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‘If you’re capable of feeling guilt, then there’s hope fo
r you, Mr Zaccarelli.’
Was there? He’d lived without that emotion for so long he wasn’t even sure he knew how it felt.
‘Come back to the hotel. It’s absolutely freezing out here.’
‘Are you telling me you’re cold? Big tough guy like you?’ Her voice was teasing and her eyes danced with mockery as she looked up at him. ‘You’re a wimp. My grandfather will be relieved when I give you the boot. He wants me to find a real man, not some shivering, pathetic creature who can’t stand a shift in the weather.’
She squealed with shock and laughter as Rio moved swiftly and tumbled her backwards onto the snow.
‘Are you calling me a wimp?’ His mouth brushed her soft lips, tasting softness and laughter. He was about to turn the kiss into something less playful when she stuffed a handful of snow down the front of his sweater. Rio swore fluently as the ice froze his skin. ‘Is that your test of a real man?’
‘That’s just one of them. I started with something gentle. I didn’t want to be too hard on you.’ She was still laughing but, because he had her body trapped under his, he felt the change in her. Looking into her eyes, he saw something that sucked the humour out of the situation—something he’d seen many times before in a woman’s eyes.
For a second he couldn’t move and he wondered if she even realised what she’d revealed, lying there under him with her hopes and dreams exposed.
And then he sprang to his feet, his withdrawal an instinctive reaction pre-programmed by life experience and a bone-deep cynicism about the durability of relationships. It would be cruel, wouldn’t it, to hurt her more than he already had—this child-woman who still believed in happy endings.
‘You’re shivering.’ Keeping his tone matter of fact, he hauled her to her feet and brushed the snow off her jacket. She was looking past him and for a moment he thought she was just avoiding eye contact, and then he saw her expression change. ‘What’s the matter?’
‘Behind you,’ she muttered. ‘Another photographer. Why are people so interested in your life? Everywhere you go there is a bigger, longer camera lens. We’d better look as though we’re in love.’ The word tripped off her tongue as if it had no significance and Rio stared down into her sweet, honest face, wondering whether she’d tell him the truth.
But she didn’t say anything and he felt something tug inside him.
‘We don’t have to do that. We can end this charade whenever we like. It’s over.’ He slid his hands into her hair, suddenly realising he no longer had a legitimate excuse to kiss her.
‘What do you mean?’ Her eyes widened and then shone as she grasped the implications of his words. ‘Are you saying—? Oh, Rio—you have custody? I’m so pleased! That’s fantastic.’ She flung her arms round his neck and hugged him tightly, whooping with joy and kissing him over and over again. Her eyes glistened with tears of joy and he brushed them away with his thumb, fascinated by the way she showed her emotions so freely; touched that her pleasure for his daughter could transcend her own pain.
‘There is still some red tape to play with, but my lawyers think that Elyssa will come and live with me the week after Christmas. For what it’s worth, they think that seeing me with you tipped the balance.’
‘Well, I’m glad about that. So what does this mean?’
What did it mean? Rio had been searching for the answer to that question.
When women had fallen in love with him before he’d always considered it to be a question of ‘buyer beware’. They should have known better.
But Evie lived her life by a different rule book.
‘Let’s go back to the hotel. I have a surprise for you.’
It was over.
She no longer had a part to play in creating this happy family.
Evie stood in the elevator, trying to keep the smile on her face. It was selfish of her, wasn’t it, to feel so devastated? The whole reason this charade could now end was that someone extremely sensible had decided that a little girl should live with her daddy. As someone who had known that terrifying feeling of loneliness and abandonment, she should be thrilled that another little girl’s dreams were going to come true. And she was. She really was. But was she a wicked person to wish that she could have had just a couple more days?
Forcing her own feelings aside, she smiled at Rio, determined not to make a fool of herself. She didn’t want his pity. The only thing she wanted from him was something quite different. Something he wasn’t able to give. ‘You have plans to make. Just let me know what you want me to do.’ She kept her voice brisk and practical. ‘How you want me to handle things.’
He frowned. ‘Handle what?’
‘I’m going to dump you, remember? And, boy, am I going to enjoy that part.’ Evie rubbed her hands together, wondering whether her voice sounded just a little forced.
‘We’ll discuss details later.’ There was a tension in his shoulders that she attributed to his reaction to the momentous news. Either that or his ego was struggling with the notion of being publicly rejected.
It seemed incredible to her now that only weeks earlier she’d been about to marry another man. What she’d shared with Rio had taught her that what she’d shared with Jeff had been bland and colourless, like existing on a diet of bread and water and then suddenly discovering the variety of colour and texture of real food.
She wondered if she’d ever find anyone else who made her feel the way Rio did.
