The Twelve Nights of Christmas (15 page)

‘
Calma
. Calm down.'

‘No, I will not
calma
or calm down! I don't speak much Italian, Rio, but I speak enough to understand the gist of what you just said to her! I'm really astonished you've never been dumped if that's the way you treat women. You're right—you are a complete and utter bastard. This whole week we…you…' She broke off, trying to control herself. ‘How could you do that? How could you do those things when you're in love with someone else? I thought you were a free agent—single. You should have
told
me you were involved with someone.'

‘I'm not involved.'

Her breathing was shallow. ‘When you warned me that you'd break my heart, I didn't expect it to happen quite this quickly.'

‘Evie—'

‘No! Just don't make pathetic excuses, OK? I don't want to hear them. I heard you! I
heard
you talking to your girlfriend.'

He swore softly in Italian and turned away from her.

For a moment, staring at the rigid tension in those broad shoulders, she thought he wasn't even going to bother defending himself.

And then he turned, a savage look on his face. ‘You did
not
hear me talking to my girlfriend. It wasn't a woman.' His voice was raw and Evie stood still, frozen to the spot by the look in his eyes.

‘But—'

‘You heard me talking to a child. She's four years old. A child, not a woman. My daughter.' He let out a long breath. ‘You heard me talking to my daughter.'

 

‘All right. Keep me informed.' Rio terminated the conversation with his lawyer and looked up to see Evie standing there. She'd changed into a pair of jeans and a blue cashmere
jumper. Her hair, still damp from the shower, accentuated the extreme pallor of her face.

‘Why didn't you tell me you have a child?' Her voice was flat. ‘Why didn't you mention it?'

Programmed to keep women at a distance, Rio kept his response cool. ‘It isn't any of your business.' Seeing the hurt in her eyes, he wished he hadn't been quite so blunt. ‘I don't talk about my private life. To anyone.'

‘I'm not some journalist, Rio!' She swept her hand through her hair, her confusion evident in every movement she made. ‘We slept together, for God's sake. We shared—'

‘Sex,' Rio drawled. ‘We shared sex. A physical relationship, however satisfying, doesn't give you access to the rest of my life. Don't make the mistake of thinking that it does.'

Her head jerked as if he'd slapped her and for a moment he thought she was going to do exactly that to him. Instead, she lost still more colour from her cheeks and nodded stiffly. ‘Of course it doesn't. My mistake. You have a child. Forgive me for thinking that's something you might have mentioned.' She turned away from him and stalked towards the table that had already been laid for breakfast. ‘Are those today's papers?' Her hands shook as she lifted one and flicked through it. ‘Have they used the photograph? Or haven't you bothered to check? I'm worried we didn't give them much of interest last night.'

She was rigidly polite and Rio watched her in silence, knowing that he was going to have to tell her the truth and wondering why that felt like a difficult conversation. He'd done what needed to be done. In the same circumstances, he'd make all the same decisions.
So why did he feel so uncomfortable?
‘They haven't used it. They have, however, printed the one they took when you kissed me.' He watched her face as she picked up a tabloid paper and scanned the headline.

Her face was expressionless as she scanned the photograph.
Truly a time for miracles—Rio in love.
Some of the
tension left her. ‘Well, it seems we're off the hook for another day.'

Rio's jaw tightened. ‘Evie—'

‘Sorry—it's just that I'm finding this whole thing quite stressful, in case you hadn't noticed. Every morning we go through the same thing. And the worst thing is, there is never going to come a point when it goes away—they have that photo for ever, don't they? They can use it this year or next year—it never ends.'

Wondering exactly when he'd developed a conscience, Rio forced a reluctant confession past his lips. ‘Evie, they won't use that photo.'

She looked up from the newspaper. ‘It's all very well to say that while you're giving them something more interesting to print, but sooner or later they're going to get bored with our “romance” and then they'll be on the lookout for something more juicy.'

‘I can guarantee they're not going to print that photograph.'

