They stopped in front of a table where three people were already standing. A short, old man with just a little bit of white hair left on his balding head, another man dressed in a white suit, his black hair shiny and slicked back. He looked like the old man—probably his son. Riana didn’t like him on the spot, especially since his gaze perused Allan with contempt.
Riana turned to Allan to see if he’d noticed their presence. He had, and he returned the stare with one of his tight smiles but his eyes had a glint in them. Riana knew that look all to well, it spoke of mischief. Allan was up to something. What?
Riana trapped her lower lip between her teeth to hide the budding smile and turned to the third person. The lady was beautiful but Riana could already see she was going to have trouble keeping her away from Allan. She leered at him like a bitch in heat! And Allan was doing a damn fine job pretending he didn’t notice.
She was wearing a kn
Allan laughed harder then leaned toward her and kissed her on the lips. “My unicorn, the things that go through your mind,” he whispered then kissed her again before he pulled away. Riana nibbled nervously on her lower lip as she turned to Mr. Torino. He had a grin on his face. Riana risked a smile then turned to Anthony. He on the other hand didn’t find it amusing. “Sorry. I just know Allan can be impossible to negotiate with if he doesn’t like you.” Anthony’s jaw only clenched harder and his gaze grew even more lethal. Riana sighed. I should probably shut up now. She leaned against Allan’s arm and kept silent and waited for the inevitable. “Your girlfriend is very different. She’s a peace keeper, no?” Mr. Torino commented, making Riana blush. Allan kissed her forehead, chuckling. “Yes, she is. She’s the reason why I’m here.” She heard him exhale loudly. “And the reason why I’ll meet you for dinner to discuss this. It would have been wonderful to meet only you, Mr. Torino, but
Allan walked out of Mr. Torino’s office feeling a hundred pounds lighter. The deal was done and all that was left was putting their signatures on the contract.Mr. Torino had called for him immediately after they arrived at the hotel. Allan didn’t have to wonder what it was about. He had made himself clear at brunch that he was going to hand over the company to him. So it didn’t surprise him when Mr. Torino asked Allan to settle the bank loan which had grown considerably in the last two months.Not that he cared, but Allan asked if he and his children had another source of income. Leaving Mr. Torino destitute would not go over well with Riana.Anthony and Antonia had trust funds and Mr. Torino had his savings, which he would keep him comfortable for the rest of his life. With that out of the way, Allan called his lawyer to draw up the necessary paper work then left Mr. Torino to join Riana in their suite.They had three hours till dinner
Riana kept the water running as she tried to throw up quietly. She thought she’d escaped it when she didn’t get sick that morning.Why call it morning sickness if it hit you any time of the day?There was a knock on the door followed by a loud, “Signorina Albury, are you fine?” Guliana, her stylist and makeup artist for the night sounded worried.Before she could respond, she felt something come up. She retched what looked like water and the knock on the door grew to a banging.“Signorina, I should call the Signore, yes?”“No!” Riana yelled out. She flushed the toilet and lowered the cover before she sat on it. At least she didn’t feel drained and weak like when she was on the yacht.She placed her hand over her belly. “Why are you doing this to me? I’m housing you inside me for nine months.”“Signorina?”Rian
“What?” Allan asked taking a sip of his drink before looking over his shoulder. His eyes bulged out and he began coughing. Riana asked for a glass of water from the bartender. She handed it to Allan who was still looking at her like she’d walked in naked—well, she was a little exposed. But not naked. He took a few gulps, his eyes still moving over her. “Fuck, Riana!” She took the glass away from him and placed it on the counter. “Language, Allan.” “Signorina Albury!” The man standing with them exclaimed like she wasn’t what he expected. Riana almost asked ‘who else do you think I am’ instead she said, “Si, Signore, but you have me at a disadvantage. I don’t know who you are.” He chuckled and turned to Allan. “Naïve and sweet, huh?” He shook his head and turned back to her, holding out his hand. “Dante Vittorio, Sinclair’s lawyer—here in Italy at least.” Riana placed her hand in his and smiled at him. “I should have recognized your voice. You are always on the phone with Allan. I
After the tense dinner the night before, Riana was looking forward to a day of relaxing with Allan—and Von.She still didn’t like having a bodyguard, a third wheel, but Allan was adamant about Von following them around. She only wished Von wouldn’t be so obvious and that he would blend in with the crowd like all the other bodyguards had done in the other cities.She wanted to keep up the delusion that she and Allan were on their honeymoon, and no one went on their honeymoon with a third person.She was glad, finally, when she got her wish. The moment they stepped out of the hotel, Von was nowhere to be seen. She looked around, searching for him, and spotted him a few feet away. He was dressed in a white linen shirt, blue jeans, and a white, woven hat—unlike the black suit he had on the night before. He looked like a tourist, completely blending in with the crowd.Riana’s attention was pulled back to Allan when he tugged her h
