by Lucy Monroe
His hips canted once, then twice, both of them gasping at the increased sensation until desire for him took over even the soul-deep emotion and she had to move.
Baz’s eyes closed for a second, the rictus of pleasure on his face telling her better than words could how much he was enjoying her riding him.
Then his eyelids opened, revealing a gaze almost black with pleasure, and his hands came up her body to cup her breasts. He kneaded the modest curves, expertly playing with nipples already engorged with blood and sensitized by his earlier touch.
Randi shifted her angle and suddenly his big sex was caressing that spot inside her that sent jolts of ecstasy throughout her body. Bliss coiled tight inside her, waves of pleasure emanating from her womb until she knew her climax was imminent.
“That’s right, mi amor.” He thrust up against her, increasing Randi’s pleasure. “Move just like that.”
She wasn’t about to stop but didn’t have the breath to tell him so. She found her breath a moment later, though, in order to let loose a scream of ecstasy when one of his hands slid down her body until his thumb could brush against her swollen clitoris. Just like that, the pleasure inside her detonated, explosions of bliss making her muscles contract. Her heart beat so fast she could barely breathe, and her cry of completion choked off by more of the same.
He kept moving under her, even as she fell forward against him, his thumb prolonging her moment of annihilating pleasure.
Still hard inside her, Baz stilled, his hands locked onto her thighs so she couldn’t move, either. “So good, mi cariña.”
“You didn’t come.”
His smile was all sexy, confident male. “I am not finished with you yet.”
“What?” She felt finished.
But then he moved under her, sending jolts of electric bliss sparking along her nerve endings, and she thought, maybe not.
The expression on his handsome Spanish features was nothing short of devilish as he rolled them, his shifting body inside her sending more aftershocks through Randi.
He kissed her for long minutes, but then he withdrew from her body completely.
She protested until he moved down her body to bury his mouth between her legs. As his tongue flicked out to barely touch her clitoris, she found herself panting with renewed pleasure. He kept the touches featherlight for several minutes until she found her body moving to meet the tantalizing caresses. Then he increased the pressure, his finger pressing up inside her even as he nibbled against her swollen bundle of nerves.
Baz showed her that when it came to giving pleasure with his mouth he was a master, drawing forth a second, even stronger, climax from her before he surged up her body to push inside her again.
Tears ran hotly down her temples as the pleasure and the emotional intensity of their physical connection overwhelmed Randi.
He brushed at the wetness with his fingertips. “You are mine, hermosa. Made especially for my body to connect to yours.”
She couldn’t think of anything to say; she was too raw from what was happening between them, but she wouldn’t have denied his claim if she could make her brain-to-mouth function work.
He plunged in and out of her, finally losing his vaunted control, driving them both higher and higher, words of praise in his native tongue dripping from his lips.
Her throat raw from screaming, Randi climaxed for a third time, this time taking him over the precipice of pleasure with her, his hoarse shout triumphant.
He kissed her possessively, intense passion coming through the way his lips moved so adamantly over hers. After long moments of him telling her a story with his lips against hers, the kiss gentled until finally, he broke the connection, pulling carefully from her body.
“I must take care of this.” He waved his hand toward the condom now covering his semierect sex.
She couldn’t even work up the energy to move a single finger, much less shift her body. “Okay.”
He came back to the bed and lifted her into his arms.
“Where are we going?” she asked, her postcoital lethargy making her not really care what his answer was. She found a secret part of herself that thoroughly enjoyed his caveman tendencies and not a single bit of energy to protest it.
“My bed, where you belong, mi amor.”
That was the second time he’d called her that. His love. She knew he didn’t mean it the way she wanted him to, but his use of it now... It meant something. Didn’t it?
True to his word, he carried her naked body out of the room and down the hall to the room next door. She should have guessed he would be so close by. If anything, his private suite was even more decadent than the one she’d been assigned.
She took in her surroundings with sleepy eyes as he carried her through to the bedroom and then maneuvered into his bed, climbing in with her and wrapping her in his arms.
“I shouldn’t be tired,” she slurred. “Slept on the plane.”
“I’ve worn you out.” Pride infused his voice.
She couldn’t take him to task for it. He was right. Randi let her eyes slide shut and snuggled into Baz’s body. She would work on shoring her defenses against him later.
CHAPTER TWELVE
THE FOLLOWING DAYS settled into a pattern.
Randi and Baz shared breakfast each morning before he left for his office. Then she spent a few hours answering emails and going over things for Kayla’s for Kids that weren’t impacted by the time difference.
Somehow Mr. Billionaire Business Mogul had managed to work short days for the entire two weeks Randi had been there. He came back to the hacienda for a late lunch, which Randi waited to eat with him. Afterward, he took her sightseeing, introducing her to his favorite places in and around Madrid as well as full-on tourist traps.
