Raul's Revenge

by Jacqueline Baird

  Expecting a savage assault, she was overwhelmed by the sweet tenderness of his kiss. He held her with one hand at her nape and sipped at her lips like a man drinking the nectar of the gods. His very tenderness de­feated her, her fingers curling involuntarily into the soft fabric of his sleeve.

  He raised his head to look at her flushed, bewildered face and murmured, 'On the other hand...' Lifting a finger, he outlined the swollen bow of her top lip. ‘This is negotiable, Penny,' he murmured with a sensual smile. 'But I give you my word I will not touch you unless you want me to. The bed is more than big enough for both of us.'

  'I don't trust you,' she said, still shaken by his kiss but not taking her eyes off him.

  'You can put a pillow down the middle if you want to.'

  'A pillow?' she scorned. After his behaviour in the shower, she knew damn well that a pillow would not stop Raul. 'This aftern—'

  'This afternoon was...' Raul grinned. 'What was it you said?' One dark brow arched teasingly. 'Ah, yes, a shakedown.'

  She flushed scarlet and looked away, angry and con­fused. For a second she was reminded of the Raul she had first met, who had delighted in teasing her.

  'Personally I think a shakeout would be a more ac­curate description. It was necessary to get our anger and frustration with each other out in the open, to enable us to concentrate all our energies on making a good life for our son, without the added distraction of wondering if sex between us was still as red-hot as ever.'

  Penny's cheeks burned even brighter; her hand fell from his sleeve and she glared up at him in helpless frus­tration. Why was the man always so damned right? It wasn't fair. 'So you say, but then you seduced me,' she hissed.

  'Granted.' He had the gall to grin. 'But when you got going there was no stopping you.'

  The simple truth of his statement was undeniable. She sighed and closed her eyes for a second, blocking out the brilliant intensity of Raul's mocking gaze.

  'Come on, Penny.' His arm settled around her shoulders and she stiffened instinctively. But his strong hand squeezed her shoulder, not hard, but in an oddly comforting gesture as he urged her towards the door and out into the hall. He stopped at the foot of the staircase, surprising Penny by setting her free.

  He glanced down into her wary blue eyes, and, curving a long finger under her chin, lifted it. 'You have nothing to worry about,' he said, holding her gaze with the first gentle look he had given her since she had returned to Spain. 'You can go to bed in the sure knowledge that I will not lay a finger on you without your consent.'

  As Penny saw it, she did not have a lot of choice. She could believe him or fight, and, as she fought down a wide yawn, belief won...

  How long she had spent watching her sleeping son Penny had no idea, but suddenly it seemed a matter of the utmost urgency to be in bed and asleep before Raul came upstairs.

  She dashed through the preparation for bed with the speed of light, then grimaced in exasperation at her re­flection in the dressing-table mirror. The only nightdress she could find was one from years back, when it had seemed important to look good for Raul. Now she thought the garment was indecent. Tiny straps over her slender shoulders supported a sliver of white silk cut on the bias to cling to every curve; the fact that her bust was a little fuller was not helped by the deep inset of the finest white lace almost to her navel.

  Still, she thought, climbing into the huge bed, with a bit of luck Raul would never see it. If she got to sleep before him, and up before he was awake... God help her! Who was she trying to fool? Herself?

  There was no way she was ever going to sleep. Her life had been turned upside down. She was in a foreign country, with her son in the room next door and not an idea in her head. She sighed. Her head sinking into the soft pillow, she curled her hands around the edge of the mattress, determined to take up as little space as possible. There must be something she could do... but what?

  She yawned widely. The only thing she was absolutely sure of was that she would never, ever leave her son... His abduction had taught her that much. She would have given anything—her life, her soul to the devil—to get him back. Pride, money, career meant nothing in com­parison to her child. She had finally realised that the reality of life was the family—nothing else mattered.

  Penny stirred uneasily, her hands losing their grip on the mattress, a traitorous thought invading her tired mind. If she truly believed that, why do anything? James was safe and loved; she was safe and, if not loved, at least desired. Many a marriage was made on less. Her long lashes brushed her cheeks. The trouble was, she thought hazily, that Raul had not suggested marriage. Her eyes closed and she was asleep.

