by Maggie Cox
‘I am, but I’ve got into the habit of eating out most evenings when I’m here. You must also be hungry, querida. Shall we go out to dinner? Are you up to it?’
‘I’ll be fine. I’ve got to start putting my weight on my ankle again if I want it to get better.’
‘I wasn’t particularly meaning your injured ankle. I was referring to the fact that you’re with child.’
Their eyes met and locked. Jenny gave Rodrigo a slow smile. ‘It’s not some illness, you know. I’m not going to suddenly retire from the world just because I’m pregnant!’
Chapter Eleven
‘I CAN still hardly believe it.’
In one fluid, easy motion, Rodrigo got to his feet. A little anxious, Jenny watched him move to the centre of the room and then turn to face her. The last spectacular amber gold rays of the sunset turned to fiery orange before dying away completely. In its wake the room became dim and silent. Uncurling her legs, she gingerly put both feet to the floor, trying not to wince as she experimentally put some of her weight onto her bandaged ankle.
But the pain of her injury was nothing compared to the sense of desolation that was rapidly growing inside her at the idea of Rodrigo rejecting her pregnancy or thinking she was trying to manipulate him back into marriage.
‘I want this baby,’ Jenny said dully, folding her arms protectively across her stomach. ‘I want to keep it and I will. No matter what you decide to do.’
Her throat was suddenly so tight and painful that tears were a scant breath away. But any weeping she did she resolved to do in private. It was already humiliating enough to have the father of her expected child look at her as though he’d just heard the worst news he’d ever received, without humiliating herself further by breaking her heart in front of him.
‘To raise a child…’ levelling his gaze, Rodrigo wiped his hand over his cheekbone ‘…it’s best that the parents are in a stable relationship…no?’
‘Ideally, I think, yes. But I know we don’t live in a perfect world. People make mistakes, and sometimes it’s just not possible to have a stable relationship. In that case one might decide to raise a child on one’s own. I’m willing to do that, Rodrigo. If you really can’t contemplate us being together any more, don’t worry that I’m going to demand you support me.’
‘Is this how you were with your feckless brother?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean he demands money to feed his addictions and you simply give it to him without a fight…without standing up for yourself?’
Jenny’s stomach plummeted to the ground, as though she were travelling in an out-of-control elevator. ‘I didn’t just give him the money! You have no idea how he could be. He was manipulative and cruel, and he had ways of getting what he wanted no matter how much I resisted his demands or said what I thought.’ Shuddering at the memories that mercilessly flooded back, Jenny felt her eyes burn as she stared at Rodrigo. ‘He used to taunt me that I wasn’t a “real woman” because my marriage had failed. The fault obviously must lie with me. When insults illustrating how useless I was both as your wife and a businesswoman didn’t work he used fits of pure rage to intimidate me. When that kind of thing happens more times than you care to remember your confidence in your ability to do anything can very quickly desert you, and for a while my business got into trouble because I felt so overwhelmed. I’m not proud of that. But I am proud of the fact that one day I woke up and took steps to end the misery—despite the horrible threats that came my way. I fought to keep the house in court, then gave Tim a more than generous price for his share of it when I won so that he could move on somewhere else. You may not know this about me, Rodrigo, but I am strong. Strong enough to face whatever challenges might lie ahead and not be defeated…even challenges like raising a child on my own.’
‘Your worthless brother shouted at you repeatedly?’
‘Yes.’
‘Cabrón! You are well rid of him. If I had known you were returning to such a situation I would have stepped in and dealt with it once and for all.’
‘I know,’ Jenny sighed. ‘That’s why I never told you the truth about how Tim could be.’
‘In any case…understand that you will not be raising our child on your own.’
Immediately Jenny sensed the steely resolve in his voice.
‘Do you really think I would stand aside and let you do that? I may not have planned on starting a family, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t face up to my responsibilities. I most definitely will.’
A single hard-to-contain tear slid down Jenny’s cheek. ‘Is that the only way you view this, Rodrigo? As a kind of duty you have to fulfil?’
