Spanish Nights (Harlequin Treasury 1990's)

by Jennifer Taylor

  He gave her a long, cool look, his eyes so black that they gleamed like jet. ‘What do you think Laura?’

  The pain she felt was so raw that she staggered under the force of it. Just for a moment she stared at him with horror, unable to believe what she was hearing. There was a sudden slight movement to one side of where they were standing and she started nervously, her eyes suddenly meeting Mercedes’s amused ones, and in that instant knew that it was true. This whole magical day had been a lie from start to finish!

  With a tiny muffled cry, she turned and made her way across the garden, and if Luis even attempted to call her back she never heard him. She was deaf and blind to everything but the pain of realising that once more he had taken his revenge in the cruellest way possible.

  At some point during this day she had started to rebuild her dreams, but now there was nothing left to build them upon any more.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  THE days drifted past but Laura felt as though she was living in some sort of limbo. It was as though Luis’s cruelty the day of the feria in tricking her like that had robbed her of something vital. She went through the motions of living but inside she felt hollow.

  As to whether Luis understood how she felt she had no idea and didn’t care. He was his usual polite self whenever they met over dinner but he made no attempt to cut through the barriers she had surrounded herself with. If Doña Elena noticed anything amiss she said nothing but occasionally Laura caught her watching her with a strange expression on her face. But it didn’t matter what anyone thought. She could never forgive or forget the trick that Luis had played on her that day.

  The only bright spot was that she received a letter from Rachel telling her that her brother Jack’s business was taking off and that the desperate situation had eased. Laura was glad that her friend should be relieved of that terrible worry but she wasn’t fool enough to believe that Rachel was completely in the clear. If she didn’t continue to do exactly as Luis wanted then the situation could change in the blink of an eye. What a terrible trap for them all to be in!

  It was a relief when Luis suddenly announced one evening over dinner that he would be away for several days. He had to accompany Miguel Moreno on a business trip to Amsterdam to finalise a new contract they were negotiating. Laura listened to him and his mother discussing the new contract without really hearing a word of what was being said. She picked up her spoon and pushed the sweet confection of whipped cream and cherries around but ate none of it. She hadn’t felt like eating for a few days now, a feeling of nausea robbing her of her appetite, and it was beginning to show. When she had looked in the mirror tonight before coming down to dinner she had seen a new fragility to her slender frame. Perhaps it was possible for a person to fade away through lack of love.

  Sudden hot tears sprang to her eyes and she set the spoon down knowing she couldn’t stand this pretence a moment longer. Luis hated her and no amount of polite conversation would alter that one stark fact. With a muttered excuse she pushed her chair back and stood up, ignoring Luis’s sharp enquiry as to whether she was all right. He could think what he liked, because frankly she no longer cared.

  The house was quiet as she hurried from the dining-room and made her way outside to the small terrace. She stopped by the wall, gripping the stone balustrade with hands that trembled as she stared unseeingly across the vineyards. She had never felt so lonely and bereft in her life, not even when her father had died so tragically. They had been close after her mother had died and she had missed him dreadfully, but even that loss didn’t seem so stark as what she was forced to contend with now. There was a gulf between her and Luis which could never be breached.

  The tears streamed down her face silently. It was as though all the tension and heartache of months had suddenly caught up with her, reached a point where it had to break, and she cried as she hadn’t done since she was a child.

  ‘Here. Take this.’ Luis was suddenly there, his voice quite impersonal as he offered her a spotless white handkerchief. Laura shook her head, rubbing the back of her hand across her wet face but the tears wouldn’t stop and she heard him give a rough, impatient exclamation.

  He caught her by the shoulder and swung her round, holding her in front of him as he wiped her wet face with a strangely gentle hand. Laura tried to shake him off, her eyes hating him as she glared up into his face. ‘Let me go! I don’t need your help, Luis. I don’t need anything at all from you.’

  ‘No? Is that so? Then why are you crying like this, as though your heart is ready to break at any moment?’

