He slipped his hand between her thighs and stroked her softly, then he inserted his fingers underneath the damp underwear so that he could play with her.
The casual intimacy shocked her and her breathing was fast and hard as she stilled his hand.
‘What is it?’ Rafael drew back to stare at her, his expression only just discernible in the shadows. ‘I know this is maybe a little unexpected for the both of us...something we hadn’t catered for...’
‘That’s not it,’ she whispered.
‘Then what is?’ His voice gentled but there was bemusement there as well. ‘Talk to me, Sofia. Tell me.’
She gently touched his arm he cupped her face in one hand, looking right back at her with a deep, unwavering look.
‘One minute you’re hot and ready for me, and the next minute you’re playing the shrinking virgin and pushing me away. What’s that about? You don’t play games...but is that what you’re doing now, cara?’
He sounded genuinely bewildered and the reaction was so much the reaction of a decent guy that she felt something melt inside her.
‘No games. But the shrinking virgin?’ She breathed in deeply and went for it in a rush. ‘What if I were to tell you that you’re spot-on with that?’
‘I’m not following you.’ He drew back, frowning, and she could see that he was trying to join the dots and not getting there, because he just couldn’t comprehend that a woman in her mid-twenties could still be a virgin.
In his world, racy models probably lost their virginity before their teens were up.
‘I haven’t...done this before, Rafael.’
‘You...you must have.’
‘Because I look the way I do? Do you judge all women by the way they look?’
Rafael flushed darkly but remained silent.
‘You’re a contradiction,’ he mused slowly. ‘I sensed that from the very first. You’re fiery and outspoken but there’s something strangely tentative about you. How? How is it that you never slept with a man?’
Sofia shrugged. She suddenly felt vulnerable, on the verge of giving something of herself away, yet he was only asking her a question and expressing very understandable curiosity.
‘You said that everyone has a learning curve,’ she reminded him. ‘I lost my heart when I was young to a good-looking guy. Turned out he and his mates had made a bet—to see whether he could get me into bed, because they all thought I was frigid.’ She laughed mirthlessly. ‘I guess I became vigilant when it came to the opposite sex, careful not to let anyone in, because the last thing I needed was to get hurt all over again. Time moved on... We kept changing post codes because my mother was all over the place when it came to guys, so the opportunity never arose...and there you have it.’
‘Parents have a lot to answer for,’ Rafael thought aloud, his tone so low and sincere that she stopped worrying about closely held confidences.
‘I just wanted you to know,’ she said helplessly.
‘And now I do.’
CHAPTER SEVEN
A VIRGIN. IT beggared belief that the sexiest woman he had ever laid eyes on was a virgin. And yet, thinking about it, it certainly explained all those intangible contradictions he had subliminally observed in her.
He stared at her and the glass-green eyes staring back at him conveyed a mixture of challenge and hesitation that cut right to the core of him. He had never slept with a virgin and had never actually thought about what it might be like to sleep with one. Some men fantasised about that kind of thing. He wasn’t one of them. He had lost his own virginity at a young age to an experienced older woman and he’d never looked back.
But now...
Something weirdly gentle and protective twisted inside him, a softness that he couldn’t remember having experienced before.
‘I would understand if you decided that a virgin wasn’t what you had banked on.’
‘Don’t say that, cara.’ He stroked her face, touching her as gently as someone would touch a piece of priceless china. So tough, so strong and yet so damned fragile. ‘Sofia, I should be the one asking you whether you want to go ahead with this. I’m not Mr Right. I don’t do love. I...’ Rafael hesitated. ‘I’ve seen where love goes and it’s...what can I say?...never to a good place. David is a case in point. Two ridiculous marriages to women who bled him dry...and of course his relationship with your mother that came to nothing.’
Not to mention his own parents, Sofia thought, sinking into the tenderness that had sprung up between them, of which he was probably unaware. Tenderness wouldn’t be an emotion factored into his psyche and he was oh, so entrenched in the notion that he could control every aspect of his life, including every single emotion. He’d said that parents had a lot to answer for and she knew, whether he was capable of voicing it himself or not, that he had lived through the dark side of love, the all-consuming love of two people who had had no time for the son they had created because they’d been too selfish, too self-indulgent. All round, his experiences would have left a bitter taste in his mouth and soured his vision of what could be a wonderful thing.
Had he any idea how...human...those very things made him?
‘No,’ she whispered, pulling him towards her, breathing in the clean scent of whatever aftershave he was wearing. ‘You’re not Mr Right, but you’re the only guy I want just at this moment in time and I don’t want to look beyond that. I just want to...enjoy myself and go with the flow and not think about what’s right or what’s wrong...’
* * *
His nakedness stilled her. Undressed, he was everything she had imagined him to be and much, much more. She stared at his impressive size and wondered at the technicalities of what happened next.
But he knew she was a virgin and he hadn’t backed off. The very opposite.
‘Don’t be nervous,’ he soothed, settling next to her and flipping her so that they were stomach to stomach, looking at one another in the darkness of the bedroom. ‘I’ll be gentle. When it comes to sex, you’d be surprised. I can have a very slow hand. I’ll take care of you.’
