by Lia Lee
“Then,” she said, “I do want it to be an even swap. Tomorrow, you take me out riding. It’s Saturday and there won’t be meetings then. We’ll go out towards sunset when it gets cool again, and you can show me what you’re made of. Show me what it is about horseback riding that drives you.”
His heart swelled at that thought, at the sad revelation that for the first time in his life, a woman he was with cared about what he really wanted. He’d tried a few times with his sparse long-term girlfriends to speak about how he wished he could retire, just hints dropped in passing. Tina had mocked him, called him a “wannabe cowboy.”
They hadn’t lasted a week after that.
But Jules cared. She could be his muse.
He squeezed her tightly against his torso. “That sounds great. You will see if you can channel Orson Welles, and I’ll show you my inner John Wayne.”
“Well, then, yippee ki-yay,” she said, winking back at him. Then she sat up, and he almost wanted to yank her back into his arms and never let her go, not when she smelled like a field of the most aromatic flowers. “I’m freezing. Once it gets dark up here, that breeze really hits. Let’s get down the hill to the limo, okay?”
“Deal.”
***
His hand was so large that it engulfed hers as they made their way down the back alleys of the hill. The main drag to Park Güell was clogged with tourists shopping for their various souvenirs. It was slow going that way, like moving upstream in a river choked with rocks. The two of them had decided on the less crowded but far-harder-to-see path down the side alleys. But she had Xavier with her. He was well over six feet, and with broad frame and imposing size, she didn’t fear any pickpocket who might try and take things from her.
God, he really does care about me. How can I ever tell him now that I’m Sandra?
“You’re quiet.”
She blinked back at him. “Am I supposed to take that a certain way?” she queried.
“It could be that normally you’re a chatterbox,” he said, turning to her and brushing a hand beside her cheek. “You’re something else, Jules.”
“I…”
He leaned in closer to kiss her, but they were interrupted by a sharp bark of Spanish. Turning, she screamed when she saw a man in front of them, brandishing a switch blade. He was lithe and lean, but he still had a weapon, even if Xavier had size on him. The thief looked between her and Xavier and launched into rapid-fire orders to both of them.
She had no idea what was going on but could guess by the tone and his leaping closer to them that it wasn’t going well.
Xavier shook his head and took a ton of bills from his wallet. She couldn’t guess all of its worth since she was still new to euros. The man took it and then eyed her, chuckling and rubbing a hand over his stomach.
She definitely didn’t need a translation for that.
Xavier swore in English and then spoke to the man. “No. No toques a la mujer. Me entiende? You touch her, and I’ll kill you.”
The man grinned and then dashed toward her, his knife the only thing that she could concentrate on. She flinched and held her hands up in front of her, anticipating the blow. Sandra should have trusted Xavier more than that. Fast as a jungle cat, he was on the attacker. With a kick knee to the solar plexus, he’d stopped the man in his tracks. Then came a crushing uppercut to his nose, and the loud crunch reverberated through the alley. The man backed away, howling in pain, with bloody rivulets pouring from his nose.
Xavier said something terse in Spanish as he clenched the attacker’s dropped knife in his hand. “Now,” he finished, “get the fuck out of here!”
The man didn’t wait twice, just scurried down the hill and out of sight, crying and holding both hands up to his nose. Sandra was taking in desperate shuddering breaths, even as Xavier turned to face her. She was shivering. God, why was she shivering? It was June and breezy, sure, but she had her jacket on. Suddenly it felt like she was wearing a camisole in winter, as if a blizzard were bearing down on her and chilling her to the bone.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
Tears sprung to her eyes. She’d almost been stabbed or something, if not for him. It felt like her life was still flashing before her eyes, the memories interweaving with scenarios about how everything could have gone epically, horribly wrong. How she could have been stabbed or killed and have regrets by the bucket full. She couldn’t change her career right then, but she could cross one regret off her list tonight.
