‘Am I?’ he retorted innocently. He was remembering the way she’d stood up to him—challenged him. He couldn’t remember anyone doing that. Leila was right about his grandmother tiptoeing around him, but it wasn’t just his grandmother who did that. When it came to his past, no one trespassed. But Leila had, and, though she had jolted him out of the status quo, it only made him think more of her. There was nothing weak about Leila beneath that peacemaking manner, and he liked that.
The visit with his grandmother had been a success. He had hoped they would like each other. He just hadn’t realised how much. With his abuelita as an ally Leila had no reason not to stay on the island to have her baby. He had already appointed her doctors, and the support staff was on standby. Leila might have amused him by standing up to him, but control over this birth was all his.
‘Why are we stopping?’ she said as he pulled off the road.
‘We’re stopping because some things can’t wait.’
‘Like what?’ she said, her voice shaking with excitement as she feigned innocence and gazed around.
‘Like the view is spectacular?’ He raised a brow. The view was spectacular, but they both knew that wasn’t the reason he’d stopped the car.
‘You can’t,’ she protested when he removed his seat belt. ‘Raffa—what if someone drives past?’
‘So that isn’t a flat no?’ he said, curbing a smile. ‘You have an urge. I have an urge. Let’s do something about it.’
‘How do you know I have got an urge?’
‘Your eyes are darkening... Your lips are swelling... Your nipples are—’
‘Stop,’ she said, sucking in a fast breath. ‘You are so bad.’
‘Would you have me any other way?’ As he angled his chin he saw the answer in her eyes. Reaching across, he very gently stroked the swell of her belly and a sigh escaped her.
‘You’re a very bad man, Raffa Leon.’
‘I make you angry?’
‘Yes, you do.’
‘Then please allow me to soothe you,’ he suggested, tipping his sunglasses down his nose. Drawing her into his arms, he lazily brushed her lips with his.
She was only wearing a tiny thong beneath the dress. No bra. She didn’t need one. Her breasts were glorious, firm and full, while her nipples were engorged and pressing urgently against the fine, summer-weight fabric, in serious danger of being chafed unless he freed them.
‘What are you doing?’ she demanded in a husky whisper.
‘Feeding,’ he growled, laving her nipples with his tongue. ‘Hmm. You taste different.’
‘Soapy?’ she suggested.
‘No. Womanly and—’
‘Pregnant?’
‘Maybe.’ He gave a crooked smile as he gazed up into Leila’s eyes.
‘No maybe about it,’ she said, breaking off to gasp when his hand stroked her thigh.
‘Nice?’ he asked, trailing his fingertips over her.
Leila’s answer was to arc towards him, making herself more available. ‘Not sure I can bear being teased,’ she warned him. ‘Being pregnant seems to have made me...’
‘Mad for sex.’
‘How do you know?’
‘I know everything about you, Leila Skavanga. And it’s been far too long.’
Removing her thong, he slipped down from his seat and went to kneel in the well of the car. ‘Rest your legs on my shoulders and your feet on the dashboard.’
‘Really?’ she said, glancing around.
‘Really,’ he confirmed.
‘How do I explain this if a tractor drives past?’ she managed between hectic breaths.
‘Just say you’ve got a cramp and I’m doing the best I can to distract you—’
‘In Spanish?’
He grinned as he freed himself with one hand and positioned her with the other.
‘Don’t stop,’ she begged him when he got busy with his tongue. ‘Don’t you dare stop... Oh, this is so good...’
He teased her again with just a fraction of his length.
‘I want all of it,’ she insisted.
‘Greedy must wait—’
‘Who says?’ she demanded, thrusting forward.
It was his turn to groan. She was so tight, so hot and wet, and such an unbelievably perfect fit for him. And this was a really great position. Leila was at the perfect height for him so all he had to do was rock back and forth. It felt so good, so necessary, and it was only a matter of moments before they both lost it.
‘Again,’ she demanded, still pulsing round him.
Leila hadn’t been joking when she said she was mad for sex, but then they’d always been mad for each other. There was some special chemistry between them that reason had never played a part in. ‘I think you like that,’ he murmured as she groaned.
Leila’s answer was to grip him with her internal muscles and tell him fiercely, ‘I love it!’
Binding his buttocks close with fingers of steel, she rubbed herself against him until he was almost in danger of losing control, and it was only when they heard the sound of an engine in the distance that they stopped. He tried to find Leila’s thong, but a search under the seats proved futile and he was forced to give up.
‘The heat between us must have vaporised it,’ she said, trying not to laugh.
He secured their seat belts and they sat bolt upright, looking respectable just in time for the local bus to drive past.
‘Well, that must have been quite a shock for them,’ Leila said, whipping her thong off the dashboard, where it had been all this time. ‘I guess our secret is out.’
‘Looks like it,’ he agreed, looping his arm around her neck to drag her close for a kiss.
Resting his forehead against Leila’s, he wanted this moment to last. Maybe this could work. Maybe he could persuade Leila that there would be benefits beyond her imagining if she agreed to live in Spain with their child.
