Untouched Until Marriage (6 page)

The possibility that he might have misjudged Libby tormented Raul's mind throughout the dinner and the interminably long speeches which followed. But sitting beside her, inhaling her delicate perfume while his eyes strayed to the creamy upper slopes of her breasts displayed so tantalisingly above her low-cut dress, proved an even greater torment for his body. Lust was another emotion he had
not
expected to feel for his father's mistress, he thought irritably, shifting his position slightly to ease the uncomfortable sensation of his arousal straining against the zip of his trousers.

Libby was relieved when the after-dinner speeches finally came to an end. She had understood very little about EU trade policies or new business opportunities in China, and as her concentration had wavered she had grown increasingly aware of the man at her side. Raul seemed to have taken his suggestion that they should be friends for Gino's sake to heart, and throughout the meal he had subjected her to the full megawatt force of his charisma. He was a witty and entertaining companion, and every time he smiled she found it impossible to resist his sexy charm.

‘What's happening now?' she asked him as they stood up from the table and joined the throng of guests walking out of the banqueting suite.

‘Now everyone races towards the bar, desperate for a drink after sitting through two hours of dull speeches.' Raul glanced down at her, his eyes glinting with amuse
ment and a latent sensual heat that made her heart race. ‘Can I get you more champagne? Or would you like to dance?'

Libby glanced around and realised they were now in a vast ballroom. ‘I don't think I'd better risk any more alcohol after the two glasses of champagne I had at dinner.' She caught her breath when Raul slid his arm around her waist and led her onto the dance floor.

‘Wise choice,' he murmured, lowering his head so that his warm breath fanned her cheek. The feel of his lean, hard body pressed close against her warned Libby that he was a far greater risk to her equilibrium than another glass of champagne, but she told herself that she did not want to spoil their tenuous friendship by pulling out of his arms. ‘Relax,' he bade her, his voice as sensuous as molten honey, and she could not prevent a quiver of reaction when he traced his fingertips lightly up and down her spine.

She lost all sense of time as they drifted around the ballroom, hip to hip, her breasts crushed against the steel wall of his chest as he imperceptibly tightened his arms around her. Other guests passed them by on the dance floor, but she was only aware of Raul. When he finally loosened his hold and eased away from her the dull ache in her pelvis had intensified to a hot, frantic throb, and she stared at him dazedly when he steered her towards the door.

‘It's midnight, and we have a forty minute drive back to the Villa Giulietta,' he informed her gently. ‘I assume you would prefer to go back to the villa, so that you are there when Gino wakes tomorrow morning, rather than spend the night at my apartment?'

‘Oh, yes—definitely,' Libby agreed quickly, shame sweeping through her when she realised she had not thought about Gino for the past few hours. How
could
she have forgotten him so easily when he had been the most important person in her life for the past ten months? The truth was that Raul dominated her senses. Even now her treacherous body trembled at his closeness as he ushered her across the foyer and out of the hotel.

They were both silent on the journey from Rome. Raul appeared to be lost in his thoughts, and after one glance at his hard profile Libby closed her eyes in a desperate attempt to lessen her awareness of him. Eventually the crunch of the Lamborghini's tyres on the gravel drive told her they had arrived back at the villa, and as she lifted her lashes she could not restrain a gasp at the sight of the vast black lake spread out in front of the house, dappled with silver moonlight and reflecting a myriad diamond stars.

‘It's so beautiful,' she whispered in an awed voice.

Too impatient to wait for Raul to walk round and open her door, she jumped out of the car and headed towards the lake. But walking in her high heels on the gravel was almost impossible, and she stepped onto the lawn and kicked off her shoes before running down to the water's edge. The damp grass was cool against the soles of her feet, and the soft breeze from the lake whispered across her skin like a lover's caress. She tipped her head back to stare at the stars and laughed in sheer delight at the beauty of the night.

‘I love the way the moonlight casts a silver path across the black water. It makes you want to strip off and dive in.' She spun round to Raul, her face alight with pleasure.

Her boundless enthusiasm was irresistible, he thought, his mouth curving into a smile. ‘I'm all for you stripping off,' he murmured dulcetly, ‘but you may get a shock if you dive in. The water temperature drops considerably at night.'

Heat scalded Libby's cheeks. ‘I was speaking figuratively,' she mumbled, her heart jerking unevenly beneath her ribs as Raul walked towards her, his eyes glinting with sensual promise. He halted in front of her, so close that she could feel the heat from his body, and her breath hitched in her throat when he slid his hand beneath her chin and tilted her face to his.