‘My head is spinning at what you’ve just told me about the situation with your brother—the fact that I unknowingly let you return to such abuse. It makes me furious. But I’m sorry…I don’t mean to sound so cold.’ The tension in his shoulders visibly relaxing, he sat down beside her and cupped her chilled hands between his palms. ‘We will reach the best solution for both the child and us—of that I am certain. Will you just allow me a little time to think things through?’
‘Take as long as you want.’ Too distressed to want to notice how emphatically his touch warmed her, Jenny sniffed, tugging back her hands. ‘I’ll give you my home phone number in England before I leave. When you’ve had enough time to think things over you can ring me.’
It was almost unbearable to be so close to the man she loved and yet feel a distance wider than the most yawning chasm. Intent on escaping to deal with her tormenting emotions in private, Jenny surged to her feet. The pain that jackknifed through her ankle almost made her cry out, but she stoically ignored it.
Before she had the chance to move away, Rodrigo stood up beside her. Firmly turning her round to face him, he settled his hands either side of her waist. ‘You are not running back to England. We’ll work things out together, Jenny. Don’t turn away from me…please. I don’t think I could bear it.’
The desolation she saw etched in the sublime angles and planes of his beautiful face almost made Jenny catch her breath. Somewhere inside her hope leapt like a rekindled flame in a burned-low candle. ‘Oh, Rodrigo…’ Touching her hand to his hollowed cheek, she suddenly couldn’t prevent the steady flow of scalding tears that seeped from her eyes.
Murmuring something low, Rodrigo lifted her high in his arms against his chest and stalked with her into his bedroom. In the dim half-light of the balmy evening he urgently covered Jenny with his body on the king-sized bed as though the world might end if he didn’t. Then he claimed her lips again and again with hot, open-mouthed kisses as passion-driven hands tore at her clothes—removing hers, then his own, before holding her arms high above her head and linking their fingers.
As their gazes locked in the subdued evening light, with the sensual, drugging scent of late-in-the-season exotic blooms drifting up to them from the lovely gardens below, he drove himself hard into her body, his soulful dark eyes burning like the sparks of fiery embers into the walls of her heart and capturing it.
His highly charged possession registered right down to the very corners of Jenny’s soul. Meeting her lover’s kisses with equal mindless hunger, she felt Rodrigo’s fingers press deep into her buttocks to make their bodies fit even more closely. Her senses were already drowning in the musky heat of his slick, hard-muscled male form when they were seized by her violent climax. She barely knew where the feral cry that left her lips came from, but the sea of powerful sensual release was so profoundly intense and shocking that it rocked through her like an earthquake.
Glancing up, she looked, stunned, into Rodrigo’s scorching gaze. As he rose above her she recognised blazing intent as he bucked, renting the sultry air with a primeval shout of his own. And as the echoes of that heart-jolting shout died away to mere shadows he laid his dark head between Jenny’s breasts, the ragged deep breaths that left his lips gradually slowing.
Letting her lids flutter closed, Jenny played softly with h
is hair. The dark strands were incredibly soft and silky in her hand and cried out to be touched. If only he loved me, she thought fervently. If only he loved our baby and me with no holds barred, as if we were the most important things in the whole world to him. Then how perfect these stunning moments would be.
But he had asked her to give him time, she recalled. And she would…she would.
Stirring, Rodrigo lifted his head to contemplate her with a wicked lascivious grin, before pressing his lips to her still flat, smooth-skinned stomach, deliberately letting them linger so that his heat felt like a brand. Then he glanced back at her again, and the expression in his long-lashed sable eyes made Jenny’s insides cartwheel.
‘It is incredible that you carry the fruit of our loving deep inside you,’ he murmured, and his rich voice had a definite catch in it. ‘And now you have intoxicated me like a drug, and I am indeed…addicted.’
Moving upwards again, he bent his head to suckle her rose-tipped breasts in turn, and Jenny realised that the fire which had blazed between them had embers that were all too ready to be stoked again. As he smiled into her eyes, Rodrigo’s gaze was again hungry and hot.