  She didn't see Raul enter the bedroom and stand by the bed staring down at her sleeping form; she didn't feel the brush of his hand on her brow, pushing back her tumble of hair, but she stirred slightly at the soft kiss on her cheek, and turned over in the wide bed.

  She was freezing in the blinding ice of stark white walls, the silence so total that every beat of her heart echoed in her brain. Penny moaned in her sleep, her head tossing from side to side. 'No, no,' she cried, but no sound es­caped. She watched in ever mounting horror and fear as the ghostly outline of a man came towards her, the white coat moving, blending with the walls closing in on her, about to crush the life from her.

  Somehow, on some level, she knew that she was in a nightmare—the same nightmare she had suffered on a regular basis since James had been kidnapped. But this time it was worse. Through a hazy mist she saw the man stop in front of her, his features changing, first fair and then inexplicably dark and suddenly fair again; she wept at the pity in his eyes. She saw his mouth open and she could not bear it, knowing what he was going to say. She screamed, 'Not James, no. No. No-o-o.'

  Great, shuddering tears shook her slender body. 'Please, please...' she whimpered, trying to force her eyes open. Then from a long way off she heard the voice.

  'Hush. Hush, querida; don't cry. James is safe.' She registered the warmth around her, the soft, com­passionate voice saying, 'You're both safe. Nothing will ever harm you again.'

  Penny sought the source of the warmth, pressing into the hard male flesh, her arm sliding over a taut, mas­culine waist, clinging for all she was worth. She had been so frightened, but a large, familiar hand softly stroked her brow, another tenderly rubbed her back; she was cocooned in a solid, comforting circle of heat.

  Her head lay on a broad chest; she shivered on a sob and sighed, her lashes flickering in a brief attempt to open her eyes, then closing again. She heard the steady, firm beat beneath her ear—a reassuring and convinc­ingly safe sound—and, snuggling ever closer, she drifted back to sleep.

  This time there was no fear, no nightmare, just the gentle caress of warm lips on her cheek. Her throat arched, her head falling back on a soft pillow. She felt the warmth of sensuous lips across her own, the whis­pered words a caress against her mouth.

  ‘Trust me; you and James are safe, now and always.' It was what she wanted to believe, so she believed. A soft, relieved sigh parted her lips as the husky voice con­tinued, 'You're so beautiful, so perfect. The mother of my child.'

  Penny shivered as the firm lips trailed down her throat, planting kisses every inch; she was no longer afraid but safe and secure in the arms of her lover. She put her hands against his chest, her palms flat, her fingers tangling in curling body hair. It was a dream, but such a perfect dream that she never wanted to wake up.

  Her dream lover's hand slid over her shoulders, re­moving the fine straps of her gown, pushing it down around her feet with ease, his strong hands caressing her legs, her inner thigh, teasing back up her naked body, finding a creamy breast, his long fingers stroking the rosy tip into a small hard nub of desire.

  She groaned. Her lashes fluttering, her own fingers returned the favour, finding a hard male nipple, plucking. And she heard an answering groan. A secret, sensual smile twitched her lips and she moved restlessly on the bed, heat flooding through to her groin
, her legs parting involuntarily. One collided with a hard, mas­culine thigh and she moved her foot, stroking like a cat against the long, sinewed leg of her dream lover, and finally settled with her leg wrapped over his thigh.

  'Do you know what you're doing to me?' a rasping voice murmured against her curved lips before slanting over her mouth, hungrily seeking the dark, moist in­terior with a deliciously dancing tongue.

  'Hmm.' Penny moaned her agreement; after the h of the nightmare this was a dream she could live with for ever.

  But it wasn't a dream. Her eyes flew open. Raul was leaning half over her; his eyes, burning with a golden flame, stared into hers. 'You're sure?' he husked, his hand sliding down over her breast, tracing the inden­tation of her waist, curving around her buttock, and then she realised that her leg was still wrapped around his, and the hard evidence of his desire moved titillatingly against her feminine centre.

