Raul's Revenge

by Jacqueline Baird

  'You won't get away with it,' she croaked. The hard heat of his body, his dark eyes full of hate, burning into hers, horrified her. He had fooled her completely, not just with James but by pretending that he was no longer sexually interested in her. It was in his eyes, the hard thrust of his masculine arousal against her stomach. But, worse, she had fooled herself. A pulse leapt in her throat, fire spread through her veins. She gasped for breath.

  ‘I already have,' he grated mockingly, his mouth des­cending on her parted lips with a cruel passion that seemed to demand her total surrender, his tongue delving into the moist heat, forcing a response she was helpless to control.

  'Oh, no,' she groaned when he allowed her to breathe, terrified by the fierce tide of pleasure flowing through her body.

  'Yes, yes, yes,' Raul ground out, his hand slipping between them, down the front of her dress, to curve around the swell of her breast. A hopeless moan escaped from her parched throat and Raul stared cynically down at her flushed face. 'You're desperate for a man, Penny,' he said callously, his long fingers stroking over the already rigid tip of her breast—stroking, playing with the hard nub as he watched her with dark, mocking eyes. 'Your Nick is obviously not keeping you satisfied.'

  'Nick...?' she moaned, not knowing what he was talking about.

  A blinding flash of fury glittered in his eyes and roughly he grasped her breast before pushing her away from him. 'You dare to moan his name, you bitch?'

  Shocked out of her emotional stupor, Penny licked her dry lips. 'I was...' But something so primitive, so sinister in Raul's eyes made her throat close, and she could not speak.

  'You have the nerve to allow a man to stay overnight in the same house as my son. I could kill you for that.' He swore violently in Spanish before adding, 'Dios! You disgust me; you're little better than a whore.'

  His comment hung in the air. Penny tensed, lifting hurt, angry eyes to his, about to explain who Nick was. But she caught a flash of bitter black hatred in his eyes before he wiped all trace of expression from his hard face. She stopped. She did not owe Raul an explanation. She did not owe him anything. Instead, anger surfacing, she shot back, ‘Then why, as I disgust you, did you drug me and bring me here?'

  'Lucky for you, James insisted on visiting his sleeping mamma every couple of hours. Otherwise, believe me, I would have thrown you overboard in the Bay of Biscay without a second thought.' And, spinning on his heel, he walked out of the bedroom, slamming the door behind him.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Penny looked around the room and then back to the door, not quite believing what had happened. She crossed to the bathroom and, entering, slipped off her dress and briefs.

  What was that favourite saying of her local hair­dresser? 'It's a treat to be alive.' How true, she thought with a wry chuckle, her irrepressible sense of humour coming to her rescue. According to Raul, she could have been fish bait by now!

  She stepped into the double shower stall, still laughing. But very quickly her laughter turned to hysteria. Tears flooded her eyes and rained down her cheeks. Her head ached, her heart ached, and as she stood under the warm shower spray, her tears mingling with the water, she had never felt so hopelessly lost in her life.

  At least when James had been missing she'd had hope and the support of other people to sustain her. Now she was trapped in Raul's house, miles from anywhere, with no friends. She had no illusions as to the loyalty of his servants, Ava and Carlos. In this part of the world the feudal system still lingered. There was no way they would help her against the master. It wasn't in their nature, and Penny had a sneaky suspicion that Ava would con­sider her action in withholding her son from Raul as pretty despicable in any case.

  She turned the tap on harder. As steam filled the stall she tilted her head back and closed her eyes, allowing the water to wash away her tears. Crying was not going to help her now. If only she did not feel so weak. But then being drugged would do that to one every time, she thought wretchedly.

  She did not hear the shower door open, and when two strong male hands clasped her slender waist she almost jumped out of her skin. Her eyes flew open and she was looking at the broad, naked chest of a man. She did not need to see his face. She would have known the touch of those hands in her sleep, she realised bitterly.

  'I thought you might need some help washing your back.' Raul's deep, mocking voice echoed in the en­closed area.