She could get over herself and be more than just friends or the valet or anything lesser where Xavier was concerned. After all, since that first night in the limo where he’d gone down on her, she knew exactly what she wanted, what she craved.
Tilting her chin up, she kissed him, her tongue tangling with his. He still tasted a bit of chocolate from earlier that day, as well as a breath mint he must have popped before they made their descent down the mountain. His five o’clock shadow tickled and scraped at her chin, and that hint of cinnamon, that spicy scent that clung to him, teased her nose.
Xavier melded into her body before pulling away. “Wait, you can’t possibly want this. You could have been killed!”
“That’s exactly why I do want this. I am always so scared, always evaluating the cost and danger in things. I’m terrified I’ll make a mistake, so I play it safe and stay on the sidelines.”
“I…”
“This is about me and about us,” she said, running a hand over his cheek. “I want this, and I want you. Do you want me?”
“You know I do,” he said, his green eyes regarding her with a hunger that made her shiver and her rosebud pulse between her legs. “Are you sure?”
“I’ve never been surer of anything in my life.”
“I don’t have protection on me.”
“I’m on the pill,” she offered. “And I’ll be honest, it’s been a while. Do you…?”
“I’m always protected, and I get tested every six months. I’m clean too.”
She nodded and bit her lower lip. Granted, she was on the pill, although the new schedule and jet lag had caused her to take a few doses at different times since getting to Barcelona, but that probably wouldn’t affect anything. Since yesterday, she’d been back to her regular time frame. Besides, she was about to combust with desire.
Xavier clenched his jaw and looked over his shoulder, even though they both knew none of the tourists from the street would be able to see them. “Alright, but if you…”
She brought a finger to his soft lips. “I wouldn’t want to change my mind for any amount of money, Xavier. I want you. No, scratch that. I need you.”
She wrapped her arms around him and felt when he gave in. His arms tightened around her and picked her up, helping her wrap her legs around his waist.
“I think we’re going to have to maneuver things a little more,” he said, helping prop her back against the brick of the alley wall. He reached his hand low and slid it up her leg, his powerful hand caressing the skin of her thigh. She shuddered at his touch, feeling the waves of pleasure start to lap at every part of her body. “I might need a little help getting any barriers out of the way.”
She nodded and worked some acrobatic magic to help him slip off her panties. This time, he tucked them into the pocket of his pants. In a strange way, she appreciated that. The last thing she needed was for someone to find her unmentionables strewn about a random alley in Spain. Not that they were labeled, but still.
Xavier helped steady her against the wall with his strong grip. The brick dug into her back a bit, an intense bite that made her moan with pleasure already, with the anticipation of finally feeling all of her lover inside of her. She’d had more than one dream about him. Oh hell, he’d been the star of her deepest erotic fantasies for months, and now he was everything she could want in a man all over again. She had him exactly where she wanted him, and as long as they were in Spain, she wasn’t going to let him go.
He unzipped his jeans, and how Sandra wishe
d they were at home and some place more private. Not because she was afraid to make love in an alley, but because she wished to be able to see his abs, to enjoy his perfectly sculpted body the way she hadn’t allowed herself to when she’d wandered into his fight with Lisette. But there would be time for that. Time to taste every ridge of his washboard abdomen, to let her tongue trace secret patterns down his torso and to the happy trail leading to his length.
The moonlight glinted overhead in the darkened alley, casting a silvery light over Xavier, highlighting those sharp, high cheekbones of his and making his eyes glow with an almost feral hint of emerald. Its best trick, however, was giving her a full glimpse of his hard member, of the girth of it that was unlike anything she’d ever had inside her. It was an erection that put Zane or the few other men she’d known to shame. Involuntarily, she licked her lips. Her mouth watered at the sight of him. Sandra opened her legs wide and lined her hips up as best as she could with his.
Fierce emerald eyes regarded her own. “I’m going to go slow. God knows I want to fuck you into next week, but I promised myself the first time I did this, I’d make you feel everything you needed, everything you wanted.”
