by Abby Green
Rafael inclined his head, barely leashed patience reaching out to envelop her. He drawled, ‘It’s not a riddle, Isobel.’
Isobel stalled again, knowing in every fibre of her body that she’d pushed him too far tonight and this was the consequence of her actions. She knew she couldn’t leave now. To do so would cause irreparable damage. There was a delicate thread of trust here, and it wouldn’t take much to break it. Even so, she asked huskily, unaware of the vulnerable quality in her voice, ‘You want to make love here?’
Rafael was clearly not going to indulge her for long. He bit out, ‘Believe me, Isobel, either you take your clothes off now, or I’ll take them off for you—and I can’t guarantee that they’ll survive without being ripped again.’
Amidst the stomach-churning nerves and humiliation, Isobel felt a violent frisson of thrill and need rush through her. She concentrated on that, clinging to it like an anchor in the midst of a storm of self-recrimination at how utterly exposed she’d let herself become.
Rafael sat back like an ancient king, surveying his concubine, lean and powerful in the chair. With heat flaring in her belly, Isobel reached for the zip at the side of her dress, under her arm. Finding it, she started to pull it down, her fingers grazing her too sensitive skin, making goosebumps pop up.
All of a sudden she couldn’t bear his cool regard and turned around. For a second tears pricked her eyes. She’d never in a million years imagined her first time would be like this—but then everything she’d expected and wanted had morphed out of all existence since she’d met this man.
The zip on her dress gave way with a sound that was unbearably loud in the quiet room, with only the dying crackles of the embers of the fire. With a deep breath Isobel let the dress fall to her waist, baring her back to Rafael.
Taking another deep breath, the tears prickling ominously and making her throat clog, Isobel pulled at the dress until it gave way, and let it drop to the floor at her bare feet. Closing her eyes for a long moment, feeling completely naked in just a slight pair of panties, she crossed her arms over her breasts and turned around.
Rafael was like a stone statue. Not moving a muscle. Just his eyes moved, all the way up from her feet…
Isobel’s skin prickled as she stood there.
‘Take your arms down. I want to see all of you.’
Biting her lip so hard that she tasted blood, Isobel finally let her arms drop, clenching her hands into fists. She had to consciously block out the poisonous thought that he would be comparing her to his more voluptuous ex-fiancée.
Where Rafael’s gaze rested on her breasts, which felt inadequately small, she felt as though he’d touched her with a physical caress. The tips grew tight and she could feel them puckering, growing hard, aching for his touch, for his mouth. She wanted him so badly it was a physical pain, but he was intent on humiliating her.
Suddenly she knew she couldn’t do this. Not standing before him like this, like some slave girl being bought. And not with the vivid memory of his stunning ex-fiancée so recent. Knowing that he’d loved her so passionately. With a strangled cry Isobel covered her breasts and said brokenly, ‘I can’t do this…like this. I’m sorry, Rafael.’
She turned around again, dropped her head. Tears were burning her eyes in earnest now.
Suddenly she felt movement behind her. Rafael had taken her arm to pull her back to face him. She felt a finger come to her chin, forcing her head up, and Rafael’s voice was unbearably harsh. ‘Isobel, I swear to God, you go too far this time—’
Then he stopped, and Isobel realised that he must have seen a tear escape.
‘Open your eyes,’ he said.
She shook her head, bit her lip again. And then Rafael undid her completely by cupping her jaw with his hands and smoothing his thumbs across her cheeks, wiping away the tears. She opened her eyes and looked up through a blur, arms still tight around her chest.
‘I’ve never done this before, Rafael…I’m sorry that I can’t be more sophisticated, but I…’ a shuddering sigh came out ‘…I don’t know how to seduce you.’
Rafael went very still. ‘What are you saying?’
Her tears were clearing. She could see his face now, that beautiful sensual mouth. Heat was building again. His body was so close to hers.
‘I’ve never slept with anyone.’
Rafael frowned, and then he uttered something that sounded like a curse. He must have seen something on her face because he suddenly said, ‘No, not you. I’m not angry with you. I thought…I suspected you might be innocent…but then when you said you’d had lovers…’
Isobel shook her head. ‘I was angry. I didn’t want you to know I was a virgin.’
