‘So don’t take me with you. If I’m a distraction, then leave me here.’
He gave a faint smile. ‘One of the benefits of having a wife,’ he drawled, ‘is being able to present her when the occasion demands it.’
‘And does it?’
‘This evening? Yes, it so happens that it does. Fetch a wrap,’ he commanded, dragging his burning gaze from her body. ‘And keep it on.’
‘Perhaps you’d rather I wore a long coat?’ Faith suggested acidly, using direct challenge as a method of disguising how deeply his words had affected her. He wanted her with him. Surely that was a positive sign?
He surprised her with a smile that was achingly sexy. ‘Good idea. Coat and no dress. Just underwear.’ His voice was deep and impossibly male. ‘Later on I undo the coat and take you. And yes, this time you will have no excuse to stop.’
The vivid image his words created sent a burst of excitement through her stomach and it took her a moment to catch her breath. Trying desperately to conceal her reaction, Faith gritted her teeth. ‘You’re sex-mad, do you know that?’
‘Gracias.’
She looked at him in exasperation. ‘I didn’t intend it as a compliment.’ He was impossibly, arrogantly attractive and he shrugged his shoulders in a careless dismissal of her observation.
‘Liking sex is a healthy and natural drive for a man. What’s wrong with that?’
Wishing she’d never pursued this particular line of conversation, Faith drew in a long breath. ‘Nothing. It’s just—there are other things apart from sex. We could have a conversation.’
‘Sí.’ His eyes mocked her gently. ‘Talking can be very intimate, I agree. Before and after sex.’
Now he was teasing her and the fact that he could succeed in making her hot and bothered even though she knew what he was doing, really irritated her. ‘Talking isn’t part of sex.’
‘What do you think this is, if it isn’t foreplay?’ He murmured the words softly, his voice so sexy that she felt her limbs weaken. ‘We are talking, yes, but we are both thinking about sex—’
‘Raul, please don’t do this.’ She couldn’t think clearly, not with his dark eyes suddenly alight with dangerous promise and his powerful body so achingly close.
‘We both know what is coming later,’ he purred. ‘Each of us is thinking “how will it be?” and “can I wait that long?”’ His normally fluent English seemed considerably less fluent than usual but there was no mistaking his meaning and his words were such an accurate assessment of her thoughts that she stilled, a bloom of colour touching her pale cheeks.
‘That’s not what I’m thinking,’ she croaked and he gave a faint smile.
‘Liar.’
She dragged her eyes from his. Only when she wasn’t looking at him was there a chance that her brain would work. ‘For a man with legendary intelligence, your goals are very shallow.’
‘Would you be flattered if I climbed into bed with you and reached for a book?’ He curved his hand around her waist, and she felt the instant response of her body.
‘Do you ever think of anything other than sex?’
‘Sí—sometimes I think of business.’ He leaned forward and kissed her mouth, the hot slide of his tongue deliberately erotic. ‘And now you need to stop distracting me or I am never going to get through the evening.’
‘It isn’t me, it’s you—you started this.’ But she was starting to feel the strain and he must have noticed because he slid his fingers under her chin and lifted her face to his.
‘You’re pale.’
She gave a careless shrug, trying not to betray everything that he made her feel. ‘Jet lag. I’m tired.’
‘No, it isn’t that. I’ve seen you with more colour in your cheeks when you’ve been up all night with one of the horses.’ He studied her closely, his scrutiny more than a little disturbing. ‘Are you dizzy? Do you need a doctor?’
‘No.’ She didn’t confess that she was just as wound up as he was. Every nerve ending in her body was reminding her that he was close by.
He watched her for a moment, and then increased the pressure of his hand and urged her towards the door. ‘If this evening is too much for you, tell me and you can go back to bed.’ He flashed her a confident, self-satisfied smile. ‘You see how thoughtful and caring I can be?’
‘Would that be an empty bed, or a bed with you in it?’
‘We both know you would be mortally offended if I wasn’t in it, cariño,’ he purred, amusement in his eyes as he pulled her against him and stole a swift kiss from her parted lips. ‘Then you would be accusing me of not finding you attractive, no?’
Tied into knots by his kiss, his smile and his words, she couldn’t even respond.
She was a hopeless case, Faith thought weakly as she followed his direction and walked through the door on shaking legs. Desperately she tried to think about something, anything, other than him.
‘These people we’re meeting tonight—’ she glanced at him briefly ‘—do I need to know anything about them? I don’t want to say the wrong thing. Who are they?’
‘They own land.’ Raul took her hand in his and drew her close to him as they walked up the path that led from the Beach House to the main courtyard of the estancia. ‘Land that I want.’
‘You already own ten-thousand acres. Why would you want their land?’
‘Why settle for less when you can have more?’ But something flickered in the depths of his dark eyes and she had a feeling that there was more to this business deal than he was revealing.
‘In other words, you have a good reason and you’re not planning to share it with me.’
He laughed. ‘I love the fact that you have a sharp brain.’
‘Just as long as I don’t use it,’ Faith said tartly and his answer to that was to bring his mouth down on hers again, his kiss so impossibly skilled that the rest of her sharp rejoinder died in her brain.
‘You taste good,’ he murmured against her lips and she groaned and dragged her mouth away from his.
‘You always do this to me.’ She put her hands on his chest to steady herself, and then looked up at him. ‘You’re infuriating, do you know that? You use sex to shut me up.’
‘Not true.’ He bent his head and his mouth brushed her neck, that simple touch sufficient to send a thrill of excitement rushing through her.
‘You’re doing it again,’ she gasped, wishing desperately that her body wasn’t so responsive to his. ‘Stop it, Raul.’
His