“What?” Riana looked from him to Dante as she pulled the dress to cover her leg. It stayed put for a while before it fluidly slipped off her leg like water against marble. Oh damn! Mr. Torino chuckled, and Dante groaned, his eyes riveted on her leg. Allan cursed, quickly taking the seat next to her teasing leg and placing the napkin from the table to cover her thigh. She looked at him with a quirked brow before she smiled that ‘oh, not so innocent’ teasing smile and said, “Oops!” “Yeah right, little witch!” Dante took the seat next to him laughing. “Remind me to send Guliana a thank you gift basket.” “Remind me to send Guliana a pink slip,” Allan grumbled. Riana giggled and cupped his cheek in her hand. “No, you won’t. She was going for a specific reaction from you, and I think she accomplished it. Her masterpiece was a success.” Allan leaned in close and whispered, “Her master piece is about to be
Allan leaned against the doorframe and watched Riana as she cooked in their hotel kitchen. She was humming and swaying to a tune he recognized. It was the same one the gondolier sang.Being with her in the gondola, made him feel…he wasn’t sure the emotion had a name because he’d never felt it before. All he knew was it was pure magic.It put a kink in his plans when she fell asleep but he understood. She was still feeling sick. Carrying her weightless body back to the hotel did make him worry, though…just until she woke up hungry and she devoured a plate of chicken saltimbocca and an entire pizza. He was glad she was getting her appetite back.He continued to watch her, and eventually joined in, as she spun on her heels, curtsied, and did a few steps of the waltz and began humming another tune, reminding him of their dinner with Mr. Torino.He had loved holding her in his arms as they moved to the gentle music, lost in their own
The setting was perfect, romantic even, if he had any intention of admit to his feelings and confess them as she had just done. He knew she had fallen for him and the usual protocol for this kind of complication was…He let go of her and stepped away. “I’m going to the upper deck. You should go pack.”He heard her quick intake of breath as more tears spilled. “Go pack,” she whispered in a deadpan voice. “I tell you I love you and you respond with ‘go pack’?”Allan remained silent. There was nothing he could say that would salvage this moment. Anything that came out of his mouth would only make things worse.He turned around to leave. He had gotten as far as the railing before he felt something hit his back, making him arch forward in pain with a hiss. Allan looked down at the offensive object and cursed loudly. “My iPad! Of all the stuff in this room you choose my iPad? I have work on it!”She chortled bitterly throwing her hands up. “Of course, the only thing you love—your damn work!
“Are you okay?” Allan asked for the hundredth time that night as she crawled into bed next to him. She nodded, placing her hand on Aurora’s back as she slept on her father’s chest. God, she came so close to not having this… Riana took a deep breath to ward off another bout of crying. She had cried for what felt like hours, seeing Aurora and Allan go through her memory album. Allan laid his hand over hers on Aurora’s back. “I don’t think I’ll be able to thank you enough for what you did. Aurora would have known me if I had—” “Don’t say it,” she interrupted. “Let’s just treasure this moment with our daughter.” She placed her head on his shoulder, close to Aurora’s. “She looks so beautiful and innocent when she’s asleep you wouldn’t believe she is as destructive as a bulldozer!” Riana chuckled. “Well, I’m still not convinced,” Allan commented defensively. Riana smiled. He was going to defend Aurora no matter what. She loved him for that. Loraine had brought her laptop with ‘the
Allan felt the familiar lump in his throat at her emotional whisper. Melody’s smile wobbled, tears running unrestricted down her cheeks.Allan wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to him. She pressed her face into his shoulder, her hand fisted in his shirt as she sobbed quietly.“I’m so sorry I put you through hell, Melody. I didn’t mean to. I just…life just didn’t seem worth living without Riana and Aurora and I know that’s selfish to you because it used to be you and me…but…God, Melody I don’t know how to explain it!”She pulled her head back, exposing her face. She smiled at him as she wiped her cheeks dry. “I understand. Remember dad?”Allan let out a shaky sigh. “Yeah. I finally understand.”Riana placed her hand over Melody’s on his chest. “Still. We are really sorry to have put you through…all of it. You too, Loraine.”Loraine waved the apology away and sat down on the carpeted floor across from them. “Hey, as long as my best friend isn’t depressed anymore, I’m co
The word fear wasn’t enough to describe the flood of terror that filled him when he saw her.He looked into the big brown eyes that stared up at him and listened to her shrilly giggles that filled him, pushing the fear out as she jumped up and down.“She’s beautiful,” he whispered as he watched her chant ‘daddy’ in a singsong voice as she danced around, her unruly, curly, black bob of hair moving with her.She seemed fascinated by how her hair moved around her head, covering her face when she paused, her head turned to the side. It reminded him of how Riana used to dance around, her hair flying all over her face until it completely blinded her. She would trip over her feet and Allan always had to stay alert to catch her before her ass touched the ground.She looked so much like Riana—happy and carefree.He was amazed by the instant love he felt for his daughter. Since the moment he’d known about her he’d loved her, but it stunned him how hard the emotion hit him when he saw her and he
