Modern Romance April 2017 Books 1-4. Annie West

to work me out,’ Rio surmised, uncoiling with fluid grace from the pillar he had been lounging back up against. ‘But I’m really quite basic. If I didn’t want you I wouldn’t be suggesting this.’

      The silence smouldered with unspoken undertones. In the interim, Rio’s housekeeper reappeared with a tray. A plate of delicate and ridiculously enticing little sandwiches and a pot of tea were set down in front of Ellie.

      ‘Think of how simple all this could be...if we do it my way,’ Rio urged silkily. ‘We say we’re in love. We marry in haste. Beppe tries to dissuade us but is secretly delighted... And a baby, if there is one...would be the icing on the cake for him.’

      Ellie snatched up another sandwich, registering that listening to Rio weave his arguments with such panache and conviction improved her appetite. He had drawn an attractive picture. If she didn’t marry him and then discovered she was pregnant, how much damage would she do to her new relationship with Beppe? And could she really stand by while Rio took the blame when she knew she was just as much to blame? In addition, if she was pregnant, she would definitely be seriously considering Rio’s marriage proposal because no one knew better than Ellie that raising a child alone was hard. In the course of her work she had met a lot of exhausted single parents struggling to keep work and family afloat. Her grandmother had struggled with that burden, as well, and both Polly and Ellie had been made thoroughly aware of that fact.

      ‘I’m thinking about it,’ she told Rio, who was emanating a wave of silent impatience. ‘I won’t give up work, you know. I’ll never be a trophy wife. I don’t like shopping or fussing with my appearance either,’ she warned him.

      ‘I’ll shop for you,’ Rio countered smoothly.

      ‘Stop being so reasonable!’ Ellie exclaimed in frustration. ‘I’m not used to it—’

      Rio stole the last sandwich and grinned at her. ‘Stop being so sensible and so negative in your outlook.’

      Ellie breathed in slow and deep. ‘All right... I’ll do it. I’ll marry you. Are you happy now?’

      Rio treated her to an approving appraisal. ‘Finally. We’ll go and tell Beppe straight away and I’ll get my staff on to organising the wedding—’

      ‘I have to phone my sister first...and I want to do it in private,’ Ellie told him squarely, sounding a great deal more sure of herself than she actually felt.

      ‘And then we go and buy a ring,’ Rio informed her. ‘We’ll go the traditional route—’

      ‘Will we?’ Ellie looked at him uncertainly, for she certainly hadn’t expected to be offered what she assumed to be the equivalent of an engagement ring.

      Was the ring to impress Beppe with the reality of them as a couple? Or was it supposed to please her? And what was she going to say to Beppe? And how was she going to explain to Polly that she was suddenly rushing into marriage with a guy she had said she loathed?

       CHAPTER SEVEN

      ‘I JUST NEVER thought I’d see the day,’ Polly carolled with a misty smile as she stepped back to scrutinise Ellie’s appearance. ‘You’re getting married. I thought you were all set to be a spinster with a string of important letters after your name and a cat.’

      Ellie had thought that too but she didn’t admit it. She had never compromised on what she wanted from a man until Rio had literally crashed into her life at Polly’s wedding. And that encounter had altered her image of herself and softened her rigid views. She had gradually begun to appreciate that she was lonely and that there was something hollow about achievements and more painful about trials when she had nobody to share those experiences with. Only now she was putting herself out there in a way she never had before, taking a risk on getting attached to a male who against all the odds appealed to her more than any other for no sane reason that she could find.

      For Rio, she had lied for the first time in her life. She had told her father that she loved Rio but in actuality she had no idea what she felt for him. At first she had thought it was a mad infatuation but her thirst for information about him and her craving when he was absent had not faded. Surely an infatuation would have long since died from lack of fuel? All she really knew for certain was that Rio absolutely fascinated her, drew her and compelled her. And he made her feel more with him than she had felt in a lifetime of sensibly repressing strong emotions that unsettled her. And Rio had always specialised in seriously unsettling her.

      She had been impressed even more when Rio had accurately forecast her father’s every reaction to their marital plans and the stages of it. Beppe had initially been taken aback and had urged her not to rush into anything, but then Beppe had also confided that had he been free when he had met Ellie’s mother he would have rushed to marry her. He had also admitted that he thoroughly understood the powerful life-enhancing effect of falling madly in love. And ultimately he had decided that as far as family growth went he could wish for no more than to see his daughter married to a young man he had always valued.

      ‘Rio will grow with you by his side,’ Beppe had forecast loftily. ‘You make him think, you make him question what he truly wants from life. And what he has always wanted most of all is a family.’

      Ellie gazed into the mirror and wondered if she was pregnant, if she could give Rio what he supposedly most wanted. But was that what Rio most wanted? Cavorting with all those women seemed a funny way of going about attaining a stable family life. Tomorrow morning, however, she would carry out the pregnancy test she had already purchased. She was both excited and scared by the idea. But most of all she was wondering how Rio would feel, regardless of what the result was.

      She had naively assumed that she would see a great deal more of Rio once their relationship was out in the open, but Rio had flown out to Dharia to settle some complicated dispute about oil well rights and although he had urged her to accompany him and she would’ve loved to see her sister sooner, she had refused. Why? Girly though it was, she had wanted to work with the wedding planner Beppe had hired and make her individual choices while also being available to ensure her gown fitted perfectly. After all, she was only planning to marry once.

      And her dress fitted like a dream. The corset top had been chosen with Rio in mind. She just knew Rio would revel in hooks and laces and cleavage. The long skirt skimmed down in a flattering cut over her curvy hips and fanned out below the knee. Her feet were shod in Polly’s gift, a pair of enchanting high-heeled sandals studded with pearls.

      ‘Rashad really likes Rio and the men will be able to go off together when you visit and give us peace to gossip,’ Polly remarked happily.

      Ellie hid a smile because Polly was sometimes so innocent. The very last thing Ellie could imagine wanting just then was to be deprived of Rio’s company. After all, he had been more absent than present since the wedding fervour kicked off. Beppe had held a series of social evenings to introduce his long-lost daughter to friends and relatives. Rio had dutifully attended those evenings before he flew out to Dharia, but Ellie’s need to respect Beppe’s boundaries had ensured that the bridal couple had little time alone together. Predictably, Rio had been much less accepting about the simple reality that she did not feel free to leave the palazzo to spend the night with him and possibly Ellie’s insistence on restraint had kept him from hurrying back to Tuscany.

      ‘When you have me wondering if we could contrive to have sex in my car without being picked up on a charge of public indecency, we have a problem, principessa,’ Rio had complained the night before when he had joined them with Polly and Rashad for a quiet prewedding dinner. ‘You need to learn to be more selfish and put us first.’

      ‘No,’ she had said. ‘You need to learn that anticipation can act as an aphrodisiac.’

      ‘But I don’t need one of those,’ Rio had responded with sardonic bite.

      An abstracted smile tilted Ellie’s lips now.

      ‘You’re nuts about him. I don’t know how I didn’t