“It’s Leap Year, Raul. Will you marry me?” About the Author Title Page CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN Copyright

“It’s Leap Year, Raul. Will you marry me?”

“Now I get it.” He laughed mirthlessly. “The arguments of the last few weeks, the defiance and then the grand finale—staying out all night. What kind of fool do you take me for, Penny? Better women than you have tried to manipulate me into marriage and failed. You’re good, but not that good.”

His comment was like a knife in her heart. “I take it that was a no,” she got out between clenched teeth.

“Correct, honey. If and when I take a wife, I will do the asking.”

JACQUELINE BAIRD

began writing as a hobby when her family objected to the smell of her oil painting, and immediately became hooked on the romantic genre. She loves traveling and worked her way around the world from Europe to the Americas and Australia, returning to marry her teenage sweetheart. She lives in the north of England, in the county of her birth, and has two grown-up sons. She enjoys playing badminton, and spends most weekends with husband Jim, sailing their Gp. 14 boat.

Raul’s Revenge

Jacqueline Baird

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CHAPTER ONE

‘NICE bed, Raul.’ Penny glanced at the huge bed in the centre of the hotel room, then, blonde head tilting to one side, shot a sexy, sidelong glance at her companion. ‘And we did miss siesta!’

‘Wanton.’ Raul grinned, and, dropping the case on the bed, added, ‘Sorry, no time. You unpack while I shower. A car is picking me up in thirty minutes.’

Penny followed the tall dark man’s progress towards the en suite bathroom with wistful eyes. Business always came first with Raul. Sighing, she did as he had suggested and unpacked the clothes, then, kicking off her sandals, flopped down on the bed and gazed around yet another hotel bedroom. At one time she would have been delighted by the luxury, now she found one hotel room much like another.

She heard the sound of water running in the bathroom and a deep bass voice belting out, singing off key in Spanish. A soft smile curved her lips. Raul, true to form, was performing his usual lusty caterwauling in the shower. The noise stopped and Penny swung her legs to the floor. Sitting up, she brushed her long hair tidily behind her ears, her blue eyes eager with anticipation.

It was stupid, she knew. She had lived with the man for months, she loved him more than life, but he just had to enter a room and she was breathless. A moment later the bathroom door opened and Raul strolled out.

She knew every inch of his magnificent body as well as she knew her own, but the sight of him never failed to make her pulse race and her stomach clench with excitement. He wasn’t a particularly handsome man—his nose was too large and his chin too square—but thick night-black hair and unusual gold-flecked deep brown eyes combined with six feet three inches and two hundred pounds of hard-packed muscle added up to a powerful specimen of the male sex.

At the moment his only covering was a white towel slung low around his lean hips, and as he prowled around the room, flinging open doors and drawers to find his clothes, Penny’s eyes lingered lovingly on his bronzed torso and the thick mat of black curls covering his chest, arrowing down to disappear beneath the towel. As she watched he raised a long-fingered hand to scratch idly the downy covering on his muscular chest.

‘Dios! I’m going to be late,’ Raul grumbled, turning towards the bed. A pair of black silk boxer shorts dangling in one large hand, he flashed her a brilliant glance. ‘So don’t even think of persuading me into bed.’

‘Me persuade you!’ Penny’s blue eyes lit with amusement. ‘As if I would!’ she exclaimed, all fake innocence.

His wide mouth curved in a sensuous smile. ‘You, anywhere near a bed, Penny, could provoke a dying octogenarian.’

‘You’re not that old,’ she mocked.

‘Brat.’ And, sitting down beside her, he caught her hand in his, and with his other hand he pushed the stray tendrils of fine blonde hair from her brow, his expression suddenly serious.

‘I am sorry about this.’ He glanced around the room and back to her face. ‘I know I promised you we would be in London for your birthday.’ With a Latin shrug of his shoulders, he added, ‘But these things happen.’

‘It’s all right, Raul,’ Penny reassured him. ‘How many girls can arrive at a Spanish airport expecting to go to London and end up in the Middle East for the night?’ She tried to make light of the upset to their plans. ‘Unless, of course, you’ve added white slaving to your business empire?’ she teased.

‘Don’t even joke about it.’ Raul grimaced. ‘Not in this country; you’re mine, and mine you will stay, so don’t you forget it.’

‘Yes, oh master...’ She bowed her head in mock subservience while her small hand teasingly stroked his muscular thigh. Her action was greeted with a guffaw of laughter.

‘Witch...behave yourself; I really do have to leave you for a few hours, but I’ll make it up to you later, and that’s a promise.’

They had left Raul’s home that morning to catch a plane for London. A call on his car phone had resulted in his having to attend an emergency meeting in Dubai. Luckily there had been a scheduled flight to the Middle East some ten minutes after the London flight. Before Penny had known what was happening she had found herself in the first-class section of a Boeing 747 heading across the Mediterranean.

Penny had become used to Raul flying off around the world at a moment’s notice. As the owner of a large international engineering company, along with a hacienda and a few thousand acres in the Andalusian area of Spain, plus a host of other interests, her boyfriend was an extremely wealthy man.

Her lips twitched in the briefest of wry smiles. ‘Boyfriend’ was hardly the right word, she admitted to herself, her deep blue eyes searching his hard face. At thirty-seven Raul Da Silva couldn’t be called a boy by anyone...

‘That’s what I like about you, Penny, darting—you never fuss,’ Raul offered complacently, rising from the bed after first driving her almost senseless with a long, hard kiss.

Fighting to recover her breath, Penny watched as he moved around the room, all male efficiency, and marvelled at how easily he switched from passionate lover to hard-nosed business tycoon. Exactly three minutes later he stood beside the bed, elegantly dressed in a grey, three-piece silk suit, the white of his shirt contrasting with the dark bronze of his rugged features, a blue and grey striped tie at his strong throat. He stuck out his arm.

‘Fasten these cuff-links for me, honey.’ She did, smiling slightly at the ‘honey’. Raul spoke perfect English but with an endearing trace of an American accent.

‘Thanks, Penny; I don’t know what I would do without you.’ He smiled down at her, his golden eyes glowing, and like a magician presenting a rabbit from a hat he slid his hand into his jacket pocket and withdrew a square velvet box. ‘I was going to give you this over a candlelit dinner at your favourite restaurant by the Thames, but under the circumstances you’d better have it now. Something for you to gloat over while I’m gone.’

Penny’s lashes lowered to hide the sudden disappointment in her eyes. She had been hoping against hope that her birthday present would be a ring, but one glance at the box and she knew how wrong she was. Hiding her disappointment behind a bright smile, she took the box from Raul’s outstretched hand and opened it.

A gasp of amazement escaped her. Inside was an exquisite diamond bracelet fit for a queen.

‘Happy birthday, darling. Do you like it?’

‘What’s not to like? It is magnificent. Thank you,’ she said softly, and, holding it out to him, murmured, ‘Put it on for me.’ She kept her head bent as he fastened the exquisite jewels around her wrist, supposedly admiring it. ‘It must have cost you a fortune; you’re spoiling me.’ She tried to smile but she could not look at him in case he saw the moisture glazing her eyes.

A long finger tilted her chin up. ‘That’s another of the things I adore about you, Penny; you’re such an emotional little thing and you’re not afraid to show it.’ And with his other hand he wiped the solitary tear from her cheek. ‘Hey, you deserve it, darling—you’re so good for me.’

But was he good for her? Penny wondered, and then hated herself for the disloyal thought, simply because he had given her a bracelet when she longed for a ring and had completely misread the cause of her tears. Raul was not an insensitive man, he simply saw only what suited himself and his high-powered, workaholic lifestyle.

