Her reward was a brief kiss pressed to her stunned lips. Despite its brevity, it left her tingling all over.
Xavier’s gaze lowered, and then his eyes gleamed and colour rose high on his cheekbones. Wynne glanced down to see her nipples peaking through the thin silk of her dress. Heat flushed up her neck and into her face, and she had to fight the urge to fold her arms to cover her chest.
He reached out and took her hand, as if sensing her embarrassment. His smile was so slow and so full of sin her heart started to hammer.
‘Would it be of any comfort if I told you that you have the same effect on me?’
She stared at him, and then she smiled. ‘That’s a very great comfort.’
He stared at her mouth as if mesmerised, before shaking himself and shifting on his chair. ‘I was going to take you to the casino once we were done here. I thought it would be amusing to give you a handful of chips to fritter away at roulette.’
‘Casinos are fun.’ It was hard to form words when everything inside her had grown so tight with need. ‘But I don’t hold with gambling.’
‘There is no problem as long as one does not gamble away more than one can afford to lose.’
It suddenly seemed as if there were a subtext to this conversation, but she couldn’t quite grasp it. Talk of gambling, though, had her mind turning to Aggie and Lorenzo.
‘Camilla and I had been dating for eight months when she became pregnant with Luis.’
The fact that he’d decided to answer her previous question momentarily threw her. ‘Were you in love with her?’
‘I was very taken with her, but I do not believe I was ever in love with her. Still, I was fully prepared to commit myself to her for life.’ He traced his finger around the candleholder. ‘And you do not have to be in love with someone for them to have the power to hurt you.’
That was true enough. ‘What happened?’
‘I was very pleased that we were expecting a child.’ He went silent, his lips briefly turning white. ‘She told me that if I didn’t marry her she would abort our baby.’
That was emotional blackmail! It took a moment before she trusted her voice enough to speak. ‘So you married her.’
‘It did not seem like such a bad idea. She always made me laugh, and would very often do things with the object of pleasing me. I lavished her with attention and gifts, and escorted her to the society events that she so loved. I have known marriages based on less compatibility.’
Compatibility? Where was the passion and excitement, the romance?
‘What happened?’
‘Once we were married, and Luis was born, she gave up all pretence of liking me.’
She rocked back, shocked. ‘If she didn’t like you, why did she marry you?’
He shrugged, but she sensed the pain behind it.
‘I expect she wanted the position in society that being my wife would give her. I believe she deliberately became pregnant to make that happen.’
‘That’s appalling!’
Not to mention foolish. To have Xavier and then throw him away—the woman must have rocks in her head!
‘I completely misjudged her. And when I finally saw her for what she was I realised I’d married a woman like my grandmother.’
She leaned towards him. ‘Lorenzo’s wife?’
‘Yes.’ His nostrils flared. ‘My grandmother was seemingly proper and respectable, but she had a cold heart and a sense of superiority that could make one feel humiliated and insignificant. She made Lorenzo’s life hell.’
Her heart burned. Poor Lorenzo. And poor Xavier, witnessing his grandfather’s heartbreak at such a young age.
‘When I realised the resemblance between Camilla and my grandmother I could not stand to remain married to her another second. And, as she never showed the slightest interest in Luis, I felt no compunction in offering her a financial incentive to sign custody of Luis over to me.’
‘You’ve never prevented her from seeing Luis, though?’
‘No.’ His lips thinned. ‘But she does not take the trouble to see him often. She makes dates with him and then cancels at the last moment. Dios, I sometimes think she is worse than no mother at all!’
Her heart hurt. ‘You took a gamble that things would work out between you and Camilla, but your gamble didn’t pay off.’
In the flickering candlelight shadows danced in his eyes. ‘Luis’s happiness was the stake—and those stakes were too high.’
‘You are not to blame.’
‘But nor am I blameless.’
Her heart started to thud. ‘There’s something I have to tell you.’
He frowned. ‘This is something I will not like?’
‘I hope you won’t take it too much to heart. It was sort of in fun...’ She winced. ‘But it was a little mean.’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘Cruel?’
She drew herself up. ‘Absolutely not! We couldn’t have that or you might fall for me!’
He laughed, as she’d meant him to, but she found her own laughter becoming strained. That joke had started to wear thin.
‘It must also be pointed out that I was provoked.’ She swallowed. ‘The thing is, Xavier, I have to confess that the theme for the motel—the Spanish theme that I wowed you with—that was Aggie’s dream. That’s why my drawings are so detailed and...and gorgeous. The two of us have been plotting to turn Aggie’s Retreat into a Spanish oasis since I was a little girl. If she’d had the money, Aggie would’ve renovated the place in a heartbeat.’
He sat back—away from her.
Her heart thudded and her stomach churned. ‘Are you awfully angry with me?’
Slowly, he shook his head. ‘No, but...’
‘You’re shocked at how well I can lie, aren’t you? I’m an excellent liar. I’ve always been able to keep a straight face.’