‘I’m not trying to trap you, Rodrigo…with the baby, I mean’ she said softly.
‘Angel, you trapped me the first moment I saw you. I have never had such a violent reaction to the mere sight of a beautiful woman before. And when I found Lily’s place, on that cold and rainy night, I could hardly believe that the storm had steered me back into your presence again. But let’s not talk right now…I’m too impatient for words when all I really want to do is enjoy you. Come, sit astride me, so that I can savour every beautiful inch of you.’
His big hands were careful to help her avoid hurting her ankle as they swapped positions. Then it was Jenny’s turn to feast her eyes on the taut, bronzedskinned body beneath her, with a gentle riot of curling black hair dusting his nipples, disappearing in a slim, sensual column down to his narrow-hipped pelvis. Adjusting her thighs over his, she hungrily accepted him inside her. His penetration was deep and smooth, and she moaned low and tossed her head back with the sheer wild pleasure of it. Then she started to rock a little…
‘I’d like us to take a shower together before we go out to dinner,’ Rodrigo told her huskily.
‘What about my bandaged ankle?’
He lifted a shoulder. ‘What about it? There are infinite ways we can accommodate whatever is needed, my angel.’ His expression glazed with passion, he cupped Jenny’s hips to rock her even harder against him. ‘You can lean against me the whole time…’ His breath was ragged again as he watched her move over him, her blonde hair an enticing tousled mass of corn-gold against her pale slim shoulders. ‘And I can wash your hair for you, just like I did once before. I’m an expert now, remember? Then you can wash mine. Afterwards, I will redo the dressing for you.’
‘Rodrigo?’
‘What is it, beautiful?’
‘Didn’t you—?’ Another helpless moan left Jenny’s lips as he pushed upwards and high inside her. ‘Didn’t you say something about not talking?’
‘Sí. I did. I guess you’ll just have to kiss me passionately to make me stop.’
* * *
His black silk pyjama bottoms riding low on his hips, his chest bare, Rodrigo returned to the bedroom with the two cups of coffee he’d made. Last night they had agreed to give going out to dinner a miss. Instead he had ordered some food from a favourite local restaurant to be delivered, and they’d enjoyed it sitting in their robes at the huge glass table in the dining room.
Now, the sun-kissed morning light was drifting in through the large plate-glass windows, and the undrawn coffee-coloured silk curtains were moving gently either side of the frames in the breeze.
The delicate light outlined Jenny’s still sleeping form. Her slim pale arms were down by her sides as she slept on her stomach in the middle of the huge canopied bed, her golden hair a riot of silk over her shoulders and her exquisitely shaped back bare to the waist.
Leaving the coffee on a bedside cabinet, Rodrigo simply stood at the side of the bed to gaze at her. Just the sight of her made the blood pound hard in his veins. And last night…last night he had been so close to confessing that he loved and adored her. What had held him back? She was carrying his baby, for goodness’ sake!
The thought was like a small explosion inside him. Prevalent in his emotions was pride, possessiveness and joy…ecstasy, even. It hardly made sense that he couldn’t voice his feelings to Jenny. But unfortunately, given his past, it did make sense.
Even now Rodrigo sensed his father’s austere ghost looming over him—his disapproving gaze and the countless warnings he’d drummed into him about the dangers of losing his focus making him shudder. Then he thought about how his dedication to the business and his long hours away from home had doubtless contributed the unhappiness he’d seen in Jenny when they were together. Could he risk hurting her a second time? He was crazy about her. It would hurt so much more this time if things between them didn’t work out…all the more because they would have a child together.
In the bed, Jenny drew her knees up under the covers, rolling over onto her side, facing Rodrigo. Her dazzling eyes opened like precious sapphires winking back at him. His blood heated as if molten honey were being siphoned through his veins.
‘Buenos días, beautiful…I’ve brought you some coffee.’
Grabbing the silk counterpane in front of her as she sat up against her pillow, she made a face. ‘Not coffee. I can’t stomach it at the moment, I’m afraid. But you go ahead.’