She glanced at him as his hand fell from her face, and abruptly he straightened up. But he was not looking at her. He had already left, if not in body then certainly in spirit. She knew the signs.

A frown marring his broad brow, he checked the flat gold Rolex on his wrist. ‘I have to go. You rest, and if I’m not back by eight this evening order dinner in the suite,’ he commanded briskly. Turning, he strode across the room and, with a careless backward wave of his hand and a casual ‘see you later’ he left, Penny forgotten and his whole attention on the meeting ahead.

Rest. She didn’t feel like resting. She stood up, the glitter of diamonds on her wrist catching her eye, and with a soft sigh she removed the bracelet from her arm and dropped it on the bedside table before walking into the bathroom.

The scent of Raul hung in the air and she breathed in greedily as she discarded her clothes. She loved Raul and she was sure that he loved her, even if he never said so in as many words. He showed it in a hundred ways. He was unfailingly generous—as a man and, more importantly, as a lover—he looked after her every need, he protected her. And also himself, a devilish imp of mischief echoed in her brain. He never forgot birth control; he was taking no chances on being trapped into marriage, that was for sure.

Penny shook her head to dispel the unsettling thought. She was ungrateful, she told herself firmly. Simply because he had given her a bracelet worth a fortune rather than the ring she had secretly hoped for.

She was about to step into the shower, and then changed her mind. Instead she picked up a bottle of bath oil and, tipping half of it into the tub, leant over the huge white marble bath and turned on the taps. Why not luxuriate in a scented tub for a change? She certainly had the time...

God! What was the matter with her today? She wasn’t usually restless, and it was so childish to be upset over a damned birthday.

Straightening to her full height of five feet five inches, she surveyed herself in the mirrored wall of the bathroom. Months spent mostly in a warm climate had streaked her long ash-blonde hair almost white in places. Usually she wore it in a twist or braid but today, at Raul’s insistence, she had worn it loose, simply brushed behind her ears and falling in soft waves down past her shoulder blades. Her breasts were high and firm, with a few rosy marks left by Raul last night. Her waist was narrow, her stomach flat and her hips gently curved. Her legs were long in comparison to her height, and well shaped.

Running her hands through her hair, she lifted it up in a bunch, revealing the long line of her throat, the firm chin. She had a wide, generous mouth—maybe a bit too wide—a small, straight nose, and large deep blue eyes.

Her skin glowed with health and a light golden tan; she was not one for sunbathing excessively—she was too fair in any case. But all in all she was not bad for twenty-two—No, twenty-three, she reminded herself, as of today, and with determined cheerfulness she turned off the taps and stepped into the tub.

She sank down beneath the soothing water and laid her head back, closed her eyes and willed her mind to go blank—something she was becoming remarkably adept at doing. But that wasn’t so surprising because, while at college studying pharmacy, she had also taken a course in yoga to help her to relax. Whether one was supposed to use the technique in the bath, she didn’t really know, and didn’t much care as long as it worked.

Half an hour later she opened her eyes, the rapidly cooling water making her shiver. Quickly she stepped out of the bath and into the shower. Minutes later, with her long hair freshly washed, she took a towel from the towel-rail and wrapped it around her head. She reached out for a larger one and, unfolding it, read the name embossed in the thick, fluffy fabric: Hyatt Regency. So that was where they were staying.

Penny paused in the process of wrapping the towel around her naked body, and slowly shook her head. There was something terribly depressing, she realised sadly, about being reduced to reading the hotel towels to remind herself where she was... How and when had the thrill of foreign travel and luxury hotels faded into simply waiting for Raul?

She didn’t try to answer the question—she didn’t dare—and in a flurry of activity she dried her hair, brushing it until it hung like a soft curtain of silk over her shoulders.

She lingered over applying her make-up, but as she only used a moisturiser and a touch of eyeshadow and mascara, the finishing touch being a natural lip-gloss, she was ready by seven. She slipped into a straight, halter-necked dress of soft ivory crêpe-deceptively simple but cunningly cut to curve around her breasts without needing a bra, and leaving her back bare, with the skirt ending just over her knees.

Raul had objected to her wearing miniskirts, which, considering they were popular these days, was endearingly old-fashioned of him. Or was it? she found herself questioning again, and shook her head irritably. Apart from her shoes, she was ready.

Idly she strolled into the sitting room of the suite and, crossing to the French doors, flung them back and stepped onto the balcony. After the air-conditioned comfort of indoors the heat hit her like a blowtorch, but the view took her breath away.

This was her first visit to an Arab country, and the landscape was alien but magnificent. Dubai lay before her, sparkling white, pristine clean, with towering buildings, fantastically delicate minarets and, in the distance, the blue of the Gulf.

After drinking in the sight, she walked back into the room and picked up the information provided by the hotel. Dropping into a comfortable, soft leather chair, she read with interest of the restaurants and bars of the shopping arcade incorporated in the building. Better yet, situated close to the city centre as the hotel was, it was only five minutes’ walk to the gold souk...

Eight o’clock came, but Raul didn’t. Penny, with a determined glint in her blue eyes, picked up her small ivory clutch bag, slipped her feet in matching fabric strappy sandals and without a second thought walked out of the room and across the corridor into the elevator.

It was her birthday, and, by heaven, she was going to enjoy it. Not for her a meal in the room; a snack in one of the restaurants and a stroll around the gold souk sounded much more fun.

After a light meal, and armed with a small diagram from the hotel receptionist, Penny walked out into the cooler night air and turned left as instructed.

She had only walked two paces when she heard a car door slam and a voice snap, ‘Penelope.’ A firm hand closed around her upper arm and swung her around. ‘Where the hell do you think you’re going?’ was hissed in her ear as she gazed up in surprise at Raul’s taut features.

‘Raul, you’re back. I was—’

‘Shut up,’ he grated, and it was then that she saw his two companions alight from the long white stretch limousine—one a gentleman in a Western-style suit, and the other a man taller even than Raul and draped in the flowing white robes of an Arab sheikh.

‘Raul, you must introduce me to this charming creature,’ the Arab commanded.

‘Of course, your highness; allow me to present...’ Raul hesitated ‘...my companion, Miss Penelope Gold.’ And, looking down at Penny, his dark eyes cold as ice, he continued, ‘Penny, this is Sheikh Ali Ben Hammat.’

For the first time in their relationship Penny felt truly embarrassed, and coldly furious at being introduced as a companion. Good manners alone brought a polite smile to her wide mouth, while there was no mistaking the blatant, sensual interest in the Sheikh’s black eyes as he caught her hand and raised it to his lips.

‘Charmed,’ he murmured. ‘I’m honoured to meet such an exquisitely lovely young lady.’ And, reluctantly releasing her hand, he added, ‘Senor Da Silva is an extremely lucky man.’

‘Thank you,’ she mumbled, but it took all her self-control not to cry out—not because of the kiss but because Raul’s fingers on her arm tightened to such a degree that she thought he would draw blood.

The conversation that ensued was lost on Penny, simply because the men spoke in Arabic. But ten minutes later she found out...

The walk through the hotel and the ride up in the elevator had been conducted in a tense, angry silence, and now, as the door swung closed behind Raul and he finally let go of her arm, Penny swung around, her blue eyes flashing fury. But, before she could open her mouth and demand an explanation for his ill-mannered, overbearing conduct, Raul silenced her with a string of curses that made the colour surge in her face.

He had never spoken that way in front of her before. But then, as her blue eyes clashed with furious black, she realised that she had never seen him so angry before. Involuntarily she took a step back; she could see the barely leashed tension in every line of his tall body, and felt suddenly threatened by it.

