Expectant Bride (17 page)

‘I hoped it would bring you out of hiding. I knew you had promised to meet Sally today, but she warned me that she'd had to fight to get you to agree,' Dio disclosed tautly. ‘And
when you would only set a date a whole week in advance…frankly, I thought there was little hope that you would actually turn up.'

‘I wouldn't have done that to Sally. She's a nice person.'

‘When I faced Helena with what she had done, she kept on lying very convincingly for a long time. Then I mentioned the malice Sally had heard her spitting at you on our wedding day—'

‘Isn't it wonderful the way you believed everyone
but
me? That journalist? Sally?' Ellie condemned with tremulous but very fierce bitterness.

‘I honestly could never have imagined Helena capable of such behaviour,' Dio framed grittily. ‘That is…until two weeks ago, when I confronted her and she finally lost her temper because she realised that she had lost.'

‘She didn't
lose
, Dio. She won all the way,' Ellie contradicted flatly, her tears drying on her cheeks now. ‘We didn't have much to start out with…and by the time she'd finished we had nothing. But don't you kid yourself that she was the one
most
at fault!'

‘I know where the blame lies. I know I let you down and made you very unhappy. You hate me, don't you?'

‘Some of the time…like right now,
yes
!' Ellie suddenly snapped as she rounded on him, her green eyes emerald with anger. ‘She really scared me that day with her threats. She'd have done anything to persuade me into getting rid of our baby! She sneered at my mother, she insulted me every way possible and you wouldn't even
listen
.'

Dio moved forward. ‘Ellie…I—'

‘Shut up!' Ellie interrupted furiously. ‘I was a total idiot to marry you in the first place! I was very upset that day—'

‘You had every right to be. All I know is that I have never been closer to violence than I was when confronting Helena two weeks ago,' Dio revealed with raw force. ‘The manner in which she spoke of you almost drove me to assault!'

‘Really?' Ellie was quite happy to rein back temper long enough to relish that enervating detail. ‘So does that mean that there's
not
going to be a reconciliation?'

Dio stared back at her blankly.

‘You're not planning to marry her after me, then?' Ellie rephrased.

‘Are you unhinged?
Marry her?
' Dio exclaimed incredulously. ‘She's a cold, vicious bitch!'

‘Well, it took you a lifetime, but in the end you got there. Congratulations,' Ellie said very drily. ‘Could you get me a case?'

‘A case?'

Ellie was possessed by the need to keep busy. Dio was getting to her and she had been determined that he was not going to get to her. That five-letter word labelling Helena as beyond the pale, for all her background, breeding and brilliance, had blown a small hole in Ellie's defences. She moved forward and then almost fell over the mound of clothing heaped round her. She looked down in astonishment at what appeared to be a whole heap of Dio's suits.

Sidestepping them, she attempted to brush past Dio. He closed his hand over hers. ‘You've got to hear me out!' he grated rawly.

‘You didn't hear
me
out, did you? No, when I was trying to state my case either I was insane with jealousy or off my trolley with being pregnant! And shall I tell you something, Dio? Right now, I'm near
my
personal edge!' Ellie vented with ringing honesty. ‘Let…go…of…me!'

Dio released her with a jerk. Dark colour scored his stunning cheekbones but it was the savage pain in the depths of his dark eyes that shook her. ‘I am more sorry that I have hurt you than you will ever believe,' he breathed raggedly.

Pale and trembling from that charged exchange, Ellie went off in search of a suitcase. It was mad, it was
crazy
to keep on trying to pack in the midst of such emotional turmoil, but
she couldn't bear to see Dio in so much pain; she really couldn't! All over the head of that evil witch, who had almost sucked him in like a boa constrictor! Ellie shuddered as she banged through the closets she recalled touring two and a half weeks earlier. Locating the designated luggage storage, she grabbed up a case.

‘Let me take that…' Dio took it from her again.

‘You know…you don't feel it now, but sooner or later, you'll realise what a lucky escape you've had,' she muttered half under her breath, and hurried back to the master bedroom suite that they would now never share.

