responsibility, but she was part of my life for a long time and I felt
that I had to help her,' Rio stated harshly.
'So what did you do with her?'
'I took her to the foundation hospital and contacted her family. Two
days after that Christabel signed herself into a rehabilitation clinic.
She's still there.'
Recalling all the nasty thoughts she had had about the other woman,
Holly felt sincerely ashamed. Christabel had genuine problems that she
needed help to cope with and Rio had done the right thing in giving her
his support.
'Did she go off the rails because you ditched her?' Holly mumbled uneasily.
'No. Her sister, Gwen, was able to tell me that her drug and alcohol
abuse had begun well before she met me.' His darkly handsome features
serious, Rio released his breath slowly. 'I did think she drank too much
sometimes but I'm afraid I didn't recognise it as a problem and she
didn't confide in me. However, her sister was very frank...'
'Did she blame you for Christabel's problems?'
'No, far from it. Apparently, Christabel was confused about her sexual
orientation when she was a teenager. More recently, she was terrified
that she was losing her looks and
struggling to keep an increasingly heavy drug habit hidden,' Rio revealed.
'So where did you fit into her life?'
'According to Gwen, Christabel saw me as a financial security blanket
for her future.' Rio grimaced at that tag. 'My defection faced her with
realities she had refused to deal with and now she's having to deal with
them. Her sister's a psychologist and she says that's much more
healthy.'
'I heard that she had recently lost out on some big modelling contract
as well,' Holly remarked uncomfortably.
'Gwen mentioned that too. Said there'd been rumours about Christabel's
lifestyle. Naturally. People talk.'
Holly stood there several feet from him, struggling to
face her own reality, but it was a daunting one. She had
fudged Rio without even giving him the chance to defend
himself and she was ashamed that she had had so little faith
in him.
'I'm sorry...I'm so sorry I just walked out the way I did,' Holly
muttered shakily. 'I was really jealous of Christabel and what I thought
you must've had with her. I felt like second-best, and then when I met
her down at the Priory-'
'I wish you'd told me about that encounter-'
'She said she wanted you back and that I'd come between you, and that
really upset me-'
'Of course it did because you don't think enough of yourself,' Rio
breathed not quite steadily, reaching out for her hands and drawing her
closer. 'And that's my fault-'
'No, it's not,' Holly sighed, her hands quivering in his. 'If I'd
mentioned Christabel's threats then maybe you would've understood why I
was so sensitive about her-'
'There was never any chance of a reconciliation. But if I'd been more
honest with you you'd have found that easier
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to accept.' Brilliant dark eyes scanning her troubled face his hands
tightened their grip on hers. "The truth is,, I didn't know what hit me
when I met you. I couldn't think of anything else but you and I told
myself I was unsettled after what had happened with Christabel-'
'Naturally you were...I mean, that's OK,' Holly hastened to reassure him
because she was so grateful he was holding her hands and still talking
to her after the manner in which she had left their home.
'No, it wasn't OK, cara. I wasn't giving you what you deserved. I don't
know when or how I fell in love with you but I was in deep very fast.
You must've noticed that I couldn't let you out of my sight...did you
think that was normal?'
'Normal? I felt the same way.' And all the time her mind was reaching
Had he really said that or had she imagined that he had said that?
'There was the most explosive attraction between us right from the start
and the lust I could handle,' Rio asserted wryly. 'But I couldn't
acknowledge that I was seriously involved because that would've meant
admitting that I was this pretty stupid and potentially shallow guy who
almost married a woman he didn't really love-'
'You didn't really love Christabel?'
'I believed I loved her but we were never close, not the way you and I
are, but I didn't know what that closeness was until I found it with
you, cara.'' Rio confessed, dark golden eyes troubled. 'I got over
Christabel too quickly. And it might seem strange to you but I was
ashamed of that...and it made me very wary about what I was feeling for
you.'
'Yeah...you told me you liked me-'
'But the cool-guy act went out the window when you
disappeared,' Rio broke in feelingly. 'I was tearing my hair out. I was
desperate. I couldn't work. I couldn't sleep. I was haunting homeless
shelters...you just have no idea what I went through the first two weeks
you were missing!' But, gazing up into the over-bright shimmer of those
speaking dark eyes resting with such loving intensity on her face, she
did have an idea and she ached for him even as the first stirrings of
joy began to wing through her.