‘What the hell did you think you were doing?’ he snapped. ‘Have you gone stark, raving mad?’

Penny shrank back from the black rage in his eyes, but before she could answer his wild accusations he added furiously, ‘Look at you—a dress that reveals every curve... My God! Do you have to flirt with every man you meet, and in Dubai?’ Suddenly he caught her shoulders, his long fingers biting into her flesh. Her head fell back and she was looking up into his bitterly twisted features. ‘A sheikh no less...’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about...I wasn’t flirting with anyone. I was going for a walk—’

‘A walk—on your own—in a Arab country—at night.’

She flinched as he shot the words at her like the staccato fire of a machine gun, only inches from her pale face.

‘You have good reason to cringe. Their own women aren’t even allowed out without being draped from head to foot in black. A white woman on her own is considered little better than a whore and fair game.’ His hard mouth twisted in a sneer. ‘You had to know that, Penny. Even you are not that dumb.’

She gasped in outrage. Dumb was she? ‘If anyone is dumb around here it’s you,’ she shot back. ‘Dragging me through the hotel and back here like a sack of potatoes. Frothing at the mouth because I smiled at a man you introduced me too.’

‘Smiled? Simpered, more like. Have you any idea what you have done? You almost cost me a multi-million-dollar deal for the desalination plant.’

‘You’re crazy. The heat has got to you.’ Penny shook her head, unable to associate this glowering stranger with the man she had lived with for the past few months.

‘Your heat certainly got the Sheikh,’ Raul sneered cynically. ‘I have just spent the worst five minutes of my life trying to explain in not very good Arabic why I could not sell him my companion. You, Penny! He wanted you as one of his concubines...’

His mouth twisted in a bitter parody of a smile. ‘Luckily he did offer to wait until I was finished with you. But I still had the devil’s own job talking him out of it, and now I’m going to have to stay here a lot longer to oversee the alterations, simply so as not to offend the man further.’

Feeling like kicking him, she tore herself out of his hold and shot across the room, tears stinging her eyes. She was furious and so hurt... Now she knew what he really thought of her.

Spinning on her heel, she looked back at him. He was standing, all outraged masculine aggression. Her blue eyes ran over his tall, fit body. She loved him, but the Sheikh was obviously an astute man. He had seen what Penny had refused to acknowledge...

‘Perhaps if you had not hesitated over introducing me as your companion—’ she drawled the word scathingly ‘—he would not have considered me concubine material in the first place. The Sheikh is a man of the world, with a good grasp of English. Companion. Concubine. Where is the difference?’ she demanded bitterly, and almost laughed at the look of outrage on Raul’s dark face.

‘Is that what you truly think? Is that how you truly imagine I see our relationship?’ Raul asked, slightly incredulous, but with an icy authority that demanded an answer.

She stared back at him. ‘I think—’ She stopped. She didn’t know what she thought any more.

When she had first met Raul it had all seemed so perfect—like fate, destiny. She had been working the late shift in the Kensington branch of a national drugs company that had employed her as a pharmacist.

It had been a black, blustery night at the end of January when Raul had dashed into the shop with a prescription which he’d said was for his housekeeper Mrs Grimble’s angina. The old lady had forgotten to have it filled and he had not liked the idea of her being without her medication. Penny had thought what a caring man he was and her admiration had risen another notch when he’d declared that it was very dangerous for a lovely young girl like herself to be alone in a pharmacy at night.

They had got talking and Penny had remarked on his slight accent. He’d told her that he was Spanish and she remembered her response with a sad smile.

‘But you’re too tall to be Spanish.’

Raul had laughed out loud and gently mocked her. ‘A commonly held prejudice of northern Europeans, but may I point out Prince Felipe of Spain is well in excess of six feet? Your Prince Charles is around five-nine, no?’

Admitting her mistake, they had laughed together. But she had sensibly refused his offer to come back at closing time, to give her a lift home. The company had provided taxis for the late staff. But the following afternoon Raul had appeared again and persuaded her to have dinner with him.

That had been the start of their relationship. For the next two months, whenever he’d been in London, he’d called her, wined and dined her, taken her to the theatre, the opera, and opened up a world of wealth and sophistication that she had never thought to aspire to, and finally he had taken her to his bed.

How naive she had been! Penny thought, closing her eyes for an instant as the memory washed over her. Raul had made love to her with all the tender passion and expertise he possessed. Her passage from virgin to woman had been a revelation, a feast of the senses, an explosion of emotions that she had never imagined possible.

It had been the most perfect night of her life, and, the morning after, lying curled up against the hard heat of his male body, she had foolishly asked when they were getting married.

Raul had quickly dismissed the suggestion, declaring that because he was so much older, more experienced than she it would not be fair to rush her into marriage. She might change her mind. Most girls after their first time confused love with sex.

Instead he had suggested that she give up her job and move in with him. He had made it all sound very sensible, as if he was doing her a favour.

She shook her head, her pale hair floating around her shoulders, an unfamiliar cynical smile curving her lovely mouth. Ripe for the plucking, sprang to mind.

‘You bitch.’

Her head shot back, Raul’s snarling comment shocking her out of her reverie. His dark eyes glittered with rage and in one lithe stride he was in front of her, his strong hands grasping her shoulders. ‘I—’ she began.

‘Don’t bother to lie; your silence is answer enough,’ he growled, just before his mouth crashed down on hers in a brutal parody of a lover’s kiss.

Penny lifted her hands to the hard wall of his chest, trying to push him away. But he was too big, too strong, and, sensing her resistance, he swept one arm around her tiny waist, hauling her off her feet, while his other hand twisted the length of her hair around his fingers, pulling her face back, the better to ravish her mouth.

‘No, Raul,’ she gasped as his mouth left hers to savage her throat with hot, burning kisses.

He raised his head, his black eyes implacable in their intent. ‘No? You dare to say no?’ he grated harshly. ‘You have a lot to learn for a woman who thinks she is a concubine. They are not allowed to say no.’

Penny began to struggle in earnest, kicking out wildly with her feet, her small hands pushing at his massive shoulders, but with no effect. Raul simply hoisted her over his shoulder and stalked into the bedroom while she pummelled his back with her clenched fists in vain.

‘Put me down, you great, hulking brute!’ she screamed. She would not allow him to treat her like this, she vowed.

Suddenly she was falling backwards onto the bed, all the breath leaving her body with the force of the impact. She gazed up at the man standing over her. It was a Raul she had never seen before. He was out of control, his lips pulled back in the travesty of a smile, his dark eyes flashing fire.

His hand reached down and tore the halter-neck of her dress to her waist, revealing her braless state. She put her hands to cover herself and he tore them away, spreading them either side of her head as he bent to kneel over her, straddling her lower body with his long legs.

His fiery gaze skimmed her bare breasts. ‘No wonder the Sheikh was so charmed; you virtually displayed yourself naked in that dress.’

‘Please, Raul,’ Penny murmured, suddenly beginning to feel frightened of him for the first time in their relationship, even as her breasts hardened under his searching gaze.

‘You think I treat you like a concubine? You think I keep you as a slave? It is time you knew the difference, my sweet Penny—my sweet, innocent, flirtatious Penny,’ he snarled with savage mockery. Then, bending his head, he deliberately bit down lightly on one rose-tipped breast and then the other.

Penny jerked beneath him and felt the familiar heat of instant arousal in her loins. Raul at his worst could still excite her, even as she hated herself for it. His mouth found hers and his teeth nipped at her lips until she gave him access. His tongue plunged deep into her mouth, stroking, arousing, demanding her response, and she could not deny him.

