Modern Romance April 2017 Books 1-4. Annie West

this time she sensed the peak she was reaching towards.

      A chain reaction of convulsions claimed her and she cried out as the ripples of ecstasy spread in a blinding moment of release that consumed her. Rio shuddered and held her tight and bit out something raw and rough in Italian, his powerful body surging into hers. Within seconds, however, she was free again, watching in a daze as Rio sprang off the sofa to fix his trousers and reach for his shirt.

      ‘You were a virgin?’ Rio repeated incredulously, because innocence and Ellie were a combination that refused to compute in his brain.

      Wincing, Ellie sat up and pushed down her skirt. Her panties were lying on the tiles but she had no intention of trying to reclaim them in front of him. She was shell-shocked and shattered by what had taken place. She couldn’t believe she had had sex with Rio. Just then in the aftermath it looked like the worst decision ever after a lifetime of vigilant caution.

      ‘A virgin?’ Rio prompted again as if a virgin were as improbable as a glimpse of a unicorn. ‘So, why give it up to me?’

      ‘Maybe I wanted to lose it with someone who would put me off further experimentation,’ Ellie suggested with honeyed derision. ‘Stop acting as if you’ve been grievously assaulted by a virgin, Rio. I can’t be the first you’ve been with—’

      ‘You are!’ Rio contradicted accusingly, taken aback by her gutsy attitude.

      Ellie stood up, very discreetly retrieved her underwear and, quite deliberately ignoring him, went off in search of a cloakroom. It actually hurt to walk, she acknowledged in shock. She ached as though they had had sex for hours. The experience felt less like an introduction and more like a lesson. Be careful of what you wish for, she told herself unhappily. He had leapt off that sofa as though he had been electrocuted. Innocence was clearly a hanging offence in Rio’s book.

      Another much more worrying fact was screaming along the edge of Rio’s ragged nerves while he paced the hall, waiting impatiently for Ellie to reappear. He had never met a woman like Ellie and he was very certain that he never wanted to meet another. She drove him crazy. She made him do and say things he never did or said with anyone else. She screwed with his brain, unleashed his temper and sent him racing off the edge of sanity. She had the seductive powers of a temptress and yet how could that be when she had self-evidently had no sexual experience whatsoever? He was terrific in bed and he knew that but she had behaved as though he were useless. So, why did he want her to stay the night? Simply to rescue his ego? And what about Beppe? And what about the lack of a condom? He groaned out loud in frustration and raked his fingers through his cropped black curls. Rio felt raw.

      Only innate courage persuaded Ellie out of the sanctuary of the cloakroom because in reality she wanted to curl up and die somewhere well out of Rio’s sight and reach. She didn’t want to see him again; she didn’t want to have to speak to him again either. She simply wanted to forget what had happened and continue her holiday.

      ‘Please drive me back to my hotel,’ she said woodenly, refusing to look directly at him.

      ‘Are you on the pill? Or any other form of contraception?’ Rio asked her with startling abruptness.

      Ellie almost flinched. She had spent a year taking contraceptive pills after her sobering experience with Rio at her sister’s wedding. She had feared meeting that level of temptation again and as a result had taken sensible precautions to protect herself in the future. Sadly, however, she had suffered side effects from the medication and had stopped taking the pills.

      ‘No. I’m not.’ Ellie shook her head slowly and walked back into the reception room to sit down again, because she felt literally weak with shock and anxiety. ‘How could we both be so stupid?’

      ‘There are still...options,’ Rio selected in a grim undertone.

      Ellie’s head reared up, fiery corkscrew curls tumbling back from her white forehead, accentuating her bright green eyes. ‘Don’t you dare suggest options to me! I’m a doctor, sworn to protect life,’ she shot back at him.

      ‘I didn’t say that that was what I wanted. Accidenti! We are not reckless teenagers but we behaved as though we were,’ Rio intoned in open exasperation. ‘When we get together it is as though we are cursed. Let us hope there are no consequences...’

       CHAPTER FIVE

      ELLIE BREATHED IN deeply and slowly released her breath in the hope of chasing away the brain fog afflicting her ability to think. She was struggling to perform little mental calculations around her menstrual cycle, very quickly realising that their timing had been little short of catastrophic. She had chosen the worst possible moment to abandon her usual caution, she recognised in steadily deepening dismay.

      What if Rio made her pregnant? The consequences of unprotected sex were not something she wanted to contemplate, particularly when she had a very poor relationship with the potential father. She suppressed a fearful shudder and told herself to be strong. Whatever happened, it would happen and she couldn’t change that. In the meantime it would be best to go on as though nothing had changed.

      ‘Please take me back to my hotel or call me a taxi or something,’ Ellie muttered in desperation.

      ‘You still haven’t told me what you’ve done to Beppe—’

      ‘I haven’t done anything to him!’ Ellie proclaimed in a sudden fury roused by the stabbing of her conscience. After all, if Beppe Sorrentino was troubled, it was her fault because she had told him something that had upset him. She had been selfish and thoughtless, dwelling only on her right to know who her father was without ever considering the cost that that information might inflict on anyone else. Even worse, Rio was Beppe’s godson and Beppe had no idea that Ellie had already met Rio and was currently involved with the younger man. But was she involved with him?

      Ellie grimaced at the concept because that word, involved, lent a gravitas to their entanglement that it didn’t deserve. They had engaged in a foolish and irresponsible sexual encounter, nothing more. They weren’t in a relationship, nor were they likely to be. And how did she feel about that reality? And the answer was that that reality saddened and wounded her heart and her pride. With Rio, she was slowly and painfully learning that she was more vulnerable than she had ever appreciated. She had made a mistake with him two years earlier and almost unbelievably had made an even bigger mistake this time around. Sex might be a field that Rio played in but Ellie didn’t play at anything she did. She didn’t do casual either.

      ‘Ellie...’ Rio breathed impatiently.

      Ellie rose from her seat to move back out to the hall. ‘I can’t discuss Beppe with you. I’m sorry but that’s how it is—’

      ‘What are you hiding from me?’ Glittering dark eyes full of suspicion locked to the pale triangle of Ellie’s face.

      Ellie lifted her chin. ‘People have secrets, Rio. Secrets they don’t want to share. Dragging them out into the light of day isn’t always the right thing to do,’ she reasoned uneasily.

      ‘Beppe has no secrets... He’s not that kind of man,’ Rio argued with sublime assurance. ‘So, if you’re not judging, you’re preaching. Are you so perfect?’

      ‘No, I know I’m far from perfect and I wasn’t preaching. I was just speaking my thoughts out loud. I’m a little confused right now,’ Ellie admitted tightly, her eyes suddenly stinging while she wondered if her entire trip to Italy had been an outsize blunder. Maybe she should have left the past buried, maybe she should’ve tried harder to suppress her curiosity. All she knew was that she felt very guilty at the knowledge that Beppe had been distressed by her visit. He had dealt with her kindly but perhaps she hadn’t deserved that kindness.

      ‘I’ll take you back to the hotel,’ Rio murmured without any expression at all. He had reached the conclusion that it would take a hacksaw to extract anything from Ellie that she did not want to share. What secrets was she concealing? What he had read in that investigative report?