then he leant down and he kissed her and it was exactly what he had promised, hot and hungry and wildly intoxicating. The heat of his long, lean, powerful frame against hers sent a current of prickling awareness flying across her entire skin surface. The plunge of his tongue electrified her, sending tiny shivers darting through every pleasure receptor. Her breasts tingled and swelled, the tips straining.
His mouth roamed over her, tugging at the sensitive buds, seeking out delicate spots and lingering. He worked his way down her body to explore the most responsive place of all and her hips writhed and her lips parted on tiny cries. She had never felt so much pleasure or such a relentless drive for release. It was as if something deep within her were screaming impatiently for satisfaction. She twisted and turned, drowning in sensation, her body programmed to leap and rise to fever point at his every caress. Slowly she could feel her control being torn away from her but this time it didn’t frighten her. She didn’t fight, she let go, rejoicing in the strong waves of pleasure convulsing her and thrumming like a euphoric song through every skin cell.
‘You’re really, really good at that,’ Ellie whispered, limp and breathless in the aftermath.
‘I’m good at a lot of things,’ Rio husked, all sexual promise and dominance as he rose over her, rearranging her singing body to his satisfaction.
And if he was set on proving the fact, he proved it as he plunged into her tender depths with passionate force, reawakening her to arousal. Her heart hammered, her adrenalin kicking in as she arched beneath him, deepening his penetration, and suddenly she was greedy to experience every thrilling sensation. He moved faster, lithe and potent. Her excitement climbed with every compelling thrust. Perspiration dampened her skin, a furnace-like heat rising from the heart of her as the desire for fulfilment clawed at her. And then she was there at the summit and the blinding surge of heart-stopping pleasure seized her body and soul. She jerked and shuddered and cried out, thrown over the boundary between reality and fantasy.
Afterwards, Ellie wrapped her arms tight round Rio, feeling madly affectionate and happy.
‘What are you doing?’ Rio asked, tensing.
‘I’M HUGGING YOU,’ Ellie said witheringly.
‘I don’t do hugs.’
‘I do a lot of hugging. You’ll have to get used to it.’ She sighed, blissfully unconcerned by his objection. She loved the hot, damp heaviness of him against her and smoothed her fingers gently down the long line of his spine. ‘If I’m pregnant, you’ll have a child to hug.’
She felt the charge of tension that stiffened him in her arms.
‘That day...you went pale at the prospect too,’ she pointed out sleepily, exhaustion weighing heavily on her.
‘Of course I did. I haven’t a clue how to be a parent,’ Rio pointed out feelingly. ‘How could I? I never had one—’
‘Just like me. You’ll learn as you go along,’ Ellie told him drowsily, the words slurring slightly.
Rio lifted his tousled dark head. ‘You can’t go to sleep yet... It’s our wedding night.’
But Ellie was already sound asleep. He went for a shower and eventually climbed back into bed.
Ellie wakened while it was still dark and suppressed a sigh. Her sleeping pattern had been disrupted by ever-changing shifts and a regular shortage of sufficient rest while she worked. Knowing that she was unlikely to drift off again, she got up and put on a comfy dress while scrutinising Rio as he lay sprawled in bed. He was taking up more than his share of the space, she noted without surprise. It was as well for him that he could look so good doing it, she acknowledged with tender amusement, noting the black hair curling against the pillow, the angular bone structure shaded in by stubble, the relaxed line of his mouth. Asleep he looked younger than his thirty years.
Dragging her attention from him, she went downstairs and the first thing she noticed in the sink of the elegant little kitchen was the bouquet of flowers, and guilt shot through her. A trawl through the cupboards produced a vase and she settled the blooms into water and put them on display in the sitting room. A search of the fridge revealed bottled water and savoury pastries and she ate standing up, watching the dawn light rise over the building on the other side of the canal and slowly illuminate the little garden.
‘What are you thinking about?’ Rio asked from behind her.
Ellie turned her head to take in Rio clad only in a pair of ripped blue jeans, his feet bare. ‘Violet,’ she mused wryly. ‘The old lady who died in the hospice. She loved to see the dawn. If I was on duty I’d open the curtains early for her. I was thinking of how much she would have loved Venice but she never got to travel because her husband liked home best and in her day husbands ruled the roost—’
Rio grinned. ‘Dare I hope it’ll be the same for us?’
‘Wouldn’t hold my breath on that one,’ Ellie advised.
‘Why are you out of bed so early?’
‘I’ve always been an early riser,’ she confided. ‘But then I’m not used to having the freedom to sleep in. If I wasn’t working the past few years, I was studying for exams. The pressure is constant.’
Rio groaned out loud. ‘Tell me about Violet while I order breakfast.’
‘She was lonely. She’d outlived everyone who mattered to her,’ Ellie told him. ‘She had no visitors. Her nephew came once when she first entered the facility but he didn’t come back. Some relatives can’t handle the last stages of a terminal illness. You can’t judge them for it. We’re supposed to stay detached...and I never thought I’d have a problem with that.’
‘Sometimes you get involved whether you want to or not.’
Ellie squared her slight shoulders. ‘When I had a few minutes free I kept Violet company. That was all. She reminisced about her past and I would listen and it made her happy. Once she was asleep I would tiptoe out again. I knew nothing about her changing her will until her solicitor contacted me after her death,’ she admitted. ‘I couldn’t have accepted anything from her anyway because it’s against the rules of the trust that employed me for medical staff to make a financial gain from patients. Even though I’d turned it down, the nephew made an official complaint against me and the whole business dragged on for months before it got to the enquiry stage and I was officially cleared. Why would I have wanted her money anyway?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Rashad and Polly insisted on paying off my student loans but they also tried to persuade me to accept a large lump sum off them to buy a property. It was very generous of them but I turned it down because, while I can deal with the extravagant gifts they insist on giving me, I don’t want to be the family charity case,’ Ellie admitted ruefully. ‘Polly buys all my clothes as it is, but she’s married to Rashad and I’m not. That’s her life, not mine.’
‘And now you’ve got a life with me,’ Rio murmured, tugging her backwards into the circle of his arms.
‘I’m not sure how much of a life I can have with a man who thinks I’m after his money.’ Ellie sighed just as a loud knock sounded on the front door.
