The Italian's Wife

yesterday, I missed you at the office today.'

'I missed you too.' Holly smiled at the thought of how much her outlook

on life had changed over the past eighteen months. She had never dreamt

that she might end up doing a basic business course just to see what it

was like and that she might enjoy it and want to learn more, but that

was what had happened.

Right now, of course, with the children all so young, it

wasn't possible for her to do much more than study part-time. That week,

however, she had spent a morning with Rio at Lombardi Industries,

actually seeing how the business world operated, and she had been

fascinated by that }, insight into an average day in his life.

'If you were there the whole time I probably couldn't concentrate,' Rio

confided, smiling appreciatively down into Amalia's cot. 'She's just

beautiful when she's sleeping, isn't she?'

Holly tried not to laugh, but there was no denying that their eldest

daughter had caused a lot of disruption in her first weeks of life by

flatly refusing to sleep at almost any stage of the night. Holly had

been darned grateful to have both a husband and a nanny. Mercifully,

Amalia had recently settled into a more reasonable routine.

'And Battista...' Rio studied his younger daughter with touching pride.

She had the same curly dark hair as Amalia, for their daughters were

identical twins, but there the resemblance ended, since Battista slept

like a log and seemed to have a more philosophical attitude to life.

Leaving the nursery, they went into their bedroom because Rio said he

needed a shower before dinner.

'Same old routine. I don't know why I bother putting clothes on for you

coming home,' Holly lamented in a long-suffering tone of teasing

provocation.

Laughing, Rio threw back his darkly handsome head and then kissed her

breathless anyway. 'What happened to those stars in your eyes?'

'Those stars are multiplying at an incredible rate,' Holly swore, gazing

up into dark golden eyes that were full of love and appreciation and

tenderness. He adored her and she knew it.

'I must be on a real winning streak, then, tesoro mio.'

186

Rio locked her to his lean, powerful body with possessive hands.

'Not this evening, you're not,' Holly told him ruefully, striving not to

quiver against him in an inviting way, although it was very difficult

when her resistance was nil. 'Have you forgotten Alice is staying until

tomorrow?'

'And dining out with friends,' Rio reminded her with a slashing smile of

amusement as she let herself quiver and meld to him like a second skin,

all restraint vanishing.

Holly gave him her starry-eyed look of love and saw it beautifully

reflected in his own gaze. She wound her arms round him, possessive and

proud and dizzy with happiness, and it was a very long time before

either of them thought of eating.