“Wait. Promises were made?” she asked, the curiosity coloring her words.
“Maybe the first review I ever saw. I have to admit, Jules, one look at you in the Mistress of Schlock outfit and I was utterly and completely hooked.”
He eased his hips so that they aligned with hers, so that his velvety tip was caressing the entrance to her womanhood, his warm flesh playing over her most secret lips. Sandra shivered and angled her body for him, gave him every advantage he needed to take her as his own.
“I’m not worried. I don’t care how you have me, as long as we make love. I can’t resist you, Xavier. Not anymore.”
He slid his length in, inch by tantalizing inch. The deeper he went, the more ferociously the currents of pleasure lapped at her body and the more her nerves zinged with life and energy. With arousal. When he was to the root within her, he looked into her eyes.
“Are you ready?” he asked, his voice as sweet and smooth as honey. That cinnamon scent tickled her nose, causing her womanly nectar to flow between her legs. “God, you feel so amazing already.”
“So do you,” she said, clenching her thighs around his waist. “Do everything you want, Xav. Please.” Her voice was plaintive, taking on a mewling tone, but she didn’t care. She’d wanted him, craved him like this for fourteen months and it was all finally here. “I’m yours. Yours for whatever you wish.”
He said nothing but kept staring into her eyes as he thrust his hips forward in one, swift motion. She howled at the pleasure washing quickly through her, as if she were being splashed by wave after wave from the Pacific. Working with what leverage she could, she arched her neck up to taste his lips, to stroke his tongue with her own. He answered her hungry kisses with insatiable love bites, with just the hint of teeth capturing her bottom lip.
She moaned and bucked her hips as their lovemaking intensified, rocketing forward at a frantic staccato beat.
The waves were growing larger and her body shook with pleasure. She was so close to the edge, to the ultimate release.
Xavier came first, shooting his seed deep inside her, his juices mingling with her own. That was all it took. She felt it now, that ultimate fulfillment—that completion—of having all of Xavier inside of her and then some. The wave that crashed over her then was a tsunami of ecstasy, something that bowled her over and forced her to shut her eyes and feel the desire and the orgasms wash over her. Her bones went loose, and if her lover hadn’t been there, she’d have sunk like jelly to the ground.
But he wrapped his arms around her waist and held her as if she weighed nothing at all.
Time seemed to stand still. It could have been minutes or hours before she was coherent enough to open her eyes. She really couldn’t tell. But the soft, butterfly kisses on her eyelids and over her throat, and that slight hint of teeth grazing her collarbone brought her back to the moment between them.
“I take it that was alright with you,” Xavier said, grinning at her.
She slapped his shoulder. “You know you’re amazing. Are you digging for compliments? I’m sure all billionaire playboys are sex gods. It’s probably part of your upbringing. Turn eighteen and get a free Kama Sutra or something.”
He tilted his chin at her. “Maybe. It would have been way better than prep school. I’m telling you that. Can you stand?”
She nodded as he helped her down to the cobblestone. Sandra shuddered a little in the cool air as Xavier zipped himself up. Holding out her hand, palm flat, she narrowed her eyes back at him. “Okay, give it.”
He tried his best to look innocent. “Give what again?”
“My panties,” she hissed, even though most of the people around them were a few streets over and didn’t speak English often enough to possibly understand what she was saying. “I think I’m going to need them, don’t you?”
Xavier smirked, those damn delicious dimples of his catching the moonlight and leaving her weak in the knees. “Well, I think it’s best if I hold on to such a delicate treasure till we get back to the hotel, don’t you?”
“You wouldn’t!” she squealed, shoving her jacket back on.
“Oh, trust me. I would.”