  His voice was flat and without emotion; it seemed to set light to her temper and she dragged herself out of his hold and stepped back until she felt the hardness of stone against the back of her thighs. ‘Is that why you imagine I am crying, for a broken heart?’ She laughed harshly, snatching the handkerchief from him to wipe away the last of her tears. ‘That would really boost your ego to think that, wouldn’t it? It would give you such a feeling of satisfaction to know that your plan had been so successful!’

  ‘You are upset, Laura. I think it would be better if you went upstairs.’

  ‘Do you? How considerate of you, Luis. But then that is what you are, a very considerate man...on the surface.’ She tossed her head so that the silky fall of pale hair slipped back over her shoulders. ‘You don’t really give a damn how I feel but you do like to keep up appearances, don’t you? And what would the staff think if they saw me out here sobbing my heart out? They might start to imagine that there was something wrong and we can’t have that, can we, Señor de Rivera? We can’t spoil the image you are trying to project!’

  ‘There is no point in discussing this while you are in such a state. I suggest you go inside and rest, Laura. I have noticed that you don’t look your usual self recently.’

  ‘Don’t I? And I wonder why that might be? Could it possibly have anything to do with the fact that I am married to the biggest bast—’

  ‘Enough! I will not tolerate any more of this hysterical behaviour. You forget yourself, Laura.’ He caught her shoulders, his hands biting into her soft flesh as he gave her a tiny shake but it just seemed to incense her even more. She lashed out at him with her fists, all the pain and hurt she felt surging into one angry outburst of emotion.

  Luis swore roughly, his voice harsh, his face set into angry lines that should have warned her but she no longer cared what he thought. ‘I hate you, Luis,’ she bit out. ‘Hate you for the way you made me come here, hate you for what you tried to do to Rachel, hate you...’

  ‘Because I won’t fall under your spell the way I did once before!’ All of a sudden his anger surfaced, his eyes blazing down into hers. ‘I was a fool once, Laura, but I won’t be one again. I know what you are now. I know how cleverly you used my desire for you to trick me.’

  She wanted to hurt him, wanted to hit back at him as he had done to her. ‘Yes, I did! You wanted me, Luis, but why should you have had me for free? Why shouldn’t you have given me something in return...marriage?’ She laughed in his face, the lies drawing her deeper and deeper into their horrible web as she saw his mounting fury.

  ‘So at last the truth comes out. It is what I suspected all along, querida. It makes things simpler, you must agree?’

  ‘I...what do you mean?’ All at once the fight drained out of her and she stared at him in confusion, her heart lurching at what she saw in his eyes.

  ‘I mean that there is no need for pretence any longer. We both know where we stand. You were willing to sell yourself to me for the price of a wedding-ring, and now it is left to me to enjoy what I have purchased with my money and name.’ His eyes skimmed over her, lingering for a moment on her parted lips before dropping with deliberate appreciation to her high breasts.

  ‘I...no! No, Luis. Look. I’m sorry but it was all lies. I was upset, angry, I just wanted to pay you back, but what I said just now wasn’t really the truth!’

  ‘I think it was the truth, and for the first time you a
ctually admitted it. So why try to deny it all now?’ He drew her closer to him, his hands sliding down her body, moulding her soft curves as he smiled into her white face.

  ‘Don’t. Please. Can’t you understand that I was just trying to hit back at you?’ She caught his wrist to stop his hand when it glided up to her breast but he merely captured both her hands in one of his and held them behind her back as he continued with the slow caress until she could feel her nipple throbbing under the skilful touch of his fingers. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see the triumph on his face as he felt her reaction, then gasped out loud when she felt herself being swung off her feet as Luis carried her down the steps from the terrace.

