Riad Dubois: The Complete Romance Series

by Avery North

  “I am so sorry,” she stammered. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  “I do, you followed your instincts.” He pushed a strand of blonde hair under her headband and placed an arm across her shoulders. Tilting her chin to look into her eyes, he saw the desire mixed with embarrassment.

  “Let’s go back to the Riad.”

  Chapter 3

  “They came in a while ago,” the porter told Gilbert when he asked if Raoul or Emma were in the hotel.

  “Thanks,” Gilbert went back to his discussions with the family. They were not happy with his brother; even his father had muttered the words, "Cut him off."

  Even for Raoul, that would be a bitter pill to swallow, especially when he would have to cut back on his spending. Anyhow Gilbert had more to worry about than his brother's expensive lifestyle.

  That expensive lifestyle was evident to Emma when she entered Raoul’s room. The air smelt of leather accessories and expensive aftershave. A bowl of roses on the table added to the heady scents.

  "Happy to be here?" Raoul asked his strong hands on her shoulders.

  Emma nodded. This was not her usual approach to dating, but it felt, her brain searched for the word, yes, it felt right. The light nips he had given to her earlobes on the walk back, and his arms guiding her up the pathway had added to the sense of intoxication.

  Lifting her face to look at him now, he began to kiss her, planting little kisses on her forehead, her eyelids, her cheekbones until he reached her mouth, and the kisses became hungrier, his tongue probing into her mouth.

  She responded to the kisses, his hand on her back holding her closer until he was bending over her to run his lips along her cleavage, his hands moving to cup her breasts.

  Swaying slightly, she felt herself being scooped off her feet and being brought to the bed. Reaching for him, she locked her hands behind his neck, feeling the black hair beneath her hands as she brought his mouth down on her own.

  Her kisses became hungrier as she felt his hands under her clothes, lifting her dress over her head, unfastening her bra and pushing down her panties gasping when his finger touched her clitoris.

  She reached for his belt feeling his erection under her hands and hearing his moan as she undid his zipper and eased his manhood from the boxers. Folding her legs around his hips, she drew him closer, until he felt himself entering her, thrusting harder as he felt her orgasm and orgasmed with her until they lay spent together.

  ***

  “Where were you?” Gilbert asked, meeting him in the lobby later.

  "Out and about," Raoul responded airily to the question.

  “Raoul, you will have to seriously change your ways if you want to continue in the family business. I have spent the evening undoing the damage you have done with the parents.” Straight talking was needed in this situation Gilbert had decided. A lot of straight talking. He could understand Raoul’s situation, but Raoul didn’t seem to understand how serious it was.

  “Raoul, you don’t seem to get it. They are talking about cutting you off. What will that do for your nice lifestyle?”

  Raoul sat forward regarding his well-manicured hands for a moment.

  "You see, brother, you are the one who doesn't get it. I like the lifestyle, yes, but I am not actually happy working with family. I have never been," he finished emphatically.

  Gilbert looked at him for a moment. “What exactly do you want to do? Become a playboy of some sort?”

  The sarcasm grated on Raoul. "No, not a playboy," he said, choosing his words carefully. "But a successful businessman on my own merit. I don't want to build my life on my parents' success."

  “And, yes,” he continued. “I do want something like this.” He waved his arm at the well-appointed lobby, the antique furnishings, the porters in traditional uniform.

  "But why not do something like this in France? You have the know-how from working with the old man."

  “Because France, Europe is stale to me. You don't understand. You have been away. You have established your own lifestyle. If I am to do that, I have to get away, set myself free from family and connections in France.”

  “To do that will cost money,” Gilbert commented. “How do you propose raising that?”

  "I will probably have to talk to the old man, or to their bankers," Raoul said with less certainty than before.

  “Good luck with that. But yes, it is a possibility.” It certainly seemed like the type of career Raoul would be good at. He had spoken of this several times; Maybe, he was at the point where he could achieve it.