  'Get out!' she cried, lifting her hands to sweep her wet hair from her face, the better to see what the hell he thought he was doing!

  His head bent and his mouth fastened on her parted lips with unerring accuracy as his hands slid over her bottom and pressed her close against him.

  For a moment she was stunned by the flood of emotion, the memories his kiss evoked. Her mouth wel­comed him as a lover, her nipples throbbing against his hard chest, and then she realised what she was inviting and, with a sudden twist, was out of his arms, her back to him, her heart pounding erratically. 'Get out,' she spluttered, swallowing half the shower spray.

  'You don't mean that, Penny.' Raul's arm closed around her slender waist, hauling her back hard against him even as his free hand snaked up to cup her breast, kneading it gently, his long fingers sliding teasingly over the hard peak in a caress that made her shudder in in­stant reaction.

  She was immediately made aware of his hard, naked body at her back, the stirring of masculine arousal against her buttocks. 'I do,' she got out shakily. The water pounding down on her overheated body, com­bined with the feeling of being completely surrounded by Raul, was making her head spin.

  She grasped the arm around her waist, trying to prise herself free, but as she did so, with his other hand, he rolled her aching nipple between his index finger and thumb, sending shafts of fierce, achingly familiar pleasure from her breast to her loins, while his dark head bent and his mouth nuzzled her neck, his teeth biting lightly into the tender flesh.

  'You do what, Penny?' he asked, biting her ear-lobe then licking inside with his tongue. 'Ache for me, burn for me?' he whispered in an oddly gentle voice.

  She sensed a subtle change in him from his earlier, raging hatred, but it made no difference; this was one fight she dared not let him win. 'No. No,' she denied desperately, her fingers digging into the flesh of the arm at her waist, but he held her manacled to his hard length in a band of steel.

  'Little liar. You love it, you know you do; and turning your back on me physically or mentally won't help. You tried that once before and it almost ended in tragedy,' he cynically reminded her, all the time his teeth grazing her neck even as his long fingers glided from one aching breast to the other, plucking, playing with the rigid tips with devastating expertise. 'But never mind, my sweet, luscious Penny,' he continued in a husky whisper. 'I won't let it happen again. I'll take care of you, protect you.'

  Penny bit back a moan, and trembled with each prac­tised movement of his fingers. She tried to tell herself that she hated him, despised him. But her eyes closed and she swayed back against him, pleasure over­whelming her rational mind.

  She was transported back in time to when she had lived only for Raul. His mouth on her flesh was warm, sensual and so achingly familiar. His huskily murmured erotic words against her throat should have shamed her, but instead they inflamed her senses to fever pitch.

  'Nothing has changed; you still want me,' he rasped, his other hand sliding from her waist down over her belly, his fingertips parting the soft blonde curls, seeking the moist inner skin. Her hands fell to her sides and with a will of their own curved against hard, masculine thighs; her head fell back on his broad chest, and this time she could not hold back the groan.

  'That's it, Penny; let go,' Raul coaxed huskily. 'I know what you want, querida. What you need.' He moved so that his back was to the wall, still holding her captive, his tantalising fingers caressing her breasts and the silken centre of her femininity with rhythmic, sliding strokes.

  Her fingers dug into the hard flesh of his thighs as w
ave after wave of sensation arced through her naked body. She wanted to scream at the humiliation, while her body begged for his touch.

  Raul's mouth closed on her ear, biting and nibbling, and then went to her throat; she turned her head blindly to the side to give him easy access. She was lost, burning up with a fever of the flesh that only Raul could as­suage. Her breath caught in her throat. 'Please don't—' was as far as she got when his fingers slid further into her body.

  'Don't do this?' he rasped against her neck as the hand at her breast slid to her waist, holding her hard against his rampantly aroused male strength. 'When you do this to me?' he growled, and she knew that she was defeated; she could no more stop him than stop the tide, and, worse, she did not want to...

  His wickedly caressing fingers trailed over her tiny nub of passion with exquisite, spiralling delicacy, and shudder after shudder claimed her slender body.

  'Please... stop,' she gasped, in a last futile attempt to deny her own hopeless surrender to his sensual mastery of her quivering body.

