Page 44 of Raul's Revenge

'Yes, and you should not be too hard on her, Penny; it is a terrible thing for a woman not to be able to have children. I think that is why Dulcie is the way she is.'

'You're right,' Penny said softly, thinking of the joy her own son gave her. 'But it still does not explain the photograph,' she tacked on.

'It was a celebrity affair, Penny; they took hundreds of photographs. It surprised me that they bothered to include Dulcie and me, when there were so many film stars and the like around. But I promise you I delivered Dulcie back to her fiancé, pledged a donation and left. Alone.'

Cuddled on Raul's lap, the solid comfort of his arms around her, she looked deep into his compelling eyes and knew that he was telling the truth.

'I have been alone from the moment you left me,' Raul admitted, his deep voice husky with emotion as his gaze roamed over her face only inches from his own. 'When I thought you were married to someone else I almost lost my mind. Ask Ava if you don't believe me. I made her life hell.

'I drank too much, until Ava stole my car keys and hid all the liquor in the house. We had a stand-up row, and when I caught myself lifting my hand to her the full horror of what I had become hit me.'

'Oh, Raul.' She was shaken by the bleakness in his] tone, and inexplicably she wanted to reassure him. 'You might look and act like a medieval pirate on the Spanish Main sometimes—' her lips twitched in the briefest of smiles '—but you would never hit a woman. I know that much for sure.'

‘Thank you, I think,' he said wryly, and brushed his lips across hers in the lightest of caresses before con­tinuing. ‘I threw myself into my work in the faint hope; that I might be able to catch a couple of hours' sleep at night without suffering the torment of the damned, thinking of you and how we were together. There has been no other woman in my life since you left me, Penny. If I can't have you, I don't want anyone.'

His strong hand moved caressingly up and down her back. Penny stayed silent, realising that they had both suffered over the past couple of years.

‘I will die a bitter, celibate old man without you.'

'You, celibate?' she cried, her eyes widening in shock. Raul had always been a powerfully sensual man, with an overwhelming masculine virility he had never at­tempted to hide—that much she remembered clearly from their affair. 'Bitter, maybe—celibate, never,'

she opined bluntly.

? 'You don't understand,' he growled with an edge of frustration. 'Nothing matters—work, the ranch; without you my life is meaningless. You are my life force, Penny,' he told her huskily, his mouth grazing hers again.

Her lips parted to respond, but the raw intensity in his eyes made her catch her breath. Then he kissed her brow, her eyes, the curve of her cheek.

'Surely you must know, must sense how I feel?' he whispered urgently against her ear, his hot breath causing her pulse to leap into overdrive. 'When I'm with you, intimately joined to you...' he groaned, his hard thighs moving restlessly beneath her bottom, making her aware of his aroused state. 'When I move in you, feel you clench around me, I know how paradise feels. I know the meaning of life. I feel as though we are one with the universe—an exquisite perfect whole that no one can destroy.'

And, slowly twisting, he laid her down on the bed, his long body half covering hers, and he kissed her hard on the mouth—a long, slow kiss full of unspoken promise that made her tremble in his arms...

'I love you desperately, obsessively, in every way there is,' Raul declared huskily. 'You have to believe me.'

Penny, her vision blurring with tears of joy, threaded her fingers through his black hair and held his beloved face firmly in her small hands. 'I do believe you, and I do love you, Raul. There has never been anyone else for me. Only you.'

He stared at her, the pupils of his dark eyes dilating with passion. 'You—'

She pressed her mouth to his, swallowing his words, putting her heart and soul into the kiss. Raul's arms en­circled her, his weight crushing her, but she didn't care.

She was where she wanted to be, locked in her lover's arms and at last free to declare her love with no fear of rejection.

Raul raised his head and took a deep, shuddering breath as he stared down at her. 'Lord, tell me I'm not dreaming.'

Penny playfully tugged his ear and he yelped. 'You're not dreaming.' She grinned.

But Raul did not return her smile. 'And will you marry me, Penny, be my wife, my love?' he asked bluntly. 'No more doubt, no more running away. I couldn't stand to lose you a second time.'

'You aren't asking me to marry you simply to get James? Dulcie hinted as much,' Penny voiced her last secret fear.

'Damn Dulcie! I love James, and I want to be a good father to him and—God willing—watch him grow into a fine man. But you I love more than life; without you everything else will lose its lustre. Marry me. Please...' The wealth of feeling in his impassioned plea convinced Penny.

'Yes, Raul.'

The soft avowal was all it took. In minutes they were both naked, Penny's hands clenched on his shoulders, her head threshing from side to side, her eyes closed in ecstasy as Raul kissed every inch of her body with a burning intensity, worshipping her feminine form, parting her thighs, his caresses unbelievably intimate.

'You're so sexy, so hot,' he growled against her stomach. Then, rearing up, he lifted her to accept his pulsing manhood. 'You do want me,' he shouted hoarsely. 'You do.'

She felt the pleasure, the excitement pounding through her body, and did not begrudge him his thoroughly mas­culine growl of triumph.

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