Passion ignited between them like a forest fire run wild. Raul reared back, his hand ripping her dress and panties down and off her feet, and, within seconds of discarding his trousers, he was once more over her.

His lips found hers and she was ready for him. The heat, the aroused male scent, the hard-packed muscle were her own particular aphrodisiac. She could no more resist him than stop the ocean tide. The blood pounded through her veins; she could feel the rapid pounding of his mighty heart as she pulled at his shirt, tearing off the buttons in her haste to feel his naked flesh against her breasts. Instead his mouth found her hardened peaks and suckled each in turn as one long leg parted her thighs and he slammed into her with savage ease.

It was over in a minute—a rapacious coupling that neither could resist. Raul’s full weight collapsed on top of her and he buried his head on the pillow over her shoulder.

Penny, fighting for breath, was appalled at her own lack of control. But that Raul had so completely lost control that he had forgotten protection she found incredible.

‘Raul,’ she murmured, slipping her arm around his shoulders, her slender fingers tracing up the back of his neck and into his sweat-damp, curling hair.

He turned his head away from her; his eyes caught the flash of diamonds on the bedside table and he groaned. Moving onto his back and sweeping Penny into his arms, he said huskily, ‘Dios, I’m sorry, Penny.’ His voice was deep with remorse. ‘It’s your birthday, and I lost it completely. Did I hurt you?’

‘No. Surprised me, shocked me a little, but hurt me? Never,’ Penny reassured him softly, her blue eyes gazing up into his darkly handsome face which was dazed with the aftermath of violent passion.

‘I shocked myself,’ Raul said with wry mockery. ‘I did not believe I could feel such jealousy. Seeing that Arab kiss your hand, I suddenly wanted to hit him.’

‘Hardly good business practice,’ Penny teased, luxuriating in the comfort of her lover’s arms and secretly delighted that Raul had been jealous. It must mean that he loved her!

‘I know, and then to introduce you as my companion ...I’m not surprised you were angry. I should have said partner.’ And, tilting her head back, he brushed her lips with a gentle kiss.

‘Partner. Yes, I like that,’ she murmured, stroking her hand over his hairy chest. ‘If it is true.’ She glanced up through her thick lashes at his beloved face, needing all the reassurance she could get.

‘Of course it is true. Now and for ever,’ Raul declared throatily, his hand capturing hers on his broad chest.

Penny sighed her contentment. Raul was hers. All of him. And, glancing down at the muscular length of his magnificent body, she began to giggle.

‘What’s so funny?’

‘Oh, Raul, the business tycoon, still wearing his jacket and shirt, admittedly tom open, then naked from the waist down except for his socks.’

Raul pulled himself up the bed and looked down. His lips twitched; he glanced at Penny and lifted a socked foot, and they both burst out laughing, the happy sound echoing in the still night air.

CHAPTER TWO

‘COME on, sleepyhead; you have ten minutes to get ready.’

Penny opened her eyes and looked up at Raul standing by the side of the bed. She stretched and smiled—a slow, sensuous curve of her full lips. She lifted out a hand towards him. Then, frowning, she let it drop to the coverlet. He was already dressed in a navy silk suit...

‘Not this morning, honey,’ he drawled with a mocking grin, accurately reading her mind. Usually they started the day in a much more enjoyable fashion.

Penny murmured, ‘Spoilsport!’ and snuggled back under the cover. ‘You work if you must, but I feel like another hour in bed.’

‘Sorry, but there has been a change of plan.’

‘What?’ she asked fuzzily, reluctant to leave the warmth of the wide bed.

‘Come on, Penny; move it. The honeymoon can’t last for ever. You’re booked on a flight back to Spain leaving in seventy minutes.’

‘We’re leaving?’ She hauled herself up into a sitting position, her eyes flicking enquiringly to his hard face.

‘Not exactly. I have to stay a few days to sort out a couple of problems with the design of the desalination plant. But you are going back to the hacienda; you will be safer there. I should never have brought you with me in the first place. Too many men around here would pay a fortune for a girl like you, and I cannot be around to protect you all day.’

He crossed the room and pulled back the curtains, allowing the blistering brilliance of the morning sun to illuminate the room. Penny blinked at the harsh light, and the even harsher expression on Raul’s dark face.

‘Really, Raul, aren’t you overreacting a bit?’ she responded drily. ‘I can’t see myself being kidnapped out of the Hyatt Regency, somehow.’ And, sliding out of bed, dragging the sheet around her naked body, she crossed to where he stood lounging against the window-frame. ‘And you did promise to take me to England,’ she reminded him peevishly. ‘I’ve arranged—’

‘Not now, Penny; I haven’t the time to argue.’ He cut her off in mid-sentence. ‘I don’t want you here. I want you back in Spain, where Ava and Carlos can look after you.’ Pushing away from the window, he swatted her bottom as he brushed past her. ‘Do as you’re told and hurry. You now have only eight minutes.’

The master has spoken, Penny thought angrily, but still she did as she was told. Packing took a matter of minutes, and after a lightning-fast shower she pulled on her briefs, a pair of white cotton trousers and a blue halter-top, slipped white espadrilles on her feet and she was ready. But silently simmering with resentment.

She marched into the sitting room, ready to demand an explanation. Raul knew perfectly well that she had arranged to meet her friend Amy in London at the weekend. Now he was suggesting that she stay in Spain and wait for him like a dutiful little wife. Except she wasn’t his wife! And what had he said earlier? ‘The honeymoon can’t last for ever.’

She paused. Was that how Raul viewed the past few idyllic months that they had been together—a honeymoon for him, without the complication of having to marry the girl in the first place?

‘Dios, Penny, are you determined to make a spectacle of yourself?’ Raul’s angry voice sliced the air.

‘Spectacle?’ She glanced up at his frowning face. What had she done wrong now?

‘No bra, bare arms, bare back—is there no end to your stupidity?’

Penny looked down at her neat blue halter-top and back up at her lover’s grim face. ‘Apparently not,’ she muttered, and she wasn’t just referring to her clothes.

‘No matter; you haven’t time to change.’ And, grabbing her arm, he bustled her out of the suite and into the waiting elevator.

‘Even if I had, I wouldn’t,’ she snapped defiantly. ‘In case you hadn’t noticed, it is the middle of June, the temperature is over a hundred degrees, and it will not be much different in Andalusia. I couldn’t give a fig if the women here go around covered from head to foot. I am Christian and British and will wear what I please.’

She almost added, So there. Much as she loved Raul, he could be the most arrogant, chauvinistic man in the world sometimes.

‘Happy you got that off your chest?’ Raul drawled mockingly, with a cynical, sensual glance at that particular part of her anatomy.

Penny felt the colour surge in her face but wasn’t sure whether it was anger or arousal that was making her blush. ‘Yes,’ she snapped back, and turned her head away as he slipped one arm around her waist, his head lowering towards hers. She wasn’t in the mood to kiss and make up. She was angry, confused and bitterly disappointed.

Perhaps it was just as well that they were parting for a while. The events of the last twelve hours had left an unpleasant taste in her mouth. She had glimpsed herself through a stranger’s eyes—those of an Arab prince—and she did not like what she saw. Plus, Raul’s attitude did not help one bit.

It was as if coming to an Arab country had heightened in him the characteristics of his Moorish forefathers. The Moors had once dominated southern Spain for nearly eight hundred years, and, watching Raul now, she could quite imagine him locking her away in purdah, given half a chance.

His home, situated west of Granada, was built in the Moorish style—all graceful arches and elegant balconies but with iron grilles at the windows. A central courtyard, sheltered from the burning heat of the summer by ancient olive and lemon trees, also effectively blocked off the outside world.