‘What a pity,' he murmured, the amusement in his voice fading to be replaced with a stark hunger. ‘There's nothing I would not do at this moment to see you naked in the moonlight,
cara
.'

‘Raul…' Libby's faint protest drifted away on the breeze. She had wanted him to kiss her since he had walked into the hotel bar earlier and stared at her with undisguised desire blazing in his eyes. All evening she had ached for this moment. The chemistry between them was too overpowering to be denied, and now, as he slowly lowered his head, she trembled with anticipation and a wild, ferocious excitement that exploded in a starburst of pleasure at the first brush of his lips across hers.

Raul wanted to take it slow, to savour the moist softness of Libby's mouth in a leisurely tasting, but his plans were blown sky-high the moment he claimed her lips and felt her instant response. Passion did not simply flare between them, it roared into hot, urgent life, as untamed and out of control as a forest fire, consuming them both. He pulled her into the cradle of his hips and groaned
when she moved sinuously against him, his erection so immediate and so shockingly hard that there was no way she could not be aware of it.

Her breasts were crushed against his chest, and he could feel the hard peaks of her nipples through his silk shirt.
Dio
, he had never felt such hunger for a woman. Desire pounded in his veins and demolished his ability to think. His usual cool logic had been replaced with primitive sexual need and he tangled his fingers in her fiery curls and tugged her head back to expose the slender column of her white throat.

Libby could not restrain a little moan of pleasure when Raul slid his lips down her neck. Every nerve-ending in her body was attuned to the brush of his mouth on her skin, and a tremor ran through her when he trailed hot, hungry kisses along her collarbone and bare shoulder. Held tightly against him, she was unaware that he had slid the zip of her dress down until the strapless bodice suddenly felt loose. Heart thumping, she tried to ease her mouth from his to protest, but he increased the pressure of his lips in a sensual assault that left her dazed with desire, and when he finally lifted his head she did nothing to stop him as he slowly peeled her dress down until her breasts spilled into his hands.

‘You are exquisite,' he muttered hoarsely.

His voice was no longer coldly arrogant but rough with need, and Libby's faint spark of resistance melted away as he stroked his thumb-pads across her nipples so that they immediately hardened into tight, tingling peaks. Somehow, without her being aware that they had moved, Raul had guided her beneath the shadow of a tall pine tree, and she leaned back against the trunk,
grateful for its support as he lowered his head and closed his lips around one nipple while he continued to roll its twin between his fingers.

The pleasure of his mouth on her breasts was indescribable, and she instinctively arched her back, no thought in her head other than that he should continue to stroke his tongue across each sensitive crest. Nothing in her life had prepared her for this clawing, clamouring need that caused her entire body to throb with desire. She wanted Raul with an instinctive, primitive hunger—wanted to feel his naked skin on hers and to take the solid length of his erection that she could feel jutting into her belly deep inside her.

He tugged up her long skirt until it bunched around her waist, and she trembled with anticipation when he slipped his hand between her thighs, forcing her to part them slightly, before he ran a finger over the lacy panel of her knickers. At the same time he drew one nipple fully into his mouth and suckled her. The sensual tugging sensation sent arrows of pleasure from her breasts to her pelvis. With a little sob she arched her hips towards his hand, and caught her breath when he slid his finger inside her knickers and discovered the slick wetness of her arousal.

She had never allowed a man to touch her so intimately before—not even Miles, whom she had been so sure she had been in love with. This hot, pulsing need that Raul was arousing in her was lust, not love—she knew that—but right then she did not care
what
the feeling was called. She was just desperate for him to assuage the burning ache between her legs. She closed her eyes and let her head fall back, unable to hold back a gasp of wanton delight when Raul ran his thumb-pad
very delicately over her clitoris. The effect was instantaneous. Spasms of pleasure ripped through her, causing her muscles to clench; her legs buckled beneath her and she gripped Raul's hair as he cupped her bottom and lifted her, holding her tight against his rock-hard arousal.

‘Please…' The spasms were fading, but instinct told her he could give her so much more pleasure.

‘What are you asking for, Libby?' His voice was deep and harsh, slicing through the sensual haze that enveloped her. ‘Do you want me to take you here and now on the damp grass, in full view of the house?'

