Sleeping Love

by Sara Curran-Ross

  ‘Who told them? Can’t they give her a chance?’

  Luc shook his head uttering some words of instruction to Alain.

  ‘Sabrina is the wife of one of the world’s wealthiest businessmen, who went missing and was presumed murdered by that man. They want to talk to her,’ Luc said with apprehension in his tone. ‘And you know they never give up.’

  Alain was agitated. ‘Raoul, I advise you to say nothing and that goes for you too, Sabrina, until your memory returns and we can strike a deal with these people. Be on your guard, they are vultures and some of them will twist what you say. You both don’t need it at the moment.’

  ‘What’s happening, Raoul?’ Sabrina was nervous.

  A feeling of dread gathered in Sabrina’s toes and travelled the length of her body. Alain moved to talk to the reporters along with Luc, making an effort to hold them back, but they were pushing past running headlong at Sabrina. She heard herself take a breath, suddenly feeling suffocated as they surrounded Raoul and herself.

  ‘Do not let go of my hand, Sabrina, there will probably be more of them outside.’

  Raoul’s eyes darkened as he looked at the reporters completing their circle of attack. There was a barrage of questions, some intimate, some general. She could feel anger burning Raoul up inside, but he kept calm, his voice cool, collected and aloof. She got the impression it was a well-practised art he had perfected.

  ‘My wife and I have nothing to say. We will be making a statement through our lawyer in due course. Now if you would move out of our way, my wife needs to rest.’

  The bright lights of the hospital were already enough to dazzle her eyes, but the constant flashing of cameras made Sabrina feel as if she was going blind. They seemed to be in her face, pushing and shoving. Raoul began to lead her out of the throng as the reporters closed in for the kill. He positioned his body directly in front of her own, shielding her from view. It was a task easily undertaken. His tall, powerful frame easily sheltered her small, curved body until she was almost invisible. But Alain was behind her, his body making momentary contact as he brushed against her in their effort to escape.

  She wanted to scream. Every time he came near she felt nausea, just the same as with Luc. She didn’t understand what Alain had done to make her feel that way. The memories she had in relation to her attack were of Luc. There was nothing connecting her memory to Alain.

  When they eventually reached the bottom of the stairs, there were even more reporters all eager to get the inside scoop on her loss of memory. Helped by hospital security, Raoul pushed through the thong with the speed of an express train, taking Sabrina with him at a pace she could hardly keep up with. But there were too many of them bringing the party to a halt.

  Sabrina became separated and was carried away by a sea of hands. She could hardly bear the suffocation, the bodies pressing against her. She was vaguely aware of Raoul calling her name, but his voice grew more and more distant as the reporter’s questions grew louder and more demanding, drowning him out. When she looked around she could not see him at all. With great effort she tried to push her way through the crowd, but they wouldn’t let her get anywhere, pulling at her clothes, demanding that she answer their questions and give them a picture.

  One of them shoved her hard, and she felt herself falling to the ground. Someone stepped on her arm. She felt dizzy with fear as faces loomed around her, looking down at her fragile form. She remembered a heavy darkness, the same feeling of suffocation. She’d been lying down then as well, unable to move, faces looking down at her in the darkness, faces she couldn’t see. And then she felt someone pulling on her arm, lifting her to her feet. She felt Raoul’s reassuring arms around her body, lifting her up into his arms.

  His face was as dark as thunder, his eyes flashing with the threat of swift retribution. She couldn’t shake the memory that filled her mind with its dark images and buried her head against Raoul’s shoulder. He was surrounded by a blanket of police and hospital security parting the waves of reporters and camera crews surrounding them. Raoul raced to the car and deposited her in it. To her relief Alain and Luc were nowhere to be seen. The car drove slowly until it escaped the squawking gaggle of reporters.

  ‘Sabrina, are you all right?’

  Raoul covered her trembling hand that lay on the seat. She could feel him frowning at the way she held her other arm so awkwardly.

  ‘I’m fine. Please, I’m fine there’s no need to worry.’

  She moved her hand away feeling embarrassed and worked up by the whole incident. He shouted some words of French at the driver, and the car began to move faster, springing free from its trap.

  She took a deep breath as though coming up for air, and looked away out of the window attempting to brave her fear and examine the memory that had so disturbed her.

  ‘Don’t lie to me, Sabrina you are injured,’ he said softly. He leaned over turning her to face him so that he could take a look at her arm.

  ‘What are you doing? I’m ok.’

  He ignored her, gently lifting her arm and probing it with his fingers. She squealed.

  ‘Hush, it’s not broken but probably badly bruised and sprained. We’ll get your brother Julian to take a look at it when we get back home. And you are going to get some food and rest when we get back.’

  He smoothed his hand over her face and brushed away her hair from her forehead.

  ‘You are exhausted, Sabrina. I’ve already got Alain making a complaint, and I want the person who has injured you held responsible. The Paparazzi are animals. They don’t care about anyone’s privacy. They will stop at nothing to get a photograph. They will pay for this.’

