‘Don’t kid yourself,’ Rio practically spat at her as he raked the car on up the hill she had been struggling to climb. ‘If you were assaulted, you would be far too busy assessing the pros and cons of acting aggressively to take action quickly enough to defend yourself!’
And Ellie was stunned by that eerily accurate reading of her character. Rio was the single exception to her abhorrence of violence in all its forms and even when it came to him she didn’t want to actually hurt him, just hold him at bay or make him go away. ‘Where are you taking me?’
‘Somewhere we can talk in peace,’ he grated.
Ellie skimmed an infuriated glance at his set profile, noting the classic slope of his nose, the definition lent by his perfect cheekbones, the outrageous sweep of his black lashes. ‘You’re driving too fast—’
‘I am within the speed limit.’
Ellie flung her head back with a sigh of frustration, her wild mane of hair blowing in the wind. She would look like a rag doll with corkscrew curls by the time she got out of the car but what did that matter? The breeze against her overheated skin was wonderfully cooling. Kidnapping and assault? Rio had a temper worse than her own and that was a revelation that had a surprisingly cooling effect on Ellie’s own temper. She had learned young that she had to learn to control and contain the ferocity of her feelings. Rio, evidently, had not. The oddest sense of compassion flooded her because she had not a doubt that he would be very embarrassed when he looked back and fully thought through what he had done to her.
Rio, however, was in a rage to surpass all rages and he was well aware of it. Beppe’s distress had provoked a visceral reaction in him that he could not deny or fight. He loved that man, would have done anything for him! That he had failed to shield Beppe from whatever nasty business Ellie had somehow involved him in slashed Rio’s proud protective spirit to the bone. He was going to get the truth out of Ellie if it killed him. Inferno… This mysterious nonsense everybody was refusing to discuss had to end right now because his patience was at an end!
Rio turned the car off the road down a long track. Dense clusters of ancient oak trees prevented Ellie from seeing more than a few yards ahead and when the car rounded the final bend she had no inkling that they were heading for a house until she saw it right there in front of her. It was a breathtaking palazzo, with a remarkable resemblance to an elaborate dolls’ house, and it fitted into the landscape where it had clearly held its commanding position for centuries. It was built on a hill and undoubtedly had views that stretched for miles. She unclasped her seat belt and climbed out with a look of exasperated tolerance in Rio’s direction once the child lock was finally disengaged.
‘You can apologise now,’ Ellie said.
‘Apologise?’ Rio practically roared at her in disbelief. ‘Beppe was in tears over lunch! I haven’t seen him in such a state since his wife died. What did you do to him?’
Ellie froze beside the car, her fine-boned features locking tight, her pallor noticeable. Clearly she had upset Beppe Sorrentino and yet she had never wanted to do that. Had she ever truly considered what her quest to discover her father would do to the man involved? No, she hadn’t, she conceded guiltily. In fact, she had believed that it would be safe to approach Beppe because he was a childless widower who seemed to have no close relatives. Of course, she hadn’t known about Rio’s connection to the older man then and, seeing the intensity of Rio’s fury, she instantly recognised that he was attached to Beppe and it hit her hard. Rio might not be a blood relative but the way he was reacting he might as well have been.
‘I didn’t do anything to Beppe. I simply gave him some information he wasn’t expecting to hear,’ Ellie countered uncomfortably, because what on earth was she supposed to say to Rio?
If Beppe hadn’t told his godson the truth, it was certainly not her place to do so. And she quite understood the older man’s reasoning. He had had an affair while he was married, an affair that more than twenty years on he still obviously regretted. He was ashamed of his affair with her mother and Ellie had to respect that reality. It hurt to appreciate that, even if tests were done and Beppe did prove to be her father, he might well want the existence of an illegitimate daughter to remain a secret. She couldn’t fairly complain about that, couldn’t possibly resent it because Beppe had the right to guard his privacy and make his own choices. That he had agreed to DNA testing was more than enough, she told herself doggedly, scolding herself for the fantasy of having a real father, which she had rather naively begun to entertain. Really, how likely was it that Beppe would seek an ongoing relationship with her now that she was an adult and fully independent?
