VITTORIO'S RUNAWAY BRIDE (The Vittorio Series) by Kimberley Reeves Page A

repeated with a happy sigh.   “I love you, Logan, with all my heart.”   She tipped her head back, hoping to hear those same words pour from his lips.
    “Thank God,” Logan said on a sigh as he lowered his head and kissed her.
                                                                                            ***
    Logan poured a glass of wine and went out on the deck to watch the sunset while Shelby took a shower.   He tried to convince himself he had nothing to feel guilty about.   She believed what he’d said about Alicia because he really was being honest when he told her he wasn’t attracted to the woman.   It was what he didn’t say that nagged at him and made Logan wonder if he had done the right thing in keeping the whole truth from Shelby.  
    He’d gone to college with Richard Delatorre but hadn’t seen him for years, so when Logan ran into him about eight months ago he was excited about acquiring Richard’s business and renewing an old friendship.   They met a couple of times, worked out the contracts, and agreed it would be nice to get together for dinner with their wives and celebrate.   Richard was a good man with a pleasant sense of humor even if he was a bit on the conservative side, that’s why meeting Alicia for the first time had been such a shock to Logan.
    A week before Shelby left him, Logan arranged to stop by Richard’s house to drop off a copy of the final contracts, but when he arrived he was told by the housekeeper that Richard wasn’t home yet.   She showed him into the sitting room then apparently informed Alicia he was there because he hadn’t been waiting more than a few minutes when she swept into the room.  
    It was obvious she had been sunning herself by the pool because she was wearing one of the skimpiest bikini’s Logan had ever seen.  She hadn’t even bothered to cover up, although there was a robe draped over her arm.   He remembered standing there, careful to keep his eyes locked on her face, warning bells clanging inside his head as Alicia dropped the robe across the back of the sofa and sauntered over to introduce herself.   Never in a million years would Shelby greet a guest dressed so scantily, not unless she was caught unaware, and not without blushing all the way from her toes to the top of her pretty head.
    “Richard said you would be stopping by and I’ve just been dying to meet you,” she cooed and held out a perfectly manicured hand.   He hesitated just a fraction too long and Alicia laughed.   “I don’t bite,” she batted her lashes, “unless you want me too, that is.”
    Logan stuck out his hand.   “It is nice to meet you, Signora Delatorre ,” he said formally.
    Her fingers curled around his palm, squeezing ever so slightly.   “Call me Alicia.   After all, any friend of Richard’s is a friend of mine.”
    Repulsed by her behavior, Logan jerked his arm away.  It felt as if a snake had just coiled itself around his hand and he had to resist the impulse to wipe it off on his trouser legs.   He took a step backwards and glanced around, commenting on how beautiful the place was and asked if she had been involved with the decorating.  
    His ploy to put some distance between them worked for all of two seconds before Alicia moved in on the pretext of straightening a floral arrangement on the coffee table.   She peered up at him in what Logan assumed was meant to be a seductive manner, but her bedroom eyes and pouty lips only revolted him.  
    “I begged Richard to let me redo the whole house and add some color to the drab furnishings, but he insisted my taste was too flamboyant, especially since a lot of his business associates are as uptight as he is.”   She gave a little shrug and curved her lips into a sexy smile.   “He said my talents were best confined to the bedroom and I could hardly argue with that, now could I?”  
    “So he let you decorate the