hair?’
‘Rita?’
‘She is a masseuse and a beautician. If you want her to come and help just ask Alberto,’ Raúl said, heading off to the stateroom.
Estelle called him back. She could smell the food and was honestly starving. ‘Why do we have to get dressed for dinner?’ Estelle did not notice the twitch of his lips, though Alberto did. ‘It’s only us.’
‘On a yacht such as this one, when the chef…’ Raúl began. But he was torn, because etiquette often had no place on board and it seemed petty to put her right. ‘Very well.’ He turned to Alberto, who was already on to it.
‘I’ll let the chef know.’
They rinsed off under the shower on deck and then took their seats.
Raúl was rather more used to a well-made-up blonde in a revealing dress sitting opposite him, but there was something incredibly appealing about sitting for dinner half-naked and scooping up the delicacies the waiters were bringing.
‘I could get far too used to this,’ Estelle started, and then stopped herself, remembering his words at the lawyer’s. ‘I meant…’
‘I know what you meant.’
She was relieved to see he was smiling.
‘The food really is amazing,’ Raúl agreed. ‘They chef is marvellous. Chefs on yachts generally are—that is why we keep coming back for more.’
They chatted as they ate, far more naturally than they had before, and it wasn’t just for the benefit of the staff.
It was simply a blissful night.
They danced.
On the deck of his yacht they danced when the music came on.
‘I understand now why we should have changed for dinner,’ Estelle admitted. ‘Do you think I’ve offended anyone?’
‘I don’t think you could if you tried.’
The sky was darkening and Raúl looked out to the cliffs, and rather than remembering hell he buried his face in her hair. It took only the smell of the ocean in her hair for him to escape.
‘And for the record,’ Raúl said, ‘although you accuse me being a controlling bastard, I was worried about you burning. I have never seen paler skin.’
‘I think I am a bit sunburnt.’
‘I know.’
They moved down to the lounge room. Estelle was starting to relax—so much so that she didn’t spring from his arms when some dessert wine was brought through to them.
‘Let’s go to bed…’ His hand was in her bikini top, trying to free her breast.
‘Not yet,’ she breathed into his mouth. ‘I’ll never sleep.’
‘I have no intention of letting you sleep.’
‘Let’s watch a movie,’ Estelle said, unwrapping herself from him and heading over to his collection.
‘Estelle—no!’
‘Oh, sorry.’ She’d forgotten what he’d told her in the gym, about no hand-holding and movies, and she turned and attempted a smile. ‘Sure—let’s go to bed.’
‘I didn’t mean that,’ Raúl said through gritted teeth, wondering how he’d ended up with the one hooker to whom he’d have to apologise for his DVDs. ‘I just don’t think there will be anything there to your taste.’
He braced himself for the rapid demise of a pleasant night as Estelle flicked through his collection.
‘I love this one.’
‘Really?’ Raúl was very pleasantly surprised.
‘Actually…’ She skimmed through a couple more. ‘This one’s my favourite.’ She held up the cover to him and didn’t understand his smile.
‘Of course it is,’ Raúl said, pulling her down beside him, smiling into her hair. One day he would tell her how funny that was—one day when it wouldn’t offend, when she knew him better. He would laugh about it with her.
But there would not be that day, he reminded himself.
This was just for now.
He had not lain on a sofa and watched a movie—not one with a plot, anyway—since he couldn’t remember when.
Estelle shivered. The doors were open and the air was cooling. He pulled down a rug from the back of the sofa and covered them, felt her bottom curving into him.
‘Sore?’ He kissed her pink shoulders as he made light work of her bikini top.
‘A bit.’
Estelle concentrated on the movie as Raúl concentrated on Estelle. He kissed her neck and shoulders for ages, then played with her breasts, massaging them with his palms, taking her nipples between thumb and fingers. Then slowly, when he knew there would be no qualms from Estelle, moved one hand down and untied her bikini bottoms.
His question, when repeated, was a far more personal one as his fingers crept in.
‘Sore?’
‘A bit,’ she said again, but he was so gentle, and it felt so sublime.
She could feel the motion of the boat, and him huge and hard behind her; she could feel the urging of his mouth to turn to him and growing insistence from behind.
‘Turn around, Estelle.’ His breathing was ragged.
‘In a minute.’ She wasn’t even watching the film. Her eyes were closed. She was just loving the feel of him playing with her and longing for it to go on. ‘It’s coming to the best bit.’
He pulled her up a little further, so that her naked bum was against his stomach, and he angled her perfectly. She felt the long, slow slide of him where he had stabbed into her last night. She was still bruised and swollen and hot down below, and yet she closed around him in relief.
‘This is the best bit,’ Raúl’s low voice corrected her.
He pressed slowly into her, his fingers playing with her clitoris, slid slowly and deeply, with none of the haste of last night, and it was Estelle who was fighting to hold back.
‘I’m going to come.’
‘Not yet,’ he told her, teasing her harder with his fingers, thrusting himself deeper inside.
‘I am.’ She was trembling and trying to hold on.
‘Not yet.’
He stroked her somewhere so deep, the feeling so intense that she let out a small squeal.
‘There?’ he asked.
