by Lynne Graham
‘One point at a time,’ Raul intervened levelly. ‘Melina called me at the villa to inform me that, after wrestling with her non-existent conscience, she had decided that it was her duty to tell me that you were meeting up with Patrick Gorman in secret.’
In shock at that news, Polly felt her mouth simply drop open.
Raul dealt her a grim look of amusement. ‘I thought that would take the wind out of your sails.’
It did. Polly was poleaxed to realise that Melina had been working on both her and Raul.
‘Divide and conquer. Not very original or clever, at least not clever enough to fool me,’ Raul delineated grittily, shooting Polly a forbidding glance of reproach. ‘I didn’t believe a word of it, but I strung her along to see how far she was prepared to go in her determination to cause trouble between us. It also confirmed my suspicion that she had been working on you as well.’
He hailed a passing maid with a snap of his fingers and spoke to her in Spanish.
‘I want to know everything that Melina told you,’ he said next, his lean, strong face hard and unyielding.
‘Maybe you should pull up a chair. She said a lot,’ Polly muttered uncertainly, suddenly not knowing whether she was on her head or her heels, and getting the horrendous feeling that every time she parted her lips she was digging another foot of her own grave. There was no doubt that the more Raul heard, the angrier he became.
‘Her poison couldn’t have fallen on more fertile ground,’ Raul remarked grimly when she had finished speaking. ‘That first night she joined us for dinner I watched her with you, and I was immediately suspicious of her behaviour. She was too friendly towards you and too flirtatious with me...you should have come straight to me with the truth. When you said nothing, I thought I might’ve misjudged her.’
Polly grimaced, suddenly feeling such a total idiot. ‘I didn’t want you to think I was jealous again.’
Firmly closing a determined hand over hers, Raul took her back indoors through the entrance that led into his suite of offices.
‘How much proof do you need to trust me?’ Raul challenged. ‘We are about to face Melina together!’
At that disconcerting announcement, Polly gulped.
‘I sent the maid to tell Melina that I wanted to see her in private.’
Raul thrust open the door before them. Melina was inside, lounging back against Raul’s desk. She straightened with a bright smile that froze round the edges, her brow furrowing, when she saw Polly.
‘After all the lies you’ve told, I’m amazed that you can look either of us in the face,’ Raul drawled in icy condemnation.
Taken aback by that direct opening, Melina’s eyes rounded. ‘What are you—?’
‘I’ve been more than fair to you,’ Raul cut in. ‘When you came to me last year, distraught about your financial problems, I was sympathetic.’
Two high spots of red now burned in Melina’s cheeks. ‘I wanted more than sympathy, Raul!’
‘I paid you to act as my hostess when I entertained here. You were excellent in the role, but it was strictly a business arrangement.’
Melina’s face twisted with fury. ‘If it hadn’t been for her and that wretched child we would’ve ended up with a lot more than a business arrangement—’
‘There was never any question of that,’ Raul dismissed with stark impatience. ‘Dios mío... I learned my lesson with you at nineteen, but I was willing to help you as a friend. The lies you’ve fed Polly...and attempted to feed me...merely prove that you haven’t changed at all, Melina.’
‘I don’t know what you see in her!’ Melina raged at him incredulously. ‘I should have been your wife!’
‘You wouldn’t know love if it smacked you in the face,’ Raul responded with contempt. ‘Greed and ambition are no more attractive to me now than they were years ago.’
Melina reddened, sent him a look of loathing, and then seemed to collect herself. Tossing her head high, she parted her lips, but Raul got in first. ‘I expect you to vacate your present accommodation by the end of the month. I won’t be renewing the lease and you are no longer welcome here. A car will take you home.’
Without another word, Raul swept Polly back out of the room. Her legs felt hollow and butterflies were dancing in her tummy. She could not credit what a fool she had been to listen to the other woman’s insidious lies. ‘She’s never been your mistress...’
