'Nothing—nothing at all. But unless you want to shock poor Ava completely—' his hands dropped to catch hers at his chest, and, entwining their fingers, he lowered her hands to her sides '—I think you'd better stop trying to rip my shirt off.' His dark head bent, and, his voice lowering to a husky drawl, he added, 'Not that I mind. I seem to remember denying you a siesta in Dubai; now seems a good time to correct the omission.'
She had forgotten all about the older woman. Penny glanced over her shoulder to see Ava standing by the table, her brown eyes wide and round and ever so slightly shocked. 'I think you're right.' She turned back to Raul, her lips twitching. 'We don't want to offend her sensibilities, and suddenly I feel incredibly tired.' She chuckled, inwardly relieved that it was only Ava's presence inhibiting Raul, and nothing more sinister.
Penny opened her eyes and yawned widely. The sun was setting, the last rays streaking the room with a warm rosy light. She turned on her side and smiled, a languorous sexy curl to her mouth as her gaze feasted on Raul lying flat on his back beside her. His chest rose and fell slowly in the steady rhythm of sleep.
With his eyes closed he looked younger and somehow vulnerable. The ridiculously long sweep of his dark lashes curved on his high cheekbones, almost feminine in their thick lusciousness. But it was certainly the only slightly feminine thing about him, Penny thought dreamily, and, raising up on one elbow, she studied his sprawling, nude body.
They had spent all afternoon in bed and had finally fallen into an exhausted sleep. Now just looking at Raul made her shiver with the rekindling of passion. She reached out a small hand and ran it lightly over his broad shoulder and across his massive chest, her fingers entwining in the surprisingly soft chest hair. She grazed a small male nipple and still her hand moved down.
It was incredibly sweet to have him at her mercy, to let her hand roam lower over the taut, flat stomach, to feel his hard, warm body, to linger over the muscles of his thighs. She lowered her head and kissed him softly, not wanting to wake him, simply to love him freely with her hands and mouth.
'Woman, behave.' Raul's hand grasped her wrist like a manacle and in seconds their positions were reversed. Penny was flat on her back and Raul was looking down into her startled eyes. 'You're insatiable,' he chuckled. ‘I never imagined when I first took you to bed what a sleeping tiger I was arousing.'
'Tigress, surely?' she husked, shivering in delight as his glittering dark eyes swept her naked body with a sensuous, knowing triumph. 'You're the only tiger around here, with your gold-flecked eyes,' she corrected him throatily.
'Grr...' Raul teased, and, bending, rubbed his unshaven jaw against her soft cheek. 'Only around you, Penny.' He lifted his head. 'You must know I adore you.'
She sighed as his hand trailed across her body to cup one full, round breast. 'And I you; all you have to do is touch me and you can have m-e-e-e.' She ended on a moan as he rolled one taut nipple between his thumb and finger, sending arrows of sensation through her ultrasensitive flesh.
'Much as I would like to take up your offer, I can't.' He brushed his mouth briefly over hers. 'I have work to do if I am to take you to London at the weekend.'
Penny beamed up at him. 'You mean that?'
'Yes. I promised and I am a man of my word.' He rolled over and got to his feet, and she stared at him, her breath catching in her throat.
At that moment she loved him more than life. Raul, her lover, was back. How could she have imagined for a second that she was bored? She would spend her life waiting for Raul if she had to, but she didn't need to. He was here and he was keeping his promise to take her to London. He did love her. Ava was right; it was only a matter of time before they married.
Her loving gaze roamed over him and a surprised gasp escaped her as he turned and smiled down at her, magnificent in his nudity. Contrary to what he had said, he could not hide his body's readiness to take up her offer.
'It isn't so shocking,' he said, his voice deep and tinged with laughter as he caught her wayward gaze. 'My body might be weak but my mind is strong, and I do have some calls to make.'
She lifted her eyes to his. 'I think you might have got that quote the wrong way around.' She let her glance slide back down the long, hard length of him. 'Weak is hardly an accurate description from where I am,' she joked.
