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Ezio's face. His security chief was positioned about twenty feet away,
watching him in frank astonishment. Rio's high cheekbones fired with a
slight rise of colour.
'You must be sensible about this...' Rio stated as the baby in his arms
went all stiff and loosed an anxious little moan of fright at the sound
of his mother's distress. Timmie was just about to blow. Indeed, any
moment now, mass hysteria was going to break out and spread like a disease,
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Rio recognised with a very male sense of discomfiture. Dio mio, they
were in a public place and he didn't know what had got into him. He
could only recall the savage jolt of pure rage he had felt at the sight
of Holly trying to sneak away from the safety of the hospital.
'Please...give him back!' Holly cried.
An older man unlocking his car just yards away had now halted the
activity to openly stare, his expression already that of someone
thinking that perhaps he ought to intervene. Rio threw his proud head
back and murmured in a tone calculated to soothe, 'My car's just over
there. We'll discuss this calmly in private.'
Holly was totally disconcerted when Rio just strode away from her. But
she raced after him in a panic. As the chauffeur yanked open the door of
the gleaming silver limousine Rio broke the habit of a lifetime and,
instead of standing back politely to allow Holly first access, climbed
in ahead of her, thereby forestalling any possibility of further debate
in public.
Holly shot in after him like a mouse in stricken pursuit of a cat. The
passenger door closed on her. Rio Lombardi had her son clasped under one
arm while he spoke to someone in his own language on the car phone.
In a daze of confusion, Holly absorbed the startling sight of Timmie
smiling up at Rio. Timmie, who never smiled at anyone but her! Her head
ached even more. She felt clammy and sick and scared. 'Please give him
back to me...'
'Look, I haven't got time for this right now. I have a very important
meeting to get to,' Rio imparted, leaning forward to make some curious
adjustment to the rear of the leather seat facing them. Before her
bemused eyes, a child's travelling seat complete with safety restraint
folded down out of the once flat surface.
'Mr Lombardi-er-'
'You can stay at my home for a few days until you feel stronger,' Rio
cut in flatly. 'You're in no fit state to make decisions right now.
It'll give you a breathing space.'
'Your...home?' Holly was so taken aback by that offer coming at her out
of the blue that she could only stare at his bold bronzed profile with
wide shaken eyes.
Rio settled Timmie into the baby seat. After tightening everything up,
he snapped the harness into place with a definite air of satisfaction at
his own efficiency.
'Your home?' Holly watched his manoeuvres in bewildered stillness, quite
unable to react with any greater volubility. Her head was pounding fit
to burst and her brain felt like mush, for she had had little sleep
during what had remained of the night hours while she fretted and waited
for an opportunity to steal out of the hospital without being noticed.
'Why not?' Suppressing the faint suspicion that once again he was
reacting in an impulsive manner that was quite unlike him, Rio told
himself that rescuing Holly would be his good deed for the year and he
warmed to the concept at similar speed. He would soon get them sorted
out. He might have given millions to humanitarian causes but when had he
ever become personally involved in someone else's problems? But
intervention was definitely required. Without a helping hand, there was
an all too real possibility that Holly Sansom would end up selling her
body for the price of her next meal. A pervert would spot her from a
distance of a hundred yards, Rio reflected with distaste. She had victim
written all over her. As for Timmie...well, Timmie was already measuring
up to follow faithfully in his mother's footsteps.
'Why...not?' Holly echoed, pressing a weak hand to the bruising that
still throbbed at the back of her skull. 'Because
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people don't do stuff like that for people they don't know.'
Rio settled brilliant, dark, deep-set eyes on her. 'Make your mind up.'
Holly tensed at that demand. He was offering them a lifeline. A roof, a
bed, no worries about food or the future for a few days. He was an
incredible guy. He was just so kind. She could not believe how kind he
was being when he had been so furious with her only minutes earlier. 'OK.'
'I'll make the arrangements.' Rio swept up the phone and watched Ezio
answer from the front seat. At one point during that conversation, Ezio
twisted round to frown in amazement through the glass panel separating
him from his employer. Rio ignored that pointed reaction.
That deep, dark, sexy drawl of his just seemed to shimmy down her spine,
Holly thought absently. She loved his voice even though she hadn't a
clue what he was saying. Catching herself up on that mortifying train of
thought, Holly reddened fierily.
'As soon as I've been dropped off for my meeting, my security chief will
take you to my town house. Any problems, speak to Ezio. He speaks
English but most of my household staff don't,' Rio warned her.
Holly nodded uncertainly, momentarily attempting to picture the kind of
world where a person had household staff, and then watching the gold in
Rio's eyes reflect the light, her mouth running dry and her breath
catching in her throat.
Rio sprang out of the limo outside Lombardi Industries.
Ezio cleared his throat. 'Miss Kent won't like another woman in the
house, boss.'
Rio froze. 'The wedding's off, Ezio.'
Leaving the older man gazing after him in consternation, Rio strode on
into the building, inclining his proud dark
head in acknowledgement of the doorman's respectful greeting and
concentrating his mind on the challenging business meeting ahead with
considerable relief.
The limo nosed its way with all the arrogant assurance of its owner back
into the flow of traffic. Holly breathed in slowly and deeply and then
pinched the back of her hand. The stinging sensation of that small hurt
convinced her that she was not dreaming. She was really and truly
sitting in Rio Lombardi's fabulous limousine. For potentially the next
forty-eight hours she could stop worrying. He had taken pity on her.
Inwardly, Holly squirmed, the self-esteem that had been battered to
ground-level in recent months burning at the wretched awareness that she
was just a charity case to a male like Rio Lombardi. Well, she had never
let anyone do her favours for free. She would make herself useful round
his house, repaying his generosity the only way she could. But at that
moment the simple knowledge that she needed to worry neither about food
nor shelter in the immediate future was like a giant weight rolling off
her shoulders.
Just how had she contrived to sink so low that she was prepared to
accept such charit
y? It had happened by degrees, she conceded. But
undoubtedly her biggest and worst mistake had been getting involved with
Jeff Danby...
Holly had grown up on a hill farm on Exmoor where her father was the
tenant farmer. Her parents had married late in life and her mother had
been forty when Holly was born. That her mother never conceived again
had been a source of deep disappointment to her parents, for it had
meant that there would be no son to help out when her father became too
old to cope alone with the harsh winters and the lambing season and that
eventually he would have to give up the tenancy.
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She had had a happy childhood and she had enjoyed school. But possibly,
as an only and much loved child, she had been a little spoilt, she