‘We had a brief affair when I was nineteen,’ Raul admitted grimly. ‘Although I didn’t know it, I was far from being her only lover at the time. She’s several years older than me. I was infatuated with her, but I wasn’t a complete fool. Melina couldn’t hide her greed. No matter what I gave her, she wanted more. When she realised I had no plans to marry her, she married a wealthy industrialist in his sixties—’
‘And he died?’
‘No, she’s been married twice. Her first husband divorced her; the second died, leaving her in debt.’
‘And that’s when she came to you for help?’
Raul nodded, his jawline squaring. ‘I should’ve known better than to take pity on her, gatita. She was always a bitch.’
‘She resented me...she was just furious that you’d married me...’
‘Dios mío, I didn’t even realise that she was hoping I might become involved with her again. I’m not attracted to her now, but she can be amusing company.’
‘I’ve been an idiot,’ Polly mumbled ruefully.
‘I should’ve made you tell me the truth. Your silence protected her.’
They returned to the party. Polly was light-headed with relief but thoroughly humbled by the awareness that she had been very naive in her dealings with Melina, and that it had taken Raul to sort it all out. OK, she had finally surrendered to the need to tell him the truth, but it had taken her too long to reach that point.
She wanted so much to be alone with Raul then, but it was impossible with so many people around. It was near dawn before the last of their guests dispersed. By then Polly felt stressed out emotionally, riven with guilt that she had so misjudged Raul and appalled that he knew of the suspicions she had cherished. And, worst of all, how could she have reacted as she had when he’d talked about loving her? Hadn’t he already shown in lots of ways that he cared about her, desired her, enjoyed her company? So maybe that still didn’t quite amount to her estimation of love, but it was probably as close as she was likely to get to being loved!
Raul thrust the bedroom door shut behind him, his screened gaze zeroing in on her aimless stance in the middie of the carpet ‘I wish every one of our guests would evaporate,’ he admitted with real fervour.
‘But—’
‘No buts, mi esposa, privacy is at a premium this weekend, but thankfully we’re leaving for London on Sunday evening. I have a surprise for you. Monday is your birthday,’ Raul reminded her.
‘London...a surprise?’ Polly’s cup of guilt positively overflowed. ‘I’m really sorry I listened to Melina.’
‘You didn’t know what you were up against.’ Reaching for her, Raul eased her slowly into the circle of his arms. ‘And now it’s time for you to keep quiet and listen to me.’
Polly gazed up into clear dark golden eyes and her susceptible heart quickened.
‘I fell in love with you in Vermont,’ Raul delivered almost aggressively, strain hardening his sensual mouth. ‘But I didn’t realise that until recently. I basked in your response to me then. You asked nothing from me, but your love made you feel as much mine as the baby you carried.’
Polly was transfixed. ‘Did it?’
‘I felt very possessive of you even then. I’m not prone to analysing my emotions...I didn’t have to,’ Raul admitted bluntly. ‘When you went missing, you went missing with my baby inside you, so I never had to question the strength of my need to find you both. I was always able to use Luis as a justification. And when I found it a challenge to keep our relationship impersonal, I told myself it was solely because you were the mother of my child.’
<
br /> ‘You were pretty good at convincing yourself,’ Polly whispered unevenly, almost afraid to believe in what he was trying to explain to her.
‘I even had a good excuse to marry you—’
‘I forced you into it.’
‘I could’ve said no, and I didn’t. You made it easy for me to avoid facing up to the fact that I wanted you on any terms...and then you vanished and I was climbing the walls with frustration again,’ Raul confessed, and shifted a shoulder in a jerky shrug that signified unpleasant recollection. ‘I was angrier than I’ve ever been in my life, and yet so scared that I wouldn’t be able to find you a second time...’
She rested her brow against his broad chest, disturbed that she had caused him that much pain without even suspecting the fact. ‘Oh, Raul... thought it was only Luis you’d be worrying about and missing.’
‘I didn’t know what was happening inside my own head,’ he confided grittily. ‘I even assumed that once I’d satisfied my overpowering desire to make love to you I would go back to feeling like myself again. But it didn’t work like that.’