Now, he guided her hand to touch him and continued talking to her in a low, seductive voice while he showed her how to excite him.
‘Not too fast and not too hard.’ He licked her ear and nuzzled against her neck while she squirmed wetly in the panties that had yet to be removed and banked down the urge to push him against her breasts, which ached. Would that be too forward?
He kept his hand over hers, moving it slowly, firmly, guiding her until she was losing herself in the sensation of feeling his arousal.
Then he deftly removed her panties, slipping them down and gently inserting his hand between her thighs.
He rested the palm of his hand over her and it felt so good that she parted her legs, encouraging him to do more, but he didn’t and that stoked the urgent excitement inside her until she wanted to scream with frustration.
She whimpered when he removed his hand so that he could explore the rest of her body.
He kissed her, a long, lingering kiss, tongues meshing, breathing into her mouth and filling her with suffocating longing. He nuzzled the side of her neck, sweeping her long hair back and sifting his fingers through its length. He took his time paying attention to her breasts, circling one swollen nipple with his mouth and suckling on it while he toyed with the other with his fingers, gently rubbing and rousing until the whimpers turned into moans of barely contained excitement.
She squirmed against his mouth and pressed his head so that the caress deepened, deepened until darts of erotic pleasure were shooting through her body, from her toes to the very tips of her fingers. He smoothed his hand over her flat belly, tracing each curve and indent, from the dip of her waist to the soft oval of her belly button. And then this time, when he felt the dampness between her legs, he didn’t just let the flat of his hand cup her. He deftly inserted his finger, instantly findi
ng her sensitive clitoris, and she gasped, eyes opening, as he began stroking.
It didn’t take long. She’d never come close to this level of sensation and she came fast, unable to contain the rising surge of pleasure as he continued to stroke, his movements firm and rhythmic.
She arched back with a low shuddering groan and her eyes fluttered shut as she reached her orgasm against his finger.
She subsided, pink-faced and dismayed.
‘I’m sorry.’
‘What for?’
‘Rafael...’
‘Shh...trust me.’ He caressed her lightly, taking his time, and his mouth replaced his fingers. He licked a trail along her breasts down to her belly button and then he took his time, teasing the soft inside of her thighs.
Having crested one explosive wave of sensation, Sofia didn’t think that it would be possible to do anything more than just flop like a rag doll in the aftermath, but she was wrong.
Her body slowly awakened. She moved against him, desperate to pleasure him the way he had pleasured her, shyly wondering whether she would be any good.
She was mystified as to how she could ever have relegated sex to the position of second-rate companion to the bigger thing called love. She’d imagined herself meeting the perfect guy, someone kind and gentle, and her imagination had stopped at the bedroom door.
Rafael wasn’t the perfect guy, and he didn’t even bother to try and pretend otherwise. He’d entered into a contract with her, and then it had been a case of, ‘oh, by the way, I fancy you so why not?’, but that was where personal involvement had ended, even though in some strange way she didn’t feel used. They talked. Was that it? They laughed together. Okay, so they might not have a romantic connection, and he might scoff at all talk of anything more than sex and lust, but they communicated. She wondered whether that was why she could give herself to him the way she was doing now.
He’d kicked that bedroom door open and was showing her just how inadequate all her fuzzy daydreams had been—showing her that there was no such thing as black and white when it came to the physical side of a relationship.
The reality of his strong, lean, naked body against hers was explosive. She wriggled as he nudged his sensuous path downwards and then breathed in sharply as his mouth pressed softly against her womanhood, nuzzling the downy fur between her legs, then inserting his tongue into the slick groove and licking her.
She couldn’t breathe.
Time stood still. Little shivers raced through her body, darting here, there and everywhere. She could feel pleasure building, and he could sense it as well, because he drew back, briefly enough for her to want just a little bit more.
The stop-start teasing was driving her crazy. He took her almost to the brink, only to bring her back down again, and in the end she was the one to tell him that she was ready.
‘I want you in me,’ she urged with wicked abandon, tugging him up by the hair and writhing as he wrapped his arm around her.
She had been apprehensive about the pain but she needn’t have worried. He’d promised to be gentle and he was. He fumbled over the condom, which made her smile, but when he settled back into her she was ready for him, slick and wet, and she felt just the smallest discomfort when he began to thrust more firmly into her.
‘Relax, cara,’ he urged. ‘I’m going as slowly as I can but it’s hard. You’re driving me crazy and all I want is to move inside you.’
‘I want that too, Rafael.’ It was a struggle to talk because after the discomfort her body began to respond in ways she couldn’t have predicted, soaring and swooping as, encouraged by her, he started thrusting with more force and purpose.
His bigness filled her up and carried her away until she lost touch with everything around her and the world was reduced to sensation.
She came with shuddering force, crying out, nails digging into his back, legs drawn up as he plunged deeply to find his own orgasm.
Sated, they remained locked together for a few minutes, then he rolled off her and stared up at the ceiling.