‘Do you always get your own way?’ she murmured against his mouth as if reading his thoughts.
‘Always,’ he said confidently.
‘Then I think you might just have to get used to me saying no, Raffa Leon, because I can be difficult—and stubborn. Just ask my sisters.’
Unconcerned, he reached across, and, lifting her into his arms, he positioned Leila on his lap. ‘Say no,’ he invited.
CHAPTER TEN
THINGS HAPPENED FAST in his world and even faster in Leila’s, it turned out. He had left Leila on the island for a brief twenty-four hours to attend a meeting in London, and by the time he got back she had introduced herself to his staff, drawn up a schedule of training visits to help improve her insight of the retail diamond industry and booked an appointment with her own doctor in Skavanga.
‘You’ll go to my doctor, Leila.’
‘Don’t you trust me to handle this, Raffa?’ She didn’t even trouble to raise her head from the latest academic paper on heat treatment of gemstones she was reading.
‘I have engaged the foremost obstetrician to guide you through this birth. If he’s good enough for the British royal family, he should be good enough for you.’
She gave him a direct look over the top of the cute little spectacles she wore for close work. ‘And I have arranged to speak to my family doctor, a woman who has known me all my life. I don’t need the foremost man,’ she added. ‘Birth is a natural process, Raffa. I’m not ill. I’m pregnant.’
‘You’ll do as I say.’
‘Really?’ she said mildly. Standing up to confront him, she added, ‘I think you’ll find that this is my body, my baby and my decision to make.’
‘This is our baby and I won’t take any chances with either of you.’
As Leila stabbed a look at him he reined back. She was sitting on top of a hormonal vol
cano. He should remember that.
‘You’re going to be a father, Raffa.’
Yes. He was going to be a father...
He tried to feel something.
He felt nothing but the customary throb of anxiety. He envied the contented smile on Leila’s lips. Knowing she was going to be a mother had lit her up from the inside out, while all he could do was dread the birth.
‘No,’ he argued flatly, forgetting everything he had vowed to do and say. ‘You will not be having your baby in Skavanga. You will have your baby here on the island, where I can keep you safe.’
‘But I’ve never suggested anything different other than having my baby in Skavanga,’ Leila protested, frowning as she looked at him as if he’d gone mad. ‘I can’t understand why you’re making such a fuss about it. We have a state-of-the-art hospital in Skavanga and excellent specialists, most of whom I know.’
‘I have no doubt that you have every confidence in them,’ he said, ‘but I have appointed the best.’
‘Oh,’ she mocked him. ‘I forgot for a moment that your money can buy anything, including guaranteed, trouble-free birth.’
He swung away so she couldn’t see the expression on his face. ‘It can provide a substantial buffer against any unpleasantness for you,’ he said, turning slowly round to face her. ‘And yes, in my experience, my money does buy the best.’
‘But it can’t buy me, or my agreement to your plan. Are you seriously suggesting a doctor who has known me all my life would let me come to any harm?’ she pressed him.
He shook his head. ‘I’m not prepared to take that risk.’ This wasn’t up for discussion.
‘Well, I’m not going to London,’ she said, holding his stare unblinking.
‘Did I say anything about London?’
She frowned. ‘No, but I thought—’
‘You’ll stay here on the island. The specialist and his team will come to you. You’ll have the finest midwife, nurses, and a paediatrician especially appointed for the baby. And as far as the accessories are concerned, you can order anything you want online.’
‘The accessories,’ she echoed as if mystified. ‘You make our baby sound like this season’s fashion must-have.’
‘Don’t be so ridiculous, Leila.’
‘But you don’t show any more involvement than that, Raffa.’ Leila’s face was tense with disappointment.
‘Imagine having a nursery at the castle,’ he pressed on. ‘I know how much you loved your turret room, and you can speak to my decorators, have the nursery decked out any way you want. The top stores will provide cribs and toys and clothes and strollers, and any other baby equipment you might need. You’ll have a completely free hand, Leila—’
‘But I’ll be a prisoner,’ she said with horror.
He shook his head wryly. ‘I thought we’d got past that Rapunzel thing. You’ll be free to come and go as you like.’
‘After the birth.’
‘Well, obviously.’
As he gazed around the room Leila had been using as an office he should have known that a carefully preserved sixteenth-century citadel with a sheikh’s ransom in antiques and furnishings would cut no ice with her. He was right. Those hormones hadn’t gone anywhere; they were merely slumbering, waiting to explode.
‘You can’t keep me trapped on your island when I want to go home.’
‘Just think carefully before you make any rash decisions. Think about what you want, and then think about what’s best for the baby.’
‘Don’t patronise me, Raffa,’ she said quietly. ‘I don’t need to think about what’s best for my baby. What’s best for both of us is for me to return home to Skavanga and my life there.’
‘I’m not trying to patronise you. I’m trying to do everything I can to help you.’
‘Then let me go.’
Her voice was barely above a whisper, but the expression in her eyes as she held his gaze was absolutely determined.
‘At least agree to sleep on it.’
She stood up, ready to go. ‘I will,’ she promised without much enthusiasm.
