THE INTRUSION OF light behind her eyelids came with firm, warm lips brushing her jaw.
‘Wake up, querida...’
‘Hmm, no...don’t want to...’
A soft deep laugh. ‘Come on, wake up or you’ll miss the sunrise.’
‘Sun...no...’ She wanted to stay just as she was, suspended between dream and reality, entranced by the sultry air on her face and hard, firm...aroused male curved around her.
‘Open your eyes. I promise you, it’s spectacular.’
She opened her eyes, simply because she couldn’t resist him, and found herself gazing into deep blue eyes. Eyes she’d looked into many times. But still her heart caught as if it’d been tugged by a powerful string.
‘Buenos días,’ Rafael murmured. ‘Look.’ He nodded beyond the canopy to the east. She followed his gaze and froze at the sheer beauty of the gathering sunrise. Orange, yellow and blue where the light faded, it was nature at its most spectacular and she lay there, enfolded in Rafael’s arms, silent and in complete awe as the sun spread its stunning rays across the sky.
‘Wow,’ she whispered.
‘Indeed. Does that win me Brownie points?’ he whispered hotly into her ear.
Turning from the sight, she looked again into mesmerising eyes. And once again she felt her heart stutter in awe.
‘It depends what you intend to use the points for.’
‘To get you to come yachting with me today. My yacht is moored at the Marina. We can take her out for the day.’
More alone time with Rafael. Too much...too much...
She should’ve heeded the screeching voice of caution. But Raven had a feeling she was already too far gone. ‘I’d love to. On one condition.’
He mock frowned. ‘Condition...my second least favourite word.’
‘What’s your least favourite?’
‘No.’
She laughed. ‘That figures. Well, I need to exercise. Then you need to have your session. Then we’ll go yachting.’
With a quick, hard kiss, he released her and sat back. ‘You can do your exercise right here on the beach.’
She felt heat rise. ‘While you watch?’
‘I’m a harmless audience. Besides, I want to see if this Krav Maga is worth all the hype.’
She bit her lip and hesitated.
‘What?’ he demanded.
‘I...I’m not wearing any knickers, remember?’
His laugh was shameless and filled with predatory anticipation. ‘Kinky Krav Maga...sounds even better.’ He lounged back against the plump pillows, folded golden muscled arms and waited.
It was the hottest, most erotic exercise routine Raven had ever performed.
* * *
The rest of the day went like a dream. Rafael’s yacht was the last word in luxury. With a crew of four, they sailed around the Los Cabos islands, stopped at a seafront restaurant for a lunch of cerviche and sweet potato fries, then sunbathed on the twenty-foot deck until it got too hot. Then he encouraged her to join him in the shower below deck.
She clung to him in the aftermath of another pulse-destroying orgasm.
‘Hmm...I have a feeling you won’t be needing my services for much longer.’
He raised his head from where he’d been kissing her damp shoulder and stared deep into her eyes. ‘What makes you say that?’
‘You haven’t used your cane all day, and your...um...stamina seems to be endless.’
His frown was immediate, edged with tension that seeped into the atmosphere. ‘You’re signed on for another three months. Don’t make any plans to break the contract just yet.’ He moved away and grabbed two towels. He handed her one and wrapped the other around her waist, his movements jerky.
‘I wasn’t making plans. I was just commenting that your movements are a little more fluid. And you haven’t used the cane all day today. I think it’s a great sign. You should be pleased.’
‘Should I?’
His icy tone made alarm skitter over her. ‘What’s the matter?’
He smoothed a hand over the steamed up mirror and met her gaze over his shoulder. ‘Why should anything be wrong?’
‘I’ve just given you the equivalent of an almost clean bill of health. You’re reacting as if I’ve just told you your puppy has died.’
He whirled to face her. ‘This clean bill of health, will it pass the X1 training board and see me reinstated as a race driver?’
Her breath caught. ‘You’re thinking of going back to racing?’
‘You sound surprised.’
She licked her lips. ‘Well, I am. I thought since Marco had sold the team, and Sasha had quit—’
‘What are you saying, that I should follow the family tradition and quit while I’m ahead?’
‘No...but—’
‘You don’t think I can hack it?’
‘Stop putting words in my mouth, Rafael. You’re almost done with phase three of the physio regime. I’m just trying to find out what your plans are so I can work with you to achieve them.’
He stalked to where she stood and gripped her nape in a firm hold. His kiss was hot, ravaging and rage-tinged. ‘Right now, my only plan is to be inside you again.’
She barely stopped herself from dissolving into a puddle of need. ‘And afterwards? We can’t stay here indefinitely, indulging in wall-to-wall shagging.’