  ‘Stop that! Put me down, Luis! Put me...’ The words died instantly as he suddenly stopped and took her mouth in a kiss that held a very deliberate kind of passion. He knew her so well, knew how to make her respond to the pressure of his lips, the seductive sweetness of his tongue as it slipped between her parted lips. Laura gave a low, sharp moan of part protest, part desire as he forced her mouth wider open so that he could deepen the kiss to a level of intimacy that left her shuddering. It didn’t seem to matter that she knew he was doing it deliberately, her response to him was instinctive. She had known little about the art of making love, despite what he believed, until he had taught her, and he knew exactly how to kiss her, how to let his tongue tease and arouse as he held her against his hard, warm body.

  When he lifted his head she could barely open her passion-clouded eyes, but she forced herself to stare into his dark face. ‘Don’t do this, Luis. We...we shall both regret it. You must know that!’

  He didn’t answer her, his eyes hooded, yet she could feel the heat of his gaze against her as though he had touched her, and a slow throbbing ache started low in the pit of her stomach. When he started walking again she gave a sharp little cry of protest, pushing against the solid wall of his chest, but it was impossible to make him free her. His arms tightened around her, drawing her closer to him so that she could feel each heavy beat of his heart against her breast.

  He carried her into the enclosed pool area and set her down on one of the padded loungers, sitting down beside her and trapping her there with his body as he bent over her. Laura gave a tiny gasping sob then tried to wriggle free, but he merely leant closer and smiled into her wide grey eyes.

  ‘Why make such a fuss, querida? You know you want this the same as I do.’ He stroked a hand down her from neck to thigh, the smile deepening when he felt the unmistakable hardness of her nipples pushing eagerly against his palm. Laura turned her head away in shame; he hated her and she knew it yet even that wasn’t enough to stem the desire she felt to have him touch her.

  ‘You like this, don’t you, Laura?’ His hand moved again, stroking, caressing, teasing her and she twisted helplessly.

  ‘No! No, I don’t like any of it!’ The words were torn from her as she fought for control against the tormenting touch but they merely seemed to amuse him.

  ‘No? Then I must find some other way to please you, mi esposa.’ His voice was a low, vibrant thread in the dark night. It seemed to envelop her just as seductively as his hand now enclosing her breast, which stroked the nipple with the pad of his thumb until it peaked against the soft fabric of her dress.

  Desire was a sharp, hot flame and despite herself she arched beneath his expert touch even as she gasped his name in a sobbing protest which he ignored as he turned his attention to her other breast and repeated the tormenting caress. Only then did he draw back, his voice steely as he caught her chin and made her look at him.

  ‘You might be able to lie to me, Laura, but your body cannot. It shows me how much you enjoy my touch.’

  She closed her eyes, knowing that what he said was true. Her mind might reject what he was doing to her, but her body ached for his touch. Even now she could feel surges of heat rippling deep inside her, and she shifted restlessly on the cushions, and heard him laugh softly just a moment before he took her mouth again.

  The kiss was all and everything, fire and ice, fierce and tender, demanding and giving. Luis had never kissed her quite like this before and the shock of it drained all the fight from her so that she lay quiescent in his arms until his hands started to skim over her body in a tormenting dance which offered pleasure, hinted at desire yet stopped before she could savour the sensations. Laura writhed helplessly beneath the expert touch, her whole body throbbing with need. Luis would start a ripple then move his hands to start another, making her ache with frustration.

  ‘Luis, please!’ She caught his tormenting hands as she turned her head away to end the kiss, uncaring that he must surely hear the desperation in her voice. She couldn’t take much more of this torment!

  ‘So you admit that I can make you want me, do you, Laura? Admit that you can feel the desire inside you and the frustration of not being able to do anything to ease it?’

  It was pointless to keep on denying something they both knew was true. ‘Yes.’

  ‘Then it is up to you to decide what you wish to do about it. Shall I stop now and let you go inside to your lonely bed? Or shall we both enjoy what we can give each other tonight?’ His hand made a lightning-fast journey down her body, skimming breast and thigh, and she shuddered as she arched towards it. He was asking her to choose and the answer should have been straightforward; common sense should have overruled this hot desire which could only lead to yet more heartache, yet somehow it was difficult to make the choice.