She was totally entranced by the Royal Palace. No wonder he considered his hacienda just a home. Spain’s palace in Madrid was the biggest royal palace in Europe, its Sabatini and Campo del Moro Gardens beyond beautiful. She wanted to go back before she left Madrid, but then she would really enjoy revisiting Almudena Cathedral, the Prado Museum and the Alcalá Gate again, too.
In the evenings they each spent another couple of hours working, when their contacts in North America would be awake and at their own desks. Afterward, they had a late dinner, sometimes in the glamorous hacienda dining room, sometimes at Michelin Star restaurants, and a couple of times they had amazing food at hole-in-the-wall eateries she would never expect Baz to frequent. But always, always, they ended up back in Baz’s bed, making love into the wee hours of the morning, their passion never waning.
Every day the life she was living in Spain became more and more the life she wanted to live. And that was a very dangerous mind-set.
Two days before she was supposed to fly home, Randi went looking for Baz in his office. He’d set her up at a beautiful desk in the Casa Clavel library. Filled with books and populated with furniture his family had collected over the centuries, the room was rich with history. And she loved it. Baz’s study was through a connecting door, and Randi liked how close he was while they worked together in the evenings, too.
He was on the phone, so she sat down to wait until he was done, more than a little confused by the two phone calls she’d just had.
Baz’s dark gaze flared with pleasure at the sight of her and he smiled when she sat down, putting a finger up to tell her he would only be a minute.
She nodded, smiling back, for once doing nothing to hide or suppress how pleased she was to be near him.
His eyes widened in surprise, his mouth dropping open in shock. He had to visibly collect himself before he ended his call with an abruptness that surprised her.
“To what do I owe this pleasure?” He stood up and came around the big, ornate desk that he’d told her had been a gift to one of his ancestors from King Carlos III.
Baz m
oved close to Randi like he was irresistibly drawn to her.
She knew the feeling. It was all Randi could do to stay in her chair. “I’ve just had a couple of very interesting calls.”
He cocked his head to the side like he had no idea what she was talking about.
“I was going over the final purchase details for the new facility with the broker.”
“Sí?” Still, Baz looked like he had no idea where this was going.
“He was confused about the gift of the furnishings to the shelter. In fact, he said we were paying for them, which I knew we weren’t doing. Or at least I thought I did.”
“Oh.”
“Yes, oh. Apparently, there is a special account that has been set aside to pay for the furnishings as well as any renovations that need to be made on the facility.”
Baz shrugged. “Kayla’s for Kids is a more than worthy endeavor.”
“So, you did donate the two million dollars sitting in that account?”
“I did.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want you to refuse the gift because you were angry with me.”
“It was for the shelter, not for me. You must have realized I would appreciate your generosity.”
“I didn’t want you to appreciate my money.”
No. Baz wanted Randi to appreciate him. And the way she’d smiled at him when she came into the study had so shocked him, he’d cut off a business call to find out why she’d done it.
She gave in to the need to stand up and walked over to him, initiating contact like she never did, stepping into his personal space, placing her hands on his chest. “You’re a really amazing guy, Basilio Perez.”
“Because I gave the shelter some money?” he asked, not sounding particularly happy by that thought.
She leaned up and kissed the underside of his chiseled jaw. “Because you kept it a secret, because you didn’t use it to try to get on my good side.”
His arms came around her and he dipped his head and kissed her full on the mouth, his tongue playing with the seam of her lips before he lifted his head to say, “I’m very glad I finally did something right.”
“You did more than one thing. You’re paying for the new shelter liaison. Kayla said she’s not coming out of the shelter’s budget, but that she has a two-year contract.”
“I would like to accept your appreciation, but hiring Mrs. Patel was purely selfish on my part. I wanted you to be free to travel with me when necessary. To perhaps even relocate here.”
Her heart nearly exploded in her chest. “You want me to move to Spain?”
“Sí.”
“But why?”
“Because I cannot make Portland my permanent place of residence. While Perez Holdings is an international company, my support staff, my best acquisition groups, they are all here in Spain.”
“You want something long-term with me,” she realized, bemused.
He stared at her like she’d lost her mind. “Do you think I went to such efforts for a few more nights of sex, even incredible sex?”
“But...you said...no commitment.” Her thoughts came out in disjointed little bursts.
“No, mi amor. You said no commitment and refused to believe anything else. Has this past week felt like no commitment?” His hands pressed into her lower back, bringing their bodies together.
“I...” How could she answer that? It had felt casual, but she was beginning to realize that was because she hadn’t allowed herself to consider anything else. Because it had also felt like the beginning of a life together. “So to be clear, you’re saying you want a relationship with me?”
“With a view to marriage, sí.”
“Marriage?” she squeaked.
“What else? I will never be content to see you with another man. I hope you would be bothered by the idea of me being with another woman.”