‘Ellie…please sit down so that we can talk,' Dio urged, sounding almost pathetically humble. ‘I need to tell you about Helena.'

Ellie was so appalled by that confession she sank down on the side of the bed before her legs gave out beneath her. If he needed a shoulder, why did it have to be hers? Then she understood. He wanted to make a complete confession. Nothing less would satisfy his over-active conscience. So he was about to drag out personal admissions that would very probably rip her heart out and depress her for the next thirty years.

Dio regarded her warily and very slowly set down the case. He cleared his throat. ‘I—'

‘Will you keep it short?' Ellie begged without pride.

Dio got even tenser. He looked so absolutely miserable her heart went out to him. She had to face it now. He had really loved Helena. He might now be repulsed, but he
had
loved her.

‘My father first told me that Helena would make me a wonderful wife when I was five.'

‘
Five
…five years old?' Ellie yelped. ‘What age was she?'

‘Eight.'

‘Five…dear heaven, that's like brainwashing!' Ellie said in disgust.

‘My grandparents died in a car accident when my father was still very young. He was brought up by his father's family. You must understand that my father was made to feel very much ashamed of his mother's more humble ancestry.'

‘So he was raised to be a real snob?'

Dio nodded.

‘And he wanted to be sure you didn't let the side down?'

Dio nodded again.

‘So you were indoctrinated from a very early age to believe that Helena was your future.'

‘A future I kept putting off.' Dio breathed in deep. ‘I could never admit even to myself that I didn't like Helena—'

‘You didn't…
like
Helena?' Ellie interrupted in astonishment.

‘Did you find her a warm, inviting personality when you first came in contact with her on Chindos?'

‘
No
, but—'

Dio's jawline hardened. ‘I could never fault her behaviour. Her every accomplishment was continually paraded before me, and she is very accomplished. It was instilled in me that I had to marry her.'

‘So you decided you'd marry her and have a mistress to supply the warmth she so conspicuously lacks.'

Recognising her scorn, Dio dealt her a wry look of reproach. ‘Such marriages are not uncommon in my world. Until I met you, I didn't realise what I might be missing.'

Ellie sighed. ‘I can't believe that.'

‘OK…so there have been a few women in my past,' Dio conceded, in distinctly charged understatement. ‘But not one of them got to me the way you did. We had that one magical night and then I blew it. But I couldn't stay away from you—'

‘So you married me and blew it again,' Ellie slotted in painfully.

Dio crossed the carpet and hunkered down to look up into
her wan face. He tried to reach for her hands. She put them behind her back.

Dio's mouth quirked. ‘The night you told me that you might be pregnant, I realised that I was in love with you—head over heels in love.'

‘You would tell me
anything
to keep a hold on our baby, wouldn't you?' Ellie mumbled with a sob in her voice.

Dio's beautiful dark eyes shimmered. He unpeeled her hands from behind her back and held them fast in his. ‘My biggest mistake was not telling you how I felt that night in my apartment,' he told her rawly. ‘I knew then that I would
never
marry Helena, and that's when the guilt kicked in. Then she phoned after we had made love and I felt even worse!'

A little shard of hope pierced Ellie's emotional turmoil. Now she was locked onto his every facial expression, his every word. She remembered the way he had reacted after that phone call that had interrupted them. ‘You should have explained about her then!'

Dio released his breath in a rueful hiss. ‘I didn't want to upset you. I also didn't feel right talking to you about her at that stage,' he admitted. ‘First I needed to see her and tell her that I had fallen in love.'

‘Is that what you told her?'

Dio gave her a questioning look. ‘What else would I have told her? I knew she wouldn't be too impressed by the announcement, but it was the truth. When you came out of Nathan's surgery, I really was pleased about the baby, but I'm afraid my guilt over Helena ruined what should've been a very special occasion.'

‘I can understand how you must've felt.'

Dio grimaced. ‘No, you can't. I was very angry with myself for letting that understanding with Helena drift on for so long. I believed that I was letting her down very badly,' he
confessed. ‘But if I felt bad then, it was nothing to how I felt when I actually faced Helena in Paris.'

