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‘Slow down,’ he said as she reached for him.
‘I don’t want to slow down.’ She’d waited a lifetime to experience closeness and had no intention of wasting a single second of the night. She didn’t need reminding that her reality lay in Madrid, and that this was a fantasy that probably wouldn’t travel as well as the precious recipes she’d collected in the mountains.
Gasping with pleasure at the touch of his hands, she arched her naked back, inviting more of his kisses. He didn’t keep her waiting...for anything.
Suckling her nipples while she writhed beneath him, he sank his face deep and rasped his stubble very lightly against her breasts. ‘I love your body.’
She answered by winding her legs around him. ‘And I love yours, so don’t stop this time. Don’t ever stop,’ she instructed in a whisper as he paused to tease.
Working her hips urgently, she hunted for more contact. ‘Oh, please... I need this.’
‘It’s your first time,’ he reminded her as he raised himself high on his fists, and then he kissed her into silence, telling her she was beautiful as he moved down the bed.
He lavished kisses and caresses everywhere but where she needed him most, heating her with his breath in a way that sent her arousal soaring. She was so pale against his dark skin in the moonlight, but the gulf between them went a lot deeper than that, Sadie thought as she moved restlessly on the bed. Here in the unlikely setting of a Romani caravan hidden away in the mountains, she was Sadie and he was Alejandro, and it was as simple as that, but when they returned to Madrid—
‘Stop,’ he said, breaking into her thoughts. ‘You’re tensing, and I know that’s because you’re thinking about things that might never happen and if I’m the cause of that, I’ll stop.’
‘So, it doesn’t matter that I’m a chef and you’re a—?’
‘Irrelevant,’ he stated flatly, ‘and I don’t want to hear that ever again. There is no status in the mountains, and none between you and me, wherever we might be. Your responsibilities while you’re here extend only as far as the right to enjoy yourself, and to gain whatever knowledge you think appropriate to your work.’
‘Like this?’ she queried, smiling.
Alejandro laughed and the tension between them dissolved, along with Sadie’s doubts. Kisses, awareness and arousal filled her world as Alejandro pleasured her with all the skill she had expected. Trembling with urgency beneath him, she held her breath as he brought her to the edge and kept her there. Cupping her buttocks with one hand, he increased his attention with the other hand until control became impossible. With a scream she let go and was still in the throes of unimaginable pleasure when he spread her legs wide and knelt between them.
Taking her slowly and carefully with the lightest shallow thrust, he pulled back before repeating the action several times, on each occasion moving a little deeper, until at last he had taken possession of her body. A brief moment of discomfort was easily eclipsed by the enormity of the pleasure.
‘I’ll never get enough of you,’ he said as she groaned with surprised delight and approval.
Reaching up, she brought him close for more kisses, and it was a long time later, when she was snuggled safe in his arms, that she sighed with contentment and drifted off to sleep. Some time in the night she woke up, and immediately turned to look for Alejandro. ‘You’re not asleep,’ she whispered with concern.
‘I’m watching over you,’ he said.
‘More dark angel than guardian angel,’ she remarked as she smiled and ran a fingertip down the side of his stubble-blackened jaw.
‘I wouldn’t argue with that,’ he growled as he caught her finger in his mouth. His suckling it forced her to acknowledge the sweet, demanding pulses of her body.
‘More?’ Alejandro suggested as she moved restlessly on the bed.
‘Please...’
He smiled against her mouth. ‘Ride me,’ he whispered.
He helped her with his hands guiding her buttocks, but as the need inside her grew she didn’t need him, and worked furiously to bring them both the release they craved. It was an explosion of passion that rocked the caravan, as well as Sadie, to her foundations. The starburst of pleasure was seemingly endless, and with each pleasure wave she felt closer and closer to Alejandro. When she was finally quiet again, she sank on top of him, gasping for breath.
‘Better now?’ he murmured as he stroked her hair to soothe her down. Wrapping her in his arms, he brought her beneath him to drop kisses on her mouth that tempted her to believe this was for ever.
‘What?’ he probed when she stared off into the middle distance.
‘You. Me. Everything,’ she said.
Alejandro moved to lie beside her so they could look at each other in the darkness. ‘Haven’t I reassured you?’ he asked. ‘Is the past still haunting you? And if it is, what can I do to help?’
Sadie laughed softly. ‘Where do I start?’
‘By being proud of the fact that whatever happened in the past, you came through and made a successful life for yourself. That should be your starting point,’ Alejandro insisted.
‘I do love my work,’ she admitted, thinking about the busy kitchen in Madrid. ‘I’ll never be able to thank Chef Sorollo enough for giving me that first chance.’
‘I imagine he’s glad he found you,’ Alejandro observed. ‘So, that’s not the problem. It goes back a lot further than that. Can you talk about it?’
‘It’s not easy.’
‘I didn’t expect it to be,’ he assured her in a wry tone that matched her thinking.
Heaving in a breath, she began. ‘When my father died, I hoped that my mother would feel safe at last, and we could be reconciled and face the future together, but that wasn’t to be. Nothing changed about her attitude towards me when my father died. Nothing at all.’
‘That’s hard for me to understand,’ Alejandro admitted.
‘Because you were raised surrounded by love and warmth.’
‘Which I took for granted.’
‘But you’re aware of it, and it made you confident and strong.’
‘You’re confident and strong,’ he argued.
‘In some ways, yes,’ Sadie agreed.
‘Why not all ways?’ Alejandro queried, pulling his head back to stare into her eyes. ‘You built your own sturdy foundations, while mine were built for me, so who’s the stronger person now?’
She was silent for a while, and then she admitted with a crooked smile, ‘I guess we’re both strong.’
‘Exactly,’ Alejandro agreed, and from tender amusement his expression darkened to one she recognised, and, reaching for each other, they made love again.
* * *
She must have slept for hours. It was chilly when she woke up...and no wonder...she was alone and naked, and there was no sign of Alejandro. Panic scorched through her veins. Thinking back to the previous night should have eased her fears, consisting as it had of passion, fun and tenderness. But where was he? The shower block, maybe?
Her body was still throbbing with pleasure and the memory of Alejandro’s touch as she tossed the bedclothes into some sort of order and got dressed.
He wasn’t in the shower block, so perhaps he had taken his horse for an early ride. He had to be somewhere nearby. He wouldn’t just leave. Making love had brought them so close that disappearing without a word was surely impossible?
She’d never experienced anything like it before, Sadie mused as she walked through the camp. Far from the discomfort she’d been expecting for her first time, Alejandro had made it perfect. But it was more than physical pleasure that she’d taken from last night. Bodies shared, eyes connecting, spirits soaring, and the humour! She hadn’t expected that. And the more they’d laughed, the wilder they’d become. Then later, when he’d made love to her slowly and so very thoroughly, she’d felt complete. She wasn’t a
lone anymore. There was magic in the mountains, Sadie concluded as she spun around, propelled by sheer joy. She had absolutely no doubt of that now.
Half an hour later, she wasn’t so sure. Having searched every inch of the camp, she was starting to worry, and when she asked one of the dancers, the woman said bluntly, ‘He’s gone.’
Air gushed from Sadie’s lungs. ‘Gone? Gone where? Gone riding, do you mean?’ she asked tensely.
‘No.’
Sadie’s heart clenched tight as the woman gazed up at the sky. When she followed that gaze, she saw the sleek black helicopter on the point of disappearing behind a cloud.
