‘Don’t you realise,’ she murmured gruffly, her throat thickening, so great was her emotion, ‘that you should be proud of what you’ve achieved from such a tough beginning in life? It genuinely makes me feel incredibly proud of you.’
Rio studied her, lustrous dark golden eyes with a suspicious shine, lean, darkly handsome face clenched hard. ‘You mean…all that?’
Ellie rose from her seat, empowered by his stillness, his uncharacteristic uncertainty. Never had she loved him more or understood him better. Franca and her family had taught him to be ashamed of his birth and background and she marvelled at their unwitting cruelty over something that he could not have influenced as she crossed the room and wrapped both arms tightly round him.
‘Hug time?’ Rio interpreted shakily, hoping she didn’t catch the break in his voice, because in his whole life he had never known such a relief as the moment when Ellie told him that she loved him no matter what. It was the unconditional love he had sought without ever knowing it and suddenly he didn’t feel alone and pitched against the world any longer.
‘Hug time,’ Ellie confirmed unevenly, winding round him like a vine. ‘I’m really sorry I misunderstood what I saw with you and Franca. I sort of went haywire. I knew she was your first love and I thought maybe—’
‘No.’ Rio shuddered at the thought. ‘She’s happily married to a radiographer at the hospital and has two other children. But she developed a guilt complex about me when she finally got into rehab and started to rebuild her life. She says part of the recovery therapy was the need to mend fences with those she had wronged while she was still drinking but she could never face getting in touch with me after what she had done.’
‘So, when she met you again—’
‘It all came spilling out.’ Rio sighed heavily. ‘And I had to listen. It would have been cruel to tell her that it was very old history for me and that I no longer cared. I kept on saying that we had both made mistakes and weren’t suited in any case but she kept on and on and on talking and crying—’
‘I’m glad I didn’t interrupt. Listening was the right thing to do. That was kind because I’m sure you were very uncomfortable and if I could’ve seen your face, I would’ve known that, but I could only see her face. When did you become that sensitive without me noticing?’ Ellie asked in honest surprise.
‘Oh, that probably happened when I realised I was in love with you. I then decided that I wanted to be the perfect husband—’
‘You are…but I’m a very imperfect, distrustful wife,’ Ellie mumbled in shame, burying her hot face in his shoulder, drinking in the familiar scent of him with an enormous sense of relief combined with sheer wonderment. He loved her? Her gorgeous, passion-filled, outrageously exciting husband loved her? He didn’t find her too boring or sensible? Jealous and possessive? She was ecstatic with wondering happiness. ‘So what happened with your mother when you did meet her?’
‘There was a piece in the newspaper about me being found when I was abandoned and she always knew where I was. When I began to make money she looked me up,’ he confided grimly. ‘And that’s all she wanted… Money. She told me a lot of lies. I found out that although she had weaned herself off her own addiction, she made a living by dealing drugs to others. I had nothing more to do with her—’
‘That must have hurt.’ Ellie sighed in sympathy.
‘It is what it is. Getting off drugs didn’t magically turn her into a nice or caring woman.’ Rio shrugged. ‘As to my potential father? I was an accident. Probably one of her customers. She had no idea.’
‘It really doesn’t matter to me,’ Ellie emphasised. ‘I wasn’t only saying that. What matters to me is the man you are now and I love him. I even love you a little more for being kind to Franca, which you must’ve found trying.’
Rio tilted up her face, dark golden eyes adoring. ‘There could never be another woman for me, Ellie. I’ve never loved like this. I didn’t know I even could love like this but you’re everything I ever wanted in a woman…even if I didn’t realise that until I met you the second time.’
‘We just fought,’ Ellie groaned.
‘And I got more of a kick out of fighting with you than I got out of any affair I’ve ever had,’ Rio confessed. ‘But the hunger for you was overwhelming… I couldn’t fight that—’
Ellie lifted warm eyes to his lean, strong face, glorying in his scorching appraisal. ‘I couldn’t either. I always keep my feet firmly on the ground and then I met you and everything, including me, went crazy—’
‘But we’ve had so much enjoyment out of each other,’ Rio commented with appreciation. ‘On levels I didn’t even know there could be between a man and a woman. Before you, it was all about sex for me—’
‘Oh, I know that.’ Ellie flushed. ‘In Dharia—’
Rio winced. ‘I was a jerk…but I had never wanted any woman the way I wanted you that night and I was on a high and then it all went pear-shaped, thanks to the twins—’
‘Perhaps we both needed another couple of years to be ready for something more serious,’ Ellie suggested forgivingly.
‘Dio mio, I love you!’ Rio swore passionately in receipt of the face-saving, utterly unearned excuse she was giving him and appreciating her generosity. He gathered her into his arms and almost squeezed her with his enthusiasm into suffocation. ‘Really, really love you and I can’t wait for the baby now that I know for sure that I have you by my side…’
‘Well, when you ordered that giant train set in Venice and told me there was no reason why a little girl shouldn’t enjoy it as much as a little boy I kind of guessed that our baby would be welcomed,’ Ellie confided as he smoothly edged her down onto the bed. ‘Nap time for pregnant Ellie, is it?’
‘No. No rest for the imperfect wife,’ Rio teased with a charismatic slashing grin as he looked down at her flushed, smiling face. ‘Adriano was so relieved when you and then I showed up. He hates the house being empty because he has nothing to do and he’s been fretting about Beppe. He’s making dinner for seven, which gives us a few hours to fill—’
Ellie’s eyes widened at that implication. ‘You mean, you were so sure of yourself when you arrived here that you just went ahead and ordered dinner?’ she exclaimed in disbelief.
‘I wasn’t prepared to leave here without you and if you refused to leave I had a case out in the car to enable me to stay here with you,’ Rio explained without hesitation. ‘When I want something, principessa… I don’t quit and I don’t surrender and I do believe that I would fight to the death to keep you in my life.’
‘At heart you’re a romantic,’ Ellie told him with satisfaction and approval. ‘When I came here, I was fighting for you too—’
Rio interrupted her in Italian to tell her argumentatively that walking out of their marital home had been a dreadful, shocking action to take.