Luis (Royal Caleva #2)

CHAPTER 28

Eve and Grace sat in the back of a black SUV, escorted by two other black SUVs, on their way to Casa en las Nubes. Eve leaned her head against the leather seatback with gratitude. The last three days had drained her.

After the morning’s interview with La Voix—which Grace had handled like a champion—Luis had called the royal family together to brief them on the identity of his poisoner. While the mood was solemn, no one seemed overly shocked that a crazed math professor had nearly murdered Luis. It made Eve wonder how often such things happened but were covered up. Which made her worry about Grace’s safety even more.

As soon as Luis had answered all the family’s questions, he had left the room, saying that Dr. Ibarra was waiting to examine him, which sent a ripple of relief through Eve. He was pushing himself too hard after his brush with death.

Then Bruno had informed Eve and Grace that Luis thought they would be better off at his private home, away from the media frenzy that the announcement about Grace had stirred up. Their belongings had already been packed and awaited them in the SUV.

Grace had surprised Eve by not objecting to being removed from the hubbub at the palace. Her daughter was lit up with energy and purpose, the way she had been when she was applying to vet school.

Eve snuck a glance at Grace and found her frowning. “What is it, sweetie?”

“I was just thinking about Felipe Camacho,” Grace said. “What an asshole!”

“Er, that seems mild, considering he tried to kill your father,” Eve said. The memory of Luis’s too-still body in the hospital bed socked her in the gut.

“He’ll be punished for that,” Grace said, sounding a lot like Luis in that moment. “I was thinking about how he treated his daughter. When she needed him the most, he behaved like crap.” She turned to Eve. “If I had gotten pregnant, you would have been there with me every step of the way, no matter who the father was.”

“I’m glad you know that,” Eve said, counting her blessings that she hadn’t had to deal with that particular situation.

“Of course I do,” Grace said without a moment’s hesitation. “I don’t blame his daughter for leaving Caleva. Felipe Camacho doesn’t deserve to know his grandson.”

“Keep in mind that he’s an older man with a rigid set of religious beliefs. Maybe if his wife had still been alive, she might have softened his reaction,” Eve said.

“Well, I’m glad he’s not my father,” Grace said before she brightened. “I got lucky. I’ve got the best parents in the world.”

It hurt a little not to be the only parent any longer. At the same time, it eased some of the heavy responsibility.

Eve’s head spun. Her emotions were in such a turmoil these days. She couldn’t wait to get back to Iowa, where she would be able to get her mind right.

“Dad seems a lot better today, don’t you think?” Grace asked.

Eve nearly groaned. When they had met before the La Voix interview, Luis’s perfectly tailored navy suit had highlighted the glinting silver of his hair and the glacial blue of his eyes. What had really made her insides go liquid, though, had been the return of his electric charisma that blazed into every corner of the room.

“Only because we forced him to stay in bed for the rest of yesterday,” Eve said. “He’ll probably overdo things again and have a relapse tomorrow.”

“Maybe you can persuade him to rest this afternoon,” Grace said with a sideways glance.

“If he comes to the house, I’ll try.” Luis had offered no information about when they would see him again. She assumed sometime in the evening, since she and Grace were leaving for Iowa the next morning. On the royal jet.

That would be an experience.

Eve winced in anticipation of the hullabaloo in Ames. Mikel had already sent a security team to their house. Grace had texted her closest friends about the news after the announcement yesterday, so word would be out at the vet school. Dealing with all the questions was going to be a pain.

Even worse, Eve would have to live with Luis’s absence. The prospect of it sent a jab of agony through her. At least she would not have to see him every day, to be reminded of how his hands felt on her skin and how the icy blue of his eyes could blaze hot when he looked at her. Of how her body melted with pleasure when he made love to her.

No, it was more than that. He made her feel like she was important to him. Important to a magnificent man who also happened to be a king. No wonder she had been stupid enough to fall in love with him.

The SUV slowed, and Eve glanced out the window to see the huge gates swinging open. But instead of heading straight toward the house, Ivan turned onto a different road that wound down toward the water.

Eve was too tired to ask questions, so she just sat back and let the car take her wherever Ivan had been directed to go. Soon enough, she would be on her own again, so she might as well enjoy her last day of being chauffeured around.

