Legacy

by Hannah Fielding

  I’ll wash and then I’ll wake him, she thought, her loins throbbing with anticipation, and she hurried to the bathroom to shower. She didn’t linger, as was her custom. Ten minutes later, scrubbed and scented, she came back into the bedroom with a towel wrapped around her middle; her eyes alight with a wicked glint.

  Luna lay down beside Ruy, her head propped on her elbow. She looked at him wonderingly, her eyes following the contours of his features, the sweep of his brows, his dark lashes, the strong, masculine jaw. Bending her head, she touched her lips to his mouth. He was warm with sleep and she inhaled his male fragrance. He moaned and she ran her fingers lightly over the silky dark down of his chest, feeling his muscles flex gently beneath her touch. Shivering, he moaned again. She liked it when he did that, so she lowered her mouth to his chest and closed it over his brown nipple, sucking it softly and then nibbling at it with her teeth. He gasped and opened sensuous, drowsy eyes; she saw his pupils enlarge and softly glaze over with a mixture of desire and pleasure.

  ‘Luna,’ he whispered, his voice thick, and then he closed his eyes again. No, Ruy was not asleep, no part of him was asleep; she could feel his heart beating under her palm as rapidly as hers, every part of him responding to the thrill she was creating. She smiled inwardly as she slipped her hand into the sleeping bag, looking for his arousal – she had never done this, never dreamt that she would do anything so daring. He was naked underneath the cover and she heard his loud intake of breath as she found him and cupped him tentatively.

  His hand joined hers, pulling it away.

  ‘Luna, you don’t need to do this,’ he said, his breathing fast and shallow.

  ‘Do you like it?’ she whispered huskily.

  ‘Do I like it? You don’t know what you’re doing to me.’

  ‘And you don’t know what it does to me to feel you like this. You’re so magnificent,’ she murmured as she revelled in the heat and strength of his arousal pulsing under her touch. She fondled him with one hand, her fingers lightly exploring and massaging, while the other unzipped the sleeping bag to uncover his manhood. An overflow of desire suffused her body as he lay in glorious nakedness in front of her, and she heard him groan and whisper her name as she dipped her head to take him between her lips. But before she reached him, he laced his fingers in her blonde mane and pulled her up gently, sweeping his arms around her and lifting her on top of him.

  Then his mouth was on hers, hot and demanding, his tongue exploring and tasting and stealing her breath away; a hungry mouth that took possession of hers with a wild, almost barbaric passion. His warm palms cupped her breasts, kneading them sensually in a circular fashion, making her whole body shiver and press into him instinctively, her softness moulding into his hardness. She moved sinuously on top of him, stroking him with her body, brushing against his arousal and fuelling her own need as she felt him throb underneath her.

  Her exuberant delight was a compelling aphrodisiac, urging him to push further into their lovemaking. His hands slid down to her bottom, caressing it, moving up and down her thighs. Totally attuned to his body language, she parted them and straddled him. She cried out his name as his burning need touched her sensitive pulsing core and the warmth flooded her loins. He made her lean backwards, arms straight, with her palms behind her, resting on his lower thighs, while he cupped her breasts that swelled and ached as his fingers stimulated the little pink peaks that visibly darkened with every tease. She arched her back, pushing against him, her aroused body completely exposed to him, uninhibited, as she cried out, urging him to please her more and more. One hand slid from her flushed breast down to her flat stomach, covering it and, raising his torso, he ran his hot lips over her quivering flesh, kissing and licking, her tormented moans urging him to provide her with ever greater enjoyment.

  ‘I want to feel you inside me,’ she sobbed. ‘I can’t take it any more. Please, Ruy, I want you, I want to be yours,’ she begged, her breath coming quickly as she writhed above him, luxuriating in the satiny feel of his hardness throbbing against her swollen damp core.

  Then with one swift movement, he flipped her over, pinning her down with the hard length of his body. ‘Dios, Luna, you have no idea what it was like to sleep near you all night and not be able to touch you,’ he muttered deep in his throat as he moved over her. ‘I’ve been thinking about nothing else,’ he whispered in her ear, his voice soft and seductive as velvet.