‘Ellie!’ Rio raked back impatiently at her as he stalked back from the front door he had unlocked. She had once watched a tiger pace a cage in the same way and it was distinctly unnerving. For the first time it dawned on her that so volatile a personality should have frightened her and she was even more surprised to acknowledge that, not only was she unafraid, but also ridiculously attracted by Rio’s sheer sizzling intensity. Even so, she wished that like a difficult piece of technology Rio came with a useful book of instructions because she didn’t know how she was supposed to calm him down when she wasn’t in a position to give him the explanation he so plainly wanted.
‘The raised voice is getting really old,’ Ellie told him drily instead.
Dark colour scored his razor-sharp cheekbones. ‘Come inside—’
‘Said the kidnapper to his victim,’ Ellie added.
Rio swore in a flood of Italian.
‘Yes, I give as good as I get,’ Ellie pointed out, moving out of the
sunshine into the shadow of the building because calling Rio’s bluff was one thing, but baking alive while doing it would be foolish.
‘I brought you to my home because I desired privacy in which to speak to you,’ Rio framed with obvious difficulty in being that polite.
Ellie pondered her options, which were few. She had neither her phone nor any money on her person. Rio had stranded her in the Tuscan countryside. ‘I’ll come inside but there will be no more shouting and you will not put your hands on me again,’ she warned him.
‘I can’t promise that I won’t shout because I am very angry with you,’ Rio admitted in a low-pitched growl as he watched her move towards him, her skirt fluttering above her slender knees, making him very aware of the long shapely legs beneath. His gaze filtered involuntarily upward, lingering on the soft fullness of her pink lips, and shifted with a jerk as she moved, the luscious sway of her full breasts below her top making his mouth run dry. ‘And I wouldn’t promise to keep my hands off you because I’m not sure I could ever deliver on that one, principessa.’
That honest response and possibly the reuse of that mocking label worked for Ellie and released a little of her nervous tension. In fact, she went pink while inwardly admitting that she wasn’t that much better at keeping her hands off him, regardless of whether she was slapping him or kissing him. Rio awakened very strong reactions inside her. The usual barriers that she employed to keep a careful distance from people were shockingly absent with Rio Benedetti and that awareness rattled her nerves.
Ellie followed Rio into a cool, tiled hallway that was strikingly contemporary and into a vast reception room furnished with pale leather sofas and several dramatic modern paintings. The gorgeous house might be ancient but the cool interior decor and modern furnishings were in stark contrast.
Rio spun round to face her again, a dark shadow of stubble accentuating his beautifully shaped mouth and the raw tension etched in the hard line of his lips. And she found herself wondering for the first time if he was ever gentle or tender, traits that seemed far removed from his aggressive, competitive nature. And did it even matter, another voice mocked, when he looked the way he did? That mocking inner voice shocked her because it steamrollered over everything she believed she knew about herself, for since when had she been impressed by appearances? Yet when she looked at Rio, everything sane and sensible vanished from her brain as if it had been wiped. And then there was only room for glorying in his tempestuous male magnificence, room to marvel at the precise arrangement of his lean, darkly charismatic features and the stunning clarity of his smouldering golden eyes. She sucked in a startled breath to fill her deprived lungs.
‘All I’m asking you to do is come clean with me,’ Rio murmured lightly, as though what he was asking should be easy for her to do. ‘Tell me what’s going on…’
Ellie’s slim figure tensed. ‘It’s not that simple, Rio.’
An ebony brow quirked in disagreement. ‘It is a very simple matter that you are making difficult out of sheer stubbornness.’
‘No, it is a private matter between Beppe and me,’ she countered. ‘Ask him to explain things.’