Expectant Bride (15 page)

‘Me too…'

In the spacious shower cubicle, she leant up against him beneath the energizing beat of the water. Weak and hungry as her treacherous body was, anxiety still pierced her thoughts. She wouldn't be
perfect
much longer. Her breasts were already fuller. Their baby would soon wreak havoc with the taut, slim figure he liked so much. Her waistline would thicken; her stomach would swell. Would Dio still find her attractive then?

‘I'm going to look like a balloon in a few months,' she muttered helplessly, unable to keep her fear to herself.

‘Hmm…' Dio sighed, sliding a reflective hand down over her still flat tummy, letting his fingers splay and linger. ‘I'm looking forward to showing you off.'

‘Showing me off?' Ellie echoed weakly.

Dio sank down on the corner seat and tugged her down on top of him. Angling his handsome head back, he luxuriated in the warm jets of water hitting them from all directions before he looked at her again. A slashing grin slated his wide, sensual mouth then. ‘I think it must be a guy thing,
agape
mou
. You have my baby inside you. That's a hell of a turn-on.'

‘It
is
?' Taken aback by that assurance, Ellie stared at him.

Eyes flaming to molten gold, Dio deftly shifted her so that she sat astride him. With amusement, he watched her register the strength of his arousal for herself.

‘Oh…' Suddenly bereft of breath, Ellie found her own hopelessly susceptible body reacting with violent enthusiasm to the sensual masculine threat of his.

Dio cupped her damp cheekbones and took her mouth with a hot, hungry brevity that sizzled through her every nerve-ending. ‘So what are we going to do about it?' he husked.

Anything you want,' she whispered, barely able to keep her voice steady.

And, with a hungry groan of satisfaction, he took her at her word. The urgency of his need both shocked and excited her. In the aftermath of her own shattering climax, she was still trembling as he towelled her dry. By then Dio was apologising, and then laughing at the same time.

‘Don't you ever tell anyone that our marriage was consummated in a shower,' he breathed. ‘I'd never hold my head up again!'

‘Why?'

He laid her down on the magnificent bed. ‘I should have been more romantic. It's our wedding night,' he reminded her with a rueful glint in his eyes that had so much appeal it tugged at her heart. ‘But the thought of making love without contraception for the first time in my life made me rampant!'

‘Rampant works like magic with me,' Ellie confided with a giggle, tugging him back down to her with possessive hands, surrendering to her overpowering need to keep in constant physical contact.

Dio smiled, slumbrous dark gold eyes scanning her with
appreciation. ‘I like this,' he said softly. ‘I like it that we can laugh even in bed. I've never had that before.'

Ellie woke up around dawn. Wandering sleepily back from the bathroom, she paused to study Dio where he lay on the bed, her eyes soft with tenderness and love. The white sheet was tangled only partially round one long, lean, powerful thigh. For a split second she just couldn't believe that he was
her
husband. And then she tossed her silvery fair head back and smiled. The fears she had harboured the night before now seemed remote and rather hysterical.

Right now, her body ached from the hunger of his. He wanted
her
, not just the baby. He wasn't turned off by her pregnancy either. And if he had been feeling trapped into marriage by his own sense of honour, he would surely have been a less keen lover. But Dio had spent the night demonstrating over and over again that he found her very desirable. He had restored her confidence in herself.

Pregnancy had shattered that confidence and hurt her pride. For a while, the status quo had changed, she acknowledged. She hadn't liked that. She had made some mistakes too. Her innate need for reassurance had made her feel dependent and weak, no longer his equal. Now those uneasy feelings were gone and she felt more secure. Sliding back into bed beside him, she sighed. She felt incredibly happy.

 

A smiling young maid woke Ellie later that morning by opening the curtains. It was after eleven. Dio had gone and she couldn't credit that she had slept so late. Her breakfast arrived on a wicker bed-tray complete with a bud vase. Gosh, this is fun, she decided, resting back against her banked-up pillows feeling like a queen.

After she had eaten, one startled glance at her tousled appearance sent her rushing to the shower. When she had finished drying her hair and had applied a little light make-up, she found that her clothes had already been unpacked and
tidied away in the capacious dressing room. She had bought several casual outfits before the wedding, and she put on a cool cotton shift dress in misty pastel shades of mauve.

As she descended the stairs, she heard Dio. Dio…his distinctive voice raised in…
anger
? A short dark young man erupted like a bullet from a doorway at the back of the hall. Awarding Ellie a startled look, he flushed and paused to proffer a strained greeting in Greek before he hurried on past. Ellie frowned in surprise.

