His Ultimate Prize(26)

* * *

The rest of the day went like a dream. Rafael's yacht was the last word  in luxury. With a crew of four, they sailed around the Los Cabos  islands, stopped at a seafront restaurant for a lunch of cerviche and  sweet potato fries, then sunbathed on the twenty-foot deck until it got  too hot. Then he encouraged her to join him in the shower below deck.

She clung to him in the aftermath of another pulse-destroying orgasm.

'Hmm...I have a feeling you won't be needing my services for much longer.'

He raised his head from where he'd been kissing her damp shoulder and stared deep into her eyes. 'What makes you say that?'

'You haven't used your cane all day, and your...um...stamina seems to be endless.'

His frown was immediate, edged with tension that seeped into the  atmosphere. 'You're signed on for another three months. Don't make any  plans to break the contract just yet.' He moved away and grabbed two  towels. He handed her one and wrapped the other around her waist, his  movements jerky.

'I wasn't making plans. I was just commenting that your movements are a  little more fluid. And you haven't used the cane all day today. I think  it's a great sign. You should be pleased.'

'Should I?'

His icy tone made alarm skitter over her. 'What's the matter?'

He smoothed a hand over the steamed up mirror and met her gaze over his shoulder. 'Why should anything be wrong?'

'I've just given you the equivalent of an almost clean bill of health.  You're reacting as if I've just told you your puppy has died.'

He whirled to face her. 'This clean bill of health, will it pass the X1 training board and see me reinstated as a race driver?'

Her breath caught. 'You're thinking of going back to racing?'

'You sound surprised.'

She licked her lips. 'Well, I am. I thought since Marco had sold the team, and Sasha had quit-'

'What are you saying, that I should follow the family tradition and quit while I'm ahead?'

'No...but-'

'You don't think I can hack it?'

'Stop putting words in my mouth, Rafael. You're almost done with phase  three of the physio regime. I'm just trying to find out what your plans  are so I can work with you to achieve them.'

He stalked to where she stood and gripped her nape in a firm hold. His  kiss was hot, ravaging and rage-tinged. 'Right now, my only plan is to  be inside you again.'

She barely stopped herself from dissolving into a puddle of need. 'And  afterwards? We can't stay here indefinitely, indulging in wall-to-wall  shagging.'

His eyes narrowed, his grip tightening. 'Are you trying to set a time  limit on what's happening between us? Is that what all this is about?'

The shard of steel that lodged in her chest made her breath catch. 'I don't know what you mean.'

'Don't you? From the start you've tried to manage what was happening  between us, tried to define it into something you can deal with. Now you  want to set a time limit on it so you can walk away once the time  comes, sí?'

'Are you saying you're not? Am I not just one more challenge to you? Can  we please not delude ourselves into thinking this is anything more than  sex?'

He sucked in a breath as if he'd been punched. Stepping back, he dropped his hand and left the bathroom.

Raven trailed after him into the large, exquisite gold and cream cabin.  He was pulling on a pair of boxers, which he followed with cargo shorts  and a white T-shirt.

Feeling exposed, she slipped on her underwear and the lilac flowered  slip dress she'd worn to go sailing. 'I'm not sure what's going on here,  Rafael. Or why you're annoyed with me. I may not know the rules of this  sleeping together thing but even I know there is a time limit when it  comes to your affairs-'

'Affairs? Is that what we're doing, having an affair?' he asked with a cocked eyebrow. 'How quaint.'

'Will you please stop mocking me and tell me what's really bothering you?'

He slammed the drawer he'd just opened none too gently. 'I don't like  time limits. I don't being head-shrunk. And I don't like the woman I'm  sleeping with hinting that she'll be leaving me the day after we start  sleeping together. There, does that sum things up for you?'                       
       
           



       

'So you want to be the one to call the shots? To dictate when this aff...liaison starts and ends?'

He dragged a hand through his damp hair and glared at her. 'Santo cielo, why are we even having this argument?' he shouted.

'I have no idea but you started it!' she yelled back.