Dear God, yes! That was exactly what she wanted. For a few seconds Libby stared at Raul's hard face, all angles and planes in the moonlight, and felt a frantic urge for him to lie her on the ground, strip off her knickers and plunge his swollen shaft into her moist, willing flesh. But the sound of his voice and the cold gleam in his eyes catapulted her back to reality. What was she
doing
? How
could
she have behaved with such wanton eagerness that she had practically begged him to make love to her? ‘
Dio!
You said there will be no man in your life while Gino is a child, but clearly you will find it impossible to remain celibate until he is an adult. You are
desperate
for sex,' he taunted savagely. ‘But I warn you now: I will not allow you to entertain your lovers at the villa. Gino is not going to grow up with a succession of “uncles”.'

Libby shook her head, feeling sick as desire slowly ebbed and shame took its place. ‘I don't have any lovers,' she said shakily. ‘I've never felt like this before. You…' She closed her eyes to try and blot out the memory of how she had responded to him, and realised that honesty
was her only hope of convincing Raul she was not the immoral slut he clearly believed she was. ‘You make me feel things I've never felt for any other man,' she admitted huskily.

Raul's self-control wavered at Libby's breathy confession, and the temptation to seize her back in his arms and pull her down onto the grass—to take her hard and fast, as his body was screaming at him to do—almost overwhelmed him. Almost—but not quite. Nostrils flaring with the effort of dragging oxygen into his lungs, he stepped away from her and watched her dispassionately as she dragged the bodice of her dress up to cover her breasts. There was a way he could have everything his heart desired: control of Carducci Cosmetics,
and
this sultry green-eyed witch in his bed. He would be a fool not to seize his chance.

‘In that case my proposition is even more tenable,' he said softly.

‘W
HAT
do you mean?' Libby gave a sudden shiver, her skin quickly cooling now that she was no longer in Raul's arms. ‘What proposition?'

He saw the tremor that ran through her and frowned. ‘You're cold. Here—put this on.' He shrugged out of his jacket, draped it around her shoulders and caught hold of her hand to lead her firmly across the lawn. ‘We'll continue this discussion inside.'

Libby would have preferred not to hold a post-mortem on the shockingly wanton way she had responded to him, but Raul's fingers were gripping hers like a vice and she had no option but to hurry alongside him. She burrowed into the jacket, which was still warm from his body and carried the faint scent of his cologne. She had forgotten to collect her shoes, but when they reached the drive and she picked her way cautiously over the gravel he scooped her into his arms and carried her up to the house.

He strode across the hall and into his study, and set her down on her feet before crossing the room and taking a bottle from the drinks cabinet. ‘Would you like a whisky? It will warm you up.'

When she shook her head he poured himself a drink and swallowed the amber liquid down in one gulp. She sensed his fierce tension and stared at him in confusion. ‘What proposition?' she asked again.

Raul swung round to face her, his dark eyes unfathomable. Ever since the idea of marrying Libby as a way to claim full control of CC had stolen into his mind he had thought of little else. The arguments for and against such a monumental decision had given him a sleepless night and had tormented him all day, so that he had barely been able to concentrate on the crucial board meeting.

He did not want to marry again. Once had been enough, he thought grimly, remembering his bitter divorce from his first wife. He valued his freedom, and was reluctant to sacrifice it, but he valued Carducci Cosmetics above anything—and there would be compensations to taking Libby as his bride, he acknowledged, as he slid his eyes down from her face to her pale shoulders and then lower still to the soft swell of her breasts revealed by the plunging neckline of her dress. She was so very lovely. Just looking at her evoked a dull ache in his gut, and he realised that he no longer cared that she had been Pietro's mistress; the chemistry between them was too strong to be denied.

And there was another important reason to marry her. Gino needed a father. Libby had stated that she would not bring him up with a succession of ‘uncles', but it was unrealistic to expect that she would not have a relationship until the baby was older—and Raul found that he hated the prospect of watching from the sidelines while the little boy called another man Papa.

Libby's big blue-green eyes were locked on him, and he knew she was waiting for him to speak. ‘I think we should get married,' he said abruptly.
‘What?'

She must have misheard him, Libby told herself dazedly. Either that or this was his idea of a stupid joke. Perhaps it was wishful thinking? taunted a little voice in her head. Why had her heart leapt with excitement for the nano-second when she had thought he meant that he wanted to marry her? She wasn't in love with him, she wasn't even sure she liked him very much, and she could not understand why she felt drawn to him.

‘I don't understand,' she faltered.

