The Italian's Wife

'This is sensational,' he breathed appreciatively. 'What is it called?'

'Somerset apple cake.'

'You're an incredible cook.'

'I started learning when I was four. Baking skills are a matter of pride

in a farming community,' Holly told him with a rueful grin, light

playing on her animated face as she sat cross-legged on the bed, clad in

a colourful silk sarong. 'But to tell you the truth, Mum was really

grooming me for the neighbour's son. She thought Robert was wonderful

but I just didn't fancy him-'

'Did he fancy you?' His beautiful mouth slanted with vibrant amusement

at the term.

'Well, just then I think he fancied anything female,' Holly confided,

heart lurching predictably in receipt of that glorious smile of his. 'He

was dating one of my mates when I left home and his parents didn't

approve because she was a real townie.'

The phone by the bed buzzed and Rio answered it. She listened to him

talk in Italian and just watched him while she melted into a hopeless

puddle of love and longing. They had been married for exactly twenty-one

days and already she could not imagine existing without him, could not

even accept that she could have lived for twenty years on the same

planet without being aware that the love of her life was breathing the

same air. For that was what he was:

ojo, this male who had become so impossibly precious and important to

her every waking hour.

He was just...perfect. Entertaining, clever, caring. He spoilt her like

mad. He was always buying her loads of stuff she didn't need,

introducing her to fantastic new experiences and somehow making every

single day seem special. She had learned to water-ski, snorkel and sail.

He was also fantastic with kids. Timothy was enslaved, and adoring Rio

seemed to be good for Timothy because her son was much more confident.

And a restaurant menu would never terrify her again because they ate out

most evenings and she was familiar with most of the terms now and quite

happy to ask if she came across anything she didn't understand. She had

also finally had her ears pierced, but her nerve had almost failed her

at the last minute and only a fear of embarrassing Rio had got her

through it.

Nobody was perfect, her more sane self cautioned, so she worked hard at

coming up with a flaw or two. Rio didn't need much sleep. He was

incredibly active, but good diet and lots of exercise had increased her

own energy. He was naturally dominant, but when he had been teaching her

to water-ski that had been welcome because the first time she sank below

the waves she would have given up if he hadn't bullied her into repeated

efforts. She had ended up having a fabulous time, she reflected forgivingly.

Indeed, every morning she woke up in Rio's arms she felt as if she had

won the jackpot. All her insecurity had evaporated. No man had ever

treated her so well and no man had ever wanted her to the degree that

Rio appeared to want her. Face warming, she scanned his bold, bronzed

profile and the long, sexy, indolent slump of his lean, hard, muscular

frame. There was something very reassuring about a bloke who could not

keep his hands off her for longer than a couple of hours, she thought

with a secretive

122

smile. Obviously, he was pretty highly sexed, but he made her feel as

though she was irresistible. The strong attraction between them was

anything but one-sided. Was it any wonder that she was blissfully happy

and more madly in love than ever?

So what if he didn't love her? There was time enough for that to come.

He did do romantic stuff. He gave her surprise presents and held her

hand and seemed truly fascinated by every mundane aspect of her previous

existence. And in three long weeks they had not had a single argument.

She didn't count screaming at him when he told her to get back on the

water-skis and not act like a baby. Or that time he had dragged her out

of bed before dawn to go fishing and cheerfully told her that she ought

to stand up for herself more often. And when she had done so five

minutes later he hadn't liked it at all.

'You're coming with me,' he had delivered in full command mode.

And much later, when she had been even more bored out of her mind than

she had expected to be on that stupid boat, she had asked him why it had

been so important that she join him.

'I just like you around,' Rio had murmured in some surprise that she

should need to ask.

Only then had it occurred to her that a bloke who had been twenty-four

hours a day in her company but who could still demand the twenty-fifth

hour, figuratively speaking, was paying her quite a compliment.

Rio slung the phone aside with an impatient sigh. 'Business is intruding

even before we fly home tomorrow. My mother's at the Priory and

expecting to meet you but I'm afraid that I have to head for New York

more or less immediately.'

'Oh...' Her heart sank at the prospect of the parting

ahead, and then she scolded herself for being too possessive.

'I know it's far from ideal but I really don't think another

raincheck would be acceptable. Do you think you could handle meeting her

on your own?' Rio reached for her with the unquestioning self-assurance

of a male aware that his attentions were always welcome, his question

clearly rhetorical.

Seated on the edge of the bed, he set Holly down on her feet between his

long, hair-roughened thighs while he proceeded to ease loose the knot on

her sarong. At that moment, with her heart racing, he could have asked

her to walk into a fire and she would have gone in blind faith. She

trembled, reacting to the tiny flame already igniting deep in her

pelvis, the delicious wave of anticipation already currenting through

her. No matter how often he made love to her, it was always the same.

'I ache just looking at you...' Rio confided thickly as the sarong

dropped to the floor and his appreciative appraisal settled on pouting

breasts crowned by straining pink nipples.

'Me too...' She felt wanton, breathless, entirely in the grip of

quivering excitement.

He touched her, toyed with her aching flesh and stripped off her bikini

briefs to run a seeking hand down to the damp welcome already awaiting

him. By the time he tipped her back on the bed she was a willing

sacrifice. Straightening, he peeled off his T-shirt and shed his chinos,

revealing the awesome thrust of his virile shaft. Liquid longing filled

her and she pushed away an instinctive shame at her own powerful

response to his bold masculinity. He laced long, indolent fingers into

her hair, drawing her up, encouraging her to caress him with her mouth,

an exercise that she had

124

been stunned to discover raised her own level of arousal to an almost

embarrassing degree.

'You're so incredibly sensual...' Rio breathed in a roughened growl of

male satisfaction. 'I'll have to drag myself away from you tomorrow.

You're turning me into a sex addict, cara.'

Ce

rtainly it wasn't very long before he tumbled her back on the bed with

a groan of raw impatience and sank into her hard and fast and without

ceremony, sending her excitement racing to such a peak that a strangled

cry of joy was wrenched from her. And then there was nothing for her but

the relentless rhythm of his lean, hard body over and inside hers and

the intense pleasure that sent her rocketing to an ecstatic height with

his name on her lips.

'Sex with you is...' Rio mused reflectively in the aftermath, making her

tense a little, for she would have much preferred him to use a less

earthy term and she was unsettled by the rather disconcerted light in

his dark-as-midnight eyes, '...absolutely sensational, bella mia.'

'Good,' Holly mumbled, both arms wrapped round him tight as she revelled

in the lean finger stroking her cheekbone and the kiss he dropped on her