by Anne Mather
‘I mean, he’s very nice,’ went on Suzanne, apparently deciding that Ally needed some encouragement. ‘And I’m sure you’ll enjoy seeing more of the island. You’d be doing me a favour, as I say. I shouldn’t like to offend him.’
‘No.’ Ally’s tone was flat. After what Suzanne had told her two nights ago, she was hardly surprised. ‘I can understand that.’
‘I knew you would.’ Suzanne squeezed her arm. ‘Besides, look at it positively: some women would be flattered that a man as young and personable as Raul should take the trouble to entertain you. I mean, as far as he’s concerned, you’re just his girlfriend’s aunt.’
I’m not his girlfriend’s aunt, thought Ally desperately. And you don’t know the half of it! If you did, this is the last thing you’d suggest.
‘Well, what do you say?’
Suzanne was looking at her expectantly, and Ally didn’t see how she could refuse. Or that was her excuse, she realised despairingly. If she was really honest wouldn’t she simply admit that Suzanne had solved the problem? That she really wanted to go?
‘I—’ She glanced at her watch. It was already half-past eight. ‘I haven’t had breakfast yet.’
‘No problem.’ Suzanne put an arm about her waist and urged her across the lobby and into the Patio Restaurant. ‘I’ll have Martin serve you right away. What would you like? Eggs and bacon? Pancakes?’
‘Just toast,’ said Ally weakly, realising she had tacitly accepted Raul’s invitation. And, by so doing, once again he was getting his way. Dear God, was it only a week ago that the most troublesome problem on her schedule had been deciding what she was going to wear to travel in? Since then, her life had resembled a roller-coaster ride.
CHAPTER NINE
ALLY was struggling to swallow the last mouthful of toast and lime jelly when she saw Raul crossing the restaurant towards her. In a dark blue collarless body-fitting shirt and matching shorts, he looked relaxed and amazingly familiar, and Ally felt her taste glands dry up.
A surreptitious glance at her watch told her that it was barely nine o’clock, and she quickly swallowed the rest of her coffee to ease the remains of the toast down her throat.
‘Hi,’ he said, pulling out a chair from the table and swinging it round so that he could straddle it. ‘Are you ready?’
Aware that Raul’s arrival had attracted an embarrassing amount of attention, Ally looked impatiently about her. ‘As I’ll ever be, I suppose,’ she said ungraciously. ‘Tell me, do you often employ the services of a third party to arrange your dates for you?’
Raul’s lips twitched. ‘Is that what this is? A date?’
Ally coloured. She couldn’t help it. ‘What else?’ she asked shortly, wishing she had more experience with his sex. ‘Shall we go?’
‘Why not?’ He got up from his seat. ‘I like a woman who knows what she wants and goes after it.’
Ally gave him a glare. ‘Don’t,’ she said tensely. ‘Just don’t.’ And then, aware that she was never going to get the better of him, she pushed back her chair and stalked angrily out of the restaurant.
The cream convertible Carlos had been driving that day at the airport was waiting at the front of the hotel. Evidently Raul had decided there was no need to leave his car at the gates when Ally had Suzanne’s endorsement for her trip, and she halted at the top of the steps, looking down at it with some trepidation.
‘Is this yours?’
‘It belongs to Carlos,’ he told her, going lightly down the steps to open the passenger door. ‘Do you like it?’
‘It’s—flashy,’ she said, using the least complimentary adjective she could think of. Following him, she got into the front seat, taking care not to expose any more thigh than was absolutely necessary.
Raul’s lips twitched again. ‘You should have worn shorts,’ he commented, walking round the car and getting in beside her. His bare arm brushed hers and she jerked away. ‘Never mind. I’m sure we can find you something more suitable to wear.’
‘I don’t need anything more suitable,’ retorted Ally, remembering the shirt and shorts she’d had to cast into the laundry bag. ‘Where are we going?’
Raul started the car’s engine and swung away down the short drive. ‘You know where we’re going,’ he said, his hands very brown and competent on the wheel. ‘Oh—and I told you to bring a hat.’