‘It doesn’t,’ Polly agreed shakily, eyes stinging with happiness because believing that Raul loved her was becoming easier with every word he spoke.
‘When I came back in from that late-night ride and you weren’t where I expected you to be I really lost it, and that’s when I realised how much power you had over me...that was a very threatening discovery for me,’ Raul conceded with driven honesty. ‘And then it got worse...’
‘Worse?’ Falling in love wasn’t always fun, but Raul was making it sound like being plunged into hell.
‘With women, it was always easy come, easy go with me, and then you smiled at Patrick Gorman just the way you once smiled at me in Vermont, and I wanted to knock his teeth down his throat! It was so irrational, so childish, querida,’ he grated, with a highly revealing combination of regret and embarrassment.
‘I didn’t really notice...I was too busy worrying about Melina and my own insecurities.’ Polly winced at how blind she had been.
‘It slowly dawned on me that this was what love felt like...all these crazy feelings, and rage and moments of weakness and fear, and just needing you there all the time...’ His sculpted cheekbones were sharpened by a rise of dark colour. ‘Infierno...I can’t believe I just said all that!’
‘But it’s like that for me too, and, believe me, loving you was not fun when we met up in London again, so I tried to tell myself I hated you,’ Polly complained feelingly, but she wrapped her arms round him so tightly when she said it he wasn’t in any danger of feeling rejected on the basis of his past sins.
‘I wanted to haul you into my arms and I couldn’t let myself...and now I can,’ Raul appreciated, with a blazing smile of satisfaction and relief. He crushed her to him and proceeded to kiss her until her head swam. They ended up on the bed, discarding clothes with more haste than finesse, sealing their words of love with a passionate joining that released every last scrap of tension between them.
‘Yes, you do like being loved,’ Polly teased him as she smoothed possessive fingers through his damply tousled hair and met the tender look of satisfaction in his brilliant dark eyes.
‘You should’ve guessed how I felt at the villa, gatita. I don’t think I’ve ever felt that happy before...except now,’ he conceded reflectively.
‘Why are we going to London?’
‘Surprise...’
‘But I’m curious...’ Polly ran a not entirely innocent hand down over a lean, hair-roughened thigh.
Raul gave her a wolfish grin even as he hauled her closer. ‘You could torture me and I wouldn’t tell you!’
‘Am I going to be pleased?’
‘You’re worse than a child,’ Raul groaned with vibrant amusement, and glanced at his watch. ‘Are you aware that we have to rise to be hosts again in two hours?’
Polly was aghast.
‘And if I fall asleep on El Lobo’s back during the polo match, guess who I’m likely to blame?’
‘It’s only a game,’ she said comfortingly.
Lowering his head, Raul studied her with frankly adoring but slightly pained eyes. ‘I must be in love. Once I’d have slaughtered any woman for saying that...’
‘Why are you bringing me here?’ Polly exclaimed three days later as the limousine wafted them up the long driveway to Gilbourne, her late godmother’s beautiful Georgian house in Surrey.
‘Happy birthday. I bought Gilbourne months ago. A whim. Don’t ask me why... I came here looking for you and I remembered how much you’d talked about this place in Vermont. The estate agent was showing the most obnoxious couple round the grounds, and they were giving forth about how they would rip out the rose garden where you used to sit with your godmother.’
It took Polly the entirety of that speech to catch her breath. ‘You bought it for me?’
‘When we come to England we can stay here,’ Raul pointed out.
Polly was staring out at the other limousine already parked in front of the house, and then her eyes widened even more at the sight of the helicopter on the front lawn.
‘Who’s here?’
‘Your friends, Maxie and Darcy—’
‘Maxie and Darcy?’ Polly gasped, barely over the first shock of discovering that she was now the owner of the gorgeous mansion she had always adored visiting as a child.
‘I did try to bring them over for the fiesta, but Maxie’s pregnant, and couldn’t face the prospect of a long flight, so I decided to arrange the reunion here.’