  'Never,' Raul husked, and in one lithe movement he spun her around in his arms, somehow managing to turn off the water at the same time.

  With dazed, passion-glazed eyes she stared up into his dark face, her whole body one seething mass of frus­trated desire. He lay back against the wall and curved an arm around her waist as his other hand slid up through the tangle of her long hair and then down her spine to stroke over her buttocks and haul her into the cradle of his thighs, making her even more aware of his blatant male arousal.

  'Now—say you don't want me. I dare you,' Raul goaded silkily, supremely confident of his virile mas­culine power. Her eyes widened on his; she saw the sim­mering passion in the deep black pupils, overlaid with pure male triumph, and some of the mist cleared from her bemused mind.

  Sensing her partial withdrawal, Raul bent his dark head and found her lips with his, thrusting his tongue into the moist depths of her mouth. She trembled, then meekly opened to him, her tongue stroking his, wanting him as she had before. More so, with the memory of more than two long, frustrating years to fuel her desire.

  Raul ended the kiss and trailed a row of tiny, nibbling bites down her throat. 'I've waited years for this. Too long...' he growled throatily. 'Touch me, Penny. Touch me as you used to.'

  Blindly she reached out and ran her slender hands up over his hair-roughened chest, across the broad shoulders, down again to his hard, flat stomach. It was as if the lonely years apart had never been. With tactile delight she relished the familiar, utterly masculine form.

  Her head fell back as his lowered and his mouth closed over her aching, pouting breast. He tugged on the swollen nipple and her small hand slid lower to trace his essential maleness... He was so smooth, satin over steel, so powerful, and so ready...

  ‘That's it, Penny. Oh, yes,' he grated as his head moved from one breast to the other. His large hands curved around her buttocks and lifted her from the floor. Penny grabbed for his neck, for a second sure that she was going to fall backwards, but Raul held her firm. 'Wrap your legs around my waist. Do it, Penny,' he commanded huskily, and she did.

  She clung to him while his satin strength found her, slowly, lightly. His sensuous mouth sought hers and kissed her long and hard as all the while he moved easily, softly against her, enough to tease, to stoke the fire of her passion, but not enough to quench the flame, until she wanted to scream for his possession.

  'Tell me what you want, Penny. Say it. Tell me you want me,' Raul demanded raspingly over and over again, his mouth skimming from her lips to her breasts and back again, all the time his lower body moving barely an inch against her feminine core.

  A streak of fire shot through her and she burned with an exquisite pleasure-pain that stopped her breath. She was hot and wet and shivering with desire. She clasped her hands around his head, holding him to her breast. Her shapely legs locked higher around his waist, trying

  I to force her ultimate union, but Raul would not be

  She could feel the straining, steely length of him against her, but he refused her the satisfaction she craved. She pressed hard, desperate kisses to his neck, his shoulder, his chest—anywhere she could reach. Her slender fingers curled in the soft dark hair of his head, pulling, making her own demand in a frenzy of need.

  'I have to hear you say it, querida,' he grated, his great body rigid with tension, his biceps bulging as he fought to support Penny and control his own overpowering I need. His head reared back, his dark eyes, black with passion, clashed with hers. 'Say it...' he demanded -hoarsely. The skin pulled taut over his high cheekbones and his tanned face flushed dark red with the effort of controlling his passion.

  She saw the muscle jerking spasmodically in his jaw, the sensuous line of his hard mouth; she felt his slight movement, the tip of his masculine strength teasing the centre of her desire, and she went up in flames, twisting her hips in a last desperate plea.

  ‘I want you, Raul. I want you,' she groaned, and gasped as he arched suddenly against her, spearing her with a hot, hard, pulsating passion. 'Raul!' She cried his name as he filled her completely.

  Pleasure, fever, fire. There was no word to begin to describe the feeling as Raul moved inside her with slow, deliberate strokes, and still his mouth caught her breast. His strong hand clasped her buttocks, and she cried out as his other hand slid between their two bodies and touched her there—where they were joined. Penny felt as if she was falling apart, melting all over him. Never had it been like this. Somehow he was on the floor and she was splayed across his lap, and still he teased and drove her wild.

