The Italian's Wife

'Then-er-what was it?'

'The truth of what we're going to do. I can't say that I feel flattered

that you should assume that I would lie about something that important,'

Rio continued with a level cool that only made her own astonishment feel

all that more intense. 'We'll be married just as soon as I can get a

special licence arranged.'

Her knees felt as if they were fashioned out of cotton wool and wobbled

under her. She was finally looking at him for the first time that day

and only because she was reeling with shock. Blue eyes very wide, she

whispered unsteadily, 'You're not having me on?'

'I may have made you pregnant. I took advantage of you last night,' Rio

breathed, aggressive jawline clenched hard. 'You were very vulnerable

and I should have kept my distance. I took you to bed because I wanted-'

'That's OK. That's not taking advantage!' Holly protested with feverish

relief at what she assumed he was about to tell her.

'Sex. I wanted sex. It was as primitive as that.' His superb

bone-structure fiercely taut, Rio made an admission that slaughtered

Holly where she stood, for she had believed when she interrupted him

that he had been telling her that it was her, personally, that he had

wanted. Only that was not the case, was it? The truth was much more

painful. When a bloke said he had just wanted sex, it was

like saying that she had only been a convenient body, Holly reflected in

agony.

Deeply hurt by that confession, wishing he had thought enough of her

feelings not to have voiced it, Holly dropped heavily down onto the

nearest sofa, no longer trusting her weak legs to hold her upright. 'I

wanted you...just you,' she heard herself mumble like a foolish child,

digging herself into an even more embarrassing hole.

'I know...' That confirmation just splintered through her shrinking,

shaking body like the cruellest of knives, tearing tender flesh wherever

it touched. 'I must be honest with you, cara-'

'Don't call me that...whatever it means. You use it like it means

something and it doesn't.' Holly squeezed out that condemnation in a

voice that was far from level. 'So why are you talking about marrying

me...feeling like you do?'

'I like you, Holly. I like Timothy too. I believe I could become fond of

you.'

Holly wanted to die where she sat. Fond? She curved her arms round

herself, appalled at the emotional hurt he was inflicting on her in the

name of honesty. Even Jeff with his abuse had not wounded her as much as

Rio wounded her at that moment. Rio was ripping apart everything, every

naive and harmless belief, every tiny inner hope. He liked her, well,

whoopy-do! So she felt even more pathetic to be sitting there thinking

that she loved him while he hammered the self-esteem he had rescued for

her back into the ground again.

'Until relatively recently, I was engaged to another woman.'

That startling admission hung there like another giant in the face just

waiting for her to lift her cheek to receive it. But something stronger

than she was, the most powerful curiosity, forced Holly to lift her head

again. The

86

brilliant flare of anger lightening his gaze in the aftermath of that

acknowledgement did not match her expectations. There was none of the

regret or emotion that she had feared that she would see. In fact, his

darkly handsome features were set hard in stone.

'Engaged?' she prompted uneasily.

'I finished it. That's over and done with and in the past.' Beautifully

shaped mouth curling, glittering golden eyes resting on her, Rio

murmured, 'I only mentioned it because while I was engaged I got used to

the idea of being married, and I do still need a wife.'

'What for?' It sounded inane but Holly couldn't help it. But then, she

was weak with relief at the finality with which he had pronounced that

his engagement was over. It must have ended quite some time back, Holly

assumed, or he would hardly have been saying that it was in the past.

Rio spread his lean brown hands in a fluid expressive movement. 'Some

day I want a family of my own.'

'Oh...'

'I also need a wife to oversee my domestic arrangements and entertain

friends and family. A wife who will try to be a daughter to my mother,

who suffers a lot of ill-health,' Rio enumerated, very much more relaxed

now that he was getting to talk practicalities. 'A wife to make me more

comfortable, for I have got beyond the stage where I enjoy spending my

time, indeed, often wasting my time with a variety of different women.'

And he wanted superwoman as a wife. He had huge expectations, Holly

thought heavily, knowing she could never, ever measure up to such

requirements, and marvelling that he had not immediately realised that fact.

'You could learn to be the wife that I want,' Rio informed her confidently.

But it sounded as if lifelong training would be necessary.

She had been stymied by one trip to a fancy restaurant, A

near-hysterical giggle bubbled in her aching throat but she had never

been further from laughter.

'You need to know that I've good reason other than the risk that you may

already be pregnant to talk of marriage,' he continued in his dark, deep

drawl that flowed like honey even now down her sensitive spine.

'But we're probably worrying about nothing-'

'Are we? You're young and fertile and I would prefer not to wait for

proof one way or the other.' Rio expelled his breath in a measured hiss.

'If we wait and a child is eventually born there will be those who

believe that I was forced to marry you. That would be humiliating for you.'

He really did expect the worst. He really did believe that there was a

very strong chance that he might have impregnated her. His certainty

scared her. But how could she marry a man who felt nothing for her? Did

that mean that she was considering his offer? Of course she was.

Dredging her attention from his lean, strong face, she knew she did not

even have to take her own feelings for him into account to make that

decision. She had nothing to offer Timmie, who would no doubt thrive as

Timothy. If she married Rio her baby would want for nothing. He would

have a home, love and security and a bloke who was willing to be his

adoptive father. Rio liked kids. He Liked her son already. In fact she

had pretty much hit the equivalent of the jackpot falling in front of

his limo, she acknowledged guiltily, feeling that she would very much be

taking advantage of him.

She linked her trembling hands together, hugely worked up but trying so

hard to emulate his calm and logical approach. 'When did you start

thinking of all this?'

'Ten minutes after you fled from my room last night,' Rio admitted,

bringing her bright head up again. I have never felt so guilty in my

whole life.'

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'Thanks...' Her voice wobbled again and she pushed her lips together

hard, striving to will back the tears threatening behind her eyes.

'I'll look after you and your son. You need me. I like to be

needed. I'm

used to being needed,' Rio completed with a shrug of Latin acceptance.

He was so volatile. So very, very volatile and until now she had not

even recognised that reality. He had seemed so controlled and reserved

at their first proper meeting at the hospital, only to overturn that

impression with his angry, intimidating reaction when he had found her

trying to sneak away from the Lombardi hospital. Ever since then he had

alternated between fiery heat and indolent cool. He could switch from

one mood to the other within seconds. He fascinated her.

'You might go and fall madly in love with someone else...' she heard

herself say, although it was an effort to make herself say that.

'You must be joking,' Rio said in a tone of icy derision.