VITTORIO'S RUNAWAY BRIDE (The Vittorio Series) (28 page)

Jake gave her a sympathetic smile.
 
“I have to be honest with you, there’s a good shot she
will
get out of it.
 
It
will
be up to the judge, of course, but the definition of kidnapping is just vague enough to allow her to wheedle out of the charges.”
 
He nodded to the marks on her wrists.
 
“We’ll have better luck with the assault charges
,
but even that will probably get reduced to one of causing bodily injury.”

“But she pulled a gun on me,” Shelby protested.

“Easy,
carissima
,” Logan crooned softly, “Jake will see to it that she does not get off lightly.”

“You can count on that,” Jake replied.
 
“Assault with a deadly weapon is a very serious charge, one she won’t be able to get out of so easily.
 
Do you know where the gun is now, Shelby?”

“In her purse, I assume.
 
After she tied me up I saw her put it back in her purse.”

Jake unholstered his own gun just as one of his officers entered the house.
 
“Wait here,” he told them.
 
“We’ll read Mrs. Delatorre her rights then give her long enough to get dressed before taking her to the station.”

Dead silence followed his departure, until Raffe came bounding through the door a few minutes later.
 
“Shelby, thank God,” he said as he hurried across the foyer to press a firm kiss to her cheek.
 
“When Simon told us what happened we were worried sick about you.”
 
His expression darkened when he spotted the rope burns on her wrists.
 
“We will take you to see a doctor about your injuries as soon as Jake has taken that fowl woman out of here.”
 
He let out a string of expletives in Italian when he spied the same marks on her ankles.
 

Shelby was touched by his genuine concern but the injuries were minor and she had no desire to spend an hour in the emergency room just so they could apply antibiotic cream and send her on her way.

 
“I don’t need to see a doctor.
 
Logan can put some ointment on them and then I want to sleep for at least two days.”

“No,
cara
,” Logan said with a frown, “you will see a doctor even if you sleep through the examination.”

She opened her mouth to argue then closed it again when she remembered how far she’d gotten the last time she refused to see a doctor.
 
Nestling her head back against his shoulder, Shelby thought there was a very good chance she really would sleep through the examination.
 
Apparently satisfied she wasn’t going to offer any further protests, Logan conversed with his brothers in Italian while they waited for Jake to escort Alicia from their home.

Shelby shook off the drowsiness that was threatening to draw her into a deep sleep when she heard the clipped echo of Alicia’s heels against the marble staircase.
 
Far from looking angry when she was brought to stand before them, there was a triumphant gleam to her eyes.

“They won’t be able to hold me for long, you know,” she said to Shelby.
 
“At any rate, a few hours in jail is a small price to pay for the time I spent in bed with your husband.”
 
Her gaze turned to Logan.
 
“You’re a wonderful lover,” she purred.
 
“My expectations of you were high and I was not disappointed.
 
I would even venture to say that you were the best lover I’ve ever had.”

Logan’s voice was tinged with amusement, though his expression held nothing but contempt.
 
“I believe that is the first honest statement you have made since stepping foot in my house today, but I am afraid you have bestowed the honors upon the wrong man.”

Alicia’s eyes flickered for a fraction of a second before turning to Luca then Raffe, and finally Dante.
 
In the dim light any of them could have been mistaken for the other; in the dark it would have been impossible to tell them apart.
 
Unless you were madly in love with one of them and knew his body intimately
, Shelby thought as she gazed up at Logan’s handsome face.

Maybe she
had
been fooled momentarily when Dante murmured those first endearments to Alicia, but even if he hadn’t spoken another word she would have figured out it wasn’t Logan.
 
For months she’d lain awake at night wishing she could hear that deep, throaty moan he always made when he first sank into her.
 
Since her return, Shelby had much more than past memories to rely on.
 
She knew every sound, every nuance and what it meant, even the way his breathing changed as their rhythm quickened and the passion between them escalated.

“I’m not sure I would have chosen you after all,” Alicia said to Logan when it became obvious none of them was going to confess who it was she’d actually slept with.
 
“One Vittorio
 
is just as delicious as the other,” she drawled as her gaze swept over them one at a time, “and for what it’s worth, I must commend you
,
Shelby.
 
If Logan is half as good as his stand in, I’m not sure I would have survived an entire night with him.”

“You’re being extremely gracious for a woman who
is
facing kidnapping and assault charges,” Shelby replied.

Alicia shrugged.
 
“It’s not the first time Richard has had to bail me out of a scrape and I’m sure it won’t be the last.”

Logan’s eyes narrowed.
 
“You expect us to believe Richard not only knows about the games you play with other people’s lives, but that he pays to get you out of it?
 