Riana couldn’t stop laughing.“Will you quit it?”Riana knew he was getting irate with her but she just couldn’t stop laughing. Getting his hair cut and shaving his beard were understandable. In fact, they were a necessity. But what she didn’t get was his insistence to wear a suit and get all fashioned up like he was going to a business meeting and not to meet his daughter.It took a lot of convincing, but she got him to dress in jeans and a black T-shirt. After she warned him of Aurora messing up his suit with sticky fingers and food, he thought it best not to wear white.She borrowed some of Melody’s clothes, hoping that she really wouldn’t mind—as Allan had promised—and also stayed away from the whites.He looked even more anxious and pale standing at her door than on their trip to her apartment.The moment the sun was up they had left the hotel and went to his apartment. The first thi
“She’s the one who told me you were dead. She said it was my fault and I should be the one who died.”Allan felt his temper flare. “You mean to tell me that Theresa knew you were alive and said nothing about it!”Riana stopped crying. “Why would she think I was dead?”“Because before Dante corrected the media, the report was that there were two casualties in the yacht. You and me,” he bit out through clenched teeth.The moment he saw Theresa he was going to ring her neck!All this time, she could have ended his suffering. True, he’d asked Dante not to tell the media he was still alive until he felt he was ready to face the world—which was supposed to be never—but Matthew and Melody knew he was alive. And somehow Theresa had found out, too. She had tried to go to Italy to be with him just a month after the explosion and that’s when he bought a new yacht and sailed as far a
Allan hugged Riana closer to him. They had spent most of the night and into the early hours of the morning making love. Now they just laid together in companionable silence, each of them lost in their thoughts. But Allan could bet they were thinking of the same thing—each other and how lucky they were to have this second chance. Many people begged and prayed for a chance like this and never got it. He was never going to take her for granted ever again. Allan moved to hold Riana more comfortably against him as he battled sleep. He smiled at Riana’s declaration to never ever go to sleep again in fear he might disappear. Silly, yes, but he understood her perfectly. He loved the feel of her warm skin against his, her fingers trailing lazily on his chest as she made small content sighs and mumbled incoherent words under her breathe. Two and a half years he’d gone without this. He was learning to appreciate the saying ‘you don’t know what you have until you lose it’. He wasn’t going to l
She never got a chance to finish. Allan pressed his lips against hers in a hungry kiss, his hands moving the rest of the dress up to her torso.Riana arched up on instinct trying to get closer. He pulled away, yanked the dress over her head before he descended on her again, his hands everywhere, touching, groping, teasing hungrily like a man starved. Her body responded to his touch in a way she never thought possible again.Tired of feeling cloth against her skin, she quickly undid the buttons to his shirt. Having an active twenty month old required her to work fast, especially when dressing and undressing her.Once all the buttons were undone, Allan helped pull the shirt off, while Riana moved to his pants. That only took two seconds to undo and one more second to push it and his boxers down to his ankles so that he could kick them off.Allan pulled away and looked at her, stunned. “That was fast. Where did you—”“Aha
Allan laid Riana’s limp body on the bed, his eyes riveted on her face. She looked too peaceful, in fact. He had to press her chest against his on their way up to the suite just to feel her breathe and make sure she was unconscious and not dead.He took off her shoes, and then proceeded to take off his own including his jacket and tie before he joined her on the bed.He touched her face lightly, tracing its structure with his fingers. He wanted to make sure it really was her. Not a clone, or a look-alike, or a figment of his imagination. That Riana was really alive, here, lying in his arms, unconscious from the shock.Where had she been for the last two and a half years? What had she been up to? He knew why she thought he was dead but…how was it she was still alive?He pushed up on his elbow, supporting his head in his hand as he leaned down over Riana, moving so close he could make a perfect shade for her body.How did she escape A
Why this hotel?Riana ran her hands nervously down her dress as she did her labor breathing. It didn’t work any better than when she was having Aurora.Loraine grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “Just relax, Riana. You’ll just speak to Melody and then we’ll leave.”Riana turned to her friend. The last time they were here they were in uniform, and now they were dressed like they belonged. Riana was dressed in the exact same way the first night she went to dinner with Allan, right down to how she styled her hair.Loraine borrowed the green, figure hugging, knee high dress Riana had worn to the restaurant at the beach when they were in Bari. They’d walked in the water that night, and it was the first time she’d convinced Allan to do something he would not normally do.He had taken off his shoes, jacket and tie, rolled up his pant legs, and wadded in the water with her. She couldn’t remember what