Polly was touched, but she had also paled with dismay. ‘Raul... the last time I was in the same room with Maxie and Darcy it was like holding off World War Three. We all used to be great friends, and then three years ago it all went wrong. Darcy was getting married and Maxie was her bridesmaid, and Darcy’s bridegroom fell head over heels for Maxie. Relations have been strained ever since.’
‘But not so strained that they weren’t both prepared to come here to see you,’ Raul countered reassuringly.
And, minutes after walking into the gracious drawing room where all three women had last met for the reading of Nancy Leeward’s will, Polly was engulfed by a very warm welcome from her friends. Both Maxie and Darcy were chattering nineteen to the dozen—to her, to each other, and throwing stray comments in the direction of the men in the background.
‘I recognise Angelos from his photo,’ Polly whispered. ‘But who’s the other one?’
‘My husband, Luca,’ Darcy announced with lashings of pride. ‘Gianluca Raffacani. He’s Zia’s father.’
Since Polly had entirely the wrong idea about who had fathered Darcy’s little daughter, those twin announcements left her fairly bereft of speech.
‘They’re all listening, scared they’re missing something. Look, what do you say we dump the men for half an hour?’ Maxie suggested in a covert whisper.
So off they went on a supposed tour of the house. And Polly heard about how Darcy had called Maxie and had lunch with her a couple of weeks earlier.
‘We made up,’ Darcy completed.
Polly beamed. ‘That’s brilliant. So, congratulations on your marriage...and I hear you’re pregnant, Maxie?’
‘Never been so sick in my life,’ Maxie moaned, her beautiful face a tinge paler than was the norm. ‘But it should pass off in a couple of weeks. It’ll be worth it if I land a cute little sprog like Luis.’
They stood looking down on the rose garden where they had often sat with their godmother, and finally settled in a row on the window seat.
‘Do you think Nancy’s pleased with us now?’ Darcy said hopefully.
Maxie grinned. ‘She did me a favour...I got Angelos.’
‘Luca’s changed my life,’ Darcy confided.
Both women looked at Polly, and she went pink. ‘Raul’s fabulous.’
‘Oh, no!’ Maxie groaned with a comical expression of dismay. ‘I just know the men think we’re up here talking about them, and here we are actually doi
ng it!’
Hours later, Polly climbed into the elegant, beautifully draped four-poster bed in the main bedroom, marvelling that Raul had simply bought the furniture with the house and engaged new staff. He hadn’t worked it out yet, but she knew what had been going through his mind all those months ago. He had walked around Gilbourne, imagining her here, and he had bought the house as a result.
‘So what were the three of you giggling like drains over?’ Raul persisted as he slid into bed beside her, all bronzed and gorgeous and sexy against the pale linen.
Pulses quickening, Polly gave him a secretive smile. ‘That would be telling.’
‘You were talking about us.’ Raul lay back against the banked up pillows, his trust in that belief complete. ‘We talked business.’
‘Get away—you were in the billiard room by the time we came back, but you hadn’t closed the door, so we tiptoed up to see how the three of you were getting on without us around,’ Polly confessed with a growing smile. ‘And Angelos was talking about what a great mother Maxie was going to be, Luca was talking about Darcy’s amazing knowledge of antiques. And you were talking about my inborn talent for horse-riding!’
Raul rolled over and trapped her beneath him, stunning golden eyes laughing down into hers. ‘I may have exaggerated a little, but then it was male bragging session, and I couldn’t say what I really wanted to say...’
‘And what was that?’ Polly enquired, scarcely able to breathe for excitement with him that close.
‘I just adore you, gatita...’
‘Me too.’ Polly sighed ecstatically as he kissed her, closed her eyes the way she always did, and gave herself up without a care in the world to loving pleasure.
ISBN : 978-1-4592-5165-6
CONTRACT BABY
First North American Publication 1999.
Copyright © 1998 by Lynne Graham.
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic. mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography. photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited. 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.