was a waiter with a covered trolley and at Ellie’s instigation it was wheeled out to the small patio, which was now bathed in early morning sunshine. The screening shrubs in the garden gave it all the charm of a forest glade.
Ellie poured the coffee. ‘So now you know about Violet. It was a storm in a teacup but it had long-lasting repercussions. Mud sticks. People I trusted made nasty comments. I was worried it would damage my career and I got very stressed.’
‘Naturally,’ Rio conceded, wondering why it hadn’t occurred to him that, had she been mercenary, Ellie could have chosen to rely on her seriously rich brother-in-law for financial support. Rashad was very generous and very family-orientated. Had she so desired, Ellie could have given up work and lived the life of a rich socialite. Why had that very obvious fact never crossed his mind at any stage? Had he preferred to think of Ellie as a gold-digger? And if so, why was that?
‘That’s why this break in Italy was so important to me. I needed a holiday—’
‘And instead you got me—’
A natural smile tilted Ellie’s lips as she looked at him, lounging back shirtless in his seat, a beautiful, self-assured and ruthless work of art, who continually surprised her. ‘Yes, I got you.’
‘When do we find out whether or not you’re pregnant?’ he prompted without warning.
‘I was planning to do a test now,’ she confided.
‘For yourself?’ Rio queried in visible consternation. ‘No, that won’t do at all. We’ll go and see a doctor, get it done properly—’
‘I am a doctor—’
‘Sì...’ Rio gave a fluid, very Italian shrug ‘...but this is an occasion and it requires special treatment.’
Midmorning, following their visit to a very charming private doctor, they sat down to coffee and pastries in the atmospheric Piazza San Marco. Both of them were shell-shocked, Ellie most of all, because she had believed she would recognise some tiny sign and somehow know. But she hadn’t known, hadn’t recognised anything that different with the exception of being more tired than usual, and with all the fuss of the wedding that hadn’t seemed worthy of note.
‘So, now we know,’ Rio pronounced without any expression at all.
And Ellie recognised the dazed light in his eyes and knew that he was just as stunned as she was to learn that he was going to become a parent in a few months.
‘I just didn’t really think it could happen that...easily,’ he admitted in an almost embarrassed undertone.
‘I’ve met a few distressed teenagers who made the same assumption,’ Ellie admitted, smiling to herself, quietly pleased with the knowledge that she was carrying her first child. And no, their baby hadn’t been planned and was likely to drive a horse and cart through her career choices, but neither of those facts mattered when set beside the wonder of conception, which she had watched give such great joy to Polly and Rashad. She would gladly make space in her life for her child, she acknowledged, recognising that in the blink of an eye after hearing that news that her goals had changed.
‘Saying we would make the best of this development if it happened wasn’t the most supportive or sensitive approach,’ Rio conceded belatedly. ‘I want to celebrate now but not only can you not drink, you’ve even been warned off coffee.’
There it was again, that ability to surprise her that made her love Rio all the more, Ellie reflected. In fact, loving Rio seemed to have been stamped into her genes like a no-escape clause because, of course, she loved him, didn’t know quite when it had happened and certainly not how. She smiled, happiness bubbling through her that he was so flexible, so willing to happily embrace their unplanned baby. ‘I’ll drink decaf—’
Rio grimaced at the idea for he had a true Italian love of unadulterated coffee.
‘There are other ways of celebrating,’ Ellie pointed out, lashes screening her eyes as she covertly studied him, recognising that she would never tire of this particular view. Rio, hair blue-black and gleaming in the sunshine, stunning dark golden eyes welded to her with an intensity she could feel, sprawled back with indolent grace in his seat, his shirt pulled taut across his broad chest, his trousers straining over his powerful thighs. Her mouth ran dry.
‘Eat your ice cream, Signora Benedetti. I love your curves—’
‘Just as well. My curves will be expanding—’
A slashing grin curved his sculpted mouth. ‘I can only look forward to it, principessa. But when it comes to celebrating—’
‘You could take me out on a gondola,’ Ellie suggested with enthusiasm.
Rio looked pained. ‘Seriously uncool. That’s a touristy thing—’
‘Please...’ Ellie urged.
And she got her gondola ride the whole length of the Grand Canal. Rio had caved and she was touched. He was much more comfortable sweeping her into a fancy jeweller’s store afterwards, where he insisted on buying her an emerald pendant to mark the occasion. They lunched back at the house and he watched her smother a yawn.
‘You should lie down for a while—’
‘Only if you lie down with me,’ Ellie murmured softly.
Disconcerted, Rio flashed her a glance as if he couldn’t quite credit the invitation. But without hesitation he lifted her up out of her seat and crushed her ripe mouth under his own, all the seething passion of his intense sexuality rising to the fore.
He tumbled her down on the bed but he unwrapped her from her clothes like a precious parcel, pausing to admire and tease what he exposed, and she writhed like a wanton on top of the silk bedspread in the full glare of the Venetian sunlight, utterly lost in passion and equally lost to all shame. He took her from behind then, hands firm on her overheated body as he drove into her with a roughened growl of satisfaction. His urgent rhythm was wildly exciting. Heart pounding, breathing forgotten, Ellie reached a peak and her body detonated in an explosive charge of pleasure. She slumped down winded on the bed with Rio on top of her.
He released her from his weight and settled down beside her, reaching for her to pull her into his arms.
‘Thought you didn’t do hugs,’ Ellie commented.
Rio splayed a large hand across her flat stomach and said piously, ‘I’m hugging my child.’
Ellie laughed, feeling amazingly relaxed and at peace. Her fingers lifted and fiddled absently with the emerald she still wore round her neck.
‘You can tell me about your uncle now,’ Rio informed her in the tone of someone doing her a favour.
Ellie wrinkled her nose. ‘Jim Dixon? My mother’s brother? I guessed he would be the family member you mentioned. I take it he’s still peddling his sob story about how I ripped him off?’
‘You’re not surprised?’
‘Jim’s vilified me everywhere and no matter what I said to him, he refused to listen. He doesn’t want the truth. He didn’t get on with my mother and he never liked Polly and me, but my grandmother was living on the poverty line when she agreed to raise us. Our mother gave her