The land had been in Raul’s family for generations—a huge estate with vast expanses of olive groves stretching across the gently waving plains and higher up into the hills where roamed cattle and the horses which Raul kept as a hobby. She loved the place, but it was isolated...

She glanced up at him, her disturbing thoughts clearly reflected in her blue eyes. But at that moment the elevator doors swished open and Raul straightened to his full height, his dark face impassive as he ushered her across the elegant foyer and out into the scorching heat of the morning sun.

A chauffeur opened the door of a waiting limousine and, without a word being spoken, Penny found herself in the back seat with Raul beside her.

‘I suppose I should be honoured you can actually spare the time to take me to the airport,’ Penny sniped, still hurting at his high-handed action in shipping her back to Spain. A long arm curved around her slender shoulder and Raul’s other hand caught her chin and turned her face towards his.

‘Penny. My darling girl. Please don’t be angry.’ One long finger traced the outline of her mouth and a soft sigh escaped her. Why was she fighting with him? She loved him; one touch, a tender word and she ached for him.

‘I’m not angry.’ She smiled slightly. ‘Only sad. It’s just hit me that we have never spent a night apart from the day I moved in with you. I will miss you,’ she confessed with blunt honesty.

Raul hugged her to him as his dark eyes caught and held hers. ‘I hate for us to be apart even for one night. You must know that, honey. But I wasn’t totally honest with you last night. I was furious that you met the Sheikh but it wasn’t just that. The trouble at the plant was a contributing factor for my appallingly bad temper.’

‘Oh, Raul, you should have confided in me. That’s what partners do, you know,’ she chided him gently, adding, ‘I’m not dumb; you can discuss your work with me.’

‘I should not have called you dumb,’ he admitted, planting a brief kiss on her nose. ‘Naive, maybe, but I had no right to insult your intelligence. Only, it is hard for me, this relationship thing! I have been too many years on my own. But I will try and do better, I promise.’

His dark head bent and his mouth gently covered hers. A long, satisfying kiss followed, Raul finally ending it by easing her head back against the seat and groaning, ‘I have a suspicion that kissing in public, even in a car, is against the law here.’

Penny snuggled into the curve of his broad shoulder. Once more at ease, she prompted, ‘So tell me about the plant. It sometimes helps to talk out a problem with a third party, I find.’ And it might stop her thinking about the hardness of his thigh against her own, and what she would really like to be doing.

‘Such wisdom from one so young,’ he mocked, but continued in a more serious vein. ‘I was your age—twenty-three—fresh out of university with a degree in engineering specialising in design. I thought I would work at a large firm in Granada and live happily at the hacienda, helping out on the estate for the rest of my days. Unfortunately my father died. I discovered the ranch was mortgaged to the hilt, and that a salary, however good, would not allow me to redeem the mortgage in one lifetime. That is why I started my own business—’

‘I didn’t realise. I simply assumed you had always been disgustingly wealthy,’ Penny interrupted teasingly.

‘So did I,’ he said with dry irony. ‘Until I found out different. It is only in the past ten years I have actually been solvent. And this desalination plant in Dubai was to be my crowning achievement.

‘I designed it. It is an innovative and slightly controversial design. Unfortunately one small part needs to be rethought. I have to stay here and solve the problem, because the rewards if I succeed are astronomical—not solely in monetary terms but in human terms. Think of the millions that die each year in Africa alone because of drought, and yet in some countries the sea is there to be used but is ignored.

‘I can foresee the design being used not just in the Middle Eastern countries but any coastal area in the world where a shortage of water is a major problem—including my own country.’

Penny was stunned. This was a new Raul, talking about his life and work as he never had to her before, and she was enormously impressed at the depth of his commitment and flattered that he had confided in her. She felt as though it marked a new phase in their relationship, increasing her belief in him and his love for her.

‘So you see, Penny, much as I want to keep you with me, to be honest, I cannot afford the distraction.’

He stretched a hand across her chest to cup the underside of her breast, and she shivered in reaction, the nipple peaking blatantly beneath the soft cotton of her top. She glanced sideways at his rugged face and caught his wry smile.

‘And you, querida, are a major distraction,’ he husked throatily. ‘At least if I know you are at home waiting for me I will have the incentive to work all the harder, simply to get back to you.’

It was her turn to move and press her lips to his. ‘I do understand, Raul, and I will be counting the days.’

He hauled her into his arms, local laws forgotten, and kissed her thoroughly. Then he murmured against her softly parted lips, ‘And I will be counting the nights. Dios, Penny, you must know you can ask anything of me—anything in the world—and I would move heaven and earth to get it for you.’

As an avowal of love, Penny couldn’t have asked for more, and, with his words warming her heart as his kiss still lingered on her lips, fifteen minutes later she boarded the waiting aircraft. Her confidence in their love was at an all-time high... And she never imagined for a second that two weeks later the reverse would be true...

Penny slowly opened her eyes and groaned. Her sleep had been haunted by dreams; her body burning and aching with need, as she had spent a restless night in the huge four-poster bed. She glanced down at the fine cotton sheet tangled around her naked body and sighed. So this was what sexual frustration did to one, she thought grimly, and wished for the hundredth time that Raul was back.

She yawned and stretched; then, slowly untangling herself from the sheet, she swung her long legs to the floor. Raul’s ‘a few days’ had lengthened into two weeks, and, much as she loved the hacienda, if she was honest with herself, after months of doing absolutely nothing she was beginning to get bored. She was slowly reaching the conclusion that she hadn’t been cut out to be a lady of leisure.

A deep sigh escaped her and she sat for a moment on the side of the bed. She pushed the unruly mass of her long hair back from her face and glanced idly out of the window. Another scorching hot day, but her flesh was burning with a different heat—the heat of arousal unfulfilled.

Still, she told herself bracingly, breakfast and down to the stables for a long gallop on her own small Arab mare, Daisy—a present from Raul the first time she had stayed with him in Spain. Followed by lunch, a swim... Who was she trying to fool? She had done the same thing every day for weeks, and was fed up.

What would her mother have said, she mused, if she could have seen her precious daughter now, a wealthy man’s mistress? Her blue eyes hazed with tears. Deep in her innermost being Penny knew the answer, and it gave her no joy. Her parents had been a wonderful loving couple; they might have tolerated her lifestyle because she was their beloved daughter, but they would never have approved in a million years.

Her thoughts went back to the past. As the much loved only child of the local doctor in a small town in West Sussex, she had had an idyllic upbringing until her father had been killed in a car crash when on a night call to an elderly patient. Even after his death she had still been relatively content; she had grown even closer to her mother and life had gone on.

It had been when she was seventeen that the final disaster had struck: her mother had been diagnosed as having cancer. A braver woman never lived, Penny thought with some pride. Her mother had insisted that Penny stay at school and take her final exams. She had been destined to follow in her father’s footsteps and had been accepted for medical school.

Whether it was the worry over her mother or simply that she was not quite clever enough, she didn’t know, but her exam results had not been good enough for her to take up her place. With hindsight she could see that it had been a blessing in disguise.

The local pharmacy where she had worked every Saturday since the age of fifteen had allowed her to work part-time, twenty hours a week, and she had devoted the next year to looking after her mother. Then, when the end had come and her mother died, the same firm had agreed to sponsor her through pharmaceutical college. Reluctantly she had sold the family house, bought a small apartment in London and started college.

A reminiscent smile curved her full lips. The very first day she’d met Amy, an orphan like herself, but looking for accommodation. They had shared Penny’s apartment ever since. In fact Amy was still living there. Which reminded her...

