by Lucy Monroe
Baz shrugged. “I would say I do. The staff inhabits the top floor. They have their own recreation room, in addition to sitting rooms in each of their suites.”
And the rest of this massive hacienda was for Baz and his family. It was an apartment complex. “How many bedrooms in a place like this?”
“There are quarters for eight live-in staff members, though not all are occupied, six suites in the family hall and ten guest rooms on the other side of the house.”
Ginormous could be good. Her room would be on the other side of the house from his. Distance would make it easier for Randi to stay away from temptation.
“Would you like to refresh yourself from the journey?” the butler asked.
“Yes, sure. That would be great.” If she didn’t get away from Baz soon, it was going to be her doing the kissing.
And that way lay nothing but pain.
“I’ll take her up,” Baz told the black-clad man.
“Very good, sir.”
“Would you like a tray brought up?” an older woman, who Randi assumed was the housekeeper, asked.
“Sí. Something light,” Baz replied before Randi could tell the woman not to go to any trouble.
Randi frowned at Baz. “If I want something, I could go down to the kitchen.”
“But since you have not had a tour of the house yet, it would be a chore to find it.”
“I’d probably end up falling in the indoor pool,” Randi joked.
“Oh, that’s unlikely. The pool has a very wide apron,” Emilio offered. “But if you would like to go swimming this afternoon, it is heated and ready for use.”
“You have an indoor pool?”
“It is half indoor, half outdoor on the back of the house.” Baz’s eyes warmed with emotion. “My grandfather installed it for my grandmother. She was a keen swimmer year-round.”
“Your grandparents live here?”
“They did until their deaths over a decade ago.”
“About the same time you were forced to take over the company.”
Baz led her up the wide marble staircase. “Two years before. My grandfather would have been very disappointed I didn’t go to university.”
“I’m sure he was proud of you, regardless.” Randi wasn’t going to think about why she felt the need to comfort Baz.
The portraits displayed in gilded frames hanging on the wall of the hall they walked along looked old. “Are those your ancestors?”
“They are. The Perez family has been in Madrid since before the Inquisition.”
He pushed open a heavy oak door, leading her into a huge bedroom suite, complete with her own sitting room and balcony off the bedroom. One of the doors led to a spa-like bathroom, naturally, and the other into a walk-in closet that could have been used as another small bedroom. She said as much.
Baz nodded. “What are now the walk-in closets used to be sleeping quarters for maids and valets for my ancestors.”
“This is pretty impressive for guest accommodations.”
“While the guest rooms are perfectly elegant, only two have their own sitting rooms.”
“And I got one? I’m honored.” She ran her hand over the carving on the canopied four-poster bed. “I can see where Casa Clavel has been updated, but you retained the historic tone to the place. It’s wonderful.”
“I am glad you like it, but this is the family hall.”
“What?” she asked, spinning around to face him. “I’m not family.”
“I wanted you close. There was no reason to put you in the guest hall as we are the only people in the hacienda at present.”
“But...” There went her plan to keep her distance from him.
“If you do not like this room, we can move you.”
“You know it’s not the room.”
“I am glad to hear that.”
“You’re really used to getting your own way, aren’t you?”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“For me, maybe it is.”
“Because I want something you do not?” He removed his suit coat and laid it over a chair that looked like it was original to the house. “You must know I would never push you into anything you found objectionable.”
“Like you didn’t push me into coming to Spain?” Trick, more like.
Only, if she was honest with herself, she’d admit she wanted a way across the chasm separating them, too. She just didn’t know if that desire was going to cause her more pleasure or pain.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
BAZ TUGGED ON his tie, loosening it and then pulling it off. It landed in a neat line over his jacket. “I would not have forced you. You have to know that.”
Did she? Honesty compelled her to admit, “I do.” She sighed. “I did. As contrary as it may sound, if I’d thought you really were forcing me, I would have refused to come and let the chips fall where they may.”
More important, why was he taking off his clothes?
“So you, too, are used to doing as you like.” He toed off his shoes, pushing them under the chair with his foot.
“Maybe, but with a lot more limits than you.” Should she say something about the slow, casual striptease?
His socks were next, but so far he was keeping the important garments on. “Trust me. A man in my position has many constraints on his life and actions.”
She scoffed, “You live like a king.” Literally.
“And like any royalty, I have responsibilities to the people who rely on me, to my company, to my family. I am not responsible for the well-being of a nation, but nothing I choose for my life is without consequences for others, sometimes many others. I always remember that.”
“You’re saying you’re not a despot.”
“I am a man with a great many responsibilities.” He unbuckled his belt and dropped it with the jacket and tie.
“Why are you undressing?” she asked, her voice a little high-pitched.
He shrugged. “I am merely getting comfortable. That is one of the benefits of being home, is it not?”