He reached out to curl a finger around a lock of her hair. Inside her a pulse started to pound.
‘It is not that. As you pointed out—you were provoked. The opportunity to put me in my place would, I suspect, have been irresistible to your sense of...fun.’
She grimaced.
‘Your grandmother and my grandfather—they loved each other.’
‘Yes.’
‘It is sad that their falling out prevented them from being together.’
‘And yet if they had married we wouldn’t be here.’ She glanced down at the candle. ‘It seems Lorenzo’s family didn’t approved of Aggie. Family pressure—family duty—can be hard to resist.’
‘True, but it can be resisted.’
‘But if Lorenzo was so angry with Aggie...thought she didn’t love him...’ She bit back a sigh. ‘I so wish she’d gone after him.’
‘And yet, as you say, if she had we would not be here now.’ He tugged gently on her hair. ‘And I am very glad I am here with you now.’
CHAPTER TEN
TOUCHING HER HAIR was not enough. He wanted to touch all of her. He forced his hands back to the table, away from temptation.
She sent him a smile. ‘It does no good to dwell on a past we can’t change.’
As she spoke a tightness in his chest loosened, and then it slipped away. He should say something, but he found it hard to concentrate on words. His attention kept snagging on the frosted shine of her lips and the way the material of her dress moved across her body whenever she shifted on her seat. Lust and need coursed through him, leaving him ragged...and oddly energised.
The high colour on her cheekbones told him he’d been staring.
‘Stop looking at me like that, Xavier.’
His fingers ached with the need to touch her. ‘Like what?’
She slanted him a smile that had his blood smouldering.
‘Don’t be coy. You know exac
tly what I mean. The way you’ve been looking at me should come with an R-rated warning.’
Even through the haze of desire she could make him laugh. Her own glances had been shyer than his, and more circumspect, but the attraction she felt for him was unmistakable. Her every stolen glance felt like a caress against his skin.
He leaned in closer and dragged a breath of jasmine-scented woman into his lungs. ‘Would you dance with me?’ His skin ached with the need to hold her close.
‘Yes...’
Her breathlessness speared straight to his groin. He started to rise.
‘But not in public.’
He fell back into his seat, his heart hammering.
‘I have a smooth jazz album at home, and an equally smooth Scotch.’ Her eyes held a challenge. ‘Would you care for a nightcap?’
His pulse thundered in his ears. ‘Are you sure about this?’
‘Oh, I’m very sure, Xavier.’
He didn’t say anything—just called for the bill.
* * *
Dawn had only just started to break—nothing more than a faint glow through the window—when Wynne’s alarm dragged Xavier from sleep. She clicked it off, turned back to press a soft kiss to his shoulder—an action that flooded him with warmth—then attempted to slide out of bed.
He reached out and seized her about the waist, and pulled her naked body back flush against his. The hitch in her laugh and the shiver that rocked through her pushed the last remnants of sleep from his mind. He scraped his teeth gently across her throat and she arched into the touch. He sensed her melting beneath him.
‘Xavier...’
She turned in his arms, planting a hand to his chest, but rather than pushing him away her fingers explored, caressed...relished. Her palm grazed back and forth across one of his nipples.
‘I...I have breakfasts to make.’
‘Mmm...?’ He nibbled her ear.
Her breathing grew satisfyingly ragged.
‘And in about an hour you’re going to have a little boy bursting into your room, looking for you.’
He grinned down at her. ‘Then there’s no time to waste.’
He couldn’t get enough of this woman. He set his fingers, his mouth and lips, his hands, to exploring her every curve, until she arched up to him incoherent with need.
A short while later they lay side by side, breathing heavily.
‘Good morning, Wynne.’
Her gurgle of laughter made him feel free. He turned his head on the pillow to find her smiling at him.
‘That was incredible,’ she said.
‘You are incredible,’ he told her. And he meant it. He’d never had such a lover. Wynne was so full of life and exuberance—and something else he couldn’t define but that now he’d sampled it he craved it over and over.
It was why they’d made love three times last night.
And again just now.
A shadow passed across her face. ‘I best grab a quick shower.’
She was gone before he could grab her wrist and ask if anything was wrong.
He sat up, the pillows piled behind him, ready for her when she returned—sadly wearing underwear beneath her robe. She dressed with no-nonsense efficiency. His gut clenched. Although she smiled in his general direction, her gaze didn’t meet his.
He sat up straighter. ‘Do you regret last night?’
She spun to stare at him. ‘No!’ She hesitated before coming to sit on the bed, just out of his reach. ‘I had an incredible time with you last night, Xavier...and this morning. It’s been amazing, but...’
Her frown made his chest burn. ‘But...?’
She moistened her lips. ‘It...our lovemaking...it was more intense than I expected.’
He froze. Por Dios! She hadn’t gone and fallen for him, had she? He’d warned her—
‘I think...I think it’s best if we give each other a bit of space for a few hours...give the world a chance to return to normal for a bit.’
He wasn’t sure he understood her.