She stood up and walked across to the en suite bathroom. She owed Amy a phone call; apart from ringing when she had first arrived back in Spain, to apologise for not keeping her appointment in London with her, she had not spoken to her friend at all.

Raul, on the other hand, had called Penny every night, but as she stepped into the shower and turned on the cold spray she seriously questioned the effect of his calls. Invariably she put the phone down in a state of sexual arousal, and she was getting heartily sick of cold showers. In fact she would have loved to know what idiot had actually decided they worked as a cure for frustration, because they did not seem to be doing her much good.

Half an hour later, after a quick cup of coffee—she could not face Ava the houskeeper’s idea of a breakfast—Penny was astride Daisy, cantering along the dusty track that led to her favourite spot—a wild grove of orange and lemon trees, gnarled and old, planted decades ago by whoever had once lived in the tumbledown adobe building at the edge of the orchard. A small stream trickled by only twenty feet from the ruined home. The stream was almost dried up in the mid-summer heat, but still Penny found it soothing.

Eventually, reluctantly, she returned to the hacienda, groomed and fed her horse, and then made her way back to the house.

‘I won’t be five minutes,’ she called to Ava in her rapidly improving Spanish before lightly running up the wide marble staircase. One positive thing to come out of her relationship with Raul, she thought smugly, was that, having studied Spanish as a second language at school, she had finally got a chance to use it, and had discovered that she had a remarkable aptitude for the melodious tongue.

Nipping into the shower, she had a quick wash, then dried herself and dressed equally quickly in a pair of brief white cotton shorts and a plain white shirt, which she didn’t bother fastening, simply tying the ends together under her breasts before slipping on a pair of soft leather mules and leaving the bedroom.

The sound of the doorbell ringing made her hesitate for a second on the top step of the wide staircase. In the many times she had stayed here, there had been few visitors. The ones that did call when Raul was around Penny rarely met. The thought made her pause, and she frowned, wondering who it could be.

Penny heard the voice before she saw the unexpected guest. And she knew enough Spanish to stiffen in outrage.

‘My God, I thought Raul would have got rid of you and that useless husband of yours by now, Ava. Tell your master I’m here and fetch me a drink. I’ll be in the salon.’

Penny ran down the stairs, taking in the scene before her at a glance. Ava was standing by the open front door, her face a picture of hurt surprise and disgust, her kindly old eyes fixed in horror on the girl marching past her.

The young woman was small, dark and looked as though she had just stepped out of Vogue. From her perfectly coiffured black hair piled on top of her head to the elegant high-heeled shoes that tapped out a staccato tune across the mosaic floor she looked like a woman who owned all she surveyed.

‘Excuse me; can I help you?’ Penny said frostily, stepping in front of the stranger. Close up, it was obvious that the woman was older than Penny had first thought—mid-thirties, maybe.

‘I very much doubt it. It is Raul I have come to visit. Now get out of my way and tell that stupid old woman to fetch me a white wine.’

Anger turned Penny’s cool face to bright scarlet in seconds. She had never in her life met such an ill-mannered, arrogant woman and she acted without thought of the consequences.

‘Raul is not here, nor is he likely to be for some time. In his absence I am in charge and I suggest you leave immediately. Ava is the housekeeper here and she is not employed to put up with insults from uninvited guests.’

‘How dare you talk to me like that? I am Dulciana Maria Costas; my father is a government minister.’

‘Well, he should have taught you some manners. Now, if you don’t mind, Ava will show you out.’

The perfectly made-up face twisted with rage. ‘Raul will hear of this, you little English whore. I have heard all about you-Raul’s latest bed-mate. If you have any sense you will pack up and leave now. Once Raul knows I am back he will have no further use for you. That I can promise.’

Penny went from red to white to red again, with a mixture of fury and not a little embarrassment. ‘Get out,’ she spluttered.

‘I will leave—but I will be back. And if you have any sense you will take my advice. Do yourself a favour and save yourself total humiliation.’ And, spinning on her heel, the arrogant Dulciana Maria Costas marched back out of the front door.

Penny sat down on the bottom step of the stairs, her trembling legs refusing to support her. ‘Who on earth was that witch of woman, Ava?’ she asked, glancing across at the older lady.

‘Dulciana Costas; her father is in the government, but he also happens to own the adjoining ranch.’

Penny got to her feet. ‘So I have just insulted our nearest neighbour.’ She grimaced and caught an unexpected flash of sympathy in Ava’s dark eyes.

‘I am honoured you came to my defence, Penny, but I wish you hadn’t for your sake. Dulcie Costas is a bad lady to cross.’

‘She can’t harm me.’ Penny shrugged with more nonchalance than she actually felt.

‘I’m not so sure,’ Ava responded, with a worried shake of her grey head. ‘Come.’ Gesturing with one hand for Penny to follow her, she walked through an open door at one side of the hall, through the splendid dining room and out into the central courtyard.

‘I have set lunch in the courtyard, and while you eat I will explain.’

‘Explain what?’ Penny asked, sinking down on the wrought-iron chair at the beautifully set small table. The selection of attractively displayed cold meats and salads suddenly made her realise how hungry she was. She loaded her plate with chicken, ham and a lot of crisp green salad. ‘Do sit down, Ava, instead of hovering; I’ve told you before I don’t need you to wait on me.’

Ava sighed and murmured, ‘Perhaps this once.’ And, pulling out the opposite chair, she sat down primly on the edge.

‘So who is this Dulcie? Why all the mystery and heavy sighs?’ Penny demanded, swallowing a mouthful of chicken.

‘First, I wish to apologise that when you first arrived with Master Raul I was disapproving. Never had Raul brought a lady to this house to sleep in his bed. I am old; the modern times have passed me by. But very soon I realised he is in love with you, and you with him. I think you will marry and the hacienda will once again echo to the sound of laughter and children’s voices.’

‘I sincerely hope so,’ Penny said, blushing scarlet but delighted that Ava was confirming her own heartfelt belief.

‘I have never seen Raul so happy. I have known him all his life—as a baby, a young boy and as a man. I know him better than he knows himself. If he has one fault it is that he is fearful of committing himself to a woman. I do not usually gossip but I think you are entitled to know what makes him the way he is.’

Penny stopped eating and, picking up the carafe of white wine from the centre of the table, filled her glass, and, lifting it to her mouth, took a sip, her eyes fixed in fascination on Ava.

‘Go on,’ she prompted eagerly.

‘Raul was eight years old when his mother ran off with an American serviceman stationed in Spain. His father was devastated—never really recovered. Poor Raul did not understand what had happened or why his mother never came to see him again. I tried my best to take his mother’s place, but by the time he was a teenager he was very bitter. His father didn’t help by repeatedly cursing young women, and his mother in particular.’

‘How awful.’ Penny sighed, her tender heart full of sympathy for Raul as a lonely young boy.

‘True, but worse was to follow. You have met Dulcie; you have seen what she is like. Well, with the families being neighbours it was inevitable that Dulcie became Raul’s “friend”, for want of a better word. Raul went off to university in America, but they corresponded and eventually became betrothed.

‘It suited both parents, and Raul was used to looking after the girl. But I had my doubts. Dulcie was totally spoilt by an over-indulgent father, and when Raul was studying Dulcie was off to Paris, Rome—anywhere there were men and money. The rumours were rife and true, but Raul never suspected.’

Penny’s mind reeled. Raul had been engaged to the woman she had thrown out of his home. She couldn’t believe it. He had once loved that witch of a woman and yet had never mentioned it to her. Did she know him at all? She listened with mounting disquiet as Ava went on.

