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'Hmm.' Penny moaned her agreement; after the h of the nightmare this was a dream she could live with for ever.
But it wasn't a dream. Her eyes flew open. Raul was leaning half over her; his eyes, burning with a golden flame, stared into hers. 'You're sure?' he husked, his hand sliding down over her breast, tracing the indentation of her waist, curving around her buttock, and then she realised that her leg was still wrapped around his, and the hard evidence of his desire moved titillatingly against her feminine centre.
'Raul.' She was confused. 'Raul, I think—'
'Don't think, just feel, querida,' he said, and claimed her mouth with his own once again, kissing her hungrily. ‘I have dreamt of having you in my bed again for so long, so many sleepless nights.' He kissed her throat, her breasts, his tongue flicking the taut, pouting nipples-first one and then the other— biting gently. The abrasive feel of his jaw against her flesh and the teasing tongue-strokes were her downfall.
Penny moaned softly, her hands trembling as one slid up his broad back, the other down over his hard male thigh; she heard his harsh indrawn breath as she urged him closer, signalling her surrender.
'Dios, you are perfection.' And with a low groan he settled his long body between her parted thighs and reared up on his elbows, his black eyes glittering with a golden flame. 'I could never tire of looking at you in a thousand years.' He cupped her breasts, and then he kissed each one in turn; he fell against her, his hands curving around her buttocks, lifting her bodily to accept his hard length into her eager body.
Penny gasped, not with pain but with the exquisite pleasure of having him sheathed inside her. Her dazed blue eyes, wide with wonder, looked up into the black molten depths of Raul's.
He stopped, perfectly still inside her. 'You were always mine, Penny,' he said with a ferocious growl. 'Always.' And then he began to move his hips in a slow, pulsing rhythm.
Penny clung to him, her fingers kneading, digging into his broad shoulders, scratching down his back, her body naturally joining his rhythm, and she realised that Raul was right. She was his—always had been and probably always would be. Then her mind closed down and she flew with him as he increased the pace with a driving urgency that spun them both into the explosive ecstasy of mutual fulfilment.
Hours or maybe minutes later—Penny had no idea how long they lay, their sweat-licked bodies entwined in a sated daze, their ragged breathing the only sound in the room—slowly, with dawning horror, she realised what she had done. Did she have some deep subconscious wish to get pregnant again? she thought bleakly. Or was she just a careless young woman with overactive hormones. She cringed in disgust. Raul felt her shiver and, rolling onto his back, pulled up the coverlet with one hand and slid his other arm around her shoulders, curving her into his side.
'Don't worry, Penny; we'll get married in a few days,' he drawled, in a voice deep with exhaustion and a smug satisfaction that infuriated her.
She jerked upright in the bed, digging her elbow in his chest in the process. How did he read her mind like that? she marvelled, at the same time as she resented him for being so arrogantly sure of himself. 'No way,' she snapped, staring down at him, her blue eyes flashing with fury.
With the first light of dawn infiltrating the room Raul lay on his back, gazing assessing I y up at her. 'I want you and my son,' he said bluntly. 'And, considering what we have just done, marriage is the only option.'
'Just like that.' Penny waved her hand wildly in the air. 'You honestly think I will marry you simply because you're a great lover and...'
Raul chuckled and, wrapping his arms around her, pulled her down on top of him, pinning her to his broad chest. ‘Thanks for the compliment, honey,' he murmured huskily, cupping the back of her head and kissing her flushed cheek.
Penny wriggled a few times but gave up when she realised that it was having an arousing effect on Raul and he was simply laughing at her. Anyway, she was too exhausted to argue and wasn't really sure she wanted to. He had called her 'honey', just like in the old times, and somehow it seemed to ease her lingering resentment.
'Go to sleep. We'll talk in the morning.' Raul stroked her back in a reassuring, non-sexual way, and she did.
But when she woke it was to the sound of childish laughter outside her window and the realisation that she was alone in the wide bed. She jumped out, pulled the coverlet around her naked body and crossed to the window.
The huge courtyard sparkled in the bright September sunlight; her gaze roamed around the familiar enclave— the patio area, the gnarled olive trees, the more formal garden with geraniums, roses, a multitude of flowers lovingly tended by Carlos, and, set in one corner, cleverly screened at ground view by a trellis with climbing hydrangeas, hibiscus and bougainvillea, the swimming pool.
From her elevated position she could see the shallow end of the pool, and her heart squeezed with emotion.
James, naked except for rubber armbands, was clinging to the broad shoulders of Raul and laughing his head off as Raul kept dunking him in the clear blue water up to his armpits and swinging him high in the air.
The sun gleamed golden on Raul's dark head and glistened on his broad back; she breathed deeply, struck by the pleasure the picture gave her. In a subdued frame of mind she slowly washed and pulled on a pair of old white shorts that she had found and a cropped blue T-shirt.
She brushed her hair, flicking it back over her shoulder, and turned back to the window. Raul and James were sitting side by side on the edge of the pool, their two dark heads close together. She sighed, and turning, sat down on the edge of the bed to slip on her sandals. She had no idea of the time but guessed that it was late. Possibly too late for her, in more ways than one...
There was no denying that James loved his father, and Raul certainly adored James. Did she have the right to keep them apart, to take James back to Cornwall and her small apartment with no garden? The hacienda was a marvellous place for a little boy to grow up, even she could see that.
Then there was the added worry of the consequences of unprotected sex... No, she refused to think about last night; she was exhausted and depressed, and Raul had caught her at a weak moment. But she could not quite block out the memory of Raul's passionate and, yes, tender lovemaking, or her tempestuous response. A devilish question leapt into her worried mind. Did she honestly want to go back to being a working, celibate, single mother? Never again to feel the exquisite joy of Raul's caress...
She got to her feet and finally ventured downstairs; the antique clock in the hall said twelve noon and she turned scarlet. God! she'd been in bed half the day... It was deeply embarrassing to have to meet Ava's happy, knowing smile when she walked into the kitchen.
'Buenos dias, señora.' Ava spoke in rapid Spanish. ‘The master told me not to wake you. You needed your sleep. James has been washed and fed and is perfectly happy with his papa in the pool.
'Now, what will you have to eat—an omelette or pastries? I have your favourites; the master told me to order them specially for your arrival. Or perhaps you would prefer to wait for lunch? I have made fresh coffee. Sit down and drink, and we can discuss the wedding.'
All the time she spoke Ava darted around the kitchen, placing a cup and saucer on the scrubbed table and filling it with strong, aromatic coffee. ‘There is so much to arrange and so little time.'
Penny smiled; she couldn't help it, even though she was furious with Raul. Ava was brimming over with happiness and excitement. She had promoted Penny from señorita to señora overnight. She obviously thought that all her dreams had come true and that the hacienda once agai