‘It may interest you to know that I had no intention of meeting you this morning,’ declared Ally crossly, wishing her heart wasn’t beating quite so fast and that the palms of her hands didn’t feel quite so slick on the strap of her bag. ‘And I don’t wear a hat.’
Raul shrugged. ‘You should.’ He paused. ‘And I knew you might not come. That was why I asked Suzanne to speak to you.’
‘To blackmail me?’ Ally knew she was overreacting, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. ‘You have no shame.’
Raul drew a deep breath. ‘I didn’t know you felt so strongly about it.’ He halted as they reached the road that ran past the hotel and turned to look at her. ‘Do you want to go back?’
Ally was taken aback. ‘We—I can’t.’
‘Yes, you can. I’ll take you back.’ His lips twisted. ‘Never let it be said that I had to blackmail you to come out with me.’
Ally closed her eyes. ‘I never said that.’
‘Yes, you did.’
‘Well, I didn’t mean it. Not literally.’ She opened her eyes again. ‘Besides, Suzanne would be sure to think I’d offended you.’
‘You have.’ His tone was flat. ‘But I’d make some excuse if that’s what you want.’
Ally groaned. ‘Oh, you know what I mean, what I’m trying to say. I don’t want to—to offend you, but we—we shouldn’t be doing this.’
Raul’s eyes darkened. ‘Does that mean that you don’t want to go back?’
‘No. Yes.’ Ally gazed at him, her expression open and vulnerable. ‘Oh, I suppose you think I’m stupid.’
‘No. Just—incredibly sexy,’ he replied softly, dragging his eyes from hers with an obvious effort. ‘And far too innocent for your own good.’
Sexy! Ally swallowed incredulously, and, taking her silence as acquiescence, Raul swung out onto the coast road. She shook her head. There was no turning back now. However reckless she was being, she was committed to spending the morning with him.
If she hadn’t been so self-conscious, Ally would have enjoyed the ride to the marina where Raul told her many of his father’s craft were moored. It was the first time she’d left the hotel since her arrival and once again she was enchanted by the island’s beauty. Unfortunately, however, her anxieties about what she was doing overshadowed her enjoyment. No change there, then, she thought wryly.
Despite the fact that Suzanne had sanctioned this outing, she couldn’t relax. Even though it had succeeded in driving any worries about her ex-husband to the back of her mind. And now she had time to think again, she wished that she’d rung her daughter before leaving. Even though Sam had urged her not to return home immediately, she would expect her mother to keep her in touch with her plans and not behave as if she was a totally free agent.
‘What are you thinking about?’
Raul’s question brought the realisation that she had been torturing the strap of her handbag, and, releasing it, she pressed her hands together between her bare knees.
‘This and that,’ she answered, after a moment, and Raul gave her a retiring look.
‘Yeah, right.’ His jaw compressed. ‘Are you sure you don’t want to go back?’
‘No.’ Ally cast him an indignant look. ‘I do think about other things besides you, you know.’
Raul gave a small smile. ‘I’m pleased to hear it.’
‘Now you’re teasing me again,’ she said crossly. ‘As a matter of fact I was thinking about—Jeff.’
‘Your ex-husband?’ He hadn’t forgotten anything. ‘Why am I not flattered?’
‘Don’t be sarcastic.’ Ally sighed. ‘I wasn’t thinking about him in that way.
’
‘What way?’
Too late she realised how provocative her words had sounded. ‘Any way,’ she amended shortly. Then, aware that although his eyes were on the road she had his full attention, she added, ‘He’s come back.’
‘Come back?’
The road was narrowing ahead of them, winding down to sea level where a small marina provided a mooring for several vessels, large and small alike. Ally could hear the gentle chiming of mooring buoys, the susurration of the tide as it lapped against the wooden docks, could see the brilliance of the sun on the water. Tall masts rose and fell in stately elegance, their sails reefed and stowed away. There were a few people about but a lot of the slips were empty and Ally guessed that many of the chartered craft were away for several days or weeks at a time.
‘Come back?’ Raul repeated, after he’d negotiated the twists and turns of the road and was reversing the big car into a convenient parking bay. He brought the vehicle to a halt and turned to look at her. ‘How do you know?’