  “Anyhow, here comes Louise,” he said as he saw his partner coming through the door. “She is probably looking for Emma.”

  “Raoul, have you seen Emma?” Louise asked as she lowered herself onto a couch.

  “A while ago when she came in,” Raoul answered. Best be economical with the truth for the moment.

  Looking at Louise, Raoul was suddenly envious. She was stunning and had brought stability to Gilbert’s life. Ever since she had become a part of his life, the parents had stopped fussing about the Marrakesh property. If he were to introduce a partner or a wife, would that guarantee him the parents' support?

  Taking the glass of beer Louise had placed on the table for him, he was forced to admit that all would depend on the girl he chose. The mother could be so snobbish it might just be difficult to find a girl to fit the bill.

  His thoughts drifted to Emma for a moment. He remembered her lying on the bed, her breath coming in gasps when he had orgasmed. And that body. Could he love her? Probably as he had done tonight. But as a partner, a permanent fixture in his life? Would the mother accept her? Hard to tell, he thought as the parents joined them at the table.

  ***

  Emma rose to answer the knock on the bedroom door. Probably, Louise, she thought as she pulled on her negligée. She should have gone down to join her earlier. But she hadn't bargained for what had happened with Raoul. But that was something she couldn't discuss with Louise, and she certainly wasn't going to reveal how the whole thing had started. It had been her first time behaving like that, but this was holidays. After a few days or so, she wouldn't see him again.

  "Emma, come and join us for a drink in the lobby." Even at this hour of the evening, Louise looked fresh in her flowered cotton dress.

  "Sure, just a moment while I get ready," Emma seated herself at the dressing table to apply a slick of lipstick and a spray of perfume. Brushing her hair swiftly, she put back on the headband and smoothed the folds of her dress.

  “Just to warn you,” Louise said as they made their way to the stairs, “the Dubois will be there as well. I think there is a row going on with Raoul, but hopefully, it won't be raised."

  Emma nodded and bit her lip to control the color that was threatening to rise in her cheeks again.

  Joining the group in the lobby, Emma marveled again at how easily Louise had slotted in with this family. Emma wasn't sure if it was something she herself could do, but for tonight she could try.

  Sitting down, she tried to avoid Raoul's eyes. She didn't want to betray herself by blushing again and especially not when his mother was fixing her eyes on her. Gratefully taking a drink from Gilbert, she sank into the comfortable couch and sought to follow the conversation.

  "Tomorrow, Raoul, we have to look at the reports from the Riad in Essaouira," the father was saying, giving his son a look that warned the following day would be taken up with work.

  “Sure, father,” Raoul replied. “I can do that in the morning.”

  Watching his parents exchanging satisfied glances, Emma listened as Raoul directed a question at her.

  "What are your plans for tomorrow, Emma? No trawling over accounts for you, I assume?"

  "No," she stretched luxuriously. "Tomorrow, I will relax. Go to the square in the evening, maybe."

  “Yes, that sounds good,” he directed his dark eyes at her. “Just you be careful down there.”

  "Yes, I will," Emma finished he
r drink. She couldn't understand exactly what he meant, but she was sure there was an underlying meaning in his words. However, it had been a long day, and she felt it was time for bed. Excusing herself, she left for her room.

  Watching the departing woman, Nicole turned to Louise.

  “Tell me more about your friend Louise. What exactly does she do?”

  Louise fielded the questions. This was just so typical of Gilbert’s mother.

  She needed to establish everyone’s pedigree.

  Chapter 4

  Emma had missed breakfast. The buffet had been cleared away when she got to the dining room. Well, she would just have to go outside and find a café. The girl at reception had advised the one next door, the one with the blue door.

  Pushing open the door, she found herself in a high ceiling room, the walls lined with tapestries and an intense aroma of coffee. Seating herself at a window looking onto the street, she waited for her coffee while dawdling over her guidebook. She had missed the best of the day by rising so late. So, it looked like a day by the pool until the heat died down later.