By this time they were mere inches apart. ‘What are you doing?’ she said.
‘I’m kissing you into compliance.’ Brushing her lips with his mouth to a lazy rhythm he felt her soften in his arms.
‘Get off me,’ she warned, starting to laugh as he continued to tease her. ‘You can’t get around me like this.’
‘Can’t I?’ His hands had moved down to cup the swell of her buttocks, bringing Leila into contact with the best argument he’d got.
‘You’re unscrupulous.’
‘Yes, I am,’ he agreed.
‘And a very bad man,’ she added with a shuddering sigh.
‘We’ve already established that,’ he confirmed, rasping the tender skin below her ear very lightly with his stubble. ‘Shall we continue this discussion in the morning?’
‘I’m not going to change my mind,’ she insisted, turning to stare into his eyes.
But she wasn’t going to discourage Raffa from trying his absolute best to convince her he was right either, Leila concluded as he swung her into his arms.
* * *
Raffa shouldered the door to his bedroom and carried her inside, kissing her across the room before lowering her gently onto the bed, where he stripped off her dress and tossed it aside. As it floated to the floor she remembered the incident with the thong, and warned him not to lose her dress. ‘I don’t want to walk through the castle naked to find it.’
‘These walls must have seen a lot of excitement in their time. Perhaps I should send the staff home and let you do just that.’
‘Then you should strip off too,’ she insisted. ‘Why don’t I help you?’
She lingered over every glorious inch of him, peeling back his top slowly so she could appreciate the bronze map of hard muscle...the flat stomach...the impossible width of his shoulders, tapering down to the washboard waist—
‘Let me help you,’ Raffa offered when she fumbled with his belt.
Swinging off the bed, he freed the tine. His jeans and boxers followed, and she was glad of her ringside seat as Raffa turned his back to stretch like a big cat. Every inch of him was bronze, and his thighs were towers of muscle, his legs so lean and long. His calves were powerful, and even his naked feet were sexy. She loved his naked feet. But most of all she loved his hard-muscled buttocks, those twin engines of pleasure—
She had to stop thinking about twin engines of pleasure, or she would lose it right now.
‘What?’ Raffa said, swinging round to stare her in the eyes.
‘Nothing—’
‘Liar. I can see what you’re thinking in your eyes—’ Sweeping her into his arms, he kissed her. ‘And I’m right, aren’t I?’
‘This won’t change my mind,’ she insisted as he dropped kisses on her mouth. ‘I’m going back to Skavanga just as soon as we’ve finished our business here.’
He laughed. ‘I’m not even going to ask what type of business you’re referring to.’ Lowering her onto the bed, he hummed with appreciation as he kissed his way down her body. ‘You do taste different.’
‘Better?’
‘Different,’ he argued, stretching out his length against her. ‘Rich and full—’
‘Like a carton of cream?’
‘Like pregnant—’
Making love with Raffa was different this time. He didn’t tease her as he usually did, and there was a new intensity in the way he looked at her, the way he touched her, and it was a dangerous development in their relationship that made her want to stay with him for ever and not just for the birth.
He was totally devoted to Leila as he made love to her. They had never been so relaxed with each other, or so intimate. He’d never felt so close.
Yes, they’d had sex many times, but nothing like this. This was reassurance from him to her, his pledge to Leila that whatever happened in the future the child they’d made would always be a bond between them. He took her slowly and with infinite care, but these slow, careful thrusts were as potent as their wildest sex had ever been, and she lost control almost immediately, her fingers biting into him as she screamed his name until he soothed her down.
‘Remind me to teach you some control,’ he teased her when she quietened.
‘Must you?’ she teased back.
‘Do you think I’m going to let you glut yourself every time?’
‘Why not?’ She smiled, and there was mischief in her eyes. Then, lacing her fingers through his hair, she brought him close again for more.
How could he resist this woman? Thrusting deep, he took her over the edge again, and again. He never tired of watching Leila lose control in his arms. It was the best; it was a sign she felt safe with him. And he would keep her safe. He would keep the baby safe too. However accommodating Leila might think him, nothing had changed. She would give birth to their child at a place of his choosing, which meant here on the island. He would not risk Leila’s life.
Abuelita was right when she said they were well matched for stubbornness, but where the birth of a child and the life of a mother were concerned he would take no chances, so, whatever Leila thought, in this instance history proved he did know best.
* * *
He cemented the growing closeness between them with a visit to his inner sanctum. Leila had already toured the cutting and sorting rooms in his laboratories on the island, as well as the design studio, but now he wanted to show her some of the world’s greatest treasures. As well as being a businessman, he was an avid collector of gems with an interesting history. These remarkable items had only been seen by his grandmother, along with a handful of sheikhs, sultans and assorted potentates, who appreciated the chance to view collections similar to their own.
Lights flashed on automatically as they entered the vault. The walls and floor were black marble, while the display cases were formed from blast-proof glass. He wasn’t surprised to hear Leila gasp. The lighting had been specifically designed to startle the visitor with a blaze of refracted light from the jewels from the moment they entered the chamber.
The Purest of Diamonds? Page 11