‘I want to bring Gino up as my son.' The quiet intensity of his tone told her that this was no joke and that he was deadly serious. ‘Let me explain,' he said when she gaped at him. ‘When Pietro and Eleanora Carducci adopted me they gave me a life that I could never have imagined when I lived in the orphanage—not just wealth and education, but love, and the stability that comes from growing up with two parents. Gino will never know his real father, but if we marry and I adopt him he will grow up with a mother and father, and hopefully siblings,' he added, his eyes gleaming with a sensual heat that sent a tremor through Libby. ‘Make no mistake: what I am suggesting is a real marriage,' he told her. ‘I will love Gino as my son—just as Pietro loved me—but I have no blood relatives that I am aware of, and I would like to have children of my own.'

‘Then surely it would be better to wait until you fall in love, marry a woman you care for, and
then
have children?' Libby argued. ‘Heaven knows, enough couples
who marry for love still end up in the divorce courts. What chance would a marriage between us stand when we don't even particularly
like
each other?'

Raul stared at her speculatively. ‘I thought we had agreed to become friends for Gino's sake? And I have to say that tonight I thought we succeeded rather well,' he drawled, watching her face flood with colour when she remembered the feverish passion they had shared down by the lake. ‘It is precisely the fact that we are
not
in love, and therefore have no expectations about our relationship, that makes me believe our marriage would work.'

He gave a bitter laugh. ‘I have tried a conventional marriage, and paid heavily for my mistake. Three years ago I mistook the sexual attraction I felt for my PA for love. Dana assured me that she shared my desire for a family, and we had a great circus of a wedding. But once we were married she continually found reasons why we should put off trying for a child. She preferred to live in our apartment in Manhattan and party every night, and she complained that she hated the villa and found life here boring.'

Raul's jaw tightened as he recalled how his marriage had imploded.

‘The only thing that made Dana truly happy was spending money—although she resented the hours I spent working to make it. At first I was prepared to fund her hobby, but she was a compulsive shopper, and if I ever suggested that she might like to control her spending she would become hysterical and accuse me of being a tyrant who wanted to keep her barefoot and pregnant. Not that her falling pregnant was ever likely,' he said flatly. ‘After a year of increasingly bitter rows it
was clear that the marriage was a disaster, and during one of our many screaming matches Dana admitted she had lied about wanting children, and had only married me because I was wealthy enough to give her the extravagant lifestyle she craved. We agreed to divorce and I offered her a generous settlement, including the Manhattan apartment. But that wasn't enough for my dear ex-wife. She wanted every last drop of blood she could squeeze out of me, and even made a claim on the Villa Giulietta.'

‘But I thought you said she hated the villa?' Libby said faintly, stunned by the revelation that Raul had once been married. His past relationships were of no interest to her, she reminded herself, so why did she feel so stupidly jealous of his ex-wife?

‘Dana knew I would pay whatever she demanded in return for her agreement to relinquish her rights to the villa. Her divorce settlement made legal history in the American courts—and I learned a very expensive lesson,' Raul said savagely. ‘I will never fall for the illusion of love again, but I want Gino to have two parents, as I did when the Carduccis adopted me. You said yourself you longed to have a proper family when you were a child,' he reminded Libby when she stared at him in dumbstruck silence.

‘I said I wanted to believe in the fairytale of a happy ever after family, but I'm not sure it really exists.'

‘We can make it exist if it's something we both want.'

As Raul spoke he was startled to realise that he no longer only wanted to persuade Libby to marry him so that he could claim full control of the company. Everything he had said to her was true; he wanted to
repay his adoptive father for all he had done for him by adopting Pietro's son, and he felt a fierce longing to hold his own child in his arms and finally have a blood link with another human being. Taking full control of CC until Gino was eighteen
was
important to him. But instead of divorcing Libby, as he had planned, he saw no reason why they should not have a successful marriage built on their mutual desire for a family—as well as their physical desire for each other.

Libby shook her head, trying to ignore the voice of her conscience which was whispering that Raul's suggestion made a crazy kind of sense. He was offering to be a father to Gino, and that alone demanded her serious consideration when she had spent her childhood wishing that she had a father.

If she married Raul she would no longer live in fear of him discovering that she was not Gino's mother and banishing her from the villa. But he had said it would be a real marriage. Her eyes were drawn to his hard body, and a quiver ran through her when she remembered how his bold caresses had taken her to such a level of excitement that she had been desperate for him to make love to her properly. Would he be able to tell that not only had she had not given birth to Gino, but that she had never even had sex? Not if she pretended to be experienced, the voice in her head pointed out. But that would be another lie to add to all the others she had spun. Wouldn't it be better to admit the truth about Gino's parentage now?