  'Raul.' She was confused. 'Raul, I think—'

  'Don't think, just feel, querida,' he said, and claimed her mouth with his own once again, kissing her hungrily. ‘I have dreamt of having you in my bed again for so long, so many sleepless nights.' He kissed her throat, her breasts, his tongue flicking the taut, pouting nipples-first one and then the other— biting gently. The abrasive feel of his jaw against her flesh and the teasing tongue-strokes were her downfall.

  Penny moaned softly, her hands trembling as one slid up his broad back, the other down over his hard male thigh; she heard his harsh indrawn breath as she urged him closer, signalling her surrender.

  'Dios, you are perfection.' And with a low groan he settled his long body between her parted thighs and reared up on his elbows, his black eyes glittering with a golden flame. 'I could never tire of looking at you in a thousand years.' He cupped her breasts, and then he kissed each one in turn; he fell against her, his hands curving around her buttocks, lifting her bodily to accept his hard length into her eager body.

  Penny gasped, not with pain but with the exquisite pleasure of having him sheathed inside her. Her dazed blue eyes, wide with wonder, looked up into the black molten depths of Raul's.

  He stopped, perfectly still inside her. 'You were always mine, Penny,' he said with a ferocious growl. 'Always.' And then he began to move his hips in a slow, pulsing rhythm.

  Penny clung to him, her fingers kneading, digging into his broad shoulders, scratching down his back, her body naturally joining his rhythm, and she realised that Raul was right. She was his—always had been and probably always would be. Then her mind closed down and she flew with him as he increased the pace with a driving urgency that spun them both into the explosive ecstasy of mutual fulfilment.

  Hours or maybe minutes later—Penny had no idea how long they lay, their sweat-licked bodies entwined in a sated daze, their ragged breathing the only sound in the room—slowly, with dawning horror, she realised what she had done. Did she have some deep subcon­scious wish to get pregnant again? she thought bleakly. Or was she just a careless young woman with overactive hormones. She cringed in disgust. Raul felt her shiver and, rolling onto his back, pulled up the coverlet with one hand and slid his other arm around her shoulders, curving her into his side.

  'Don't worry, Penny; we'll get married in a few days,' he drawled, in a voice deep with exhaustion and a smug satisfaction that infuriated her.

  She jerked upright in the bed, digging her elbow in his chest in the process. How did he read her mind like that? she marvelled, at the same time as she resented him for being so arrogantly sure of himself. 'No way,' she snapped, staring down at him, her blue eyes flashing with fury.

  With the first light of dawn infiltrating the room Raul lay on his back, gazing assessing I y up at her. 'I want you and my son,' he said bluntly. 'And, considering what we have just done, marriage is the only option.'

  'Just like that.' Penny waved her hand wildly in the air. 'You honestly think I will marry you simply because you're a great lover and...'

  Raul chuckled and, wrapping his arms around her, pulled her down on top of him, pinning her to his broad chest. ‘Thanks for the compliment, honey,' he mur­mured huskily, cupping the back of her head and kissing her flushed cheek.

  Penny wriggled a few times but gave up when she realised that it was having an arousing effect on Raul and he was simply laughing at her. Anyway, she was too exhausted to argue and wasn't really sure she wanted to. He had called her 'honey', just like in the old times, and somehow it seemed to ease her lingering resentment.

  'Go to sleep. We'll talk in the morning.' Raul stroked her back in a reassuring, non-sexual way, and she did.

  But when she woke it was to the sound of childish laughter outside her window and the realisation that she was alone in the wide bed. She jumped out, pulled the coverlet around her naked body and crossed to the window.

  The huge courtyard sparkled in the bright September sunlight; her gaze roamed around the familiar enclave— the patio area, the gnarled olive trees, the more formal garden with geraniums, roses, a multitude of flowers lovingly tended by Carlos, and, set in one corner, cleverly screened at ground view by a trellis with climbing hy­drangeas, hibiscus and bougainvillea, the swimming pool.

  From her elevated position she could see the shallow end of the pool, and her heart squeezed with emotion.

  James, naked except for rubber armbands, was clinging to the broad shoulders of Raul and laughing his head off as Raul kept dunking him in the clear blue water up to his armpits and swinging him high in the air.

