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'Then-er-what was it?'
'The truth of what we're going to do. I can't say that I feel flattered
that you should assume that I would lie about something that important,'
Rio continued with a level cool that only made her own astonishment feel
all that more intense. 'We'll be married just as soon as I can get a
special licence arranged.'
Her knees felt as if they were fashioned out of cotton wool and wobbled
under her. She was finally looking at him for the first time that day
and only because she was reeling with shock. Blue eyes very wide, she
whispered unsteadily, 'You're not having me on?'
'I may have made you pregnant. I took advantage of you last night,' Rio
breathed, aggressive jawline clenched hard. 'You were very vulnerable
and I should have kept my distance. I took you to bed because I wanted-'
'That's OK. That's not taking advantage!' Holly protested with feverish
relief at what she assumed he was about to tell her.
'Sex. I wanted sex. It was as primitive as that.' His superb
bone-structure fiercely taut, Rio made an admission that slaughtered
Holly where she stood, for she had believed when she interrupted him
that he had been telling her that it was her, personally, that he had
wanted. Only that was not the case, was it? The truth was much more
painful. When a bloke said he had just wanted sex, it was
like saying that she had only been a convenient body, Holly reflected in
agony.
Deeply hurt by that confession, wishing he had thought enough of her
feelings not to have voiced it, Holly dropped heavily down onto the
nearest sofa, no longer trusting her weak legs to hold her upright. 'I
wanted you...just you,' she heard herself mumble like a foolish child,
digging herself into an even more embarrassing hole.
'I know...' That confirmation just splintered through her shrinking,
shaking body like the cruellest of knives, tearing tender flesh wherever
it touched. 'I must be honest with you, cara-'
'Don't call me that...whatever it means. You use it like it means
something and it doesn't.' Holly squeezed out that condemnation in a
voice that was far from level. 'So why are you talking about marrying
me...feeling like you do?'
'I like you, Holly. I like Timothy too. I believe I could become fond of
you.'
Holly wanted to die where she sat. Fond? She curved her arms round
herself, appalled at the emotional hurt he was inflicting on her in the
name of honesty. Even Jeff with his abuse had not wounded her as much as
Rio wounded her at that moment. Rio was ripping apart everything, every
naive and harmless belief, every tiny inner hope. He liked her, well,
whoopy-do! So she felt even more pathetic to be sitting there thinking
that she loved him while he hammered the self-esteem he had rescued for
her back into the ground again.
'Until relatively recently, I was engaged to another woman.'
That startling admission hung there like another giant in the face just
waiting for her to lift her cheek to receive it. But something stronger
than she was, the most powerful curiosity, forced Holly to lift her head
again. The
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brilliant flare of anger lightening his gaze in the aftermath of that
acknowledgement did not match her expectations. There was none of the
regret or emotion that she had feared that she would see. In fact, his
darkly handsome features were set hard in stone.
'Engaged?' she prompted uneasily.
'I finished it. That's over and done with and in the past.' Beautifully
shaped mouth curling, glittering golden eyes resting on her, Rio
murmured, 'I only mentioned it because while I was engaged I got used to
the idea of being married, and I do still need a wife.'
'What for?' It sounded inane but Holly couldn't help it. But then, she
was weak with relief at the finality with which he had pronounced that
his engagement was over. It must have ended quite some time back, Holly
assumed, or he would hardly have been saying that it was in the past.
Rio spread his lean brown hands in a fluid expressive movement. 'Some
day I want a family of my own.'
'Oh...'
'I also need a wife to oversee my domestic arrangements and entertain
friends and family. A wife who will try to be a daughter to my mother,
who suffers a lot of ill-health,' Rio enumerated, very much more relaxed
now that he was getting to talk practicalities. 'A wife to make me more
comfortable, for I have got beyond the stage where I enjoy spending my
time, indeed, often wasting my time with a variety of different women.'
And he wanted superwoman as a wife. He had huge expectations, Holly
thought heavily, knowing she could never, ever measure up to such
requirements, and marvelling that he had not immediately realised that fact.
'You could learn to be the wife that I want,' Rio informed her confidently.
But it sounded as if lifelong training would be necessary.
She had been stymied by one trip to a fancy restaurant, A
near-hysterical giggle bubbled in her aching throat but she had never
been further from laughter.
'You need to know that I've good reason other than the risk that you may
already be pregnant to talk of marriage,' he continued in his dark, deep
drawl that flowed like honey even now down her sensitive spine.
'But we're probably worrying about nothing-'
'Are we? You're young and fertile and I would prefer not to wait for
proof one way or the other.' Rio expelled his breath in a measured hiss.
'If we wait and a child is eventually born there will be those who
believe that I was forced to marry you. That would be humiliating for you.'
He really did expect the worst. He really did believe that there was a
very strong chance that he might have impregnated her. His certainty
scared her. But how could she marry a man who felt nothing for her? Did
that mean that she was considering his offer? Of course she was.
Dredging her attention from his lean, strong face, she knew she did not
even have to take her own feelings for him into account to make that
decision. She had nothing to offer Timmie, who would no doubt thrive as
Timothy. If she married Rio her baby would want for nothing. He would
have a home, love and security and a bloke who was willing to be his
adoptive father. Rio liked kids. He Liked her son already. In fact she
had pretty much hit the equivalent of the jackpot falling in front of
his limo, she acknowledged guiltily, feeling that she would very much be
taking advantage of him.
She linked her trembling hands together, hugely worked up but trying so
hard to emulate his calm and logical approach. 'When did you start
thinking of all this?'
'Ten minutes after you fled from my room last night,' Rio admitted,
bringing her bright head up again. I have never felt so guilty in my
whole life.'
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'Thanks...' Her voice wobbled again and she pushed her lips together
hard, striving to will back the tears threatening behind her eyes.
'I'll look after you and your son. You need me. I like to be
needed. I'm
used to being needed,' Rio completed with a shrug of Latin acceptance.
He was so volatile. So very, very volatile and until now she had not
even recognised that reality. He had seemed so controlled and reserved
at their first proper meeting at the hospital, only to overturn that
impression with his angry, intimidating reaction when he had found her
trying to sneak away from the Lombardi hospital. Ever since then he had
alternated between fiery heat and indolent cool. He could switch from
one mood to the other within seconds. He fascinated her.
'You might go and fall madly in love with someone else...' she heard
herself say, although it was an effort to make herself say that.
'You must be joking,' Rio said in a tone of icy derision.