Chapter Six
His cell phone trilled at six a.m. sharp. Xavier rolled his eyes and slid out of bed. Before he escaped to the living room of his presidential suite, he glanced down at his angel. Once they’d gotten home and the adrenaline had worn off, she’d crashed in his bed. After that, he’d held her close to him, and was hardly able to nod off at all. He’d almost lost her tonight.
Yes, he’d had tons of self-defense and other training, things he’d taken an interest in at college and as a health nut, but the situation could have gone very wrong. Could have ended with her stabbed and bleeding out or something worse.
Breathing in deeply, he forced those bad memories away and slid out to the living area, making sure the door was shut tightly behind him.
Things didn’t go badly. They went amazing, and you have Jules with you. Don’t think about what could have happened, just focus on what did.
He tried to force himself to focus. If he was scattered at all or acted off, Javier would know, and then he’d get a lecture about being a bit too sloppy with the help. Dear God, his brother meant well, but sometimes it would be nice if Javier remembered who the older brother was. Well-meaning was one thing, but officious and cloying were quite another.
She’s safe, and you know it.
“Yeah,” he answered himself out loud. “But the next guy who tries to harm her will be eating through a straw for the rest of his life.” Taking one last, calming breath, he answered his cell. “Javi, what’s going on back in the States? Did you know it was early here? Do you ever stop to relax? It’s Friday.” He blinked, trying to clear the bleariness from his eyes. “Actually, it’s Saturday, even more reason to rest and enjoy life.”
“I got some of the preliminary figures to crunch from the union’s offers. I’ve been creating the counter-proposal all day for you to go in with on Monday, and I’ll be through with it tonight. I just wanted to keep you abreast.”
He grinned, even though his brother couldn’t see it. Javier could be relentless, but he was excellent at his job, and no one on Earth loved the company more than Javi, not even their father had. Maybe I could just retire. And what? Follow his dreams to be a horse trainer? Dreams were for children, and those particular ones would get him laughed out of the family, at least if Javi heard them. Still, it was nice to know his brother and the CFO of Catalan Food Industries had his back.
“Thank you. I do appreciate it.”
“There weren’t negotiations yesterday. I know that some of the union leaders had to regroup too. What did you do?”
He narrowed his eyes at the phone. If Javier thought he was being discreet or had avoided a leading question, then hi
s brother was dead wrong. King of espionage, Javi was not. “I went to some services at the Sagrada Família and enjoyed the Park Güell for old times’ sake.”
“Was that all?” his brother asked, his tone too eager.
“Do you have spies on me, brother?”
“No, but I know you and I know your weakness for curvy redheads. Swear it to me right now, Xav. Just say that you haven’t been with Miss Gaines yet, and I’ll believe you.”
“I haven’t slept with Jul…oh damn it, you know I suck at lying to you.”
“Your voice always goes down an octave when you lie, as if having some deep Superman baritone voice is going to fool me.” Javi sighed on the other end. “Do you think it’s wise to have a fling with your valet?”
“It’s not a fling.” Xavier blinked, surprising himself with these words. Yes, he had wanted to see where things went both in Spain and beyond, but it was the first time he’d admitted how deeply his desires went, even to himself. “I…what I meant to say was, well, there’s something between us, Javi. Something that I haven’t felt since Tina.”
“You know how that ended, brother.”
“With a big PR nightmare, a broken heart, and her trying to blackmail me.”
“And that’s why I’m worried,” Javi replied. “You’ve had a raw deal before, had things go apocalyptically wrong for you. I don’t want that to happen again. It was scary seeing my brother like that, like all the life and vitality was just drained from you for over a year. Just…how well do you even know Juliet Gaines?”
“I know her,” he snapped.
“I don’t mean in the biblical sense.”
Xavier groaned. “I didn’t either. I trust her, Javi, and I know you’re just trying to look out for me, but it’s my job to look after you. So, please, brother, I’m not the man I was five years ago. I trust Jules, and if I can do that, then you can trust me not to be making a huge mistake.”
Javi hesitated on the other line. “I want what’s best for you, that’s all.”