As they descended, the trees became fewer so the deep blue of the ocean was visible, the sun sparkling off the wavetops. She would miss the water when she returned to landlocked Iowa.

“Are you okay, Mom?” Grace asked, leaning forward. “You seem down.”

“Well, we’re leaving tomorrow, and I’ll miss things like this view,” Eve said, forcing herself to smile.

“We’ll be back as soon as I graduate, so you won’t have to do without it for long.” With the buoyancy of youth, Grace was already looking forward to her new life.

While Eve was dreading hers.

The SUV glided to a stop, and Ivan leaped out to open Eve’s door. Eve obediently exited the car, but turned back when she realized Grace was still seated. Her daughter grinned and gave her a wave before Ivan shut the door again.

“Eve!” Luis’s voice came from the direction of the water.

She pivoted to see him standing on a pier where a sleek white speedboat was docked. Instead of his usual suit, he was wearing a loose white linen shirt over jeans. His smile was dazzling as he held out his hand, palm up. “Please join me.”

“I…” She looked back to see the SUV making a smooth three-point turn before it headed back up the cliff road.

Well, shit! She wasn’t going to be able to avoid this conversation with Luis.

On a boat. What was with that?

When she swiveled toward Luis again, he was closer, and his smile had dimmed, but he still reached for her. “I want to show you something beautiful. Will you come with me?”

She put her hand in his, the feel of his long fingers closing around hers sending a streak of longing through her. He pulled her to his side by threading her hand around his elbow.

And she understood. This was going to be a seduction, which she would have to resist with everything in her. It would be hard enough to survive without him as things were. If she spent more time in his arms, her heart would shatter when they were done.

“Do you suffer from seasickness?” Luis asked as they approached the boat.

“I don’t know. I’m from Iowa,” she said, trying to undercut her feelings with humor. “Not a lot of giant bodies of water there.”

He nodded. “The sea is not rough today, so you should be fine.” He released her hand. “Wait here a moment.”

With a fluid motion, he stepped from the dock onto the craft’s side and then onto the deck. Then he turned and held out both hands to her.

She suddenly realized she was still wearing her overused blue dress and high-heeled pumps. “I’m not really dressed for a sea voyage.”

“Ay, of course.” Luis made a sound of apology. “There are clothes for you in the cabin. For now, perhaps you could remove your shoes? I will make sure you do not slip and fall.”

She hesitated. “Are you sure you should be exerting yourself like this?”

“Dr. Ibarra has cleared me, I swear.” His expression was mock solemn as he drew a cross over his heart with one finger. “I knew you would not come if I did not consult with the good doctor.”

She would believe him because he didn’t lie to her, although he didn’t specify what precisely the doctor had cleared him for.

Eve slipped off her heels and handed them to Luis to place on the boat’s deck. When he turned back, she took his hands and stepped carefully onto the side of the boat. As she balanced there, he shifted forward, supporting her with all his strength. When she took the next step onto the deck, her body slid down the front of his with enough friction to fan the heat already flickering through her at his nearness.

When he did not move back, she looked up to find his face taut with the same desire that seared through her. For a moment, they stood, just barely touching, their gazes ensnared.

And then he surprised her by releasing her hands and turning. “The cabin is this way,” he said, placing a hand on the small of her back to bring her in front of him.

As they went forward into the cockpit, she was startled to see a large blond man in a white shirt and teal shorts standing at the wheel.

“Our captain, Gervais,” Luis said.

Gervais nodded. “Welcome aboard, madame.”

“And here are the stairs to the cabin,” Luis said, gesturing to a low door beside the helm. “Your bag is in the large bedroom.”

He stepped away so she could duck through the hatch and descend the stairs. The interior of the boat was as sleek as the exterior, with highly varnished wooden built-ins. The bedroom held a king-sized platform bed tightly made up with snow-white linens. Her carry-on bag rested on top.

Who had packed it? Given Grace’s complicit wave as the car door had closed, Eve suspected her daughter. She closed her eyes for a moment in sorrow. Of course Grace would like to see Luis and Eve together, but she didn’t understand that it wouldn’t be a lifetime commitment.

Shoving the thought aside, she unzipped the bag and spilled the contents onto the bed. Her toilet kit and hairbrush. Pink rubber-soled sandals that were actually Grace’s. Her sundress and her bathing suit. No shorts or shirt. What had Grace been thinking?