  Accepting her coffee and pastries, she was alerted by the sound of voices outside the window. Gilbert and Raoul followed by the father. Trying to make herself inconspicuous, she buried her head in the book.

  "So, Raoul, you have a proposal for me?" Renoir Dubois was tucking a napkin into his collar.

  “Yes. The accounts have shown that the Riad in Essaouira is not performing well. It needs more hands-on management.”

  “Yes.” The napkin settled to his satisfaction, Renoir continued, "And you are proposing I hand it over to you, have you run it as your own?"

  “That is the idea, yes,” Raoul answered with a confidence he didn’t feel.

  "I can't see that working very well. Your place, first of all, is as an accountant at headquarters. Having you here would mean replacing you in Paris. And secondly," he spread his hands, expansively, "your mother will never agree to it."

  “Does she have to agree?” It was Gilbert’s turn to make his contribution.

  "Yes, she does. This was originally her family's business. And we agree on all decisions made. You, Raoul, are going to have to prove your worth a great deal more before she will have you taking over one of the properties.”

  Raoul leaned back in his chair and flashed Gilbert a look of defeat.

  Gilbert, for once coming to his brother’s rescue, asked another question.

  “What exactly does she want Raoul to do?”

  The senior Dubois bit thoughtfully into a pastry before replying.

  "Your brother has to stop running around with unsuitable girls, focus on his work, and realize the family name has to be respected. That can’t be dragged into disrepute, certainly not in the way it has been done in the past.”

  Gilbert raised an eyebrow. Who was the old man to talk about unsuitable girls? But now was not the time to ask that question. Especially not now, as he saw a flash of anger in Raoul’s eyes.

  Kicking Raoul under the table, he asked instead, "What does she consider a suitable girl?"

  “Someone like your Louise or like that girl last night. Your mother liked her.”

  Raoul's expression visibly brightened. Finally, he was doing something right. Raising a hand to order more coffees, he turned to his father.

  “There is also another way of going about this. I would happily open another Riad, my own Riad. But I will have to raise funding to do that.”

  The father looked at him warily, “You were talking about turning one of our properties around, bringing it back to profitability. Now you are talking about opening your own Riad. And from what I am hearing, you are asking me for funding to help you with this enterprise. No son. Absolutely no."

  Shoving aside his coffee, the father rose to his feet. Gilbert glared at Raoul as Renoir marched to the door.

  “That one you have seriously blown. Could you not just be patient and do as I suggested?” Gilbert was on his feet as well. “I have work to do. That should give you time to consider what you are going to do.”

  Emma at her table watched the Dubois storm out, first the father, then Gilbert. Raoul should be the next to follow. But he didn’t. Looking at the table where they had been sitting, she saw him looking morosely into a coffee, his fingers fiddling with a cigarette. That must have been the row Louise had expected the previous night. Well, he certainly looked deflated. Putting down her book, she walked to his table, tapping him on the shoulder.

  “Emma,” he looked up astonished. “I didn’t know you were here.”

  “No, you seem to have been busy with the family.”

  He ran a hand over his face. "Busy would be, to put it mildly."

  His fingers itched to light the cigarette. "Emma, let's go outside. I need a smoke, and it is forbidden here."

  Joining him on the open-air terrace, Emma watched him draw deeply on the cigarette, sending rings of smoke into the warm air.

  "That will probably not solve whatever is going on," she said, indicating the cigarette.

  “No, it won’t,” he stubbed it out in the ashtray. Looking at her, he took in her yellow dress and matching headband, the heavy rope of beads dropping into her cleavage.

  "Emma," he said on impulse. "You have traveled to this area in your work for Prestigio, the magazine. Have you come across any properties, or Riads looking for new owners?”