  Sabrina put her hand to her head.

  ‘You do not need to do that, I’m fine really. I just want this all to stop.’

  Raoul wiped a stray tear from her cheek with his thumb, his face filled with concern and silent guilt.

  ‘Give me time, Sabrina, I will make it go away. You just have to help me. Why were you so uneasy around Alain and Luc? Have you remembered something that you aren’t telling me? Or are afraid to tell me?’

  His voice was soft again, almost a caressing whisper blowing across her skin, cajoling her reluctance to let him take control and banish all her fears. It was tempting to cuddle close against him and give in, tell him everything. But her first thought was to protect him, to maintain an illusion. The thought of turning his life even more upside down and setting him apart from his brother was too much to bear. Besides, his mother could not take the stress of finding out that all she knew about one of her sons was a lie and he was guilty of committing a crime against his brother’s wife. She just couldn’t do it to Raoul or Louise, even if it meant being apart from him.

  She didn’t realise she was crying so hard until she noticed the car had stopped and he was pulling her into his arms. She basked in his warmth, the fresh smell of cedar wood and pine filling the air around her, a blanket of male security soothing her fear momentarily. She held on to his taut, firm frame frightened that if she didn’t, she would lose him, even though it seemed inevitable that would have to be the case. If she left, he would never know, would never find out the truth, and he could carry on. She held tighter.

  She didn’t want to go. She knew she loved him. She remembered every last detail of their love now. But she couldn’t afford to let him know how much she had missed him or the pain he caused her with Cressida and her games. How they talked about starting a family after a few years and her desire to change her career. Their lives had been perfect. A fairy-tale wedding and courtship followed by a blissful happy ever after until Cressida and the stalker.

  Then she remembered the rows and her fight to maintain her independence, despite his potent male need to protect and control her life until he was assured of her safety. She loved him, there was no doubt. He had succeeded in uncovering her sleeping memories. She was his and always would be, even when she left him.

  Chapter Twelve

  Raoul held her ha
nd in the car. He kept her warm in the helicopter as it sped over the French countryside covered in a soft downy blanket of snow. He didn’t question her further about Luc and Alain who sat in front of them. Back at the Chateau she retreated to their room before lunch.

  ‘I feel so rude, I haven’t seen anybody. You seem to be sheltering me from our guests.’

  She was frightened of her need for him. It was so strong now she remembered, and she would have a hard time trying to convince him otherwise. The sooner he got the message that she was never going to remember the easier it would be for him to let go, or so she thought.

  ‘They are here for support. It isn’t one of our normal weekends, and they are aware that you see them as strangers. They just want to make things easy for you, as I do. How’s that arm?’

  ‘It’s ok. Listen about before, I still think it would be best if I leave. I don’t seem to be remembering anything concrete,’ she said it nervously as his hands rested seductively on her hips.

  ‘Hush, I don’t want to hear any more talk of leaving.’

  He picked up her hand and brought her wrist to his lips and gently kissed it. She heard a breath escape her lips, awed that such a simple action could prove so potent a stimulation to the sexual act.

  ‘Raoul, please don’t do this.’

  Her words were breathless.

  ‘But you want me to. Your place is by my side as my wife, Sabrina.’

  As she backed away he swung an arm up under her legs and lifted her on to the bed and slipped off her boots. She was still protesting, but her eyes blazed with aching need, her body limp and pliable to his direction. He pulled off her sweater and rounded his hands tightly over her breasts as if each time they made love he’d been parted from them for too long. His touch ignited a fire deep inside that melted her body, the heat too fierce to resist. His hands blazed across her stomach and settled there, one hand resting as his thumb made a circling motion, his face thoughtful. He kissed it gently.

  ‘Would you like to have a child, Sabrina? We were planning a family before the rows, before you disappeared. We were going to wait a couple of years, but we were both so eager.’

  He kissed her throat.

  ‘Once this is all over and you are yourself again, I want us to have a child. I want all of you and all that you can give me.’

  He leaned over her, studying her face intently. She looked up at him. There wasn’t anything she wanted more than to carry his child, creating the ultimate bond that would never separate them again. But it could not happen, not now. He read the answer in her eyes but also saw her apprehension.

  He stroked his fingertips over the tender peak of her breast maintaining his pleasurable assault across her body, rendering it defenceless and obedient.

  ‘There has only ever been you, Sabrina. Cressida has never meant anything to me. I have never wanted or needed an affair with her. Do you believe me?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘I need your trust, Sabrina. Our marriage will survive, but it will be turbulent if you don’t. And that’s not the environment in which to bring up our child.’

  She wanted to cry. He wanted to give her everything she wanted and craved, everything that was missing from her empty life, yet she knew she couldn’t take it. But Raoul had a wonderful way of making it impossible to refuse. Maybe she could pretend that she never remembered everything about her attack. But Luc would always be there.