‘Sam rang me. My daughter, remember?’
‘I remember who Sam is,’ he agreed shortly, and she tried not to be impressed by his recall. ‘When did she ring you?’
‘Yesterday morning,’ said Ally unwillingly. ‘Not that it’s any business of yours. You asked what I was thinking and I told you.’
‘So you did.’ Raul’s lips twisted. ‘Dare I ask if you knew he was returning.’
‘Of course I didn’t know,’ exclaimed Ally, winding the strap of her bag around her hand again. ‘How could I? As far as I was aware, he and Kelly were rock-solid.’
‘As you and he once were,’ remarked Raul drily, and Ally caught her breath.
‘No. Not like Jeff and me.’ She hesitated. ‘I was only eighteen when I married Jeff.’
Raul regarded her quizzically. ‘But you must have believed your relationship was sound,’ he said. ‘Or—’
‘I was pregnant,’ said Ally stiffly, her eyes bright with hot embarrassment. ‘You might want to revise that opinion you have of me.’
Raul gave her an impatient look and pulled the keys out of the ignition. ‘Let’s go,’ he said, and she couldn’t be sure that his sudden abruptness was the result of his words or hers. Whatever, after getting out of the car and opening the door, he went round to the back of the car and removed what appeared to be a picnic basket from the boot. ‘Follow me.’
They crossed the sunlit quay, Ally having to quicken her step to keep up with him. They walked out along a slatted planked dock where every knot in the woodwork was a potential hazard to her sandal-clad feet. She should have worn her trainers, she mused ruefully. But then, she hadn’t known that she was going to be expected to follow Raul along a narrow boardwalk with the uneasy suspicion that she had annoyed him again.
She’d stopped to adjust the strap at her heel when he disappeared. One minute he was about a dozen yards ahead of her and the next he was gone. She stumbled on, wondering if he’d done it deliberately. Probably, she decided tensely. Perhaps he was hoping she’d just give up and go back to the hotel.
‘Ally!’
His voice startled her, and she teetered round on her high heels not sure where the call had come from. Then she saw him. He was standing on the deck of a gleaming vessel whose tall masts and streamlined hull looked far too big for one person to handle.
But swinging round had been a mistake. Instead of supporting her, one of her heels slipped between the slats, and, before she could save herself, she lost her balance.
The word Raul used then was not a complimentary one, she knew that. But, with the agility of a man in superb physical condition, he vaulted onto the dock and sprinted the few feet between the slip and where she was struggling to save herself from falling into the water.
‘Crazy woman,’ he muttered, when he had her safely in his arms, and, swinging her up against his chest, he carried her back to the yacht and across the short gangway onto the deck.
Ally was too shocked to offer any protest. The image of what might have happened if she’d fallen was all too vivid in her mind. The spars of wood that jutted up along the jetty were an obvious danger, but she was aware of how easy it would have been to fall between the yacht and its mooring. To imagine herself crushed by the movement of the heavy vessel made her feel sick and, when Raul lowered her to her feet, she was still trembling.
‘God,’ he said, his hands moving up to cradle her face and turn it up to his. But although his touch revealed how shaken he himself was by what had so nearly happened, his words were harsh and unsympathetic. ‘What the hell are you wearing high heels for?’
Ally tried to summon up some indignation. ‘I didn’t know I was going to have to walk a tightrope, did I?’ she exclaimed, wobbling again as she felt the deck move beneath her feet. ‘It wasn’t my fault.’
‘It’s not a tightrope,’ muttered Raul irritably, his fingers probing the hollows behind her ears. ‘Dammit, it’s just a dock, a wooden pier that anyone with half a brain would be able to negotiate.’
‘Then obviously I don’t even have half a brain,’ said Ally tremulously, lifting her hands to push him away. But, before she could stop it, his mouth found hers.
‘Crazy woman,’ he said again, against her lips, and then his tongue was pushing past her teeth, seeking the undefended vulnerability of her mouth.
Ally’s senses swam. She couldn’t help it. Already beating fast from the narrow escape she’d had moments before, her heart went into overdrive, thundering in her ears and sending the blood surging to the surface of her skin.