  His words triggered a rush of desire so fierce that she almost came. Luna’s breath caught audibly. She arched her back, pressing up against him, every part of her crying out to be possessed by him, but it seemed he was still obstinately holding back, struggling against a basic instinct. She couldn’t understand his hesitation.

  ‘Why,’ she asked breathlessly, ‘why are you still fighting me? Don’t you want me?’

  His hand came round her head to fist in her hair, stopping her words with his mouth and their gasps mingled in an urgent kiss. Breathing heavily, he rested his head against her forehead.

  ‘Of course I want you, querida. You can’t imagine how much I want you. I just need to know that you’re sure about this before it’s too late.’

  ‘I’ve never been more sure of anything. I want you now,’ she moaned impatiently, wanting to experience all that Ruy’s magnificent body promised, and her hand slid down between them in search of his hard strength, her whole body trembling as she did so. ‘Let me touch you, I …’

  The rest of her phrase disappeared into the burning inferno of his mouth as he claimed her lips, crushing them hungrily. He inhaled sharply, then gave a strangled cry of pleasure as her fingers found him.

  ‘Luna, you’re playing with fire.’

  He gripped her shoulders tightly and closed his eyes, relishing her touch, and she could tell how eager he was for her, how he was struggling to keep in check the surging of his body that was threatening to overwhelm him.

  ‘I don’t care. Tell me how much you want me.’ She fondled him with long strokes of her fingers, pushing mercilessly at his self-control, and he gave a deep growl in the back of his throat.

  ‘Let me show you, mi amor.’

  In one easy movement he rolled off her and suddenly she was in his arms again as he carried her swiftly to the bed. Her heart sang and she sank into the softness of the mattress, voluptuously enjoying the weight of him against her. She lifted her arms and clasped them around his neck as he took her parted lips into his mouth, his hands possessing her aching breasts with desperate passion. His kiss was wild and hungry, his tongue plundering and pushing forward, and she revelled in the erotic power of him deliberately using his male strength to subdue her, inexorably miming the act of love he had abstained from for so long.

  Then she gasped in disappointment as he wrenched his mouth from hers, panting, and she tried to pull his head towards her again.

  ‘Poco a poco me amor, poco a poco,’ he murmured tenderly against her mouth. ‘I want to savour every second. We’ve waited so long for this, querida.’

  ‘There’ll be no holding back?’ She looked deep into his fascinating eyes, which were so close to hers that she could discern the midnight-blue dots in the pale-blue sea of his irises.

  He smiled at her. ‘No holding back, I promise,’ he answered, stroking her hair before running the back of his hand down the side of her face.

  His fingers then reached down into her dampness. He fondled her with circular strokes, wickedly spreading the slick moisture of her swollen heat, applying more and more pressure as he did so. She parted her legs and placed him where she was crying out for him, and he moved, hot, hard and silky against her wetness with almost uncontrolled fever. She moaned with pleasure, completely melting under his delicious strokes, aware of the violent bloodbeat at the core of her, knowing that soon, very soon, it would explode into a thousand shattering rainbows.

  When he began kissing his way down between her breasts to her navel, Luna held her breath. His head settled between her thighs and as he parted the sli
ck petals of her secret flesh, and his warm mouth took into it the swollen, pulsing blossom of her passion, she sobbed, pleading for him to end her exquisite misery. She felt the strength of his own desire being held in check, and his powerful shoulders tensed for a moment before he slipped one finger inside her. She stilled and he stopped, then once more he kissed her rosy bud and as more heat flooded her, this time he slipped in two fingers. She moaned a low sort of whimper, and again he withdrew. A few seconds passed before he inserted three fingers, gently stroking and kissing her, whispering reassuring words, telling her how much he loved and needed her.

  Suddenly her flesh was generously opening for him, her body telling him how much she wanted him inside her. Then he was on top of her, positioning himself between her legs and stroking them slightly more apart. His arm tightened around her, bringing her body level with his and, tenderly, he took her lips with his own. As he pushed his tongue into her mouth, he gently eased himself inside her tight, moist, silken warmth in lingering degrees until he filled her.

