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‘It’s difficult to be casual any other way.’
‘I bet you always suit yourself!’ Polly condemned thinly.
Raul gave her a wondering and decidedly amused appraisal. ‘Five-foot-nothing tall and you’re nagging at me like a little shrew!’ he marvelled.
Polly could feel her temper rising like a rocket desperate to go into orbit. ‘I want you to treat me seriously, Raul.’
‘Then say something relevant to the present,’ he advised rather drily. ‘Vermont was months ago. Vermont was when I still believed I was going to collect my child and walk away. We’ve moved on a lot since then.’
He peeled off his shirt.
Polly stared, throat closing, tongue cleaving to the roof of her dry mouth. He was incredibly beautifully built. All sleek bronzed skin and muscles, a hazy triangle of dark curls sprinkling his impressive torso. She blushed and averted her eyes. ‘I’m not ready to share a bedroom with you yet,’ she informed him tautly.
‘I’m ready enough for both of us,’ Raul said with amused assurance.
Without looking at him, Polly sat forward and linked her hands round her upraised knees. ‘But I wasn’t prepared for this... Before you came here tonight, I thought we’d be applying for an annulment to end our marriage,’ she reminded him tensely. ‘And sex isn’t something I can treat casually—’
‘Bueno...I’m delighted to hear it.’
‘And...I haven’t done this before,’ Polly completed jerkily.
The silence spread for endless seconds that clawed cruelly at her nerves.
‘Como?’ Raul breathed in a near whisper.
Polly snatched in a shaky breath and simply squeezed her eyes tight shut. ‘I’ve never had a lover.’
‘That’s not possible,’ Raul informed her.
‘Yes it is!’ Polly said, almost fiercely in her embarrassment, desperate to drop the subject but registering by his audibly shattered responses that there was no current prospect of an easy escape.
‘Look at me!’ Raul commanded.
Her hot face a study of mingled chagrin and resentment, Polly glanced up and collided with incredulous dark golden eyes. ‘Some women don’t sleep around!’ she snapped.
Raul moved closer to the bed, his frowning bemusement doing nothing to reduce her suspicion that he now saw her as some kind of freak. ‘But you were at university...you must’ve had at least one relationship.’
‘Not a physical one. I don’t believe in intimacy without commitment,’ Polly admitted stiffly, doggedly fighting her own discomfiture. ‘And “commitment” is a dirty word to a lot of men these days. I may be out of step with the times, but I’m not ashamed of my views.’
‘Technically still a virgin,’ Raul murmured sibilantly, letting his glittering golden gaze roam over her with hungry intent. ‘I’m very surprised—but, since I shall be your first lover, I think I can handle the situation. And, as my wife, you can hardly question the level of my commitment.’
That proud and confident assurance hovered there for a split second. Polly lost colour and dragged her troubled eyes from him to focus on the bare pink toes which protruded from below the hem of her nightgown. ‘But you didn’t want that commitment,’ she reminded him in a strained tone
‘I’ll get used to it.’
Polly swallowed hard and took her courage in both hands, determined to go to the heart of her misgivings and be frank. ‘But if we share a bed, Raul...I expect you to be faithful.’
The silence thickened and lay heavily.
‘No woman tells me what to do,’ Raul countered with ferocious bite. ‘And that includes you!’
Polly froze, and then stared at the fancy silk bedspread until it blurred below her shaken eyes. Then she angled her head back and forced herself to meet the onslaught of his chilling dark eyes. ‘I think fidelity is the least commitment you could make.’
‘Dios...’ Raul growled, reaching for his discarded shirt in an abrupt movement and pulling it back on. ‘So you have found another weapon. Off the top of my head I could name a dozen married men and women cheating on their spouses...do you think they didn’t make promises?’
Polly’s heart was beating so fast it felt as if it was sitting at the foot of her throat. ‘But that’s not—’
‘This marriage is on trial, as every new relationship is. Do you think living together like brother and sister is a fair test of any relationship between a man and a woman?’ Raul derided with lancing scorn, black eyes raking mercilessly over her disconcerted face. ‘Do you fondly imagine that I will be a good little celibate boy while you sit back and smugly weigh up whether or not you can trust me enough to reward me with the right to share your bed?’