Well, she couldn’t wear the silk sheath on a boat, so she yanked down the back zipper and shimmied out of it. She wasn’t going to wear the bathing suit, though, so she pulled on the sundress, a gauzy cream-colored sleeveless affair with a split neck held together by tasseled ties. Grace had talked her into buying it at a store in San Ignacio, even though Eve had thought it was a bit too young and Bohemian for her middle-aged Iowan style. She ran the brush through her hair and slipped on the sandals.

When she emerged from the hatch, Luis was still standing in the same place. The moment he saw her, his gaze focused like a laser. She could feel the intensity of it. “You look breathtaking, querida. The embodiment of summer.”

His voice vibrated down into her bones like the deep purr of a big cat. She shivered at the endearment. “I bought the dress in San Ignacio. Grace picked it out for me.”

“Our daughter has excellent taste,” he said, his eyes crinkling with a father’s affection.

Our daughter. He drew Eve in with every word.

“Let us sit on the front sundeck so you can see our destination as we approach it,” Luis said. “Gervais will go slowly so we don’t get wet.”

He led her to a narrow walkway alongside the cockpit. Once they passed it, the deck opened up all the way to the bow of the cruiser with silver-gray sectional seating lining the space. The boat’s engine rumbled to life, and a dockhand jogged up and down the pier, casting off the ropes.

Luis waited as Eve surveyed the seating options and chose the end of the sectional facing forward. He frowned a little at her message that she wasn’t looking to sit beside him but settled in the corner, stretching out his long legs diagonally. She was surprised that he wore boat shoes with no socks. In fact, she had never seen him dressed so casually. He spread his arms across the back of the cushions and tilted his head back to bask in the sun, looking as though he hadn’t a care in the world.

He didn’t fool her. Kings always had cares.

The boat’s engines changed timbre, and the cruiser eased away from the dock. When they motored out of the inlet and into open water, a chorus of engines rose as a small armada of motor craft moved into position around them. Not too close, but clearly in a defensive formation.

Their security escort.

Luis did not pay them any attention. In fact, he closed his eyes, although his posture did not indicate exhaustion, but rather enjoyment of being on the water in the sun with the breeze ruffling his silver-and-gray hair.

Since his eyes were closed, Eve savored the muscles of his forearms displayed by his rolled-up sleeves. Her gaze drifted across his powerful shoulders to skim down to the swell of his thigh muscles, those thighs that had pushed her own open so he could slide his cock inside her. She jerked her attention back up to his face and started when she found his blue eyes fastened on her.

She gave him a tight smile and shifted to stare forward as they rounded a rocky point. Ahead, a volcanic island rose out of the water, its rocky cliffs dotted with brilliant green shrubs. La Sorpresa de los Piratas.

Where Ricardo el Rojo had lured the Spanish galleons onto the rocks. Where Luis was luring her to what? Continuing their affair? She couldn’t, but saying no was going to be hell.

She glanced back at him to find he still watched her. She tilted her head toward the island and mouthed, “La Sorpresa,” because between the sea wind and the boat’s engines, it was too loud to shout across the space between them.

His smile flashed as he nodded.

The wind picked up, whipping her hair across her face until she collected it in a ponytail within her fist. The boat danced a bit on the waves, occasionally sending a spray of water upward so a few droplets landed on Eve. In the bright sunshine, it was refreshing.

And then they were at the entrance to the island’s sheltered bay, idling slowly between the stone walls that rose from the sea and into the perfect circle of turquoise water. Their escort boats did not accompany them, probably peeling off to patrol the exterior of the island.

“How stunning!” Eve gasped as they were embraced by the ancient volcano’s sloping crater. A crescent of sand lay before them, but the cruiser veered toward a dock that jutted out into the blindingly blue water.

As they came alongside the pier, Luis grabbed a rope and leaped from the boat onto the wooden planks. With an expert’s ease, he wrapped the line around a cleat in a figure eight. Gervais did the same at the boat’s stern.

“Come ashore,” Luis said, bending down to reach for her.

Supported by Luis’s rock-solid grip, she stepped onto the gunwale and then the dock.

“Oh, my bag,” she said. “It has my bathing suit.” She wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to swim in this incredible water.

Gervais disappeared down the hatch and returned to set her bag on the dock.