His eyes widened at her tone, then he sighed. 'Forgive me, I'm used to  having things my way, pequeña. You have every right to shout at me when I  step out of line.'

'Thanks, I will.'

He laughed, and just like that the tension broke. Striding to her, he  tugged her into his arms and proceeded to kiss the fight out of both of  them. They sailed back to the villa shortly after and, once again, she  let him coax her into spending part of the night on the beach bed.

* * *

They were halfway through their breakfast when the delivery arrived.

'What is it?'

'I've got something for you.' The gleam in his eyes was pure wickedness.  Her heartbeat escalated as she eyed the large gold-ribboned package  sitting on the floor beside their breakfast table.

'Don't worry, you'll enjoy it,' he promised with a smile so sexy, and so deliciously decadent, her toes curled.

Even though the subject quickly changed to their plans for the rest of  the day, Raven's gaze strayed time and again to the package. But Rafael,  as she'd discovered in the past two nights, was skilled in delayed  gratification. He was also skilled in being the perfect host. She was  stunned when she discovered how many details he'd picked up through  their conversation. When he shepherded her towards the SUV mid-morning,  she gaped in surprise when she found out he'd organised the hang-gliding  trip she'd casually mentioned was on her list of things to do.

She'd barely descended from that high when he whisked her by helicopter to the Mayan encampment she'd been dying to explore.

'You're seriously scaring me now by how utterly close I am to adoring  you for this,' she said in hushed tones as they were ushered into the  hallowed grounds of the ancient burial site.

His breath hissed out. When she glanced at him, he'd paled a little.

'Rafael? Are you in pain?' He'd left his walking stick back at the villa  and nothing from his gait told her he'd suffered a mishap. All the  same...

He shook his head. A second later the look had disappeared. 'It's nothing.'

She stopped as the full import of her words struck her. Wide-eyed, she turned to him. 'No, I didn't mean...I was only joking...'

'Were you?' The intensity of his gaze pinned her where she stood.

'Yes! Ignore me, I'm babbling because you've made two dreams come true today.'

'So you don't adore me?'

She opened her mouth to refute the comment and found she couldn't speak.  Because she realised she did adore him, and more than a little. The  Rafael she'd come to know in the past few weeks had a depth she'd never  got the chance to explore last year. She felt a connection to this  Rafael, and not just because he'd been her first lover.

The depth of the feeling rampaging through her made her shake her head.

One corner of his mouth lifted in a mirthless smile. Then he nodded to the tour guide looking their way.

'Now that we've established that you don't adore me, I think you need to go see your artefacts.'

She felt a stab of disappointment. 'Aren't you coming?'

'Been there, done that.' He pulled the phone from his pocket. 'The  drivers and cars arrive this afternoon. I need to return a few calls.'  He walked away before she could reply.

Disappointment morphed into something else. Something she couldn't put  her finger on but which confused the hell out of her. The more she tried  to grasp it, the further away it slithered from her.

He was waiting when she finally emerged. Back in the helicopter, he  pulled her close and sealed his lips over hers, his mouth hungry and  demanding.

She was breathless when he finally pulled away. 'What was that for?' she asked huskily.

His lids swept down over his eyes. 'Maybe I want you to adore me, just a little.'

* * *

Rafael watched her breath catch all over again and wondered just what  the hell he was doing. Why he was letting the angst riding underneath  his skin get to him.

So she didn't adore him. Big deal. There were thousands of women out  there who were more than willing to fall into his bed should he wish  them to.

But none like the woman in his arms. None like the woman who refused to  mould into a being he understood, could predict. Most women would be  halfway to falling in love with him by now; would be secretly or not so  secretly making plans on how to prolong their presence in his life.

When he wasn't kissing her breathless-a diversionary tactic he'd grown  to enjoy immensely-Raven seemed to be counting the days, hell, the  minutes until she could walk away from him.

The notion unsettled him enough to make him want to probe, to find an answer.

Had she glimpsed the darkness in his soul? Had opening up to her in  Monaco and again in Monza made him into a man she could sleep with but  not a man she wanted in her life for the long-term?