  She emitted one sharp intake of breath and he paused.

  ‘Querida …’ he murmured hoarsely, ‘am I hurting you?’

  ‘No.’ She shook her head in surprise, then her body yielded and welcomed him with minimal resistance as slowly she began to move with him, digging her nails into his back as momentum built between them.

  He teased her, thrusting in and out, watching the pleasure-pain his potent hardness was building inside her painted ecstatically on her face. Fire roared through her veins. Her legs cinctured his waist, pulling him closer to her, drawing him deeper, further and faster, enveloping him in her honeyed warmth. She sensed his mounting need vibrating in her middle like waves of molten flames flooding her with heat and a building momentum of urgency.

  With a sense of exultation, their limbs entwined; they savoured each other with epicurean delight. They were in total harmony, in sensuous movements as old as time, dancing to the melody of their mindless passion, guiding each other towards fulfilment in the awareness that nothing would ever obliterate the memory of the first fusion of their love.

  Release came in a shattering storm as the earth and sky shuddered, and the flood bore them away. Wave upon wave of rapturous pleasure rippled over their convulsing bodies again and again until, finally, the world gently quietened around them and they lay panting and clinging to one another.

  Luna’s heart trembled. She could scarcely believe what had happened to her. Now she could admit it: every heartbeat, every breath, every thought proclaimed it; and she could finally say it out loud.

  ‘I love you, Ruy. I will always love you.’

  ‘And I, mi amor, mi tierno amor, will never let you go.’

  They slept and woke up, and made love again and again, mutual hunger for each other acting like a powerful aphrodisiac on their senses.

  It was late afternoon when Ruy finally left her. ‘I’ll be only a couple of hours, querida,’ he promised. ‘I need to get a change of clothes. I haven’t been home for almost two days.’

  ‘I’ll miss you,’ she murmured, putting her arms around his neck and he pulled her tight against him again.

  ‘I won’t be long. Tonight, I’ll take you to dinner at a small restaurant I know and then we’ll come back home and I’ll love you over and over until you’ve had enough of me.’

  ‘I’ll never have enough of you,’ she breathed, her amber eyes glowing like pools of fire.

  Ruy groaned deep in his throat. ‘Don’t look at me like that.’ His kiss parted her lips, which opened eagerly and hungrily to receive his tongue, and she closed her eyes. This time he explored and teased gently and tenderly, then slowly withdrew. She opened her eyes; his thumb caressed the side of her cheek.

  ‘Hasta luego, querida. The sooner I go, the sooner I’ll be back.’

  * * *

  From the outside, the restaurant Océano looked like an upturned boat with a transparent hull as a roof. The elegant domed dining room, equally adventurous in design and encircled by floor-toceiling windows, seemed to float like a bubble, flooded with the pinkish hue of the evening sun and the reflected lights of the harbour across the water.

  Luna had already travelled extensively for her age and had been wined and dined in some of the most expensive and elegant restaurants across the globe but this was a whole new experience. As with La Gaviota, she sensed the genius of a fanciful architect at work, the mischievousness of a whimsical mind.

  ‘It’s fabulous,’ she whispered, looking around her as they walked through the wide French-window-style front door.

  Ruy chuckled. ‘Wait till you see the rest.’

  The main floor had a spacious, pillar-free open layout that gave on to a central atrium. The lights were dim with a bluish cast to give the impression of being outdoors, while the views through the glass all around were breathtaking. Luna felt a little disappointed when the white-jacketed head waiter directed them to the centre of the room and down a modern spiral staircase to the lower-ground floor of the restaurant – she would have preferred to have this first tête-à-tête dinner with Ruy surrounded by the sea. But then, as the downstairs decor came into view, she gasped. It was a sensory explosion. This room was also dimly lit, though here the walls were alive with exotic fish of all types and colours, darting between the plants, swirling together and nosing the glass of the aquarium that encircled the room.

  Luna had the impression of truly being underwater. ‘It’s like stepping into a fishbowl.’

  ‘If you find this place claustrophobic and prefer to have dinner upstairs I’m sure it can be arranged,’ Ruy told her.