'Tigress.' And lips twitching, Raul bent down and brushed a cheeky kiss across the twin peaks of her full breasts. 'Get up, get a shower and put something pretty on this sexy body that won't distract me. Then come downstairs, and after we have eaten we'll talk.' Swinging on his heel, he walked off.
Penny sighed happily and, turning on her stomach, savoured the lingering scent of Raul and love on the crumpled sheets. She heard him moving around, dressing, but was too sated and lazy to move.
For the next few days Penny thought that life was perfect... They shared breakfast in the secluded courtyard and then Raul locked himself in the study for the morning, but after lunch he was all hers.
They spent an afternoon in the marvellous old city of Granada in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. They strolled hand in hand around the Alhambra palace, built for the Moorish rulers hundreds of years earlier.
Penny gazed in awestruck wonder at the ostentatious luxury. The walls carved with swirls of ornate stucco, the tons of white marble and coloured glass, and the ceilings, hand-carved from cedarwood, designed to represent heaven, almost convinced her that she was already there!
Later, sharing a picnic, which had been lovingly supplied by Ava, in the gardens where the constant splash of running water and dripping fountains lent a pleasant coolness to the air, Penny smiled at Raul's reclining figure and was convinced. Heaven could not possibly be better...
Singing happily to herself, Penny descended the grand staircase. She had finished the packing, and at nine o'clock the next morning they would be on a flight out of Alicante, arriving in London Friday lunchtime. She had called Amy and arranged to call at the apartment on Sunday, to catch up on the news.
She was dressed in a simple green silk slip of a gown, tiny straps supporting the soft fabric that clung loosely to her lithe body, the hemline ending just above her knees to reveal her long, shapely legs. On her feet delicate wedge-heeled gold and green sandals glittered as she skipped lightly down the stairs.
She had left her blonde hair loose to curl enticingly over her shoulders and down her back because she knew that Raul preferred it that way. She was totally unaware of how stunning she looked. The glow of love had given her fine features an incandescent beauty, her softly swollen lips needed no lipstick, and her blue eyes sparkled with the inner radiance of a woman who knew she was loved.
'Penelope.' The voice was harsh.
Penny's foot hesitated on the bottom step of the stairs; her heart thumped in her breast. Raul was standing in the entrance, elegantly dressed in a dark business suit, the sun behind him outlining his huge frame in a halo of fire. For a second he looked like the devil incarnate. His business meeting must have finished early, she thought inconsequentially.
'Raul, you're back.' She moved towards him, a tentative smile pulling at her wide mouth.
'Too late, it would seem, to stop your idiocy,' he drawled scathingly.
'My idiocy?' She shook her head, her fair hair floating around her naked shoulders. What on earth was he talking about? Her eyes searched his rugged face and she shivered inside.
'Don't play the blue-eyed innocent with me, Penny. I'm too old to be fooled.' And the contempt in his voice flicked her like a whiplash.
'Please, Raul.' She lifted her hand to his chest but he swept her aside.
'In my study... now.'
She followed him. Noting the tension in his broad back, she chewed nervously at her bottom lip. Something had upset him, but what?
She had barely put a foot in the oak-panelled study before he turned on her, and, slamming the door behind her, he rested one hand on the hard wood and stared down into her confused face. But this was not the man who had l
eft her a handful of hours earlier. His dark eyes were as hard as jet, and as unyielding.
'What the hell have you been doing, woman?' he demanded icily.
'P-p-packing,' she stammered, totally intimidated by the cold rage in his dark eyes.
'Don't be facetious; it does not suit you.'
'I...' Trapped against the door, with his huge body towering over her, Penny touched the tip of her tongue to her dry lips. ‘I wasn't—'
'Who on earth gave you the right to insult my neighbours, to order a friend from my house in my absence?'
She felt the colour drain from her face. She stared at him helplessly. The shock of being confronted in such a way by the man she loved was totally numbing.
'How dared you do such a thing?' A cruel smile twisted across his face. 'On what authority?'
'On what authority'. The words echoed in her brain. They were lovers, partners—or so she had thought. Obviously Raul's idea of a partnership was not the same as hers.
