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CHAPTER ONE
RIO BENEDETTI SET his even, white teeth together hard and suppressed a very rude word as his godfather cheerfully chatted on about his plans to entertain his unexpected guest Beppe Sorrentino was a naïve enerous to a fault, not at all the sort of enda Luckily he had a godson like Rio, deter to take him for a ride
Rio, the billionaire veteran of many triumphant wins in the business world and a man cynically unimpressed by women, knew he had to proceed with discretion because Ellie Dixon had powerful, wealthy friends, and most important, she was the sister of Polly, the current queen of Dharia—a country which rejoiced in oil wealth Even worse, on paper at least, Ellie was impressive Nobody knew that better than Rio, who hadto her sister Polly She was a beautiful, intelligent and hard-working doctor But saintly Dr Ellie’s profile took a fast nosedive if you had her past history exhaustively checked At best Rio knew her to be a thief and a gold-digger, at worst she could be the kind of doctor who befriended the elderly to persuade thee their wills in her favour
Ellie had had a disciplinary action brought against her at work after an elderly patient had died endowing Ellie with all her worldly goods Not surprisingly, the old lady’s nephew had filed a coht have an unseeed, thinking of the section in the investigative report relating to her grandone to Ellie’s uncle but Ellie had so much family bitterness
No, nothing about Ellie Dixon was straightforward, not least her surprising approach to his godfather in a letter in which she had asked to visit because Beppe had apparently once known her late mother
Of course, it was equally possible that Rio hihts, he conceded with a certain amount of cynical satisfaction at that idea Perhaps Ellie hadn’t realised just how very rich he was at the wedding and, knohere he lived, had coodfather, Beppe Woths to try to reel hi commitment
He refused to think about what had happened with Ellie at Rashad’s wedding because Rio did not believe in reconstructing unpleasant past events With wouy He didn’t do serious and he didn’t do long-term Why would he? He was thirty years old, rich as sin and very good-looking and his female options were so many and varied that, had he wanted to and without effort, he could have slept with a different woet she was in for a severe disillusionment In any case, the woman was an absolute shreith a streak of violence, he recalled sardonically
‘You’re very quiet, Rio…’ Beppe remark
ed ‘You don’t approve of Annabel’s daughter visiting, do you?’
‘Why would you think that?’ Rio parried, surprised that the older h his tolerant front
Beppe si hair and rather round in shape Perched in his favourite arnome and Rio’s shrewd dark eyes softened the instant they settled on him because Beppe Sorrentino was as dear to Rio as any father could have been
‘I saw you wince when I ree to stay here inlady She said she wouldn’t be comfortable because she doesn’t know me and would prefer to stay at the hotel’
‘It wouldn’t be comfortable for you either to have her here You’re not used to having guests,’ Rio pointed out, for Beppe had been a childless er for almost twenty years and lived a very quiet and peaceful life in his family palazzo a few miles outside Florence
‘I know but I get bored,’ Beppe admitted abruptly ‘Bored and lonely No, don’t look at me like that, Rio You visit plenty But, Ellie’s visit will be sti A fresh face, different company’
‘Dio htfully ‘Why are you so reluctant to tellabout Ellie’shere?’
Beppe’s rounded face locked down so fast it was like a vault sliding shut and his dark eyes evaded his godson’s ‘It’s not so I can discuss with you, Rio Please don’t take that the wrong way’
Rio’s even, white teeth gritted again He had even considered the idea that in soodfather about some dark secret, but even optimistic Beppe would hardly look forward so happily to the visit of a blackine that Beppe had any dark secrets because he was the most open, transparent personality Rio had ever known Yet Beppe had known great unhappiness and loss in his private life His delightful wife, Aiven birth to a stillborn son and had then suffered a severe stroke Froht up until her death, Beppe’s wife had endured precarious health and the confinement of a wheelchair Beppe, however, had reh now pushing sixty, had evinced not the smallest desire to meet another woman
Rio, in strong co with other hus He was naturally suspicious and naturally complex He had been abandoned in a dumpster at birth, born to a heroin-addicted mother and an unknown father and he had spent his fore until Ah Amalia he had met her kindly husband, his benefactor He knew very well that he owed al he had achieved to the nised his intelligence and there was little he would not have done to protect Beppe from any potential harm And Rio was absolutely convinced that in some way Ellie Dixon was a harmful threat
Evil te harpy? Hard-nosed feminist? Thief? Sca, he had been treated to giggly, aed Ellie He had also been led down the garden path right to the door of his hotel roootten the experience He hadn’t forgiven it either Insults lingered with Rio For too many years of his life he had been a nameless orphan, bullied and abused and dismissed as unimportant And Ellie Dixon had cut hi nun at the orphanage, Sister Teresa, who had struggled to overcoeful temperament
No, Rio wasn’t the forgiving and forgetting sort He still occasionally dreareen dress, her gloriousround her ani hiht that he would die if he didn’t have her Lustfervour, he disritted teeth Now all he had to do was sit back and wait for Ellie and her character of lare of daylight…
So, would she be the temptress, the prim doctor, the clever acade would it take for Rio to find out what her game was?
Whatever, it was still game on…