Read VITTORIO'S RUNAWAY BRIDE (The Vittorio Series) for Free Online Page B

wasn’t what made her run out on a marriage that was as solid as theirs had been.  
    No, something happened after he’d left for work that day, something so traumatic Shelby would rather leave than come to him with it.
    “We can work through this,” he told her.   “If entertaining and being hostess is too uncomfortable for you, I swear we never have to throw another party again.”
    “I couldn’t ask you to do that, it’s too important for your business.”
    “I do not care,” Logan said vehemently.   “The only thing I care about is making you happy.   Cara mia , I need you.”
    Shelby closed her eyes, feeling herself weaken.   “You don’t need me.   You need a woman…”   Her eyelids snapped open when the blonde woman’s image swam before her, cruelly demolishing the small bud of hope that his words had planted in her heart.
    “What I need is my wife,” he insisted.
    “Please don’t do this Logan,” she pleaded wearily.   “I’ve made my decision and I…I want you to leave.”  
    His chest tightened.   “You do not mean that.   We will go inside and talk…”
    “No.”   Shelby blocked out the pain that was constricting her heart.   “I’ll give you the car so you won’t have any reason not to sign the papers.”
    “I have every reason not to sign it,” Logan argued.   “I do not want a divorce, now or ever.   We made vows to love and honor each other, until death do us part.  Or have you forgotten that?”
    She gaped at him in disbelief.   “ Me?   I’m not the one who…”
    She clamped her mouth shut, shaking her head.   No, she wasn’t emotionally equipped to discuss his affair…or affairs.   After all, how did she know for sure the woman she’d seen had been the only one he’d slept with?   All those times when Logan said he was working late or had to fly off somewhere on the spur of the moment to meet with a client could have been a cover up for what was really going on.   Despair rolled through her in unrelenting waves as her mind continued to torture her with images she wasn’t nearly strong enough to deal with.
    “I can’t,” Shelby choked out.   “I’m sorry, Logan, but I just can’t stay married to you.”
    She tore herself from his arms, desperate to get away before he could try to change her mind.   Just where she thought she was going when she bolted for the stairs, Shelby didn’t know.   It wasn’t as if there was any place to hide, and even if there had been, she didn’t have a prayer of outrunning Logan.   But none of that seemed to matter.   Wind whipped through her hair as she raced towards the beach, and though she was sure Logan had followed after her, she didn’t know how close he was because the soft sand muffled his footsteps.
    Shelby had walked this beach countless times so she knew there were jagged boulders jutting out of the sand and just how dangerous it was to be running so fast.   It was doubly reckless considering the thin sandals she was wearing and the fact she could barely see where she was going through the blinding tears, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself.   She’d nearly made it to the shoreline and was frantically trying to work out an escape route that didn’t include plunging into the ocean when Logan’s fingers curled around her arm.
    Instinctively, Shelby’s head turned towards him; a move she recognized as a huge mistake the moment she did it.   Her footsteps faltered and though she wasn’t in any danger of falling, the firm grip Logan had on her and the sudden lurch forward pulled him off balance.   Even that might not have caused them to fall if she hadn’t swerved to try and avoid one of the boulders buried in the sand because it placed her right in Logan’s path.   He was moving too fast to stop himself from slamming into her back and they both went down like a ton of bricks, with Shelby taking the worst of it when he landed on top of her.
    It all happened so fast, she barely had