She wanted to talk. She felt an intense intimacy and she would have loved nothing more than to curl against him, have him stroke her and chat, laugh and cuddle.
It was a cool reminder of what this was all about when he slid off the bed and headed straight to the en suite bathroom, shutting the door behind him.
With the ardour fast draining out of her, Sofia remained where she was. She had just shared the most wonderful and earth-shattering experience of her entire life but had it been the same for him? Dared she hope?
She should protect herself—should remind herself that, for Rafael, this had been just a physical act. But she was weakly conscious of her thoughts and feelings all over the place, as though she’d been thrown into a tumble dryer and spun at high speed until nothing was quite where it should have been. She wondered whether he was disappointed with her performance and tried hard not to care, instead forcing her way through the drowsy contentment, trying to settle to reach a place where she could, at least, face him with a certain amount of self-control.
She sat up, drawing the duvet right up to her neck. With the bathroom light on behind him, he was a shadowy figure, hovering, and she watched him for a few moments, not quite knowing where they went from here.
‘Are you...finished in there? I thought I might have a shower.’
Rafael slowly towards her and then sat at the side of the bed, depressing it with his weight.
Her hands itched to reach out and touch him, pull him back to her, but her natural caution had kicked in and she looked at him warily, wondering what was going through his head.
‘That was—’ he began, and she interrupted before he could say something that would unintentionally hurt her.
‘I know. Probably not the best for you...’ She laughed nervously and his eyes narrowed.
‘I was going to say...that was incredible.’
Happiness bloomed inside her. ‘I got the impression that you couldn’t wait to hop out of bed.’
‘I wanted to take you again and I knew I couldn’t in case you were...sore. Or just needed some time out. It was safer for me to have a shower and get my act together.’
Sofia smiled shyly and touched his chest with her fingers, lightly circling his flat, brown nipple and enjoying the way his breathing thickened in response.
He caught her hand and then absently stroked her fingers with his thumb, eyes pinned to her face.
‘I could commute,’ he murmured thoughtfully.
‘Meaning?’
His voice was soft. ‘Meaning that I enjoyed that and I’d quite like to carry on enjoying it.’
‘That wasn’t part of the plan.’
‘Plans can change.’
‘You didn’t want complications.’
‘Does it have to be get complicated?’ He tilted his head to one side. ‘We both know what this situation is all about, and there’s a time line, which in all probability will be less than the allotted year. In the meantime...we’re married and all we’re doing is what all married people do.’ He looked at her, gaze serious. ‘We’re enjoying some hot sex before it all starts to unravel. The only difference is that we have the advantage of not being ambushed by disappointment when the inevitable happens.’
Faced with this stark choice, Sofia knew that she either indulged a sexual curiosity she’d never known she possessed, and for the foreseeable future sacrifice her principles about saving herself for the right guy to come along, or she walked away. But when she thought about walking away she was gripped with an emptiness so intense that she wanted to howl.
‘You’re right.’ She decided on the spot and met that serious gaze with equal gravity. ‘We both know the score. What’s to get complicated?’
* * *
Sofia approached the door to the opulent sitting room in her father’s house with her usual
trepidation.
Old habits died hard, and even though it had been several weeks since the wedding, and even though she had seen him several times since then, she was still to shed her stiffness when she was around him.
Rafael oiled the wheels by always being present, allowing her to watch and contribute when she wanted to from a safe distance, but this time there was no Rafael.
‘Running late,’ he had phoned to say just as she had been stepping out of the Mercedes that had delivered her to the house. ‘I’ll be there as soon as I can, but this meeting has overrun and I can’t walk out. I’m discovering all sorts of mess created by David’s damned stepson. Some through sheer incompetence, but some needs delving into because I’m getting a whiff of things not as they should be. No idea what exactly is being concealed but I intend to find out and take him to the cleaners.’
What could she say? She knew the boundaries to what they had and she wasn’t going to overstep them. They had great sex. They came together in bed and were the perfect fit. It was a situation that wasn’t going anywhere and she knew that. Rafael didn’t have to repeat the mantra about theirs being a marriage of convenience, with a time limit as to its duration. That was a given, and she accepted it because what she got in return was mind-blowing.
How could sex be so good?
And out of bed...
She was learning how to make her way around him, how to manage him. Never had she met someone so dominant, so hard-wired to get his own way. No wonder he hadn’t batted an eyelid when it had been a case of hunting her down in Argentina and checking her out. He adored his godfather and he had brought one hundred percent of his incredible focus to doing what he had been asked to do. That she might have been hurt had not really occurred to him. Collateral damage was just something that happened. He was complex, infuriating, yet wonderfully exhilarating all at the same time, and Sofia knew that she was getting more and more sucked into his powerful aura with each passing day.
She didn’t like to think about time slipping past. The fact that he wasn’t standing here right now, in front of the imposing front door to her father’s exquisite Belgravia house, was a reminder of how much she had come to depend on the support he gave her without even realising that she was doing so.
Shock Marriage for the Powerful Spaniard Page 11