‘The wedding date had already been fixed when Raul’s father died and everything changed. Dulcie discovered that Raul’s father had died in debt and that there was no money to support her extravagant lifestyle, and a month before the wedding she took off with a Colombian cattle baron—though some said his business was more chemical than cattle...

‘Apparently the Colombian traded her in for a younger, more fertile model, and she returned to Spain two days ago. I am telling you all this, Penny, so you are warned. The master loves you and, given time, he will many you—of this I am sure. But beware of Dulcie; she is an evil but clever woman. Around the master she was always sweet and innocent, but you have seen how she treats people when he is not around.’

For some reason all Penny could think of was Raul and that horrid woman together. She was eaten alive with jealousy at the thought of Raul making love to Dulcie, touching the other woman as he now touched her. It was ridiculous; it had all been over years ago but she could not help feeling a certain dread. She tried a smile.

‘Don’t worry, Ava. Raul is much older and wiser; he would never allow himself to be fooled twice, and—’

‘So this is how my two favourite women spend their time when I am not around.’ A deep laughing voice cut across Penny’s. ‘Drinking wine and gossiping.’

Penny spun around in her chair. It was Raul... He was leaning carelessly against the wood frame of the dining-room door, his jacket casually hooked on a long finger and draped over one broad shoulder. A snowy white shirt open at the neck revealed the strong column of his tanned throat, and his eyes glinted with humour and something more. He looked all male and incredibly sexy. Penny jumped to her feet and in seconds had thrown herself at him.

His arms opened to enfold her. ‘You never said last night.’ She reached up and raked her fingers through his dark hair, cradling his head with her small hands. Her head tilted back to gaze up into his handsome face.

‘I decided to surprise you, querida,’ he murmured as his mouth fastened on hers.

CHAPTER THREE

RAUL’S kiss was so overpowering that Penny was lost in it in seconds; she forgot where they were and that they had an audience; she hungered for him with a desperation she had not thought possible. Once more in his arms, her tongue twining with his, she clawed unconsciously at the fine silk of his shirt, popping his buttons in her haste to feel the satin skin beneath, while Raul’s hands roamed freely down her back, cupping her buttocks, hauling her into the hard cradle of his hips, making her intimately aware of his aroused state.

‘Dios,’ he groaned against her mouth, and when he lifted his head, his dark gaze burned down into the blue depths of her passion-glazed eyes. “That was some welcome, Penny. Can I take it you missed me, hmm?’

‘Yes, every minute,’ she agreed, an ecstatic smile lighting her lovely face.

‘Did you miss anything else?’ he demanded hardly, straightening to his full height and stepping back.

‘Only you.’ She moved and, standing on tiptoe, nipped at his square jaw. It was as high as she could reach. His strong hands curved around her shoulders, holding her firmly away from him, and through the euphoric haze at seeing him again it slowly dawned on Penny that he was deliberately keeping her at a distance.

‘Raul?’ she husked tentatively as his dark eyes slid down the length of her body with a possessive arrogance, then back to her flushed face, a silent demand in their black depths. Wide, puzzled blue eyes met his narrowed, predatory gaze and a tremor of something very like fear slithered down her spine. Raul exuded a raw, animal magnetism, an aura of power and vitality that suddenly seemed oddly threatening. And what on earth did he mean? Who else could she have missed? It didn’t make sense.

‘You’re sure about that?’ he queried, the corner of his mouth twisting in a cynical smile.

‘Of course,’ she said emphatically. Surely he knew how much she’d missed him, loved him...? ‘What is it, Raul? What’s wrong?’ She twisted her hand in his shirt in agitation and another button popped.

‘Nothing—nothing at all. But unless you want to shock poor Ava completely—’ his hands dropped to catch hers at his chest, and, entwining their fingers, he lowered her hands to her sides ‘—I think you’d better stop trying to rip my shirt off.’ His dark head bent, and, his voice lowering to a husky drawl, he added, ‘Not that I mind. I seem to remember denying you a siesta in Dubai; now seems a good time to correct the omission.’

She had forgotten all about the older woman. Penny glanced over her shoulder to see Ava standing by the table, her brown eyes wide and round and ever so slightly shocked. ‘I think you’re right.’ She turned back to Raul, her lips twitching. ‘We don’t want to offend her sensibilities, and suddenly I feel incredibly tired.’ She chuckled, inwardly relieved that it was only Ava’s presence inhibiting Raul, and nothing more sinister.

Penny opened her eyes and yawned widely. The sun was setting, the last rays streaking the room with a warm rosy light. She turned on her side and smiled, a languorous sexy curl to her mouth as her gaze feasted on Raul lying flat on his back beside her. His chest rose and fell slowly in the steady rhythm of sleep.

With his eyes closed he looked younger and somehow vulnerable. The ridiculously long sweep of his dark lashes curved on his high cheekbones, almost feminine in their thick lusciousness. But it was certainly the only slightly feminine thing about him, Penny thought dreamily, and, raising up on one elbow, she studied his sprawling, nude body.

They had spent all afternoon in bed and had finally fallen into an exhausted sleep. Now just looking at Raul made her shiver with the rekindling of passion. She reached out a small hand and ran it lightly over his broad shoulder and across his massive chest, her fingers entwining in the surprisingly soft chest hair. She grazed a small male nipple and still her hand moved down.

It was incredibly sweet to have him at her mercy, to let her hand roam lower over the taut, flat stomach, to feel his hard, warm body, to linger over the muscles of his thighs. She lowered her head and kissed him softly, not wanting to wake him, simply to love him freely with her hands and mouth.

‘Woman, behave.’ Raul’s hand grasped her wrist like a manacle and in seconds their positions were reversed. Penny was flat on her back and Raul was looking down into her startled eyes. ‘You’re insatiable,’ he chuckled. ‘I never imagined when I first took you to bed what a sleeping tiger I was arousing.’

‘Tigress, surely?’ she husked, shivering in delight as his glittering dark eyes swept her naked body with a sensuous, knowing triumph. ‘You’re the only tiger around here, with your gold-flecked eyes,’ she corrected him throatily.

‘Grr...’ Raul teased, and, bending, rubbed his unshaven jaw against her soft cheek. ‘Only around you, Penny.’ He lifted his head. ‘You must know I adore you.’

She sighed as his hand trailed across her body to cup one full, round breast. ‘And I you; all you have to do is touch me and you can have m-e-e-e.’ She ended on a moan as he rolled one taut nipple between his thumb and finger, sending arrows of sensation through her ultrasensitive flesh.

‘Much as I would like to take up your offer, I can’t.’ He brushed his mouth briefly over hers. ‘I have work to do if I am to take you to London at the weekend.’

Penny beamed up at him. ‘You mean that?’

‘Yes. I promised and I am a man of my word.’ He rolled over and got to his feet, and she stared at him, her breath catching in her throat.

At that moment she loved him more than life. Raul, her lover, was back. How could she have imagined for a second that she was bored? She would spend her life waiting for Raul if she had to, but she didn’t need to. He was here and he was keeping his promise to take her to London. He did love her. Ava was right; it was only a matter of time before they married.

Her loving gaze roamed over him and a surprised gasp escaped her as he turned and smiled down at her, magnificent in his nudity. Contrary to what he had said, he could not hide his body’s readiness to take up her offer.

‘It isn’t so shocking,’ he said, his voice deep and tinged with laughter as he caught her wayward gaze. ‘My body might be weak but my mind is strong, and I do have some calls to make.’