“Sure, but it wasn’t just the desire to be back in your own home that prompted your return to Spain, right? Those responsibilities you were talking about are calling to you, aren’t they?”
Her hint seemed to fall on deaf ears as he unbuttoned the top two buttons on his shirt. “Sí.”
“Do you need to get to work, then?” she asked hopefully.
“Are you trying to get rid of me?” He smiled at her and then took her hand before she had a chance to answer, pulling her toward the French doors leading to the balcony. “I worked on the plane while you napped. I can enjoy some uninterrupted time with you now.”
She’d closed her eyes to avoid more deep discussions and had ended up falling asleep, not waking until a few minutes before they landed.
“I haven’t been sleeping well,” she excused herself.
He nodded like he understood. Maybe he did.
She stepped toward the rail, turning her face up to the sun. “I love fall in a warm climate.”
“Oregon’s more definitive seasons are not to your liking?”
“The rain is okay, but I don’t like being cold. It doesn’t get extreme in Portland, like the Midwest. Or so Kayla tells me, but we’ve had some pretty chilly days already this fall and I know last winter they got snow several days in Portland.”
“And there are places covered in snow for six months out of the year.”
“I know, but I wouldn’t want to live there. I’m a warm baby.”
“You were raised in Southern California. That is understandable. I have never wanted to move to a colder climate, either. A vacation to the snowy mountains is sufficient exposure for me.”
“I was starting to miss the sunshine,” she admitted. “It was worth it to be close to Kayla, though. It�
��s been great getting to know my sister.”
“Why were you raised apart?”
“My mom abandoned her at a truck stop when she was three, before I was born. We didn’t even know the other existed until Andreas hired an investigator to find Kayla’s family.”
Baz’s mouth twisted with distaste. “Your mother is a piece of work.”
“She is that. I’m nothing like her.”
“No, of course not.”
“But I could pass her genes on if I have children. Most days I don’t think it’s worth the risk.” Just sometimes, Randi wondered what it would be like to carry a baby inside her.
He brushed the hair away the gentle wind had blown into her face. “You could also pass along your kindness, compassion, intelligence, beauty and strength of character.”
“Don’t say stuff like that.”
“I will not refrain from the truth.”
“You’re so certain of yourself.”
“I know what I want.”
“What is that?” she asked, needing him to spell out just what he expected here.
“I want another chance with you.”
He’d gone to a lot of trouble for more uncommitted sex from the same partner and she told him so.
“Maybe I desire more than uncommitted sex.”
“No. Don’t. Don’t imply you want something more than that. We both know it would never work.”
“You are so certain?”
“Your life is here in Spain. I just started working for my sister’s charity. I’m still getting to know her.”
“Then let us start with the sex.”
“Wha—?”
His lips cut off her words, his hands warm on her hips. And just that fast, Randi’s worries and decision to stay away from him physically melted into nothingness.
She’d never responded to another man the way she did him and probably never would again. No matter what he felt for her, she was pretty sure she’d fallen in love with Basilio Perez.
It was too fast. It was unreasonable. It made no kind of sense. Emotions didn’t just sprout up and take over a person’s heart, but hers was locked down with an emotional craving no one else was ever going to quench.
It didn’t have to be logical. She’d fallen. Her feelings were real. So real she knew she was in for a world of pain when she went back to the States and left him to his glittery world of billionaires and beauties.
But right now she could have this. Sex. A connection. And she was going to take it.
Randi was going to wring every ounce of pleasure out of the next two weeks that she could get. The one thing she wasn’t going to do, though, was ever admit her feelings to a man who had declared with conviction that he didn’t buy into the romantic love concept.
Besides, you had to trust someone to admit your love for them, to let it spill over and infect every area of your life. And Randi still didn’t trust Baz.
Baz’s kiss turned heated, the exploratory nature disappearing almost immediately when she responded with unfettered passion.
He lifted her up, helping her to wrap her legs around him, and carried her, still kissing back, into the bedroom.
Randi laughed, reveling in the pleasure of his touch as he dropped her onto the bed. “You’ve got a real caveman streak.”
“I have been called primitive more than once.”
“By other lovers?” she wondered, not really wanting an answer.
“No. I have never had trouble with control with another woman. Not like I do with you. My past liaisons have always been very civilized.”
“I wouldn’t call you civilized in bed.” Far from it. Her voice caught as he began stripping the smart suit she’d worn for travel off her body.
It was not her usual look, not nearly casual enough, but she’d wanted armor when she saw him early this morning, and the suit had been necessary. Now she just wanted the tailored jacket and pencil skirt off. Her fingers fumbled with the tiny buttons on the blouse until Baz took hold of both sides and jerked it open, buttons popping, fabric tearing.
