The Spaniard's Woman - Contemporary Romance (5 page)

‘I can. What I cannot understand is why it should be. If it is leaving this Grady that distresses you so, then I am sorry. He seems a decent enough man, even if he is not the man for you.’

‘Which is why you’re so determined to seduce me? Because you don’t believe Grady is the man for me.’ Rhianna observed bitterly.

‘One of the reasons,’ he agreed, angling a quick, sideways glance at her. The heat in that look prickled across her skin. ‘You belong to me, Rhianna but that is hardly a tragedy. We both know I can make you happy. We sill return to Spain together and once there, we will continue on as we did before.’

Shocked, Rhianna jerked upright in the seat. ‘Like hell we will!’ If there was one thing that Rhianna was very sure of, it was that she would
never
return to the life she had shared with Gabriel. The place that had once brought her so much joy was forever tainted by that last day. And it would have to be one hundred times worse, knowing that he now had a wife whose bed he would return to however many times a week he saw fit to grace her with his presence. The fact that he still thought of Rhianna as nothing more than his mistress cut like a knife. Even without the presence of Dylan in her life, Rhianna knew she could never go back to Spain. ‘It’s not going to happen Gabriel.’

‘So assured,’ he murmured, shaking his head as if her insistence amused him. ‘We shall see.’

The words were both a threat and a promise and she glanced at him uneasily. Rhianna didn’t doubt for a moment that he was confident he would have his way. The wants and wishes of others would always come second to Gabriel’s own.

Her attention swung sharply to the here and now when the car turned onto the ramp of an underground car-park and headed down. She had been so focused on her thoughts that she hadn’t spared a thought for where he was taking her, although she had assumed it would be some place public, like a cafe. ‘Where are we?’ she demanded sharply.

‘The car-park of my hotel.’

‘No!’ Rhianna was suddenly panic stricken. The last place she wanted to be was in Gabriel’s hotel room. Just being in the car with him was torture enough. ‘I said a cafe.’

‘A cafe is too public for us to discuss our future,’ Gabriel said dismissively. ‘Do you really want me to make love to you in front of an audience?’

‘I don’t want you to make love to me at
all
,’ Rhianna replied, voice shaky.

‘Yes you do. You’re body craves it even as your rational mind rejects it. You wish to punish me for sending you away and I can understand that. But you cannot deny your feelings for me, no matter how much you want to.’ There was a note in his voice that triggered a responsive shiver of acknowledgement inside her. His voice promised a world of sensual delights just as soon as she surrendered to him and a part of her wanted him to fulfill that promise. He swung the car into a bay and killed the engine. The sudden silence was disturbing.

‘Please, Gabriel -’

‘You talk too much. You need to talk less and to feel more,’ he observed impatiently, turning in the seat. Reaching across, he turned her face towards him, holding her firmly in place when she would have looked away and his mouth silence any further protests. Once again, Rhianna felt that sweet flare of heat deep within, the blind, helpless acknowledgement of her body to his dominant masculinity and in the space of a heartbeat she was returning his kiss with the same eager hunger. Without thinking, she reached for him, weaving her fingers through his thick hair while her body strained forward, wanting more.

This time, the kiss was brief. Gabriel pulled his head back, breathing hard, eyes black with the urgency of his need. ‘Only a saint could resist a mouth like yours,
mi dulce
, and I am no saint!’ he muttered unevenly, ‘If we continue like this we will never reach my hotel suite and I want to make love to you in a bed.’

Rhianna fell back in her seat, despair warring with desire in almost equal measure.

‘I want... I need us to talk before...’ The words stalled. How could she convince him to have a rational discussion when she was behaving like this?

‘Talking is getting us nowhere,’ Gabriel pointed out, an edge to his voice.

Rhianna turned her great green eyes towards him, brilliant with tears of frustration and fear. ‘Gabriel, you must see that this isn’t fair. You can’t walk back into my life and expect me to just drop everything so that you can take up where you left off. I have a life here, a job, friends.’