Dio was talking harshly on the phone in his own language. He was in an elegant room furnished as an office. His short-sleeved linen shirt and tailored chinos in pale natural colours were a superb frame for his black hair, bronzed skin and sleekly powerful physique. He looked so stunning that for a foolish moment Ellie just hovered on the threshold, watching him stride back and forth like a caged tiger, his every lithe, restive movement screaming ferocious tension.

Ellie's scrutiny finally roamed from the husband she adored to the crumpled tabloid newspaper spread out across the desk. An English Sunday newspaper, she noted, flown out already. Her curiosity was roused as she moved closer.

Slinging aside the phone, Dio swung round and belatedly noticed her. ‘
Cristos
…what are
you
doing in here?' he thundered in disconcertion.

But it was already too late. Ellie had got close enough to recognise first a photograph of their wedding and then the people in the other smaller photos. Both her parents! There was her father, Tony Maynard, clambering out of his Mercedes, looking hunted and furious. It was the first time Ellie had seen him in over five years. She was paralysed to the spot, the colour draining from her shattered face.

Dio released his breath in a stark hiss. ‘I don't think you should read that stuff. It's only going to upset you.'

Ellie stared down at the pages. There was a picture of the shabby street where she had lived as a child. The caption
beneath ran,
‘From poverty…to wealth beyond avarice. How? The billion-dollar baby!'

‘Oh,
no
…' Ellie mumbled strickenly, her tummy lurching with nausea at the crude shock of such humiliation, in print for all the world to see.

‘S
CARCELY
the way I would have chosen to announce the advent of our first child,' Dio commented in a charged undertone that fairly screeched with restraint.

‘No…' Ellie agreed, trembling.

‘But, had you warned me how much scandal there was in your past, I might have been able to bury some of the evidence and protect you.'

Ellie flinched from the censure she could hear in his clipped drawl. And as she read what was in that newspaper article she didn't blame him; she really didn't. It
was
lurid stuff. The barest bones of the truth were there, but sunk beneath a wealth of lies and exaggerations.

‘For a start, I had no idea that you and your mother were virtual outcasts in the town where you grew up.'

‘Dio…it was a small town. Mum was an unmarried mother when it wasn't at all acceptable.' Ellie cleared her throat of the thickness of tears. ‘Her father died owing money to a lot of local tradesmen. Neither of those facts was going to win her any popularity contest. And when my father was seen visiting by the neighbours…well, everyone knew he was a married man.'

‘Why didn't you tell me that he ditched your mother to marry his secretary a few months after his first wife died?' Dio enquired drily.

He was concentrating on the revelations about her background rather than the infinitely more damaging and cruel comments about her in the present. She had been branded a cunning little gold-digger, who had seen her chance with a
rich man and grabbed it with both hands. She felt sicker than ever.

‘Ellie…' Dio prompted curtly.

‘Well, to be blunt…Th-that's not one of my favourite memories,' she stammered painfully. ‘My father didn't even bother to tell Mum that he had another woman in his life. The first she knew about it was the notice of their marriage in the local paper! She was devastated.'

‘Yes, and I would have preferred to have learned from
you
that she took her own life.'

Ellie rounded on him in shaken rebuttal. ‘She
didn't
! She was taking medication for depression. She was living in her own little world. She stepped off the pavement at a junction without looking and just got knocked down!'

Dio surveyed her with bleak eyes and his hands coiled into fists which he dug into his pockets. ‘You were only sixteen. How the hell did you cope alone at that age?'

‘My caring father sent his solicitor to arrange the funeral. He didn't attend himself, of course.'

‘Then what?' Dio prompted, looking grimmer than ever. ‘Why did you leave school?'

Ellie frowned in surprise. ‘What choice did I have?'

‘At the very least your father should have ensured that you completed your education—'

‘Why would he have done that when he had spent sixteen years trying to pretend that I was nothing to do with him? He was scared his wife would find out about me and throw him out. All the money was hers,' Ellie explained wearily.

‘So what did you do after your mother died?'

‘Our flat was rented. I sold the household stuff to a dealer and went to London. I stayed in a hostel until I got the job with Mr Barry. The year after that, he offered me the room above the shop. Dio, why are we talking about my background?' Ellie studied him with bewildered eyes. ‘I didn't
tell you any lies. I may have skipped the messier details, but that's no hanging offence.'