His urgency turned her on even more, making her ache for his touch in her most intimate places. He stopped and just stared down at her lingerie. “Did you wear this for me?”
“You know I like to wear pretty underwear.”
His espresso gaze heated, singeing her with its intensity. “Sí, but you had to know I would get you out of that prim and proper suit.”
“No, that wasn’t the plan.” At least in her conscious mind.
She was honest enough to admit, to herself at least, that her subconscious may well have had different ideas.
“Oh, it was always the plan. I would have had you on the plane if you hadn’t looked so peaceful sleeping.”
“You’re arrogant.”
“And?”
“On the verge of losing out on a good thing if you get too cocky.” So, that? Was a total lie.
She wasn’t stopping what they were doing for anything. Her body craved his. Her heart craved whatever connection she could have before walking away.
If there was emotional pain mixed with her incandescent pleasure, Randi was a big girl. She could handle it.
She had plenty experience in that regard.
“We would not want that.”
“No...” She gasped as his hot mouth landed on her curve above the line of her aqua satin demi bra.
His tongue ran along the edge of her bra, branding her with the oral caress.
Oh, man. She had no resistance to his touch. Even the slightest connection between their bodies had her ready for the deepest of intimacy. Had he pressed, they would have joined the Mile-High Club on the way over from Portland.
His short breaths, the way his hands were so urgent on her body, said he was just as susceptible to her.
Baz pushed the demi bra down and suddenly hot, wet suction engulfed her nipple, sending pleasure down her body, right into the core of her.
“Yes, Baz, please...”
His hands worked at getting rid of the rest of their clothes while he continued to pleasure her with his mouth. Her body bowed upward, electric impulses making her muscles contract with the overwhelming bliss.
When they were both completely naked, her last bits of clothing peeled away with passion-imbued reverence, he stopped and just stared at her, the waning fall sun casting his olive skin in a golden glow. “You are so perfect.”
She shook her head. “Hardly.”
“Sí. Perfección.”
“Saying it in Spanish doesn’t make it any more true.”
“I want you, cariña. I have never been in bed with a woman I found so enthralling. No other woman has ever drawn me like you do.”
“How can that be true?”
“I don’t know.” His tone and expression said he really didn’t. “But it is.”
“What we have in bed is special.”
“So I’ve been telling you.”
“Show me.”
“It will be my pleasure.”
Only the minute he started kissing her body again, his hands busy caressing spots he’d taught her were unexpected erogenous zones, she realized she didn’t want to just lie there and accept the delight he brought to her body. She wanted to do some touching of her own.
Lots and lots of touching.
Randi pushed against Baz’s shoulder until he lifted his head and torso so she could press him onto his back. Then it was her turn to taste his body, to map his rock-hard muscles with her fingertips.
“What are you doing to me, mi hermosa?”
“Whatever I want.” It was nothing less than the truth.
Regardless of what had happened between them, she felt more freedom to explore with this man than she ever had with her two previous lovers.
Baz didn’t try to give di
rections. He didn’t subtly encourage her to move one way or another with his own body. No, he let her kiss him, first on the lips then on every sexy hollow and dip on his gorgeous, masculine body.
When she wrapped her fingers around his hot and oh, so hard erection, his groan was all the encouragement she needed to keep doing what she wanted. She caressed him with inexpert but enthusiastic movements before sliding down his body so she could take him into her mouth.
The sound he made then was primitive and full of male need.
She would have smiled in triumph, but her mouth was full. She did her best to take as much as she could between her lips, breathing through her nose when he bumped the back of her throat. She kept an up and down motion with her hand on his rigid column of flesh.
Suddenly, he was pulling her head away from his sex, his breathing harsh. “I don’t want to come in your mouth.”
She didn’t ask why not because she wanted the same thing he did. Him inside her.
He pulled her up until she straddled him. “Are you ready for me?”
“Yes.”
“Put this on me.” He handed her a condom.
She didn’t ask where it came from. Right then, Randi didn’t care.
She tore open the packet with her teeth and then pulled out the thin latex circle. Concentrating so her hands did not shake too badly, passion riding her hard, she rolled the protection down over his straining erection.
He moaned as her hand slid down with the latex. “Yes, Miranda, cariña, that is so good.”
She loved the way even this act was part of the pleasure.
Baz grabbed her hips, and in an arousing feat of strength, he lifted her up until her labia kissed the head of his latex-covered erection. Then he guided her down, centimeter by slow centimeter as he rocked upward with slow, steady movements, until he was seated completely inside her.
They both froze for several seconds. For her part, Randi was simply overwhelmed by sensation. Baz had an expression on his handsome features she was afraid to trust, but his dark gaze bored into hers with profound emotion.
“This between us, this is too good, too special, too important, to simply dismiss.”
She nodded, unable to deny the truth of his words.