Rafael snaked a hand around the back of her head, cradling it, and drew her in closer to his body. ‘You’re not saying you don’t want to do this?’
Isobel shook her head again. ‘I do…but not when you’re being so cold.’
His eyes burnt her. He looked very serious all of a sudden, and Isobel’s heart stuttered.
‘Forgive me, Isobel.’ He grimaced, his voice gruff. ‘I was angry, and I want you so much…I didn’t stop to think. Perhaps we could find somewhere a little more comfortable for your first time.’
Isobel’s heart felt as if it was falling into a deep dark pit with no bottom. No going back now. ‘Okay.’
With a smooth move Rafael wrapped his tuxedo jacket around her and lifted her into his arms. Within what felt like seconds, Rafael had ascended the stairs and they were back in his bedroom, with the door firmly shut.
She felt as if she’d been surrounding herself with walls and now they were all tumbling down. For a long moment Rafael looked at her, still holding her in his arms. His hand rested just below the curve of Isobel’s bared breast. It hurt to breathe.
And then, as if loath even to let her down, he lowered his head and his mouth touched hers. His arms tightened around her. Isobel’s arms came around his neck and she sank into the kiss, flames of passion escalating as the kiss grew hotter and heavier in seconds.
She shifted in his arms. Rafael’s mouth moved over hers hungrily, and then he pulled away, so that he could press kisses along her jaw and, when her head fell back, down the delicate line of her neck. He pressed a kiss to the upper slopes of her breasts, and Isobel squirmed in his arms when a shaft of hot arousal went straight through her.
Slowly Rafael lowered Isobel down until she was standing. Her hands were still around his neck and she took them down hurriedly, embarrassed to be clinging to him like some kind of limpet. Her whole body felt like a fizzing ball of sensation and frustrated energy, and she watched impatiently as Rafael drew off his bow tie and started to open his shirt. He took a step forward as he undid his shirt and Isobel walked back, his jacket falling from her shoulders. They moved like that all the way till the back of her knees hit his bed.
She sank down with a whoosh. Rafael tore off his shirt and her eyes went wide at the sight of his perfectly muscled torso, covered in a smattering of dark hair. Ridges of muscle led down to his lean waist, along with a line of hair which disappeared beneath where Rafael’s hands were undoing his belt buckle.
Isobel swallowed and looked up again, her eyes caught by Rafael’s. She heard the whisper of his zip being drawn down, his trousers dropping, and then, his eyes never leaving hers, he came and nudged her back onto the bed, coming to lean over her.
Rafael rested on his hands over her. He looked down her body and his gaze stopped on her uptilted breasts, their tips tingling. He brought up a hand and lightly brushed the back of his hand over one tight nipple, making Isobel bite her bottom lip to keep a mewl of exquisite agony from erupting.
Rafael looked at her again and said roughly, ‘Do you know how long I’ve dreamt of this?’
She shook her head dumbly.
‘Too long.’
And with that his mouth covered hers again, and Isobel was lost, drowning in a sea of more pleasure than she could ever have imagined existed. All f
ears and concerns of inadequacy were lost and forgotten. Isobel had no cognisance of anything other than trying to keep breathing.
Especially when Rafael’s head moved down her body, and when his mouth hovered for a tantalising moment over her breast before his tongue teased and licked her nipple. Nearly crying with frustration, her back arching in silent demand, Isobel couldn’t help crying out when he finally sucked that tight peak into his mouth, her hands fisted in his hair.
Somehow Isobel realised that he’d manoeuvred them so that she was no longer hanging off the bed but on it properly. She felt his big body come between her legs, and that secret juncture spasmed in response. He pulled back and looked down, eyes glittering fiercely as he pulled her panties down and off her legs completely, dropping them somewhere out of sight.
She was utterly naked, but a quick look told her that Rafael still had his briefs on. Too overwhelmed to say anything she sank her head back and watched as he seemed to retreat, his hands moving down the sides of her body, following the line of her hips and thighs, before ascending again.