‘How? Has your security team managed to track the man down?' With a soft gasp, she dropped the newspaper on the table. ‘They found him?'

He had to tell her now.
‘Yes. We found him.'

Relief crossed her face, to be followed quickly by consternation. ‘But that doesn't mean you can stop the photograph. I mean, he's had loads of time to have sent it all over the place. It's probably too late.'

‘He hasn't sent it anywhere. My security team confiscated his camera.'

‘But how—'

‘They confiscated his camera less than fifteen seconds after he took the offending photograph,' Rio confessed in a raw tone, telling himself firmly that he'd do exactly the same thing again in the same circumstances. ‘That's how I know for a fact that he didn't send it anywhere. Antonio was
outside the door of the Penthouse. He apprehended the guy before he'd taken two steps.'

A heavy silence descended on the room. Evie stared at him, digesting the enormity of his confession and Rio felt the tension inside himself double.

‘You're saying—' she swallowed hard ‘—you're telling me—oh, my God.' She sank down hard on the nearest sofa, her breathing rapid. ‘There was never a risk that the photograph would be published. You told me…you let me think…' She lifted her head to look at him and her eyes were huge and shocked. ‘How could you do that?'

‘Because it was necessary. It was the right thing to do.'

‘The right thing?' She lifted her hands to her face and then let them drop again, clearly struggling to find the words to express herself. ‘I was almost out of my
mind
with worry! My grandfather is eighty-six years old and I thought…I thought…' Her face was contorted with pain. ‘I thought it would crucify him to see that photo. I was
so
worried—'

‘Which is why I assured you that they wouldn't use the pictures.'

‘But you didn't tell me
why
you were so sure!' She stood up, shock giving way to anger. ‘You arranged the photographer! You were in league with creepy Carlos!'

‘No—' Rio interrupted her hastily ‘—that isn't true. It
was
a set-up.' He raked his fingers through his hair, wondering how, of all the difficult negotiations he'd ever made, this one seemed the most challenging. ‘But I admit that I turned it to my advantage. I had no choice.'

‘You
did
have a choice. There is always a choice. You could have told me the truth.'

‘I didn't know if you were involved or not.'

‘I
told
you I wasn't.'

He decided not to waste time pointing out that plenty of her sex lied for a living. In the short time he'd known her, he'd started to realise that Evie didn't seem to think the same way
as other women. ‘By the time I realised that you were telling the truth, we were already deeply involved in the pretence. I was afraid you'd walk out on me.'

‘So you used me. Is that what you're trying to tell me?'

Unable to find an alternative take on the situation, Rio felt sweat prickle his brow. ‘Yes.'

‘But you…' She jabbed her fingers into her hair, an expression of shocked disbelief on her face. ‘But we had sex—what was your justification for that? Were there cameras in the room?'

‘You initiated the sex.'

She gave a painful laugh. ‘Well, that's you off the hook, then.' Her eyes were glazed with tears. ‘You warned me you were ruthless and you told me that I'd find it easy to dump you—well, you were right. I'm dumping you. We now have the shortest engagement on record.'

‘I accept that I was wrong not to tell you,' Rio breathed, ‘but
don't
walk out.'

‘Why? Because you haven't closed your precious deal yet? What is
wrong
with you? You don't need more money but you're so desperate to win you're willing to do whatever it takes.' A toss of her head sent her hair flaming down her back and she stalked back into the bedroom without glancing in his direction, flinging words over her shoulder like missiles. ‘There are some things in life that are more important than money, Rio. People's feelings are more important. Integrity. Honesty. And if you don't know what any of those words mean then use some of that money of yours to buy a dictionary.'

Rio searched his brain for slick words that would extricate him from this hole, but found none. His instinct was to leave her alone, but his legs had different ideas and, moments later, he found himself standing in the doorway of the bedroom, watching her.

‘I understood that you were worried, which is why I
constantly reassured you that the photograph would not be published. You should have trusted me.'