  What about his threat to tell Raoul about an affair they never had? And the way he stole money from Raoul’s company?

  For that moment, all she could think about was Raoul and his desire for them both to have a child. It was enough to make her forget, to find hope that the matter would resolve somehow without Raoul and Louise having to be hurt. If she was parted from him, she didn’t know if she could stand it. Deep down she knew it was useless. Somehow he would find out. She had to protect him, but just for this moment she could pretend.

  ‘I trust you.’

  It was a leap of faith, of remembering what they shared together before she was so brutally taken away from him. She felt a warm, moist, softness seep into the junction between her thighs anticipating his touch. He cupped the dark triangle tightly, pressing his palm hard against her until she cried out and her body lifted from the bed. He descended on her mouth with the force of a ravenous bird of prey. His hands swept round under her bottom and squeezed tight until her body rose from the bed again.

  He quickly finished undressing her, groaning with pleasure that he could freely hold the quivering snow-white mounds, massaging them back and forth whilst his lips stole another kiss. She moaned under the fierceness of his touch, dancing and coiling like a snake to the tune his hands played across her body.

  ‘Do you remember the time I came to your office to take you for lunch, but we spent the time in a hotel room?’

  Oh hell, yes, I remember. What a day. And you are wicked in reminding me. You know I will be helpless to your seduction. Damn it, I am putty in your hands and what is more than scary is that I want to be.

  ‘Yes, you confiscated my bra and panties. You threw them in the bin and forbid me to wear underwear again, that way, next time you came to my office you could just slip your hands up my skirt and touch me. It was your right as my husband to be able to take me whenever and however you liked,’ she whispered huskily. ‘Then two days later you came to my office to pick me up, hitched up my skirt and took me on top of my desk. Mmmm, yes I remember now.’

  ‘Good girl. Now you know I mean what I say. So don’t let me catch you with these things on again,’ he said tossing her underwear across the floor. ‘Or I will have to spank you,’ he grinned.

  Sabrina’s hands clutched around his back pulling him nearer. Inside the fire was burning out of control. She was screaming in her mind for his touch to soothe and embalm the painful throb between her thighs. He was more than aware of her ache and cruelly decided to prolong it by flicking his fingers over her hips, circling the silky skin, dipping across her thighs. His fingers edged closer and closer but not close enough until she cried out his name and begged him touch her.

  Sabrina unconsciously parted her thighs and raised her body invitingly to beckon him. He sank his fingers deep inside her making her buck as his thumb pressed and stroked her clitoris. He pushed his digits back and forth, enjoying the dip and swell of her hips and breasts, and teased her clit with a sharp pinch.

  The pleasure ended momentarily as he rose from the bed and undid the buttons on his jeans. He pulled off his black sweater treating her to another vision of well-toned muscle that awaited her caress. He wore no underwear and his shaft was hard and pulsing. He turned Sabrina over and pulled her back against his kneeling form. A gentle whisper in her ear told her not to be afraid. He wanted to take her this way to prevent her from feeling crushed and rousing the memory of her attack. Savagely, he kissed her neck and massaged the tiny bud between her thighs as she lay back against his chest.

  Sabrina writhed helplessly feeling her body pulse close to release. She gave a small whimper of aching need for him to be inside her body and felt relief when Raoul pressed his palm into her back to push her down onto all fours. With one deep thrust Raoul penetrated her. His lean body stretched out across her back as he curled his fingers through her hair in a possessive gesture, gently forcing her head upwards. His free hand rested on her hip to steady her as he rode them both to blissful satisfaction.

  * * *

  Sabrina lay content in Raoul’s arms. She snuggled up closer at the thought of having to leave the bed and him.

  ‘I don’t want to leave here. I want to stay in bed with you forever,’ she told him with seriousness, sliding her fingers over his smooth muscled chest.

  He caught her hand and brought it to his lips.

  ‘I would love to, Sabrina. There is nothing I want more than to be with you always.’

  He gave her a gentle loving smile.

  ‘I’ve really missed you, Sabrina. There were some ti
mes I lost hope and thought we would never be together again. They pressed me to declare you legally dead after five years because of your vote and rights in the management of the company. But I wouldn’t. I didn’t even want to consider the possibility that you were dead.’

  He tilted her chin that was resting against his chest.

  ‘Since you’ve come home, I can’t help feeling I’ve put you through hell. I thrust you back in a world that was strange and alien. I pushed you to remember everything including what happened to you. I am forcing you to re-live that nightmare, one you chose to forget to protect yourself. I wonder if it would have been better to let you go on living the new life you’d made for yourself. I’m sorry I’ve been so selfish, Sabrina.’

  She found herself caressing the firm line of his jaw, her fingertips brushing the tantalising roughness of the dark shadow that had not been groomed that morning. It was an erotic sensation that tingled against her palm. She considered what he said.