Rashad climbed out of the passenger seat. The friendship he and Rio had formed while at university had only deepened when the men married sisters who liked to see each other regularly.
Rio’s sizzling smile broke out as Ellie threw herself at him and wrapped her arms round his neck as if she hadn’t seen him in a week. He was a little disconcerted because he had only left her early that morning and she wasn’t usually given to any public displays of affection.
‘You missed me?’ he whispered, wondering if something was worrying her.
‘A little. I’ve got news,’ Ellie murmured soft and low. ‘Let’s go upstairs.’
‘Is this about your sister Lucy?’
‘No, nothing new there. Polly still wants to jump in the royal jet and land on Lucy’s doorstep and explode into her life,’ Ellie told him ruefully. ‘But I think she’s beginning to come round to a more diplomatic approach.’
As Rashad, the king of Dharia, strolled past them to join his wife and two sons Ellie gripped Rio’s hand and practically dragged him up to their bedroom.
‘You’re beginning to worry me,’ Rio confided, shooting a glance at Ellie’s glowing face and registering that whatever had happened, it couldn’t be anything bad.
‘We’re pregnant again!’ Ellie announced with delight.
Rio blinked and nodded very slowly. ‘I wasn’t aware we were even trying…’
‘I didn’t want to put pressure on you so I didn’t mention that I wasn’t taking anything,’ Ellie revealed cheerfully.
Rio almost laughed out loud. Put pressure on him? Nothing could keep him away from Ellie. He adored her. But he still compressed his lips and said, ‘It might have been nice to be asked…to have discussed this as a couple,’ he remarked, rather woodenly because he still wanted to laugh.
Ellie’s face fell as if he’d slapped it. ‘I didn’t think of that. I know how much you love having Teresina and I want to have my family while I’m still young and I would like them close together in age.’ She chewed uncomfortably at her lower lip. ‘I suppose I should’ve said something—’
Rio grinned. ‘I was only joking. I’m delighted,’ he assured her with heartfelt enthusiasm. ‘The more t
he merrier—’
‘Polly’s pregnant again too. She’s very keen to have a daughter,’ she confided. ‘I’ll tell her about me over dinner, so don’t go breaking my news ahead of me like you did the last time with that phone call.’
Rio linked his arms round her slim waist. ‘It’s my news too, principessa. I did figure in the conception.’
Ellie beamed up at him approvingly. ‘Yes, you’re wonderfully fertile—’
‘Good to know I’m useful for something—’
‘And spectacularly good at the action part,’ Ellie whispered lovingly, hands running below his jacket to skate possessively over his hard muscled chest and then lowering in a much more intimate caress.
Rio shed his jacket and his shirt in record time. ‘I won’t sulk about not being consulted on the extending-the-family issue,’ he admitted huskily. ‘I know Dr Ellie was in the driving seat worrying that I might suffer from performance anxiety in bed for the first time in my life. In short, I’m perfectly happy to be used and useful.’
‘I know you are,’ Ellie told him cheerfully, shimmying out of her dress even faster, her eyes full of love and appreciation as she fasted her gaze on his lean, bronzed body, the passion that always simmered below the surface of their marriage gripping both of them with its scorching intensity. ‘Did I ever tell you how much I love you?’
‘Not since last night.’ Rio studied his wife with wondering admiration and marvelled that he had found her, that she had married him, learned to love him and overlooked his every flaw. Loving Ellie had brought him untold riches in the happiness stakes and he would never ever take it for granted because he had lived too long without that security. ‘But if you want to be competitive, you couldn’t possibly love me as much as I love you…’
*