‘This is because you are pregnant?’ Again the immense enormity of the situation facing him hit Rodrigo.
‘Yes. I haven’t visited my doctor yet to confirm it, but when I return to the UK I will.’
‘There’s no need to wait until you return to the UK to do that. I can arrange an appointment for you to see a top obstetrician at any time, Jenny. In fact I’ll get onto it as soon as we’ve had breakfast.’
‘But don’t get an appointment for today, will you?’
‘Why not?’ Rodrigo frowned. Was she hiding the fact that something might be wrong?
‘Because you promised we’d visit the cathedral together today, remember? When I was here last I visited it on my own, but it wasn’t the same without you.’
Her sweet dimpled smile eased his fears, and he climbed across the bed so he could join her. ‘Then a promise is a promise, is it not? So we’ll get ready soon and go to the cathedral. The earlier the better, as the lines of tourists form quickly. And afterwards we’ll have lunch at a great restaurant I know that does fine dining.’
‘We could have cheese sandwiches and a bottle of squash in the park…I really wouldn’t care, Rodrigo. You don’t have to impress me with fine dining.’
‘I’ve never met another woman who was so easily satisfied.’
‘Did I say anything about being easily satisfied, Señor Martinez?’
Rodrigo’s stomach muscles clenched hard as iron when Jenny tugged at the drawstring on his pyjamas and then, with a warm, seductive glint in her summer-blue eyes, deliberately loosened them.
‘So, you want me to show you how good I am in bed, Jenny Wren?’
She met his lowering mouth with a hungry little groan. ‘Yes, please!’
Chapter Twelve
IT WAS like a fairytale castle, and quite wonderful to have the chance to see it again—even more so because Rodrigo accompanied her.
As she leaned on the walking stick he’d provided Jenny gazed up at the collection of imbedded seashells in the cathedral walls, squinting in the warm early-morning sunshine to marvel at the tapering spires and curved walls, as well as the astonishing un-cathedral-like mounds of fruit that looked as if they were fashioned out of wax.
Gaudi had been a lover of nature, Rodrigo explained to her—he’d wanted to incorporate as much of nature as he could into his cathedral. Everywhere Jenny glanced was a quirky little gem, like a waterspout comi
ng out of the mouth of a salamander or frog, and delight and awe were prevalent as she looked avidly around her. Inside, the cavernous interior was like a huge carcass that had been abandoned. But as they gazed from the walkway down at the tall cranes that were still very much part of the construction they saw that work on the Cathedral was still undoubtedly in progress. Even though the building would not be finished until around 2030 Jenny could easily imagine it filled with tall flickering pillar candles and a stunning altarpiece that the great and the good could marvel at and pay their respects.
Beside her on the walkway, Rodrigo stayed protectively close. A warm little buzz of pleasure assailed her every time she realised it. He might have experienced the cathedral many times before, but he clearly didn’t take its beauty and magnificence for granted, and Jenny was certain she spent just as much time stealing furtive glances at his wonderful strong-boned profile as she did examining the stunning construction.
Leaning towards her, he whispered, ‘I think it’s time you took the weight off that ankle for a while. Come…we’ll go back down and find a seat somewhere.’
* * *
Eschewing Jenny’s idea of a simple picnic in the park, Rodrigo took her to a fabulous restaurant for lunch, which had a fleet of gleaming and expensive cars parked outside. It seemed he knew the manager well, because he was enthusiastically greeted like a longlost friend and attention was danced upon him from the moment he and Jenny walked through the door.
Awed by the elaborate crystal chandelier twinkling above them, and the generous-sized table laid immaculately with sparkling silver cutlery overlooking a stunning white terrace, Jenny glanced down at her simple white short-sleeved blouse and auberginecoloured skirt, praying she wasn’t underdressed.
If Rodrigo’s teasing sensual smile was anything to go by, she needn’t have worried. Every glance he sent her way touched her like an intimate caress—as if to remind her of the passionate loving they had shared and would share again. And, although there were several amazing-looking women close by, having lunch with their partners or friends, it seemed he had eyes only for Jenny.
