the mistake of giving you tell you that too?'

His lean, strong face clenched. 'So I want to be with you...is that a crime?'

Involuntarily, Ellie softened. 'No, I want to be with you too.'

'Only not enough to come back to the villa.'

Ellie considered that point and sighed. 'I have to admit that sometimes I really get a kick out of making you run after me.’

Dio looked startled. Then an appreciative laugh escaped him. 'I have never heard a woman admit that before.'

'Don't be slow, Dio. I'm only admitting it because we're married.'

His shimmering smile turned her heart over, and Ellie finally reached a decision. Dio might not recognise Helena's capacity for malice, but men were slow to recognise female cunning and Helena was clever. More importantly, Dio seemed quite happy with the wife he had. He wasn't behaving like a male who had given up the woman he loved. Or was he simply more pragmatic than she was prepared to acknowledge?

A frown drew Dio's level dark brows together. 'What are you thinking about?' he demanded.

Ellie gave him an innocent look. 'You,' she said with perfect truth.

A look somewhere between male pleasure and wariness formed on Dio's bronzed features, sunlight turning his eyes into reflective mirrors. 'Your expression seemed rather hostile—'

'I was just thinking that I want us to hang onto our marriage,' Ellie assured him piously.

The wary edge evaporated. Dio was now free to rejoice in the happy notion that he was at the heart of her every thought. And, yes, she noted with surprise, he liked that idea. She watched the slumbrous smile slowly curve his mouth. Only then did she acknowledge that he was indeed the very centre of her world. Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to let him know that.

‘These days you need to work really hard to keep a mar¬riage afloat,' she added.

'But we don't have any problems,' Dio stated with a definite aggressive edge.

Ellie busied herself rooting about in the incredibly elaborate picnic hamper and concealed the amused glint in her gaze. He was keen to deny the possibility that they did have a problem. And, having vented her spleen in setting Ellie up for that newspaper article, what, realistically, could Helena possibly do to hurt either her or then- marriage in the future?