The Italian's Wife

a woman with a child either.

'It was only one night. I just didn't want to spoil things-'

'You just did,' Rio drawled ruefully. 'Sarah told me he

was inconsolable and she called the doctor out to check him just in case

there was something else wrong. Timothy isn't secure enough to do

without you for very long.'

Holly was ashamed of that truth.

'But I couldn't have done without you last night either, bella mia.' Rio

slanted her a sudden flashing smile of forgiveness that turned her heart

over inside her tight chest. 'Maybe we're going to have to work out some

way of dividing you in two.'

117

Two days later, lying on the sun-deck that overhung the lagoon, Holly

trailed idle fingertips in the crystal-clear water below. She could see

every rise and dip of the soft sand below, each tiny multicoloured fish

darting beneath the sparkling sunlit surface.

She thought the Maldives were a paradise on earth. The lagoon was ringed

by lush green palms and vegetation. The sky was a deep, dense cloudless

blue and the white sand on the beach merged with a sea the colour of

turquoise. Their magnificent villa was set on its own tiny island where

privacy was assured, but Rio had informed her that more populated places

lay only a short boat trip away on one of the thousand-plus coral

islands that made up the Maldives nation.

'What's so fascinating?' Rio crouched down beside her to ask.

'The lagoon is like a giant rock pool,' Holly confided. 'It takes me

back to when I was a kid and my aunt used to take me to the seaside.'

'Not your parents?'

Holly levered back on to her knees and collided with stunning eyes that

reflected the golden sunlight. Three days into their honeymoon, her

heartbeat was still hitting earthquake mode every time he got close-and

that seemed to be most of the time.

'Dad could never get away from the farm,' she explained.

'You must miss your parents a great deal.' Rio made that observation

with quiet understanding.

Holly nodded agreement. 'But hopefully not for much longer.'

His ebony brows drew together. 'I don't follow.'

'Once we've been married a couple of months, I'm going to tell Mum and

Dad about us and then we can go and visit,' Holly outlined with a slight

flush. "That way there won't be so many awkward questions about how long

we've known each other and so on.'

Rio dealt her an incredulous scrutiny. 'Are you telling me that your

parents are still alive?'

It was her turn to look confused. 'What else would they be?'

'I thought they were dead. When we first met you told me that you had

nobody,' Rio reminded her.

'I didn't mean they were dead!'

'But you didn't even mention the possibility of inviting your parents to

our wedding! Of course I assumed they were gone. What else was I to think?'

Biting her lip with discomfiture, Holly averted her eyes from the level

probe of his and released a rueful sigh. 'Mum and Dad were very upset

when I got pregnant. They sent me to live with my aunt in Manchester. I

was supposed to give Timothy up for adoption and then go back home

again. But once he was born I couldn't do it, so that was that... I was

on my own.'

'When did you last speak to your parents?'

'A week after Timothy was born,' Holly admitted half under her breath.

'But I've written to them a few times to let them know that I was all

right-'

'But you weren't all right!' Rio cut in drily.

Holly ignored that reminder. 'I didn't give them an address, though,

because I didn't want them feeling they had

118

to get involved. It wouldn't have been fair. I made my choice,' she

completed gruffly.

Rio closed his hand over the taut fingers clenching on her slim thigh.

'You made the right choice.'

'Well, until now it didn't seem like it...it seemed like I was the most

useless mother ever,' Holly admitted, her throat thickening with sudden

tears.

Curving a strong arm round her downbent shoulders, Rio raised her up.

'You had a lot of bad luck.'

Holly looked up into the beautiful tawny-gold eyes set in that lean,

dark, devastating face. Suddenly, he was claiming her lips with

devouring hunger, crushing her softer curves into his hard, muscular

frame, giving her all the reassurance she needed. Her heart pounded like

crazy beneath that surprise onslaught and she clung to his broad

shoulders to stay upright.

Rio lifted his dark head again with a ragged laugh. (I should be cooling

the wild passion. You might be pregnant, bella mia.'

'I don't think so.' She had had a headache earlier and only a minute ago

she had almost succumbed to tears, both of which were familiar signs to

her of PMT.

'Why?'

'I just know-'

'But you didn't know when it came to Timothy, did you?'

Holly reddened. 'I don't think I wanted to know-'

Rio stared down at her, shimmering eyes intense above his hard

cheekbones. 'I hope that isn't the case with my baby.'

'How could you think that?' Holly was taken aback by that undercurrent

of dark suspicion in his response. 'But it would be better all round if

I wasn't pregnant this

soon...people will talk if I have a baby short of the nine-month mark.'

Rio gave a fluid shrug that signified his supreme indifference to such

gossip.

'Well, maybe it doesn't matter to you,' Holly conceded tautly. 'But I

wasn't exactly happy when I was carrying Timothy, and if I have another

baby I'd like it to be different. I'd like to feel proud that I'm

pregnant and not feel that people are judging me or sneering at me

behind my back.'

In receipt of that frank speech, Rio groaned out loud and eased her

close again. 'Dio mio...of course you want it to be different, but

believe me, whatever happens, it will be.'

Did Rio actually want her to have conceived his child? Holly wondered

anxiously. As she was almost certain that she had not, she could not

help worrying that perhaps his certainty that she would so easil

y fall

pregnant again had thrust him into a marriage that he might just as

quickly regret. That very evening, her period arrived. She was putting

Timothy to bed when she chose to tell Rio that there was not going to be

a baby.

Rio tensed, strong bone-structure tightening, and then he gave her the

heartbreaking smile that always made her feel as if she was the only

woman in the world for him. 'It's too soon for you anyway, tesoro mio.

We should wait until Timothy is a little older.'

'Yes...' But, perverse as human nature was, Holly then found herself

wishing that she had conceived, for she sensed that with Rio a baby

would be a major and welcome event. Timothy was undeniably enthralled by

the tall, dark male who had become part of his life, and Rio was so good

to him.

However, the world Holly was living in still did not feel quite real to

her. Although she worked hard at hiding those

120

stabs of insecurity from Rio, she could not help being scared that

suddenly it would all be snatched away again. Had she been pregnant with

his child, perhaps she would have felt safer, she acknowledged uneasily,

ashamed of that lowering reality.

Holly watched while Rio tasted.