‘Rafael…what are you…?’ Her voice dried up when she felt him push her legs farther apart. He bent and pressed kisses against her belly and down farther. She tensed and could feel a light sweat break through her skin.
His hands came under her to cup her buttocks, and then she could feel his breath feather between her legs—Her head came up and she saw Rafael’s face, flushed in the dim light.
‘Relax, querida…you’ll like it. I promise.’
Like what? And then Isobel’s world stopped turning completely as Rafael’s head bent and she felt his mouth and tongue on that wet and secret part of her. Her hands gripped the sheet. Her back arched.
‘Raf…’ his tongue speared her intimately ‘…ael…’ She let out a gasp.
He was ruthless, remorseless, wringing a response out of her that she hadn’t even known she had. His mouth was wicked, pushing her further and further from herself and everything she knew. She tried to hold on but in the end…couldn’t. She felt herself arching almost off the bed, tensing all over, and then, after a stunning plateau of exquisite pleasure, she fell throbbing, down into Rafael’s arms.
The earth was spinning. Isobel was dazed. She was vaguely aware of Rafael tugging his briefs off and then he was back, arms around her, looking down into her flushed face.
‘Are you okay?’ He smoothed a hand across one cheek and all Isobel could do was nod, even as her body clenched minutely. She could feel his hard erection against her thigh and instinctively reached a hand down to touch him.
Something inside her exulted when she wrapped her fingers around his turgid length, even as her mind balked a little at the blatantly masculine evidence of his size.
He hissed on an indrawn breath and he brought his hand down to cover hers, taking it away gently. ‘We’ll have plenty of time to explore at a more leisurely pace, querida…but right now I cannot wait.’
Instinctively, as Rafael moved over her, Isobel opened her legs. She felt him push against her, where a curiously unsatisfied ache was building. She shifted restlessly, and then Rafael was sliding into her, so slowly and carefully that she could see beads of sweat on his brow.
Isobel moved to meet him, but Rafael drew back and growled. ‘No. This is going to hurt a little. Let me dictate the pace…’ He kissed her on the lips, still holding back, and said with a tortured-sounding laugh, ‘Even now you have to meet me full-on…’
‘Rafael,’ Isobel groaned, feeling that elusive peak beckoning again. ‘Please. I’m fine.’
With his next move he thrust into her fully, and Isobel gasped when she could feel every hard inch of him embedded inside her. Her mouth made an O as she looked up, but with a slight movement of her hips she told Rafael she was fine.
Ever so slowly he withdrew, before thrusting in again, and that elusive peak came closer and closer to Isobel, teasing her with every thrust that Rafael made, faster now. She wrapped a leg around his back and groaned as she felt him slide even deeper within her.
As if he couldn’t help himself his movements became more urgent. He thrust harder, deeper. Isobel’s arms were wrapped around him, her chest arched up into his. She could feel her nipples scrape along the tautly muscled wall of his chest.
Their breaths grew ragged, hearts nearly bursting out of their chests, and whatever Isobel had experienced before was eclipsed by a blinding flash of sensation so acutely pleasurable that she tensed all over. Rafael drove in and out, and Isobel was unbearably sensitised for a moment, before she came crashing down again. She could feel the ripples of her orgasm clenching and unclenching around Rafael as he, too, tensed for a long, tortured moment until she felt his warm release deep inside her.
Shattered, all Isobel could do was lie there, with Rafael’s deliciously heavy weight pinning her to the bed. After a couple of minutes she became aware of sweat-slicked skin, a musky smell, and damp hair clinging to her neck. A chill on her skin made her shiver slightly and Rafael moved, rolling off her, taking her with him, so that she lay sprawled over his chest, her body seemingly welded to his much harder one.
She felt a deep chuckle move his chest, and lifted her heavy head to look at him suspiciously. He just arched a brow, which spoke a multitude, and she ducked her head again, her face flaming.
This time when he moved he lifted the covers and rolled them both underneath, tucking Isobel close to his side. Rafael felt as though every one of his inner cells had shifted and regrouped into a new formation. Isobel was close against him, every inch of her lithe, graceful body touching his, and just thinking of that was making him harden all over again. He stifled a groan.