“Um...yes.” It would gut her. Which was one of the reasons she was glad he lived in Spain.
“But what about my sister? The shelter.”
“I currently travel to the States every couple of months. I could up that schedule to once a month, or at least every six weeks.”
“You would do that?”
“I’m already looking at properties to open a Loving Sisters Shelter here in Madrid.”
“I’ve never heard of that organization.”
“That’s because it is a new name for a multinational nonprofit run by you and your sister, focused on the welfare of children and youth.”
“What? No...we didn’t... You’re looking at facilities?”
“I have found three prospects, two in the city center, and one on the outskirts of Madrid I was hoping you’d look at next week.”
“Next week? But I was supposed to fly home the day after tomorrow.”
“I was hoping to convince you to stay longer. Things have been working out, haven’t they? You like living here.”
“You’re serious about this, aren’t you?”
“I am serious about you.”
“Baz, I think you might love me.” She couldn’t believe she’d blurted it out like that.
His face closed up, pain flaring briefly in his eyes. “If I don’t?”
“Whatever you feel for me is enough.” She didn’t need perfection. She didn’t need him to give voice to feelings that he was clearly not ready to deal with yet.
And might never be.
The perfect relationship was a fantasy anyway. She knew that. Even Andreas and Kayla had their issues. All couples did. But they fit. They loved each other and that wouldn’t be any less valid without the words.
“You are sure? You’ll stay?” His smile was incandescent. “You have forgiven me for deceiving you in the beginning?”
“Yes.” To all of it.
He began moving toward the settee against the wall. “I believe we need to celebrate.”
“Champagne?”
“How about champagne sex, fizzy and delicious?”
“You’re quite the romantic.”
“If you say so.”
“I do.”
The kissing and touching that followed had a vulnerable quality to it that neither had shown the other to this point. She straddled his thighs as he sat naked on the brocade-covered sofa. “Do you have a condom?”
“In my desk drawer.”
She gave him a look.
“I put them there the day after I brought you here.”
“So you don’t have sex with women in your office.”
“I have never had sex with any other women anywhere in my home. This hacienda is my refuge.”
She kissed him for such a good answer and then climbed off him to retrieve the condom. He groaned and tried to hold on to her, making them both laugh.
They made love, her body encasing his, her hips moving in a rhythm that maximized both their pleasure. He kissed her, over and over again, his hands kneading her backside, his hips thrusting up to meet hers. They came together, her cry and his groan muffled by their kiss.
* * *
Armand Perez returned to Casa Clavel the following week, exhibiting nothing but delight at the news that his son and Randi were now an official couple.
“Will you be moving to Spain permanently, or will you try to make this work long distance?” Armand asked over dinner the first night of his return.
Randi swallowed, not sure how she wanted to answer that. She’d told Baz she would stay with her yes, but knew he hadn’t been clear she was answering all his questions with the single word. She’d realized that later by something he said.
Now Baz looked at her, waiting for her answer to his father’s question, as interested as Armand. Only Baz’s gaze held vulnerability as well as cautious expectation. It was the vulnerability and caution that helped her give her
answer, to make it official.
She smiled at Armand. “We are going to look at spots for a possible shelter tomorrow.”
“That is good. Our Madrid children can always use another advocate.”
“You are moving here?” Baz asked, looking for confirmation she was happy to give him.
“I’ll call Kayla after dinner and let her know. Last week I just told her I was staying longer.” Maybe Randi hadn’t been all that sure of her decision, but she was now. “I think she’ll like the idea of expanding Kayla’s for Kids to Loving Sisters Shelter.”
* * *
Randi was right. Her sister loved the idea of going international with the services for displaced and at-risk children. She wasn’t as keen on Randi living in Spain.
“I’m going to miss you.”
“Baz said we’ll come to America once a month, at least every six weeks. You and Andreas can visit us in Spain, as well.”
“Once a month? You promise?”
“Some visits you’ll have to meet me in California, so I can see Dad and the grandparents.”
“Of course I will. Oh, Randi. I’m so happy it’s working out between you, but don’t you think maybe you’re moving fast?”
“Yes. It is fast. Yes, it is scary, but it feels right. More than right, it feels necessary. I trust him.”
“Really? Even after?”
“Partly because of what he did. Baz is the kind of guy who will do whatever it takes to keep his family safe. That will include me.”
“You’re already talking marriage?” Kayla shrieked.
“Not every corporate shark takes six years to figure out that the best woman in the world for him is already taking up space in his life.”
Kayla laughed. “Yeah, Andreas was pretty blind. He’s not anymore, though.”
“Yeah, I’ve noticed.”
* * *
When the phone rang an hour later, as Randi and Baz were preparing for bed, Kayla’s name flashed on the screen along with the picture of her gorgeous smile. Randi grabbed the phone. “Hey, sis, what’s up?”
“Have you been keeping up on the Google alert for your name?”
