The sight of it dried her mouth.
He lowered her and Luisa shut her eyes, wishing she didn’t delight in the friction of each slow, tormenting centimetre as she slid against him.
‘I thought you had spirit, Luisa. Why are you afraid?’ His tone sharpened. ‘Did someone hurt you?’
Her eyes snapped open at his husky anger.
‘No. I wasn’t hurt.’ Not physically at least.
Yet he was right. She was afraid: of these new overwhelming feelings. Afraid she’d lose herself if she gave in to this longing. That it was a betrayal of her moral code—giving herself to a man she didn’t love.
Yet standing here, bereft now of his touch, feeling the heat of his breath on her face and his body so close, desire twisted deep. Hunger for an intimacy she’d never had. Would never have with love, not now she’d given herself in a cold, practical bargain.
He’d robbed her of that chance.
The realisation was an icy hand on her heart.
She’d never experience true love. Would never have what her parents had shared. That was what she’d always hoped for, especially after the disaster of her first romance.
The knowledge doused her fears and made her angry as never before. Scorching fury rose, stronger than regret or doubt.
Raul had taken so much from her.
‘Is it so wrong to find pleasure together?’ He voiced the thoughts that already ran, pure temptation, through her head. ‘You disappoint me, Luisa. I thought you woman enough to admit what you feel.’
Luisa stared up into his hot gaze and wanted nothing more than to wipe away his smug self-satisfaction. For him desire was easy. No longing for love. No doubts or fears.
A tumble of images cascaded in her head. Turning on her heel and storming out. Or walking serenely, with a cool pitying expression on her face as she left him behind. None of them did justice to the roiling tide of emotion he’d unleashed.
Instead Luisa stepped in, slamming hard against his body. She took his face in her palms and kissed him full on the mouth. She leaned in to him till, with a flurry of billowing silk, they collapsed onto the bed.
IT WAS like holding a flame, or a bolt of lightning.
Luisa was all urgent energy. Her touch, her body, igniting explosions in his blood.
Sensation speared through him. White light flickered behind his eyelids as she pushed her tongue into his mouth in an angry, urgent mating. There was little finesse but her hunger incited the most possessive urges.
She grabbed his scalp as if to imprison him with her scorching passion.
Raul welcomed it, meeting her questing tongue in a desperate kiss that was more like a battle for supremacy than a caress.
He felt alive as never before, caught by a throbbing force that drove every thought from his head but one.
The need for Luisa. Now.
He growled in his throat as he lashed one arm around her waist and the other lower, clamping his hand on her bunched skirts to pull her tight against his groin as he sank back on the wide bed. He was on fire.
Splayed over him, she wriggled as if she too couldn’t get close enough. He pushed his hips up and felt her legs slide satisfyingly wide to surround him.
Yes!
It was as if she’d smashed the lock on his self-control. All those primitive urges that he, as a civilised man, had learned to suppress, roared to the surface, stripped bare by this woman who kissed as if she hated him.
He knew passion, used it as a release from the difficulties of life under the spotlight. But never had it been this blistering current of untrammelled power.
Again he rocked up into her encompassing heat and she pushed down to meet him with a jerky movement that spoke of need rather than grace.
Raul scrabbled at the mass of her skirts, pulling it higher and higher around her back till finally he touched silky bare skin. His pulse throbbed in his throat and his groin simultaneously as he clamped both hands to the taut warm silk over her backside. He could almost swear flames crackled around them.
The sound of her cry, a wordless mew of encouragement against his mouth, notched the tension impossibly higher.
Holding her tight, he drew her pelvis to his in a circling movement and sparks ignited in his blood.
A moment later he had her on her back, a tumble of silk and lace and femininity. Hands around her slim waist, he tugged her higher up the bed with a strength born of urgency.
She was flushed, her eyes a narrow glitter of heaven, her lips open and inviting as she gulped in air. Her breasts strained against the tight bodice and he allowed himself a moment’s diversion. He covered one breast with his hand, feeling her arch into his touch, her nipple a pebbled tease to his palm. He rotated his hand, squeezing gently and she groaned, her eyes slitting shut and her body moving restlessly.
With his other hand Raul was already busy scooping metres of silk up and away to uncover her calves, her thighs. But a man could do two things at once. He ducked his head and kissed her open-mouthed on the breast, drawing lace and silk and her hard little nipple against his tongue.
Her hands clamped his head close and her breath was a hiss of delight. Beneath him she twisted and bucked as if seeking the weight of his body on hers.
He’d never had a woman so wild for him. No games, no subtlety, just a devastating need that matched his own.
Such pure passion was liberating.
Raul let his hand skim up Luisa’s thighs to her panties, pressing hard and discovering damp proof of her need. It was all the encouragement he required.
Seconds later he’d loosened his trousers and freed himself enough to slide his length against her hot apex in a move so arousing he had to pause and gather his scattered wits.
Luisa wouldn’t wait. She circled her hips in hungry little movements that tore at the last vestige of his control.
Propped on one arm, Raul ripped away the delicate fabric of her panties and settled himself on her.
‘Is this what you want?’ His voice was thick, rough with desire and the promise of unsurpassed pleasure.
Azure fire blazed from her eyes. He read passion and something fierce and unfamiliar. But her body eased beneath him. She was enticingly soft, reassuringly strong and vibrating with erotic energy.
She panted for him yet he wanted to hear the words. Why, he had no idea.
He fitted one hand to her upthrust breast and felt her jolt beneath him.
‘Tell me, Luisa.’ He pushed against her, torturing himself as much as her with the luscious friction of body on body. ‘What do you want?’
Her eyes widened and he felt himself sink into their brilliance. She rose, tugging his head down and her mouth took his, greedily, tongue swirling and plunging.
Raul struggled against the force of her ardour and his own pleasure. But it was too much. Too close.
With a muffled groan he gave in and reciprocated, tasting her, almost taming her mouth with his then retreating so the kiss became a mutual give and take of sensual combat.
Using his thighs, he nudged her legs wider and settled himself at her entrance. He slid one hand over blonde downy hair to find the nub of her pleasure. One stroke and she shivered. A second stroke and she shuddered.
‘Raul!’ His name was a tiny, breathless gasp that shattered his fragile control.