“Everything else we need is already here,” Luis said, giving her hand a squeeze before he let go to cast off the rope.

Gervais swung the cruiser away from the dock and headed for the break in the volcano’s wall.

“Now, we are here alone,” Luis said. “Just a man and a woman. Nothing more and nothing less.”

“You’re telling me that Mikel has no bodyguards anywhere on this island,” Eve said, doing her best to puncture the spell Luis was weaving around her.

Luis grinned. “I cannot fool you. There are guards, but they are on the outside walls, facing out to sea. No one is within this caldera. It is ours.” He swept his arm around the circle. “I’m starving. Let’s eat.” He took her hand and picked up her overnight bag.

“There’s food?” Eve walked beside him off the dock and onto a boardwalk that wound over the rocks toward the beach.

“I told you we have everything we need,” he said.

“You might have a different idea of what we need than I do,” Eve said, looking around at the incredible scenery as they strolled.

“At this moment, all I truly need is you. Beside me.”

That yanked her attention back to Luis. He was looking down at her with that solemn intensity that made her insides dissolve into a delicious, warm goo.

“I, uh, right. Thank you.” Why the hell was he torturing her like this?

His solemnity shifted to faint amusement, but he didn’t comment on her lack of appropriate response.

They came over a slight rise in the rocks to find a teal-and-white-striped pavilion set up on the beach. Inside the canvas shelter, a table and two chairs rested on top of a large raffia rug. An array of teal-green coolers stood next to the dining area. Outside on the beach were two luxurious lounge chairs with stacks of white towels neatly folded on their cushions. A couple of closed beach umbrellas were staked into the sand next to them.

“Good Lord!” Eve said. “I feel like I’ve stumbled into the Arabian Nights.”

Pleasure glowed in Luis’s eyes. “Come into my tent with me.”

“As long as I don’t have to entertain you with stories.” But she allowed him to seat her at the table.

He began flipping open cooler lids and pulling out containers of food, some warm, some cold, which he set on the table. Eve pried them open to find an array of seafood, fresh fruits and vegetables, and still-warm bread.

Luis rooted around in another cooler and triumphantly pulled out a bottle of Dom Perignon. Eve started to protest, but he had already popped the cork. He poured it into the two champagne flutes on the table and sat. “No picnic is complete without champagne.” He tilted his glass toward her. “To our daughter!”

That was a safe toast, so she clinked her glass against his.

“Try the percebes—barnacles—and lapas—limpets.” He held out a beautifully arranged platter of shellfish. “They were plucked from the sea this morning.”

He didn’t wait for her but placed a couple of each on her plate before he chose several for himself. Picking up a limpet shell, he sucked the meat off it like it was an oyster. “And that is how you eat it.”

Eve examined the conical shell before lifting it to her lips. When she started to suck it into her mouth, Luis’s gaze locked on her with a fiery intensity. Maybe that was why oysters were considered an aphrodisiac.

She put the shell down and used the tiny fork set beside her plate to eat the next one.

“The fork is for the percebes,” Luis said, picking up what looked like a mossy rock with a hole in the top. He jabbed his fork inside the hole and pulled out a chunk of mostly white meat, which he held out to her across the table. “It tastes like the ocean.”

His eyes were scorching as she took the shellfish into her mouth where the taste of the salt sea burst on her tongue. “This must be what mermaids eat,” she said, dropping her eyes to stop the wave of heat searing through her just from his gaze. She took a gulp of champagne to cool off.

“How appropriate! The sirens of the sea,” he said, his voice deep and smooth. “Have another.”

She glanced up to see him holding out another chunk of barnacle to her. She bit it off the fork as quickly as possible before picking up her own fork. “I think I’ve got the hang of it now.”

Instead of looking disappointed, he ate his shellfish while a satisfied smile curled his lips.

She was just as bad as he was, watching that sensual mouth of his slurping up limpets and remembering how those lips had felt against… Nope, not going there. Except she couldn’t banish the thought, and she felt herself grow wet.

“Um, I’m not that hungry,” she said. “You go ahead and eat while I go stick my feet in the water.”

“I will go with you.” He put his fork down and stood. “I want to see your face when you feel the temperature.”

Oh, shit. She couldn’t escape him.

