The conversation at Spago made it clear he and Rebekah didn’t have a chance of getting back together. By the end of dinner, she’d become distant, hardly saying a word, and she’d hardly touched her meal. Since the evening had deteriorated into unpleasantness, he’d canceled the other events he had planned for their night out.
Her father had been right to refuse him when he’d asked for her hand in marriage. She’d deserved better—not the pain and public humiliation he’d caused her. Because of him, she’d abandoned the safety and security of her family and had been forced to live in a cheap motel without all the comforts of a clean home and a loving family.
Their day at the pier had given him false hope and made him believe they might have a chance. Now he knew the truth. The thought of being separated from her and Ricardo at the end of the summer was agonizing, but he would have to accept the consequences of his actions.
Rafael ran his hand over his face and dropped it in a heavy thump on the table next to the sofa. With a grunt, he pushed himself up from the chair. He might as well go to bed.
As he moved across the carpet, a knock on the door sounded so lightly he almost didn’t hear it.
“Come in.”
Hesitantly, Rebekah entered the room. She’d let her hair down, and it fell onto her shoulders and down her back in loose curls. He watched as she closed the door by backing into it.
“I know I shouldn’t be here,” she whispered. She pulled her lower lip between her teeth.
He ran his gaze down the front of her thin white nightshirt and wished he hadn’t. She was braless, the protrusion of her nipples prominently displayed. The hem of the shirt stopped several inches above her knees.
Dios! What was she doing in here barely dressed?
His shaft jumped, excited by her presence. Rafael swallowed, his throat as arid as desert sand. “What is it?” he asked harshly.
He clenched one fist, steeling himself against her involuntary flinch at his tone. Uncertainty hovered in her brown eyes, coupled with another emotion he couldn’t read.
“I wanted to tell you I…” She stopped, seemed to think better of what she had been about to say, then continued. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Ricardo sooner. Because of me, you’ve missed out on so much of his life, and I hope you can forgive me.”
“I’ve already—”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t a better wife to you. When I went back to Atlanta to visit my parents, I didn’t leave you, despite what you thought. I just needed to get away while you were out of town. I didn’t work, and I didn’t have any friends in Las Vegas. I was lonely without you because you were gone all the time. It was hard to attend your matches because I couldn’t stand to see you get hit over and over again, sometimes watching you bleed. Especially in the beginning, when you were involved in underground fighting. Because even though you always won, you would be so badly bruised and swollen, it—” Her voice cracked and she glanced away for a moment to compose herself. “It tore me apart.”
Now he understood what he saw in her eyes. Fear. His recounting of Rich’s story must have made her imagine a similar accident happening to him.
“We both made mistakes. It’s in the past.” She nodded, but she still appeared disturbed by her thoughts. “I was always fine.”
“You were, but I wasn’t,” she said softly.
The husky intonation of her voice made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. She was so close, so tempting, the craving inside him increased at a dramatic clip.
“If that’s all, I think it’s time for you to go back to your room. It’s late,” he said tersely, in a vain attempt to divert his desire for her.
Ever since he’d laid eyes on her back in Atlanta, making love to her had consumed his thoughts and increased after what happened between them in her kitchen. He could still taste her and hear her jagged breaths. The longer she stayed in this room, the harder the battle to repress the bone-deep hunger he held for her. If she didn’t leave soon, he may not let her leave.
Rebekah laughed nervously. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were trying to get rid of me.”
He didn’t see the humor in the situation. “I am.”
Startled, the smile on her face dissolved, only to be replaced by a pained expression. “I don’t understand.”
“¿No entiendes?” he growled in Spanish, because he was at the end of his rope, unable to think and function like normal. His shoulders, rigid with the need to maintain control, ached as if in a vice grip. “Then let me explain.” He strode toward her. In a lowered voice, he spoke slowly so she could understand every word he said. “If you don’t get out of here in the next three seconds, I can’t promise you will ever be able to leave this room tonight. Because all I can think about is bending you over the arm of that sofa, or dragging you down onto the carpet, or laying you across those sheets. The position really doesn’t matter, Rebekah, because they all end the same way—with me deep inside you.”
Her lips parted on a silent gasp. Emotion flared to life in her eyes. “That’s what I want.”
The earth shifted under his feet. His hard flesh strained against the zipper of his trousers. “Rebekah—”
“I mean it.” She stepped closer and ran her soft hands over the contours of his chest. “I want to feel close to you, Rafe. I need to feel close to you.”
He grasped her slender wrists in his hands, holding her fast. If this was a dream, he prayed he wouldn’t wake up. “Are you sure?” He wanted to be unselfish and do the right thing—send her away so she wouldn’t regret her actions in the morning, but she was making it so hard.
“Yes.”
The word was a seductive hiss. She rose up on her toes and pressed a soft kiss against the corner of his mouth, another to the column of his throat, drifting downward to lick the hammering pulse at his collarbone. A tremor of desire traveled through him. With one hand beneath her buttocks, he lifted her high. It took little effort, as he’d lifted men twice her size over his head. Flush against his chest, she wrapped her legs around his waist.