‘I’m just feeling a little overwhelmed.’
That he understood.
She smiled, as if to reassure him, but a horrible suspicion had started to form in his mind. Last night had been intense. Very intense. Too intense?
‘Xavier, it’s not stopping me from hoping that you’re planning to stay in Australia for a good few weeks yet. So we can repeat last night’s adventures over and over...and over.’
She leaned forward to give him a quick kiss and then she was gone. Her mischievous grin did nothing to ease the suspicion growing in his mind.
Was Wynne in danger of taking their affair too seriously?
With a curse, he flung off the bedclothes, dressed, and made his way back to his own room. Standing under the stinging spray of the shower a short while later, he told himself that he needed to call a halt to things between them. He could not toy with her affections.
He recalled the slide of her hands against his naked flesh...her eager kisses. They had inflamed him with a passion he’d never experienced before. The slide of her body against his...her softness contrasting with his hardness... He grew hard and hot, as if he’d been months without a woman.
Growling, he turned off the hot water and stood beneath the cold spray, willing it to chasten his flesh, willing his body back under control.
It took far longer than it should have.
Towelling himself off, he gave a hard nod. ‘It has to end.’
Stalking into his room, he found that while he’d showered his breakfast had been delivered.
Wynne had given him an extra egg and an extra rasher of bacon. There was a note in a sealed envelope. He tore it open and read it.
Something to help keep up your strength. You’re going to need it.
She hadn’t signed it, but she’d drawn a smiley face. A very satisfied smiley face. He started to laugh. Perhaps they could risk another night. Or maybe a week. What harm could happen in a week?
* * *
He spent the next five nights in Wynne’s bed.
He ordered her to organise additional staff so he could take her out in the evenings. He took her to the casino, and he’d been right—watching her lose at roulette and win at Black Jack was incredibly entertaining, not to mention incredibly sexy. In turn she took him and Luis to play mini-golf, and then for fish and chips on the beach.
Her laughter became as familiar to him as his own face.
That was when he realised he needed to start worrying. Not on Wynne’s account, but on his own. He’d made it a rule not to become too comfortable, too familiar, with any woman. He had no intention of changing that rule now. Not for anyone. And Wynne understood that.
So on the sixth afternoon he tracked her down to where she was tidying in the drawing room, and made his excuses for that evening. He told her he had business in Spain he needed to attend to—phone calls he needed to make....time differences to take into account.
She simply smiled and nodded, his announcement barely rippling the surface of her customary cheerfulness. He’d readied himself for cajoling and pouting, perhaps even tears. Instead she agreed with him!
‘We’ve been neglecting our duties shamefully. It’s beyond time that I spent an evening with Aggie.’
Outrage he had no right to feel made him stiffen. ‘You need not worry about preparing a meal for Luis and me tonight. I will make other arrangements.’
She leant back against the counter, folded her arms. ‘Have I done something to upset you?’
The need to kiss her was so great it reinforced the wisdom of his decision to cool things down. ‘Of course not.’
‘Then why all this thunderous frowning?’
‘Just...business worries. Nothing you need concern yourself with.’<
br />
She stared at him for a moment and then nodded. ‘It must be hard running a business empire from a motel room. I suppose you’ll be thinking of returning to Spain before too much longer.’
Dios! Did she want him gone?
‘But I’m happy to cook dinner for you and Luis tonight. Especially if you don’t mind eating a little earlier.’
‘No, thank you.’ He refused to force his company on her. ‘We’ve imposed on you enough this week.’
Her lips twitched, that irrepressible twinkle making her eyes bolder and brighter. ‘Is that what you call it?’ she teased.
He couldn’t answer. Something inside him had closed over.
She tilted her head, a frown in her eyes. ‘Well...suit yourself.’
That was exactly what he meant to do.
* * *
The story broke in the tabloids the next day. The headline read: The Billionaire and the Bleeding Heart! and was accompanied with a huge picture of him and Wynne leaving an upmarket restaurant the previous Saturday night.
Xavier abandoned his breakfast to spread out the double-page news story on the desk. A hard fist knotted in his chest—a combination of anger at himself and anger at the parasitic journalists who sold other people’s private lives for the world’s entertainment. El diabolo! He should have taken more care. Why had he allowed himself to be lulled into a false sense of security?
The article linked him and Wynne romantically. It made it known that the two of them had been spotted at several trendy nightspots recently. It made much of Xavier’s wealth and success and Wynne’s social conscience. He hadn’t known she campaigned for so many causes.
He studied the rest of the photographs, dragging a hand back through his hair. The desire and the heat that he and Wynne generated could not be denied. In one photograph Xavier was staring at her with such naked longing...and tenderness...he had to wheel away and pace the length of the room. How could he have let himself become so unguarded?
What on earth would Wynne make of this? What would she think? He was used to this kind of media scrutiny, but she was not. Would she read too much into it? His hands clenched. Would she take one look at that photograph and declare them officially an item now? A couple?
The Spanish Tycoon's Takeover Page 14