He felt her lift her head and ask, in a small, hesitant voice which sounded endearingly unlike her, ‘Is it…always like that?’
Sheer masculine pride puffed up Rafael’s chest, and a deep thrill ran through him to know that he’d been her first lover. He turned his head and pressed a kiss to where short tendrils of silky hair still clung damply to her forehead. ‘For us…yes.’
He thought he felt her lips smile against his shoulder, but almost instantaneously he felt her body grow heavy and slack and her breathing grow deep and even.
He couldn’t sleep. He felt as though his arms would have to be unwelded from where they held Isobel tight against him. He’d never felt like this before after making love with a woman. A face popped into his head and he all but sneered at the implication. Certainly never with her.
He shifted slightly so he could look down. All he could see was the smooth curve of Isobel’s cheek and those plumped, swollen lips. Her cheeks were still flushed. A dart of recrimination struck him; he’d never meant to rip her dress like that in the hotel, but something in her wide eyes as she’d looked at him with such innocent provocation had said, Look, don’t touch. And it had driven him over the edge of his endurance.
It was why he’d been so boorish earlier. He’d all but forgotten that he’d ever suspected her of being a virgin, too caught up in believing that she was experienced, teasing him, stringing him along, pushing him to his limits. When she’d covered her breasts with her arms downstairs he’d missed the tellingly vulnerable move, certain she was doing it again, and then he’d seen her tears…He could still feel the pain that had ripped through his chest.
His head fell back. All along she’d been innocent. And now she was tamed. His spitting hissing kitten with sharp claws was tamed at last. Rafael finally fell into a deep sleep with a smile on his face.
Isobel woke with a start, to find herself in an unfamiliar bed, with strange sensations running through a curiously aching body…and another very warm body stretched out beside her. With a split-second rush of memory it all came back, and heat spread outwards from her belly to envelop every part of her.
She groaned softly. Thankfully Rafael wasn’t holding her any more. She looked at him suspiciously, and couldn’t help the kick of her heart at seeing him looking so arrogantly satisfied and relaxed, big limbs spraw
led in abandon. The sheet was doing little to mask the evidence of his impressive manhood.
She blushed to remember how she’d encircled him with her hand, and how it had felt to have him thrust into her that first time. In a panic, she scrambled off the bed and stood, breathing heavily, sure he’d wake. But he didn’t, although he shifted slightly.
Isobel couldn’t believe it. It was as if all her precious intentions and resolutions to do all she could to make this man divorce her had taken a hike last night. She touched her mouth. It felt sensitive and swollen. She cringed now when she thought of how she’d clung to Rafael so desperately afterwards. It must have been like extricating himself from an octopus. And when she’d asked Is it always like that? Isobel cringed—he’d turned her brain to complete simpering bimbo mush.
Not even bothering to look for her underwear, she stole out of Rafael’s bedroom and back to her own, certain that he wouldn’t welcome waking with his wife wrapped around him like a vine.
Isobel could only have been asleep for about ten minutes when she woke again with a start, to see Rafael standing by her bed, naked as the day he was born. Heat drenched her in seconds and she gripped her sheet. ‘What is it?’
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’
A little of Isobel’s fire came back even as she tried to ignore that gorgeous naked body. She felt a rush of liquid heat between her legs. ‘I’m sleeping. What does it look like?’
‘What are you doing in here? The last thing I remember is you in my bed, where you belong.’
His easy dominance made Isobel spit, her recent feelings of vulnerability still far too vivid. ‘I wanted to come back to my own bed. I wanted some space.’
Rafael reached down and plucked the cover from Isobel’s nerveless fingers, twitched it back to the end of the bed.
She gasped and scrambled for it. ‘How dare—?’
But her words were cut off when Rafael all too easily picked her up in his arms. Isobel fought furiously. All the while her body seemed to simultaneously melt and go up in flames. She’d slipped on loose silk pyjama bottoms and a camisole top to sleep in, and they felt paltry now, when Rafael’s hot skin was burning through to hers.