  The sun gleamed golden on Raul's dark head and glistened on his broad back; she breathed deeply, struck by the pleasure the picture gave her. In a subdued frame of mind she slowly washed and pulled on a pair of old white shorts that she had found and a cropped blue T-shirt.

  She brushed her hair, flicking it back over her shoulder, and turned back to the window. Raul and James were sitting side by side on the edge of the pool, their two dark heads close together. She sighed, and turning, sat down on the edge of the bed to slip on her sandals. She had no idea of the time but guessed that it was late. Possibly too late for her, in more ways than one...

  There was no denying that James loved his father, and Raul certainly adored James. Did she have the right to keep them apart, to take James back to Cornwall and her small apartment with no garden? The hacienda was a marvellous place for a little boy to grow up, even she could see that.

  Then there was the added worry of the consequences of unprotected sex... No, she refused to think about last night; she was exhausted and depressed, and Raul had caught her at a weak moment. But she could not quite block out the memory of Raul's passionate and, yes, tender lovemaking, or her tempestuous response. A devilish question leapt into her worried mind. Did she honestly want to go back to being a working, celibate, single mother? Never again to feel the exquisite joy of Raul's caress...

  She got to her feet and finally ventured downstairs; the antique clock in the hall said twelve noon and she turned scarlet. God! she'd been in bed half the day... It was deeply embarrassing to have to meet Ava's happy, knowing smile when she walked into the kitchen.

  'Buenos dias, señora.' Ava spoke in rapid Spanish. ‘The master told me not to wake you. You needed your sleep. James has been washed and fed and is perfectly happy with his papa in the pool.

  'Now, what will you have to eat—an omelette or pastries? I have your favourites; the master told me to order them specially for your arrival. Or perhaps you would prefer to wait for lunch? I have made fresh coffee. Sit down and drink, and we can discuss the wedding.'

  All the time she spoke Ava darted around the kitchen, placing a cup and saucer on the scrubbed table and filling it with strong, aromatic coffee. ‘There is so much to ar­range and so little time.'

  Penny smiled; she couldn't help it, even though she was furious with Raul. Ava was brimming over with happiness and excitement. She had promoted Penny from señorita to señora overnight. She obviously thought that all her dreams had come true and that the hacienda once agai
n was a happy family home; to Penny's chagrin she had not the heart to disappoint the old lady.

  Not yet, anyway, she qualified in her head while answering Ava in her own language. 'Just coffee, please, Ava, and can we leave the discussion until later? I want to join James in the pool.'

  Her answer seemed to please Ava even more, as with a wide grin Ava said, 'Of course. It is wonderful you miss your men so quickly.'

  Never mind missing, she wanted to murder one par­ticular male. Raul! she thought venomously as she strode across to the swimming pool. How dared he tell Ava they were getting married? Dear heaven, what if he had told James? No. She shook her head, dismissing the worry as she walked around the trellis.

  'Bonns Doss, Bonns Doss____Mamma.' James's ex­cited cry had her eyes flying to her child to the exclusion of everything else.

  Penny held out her arms and watched as James dashed up to her. He looked so cute stark naked and slightly sunburned. 'Hello, darling.' She swept him up in her arms and planted a swift kiss on his grinning face.

  'No, Mamma. Bonns Doss, Bonns Doss.' He wriggled to be put down, and, bending, Penny set him back on his feet, a puzzled frown on her face.

  'Bonns Doss?’ she repeated quizzically. Usually James was an excellent speaker.

  'Buenos Dias, Penny.'

  At the sound of Raul's voice she slowly straightened up. He was standing very close and she was treated to a view of long, sinewy legs planted slightly apart, brief black swimming trunks that did nothing to hide his mas­culine attributes, and acres of muscular chest. Her face was flushed by the time she raised her eyes to his.

  'I have been teaching James Spanish. Bonns Doss...is his version of buenos dias.' And Raul grinned. 'Not bad for a first attempt, hmm?'

  She wanted to be angry, but instead she found her lips twitching in the beginning of a smile. ‘I should have guessed. Trust you to waste no time.'

  'I've wasted too much time already,' Raul said, and she thought she saw a flicker of pain in his dark eyes before his usual control blanked his rugged features.