  She was losing her mind. His long fingers seemed to be everywhere. She was riding a roller coaster, shud­dering on the brink of oblivion, and then with a mighty lurch he held her hard down on his all-powerful body. She never heard herself scream; all she was aware of was the agonising pleasure as her inner muscles convulsed around the hard length of him and she was thrown into another dimension, burning up, consumed by the violence of their mutual, shattering release.

  Her head fell against his chest; she could hear the heavy pounding of his heart as she fought to breathe. His arms came around her, and for a second she be­lieved that they were still lovers, with no secrets between them. But slowly, as her mind began to clear, the reality of what had happened sank into her tired brain.

  They were still joined in the most intimate way. They should have been as close as it was possible for two people to be. But sadly, Penny realised, it was no longer possible. In the old days they would have laughed together to find themselves sprawled on the shower floor, Raul would have carried her into the bedroom...

  'Are you all right?' he asked flatly.

  The demand broke through her passion-dazed mind. She lifted her head; her blue eyes met Raul's guarded glance—not a glint of humour between them.

  She fought to contain her erratic breathing, to be as cool as Raul. 'If you call being assaulted all right, then, yes, I am fine,' she finally answered sarcastically, and tried to move.

  In one lithe movement Raul stood up, taking her with him and planting her firmly on her own two feet in front of him. The fact that they were both naked did not seem to faze him one bit, but suddenly Penny was overcome with embarrassment. She tried to step out of the cubicle, but Raul's hand on her arm stopped her.

  ‘There was no assault, Penny. So don't bother trying to lay the guilt trip on me, because it will not wash. You wanted me. You begged me, and don't you forget it.'

  He was angry; she could see it in the dark glitter in his gold-flecked eyes, in the tension in his huge body. 'And who made me beg?' she shot back, slowly re­gaining some control of her shocked senses. Pulling her arm free with a toss of her proud if somewhat be­draggled head, she forced her trembling legs to move and slipped out of the shower. He was right, but there was no way she was going to admit it.

  She grabbed a large bath towel off the rail and wrapped it around her shivering body; suddenly she was cold, both inside and
out. She needed to get away, get some space to think. But before she could leave the bathroom Raul was once again at her side.

  She blinked and glanced warily at him through lowered lashes. At least he'd had the decency to wrap a towel around his hips; though, in all honesty, she had to admit that he looked great in anything or nothing! The breadth of his bronzed shoulders, the hair on his chest, exag­gerating the perfect muscle structure, his narrow waist and slim hips were an enticement to any red-blooded female. God! She was doing it again—getting carried away on the physical. Would she never learn?

  'Have I grown a pair of horns and a tail?' Raul drawled sardonically, fully aware of her veiled scrutiny.

  'You were always a devil, if that's what you mean,' Penny blurted out recklessly, hating his mockery almost as much as she hated him. 'You had no right to invade my privacy in the shower and you know it.'

  'It wasn't only your privacy I invaded, and very nice it was too,' he chuckled.

  The swine was laughing at her; he actually thought that her complete surrender to his sexual persuasion was amusing. 'I wouldn't know; being under the influence of drugs probably has that effect on one,' she said sca­thingly, and, pushing past him, fled to the bedroom.

  But Raul was only a step behind her. 'Drugs had nothing to do with it,' he snarled, catching her around the waist and swinging her around to face him. 'Why can't you be honest and admit that whatever has hap­pened between us in the past, however much you hate me, I only have to touch you and you want me almost as much as I want you. Or is honesty from a woman too much to hope for?' he demanded angrily.

  'Oh, I see, and it's honest to kidnap someone, steal their child and then seduce them?'

  Raul ran a hand through his hair, an expression of disgust twisting his rugged features. 'For God's sake, Penny! We have just made love; it had to happen; the chemistry—call it what you will—is there between us all the time. You know it. I simply decided we should get it over with and then get down to the real business of arranging our son's future.'