  “One or two here in Marrakesh,” she gave him a puzzled look. “Are your family going to open more Riads?”

  He shook his head. “Not my family. I am. Where are these properties?”

  “I can’t remember, but the details are on my laptop, in my room.”

  “Can I see them? But not a word about this to Gilbert or Louise, understand?”

  Louise saw them poring over the laptop in the courtyard cups of iced coffee on the table between them.

  "Lunch folks," she said, leaning over Emma's shoulder before Raoul slammed the laptop shut.

  “No,” Raoul answered for them both. “We are going to a restaurant in Ville Nouvelle, the new city later. Time Emma spent some time in the French quarter.”

  “OK,” Louise smiled. This man wasn’t really the renegade his family seemed to suggest.

  "Yes, Emma. You are going to love a Ville Nouvelle dining experience, and we are going to be able to discuss all of this in peace." He tapped the laptop before leaning over to plant a kiss on her forehead.

  “Emma and your brother seem to be getting on well together,” Louise said to Gilbert over lunch.

  "Yes?" Gilbert raised an eyebrow. "Warn her to be careful. Believe me; she doesn't need to fall in love with him.”

  The father’s words about his mother liking Emma still rang in his ear. Raoul could still take advantage of that situation to get his own way.

  Rifling through his food Gilbert was suddenly tired of the ongoing drama that was his family.

  Chapter 5

  Ville Nouvelle was alive and buzzing when Raoul parked the rental car. Turning to Emma, he suggested they have a drink at a pavement restaurant and look again at the photos on Emma's laptop.

  “What exactly are you looking for?” she asked as the laptop was once more open between them. Devotion to work in the hazy warmth of a Marrakesh evening was something she had not expected from Raoul.

  “What am I looking for?” he selected an olive from the bowl on the table and chewed on it before spitting the pip.

  “I am looking for a Riad I can purchase and run in my own style, something like Gilbert has. But this won’t be another Riad Dubois. This will be Riad Raoul or Raoul and friend. I don’t want my enterprise to become part of the family empire.” He selected another olive.

  "You understand, Emma? I find the property, try to buy it."

  “But that will be expensive?”

  “That is step number two, raise the funding.”

  She admired his ambition but wondered if he had carefully thought through the financial aspects.

  "Will your
family help?" Surely not, she thought if he was setting up in competition to them.

  "Perhaps, if they think I am doing it right," he felt a twinge of conscience looking at her. Doing it right in his family's book meant bringing a suitable woman on board. He thought of the cash injection Gilbert had got when he joined forces with Louise. And by all accounts, the mother liked Emma.

  Putting those thoughts aside for a moment, he looked at the properties Emma was scrolling through.

  “That’s it!” he stabbed a finger at one. Positioned between the two cities, the old city and the new on a grassy site, this could have potential.

  "But price-wise? Will, it fit your budget?" Emma had never bought anything beyond her apartment in London and a car that had seen better days. And buying those had given her more headaches than she cared to remember.

  He looked at her thoughtfully. It certainly looked ideal, but she was still scrolling.

  "Got it!" she said, a gleam of triumph in her eyes. "I saw this one when I was here with Joshua, our photographer. Don't laugh. It is pretty derelict but has a charm all of its own. If I were in the market for a property here and could afford to renovate, this is the one I would buy."

  She pushed the laptop towards him before going inside in search of a waitress.

  Coming outside, the waitress at her elbow carrying a tray of drinks, she found him absorbed in examining the property on the screen.

  "Thanks," he said, taking his drink. "Yes, it is derelict but could have potential."

  He looked at her appraisingly. This girl was more than just a pretty face or body for that matter.

  "If you had the funds, what would you do with it?”

  As darkness gathered around them, Emma outlined how she envisaged the property.

  “Presuming I could get the builders and decorators I needed,” she stated.

  “That would not be a problem. There are some very skilled craftsmen here. It could be done and looking at the price of the property, done cheaply.”