She chewed on her lip, torn between her guilty conscience and her fear of losing Gino. Nothing had changed. If she revealed that she was Gino's half-sister
and had no legal rights to him Raul would still fight her for custody of the baby—and if he won he might go ahead and adopt Gino, and send her back to England.

‘It would never work,' she said abruptly. ‘We're too different. Once this chemistry, or attraction, or whatever it is between us died out we would have nothing in common.'

‘I'm not sure we are so different,' Raul mused. ‘Our childhood experiences have made us appreciate the value of family life. We both think it would be best for Gino to grow up with two parents. Neither of us plans to marry anyone else, and yet we would both like to have children.'

Raul's deep voice was so softly persuasive that Libby found she could not come up with a single argument against his list of reasons why they should marry, and instead she pictured a scene in the future where she was cradling a newborn baby in her arms while Gino, now a toddler, met his little brother or sister for the first time. She could not deny that she would love to have her own baby some day—a little companion for Gino. But marry Raul! She must be mad to actually be contemplating it—mustn't she?

Wrapped up in her thoughts, she was unaware that he had moved closer to her until he lifted his hand and trailed his finger down from her collarbone to the vee between her breasts exposed by her low-cut dress. ‘I don't think we need to worry about the chemistry fading,
cara
,' he murmured, his voice suddenly as rich and sensuous as molten chocolate. ‘I'm so hungry for you that I'm unbearably tempted to push you down on the sofa and take you right now—and you would let me, Libby. Don't even think of denying it,' he warned her softly,
placing his finger across her lips. Do you think I don't see the way your pulse races whenever I am near you? The way your eyes darken with desire and your lips part in readiness for my kiss?'

His mouth was so close to hers that Libby could taste his warm breath. How
could
she deny her desire for him when she was trembling with her need for him to close the gap between them? His tongue explored the shape of her lips before probing between them, pushing insistently into her mouth. Libby strained towards him, her pride discarded in her eagerness for him to kiss her with all the pent-up passion she could sense simmering between them. Her lashes drifted down, her whole being focused on the pleasure of Raul's wickedly inventive tongue.

But the sound of Gino's stark cry jerked her back to reality. Her eyes flew open and she gasped as she whirled away from Raul and stared towards the door, expecting to see Silvana standing there with the baby.

There was no one there. She stared at Raul, eyes wide with panic. ‘I heard Gino cry.'

‘The baby monitor,' he explained, nodding towards the device plugged into an electrical socket on the wall behind his desk. ‘I've had them installed in every room in the house so that we can always be sure to hear him.'

Even in his study, Libby thought in amazement—which must mean that Raul would not mind being disturbed while he worked. ‘I see,' she said slowly. ‘That was very thoughtful of you.'

Gino's cries grew louder and he began to cough. Libby heard Silvana's voice speaking gently to the baby, but a strong maternal instinct drove her towards the door.

‘I must go to him.' She hesitated, her eyes fixed on Raul's face.

‘I would be a good father to him,' he said deeply. ‘I swear I will care for him and protect him, love him as Pietro loved me.'

‘Yes.' She could see the determination blazing in his eyes, hear it in his voice. ‘I believe you would do that for Gino,' she whispered, moved to tears at the depth of emotion in his fierce avowal.

As a little girl she had dreamed that her father would one day find her, and that he would be strong and brave and would fight the monsters that lived under her bed. Didn't Gino need a father to fight his monsters?

But it was not necessary for her to marry Raul. Under the terms of Pietro's will Gino's future was secure, and he would one day inherit half of Carducci Cosmetics and the Villa Giulietta. But what about his emotional security? Didn't she, better than anyone, understand how important it was for a child to have a father? And Gino would need a positive role model to guide him as he grew into adulthood and inherited his share of the Carducci fortune.

‘Marry me and allow me to take care of both of you,
cara
.'

Raul's voice was achingly seductive. He could have no idea how beguiling the concept of being cared for sounded after a lifetime of looking after herself, she brooded. She had adored her mum, but Liz had been too young to cope with motherhood, meaning that Libby had
had to learn to be independent from an early age. Now she was solely responsible for Gino. How much easier life would be if she could share that responsibility with someone else?