Modern Romance April 2017 Books 1-4. Annie West

angle of his strong jaw line, the faint black stubble already shadowing his bronzed skin and, finally, the ferocious determination stamped into his amazing bone structure.

      ‘I’m not perfect, Ellie, and I’m never going to be but I was prepared to give this my best shot—’

      ‘I never expected you to be perfect, for goodness’ sake!’ Ellie spluttered uncertainly as she moved warily back towards him. ‘Look, maybe I was a bit oversensitive but there’s absolutely no need for us to start having this out now! Let me go back downstairs before anyone notices we’re missing—’

      ‘No,’ Rio breathed with finality.

      ‘You don’t just tell me no like that and expect me to take it!’ Ellie argued furiously, trying to push him away from the door.

      ‘I keep on hoping that you’ll learn from experience,’ Rio growled, scooping her up, nudging a giant vase of flowers out of his path and planting her down squarely on the marble-topped side table behind her. ‘But you never do.’

      ‘This is getting ridiculous. Let me down,’ Ellie told him forcefully.

      Rio pinned her in place even more effectively by pushing her knees apart and stepping between them to wedge himself even closer.

      ‘You may be physically stronger but you can’t bully me,’ Ellie informed him tartly.

      ‘I don’t want to bully you, principessa. I want you to start using your brain,’ Rio bit out impatiently, settling his big hands down on her bare shoulders. ‘It’s time to put sulky, moody Ellie away, ditch the negativity and look forward.’

      ‘I am neither sulky nor moody,’ Ellie pronounced with as much dignity as she could summon while seated as she was on a table, being held still. His hands were hot on her bare skin, sending odd little prickles of awareness travelling through her.

      ‘Bear in mind the fact that I’m not sulking about having had to marry a woman who could be a scheming little gold-digger,’ Rio urged, stunning her with that statement as his long fingers flexed expressively over her shoulders.

      Her lips opened. ‘A...a gold—’

      ‘But I gave you the benefit of the doubt. When do you extend the same privilege to me?’ he demanded grimly.

      Ellie tried to slide off the table but he forestalled her. Flushed by the undignified struggle and enraged by the label of gold-digger, she snapped, ‘Let me go!’

      ‘No. I’m keeping you right where I can see you and we’re having this out right now,’ Rio decreed.

      ‘How dare you call me a gold-digger?’ Ellie slung at him an octave higher.

      ‘What else am I going to call you when you still haven’t explained yourself? You see, I may not be perfect, Ellie but the news is that you’re not perfect either. You’ve had serious allegations made against you and although I’m now aware that an enquiry dismissed one set, there are still others in your background made by a family member,’ Rio reminded her caustically. ‘But I was prepared to overlook that history to marry you and give you a fair chance.’

      Ellie had frozen where she sat and she didn’t know what to say or even where to begin. ‘You said you’d had to marry me,’ she said, instead of tackling his accusations head-on. ‘But you didn’t have to. I didn’t demand it. I wouldn’t have allowed my father to demand it either. It wasn’t necessary—’

      ‘It was necessary to me,’ Rio cut in ruthlessly. ‘I could not live with the chance that you could be pregnant. I had to ensure that we were a couple and that if there is a child, he or she will not grow up without me.’

      ‘So, this really is a shotgun marriage,’ Ellie breathed painfully.

      ‘No, it’s what we make of it and so far you’re doing your best to undermine us,’ Rio condemned.

      ‘You know the enquiry cleared my name,’ Ellie reminded him sharply. ‘How can you still think I could be a gold-digger?’

      ‘It’s all those shades of grey that lie between black and white,’ Rio commented reflectively. ‘What was your true intent when you befriended that old lady at the hospice where you were working?’

      ‘I didn’t befriend her. I was doing my job, acting as a sympathetic listener when there was nobody else available!’ Ellie told him angrily.

      ‘Maybe you would’ve got away with that inheritance had a complaint not been lodged against you and maybe you thought you could get away with it. Maybe you only looked up your father after you found out that he was a reasonably affluent man,’ Rio murmured lethally. ‘Who can tell? That’s what I mean about shades of grey. How can I know either way? But I still took a chance on you—’

      Ellie relived the stress and worry she had endured when quite out of the blue, one of the patients she had been tending had altered her will and left her estate to Ellie instead. It had been wholly unexpected and she had not felt in any way that she deserved that bequest. She had reported it immediately but naturally the old lady’s nephew had lodged a complaint. It had been a nasty business and there had been nothing she could have done to avoid the ordeal. Rage and distress over Rio’s suggestions roared through her taut body. ‘I hate you!’ she gasped chokily.

      ‘No, you don’t. You just don’t like being questioned and judged without a fair trial but it’s exactly what you do to me,’ Rio condemned levelly.

      ‘I don’t want to be married to you!’ Ellie slung at him wildly.

      ‘You don’t mean that,’ Rio assured her, the hands on her shoulders smoothing her delicate skin as he bent his head. ‘You want me as much as I want you.’

      ‘Stop telling me what I want, what I think!’ Ellie exclaimed in seething frustration.

      ‘Maybe I’m talking too much... Maybe I should be showing you,’ Rio husked, tipping her back a little and burying his mouth hotly in the smooth slope of her neck while his hands delved beneath her skirt and swept up over her thighs.

      ‘Stop it!’ Ellie hissed, struggling against the great wave of quivering weakness that assailed her as the heat of his lips and the teasing nip of his teeth grazed her sensitised flesh. ‘You’re not allowed to do this when we’re fighting!’

      In answer, Rio crushed her angrily parted lips beneath his own, his tongue flicking the roof of her mouth and tangling with her own. The forbidden pulse at the heart of her pounded faster and hotter while honeyed liquidity pooled in her pelvis. His hands firm on her thighs, she squirmed on the table.

      ‘Rio!’ she cried in frustration.

      He ripped the delicate panties out of his path and traced the damp wet folds between her parted thighs, and so much excitement surged up inside Ellie that she feared she might go up in flames. He had distracted her, she knew he had distracted her with sex and she knew she had to defend herself but in that instant nothing was more important to Ellie than the fierce, urgent demands of her own body.

      ‘We can’t...’ she moaned for her own benefit as much as his.

      Rio sank his hands below her hips and lifted her to him as though she were a doll. He sank into her hard and fast and the sudden fullness of him boldly stretching her made her shudder and gasp. And then he moved with brutal efficiency, hitting some magical spot inside her that knew no shame and the treacherous excitement came in a drowning, remorseless flood that overwhelmed her. Her teeth dug into the shoulder of his jacket, her hands clawed any part of him she could reach. The pleasure was unbearable, pushing her relentlessly to the edge. Her body careened into a teeth-clenching climax that left her bereft of breath and he freed her as the final convulsions trammelled through her weakened body.

      He disappeared off to the bathroom leaving her sagging on the table. He had taken precautions this time around, she registered in surprise. So, he was no longer willing to take that risk of conception with her, even though they were now married. Did Rio still want an escape route? Was he hoping