I do not buy that for a minute.”

“Believe what you want,” she said indifferently.
 
“Richard doesn’t want the stigma of a failed marriage.
 
He detests failure of any kind and he’s well aware that I would never allow a quiet divorce to take place.
 
He turns his head to my affairs just as I do to his, and though he’s not very happy when something like this happens, he does enjoy how incredibly grateful I am to him for digging me out.”

“I feel sorry for you,” Shelby said earnestly.
 

Alicia merely smiled as Jake and his men led her away.
 
Shelby’s head fell back on Logan’s shoulder and whether he was conscious of it or not, his arms tightened around her making her feel safe and warm.
 
There was still the matter of seeing a doctor
,
and somewhere along the way Logan would coax her awake long enough to make her eat something, but she didn’t mind.
 

Since neither of them wanted to sleep in their own bed tonight, they
would
probably have to make the drive to Vittorio Enterprises and spend the night in the Penthouse, but she didn’t mind that either.
 
They were together
,
and Logan would do what he loved most; he
would
take care of her.
 
As for herself, Shelby would do what she loved most; she
would
let him.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                            
***

Shelby lay back against the hospital bed, exhausted but blissfully happy.
 
“We make beautiful babies together,” she said as Logan laid their daughter in her arms.

“She is almost as exquisite as her mother.”
 
Logan leaned down and brushed his lips across the baby’s forehead then kissed his wife as well.
 
“She is perfect,
cara
mia
, perfect.”

“You’re not disappointed I didn’t give you a son?”

His heart swelled as he stroked the side of his little girl’s face with his fingertips.
 
“I adore her already, how could I possibly be disappointed?
 
How is it possible to love someone so much when she has only been a part of my life for a few hours?”

“Because she’s a part of us, that’s how.
 
It was our love that created her.”

Logan grinned.
 
“And all this time I believed it was the endless hours we spent in bed together that gave her life.”

“I’m not even going to dignify that with an answer,” Shelby quipped.
 
“Now be a good husband and tell me what you’ve decided to name your daughter.”

“You honestly trust me to choose her name by myself?”

“Why do you look so surprised?
 
I trusted you with my heart and look how wonderfully that has turned out.”

Logan reached out to smooth back a stray curl.
 
“That is two precious gifts you have given me.”
 

His attention shifted to the baby in her arms.
 
He would have loved it if their daughter had inherited Shelby’s hair color, but his baby girl looked every inch a Vittorio.
 
Thick, dark hair framed her angelic face and she had his eyes, but her lips were definitely Shelby’s and so were her delicate features.
 
She was going to be a heartbreaker
,
that was for sure.

“Chelsea,” he finally said.
 

Tears misted Shelby’s eyes.
 
“After my mother,” she said in a strangled whisper.
 
“Thank you, Logan, that means a lot to me.”

For a several minutes they simply looked at each other, saying with their eyes what was embedded so deeply in their hearts.
 
But it wasn’t enough, looking but not touching, and it wasn’t long before Logan kicked off his shoes and crawled into bed with her.
 
Easing his arm beneath her head, he held Shelby close to his side with Chelsea safely nestled between them.
 

“This is Heaven,” he sighed.

“You always say that when we’re in bed together,” she teased.

“Because it is true.”

“But that wasn’t what you meant.”

“No,
carissima
, it is not what I meant.”

Shelby tilted her head back.
 
“It’s because we’re a family now.
 
Having a baby together has bound us together as nothing else ever could.”

“It is just one of the many things that bind us together,
mi amore
, but I am glad you understand how I feel.”

“Everything will be different now.”

“This is just the beginning of many changes in our lives.
 
There will be more children, then grandchildren, and if we are lucky enough we will be around to see our great grandchildren born.”

“Just…promise me that one thing will never change between us, Logan.”

“What is that, my beautiful wife?
 
That we will always love as we love now?”

Shelby drew his mouth down to hers.
 
“I already know that will never change,” she whispered against his lips.

“What else is there to promise?”

She didn’t answer right away.
 
She kissed him first, kissed him until his heart was hammering in his chest and she could feel the heat of passion rising higher and higher.
 
She kissed him until she was drowning in the taste of him, until their bodies were trembling so bad they were forced to stop for fear of waking the baby.

“Promise me that all our children will be conceived the same way Chelsea was.”

“Out of our love for each other?”

“No,” Shelby said with a sexy smile, “from the endless hours spent together in bed.”

“Trust me,
cara mia
,” Logan whispered as he pulled her closer, “that is one promise I shall have no problem keeping.”

Shelby
did
trust him.
 
Because he was a man of his word, and because Logan's promises were as golden as his heart.