The Italian's Wife Read online

  Three months earlier, Holly had given birth to the twins. It had been an

  easy but very tiring pregnancy and Rio had fussed over her to an almost

  embarrassing degree. He had also fainted dead away in the delivery room

  on the day of their daughters' birth, a reaction which he was still

  trying to explain away as the result of over-excitement. With three

  children in the household, Alice Lombardi was in her element when she

  visited. She adored children and that had

  been clear to Holly from the instant Timothy had crawled across the

  floor into the older woman's eagerly extended arms. Alice made no

  difference between Timothy and the more recent arrivals in the family,

  and Holly loved her for that.

  Furthermore, although Rio's mother still had bad days with her

  arthritis, her health had improved a great deal. But then, Holly did not

  think Rio had ever understood quite how bored and depressed the older

  woman had been with her life prior to their marriage. But Holly had

  begun to understand as she watched Alice slowly lose her concept of

  herself as an invalid to become more active.

  Leaving the older woman in peace to enjoy the children, Holly thought

  about how her own parents had also benefited from their marriage. Well

  aware of how independent his father-in-law was, Rio had not made the

  mistake of offering direct financial help, which would have been

  refused. Instead, her husband had Invested in the farm, enabling her

  father to hire a worker to help out. Holly had had the pleasure of

  seeing her own father take on a new lease of life, no longer stressed by

  worry about how he would cope as he got older.

  Yes, there was no doubt about it, Holly reflected as she changed into an

  elegant blue shift dress. Rio was one very special bloke, who went to

  endless trouble to help those he

  loved.

  She respected him for what he had done for Christabel as well. Feeling

  that his former fiancée was having enough of a struggle getting her life

  back on track after leaving the rehabilitation clinic, he had asked

  Holly if she would mind if he simply signed that apartment of his over

  to Christabel. And no, she hadn't minded, and she had even been pleased

  when the blonde spoke to her months later at a charity function.

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  'Rio's a really great guy,' Christabel had proclaimed with genuine

  warmth and had then lowered her voice to groan, 'But, to be honest, he

  was way too good-living for me!'

  Christabel's life had moved on too and she certainly seemed content.

  Having set up a successful modelling school, she had then caused a great

  stir with the announcement that she was bi-sexual and a reformed addict.

  That confessional session in front of the cameras had gained her

  enormous publicity but she had recently started dating men again.

  Holly went to say goodnight to her children. Timothy was almost asleep

  and she straightened the bedclothes and removed half a dozen toy cars

  from the spread before dropping a kiss down on his smooth brow.

  'Night...night,' Timothy mumbled and then revived slightly as he focused

  on the tall dark male who had appeared in his bedroom doorway. 'Hug...Dad.'

  During the hug, a whispered exchange took place. The toy Ferrari that

  Holly had removed from the bed was slid back under the covers but she

  turned a blind eye to that evidence of male complicity. Timothy was such

  a happy toddler, full of affection and little-boy liveliness.

  'One down, two to go, cara,' Rio quipped as he curved an arm round her

  and accompanied her into the nursery. 'After having you around

  yesterday, I missed you at the office today.'

  'I missed you too.' Holly smiled at the thought of how much her outlook

  on life had changed over the past eighteen months. She had never dreamt

  that she might end up doing a basic business course just to see what it

  was like and that she might enjoy it and want to learn more, but that

  was what had happened.

  Right now, of course, with the children all so young, it

  wasn't possible for her to do much more than study part-time. That week,

  however, she had spent a morning with Rio at Lombardi Industries,

  actually seeing how the business world operated, and she had been

  fascinated by that }, insight into an average day in his life.

  'If you were there the whole time I probably couldn't concentrate,' Rio

  confided, smiling appreciatively down into Amalia's cot. 'She's just

  beautiful when she's sleeping, isn't she?'

  Holly tried not to laugh, but there was no denying that their eldest

  daughter had caused a lot of disruption in her first weeks of life by

  flatly refusing to sleep at almost any stage of the night. Holly had

  been darned grateful to have both a husband and a nanny. Mercifully,

  Amalia had recently settled into a more reasonable routine.

  'And Battista...' Rio studied his younger daughter with touching pride.

  She had the same curly dark hair as Amalia, for their daughters were

  identical twins, but there the resemblance ended, since Battista slept

  like a log and seemed to have a more philosophical attitude to life.

  Leaving the nursery, they went into their bedroom because Rio said he

  needed a shower before dinner.

  'Same old routine. I don't know why I bother putting clothes on for you

  coming home,' Holly lamented in a long-suffering tone of teasing

  provocation.

  Laughing, Rio threw back his darkly handsome head and then kissed her

  breathless anyway. 'What happened to those stars in your eyes?'

  'Those stars are multiplying at an incredible rate,' Holly swore, gazing

  up into dark golden eyes that were full of love and appreciation and

  tenderness. He adored her and she knew it.

  'I must be on a real winning streak, then, tesoro mio.'

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  Rio locked her to his lean, powerful body with possessive hands.

  'Not this evening, you're not,' Holly told him ruefully, striving not to

  quiver against him in an inviting way, although it was very difficult

  when her resistance was nil. 'Have you forgotten Alice is staying until

  tomorrow?'

  'And dining out with friends,' Rio reminded her with a slashing smile of

  amusement as she let herself quiver and meld to him like a second skin,

  all restraint vanishing.

  Holly gave him her starry-eyed look of love and saw it beautifully

  reflected in his own gaze. She wound her arms round him, possessive and

  proud and dizzy with happiness, and it was a very long time before

  either of them thought of eating.