  Laura fought against the heady clamouring of her senses but it was a battle she was destined to lose when Luis moved slightly and she felt the hard pressure of him against her hip. He might be strong enough to play these games of passion to teach her a lesson, but he wasn’t unmoved by them himself!

  The thought was like balm. It soothed the shame she felt for her own weakness and changed all the rules in some indefinable way. Slowly she moved her hip, feeling the shudder which ran through him and smiled with a delicious amusement. Passion had always been on Luis’s terms until now. He had instigated all their lovemaking but now she was going to show him something about his own needs, his own desires. Would he then be quite so confident of always being in control? She hoped not!

  It took courage to slide herself upright on the lounger while he was watching her but she found it from somewhere. She reached out and ran her fingers down his broad chest, feeling the ripples of movement which instantly followed the light touch, as though every nerve in his body had sprung to attention. Just the realisation of that spurred her on so that it was suddenly easy to make the next move and feather a trail of kisses along the strong line of his jaw.

  Luis sat like a statue, his whole body rigid, but there was no way he could prevent his heart from beating so betrayingly or her from feeling the heaviness of its rhythm under her hands as she smoothed them across his chest in a slow caress. He seemed to be barely breathing, his eyes so black that they glittered like glass as she drew back and looked at him but no one could call her breathing regular either. She had meant to teach him a lesson, to redeem herself by showing him that he too was vulnerable to desire, but now that seemed less important than the sensations surging to life between them.

  For a moment they both stilled, dark eyes meeting grey in a silence which was so charged with tension that it felt as though the world was about to explode. Then Luis raised one brow in a silent challenge and Laura immediately responded to it.

  She bent towards him and fitted her mouth to his in a kiss of such intensity that the air around them seemed to ignite. Luis groaned as he dragged her to him, his hands almost rough as they moulded her body against his while he murmured something to her in Spanish she couldn’t understand and didn’t need to as the fire between them burned out of control. Yet when he tried to ease her back against the cushions she resisted, filled with a sudden cold fear.

  ‘Luis, I don’t know if this is what I want!’

  ‘Dios, Laura! What are you trying to do? Drive me insane?�
�� His voice grated with strain, his mouth rimmed with white, evidence of the control he was exercising. Yet, even as Laura watched, that control snapped.

  He stared down into her face, his eyes glittering. ‘You have had long enough to make your mind up. Now I shall make the decision for you!’

  The words were grated out just an instant before he took her mouth in a kiss which left no room for choice or even doubts. There was just her and Luis, and this raw desire they felt for each other. And for now that was more than enough.

  * * *

  Dawn came slowly, just a few fingers of light sliding through the dark sky at first. Laura lay in bed watching the rays spreading to tint the sky with rose and gold. Beside her Luis slept quietly, the sound of his steady breathing barely disturbing the silence in the room, yet it was the most precious sound she’d ever heard. It spoke of contentment and pleasure and a deep satisfaction, all of which she felt too.

  She rolled over to look at him, letting her eyes enjoy the strong lines of his profile, the way the black hair fell in a heavy wave across his forehead. The urge to reach out and run her fingers through that silky hair was strong but she curbed it, knowing that it would be sure to wake him up, and just for now she wanted these few minutes to study him. She loved him so much that it hurt, but it wasn’t like the pain she had lived with all these months. This pain was a hot, sweet feeling that seemed to fill her whole body, making her want to leap up and shout it from the window so that everyone could hear. She loved Luis de Rivera! That was something to shout about, especially after last night and what they had shared.

  Laura closed her eyes, savouring again the intensity of their lovemaking both by the pool and here in this bed after they had come back inside the house. They had seemed to reach new heights together last night, as though barriers had been broken and souls had met. Surely it must mean that Luis cared for her, that it was more than just desire he felt for her body? She could only pray that it was so and wait until he woke to ask him.