With a guttural groan of her name, he buried his fingers into the soft thickness of her hair, claiming her mouth, filling it with the probe of his tongue. The taste of her eclipsed the taste of every other woman. At last, he could sate himself in the pleasure of his angel, his sweet Rebekah.
She worked her hips sinuously against him, creating a searing heat in his groin that made him tremble with anticipation. His nostrils flared, filled with the scent of her feminine fragrance. He groaned again, breathing labored as her teeth nipped at his lower lip, and she caressed his face with gentle fingers.
He walked across the room, savoring the sensations of her mouth traveling over his heated flesh. When he eased her onto the bed against the pillows, one hand clung to his forearm. She was as reluctant as he to be separated.
“Paciencia,” he told her softly, although she couldn’t be any more impatient than he.
He undid his belt and removed his pants. Leaning his naked body over her, he took in the vision she made. The wild tumble of hair, the sultry look in her dark brown eyes.
His hands, his mouth, and his tongue would reacquaint themselves with every inch of her delectable body. Not a single millimeter of silky brown skin would remain untouched.
Even if it took all night.
* * * *
No longer harnessed by the restraint of propriety, Rebekah teetered on the edge of begging him to take her. She wanted his weight on her, pressing her down into the mattress, filling her body with his hard length. How could it be she’d lived without him for years, yet in a matter of weeks he’d become as vital to her as oxygen. Hunger thrummed in her veins, and only when her clothes joined his on the floor did she find she could breathe again.
Her breasts were heavy with desire, the nipples puckered and pointed, wanting the tug of his lips or the press of his broad chest—any part of him to touch or rub up against them to relieve the soreness.
His pa
rted lips slipped over the soft mounds of her breasts with opened-mouthed kisses, the tip of his tongue grazing her nipples, intensifying the ache in her loins. His tongue danced over the hardened peaks before he finally enveloped one engorged nub into the warm, moist cavern of his mouth, offering the reprieve she so desperately craved. She arched her back in encouragement, sliding her hand across the smooth expanse of unyielding muscles in his back, moving her hips against him in urgent provocation.
His head dipped lower, licking the underside of her breasts, before his mouth moved down across her ribs. One hand trailed across her quivering stomach then traced the feminine curve of her waist and hips. She shuddered when his seeking fingers found the slick channel nestled below the dark triangle of curls between her thighs.
His stroking fingers primed her, dipping in and out of her until she imprinted her nails in the skin of his back.
“Oh…Rafe, I missed you, I missed you, I missed you,” she whispered. “I need you now.”
He ignored her plea and took his time.
He kissed her everywhere—between her legs, where she ached the most for him, down her thighs, her knees, her calves, and even her feet. When he finished, her body throbbed with sensory overload so acute she thought for sure she would lose her mind.
He rose up on his knees, and all she could do was lie there, looking at him through heavy-lidded eyes, her limp body drugged with passion and unable to move.
He grabbed her behind the knees and gently pulled her toward him. He spread her legs and positioned himself over her, pinning her wrists together above her head. The words he whispered in Spanish served to further inflame her.
The bulbous tip of his shaft probed the entrance to her body as he kissed her hungrily. Shifting his hips, he pushed forward to claim her, but he froze when he met with resistance.
“¿Que?” He frowned down at her, confusion in the gray depths of his eyes.
Now was not the time for explanations. Rebekah pressed the soles of her feet into the mattress and lifted her hips upward. She could accommodate him, and she didn’t want him to hesitate.
“Please,” she panted.
He lowered his mouth to hers again, kissing her with such tenderness she felt choked with emotion. “Mi amor,” he groaned, tracing the curve of her hips with his fingers. “T’eres tan bella…tan sexy.” She arched her neck as he glided his mouth over her skin.
When he joined their bodies, she cried out from the raw charge of pleasure that coursed through her. It felt so good, too good, and she wanted more. She lifted her hips higher, countering his movements as he thrust into her body.
She closed her eyes against the tears of emotion threatening to overflow onto the sheets. The pain of the past slipped away as their panting breaths intermingled in between ravenous kisses. The connection between them was still as strong as ever, and she felt possessive, slipping her hands from his grasp so she could cling to him. He was hers, and as crazy as it seemed, she felt the need to protect him.
“Rebekah,” he said, easing away from her. With his withdrawal, her eyes opened and a moan of protest slipped past her lips. “I want you from behind.”
With the twist of his hands, he turned her onto her stomach and brought her to her knees. His lips pressed against the birthmark of light skin at the base of her spine. As he glided his palms over the smooth globes of her buttocks, she looked over her shoulder at him, looming big and powerful. Their eyes locked. He kneed her legs wider, and a sensuous shiver raced down her spine. Then he slid forward into her wet body. They fit together like reunited puzzle pieces, as if their bodies had been made for each other.
She trembled, desperate for the climax he dangled in front of her like a carrot. She curled her spine to take more of him, nearing the edge of what little control she had left as he continued, thrusting, thrusting. Reaching back, she hooked her arm around his powerful neck and parted her lips for his tongue.