His eyes narrowed, his grip tightening. ‘Are you trying to set a time limit on what’s happening between us? Is that what all this is about?’
The shard of steel that lodged in her chest made her breath catch. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘Don’t you? From the start you’ve tried to manage what was happening between us, tried to define it into something you can deal with. Now you want to set a time limit on it so you can walk away once the time comes, sí?’
‘Are you saying you’re not? Am I not just one more challenge to you? Can we please not delude ourselves into thinking this is anything more than sex?’
He sucked in a breath as if he’d been punched. Stepping back, he dropped his hand and left the bathroom.
Raven trailed after him into the large, exquisite gold and cream cabin. He was pulling on a pair of boxers, which he followed with cargo shorts and a white T-shirt.
Feeling exposed, she slipped on her underwear and the lilac flowered slip dress she’d worn to go sailing. ‘I’m not sure what’s going on here, Rafael. Or why you’re annoyed with me. I may not know the rules of this sleeping together thing but even I know there is a time limit when it comes to your affairs—’
‘Affairs? Is that what we’re doing, having an affair?’ he asked with a cocked eyebrow. ‘How quaint.’
‘Will you please stop mocking me and tell me what’s really bothering you?’
He slammed the drawer he’d just opened none too gently. ‘I don’t like time limits. I don’t being head-shrunk. And I don’t like the woman I’m sleeping with hinting that she’ll be leaving me the day after we start sleeping together. There, does that sum things up for you?’
‘So you want to be the one to call the shots? To dictate when this aff...liaison starts and ends?’
He dragged a hand through his damp hair and glared at her. ‘Santo cielo, why are we even having this argument?’ he shouted.
‘I have no idea but you started it!’ she yelled back.
His eyes widened at her tone, then he sighed. ‘Forgive me, I’m used to having things my way, pequeña. You have every right to shout at me when I step out of line.’
‘Thanks, I will.’
He laughed, and just like that the tension broke. Striding to her, he tugged her into his arms and proceeded to kiss the fight out of both of them. They sailed back to the villa shortly after and, once again, she let him coax her into spending part of the night on the beach bed.
* * *
They were halfway through their breakfast when the delivery arrived.
‘What is it?’
‘I’ve got something for you.’ The gleam in his eyes was pure wickedness. Her heartbeat escalated as she eyed the large gold-ribboned package sitting on the floor beside their breakfast table.
‘Don’t worry, you’ll enjoy it,’ he promised with a smile so sexy, and so deliciously decadent, her toes curled.
Even though the subject quickly changed to their plans for the rest of the day, Raven’s gaze strayed time and again to the package. But Rafael, as she’d discovered in the past two nights, was skilled in delayed gratification. He was also skilled in being the perfect host. She was stunned when she discovered how many details he’d picked up through their conversation. When he shepherded her towards the SUV mid-morning, she gaped in surprise when she found out he’d organised the hang-gliding trip she’d casually mentioned was on her list of things to do.
She’d barely descended from that high when he whisked her by helicopter to the Mayan encampment she’d been dying to explore.
‘You’re seriously scaring me now by how utterly close I am to adoring you for this,’ she said in hushed tones as they were ushered into the hallowed grounds of the ancient burial site.
His breath hissed out. When she glanced at him, he’d paled a little.
‘Rafael? Are you in pain?’ He’d left his walking stick back at the villa and nothing from his gait told her he’d suffered a mishap. All the same...
He shook his head. A second later the look had disappeared. ‘It’s nothing.’
She stopped as the full import of her words struck her. Wide-eyed, she turned to him. ‘No, I didn’t mean...I was only joking...’
‘Were you?’ The intensity of his gaze pinned her where she stood.
‘Yes! Ignore me, I’m babbling because you’ve made two dreams come true today.’
‘So you don’t adore me?’
She opened her mouth to refute the comment and found she couldn’t speak. Because she realised she did adore him, and more than a little. The Rafael she’d come to know in the past few weeks had a depth she’d never got the chance to explore last year. She felt a connection to this Rafael, and not just because he’d been her first lover.
The depth of the feeling rampaging through her made her shake her head.
One corner of his mouth lifted in a mirthless smile. Then he nodded to the tour guide looking their way.
‘Now that we’ve established that you don’t adore me, I think you need to go see your artefacts.’
She felt a stab of disappointment. ‘Aren’t you coming?’
‘Been there, done that.’ He pulled the phone from his pocket. ‘The drivers and cars arrive this afternoon. I need to return a few calls.’ He walked away before she could reply.
Disappointment morphed into something else. Something she couldn’t put her finger on but which confused the hell out of her. The more she tried to grasp it, the further away it slithered from her.