Angry colour flooded Penny's cheeks. The nerve of the man, yelling at her as if she were no more than a servant in his home. Not even that—he was unfailingly polite to Ava and Carlos. What was the matter with her? She was letting Raul intimidate her yet again, as he had in the beginning when she had mentioned marriage, and again in Dubai, when he had packed her off to Spain. Was she a woman or a doormat? she asked herself.
Her spine stiffening, she looked straight into his dark, furious eyes. 'I was under the impression that we were partners, and in your absence I was to treat your house as my own,' she said, her voice coolly measured in sharp contrast to her rapidly beating heart. 'If I misunderstood you, I'm sorry.'
A dark flush covered his hard face and he had the grace to look ashamed at his outburst, but not for long... 'Yes, yes, but not to the extent of insulting my neighbours.' He stormed across the room and then swung back to face her, running his large hand through his dark hair in angry frustration. 'You will have to apologise to Dulcie, not me.'
'I presume you are referring to that hateful woman, Dulciana Maria Costas. She marched into the house and was unspeakably rude to poor Ava. I told her to leave, as any other right-minded person would have done, and if you think for a second I will apologise to the woman forget it.' Penny glared at him and folded her arms across her chest.
His mouth thinned to a hard line. 'Dulcie does not speak English. How do you know what was said?' he sneeringly demanded.
'Because my Spanish is good; I understood perfectly and acted accordingly.'
'Nonsense, Penny, you must have misunderstood. I have known Dulcie all my life. Unlike you, she would not deliberately insult anyone,' he said with cutting sarcasm.
'Obviously you have no such qualms,' she shot back, but his words bruised her heart. Nonsensical was she? Along with 'dumb' and 'idiocy' it all added up to a man who had no respect for her as a person. Suddenly with blinding clarity she recognised what she had become. From an intelligent, ambitious woman she had turned into a fool for love. She blinked rapidly to hold back the tears, not sure if they were tears of sorrow or pure rage.
She shook her head in disbelief, and stared at Raul as though she had never seen him before. 'How could you take the word of an old fiancée you have not seen for years against mine?'
'I see Ava has been gossiping.' One dark brow arched sardonically. 'I might have guessed. You saw Dulcie as a rival and were smitten by the green-eyed god. Really, Penny, how childish.'
He could not have said anything more likely to enrage her. Childish was she? And jealous, to boot! She had not known who the damn woman was in the first place.
'Rubbish! I didn't even know the woman was your ex-fiancée until later. You certainly never mentioned her,' she spat back, her body tense with outrage and a deepening hurt that she did her best to disguise.
'My past relationships are none of your business,' Raul informed her with icy precision. 'It is the present that concerns you, and in half an hour Senor Costas and his daughter will be arriving for dinner.'
Penny's mouth fell open in surprise and she spluttered, 'You invited...?' She could not go on, she was so furious, her body rigid with the effort to control her rage.
'Yes. And I expect you to apologise for your behaviour the other day, and, hopefully, we can enjoy a civilised meal.' She caught the implacable expression in his eyes, and her breath stopped in her throat as she realised what he had said.
Slowly she moved towards him, her cheeks scarlet, her anger so livid that she was shaking with it. She registered the arrogant stance of his tall body, the hands tucked easily into the pockets of his trousers.
Every inch the Spanish grandee, master in his own home, he exuded an aura of power and raw masculine sex appeal that could not be ignored. It was inherent in his every move and gesture. But for once Penny refused to succumb to his lethal appeal; instead she stopped a few inches in front of him and deliberately raised her gaze to his hard face, her blue eyes flashing with fury.
'Over—my—dead—body.' She dropped each word slowly into the tense silence. 'I would not apologise to that woman to save my life,' she added for good measure.
Raul shrugged. 'We will see about that.' And he smiled condescendingly. 'You're overwrought at the moment.' Taking his hand from his pocket, he casually ran one long finger down her burning cheek. 'I need to get changed. We will continue this discussion later.'
He tilted her chin up to study her flushed and furious face. 'And you'd better change into something more appropriate.' His narrowed gaze slid from her face to where the gentle curve of her full breasts was displayed by the scoop neck of her dress. 'Something that covers you slightly more than this.' His hand fell from her chin to the neckline of her dress.