She lifted her eyes to his. ‘I think you might have got that quote the wrong way around.’ She let her glance slide back down the long, hard length of him. ‘Weak is hardly an accurate description from where I am,’ she joked.

‘Tigress.’ And lips twitching, Raul bent down and brushed a cheeky kiss across the twin peaks of her full breasts. ‘Get up, get a shower and put something pretty on this sexy body that won’t distract me. Then come downstairs, and after we have eaten we’ll talk.’ Swinging on his heel, he walked off.

Penny sighed happily and, turning on her stomach, savoured the lingering scent of Raul and love on the crumpled sheets. She heard him moving around, dressing, but was too sated and lazy to move.

For the next few days Penny thought that life was perfect... They shared breakfast in the secluded courtyard and then Raul locked himself in the study for the morning, but after lunch he was all hers.

They spent an afternoon in the marvellous old city of Granada in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. They strolled hand in hand around the Alhambra palace, built for the Moorish rulers hundreds of years earlier.

Penny gazed in awestruck wonder at the ostentatious luxury. The walls carved with swirls of ornate stucco, the tons of white marble and coloured glass, and the ceilings, hand-carved from cedarwood, designed to represent heaven, almost convinced her that she was already there!

Later, sharing a picnic, which had been lovingly supplied by Ava, in the gardens where the constant splash of running water and dripping fountains lent a pleasant coolness to the air, Penny smiled at Raul’s reclining figure and was convinced. Heaven could not possibly be better...

Singing happily to herself, Penny descended the grand staircase. She had finished the packing, and at nine o’clock the next morning they would be on a flight out of Alicante, arriving in London Friday lunchtime. She had called Amy and arranged to call at the apartment on Sunday, to catch up on the news.

She was dressed in a simple green silk slip of a gown, tiny straps supporting the soft fabric that clung loosely to her lithe body, the hemline ending just above her knees to reveal her long, shapely legs. On her feet delicate wedge-heeled gold and green sandals glittered as she skipped lightly down the stairs.

She had left her blonde hair loose to curl enticingly over her shoulders and down her back because she knew that Raul preferred it that way. She was totally unaware of how stunning she looked. The glow of love had given her fine features an incandescent beauty, her softly swollen lips needed no lipstick, and her blue eyes sparkled with the inner radiance of a woman who knew she was loved.

‘Penelope.’ The voice was harsh.

Penny’s foot hesitated on the bottom step of the stairs; her heart thumped in her breast. Raul was standing in the entrance, elegantly dressed in a dark business suit, the sun behind him outlining his huge frame in a halo of fire. For a second he looked like the devil incarnate. His business meeting must have finished early, she thought inconsequentially.

‘Raul, you’re back.’ She moved towards him, a tentative smile pulling at her wide mouth.

‘Too late, it would seem, to stop your idiocy,’ he drawled scathingly.

‘My idiocy?’ She shook her head, her fair hair floating around her naked shoulders. What on earth was he talking about? Her eyes searched his rugged face and she shivered inside.

‘Don’t play the blue-eyed innocent with me, Penny. I’m too old to be fooled.’ And the contempt in his voice flicked her like a whiplash.

‘Please, Raul.’ She lifted her hand to his chest but he swept her aside.

‘In my study...now.’

She followed him. Noting the tension in his broad back, she chewed nervously at her bottom lip. Something had upset him, but what?

She had barely put a foot in the oak-panelled study before he turned on her, and, slamming the door behind her, he rested one hand on the hard wood and stared down into her confused face. But this was not the man who had left her a handful of hours earlier. His dark eyes were as hard as jet, and as unyielding.

‘What the hell have you been doing, woman?’ he demanded icily.

‘P-p-packing,’ she stammered, totally intimidated by the cold rage in his dark eyes.

‘Don’t be facetious; it does not suit you.’

‘I...’ Trapped against the door, with his huge body towering over her, Penny touched the tip of her tongue to her dry lips. ‘I wasn’t—’

‘Who on earth gave you the right to insult my neighbours, to order a friend from my house in my absence?’

She felt the colour drain from her face. She stared at him helplessly. The shock of being confronted in such a way by the man she loved was totally numbing.

‘How dared you do such a thing?’ A cruel smile twisted across his face. ‘On what authority?’

‘On what authority’. The words echoed in her brain. They were lovers, partners—or so she had thought. Obviously Raul’s idea of a partnership was not the same as hers.

Angry colour flooded Penny’s cheeks. The nerve of the man, yelling at her as if she were no more than a servant in his home. Not even that—he was unfailingly polite to Ava and Carlos. What was the matter with her? She was letting Raul intimidate her yet again, as he had in the beginning when she had mentioned marriage, and again in Dubai, when he had packed her off to Spain. Was she a woman or a doormat? she asked herself.

Her spine stiffening, she looked straight into his dark, furious eyes. ‘I was under the impression that we were partners, and in your absence I was to treat your house as my own,’ she said, her voice coolly measured in sharp contrast to her rapidly beating heart. ‘If I misunderstood you, I’m sorry.’

A dark flush covered his hard face and he had the grace to look ashamed at his outburst, but not for long... ‘Yes, yes, but not to the extent of insulting my neighbours.’ He stormed across the room and then swung back to face her, running his large hand through his dark hair in angry frustration. ‘You will have to apologise to Dulcie, not me.’

‘I presume you are referring to that hateful woman, Dulciana Maria Costas. She marched into the house and was unspeakably rude to poor Ava. I told her to leave, as any other right-minded person would have done, and if you think for a second I will apologise to the woman forget it.’ Penny glared at him and folded her arms across her chest.

His mouth thinned to a hard line. ‘Dulcie does not speak English. How do you know what was said?’ he sneeringly demanded.

‘Because my Spanish is good; I understood perfectly and acted accordingly.’

‘Nonsense, Penny, you must have misunderstood. I have known Dulcie all my life. Unlike you, she would not deliberately insult anyone,’ he said with cutting sarcasm.

‘Obviously you have no such qualms,’ she shot back, but his words bruised her heart. Nonsensical was she? Along with ‘dumb’ and ‘idiocy’ it all added up to a man who had no respect for her as a person. Suddenly with blinding clarity she recognised what she had become. From an intelligent, ambitious woman she had turned into a fool for love. She blinked rapidly to hold back the tears, not sure if they were tears of sorrow or pure rage.

She shook her head in disbelief, and stared at Raul as though she had never seen him before. ‘How could you take the word of an old fiancée you have not seen for years against mine?’

‘I see Ava has been gossiping.’ One dark brow arched sardonically. ‘I might have guessed. You saw Dulcie as a rival and were smitten by the green-eyed god. Really, Penny, how childish.’

He could not have said anything more likely to enrage her. Childish was she? And jealous, to boot! She had not known who the damn woman was in the first place.

‘Rubbish! I didn’t even know the woman was your ex-fiancee until later. You certainly never mentioned her,’ she spat back, her body tense with outrage and a deepening hurt that she did her best to disguise.

‘My past relationships are none of your business,’ Raul informed her with icy precision. ‘It is the present that concerns you, and in half an hour Senor Costas and his daughter will be arriving for dinner.’

Penny’s mouth fell open in surprise and she spluttered, ‘You invited...?’ She could not go on, she was so furious, her body rigid with the effort to control her rage.

‘Yes. And I expect you to apologise for your behaviour the other day, and, hopefully, we can enjoy a civilised meal.’ She caught the implacable expression in his eyes, and her breath stopped in her throat as she realised what he had said.

Slowly she moved towards him, her cheeks scarlet, her anger so livid that she was shaking with it. She registered the arrogant stance of his tall body, the hands tucked easily into the pockets of his trousers.

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