He was waiting when she finally emerged. Back in the helicopter, he pulled her close and sealed his lips over hers, his mouth hungry and demanding.
She was breathless when he finally pulled away. ‘What was that for?’ she asked huskily.
His lids swept down over his eyes. ‘Maybe I want you to adore me, just a little.’
* * *
Rafael watched her breath catch all over again and wondered just what the hell he was doing. Why he was letting the angst riding underneath his skin get to him.
So she didn’t adore him. Big deal. There were thousands of women out there who were more than willing to fall into his bed should he wish them to.
But none like the woman in his arms. None like the woman who refused to mould into a being he understood, could predict. Most women would be halfway to falling in love with him by now; would be secretly or not so secretly making plans on how to prolong their presence in his life.
When he wasn’t kissing her breathless—a diversionary tactic he’d grown to enjoy immensely—Raven seemed to be counting the days, hell, the minutes until she could walk away from him.
The notion unsettled him enough to make him want to probe, to find an answer.
Had she glimpsed the darkness in his soul? Had opening up to her in Monaco and again in Monza made him into a man she could sleep with but not a man she wanted in her life for the long-term?
The long-term? Santa María. Had he finally lost all common sense? Certainly, reality had slid back these past two days. Being with her had been like living some sort of dream. A dream where he could look at himself in the mirror without being revolted by what stared back at him.
A dream where he could continue the secret writing project he’d started before his accident without feeling as if he was tainting the very memory he wanted to preserve.
He stared down into her face, a face flushed with pleasure from the activities of the day or, he thought semi-cockily, from kissing him. All at once he wanted to blurt his very innermost secret to her.
He stopped himself just in time.
Permanent wasn’t part of his vocabulary. He wasn’t about to seek it out now. And, really, he should thank his lucky stars because Raven knew his flaws and had adequately cautioned herself against getting too close.
So why did the thought not please him?
His phone rang and he happily abandoned the questions that threatened to flood him. But he didn’t abandon his hold on the soft body of the woman next to him. Delight curled in his chest when she slid closer.
‘De Cervantes,’ he answered.
The conversation was short and succinct. And it raised every single hair on his nape to full, electrifying attention. Feeling slightly numb, he ended the call.
‘What’s happened?’ she asked.
‘One of the drivers has pulled out of the remaining races.’
‘Can they do that, pull out without warning?’
He shook his head. ‘I’ve never had a driver pull out before. Normally I have them begging to race.’ She didn’t miss the frown in his voice. ‘But he’s just been offered a race seat for the coming season and it’s an opportunity of a lifetime. I recognise how important that is to a young driver.’
‘So what does that mean for your event?’ she asked, pulling back to stare up into his face.
He looked down but didn’t really see her. The thoughts tumbling through his head both terrified and excited him at the same time.
‘They can find a replacement if they search hard enough...’
Raven pulled away further. He wanted to tug her back but he couldn’t seem to summon the strength it took because of the feelings rushing through him.
‘Or?’
‘Or...the general consensus is that I should step in.’
‘No,’ she said. Naked fear pulsed through the single word.
He finally focused on her, felt a burn in his stomach from the impact of her searing look. ‘No?’
‘You’re not ready.’
‘Shouldn’t I be the judge of that? And didn’t you say yourself I was almost healed?’ he asked.
‘Yes, almost! As your physiotherapist, I strongly do not recommend it. You could reverse everything you’ve achieved in the last several weeks...’
‘If I crash?’
She paled a little, and he felt a tug of guilt for pushing her. ‘I won’t answer that. What I will say is that you’re the head of X1 Premier Management. All you need to do is make a single phone call and any one of dozens of drivers will fly out and take your driver’s place. You don’t have to do this. Please don’t do it.’
The naked plea in her eyes struck deep. The unsettling angst of a moment before subsided as he traced his finger down her face.
‘Dare I believe that you care about me, just a little bit?’ He couldn’t stop the question from spilling out. But, once it was out there, he needed to know.
‘I care, Rafael. More than a little bit, I think.’ The naked truth struck them both. Their eyes met, locked.
Breaths held until the banking helicopter jolted them. The sight of the villa sprawled beneath them made Rafael want to swear. Instead he activated his phone again.
‘Angelo—’ he addressed his second-in-command ‘—call around the teams, find out if there’s any driver who isn’t testing and offer them a place on the newly available seat on the All-Star event. You know which guys I rate the most. Tell them they’re guaranteed a spread in the next issue of X1 Magazine and my personal endorsement of whatever charity they choose. Oh, and I want a driver on his way to the racetrack in Los Cabos by the end of the day.’ He ended the call and looked down at her.