His black eyes flared to smouldering gold. ‘At this moment, I want to strangle you,' Dio confessed in a wrathful undertone. ‘But if we talk about what doesn't really matter for
long
enough, I have more hope of getting my temper under control!'

Ellie frowned in confusion. Was he blaming her for that scurrilous article? How could he? She asked him, certain she had to be wrong.

‘Of course I'm blasted well blaming you!' Dio launched back at her, his pent-up outrage unleashed by what he evidently considered to be a very stupid question.

Ellie turned very pale. ‘But why?'

‘The trail leads back to
you
, Ellie. If I'm not very sympathetic, it's because your own lack of discretion has brought this on us both!' he condemned with raw impatience.

‘Lack of discretion?' Ellie echoed blankly.

‘Nathan didn't even tell Sally that you were pregnant! He knows she's a hopeless gossip. And now I know I've got a wife who makes his look as secretive as the CIA!' Dio bit out sardonically. ‘How many people have you told that you're pregnant?'

‘None!' Ellie's temper rose as she finally grasped why he didn't feel she was entitled to sympathy. He fondly imagined that all that information had leaked from her own foolish lips!

‘You must have told someone. I would trust Nathan with my life. The press couldn't have managed to put all this together so quickly
without
assistance from someone close to
you
!' Dio spelt out with emphasis.

Ellie then recalled telling Ricky Bolton that she was expecting a baby, and she coloured hotly.

Dio was watching her like a hawk eager to swoop on a tender prey. ‘Who
was
it?'

Ellie was thinking at a frantic pace. Ricky might have
known she was pregnant, but he hadn't known a single thing about her parentage. Then she stilled, an expression of appalled comprehension slowly freezing her eloquent face. She could not believe what a fool she had been not to grasp who was behind such a vindictive attack on her.

‘Ellie…I want a full confession. Then possibly I will calm down,' Dio contended, in not the most convincing of promises.

Ellie scrutinised him in agonised silence. She
knew
that he was likely to spontaneously combust if she spoke the name that already lay between them like a mine-filled stretch of enemy territory. But at the same time she had to defend herself.

‘Ellie…' Dio grated.

‘You really want to know who I think is likely to have been behind this newspaper stuff…?' Ellie swallowed and tilted her chin. ‘In my opinion, the most likely candidate is Helena Teriakos.'

Boulders could have dropped soundlessly into the deep, deep silence that fell. She might as well have named a cartoon character. Dio stared at her with wondering black eyes as if she was intellectually challenged.

‘It
has
to be her,' Ellie continued valiantly. ‘She already knew about my background and she hates me—'

‘Have you taken leave of your wits?' Dio demanded in an almost ragged plea.

Ellie jerked a slight shoulder. ‘If it's any consolation, Helena has
you
taped too,' she added, no longer struggling to choose her words with care. ‘She said that you were easily embarrassed, and she said that you'd turn on me.'

Dio swept a silencing hand through the air. As a gesture, it was highly effective in its intimidating authority. ‘You are so devoured by jealousy you can't see straight, never mind reason rationally—'

‘Right at this moment, I am certainly not
jealous
, Dio.'
Ellie thrust up her chin as she voiced that reality. ‘If Helena came to that front door right now, I'd hand you over without a murmur!'

‘That's enough!' Dio growled.

‘I'm not finished!' Ellie's anger was shooting higher even as his inexplicably appeared to be on the wane. ‘You
deserve
her! I wish you
had
married her. You'd have got frostbite on your wedding night!'

Dio breathed in very slowly and deeply. Then he said, ‘I think this could be that stage when the honeymoon phase comes to a sudden very sticky end.'

‘I've had enough of you and that malicious vixen,' Ellie announced tremulously.

‘Tough,' Dio responded with extreme quietness.

That switch in attitude bemused her. ‘What do you mean,
tough
?'

‘You're my wife and you're not going anywhere. In fact, while you're displaying this deeply disturbing manic streak where Helena is concerned, you're staying on this island. I have to confess that I literally
cringe
at the prospect of you meeting up with her again. Look at yourself!' Dio invited with a curled lip. ‘You're practically jumping up and down with rage as it is.'

‘What do you expect?' Ellie screeched so loudly her voice broke.

Dio closed a determined arm round her shivering figure. ‘This is not good for the baby—'

‘Get your hands off me!' Ellie hissed.

‘No, your emotions are running out of control. It has to be your hormone level,' Dio decided, surveying her with extreme gravity but with a definite look of relief at an explanation he evidently liked very much.