'Dio mio...I went to hell and back. I was worried sick. I thought I
might never find you or Timothy again-'
'Eventually I would've gone to see a solicitor, but doing that and
talking about a divorce...it would have been so final and I couldn't
face it yet,' Holly confided chokily, her voice breaking up on her as
she realised how near she had come to losing everything she cared about.
Rio wrapped his arms tightly round her and held her so close that she
could hardly breathe, but at that instant it was what she needed more
than anything else. 'I'd have fought a divorce. There's nothing I
wouldn't have done to get you and Timothy back,' he swore above her
head. 'I'd have begged you to come home. Don't you realise how happy
I've been with you? Couldn't you feel that...see it?' And she had felt
it, seen it so often, she recognised with a shamed stirring of regret.
He had been so caring, so tender and romantic, but without the words of
love she had been afraid to simply trust in his behaviour. 'You said you
liked me...and that bit about getting fond of me,' she reminded him. It
was so unemotional and it was like you saying that you could never, ever
fall in love with someone like me.' Rio winced and looked down at her
with more than a hint of embarrassment. 'I just didn't know what else to
say to you. It wasn't meant the way you took it. I was very wary of that
word "love" that soon after breaking up with Christabel--'
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'And you deliberately misled me about that-'
'Yes, because I sensed you'd say no otherwise. Didn't you start
wondering what planet I was from when I asked you to marry me only a few
days after I had met you?' Rio muttered with rueful self-mockery. 'I
jumped on the first excuse I got to hang on to you and Timothy. Where is
he, by the way?
'
'In bed...you can see him if you want.' Holly looked up at him, her
heart in her eyes, for she was so happy with what he was telling her
about his feelings. He wasn't trying to hide anything now. He was
admitting that he had been confused and acting out of character but
letting her know that his most driving motivation had been to keep her
in his life. 'I love you so much.'
'I love you too, tesoro mio.'
Holly took him upstairs to see Timothy, who was still awake. His lashes
lifted on sleepy eyes and he stared at them. Then her son sat up and
with sudden startling energy tried to claw his way up the side of the
cot into standing position. What was more, what he had often tried but
never yet succeeded at, actually worked on this occasion.
'When did he learn to do that?' Rio demanded.
"That's the first time he's managed it.'
Clasping the cot bars, big blue eyes very wide, looking as surprised as
a baby could be at finding himself fully vertical, Timothy gave them a
huge grin. But then he made the strategic error of letting go of the top
bar and he fell back onto his bottom with a howl of disappointment.
With a husky laugh of amusement, Rio lifted Timothy up into his arms.
'You were brilliant...Mum and I were really impressed!'
After that excitement, it took a while to persuade Timothy back into the
notion of going to sleep but eventually tiredness won the day.
'Mum and Dad will be home soon,' Holly told Rio at
the top of the stairs.
'No, they won't be. They're spending the night in a local
hotel-'
Holly blinked in confusion. 'I beg your pardon?'
'I made my first visit here yesterday afternoon while you were out
shopping with Timothy,' Rio confided rather tautly. 'Your parents
invited me in and gave me the third degree. They suggested I visit this
evening when they would be out, but they were worried that that wouldn't
give us long enough to talk over our differences-'
'I don't believe this...Mum and Dad didn't breathe a word to me!' Holly
gasped.
'It was spelt out to me that I was going to have a battle persuading you
to come back to me, so I came up with the
hotel idea-'
'Putting them out of their own home?' Holly exclaimed in dismay.
'They've never stayed in a hotel in their lives!'
'I know...they told me.' Rio smiled down at her with considerable
amusement. 'And your mother was thrilled at
the prospect.'
'You are so sneaky. You got them on your side-'
'We're quits. You've got my mother on yours.' Rio
traded wryly.
'Like heck I have-'
'Is this your bedroom? Oh, I love all the flowers and the frills,' Rio
teased, grasping her hand and tugging her inch by Inch over the
threshold and closing the door.
He meshed his fingers slowly into her bronze ringlets, beautiful dark
golden eyes bright with adoring intensity as he gazed down at her. He
brought his mouth down with immense tenderness on hers and she trembled.