Ellie frowned, her hands tightening their hold on his. ‘What did she do to you?'

‘She played me like a violin,' Dio grated with a perceptible rise of blood to his bronzed complexion as he recalled that meeting. ‘She said that she would be a laughing stock, and that no man would ever marry her if I didn't. But she kept on reiterating that of course she understood and forgave me…I was there for
hours
!' He gave a feeling shudder of recollection. ‘I felt like a complete bastard. I honestly thought that I had ruined her life.'

‘She's a terrific actress…or maybe…maybe she really does love you, Dio,' Ellie suggested unhappily.

Dio gave her an aghast look. ‘You've got to be joking!'

‘I love you…why shouldn't she? She's known you a lot longer—'

‘Ellie…' Dio vaulted upright and carried her with him, his dark eyes ablaze with intense pleasure and relief at that simple confession. ‘Ellie, darling, darling, gorgeous Ellie…' he breathed raggedly. ‘If I was a poor man, Helena wouldn't give me the time of day. She's obsessed with marrying a wealthy man worthy of her illustrious family tree. She simply could not credit that I could be
wet
enough to start talking about love…she said I could have you if I wanted you—'

‘As a mistress—'

‘And I said I loved you too much for that.' Dio brushed her hair from her brow with gentle fingers, so much tenderness in his warm dark eyes that Ellie finally believed that he loved her. ‘But when I confronted her two weeks ago, she was much more honest. She assured me that if a better matrimonial prospect had come along, she'd have been married years ago!'

‘I'm glad she was angry rather than hurt,' Ellie admitted.

‘Even after all she's done to you?' Dio demanded with naked incredulity.

Ellie stretched up to loosen his tie in a very proprietorial way. ‘I can be very generous when I've won,' she shared rather smugly.

Dio caught her up in his arms and crushed her mouth with hungry intensity beneath his. As he buried his face in her hair, she quivered, feeling as weak as a kitten.

‘I never dreamt that hearing a woman telling me that she loved me could mean so much,' he confided with roughened sincerity.

‘And to think that if you had told me rather than Helena,' Ellie could not resist remarking, ‘that you
loved
me, I'd never have left you.'

‘Don't you ever leave me again,' Dio warned fiercely.

‘I wouldn't dream of it…' She gave him a teasing glance, rejoicing in this new intimacy of mutual trust which allowed her to do and say what she liked. ‘Not if it means you're likely to drown in buckets of booze and self-pity…'

Dio brought her down on the bed and pinned her there, black eyes alight with immense appreciation. ‘You are a minx.'

‘I've got your number now…you'd better watch out…'

‘I adore you,' he husked feelingly. ‘But you're not going to boss me around.'

Ellie slid loving fingers into his luxuriant black hair and whispered, ‘Kiss me…'

And he did.

Then he lifted his head with a glint of mocking comprehension in his keen gaze. ‘Pregnant, barefoot and in the bedroom,
agapi mou
,' he told her slumbrously.

‘You're misquoting.'

A slashing smile curved Dio's mouth. ‘It was a statement of intent.'

‘Well, if we're negotiating, what about all that “You don't
tell me what I can do, where I can go or who I can be with” stuff?' Ellie enquired playfully.

‘I just knew you would remember every word of that.'

‘Because I reserve the
right
to.'

‘You could have been a real
agent provocateur
in the maintenance department.' His brilliant dark eyes roamed over her and glittered with desire and boundless satisfaction. ‘It's far safer keeping you in my bed.'

‘I've got to admit the family cave's pretty comfortable,' Ellie sighed happily, sparing her impressive surroundings a look of approval.

And, with a husky laugh of appreciation, Dio kissed her breathless and proceeded to demonstrate the fringe benefits of sharing that family cave.

 

Ellie tucked her infant son, Spiros, back into his exquisite cradle. At four months old, Spiros was just adorable. He had hair the colour of silver-gilt and dark, dark eyes—an arresting combination of his parental genes. When he was sound asleep, he looked like a little angel.