‘My…hormone level?' Ellie practically whispered.

‘In early pregnancy a woman may be prone to emotional changes and may require extra support and understanding.'

Ellie's jaw dropped at what sounded very much like a direct quote from a textbook.

A dark flush scored Dio's stunning cheekbones as he appeared to absorb the meaning of what he had just said. ‘I've been far too hard on you,' he added abruptly.

Ellie was disconcerted to find herself being herded over to a sofa and urged to sit down. ‘Dio…what on earth are you playing at?' she prompted weakly.

Dio came down beside her, his dark, devastatingly handsome features now stamped with taut discomfiture. ‘You were
really
distressed after you saw that article. Even if you had announced your pregnancy to the entire maintenance staff in my building, I should have been more sympathetic towards your feelings.'

Ellie could agree with that, at least. However, she hadn't the slightest wish to shelter behind the excuse of emotional mood swings provoked by hormonal upheaval. ‘Yes, but—'

‘It just made me so bloody furious to see you being attacked in print!' Dio vented with sudden rawness as he folded a powerful arm round her and drew her close. ‘And it was really chilling working out the sort of childhood you must have endured with two such selfish parents. That upset me too, and when I get upset, I blow a fuse. But when you dragged in Helena again,
fortunately
I began to see how wildly out of proportion this was all becoming.'

‘I can't live with you not trusting me.'

‘Of course I trust you…with one single exception,' Dio extended without hesitation. ‘And I don't think we need to discuss that exception
again
.'

Ellie breathed in sharply. All she could taste was her own absolute defeat on the topic of Helena Teriakos. She was shaken and upset. But how did she persist with her accusations? She didn't want to destroy their marriage before it even got going. Helena was already working hard at doing that. Hard
and
successfully, Ellie reflected painfully.

And how could she possibly fight the other woman without evidence? Was she about to sink to the humiliating level of begging Sally Parkes to repeat Helena's malicious verbal attack at their wedding? The sad truth was that no spiteful comment could possibly prove her own infinitely more serious allegations against the brunette.

‘As for the newspaper foolish enough to print that rubbish, I shall sue,' Dio continued with chilling cool. ‘My lawyers tell me I can hang them out to dry, and hang them I will.'

Involuntarily, Ellie shivered. ‘Why bother?'

‘When anyone attacks you, they're attacking me. Your reputation is at stake. I will defend it.'

‘Well, don't feel you have to on my account,' Ellie muttered limply. ‘Sticks and stones and all that—'

‘They'll settle out of court and print a retraction. They will also make some worthy charity a most handsome donation.' Dio gazed searchingly at the pale delicacy of her set profile and curved her even closer. ‘And before I'm finished with them, they'll also reveal their source.'

Ellie glanced at him in sudden hope, and then her eyes fell again. ‘Journalists never do that.'

‘You'd be surprised what they do behind closed doors when the pressure is great enough,' Dio asserted wryly. ‘How are you feeling now?'

‘That…that I want to be on my own,' Ellie confessed ruefully.

Dio tensed.

‘I'm sorry. I just do.' Gently detaching herself from him, Ellie rose to her feet. ‘I'll go for a walk.'

‘I'll come with you.'

Ellie skimmed him a pained glance. ‘No.'

She could see his frustration,
feel
it. And she loved him so much. If she didn't she wouldn't be in so much pain. But she needed time to wind down and come to terms with what had happened between them.

Ellie took the path down the beach house. Once she reached the warm soft sand on the beach, she kicked off her shoes and walked along through the surf whispering onto the shore. The sun shone blinding silvered reflections on the sea. It was hotter than it had been on her last visit. But she loved the heat. It seemed to drive out the chill inside her.

Here they were on the very first day of their honeymoon and Helena had already practically torn them apart, she reflected with a shiver. Dio had indeed been outraged by such lurid invasive publicity. And, whether she liked the role or not, Ellie now knew that she had become Dio's Achilles' heel. He
was
a very proud man, and she didn't want him to be any less proud. But they had had yet another violent and destructive argument and she had got precisely nowhere. How many more could they afford to have before Dio decided that their marriage had no future?

Ellie was far along the beach, sitting in the shade of a rocky outcrop, when she saw Dio striding towards her with lithe, long-limbed grace. He was carrying a picnic hamper.

‘I did ask to be on my own,' Ellie reminded him gently.

‘You've been on your own for three hours,
pethi mou
.' Black eyes held hers levelly. ‘Now you need to eat.'