‘Trusted you!' She turned on him, her eyes flashing. ‘Why would I trust you? You're impossibly arrogant. You think you're right about everything. How was I to know that in this case the reason you knew the photograph wouldn't be published was because you had it in your possession all the time? I don't believe this is happening—' Her breathing was shallow and rapid. ‘You were so angry with Carlos. I thought you were going to finish him off—but why would he have arranged that photograph?'

‘Because Carlos is the brother of a woman I once had a relationship with,' Rio said savagely. ‘It was a difficult relationship. She wanted more—'

‘Then she was looking in the wrong place, wasn't she?' Her tone acid, Evie scraped her make-up from the top of the dressing table into her bag. ‘Didn't she read the newspapers? Didn't she know that you don't do “more”?'

Telling himself that her anger was only to be expected, Rio ploughed ahead. ‘She wanted me to marry her.'

‘She wanted to spend the rest of her life with you? Clearly she was deranged.'

Knowing that he deserved that, Rio took it on the chin. ‘She stopped taking contraception.'

Evie paused, a tube of lipgloss in her hand. ‘She became pregnant? On purpose?' The shock in her voice almost made him smile.

‘Yes, on purpose. On purpose, Evie.' He said the word twice, each time with emphasis, knowing that she had absolutely no idea what people could be like. She was such a crazy idealist, wasn't she? ‘Are you going to ask me why?'

‘I'm not stupid. I presume she thought you'd marry her.' She stuffed the lipgloss into her bag. ‘Which, of course, you wouldn't.'

‘No, because it never would have worked.' Rio growled
the words angrily. ‘I offered her everything but that. I offered to buy her a house near me—I offered her financial support. But all she wanted was marriage and I'd made the mistake of being honest about how much I wanted to see my child. She used that knowledge to carry on blackmailing me. Only this time, instead of “I'm pregnant, marry me”, it was “if you want to see your child, marry me”.'

Evie stood still. Some of the anger in her face was replaced by uncertainty.

‘She used my child as currency,' Rio said thickly. ‘An object to be bartered with. I gave her sufficient funds to live in luxury for the rest of her life but she frittered it away on unsuitable friends and people I would not have allowed anywhere near my daughter. Because she had my child, I carried on trying to help. I even gave her useless brother Carlos a job in my hotel, under close supervision. But I was working behind the scenes to get custody of my daughter.'

‘Custody?' Her eyes widened in shock and he gave a bitter smile because he'd seen exactly that same look on the faces of others.

‘Yes, custody. And, yes, I know I'm a single man. A single man with a self-confessed relationship phobia. I am no one's image of ideal father material. It was easy for her to build a case, making me look unsuitable. I work inhuman hours, I have no history of commitment—' he breathed deeply ‘—it's possible I would never even have had a chance if it weren't for the fact that Jeanette left Elyssa unattended.'

‘She left her child
alone
?'

Rio wanted to tell her not to be so naive, but realised that would be unfair. It wasn't naivety that prevented her from understanding why another woman might leave a child alone; it was her nature. He'd seen the way she cared about her grandfather. She was warm and loving—a nurturer who believed that families stuck together and supported each other through thick and thin.

‘Jeanette didn't ever want a child. All she wanted was a tool to manipulate me. She doesn't have a maternal bone in her body.' He watched Evie flinch as he took a hatchet to her illusions. ‘I imagine someone like you would find that almost impossible to believe, so let me tell you just how unhappy my daughter's life has been so far and maybe then you'll understand that there are times when “ruthless” is justified.'

‘Rio—'

‘She was left on her own in the house because there was no way Jeanette was wasting any of the money I gave her caring for a child she never wanted. I sent her staff; she fired them. I interviewed eight nannies personally. None of them lasted a day. Jeanette said she'd care for Elyssa herself, but she didn't. I've been fighting for custody since before my daughter was born but it was only six months ago, after she had a nasty fall in the house while she was on her own, that the tide turned in my favour. The police were called. Elyssa was taken into foster care while they reviewed the case. It's been a long, hard slog but we were almost there.'