She knew she ought to stop him, to beat her fists against him and defend herself against his totally unfair assault, but she didn’t. She couldn’t. In a rare moment of complete honesty where this man was concerned, she was forced to accept that she had little or no resistance against him.
While his tongue ravaged her mouth, his hands moved down her back, finding every sensitive nub of her spine, curving over her bottom, bringing her intimately close to his hard body. Like her, he was fully aroused, and she kicked off her sandals to stand on her toes and fit herself more satisfactorily to his throbbing maleness.
For a few moments, she lost total control. The fact that they were standing on the deck of his yacht, in full view of anyone who chose to walk along the dock, was forgotten. The way he was kissing her, the way he was caressing her, the way he was rubbing his hips against hers, drove all sane thoughts out of her head. She just wanted him to go on proving that she was still a desirable, sensuous woman, and only when she felt his hand slide beneath the hem of her skirt did she find the sense to drag herself away from him.
‘For pity’s sake,’ she choked, her trembling hands smoothing her skirt back into place, and she saw by the stunned look in Raul’s eyes that he too had been unaware of his surroundings.
‘I’m sorry,’ he muttered, a faint colour invading his cheeks as his eyes followed hers to the evidence of the erection he was unable to hide. ‘God!’ He turned abruptly away. ‘You must think I’m an animal.’
Ally drew a trembling breath. ‘Not—not that,’ she said huskily, and then turned to grip the rail behind her. ‘Do you want me to go back?’
‘You know what I want and that’s not it,’ he said in a low impassioned voice. Then, as if he couldn’t stand to continue with that conversation, he said crisply, ‘Welcome aboard the Isabella. She was named for my mother.’ He paused, before adding steadily, ‘I’ll cast off. We’re wasting the best of the day.’
Ally turned in his direction again but he wasn’t looking her way. Instead, he’d gone ashore to release the mooring lines, and, as she watched, he shoved the gangway aside and vaulted back on board. For a few moments, she was completely absorbed with what he was doing and she gazed at him helplessly, her heart in her eyes. Oh, God, she wasn’t falling in love with him, was she? she asked herself despairingly. That really would be stupid.
Yet there was no denying that she’d never experienced anything like the emotions Raul
could inspire in her. And she was very much afraid that he was in danger of destroying much more than her self-respect…
It was after two o’clock when Raul again tied up the Isabella at her mooring.
It was much later than Ally had anticipated, though she acknowledged that she ought to have been prepared for it when Raul had produced the picnic basket from the boot of the car.
But then, that had been before she’d made such a fool of herself on the jetty. Since that incident, and its subsequent aftermath, there’d been a certain surreal quality to the day. Whatever she’d thought there was between them had been banished as completely as the sun on a rainy afternoon and she was no longer sure of anything—least of all what he thought of her.
Yet, Raul had behaved as if nothing untoward had happened. Well, not quite that, she acknowledged wryly. But he hadn’t referred to that scene on the deck of the Isabella again and Ally had been left with the uneasy feeling that perhaps she’d only imagined the hunger in his voice.
Still, on a purely objective level, she supposed the day had been a success. Raul had handled the large yacht with enviable ease, proving that he hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d told her how he used to spend his summers as a boy. He’d used the yacht’s engines to steer the boat out of the marina and then hoisted the sails, allowing the warm wind to fill them.
To someone who’d never sailed before, the sheer delight of skimming though the foam-flecked waves, of competing with the birds and sea creatures in their own element, had been magical. Ally knew she could never satisfactorily express her gratitude at being given this opportunity, and she hoped Raul understood how she felt.
But since he’d kissed her, since she’d practically begged him to let her go, their relationship had changed in some fundamental way and Ally didn’t know how to retrieve it. She wanted to tell him that he hadn’t offended her, that she didn’t think he was an animal or anything like that, but she didn’t know how. It was as if the man she’d known had disappeared and in his place was someone she felt she hardly knew at all. The idea of approaching something so—personal—with this stranger was too daunting to contemplate and for the past few hours they’d maintained a polite detachment that was as unfamiliar as it was uncomfortable.