‘Now what?’ he asked softly as the helicopter blades slowed to a halt.
Her smile held such radiance he found it hard to breathe. ‘Now, I may let myself adore you a little bit more...see where it takes me.’
He regretted that he wasn’t healed enough to swing her into his arms and carry her off to his lair. But he was well enough to drag her from the helicopter to his bedroom. And he made sure he kept her fully occupied until neither of them could move.
* * *
‘You never told me what was in the package,’ Raven murmured, drifting somewhere between I-can’t-move satiation and a drugging need to experience that mind-bending pleasure all over again.
The wicked grin he sent her way made her heart pound all over again. He left the bed and she could no more help herself from visually devouring him than she could stop breathing.
He picked up the package from the foot of the bed and returned it to her. ‘This may just buy me a few more Brownie points.’
That got her attention. She dragged herself up to lean on one elbow. The sight of his naked chest threatened to fry her brain cells. ‘What is it?’ Her mind whirled with the possibilities, then latched onto what she wanted it to be. Could it be the rest of his manuscript?
Her senses now on a high, she stared down at the box, feeling like a kid on Christmas morning. ‘What’s in the box, Rafael?’
He lifted the lid. All she could see were sheaves of wrapping paper. ‘See for yourself.’
Carefully, she lifted the sheer paper. The first items made her heart knock in her chest. And not in a good way. Praying she was dreaming, she nudged the material aside with her finger and looked underneath. Each layer held more of the same.
‘Naughty underwear? That’s what you got me?’ Raven let the garments drop back into the box, unable to stem the cold wave of hurt that washed over her. She wasn’t even sure why it hurt so much. But it felt as if she’d climbed a mountain only to look back and find out that she’d only taken a few steps.
He looked genuinely stunned. ‘You don’t like it?’
‘What’s wrong with my own underwear?’
His perplexed look deepened. For the first time, Rafael looked seriously nonplussed. It would have been funny had it not been so far from funny.
‘I didn’t...I just wanted to...’ He stopped, a flush lighting his high cheekbones.
If someone had told her as little as a week ago that she’d be sitting in bed discussing naughty lingerie with Rafael, she’d have laughed herself blind.
Now, she forced herself to glance at the lacy silks and delicate satin bows that didn’t seem as if they would stand up to any overt pressure.
‘That’s not even my size, Rafael. I’m a size twelve, remember?’
His flush deepened. ‘I have a feeling you’ll punch me when I tell you I don’t have a clue what size underwear you wear or what yours look like. By the time I get to your panties, I’m nearly insane with lust. Damn it. I’ve got it spectacularly wrong, haven’t I?’
‘Not all wrong. You got my favourite colours right.’
He picked up the package and flung it across the room. Then he tugged her close. ‘Is there any way I can make you forget the last ten minutes?’
Against her will and certainly against her better judgement, she glanced at the lilac silk material caught over a chair back. It seemed so delicate and forlorn.
‘I don’t need expensive lingerie to feel sexy. If you don’t want me as I am—’
He caught her chin between his fingers. ‘I do,’ he breathed. ‘Let me prove it...’ His head started to descend.
Raven’s gaze swung once more to the basque. Pulling herself from his arms, she walked, naked, to the garment and plucked it off the chair. Carefully, she rubbed the material between her fingers and turned. Rafael’s breath caught as she slowly traced the warm silk over her body.
A glance from beneath her lashes showed a definite effect on him.
Pure feminine power washed away her misgivings. With a wanton smile she’d never have believed herself capable of, she sauntered back towards him.
‘You need to understand one thing, Rafael.’
He nodded but his eyes were riveted on her breasts. ‘Sí?’
‘You promise never to buy me lingerie again as long as we’re together. I choose my own underwear.’
He swallowed and nodded.
Raven glanced down at the panties and shook her head. ‘I can’t believe you thought I was a size eight,’ she muttered.
‘Por favor! Forgive me.’ He wet his lips in such a blatantly sexual way, a blush suffused her whole body.
‘You’re just saying that so I hurry back to bed.’
‘Si. And you can forget the lingerie if you wish.’
‘And give up the chance to see you sweat. No can do.’ She slowly, deliberately swept her hair to one side before sliding the lace-trimmed garment over her head.
She nearly bottled it then, but the scorching intensity in his eyes had the direct effect of firing up her courage. The soft lilac tulle basque hugged her breasts in such a blatant caress, she bit her lower lip to stop a moan of excitement. She turned, then glanced back over her shoulder.
‘Are you going to help me with the laces?’ she rasped.