* * * *
Rafael filled her mouth the same way he filled her body. She was so responsive, so wet, and so tight. He swallowed the sweet little moans she made. No other man should have known the pleasure. He could hardly stomach the thought of her welcoming other men into her bed.
He pumped harder, faster, anger at himself and desire for her mixing into a volatile cocktail of emotions. With each advance of his hips, he aimed to obliterate the memory of every man who had come after him so all she remembered, all she wanted, all she needed, was him.
Rebekah’s cries came faster and louder. Her hips pressed back against his with more urgency. He knew the moment she climaxed, her body trembling with a lack of control. He gritted his teeth, trying to hold on a little longer, but he was lost as her muscles contracted around him. The honeyed clamp of her body and her fervent cries of pleasure tore through the thin ribbon of his restraint. He gripped her hips and plunged himself deep, flames of ecstasy ripping through him. With a heavy groan, he soared into oblivion.
They collapsed into a pile on the mattress, his bones turned to mush, his large body slumped over her.
With effort, Rafael rolled onto his back. He had no doubt he’d been crushing her, but she hadn’t moved or protested.
“Get under the covers,” he said softly as he got up from the bed to turn out the light.
When he returned, he pulled Rebekah into his arms, cradling her close. It was a few moments before he was cognizant of the moisture on his shoulder.
“Rebekah?” He eased away, using the light that came through the large windows to get a look at her in the darkness. Damnit. He’d been too rough. She obviously hadn’t had sex in awhile. “What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?”
She shook her head, refusing to speak.
“Dime, mi amor,” he insisted. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
She kept her eyes closed. “Nothing,” she whispered. “Except I love you so much.”
His heart leapt at hearing the words he thought he’d never hear her say again. New tears leaked from the corners of her eyes, and he kissed her lids then gathered her close, cradling the back of her head with his hand.
“Te amo también, mi amor,” he said hoarsely against her temple. “Demasiado.”
His jaw clenched into a hard line as he listened to her sniffles. He made a silent promise he would never, ever hurt her again. If she would give him the chance, he’d spend the rest of his life making up the past to her.
They fell asleep with their arms wrapped around each other and the comfortable weight of her head on his shoulder.
Chapter Fourteen
Rebekah drifted awake, momentarily confused by the warmth of the body entangled with hers. She repositioned herself, feeling the slight ache of normally unused muscles. As she became aware of her surroundings, she remembered she lay in bed with Rafael.
She thought back over the years to all the times she’d lain awake, wondering where he was and who he was with, with nothing to fill her empty arms but the pillows beside her. Now, here she was with her first and only love, and before he’d drifted asleep, he’d said the same words he’d said years ago in the car on Stone Mountain: I love you too much.
With her eyes adjusted to the dark, Rebekah smiled to herself, trailing a finger down across his square jaw to his sensuous mouth. His lips twitched, but he didn’t awaken, and she knew he probably wouldn’t. He slept as soundly as a hibernating bear.
She smoothed her hand along his shoulder, over the image of Mixcoatl on his arm resting on the curve of her waist. When he groaned, she stilled her movements.
Was he having a bad dream?
He pulled her closer, which gave her a good idea of what he was dreaming about. His hardening flesh pressed against her thigh.
His eyes opened to unseeing slits before he came fully awake.
“¿Estás bien?” he asked sleepily.
“Yes, I’m fine.” She rested a hand against his cheek. “I’m sorry I woke you.”
“You didn’t.” He yawned, stretching. “Well, I guess you did. I was having
an interesting dream, and then I woke up to this.” He shifted his pelvis toward her.
Rebekah giggled. “That’s not my fault.” She ran her thumb over his lower lip. “What are we doing?” she asked quietly.
His face sobered. “I know what we’re not doing,” he said. At her questioning frown, he explained. “We’re not just having sex. You said you love me, and I love you, and I’ve missed you. I’ve missed you every single day for the past nine years. We have a son, and I want us to try again, to see if we can make our marriage work. No other woman has ever made me feel this way, Rebekah. No other woman has ever come close.”
His words thrilled her, but she still had doubts. “I’m scared,” she admitted.
“I won’t ever hurt and embarrass you again.”
“Are you sure you can be satisfied…with one woman?”
“You always satisfied me,” he said in a hard tone. “There was never anyone else when we were together.”
Rebekah took a deep breath and let it out. “So we’re calling off the lawyers?”
“First thing in the morning.”
The thought of starting over filled Rebekah with joy and prompted her to kiss Rafael hard on the mouth. He hardened even more, and she laughingly pushed at his shoulders.
“No way,” she teased. “I need sleep to rebuild my stamina. You’re an athlete. I don’t have the endurance you do.”
“Maybe we can build up your stamina through exercise.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Exercise?” she said with distaste.
“Mhmm. And you know what the best exercise is for building stamina?” Rafael asked. His forefinger ran down the side of her face.
“Running?”
“No.”
“Jumping jacks?”
“No.”
“Swimming?”
“No.”
“What is it?” Rebekah asked in mock exasperation.
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