'I will not do it,' she said tightly. 'I won't.' Her skin was on fire where he touched it, her heart racing with a mixture of anger and arousal.
'So the young tigress has decided to show her claws,' be drawled silkily, his finger dipping below the soft fabric to graze the dark rose areola of her breast. She shivered and Raul laughed, knowing just how he affected her.
'Don't even think about defying me, Penny, you can't win.' Pushing his hand back in his trouser pocket, he added, ‘I refuse to argue with you; we are simply wasting time.' Her refusal dismissed as lightly as he would swat a fly, he continued, 'Tell Ava there will be four for dinner.' And, brushing past her, he strode confidently out of the room.
She was left trembling and weak, watching his departing back. He thought that he had won, one touch and she melted. But not this time, Penny silently vowed. She had willingly compromised her own moral values to be with Raul, but she refused to swallow her pride and self-respect and apologise when she did not believe that she was in the wrong.
Penny stared at her reflection in the dressing-table mirror. Not bad, she told herself firmly. The redness around her eyes, from the tears she had shed in the shower, was virtually unnoticeable.
Thank God she still kept her clothes in the guest bedroom. The first night she had arrived in Spain, in the interests of propriety, Raul had shown her to this room. Not that she had ever slept in it, and Ava had soon been in no doubt of their relationship because there were too many mornings when, on serving coffee to the master, she had found them together.
Tonight Penny was grateful for the privacy. She heard the doorbell ring and slowly stood up. She smoothed the soft blue jersey silk down over her slender hips and smiled at her reflection. The dress was demure, a simple swath of fabric cut straight across her shoulders, with long, narrow sleeves to her wrists, the straight skirt falling to her feet with a small fan-pleat in the back to allow the wearer to walk easily.
She turned her back and looked over her shoulder and deliberately winked at herself. The back of the gown was virtually non-existent, swooping down in a soft curve to her bottom. She lifted a small hand to her head and curled a single tendril of blonde hair around her finger. She had piled her hair up in a soft chignon and allowed a few wispy curls to tease her
neck and the side of her cheeks.
On three-inch-heeled black strappy shoes she walked regally out of the room. Penny was heartily sick of being told what to do. No mini-skirts. Cover herself. Apologise. She would show Raul, she thought determinedly. She was not about to be intimidated by him or anyone else any more...
Dinner was a disaster!
Senor Costas was a small, dark, overweight lecher, Penny decided within minutes of meeting him.
Raul introduced them with, 'Dulcie you know, I believe, Penny, and this is her father, the Minister for the Environment, Senor Costas.' Urging Penny forward, he placed his hand on her back.
She held out her hand and the old man immediately lifted it to his mouth and plonked a wet kiss on it. His tongue touching her skin made her cringe. She tried to withdraw her hand but he held onto it far too long. She shot a sideways glance at Raul and then wished she hadn't; the fury in his narrowed eyes was directed all at her. He had noticed the plunging back of her dress and was not amused.
'You are a lucky man, Raul, to have such a beautiful young companion.' Senor Costas leered, and Penny felt the swift colour rise in her face. She turned to Raul, her blue eyes unconsciously pleading. He caught her glance and stroked his hand up her back in a consoling gesture, but his dark eyes remained coldly remote.
'I know, Miguel. Penny is—' But before be could finish Dulcie cut in.
'Really, Papa, it is bad manners to comment,' she simpered coyly, and, grabbing Raul's arm, urged him towards the dining room. 'Raul, darling, I'm starving, and I can't wait to taste dear Ava's food again.'
Penny had to stifle a gasp of outrage at the other woman's hypocrisy. Silently fuming at the way Dulcie was clinging to Raul, Penny reluctantly took Costas's offered arm and followed the other two.
Her blue eyes flashed with impotent fury as Raul walked to the head of the rectangular table, his dark head bent attentively to the other woman. And then he straightened up and laughed out loud. His dark eyes connected with Penny's for a second, a subtle warning in their depths, and she felt like hitting him.
Raul's Revenge Page 4