  ‘No, this is glorious and it’s surprisingly peaceful too. It’s the silence, I love it.’

  He slipped an arm about her waist and nuzzled her neck, drawing her close to him for a moment.

  They were shown to their table and given beautiful menus written in calligraphy and hand-painted with creatures of the sea. Fascinated by the living picture surrounding her, Luna watched the fish dine while Ruy studied the wine list. They ordered baby octopus in a saffron sauce as a starter and tuna Basquaise to follow.

  ‘This place is amazing. Each floor has its own charm. Who’s the architect? Is he contemporary?’

  At this Ruy smiled. ‘My grandfather, Eduardo de Salazar. More than thirty years ago he came up with the concept of this place before anyone had even thought of aquarium restaurants. Anyhow, it was too avant-garde for Spain at the time and was never constructed. My father finally had it built a couple of years ago.’

  Luna blinked, remembering something that Diego Montez had said to her. ‘I’ve just realized, my beach house is apparently inspired by your Eduardo de Salazar’s architecture. I knew the name rang a bell.’ She decided it best not to mention that the flirtatious estate agent had imparted the information.

  Ruy nodded. ‘I’m not surprised. I thought as much when I first saw La Gaviota.’

  ‘I love the house so much, you know. I’d really like to buy it.’

  ‘Once we’re married, perhaps we could have it as our special hideaway.’

  Stunned, Luna shot upright, scarcely able to believe her ears. She gave a gulp. ‘Are you asking me to marry you?’

  Watching her, Ruy’s eyes were as deep and blue as the evening sky; hers were bright when they met them.

  He slanted her a grin. ‘I’m not asking you, querida, I’m telling you.’

  She could hear her heart thudding at such a pace she thought it would break her ribs. Suddenly she couldn’t think straight. ‘I’m not sure I understand. Isn’t it a bit premature? How can you be so sure?’

  ‘Any two people who created the magic we made today must be compatible … and we’ve only just started.’ His eyes gleamed with mischief.

  Confused, she stared into his face, trying to read what was in his mind and then gave him a tremulous smile.

  ‘I hope you’re not basing your entire judgement on sex, Ruy. Life is long and I’m told passion ebbs away as the years go by.
’

  A familiar whisper of warning crept into her mind. She felt a wisp of the old Luna – the cautious, pragmatic Luna – surface, unable to get carried away entirely in the joyous tumult of emotion that Ruy’s proposal had unleashed.

  ‘No, no, no!’ Ruy shook his head violently. ‘We are made for each other, querida. I know it deep down in here.’ His eyes blazed as he made a fist and placed it on his heart as if he had to make her understand. ‘When you’re with me, Luna, I feel complete. As soon as we separate there’s a hollow in my gut. I know it’s a void only you can fill.’

  They were interrupted by the waiter bringing the first course, which he delivered with a flourish before gliding discreetly away.

  Luna gazed at Ruy, relishing the glorious sight of him and the love she could see shining in his eyes, yet still she hesitated.

  ‘But there’s so much we don’t know about each other,’ she breathed, panicked for a moment about the secret still unshared, the secret that might very well detonate like a hand grenade should she be unable to persuade Ruy of her earnest intention to put things right.

  He reached over and placed a finger on her lips, his eyes imploring her not to spoil the evening.

  ‘Shush, querida. Trust me, all will go well. You’re the one for me and I’m the one for you. That’s all there is to say.’

  The promise gleaming in his deep-blue irises and the ardent fire in his voice caused any doubts to flee in the face of a most wonderful liquid feeling of love and contentment. She smiled at him. Did she need to know anything more? Luna didn’t have to tell him her answer; she could see that he knew – he could read it in the glow of her cheeks. Tenderness swept over his face. He lifted her hand to his lips and closed his eyes.

  ‘Gracias, mi bello y tierno amor.’

  She gazed adoringly at him. ‘I can’t quite believe it,’ she whispered, looking around the other diners, wondering at how they hadn’t sensed the amazing and cataclysmic event that had just overturned the lives of herself and Ruy. She turned back to him. ‘Can we just keep it as our secret for a little longer?’