Less patient, she pushed forward into the sleek, hard, familiar strength
of his muscular frame. It felt so good just to be held but
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even more glorious to know that she was truly loved and to feel the
unmistakable shudder of response that went through him as she kissed him
back.
'You are so beautiful and I love you so much it hurts,' he husked
against her reddened lips, his breath fanning her cheekbone. 'And every
time I think that I might never have met you it terrifies the life out
of me, amore.'
'I love you too,' she moaned, shamelessly eager to express that love,
hands sliding beneath his sweater to glide over his hard ribcage, making
him jerk against her and haul her even closer.
And then the excitement took over and clothes were shed with breathless
energy between frantic bouts of kissing. There was a whole extra
dimension to their loving, for they had spent three utterly miserable
weeks apart, and being together again felt like a very special gift. In
the aftermath of the passion, they lay locked together, full of peace
and contentment.
Holly struggled to recall what they had been talking about earlier and
blushed at the ease with which she had forgotten that conversation.
'What was that you said about your mother being on my side?' she
whispered curiously.
'She came up to London because she was upset about the way she'd treated
you, and that's how I found out that you'd met Christabel,' Rio
explained lazily, propping himself up on one elbow to gaze down at her.
'So, when my parent discovered that you'd already walked out on me, all
I got was a very humiliating lecture about how she wasn't at all
surprised. How could you tell her that I said I might get fond of you?'
Helpless amusement filtered through Holly, for she was now remembering
that Alice Lombardi had said that the only explanation for her son's
behaviour was that he had fallen madly in love with her. 'Serves you right.'
Rio dealt her a rueful scrutiny. 'I never did apologise for letting you
go down to the Priory alone. It's just that my mother does rather
dramatise events, bella mia-'
'You told her nothing about me-'
'I told her everything in London. She had the smelling salts out, but
you now stand high in her estimation as the female who rescued me from a
scarlet woman and saved the family name from scandal,' he told her with
a wicked grin. 'When she heard you'd been taking Italian lessons she was
even more convinced I didn't deserve you-'
'How did you find out about them?' Holly gasped and then she groaned.
'Oh, no, I forgot to cancel them!'
'Relax. Your teacher phoned and I used the same excuse with her that I
used for our nanny's benefit. Family emergency. I couldn't tell anyone
that you might not be returning because I couldn't face that
possibility,' Rio confided.
'If you'd told me the truth about your broken engagement it would never
have happened...'
His darkly handsome features tensed. 'I didn't want you thinking less of
me,' he muttered tautly.
'Think less of you? How?'
Dark colour now scored his superb cheekbones. 'I just thought you'd
think less of me if you knew the truth. My fiancée turning to another
woman... It may sound stupid to you, but I was afraid it might take the
stars out of your eyes when you looked at me,' he finally completed in a
distinct tone of embarrassment.
'And you liked the stars?'
Rio nodded in serious and steady confirmation.
'I still have the stars.' Holly linked her arms round him and loved him
more than she had ever loved him for admitting that to her. So there he
was, totally gorgeous and sexy and everything she had ever dreamt of,
and yet he could suffer from insecurity too.
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'I'm crazy about you, tesoro mio. You be sure to tell me if you ever
find those stars blinking out.'
'You'll have to spoil me rotten...'
'No problem. Spoiling you usually means spoiling me too.' Rio gav
e her
his husky, sexy laugh and eased her back into more intimate connection
with him again.
Holly was entirely hooked on the message of loving intent in his
possessive gaze. Just as well he didn't know how many stars there
were...enough to last two lifetimes, she thought happily. And then he
kissed her and the stars turned into fireworks again and she thought no
more.
Eighteen months later, Holly glanced into the nursery at the town house
to see Alice Lombardi literally swamped with young children. Seated
between the twins' cots with Timothy on her knee, her mother-in-law was
reading a story out loud.
Timothy was almost two and a half years old and, only the day before,
Holly and Rio's dearest wish had come true. Jeff had not contested their
application and the court had granted the adoption order. Alice had
flown over from Florence simply to attend the hearing. Rio was now
officially Timothy's adoptive father and Timothy had the same right to
the Lombardi name as his baby sisters, Amalia and Battista. They had all
celebrated with a special dinner the night before.