He stared at her, the beautifully angled planes of his face a mixture of light and shadow. He looked, Rhianna thought irrelevantly, like a picture she had once seen in Rome of an angel, proud and unassailable. The dark hair curled slightly around his temples, a more adult version of her son’s unruly black curls and her heart contracted with sudden pain.

‘You will talk,’ he said finally. ‘And I will talk. And neither of us will have gained anything. Talking is merely going to confuse matters between us,
mi
Rhianna. I can give you something far more satisfying than words.’

Rhianna bit her lip. ‘Then I want to back home.’

‘I have no intention of making love to you in another man’s house.’

She flushed. ‘Damn it Gabriel, have you ever considered what
I
want?’

‘Oh yes,
mi dulce
. I have considered it and I have come to the conclusion that you have no idea what you want.’ He flicked her cheek lightly with one long finger. ‘So I shall decide for you.’ He unclipped her seatbelt and nodded towards the door. ‘Come. It is time to go inside. If you want to talk, that is where we shall do so.’

Rhianna stared at him, cursing the fact that home, unfortunately, was the last place she could go at the moment. There must be a way to make him listen. If returning to Grady’s wasn’t an option, then what
could
she do? She could insist that he take her some place more open but in his current mood, it was unlikely that he’d pay her the slightest attention. If she made a scene, if she let it be known to the hotel staff or the other guests that she was there against her will, she would earn herself a temporary reprieve but it would
be
only temporary and he would be furious.

She climbed stiffly out of the car, her mind racing. His arrogance was incredible but she knew that she should have expected nothing less. Gabriel would never change. He still thought he could have anything he wanted.
Well he’s not having my son
! Rhianna thought furiously,
he’s never going to take Dylan from me.

Unsurprisingly, Gabriel was staying at the Stamford Plaza, one of the most luxurious hotels in Sydney. He guided her towards the elevator and they ascended smoothly. Rhianna, standing at Gabriel’s side, shot him a sideways glance, trying to come up with some kind of strategy to help her escape what lay ahead. Her fingers curled into small fists of frustration. Gabriel towered above her, making her feel small and ridiculously feminine. Rhianna could feel his eyes on her averted face but she didn’t want to look at him, emotions in a tangle, frightened by what her eyes might reveal. Instead she stared fixedly at the elevator doors and wondered how she would find the strength of will to resist him when he decided to make love to her.

The doors opened abruptly to reveal a foyer and a vast expanse of soft blue carpet. Naturally Gabriel had a suite - when had the Ortega’s ever had anything but the best? - complete with a sunken dining room and a baby grand piano. Rhianna walked in as if she were walking into a lion’s den, her eyes flickering around nervously. She felt like a reluctant virgin on the night of her wedding, a ridiculous idea considering the man who had taken her virginity from her was standing right behind her, closing the door and shutting out the world.

Unless she thought of something fast, from this moment they would be playing by
his
rules.

Walking across to the window, she wracked her brain for something to say that would give him cause to reconsider his plan of action. She didn’t doubt his reasons for bring her here and it was up to her to produce something reasonable to deflect him. Given her performance back at Grady’s, protesting could shortly be the last thing on her mind if she allowed his mouth discovered her own again. ‘I wanted to get you out of the house,’ she began abruptly, staring out the window although she as oblivious to the leafy view of the street below.

‘So you said.’ He sounded amused.

‘I... I didn’t want Grady to see you. He can be very jealous, very... unreasonable. We’re to be married, you see. We’re engaged.’

There was a deadly little pause. ‘You wear no ring,’ Gabriel pointed out and she flinched the sudden edge to his voice.

‘It’s a recent engagement.’ Rhianna was too scared to look around, in case he could somehow read the lie on her face. ‘He wants me to choose the ring myself. So you see, bringing me here was a mistake.’ Deliberately, she turned and looked at him. ‘I belong to somebody else now.’