‘Dios mío, what are you trying to do?’
‘Teach you a lesson.’
He got off the bed, almost a little too eager for his punishment. ‘Turn around,’ he instructed.
She did, and heard him hiss out a breath as he pulled the delicate laces and tied it.
‘Once again, I have no knickers.’
His moan was a heartfelt balm to her soul.
Turning, she placed her hands on her hips, feminine power fuelling her desire as she saw her effect on him.
When he stumbled back and sank onto the side of the bed, she laughed. ‘Hoisted by your own petard, Rafael?’
She took a step towards him and gloried in the slide of the silk on her skin. She would never don anything like this again. Naughty lingerie wasn’t really her style but, just for tonight, she would allow herself this experience.
His face was strained like the steely erection that jutted from between his legs. Heat oozed between her thighs, made her movements slow as the magnetic force between them pulled her inexorably into his orbit.
When she reached him, she raked her fingers down his chest. ‘You won’t see me like this again, Rafael, so look your fill.’
His features altered, a look of regret passing through his eyes that made her stomach hollow out. ‘You’re breathtaking without it, Raven. How can I make this up to you?’
Her heart thundered at the sincerity in his voice. ‘You don’t need to. Just see me as I am.’
He inhaled, long and deep, and dropped his head between her breasts. For a long moment, Raven held him close. Then his breathing altered. Hers followed as lust sizzled, rose to the fore once more.
She pushed him back on the bed and climbed on top of him. By the time he donned the condom, they were both nearly insane with need. She’d barely positioned her thighs on either side of him when he thrust hard and deep inside her. Raven lost all coherent thought.
In the sizzling, excruciatingly heady aftermath, she curled into him but found she couldn’t breathe, even after his deft fingers pulled the basque from her body and flung it away. She’d always known that Rafael’s dominance was larger than life. But she’d trusted herself not to get pulled into his devastating, fast-spinning orbit. Her emotions were fast skittering out of control. How long had she watched her mother experience the same devastation over and over? Now she was running the same risk—
‘What is it?’ he demanded, his intuitiveness almost scary.
‘Nothing...’ she started to say, then stopped. ‘How many times have you done this?’ she blurted.
‘I think I definitely need a definition of this, otherwise I’ll have to plead the fifth.’
‘Bought risqué underwear for a woman?’
His lids dropped for a second before rising to spear her with that intense blue. ‘Never.’
Her snort was borne of disbelief and a sharp pang she didn’t want to touch with a dozen bargepoles. She shook her head and started to move away.
He caught her back easily. A shiver ran through her when his finger slid under her chin and tilted her head up. Almost afraid, she looked into his eyes.
‘I’ve never lied to you, Raven. I’m skilled in evading subjects I don’t wish to discuss, but I have never and will never lie to you. Understood?’
She was stunned by how much she wanted to believe him, how much she wanted to be the first at something in his life. ‘Why haven’t you done this before?’
Surprise flared in his eyes. ‘You’re asking me why I haven’t bought lingerie for a woman before?’
She pursed her lips. ‘It seems the kind of thing ruthless playboys specialise in.’
His own lips flattened at the label, then he shrugged and relaxed onto the pillows. ‘Not specialise. I have knowledge of it because I’m always the recipient. The assumption has always been that I would prefer the bedroom unveiling to be a knock-my-brains-out surprise, not a joint enterprise. I haven’t felt the inclination to alter that assumption.’
A small fizz of pleasure started in her belly. Which was really foolish because she knew this particular experiment had been a means to an end for him.
Unwilling to face up to what all this meant, she buried her face in his neck. ‘I’m glad.’
‘Enough to forgive my grievous error?’
‘That depends.’
‘On?’
‘On whether you’ll give me what I expected to find in the box when I opened it.’ She told him.
Another peculiar look crossed his face. ‘The story has reached a crossroads.’
‘Are you saying I did all of that for nothing?’
He pushed her firmly onto her back and leaned his powerful, endlessly intoxicating body over hers. Unable to resist, she let her hands wander at will over smooth muscle.
‘For nothing? No, bonita, it was most definitely not for nothing. I think you could be the key to unlocking everything.’
Although she went into his arms at his urging, Raven sensed he wasn’t as in control as he made out. She’d heard a different note in his voice—part vulnerability, part bravado. She slid her hand up and down his back in a strong need to comfort him. The persistent voice that had cautioned against getting too deep was receding—almost as if it knew the path she’d chosen. She would live in this fantasy now.
This magic, this overwhelming sense that she was exactly where she wanted to be, was too great to deny. Reality would encroach soon enough.
So where was the harm in experiencing it for a little while longer?