He was silent for a long, breathless moment. There was a code of honor in Spain that men such as Gabriel respected. Another man’s fiancé was considered out of bounds. The breath suddenly hissed out of him. Crossing to stand before her, he ran a hand through his hair. ‘I wish that made a difference,’ he said harshly. ‘I regret that it does not. But I have known from the moment I saw you the other night that your presence here was inevitable. I might detest the fact that my behavior is dishonorable, but we are here, together but my feelings will not be denied. I want you.’

Rhianna tilted back her head and stared up at him, green eyes glittering feverishly. She’d taken a gamble and it seemed that she had lost. ‘And what if I were married to Grady?’ she demanded. ‘What if I were another man’s wife? What about your precious Spanish honor then?’

‘An excellent question,’ he agreed, mouth twisting in distaste. ‘Believe me, little Rhianna, I am not proud of myself. I would like to think that if you were married... but the question does not arise. You are
not
married and I will take possession of you. Because I cannot stop myself. And it all starts with me rediscovering the delicious pleasures to be had in kissing you my sweet, sweet Rhianna...’

His mouth was heaven and hell combined together. It claimed her as his own, lips warm and possessive as they covered hers. For one long moment when Rhianna tried to recall why this was so very wrong before she melted, moving into his embrace, her body exultant at the sweet relief his touch brought.

Bending down, Gabriel scooped her into his arms, carrying her into the bedroom and laying her across the enormous, king-sized bed. His mouth never left her own as he straddled her, arms on either side of her head while he continued to pirate the softness of her full lips. Rhianna, eyes closed, felt a wave of exquisite sensation build within her, a tide of sexual heat that blossomed in the pit of her stomach, washing through her in a hot tide.

When his mouth finally did leave her own, it was to trail slowly down her neck, his lips grazing the sensitive lobes of her ears, remembering all the places that had once excited her. When his hands pushed her jumper up to expose the flimsy bra beneath, the tension within her built, small eddies of delicious sensation exploding like tiny supernovas inside her, moving towards a far greater wonder. Gabriel striped the garment off her, tossing it to one side so that he could continue to explore her body and she gave a soft whimper of pleasure. Long fingers dealt with the clasp of her bra and it opened, exposing the ripeness of her breasts and the slow build of pleasure suddenly accelerated, moving into overdrive when his tongue slid teasingly around her puckered nipple, Abruptly, Rhianna arched against him, overcome by the inevitable explosion, gasping as pleasure overwhelmed her in a wave.

Gabriel gave a soft laugh. ‘My beautiful Rhianna! And as you see, I have only just begun...’

Caught up in the aftershocks of a wave of dizzying ecstasy, Rhianna opened dazed eyes and looked up at him. At some point he had stripped off his top and he loomed over her like pagan god, olive skin gleaming. His broad chest was beautifully sculpted, tapering down to the flat plain of his stomach where a narrow arrow of hair disappeared into his jeans. Rhianna shivered, recalling all the times she had taken great delight in tracing that fine line down, her hands eager to explore.

Gabriel, looking down at her, felt exultant fire race thought his veins at having the woman he had craved beneath him once again. The urgency of the desire he saw on Rhianna’s face was an echo of his own, urging him on. Despite his potent need, however, he was determined to hold himself back, eager to bring Rhianna from one climax to the next before he satiated himself. He wanted her, wanted all of her, to cover her body with his own and
imprint
himself on her somehow, so that she would never again be able to think of any other man but him. The knowledge that she had agreed to marry Grady O’Farrell cut deep and the memory goaded Gabriel on as he stripped the clothes from her, taking a moment to absorb the pale, porcelain body, so beautiful, so utterly unforgettable. No, he decided, lips twisting. This Grady O’Farrell would shortly be a figure from Rhianna’s past. It was Gabriel Ortega that was her future...