“Let me get my sandals off,” she said, reaching down to tug down the back strap. By the time she had slid out of both shoes, Luis was beside her, his own feet bare and his jeans rolled partway up his calves.

She stood, and he rested his hand on the small of her back as they strolled across the sand. She felt like her skin would be branded with his handprint as the warmth sank into her.

He stopped when they reached the water’s edge. “I haven’t been here in too many years,” he said as he scanned the ancient volcano. “I had forgotten how beautiful it is.”

His voice held awe, pride, and regret. Then he turned to her with a glinting smile. “Now you must feel the water.” A light pressure from his hand moved her into the clear, sandy-bottomed shallows.

“Oh my gosh, it’s like bathwater.” She looked down at her warm, wet feet in astonishment.

He chuckled and stepped in himself. “It would be hotter if the ocean wasn’t constantly swirling cold water into the caldera. There’s a thermal vent somewhere far below here that spews forth enough heat to warm the whole harbor.”

She wanted to go swimming in the beckoning water, but Luis would go too. The sight of his well-muscled body glistening with rivulets of water would make it impossible not to touch him.

She drew in a shaky breath and wiggled her toes in the sand. “Are there fish in here, or is it too hot for them?”

He didn’t answer her, so she lifted her gaze to meet his. He was no longer smiling.

“Eve, querida, I don’t wish to talk about fish.” A few strands of her hair got caught in the breeze and whipped across her cheek. Before she could tame them, Luis tucked the strands behind her ear. Then he ran the back of his hand over her cheek. She forced herself not to lean into the delight of his skin against hers. “Perhaps we could sit,” he said, gesturing toward the lounge chairs.

“Look, you don’t have to apologize for how you reacted the other night,” she said before the memory of him crumpling onto his knees made her heart twist all over again. “I never expected anything more than some…” What? “Some sex and fun.” That sounded awful enough to put him off.

He ignored her speech, merely gesturing that she should go in front of him to the lounge chairs.

She moved the towels and perched on the foot of one. Luis did the same, sitting sideways so he was facing her. He started to reach for her hands but changed his mind, letting his wrists drape over his knees as he looked straight at her.

“Eve, when you said you weren’t cut out to be a queen, I did not hesitate because I thought you were right.” His eyes clouded with guilt. “And I hate that you have believed that all this time.”

Eve opened her mouth, trying to think of something to say to stop him from making this worse, but he held up his hand. “Please, let me explain.”

She knotted her hands together on her lap and waited.

He looked away for a moment before returning his gaze to her face. “I have made such terrible choices in the women I have loved. Long ago, I made a decision never to marry again because I could not bear to make another mistake. It seemed better to go through life alone than to destroy the life of another woman.”

She couldn’t bear for him to think that about himself. “You didn’t des—”

He shook his head to stop her, his lips in a tight line. “It’s how I felt. So I put the hope for a relationship built on love out of my mind. Very successfully.” He gave a self-mocking grimace. “As it happens, it is surprisingly difficult to come to know a woman well when one is a king.”

“I can imagine.” She thought of the number of people surrounding him most of his waking hours. Of the constant claims on his time and attention. Of the schemers and sycophants who cared about him only because of his position. Her heart ached for his strange loneliness.

“But I had the good fortune to find not only a daughter, but her mother, a woman I came to know well,” he said, his face softening. “Eve, I didn’t hesitate because I don’t believe you are queen material. I hesitated because my mind had been closed to the idea for so long that I needed time to process the astonishing possibility. I was stunned that I had been so blind as not to see you in that light before.”

“And then you collapsed,” Eve said flatly. But her heart was banging against the walls of her chest in an unsettled way.

“The timing could not have been worse,” he said, his tone grim. “For that alone, I will never forgive Camacho.”

Eve would never forgive Camacho for nearly killing the man she loved.

Luis reached for her hands now, holding them gently in his, the touch sending sparks up her arms to race through her body.

“Mi querida, what I ask of you I do not ask lightly. Being queen is not something you want, I know. All I can say is that you can do much good in the country and even in the world from that position. That might balance the burden somewhat.” His sigh came from deep in his lungs.

He clasped her hands more tightly. Eve was grateful for that because she was beginning to shake with nerves. What was Luis leading to?

“I think you would make a spectacular queen, but that does not matter.” His face was luminous with emotion. “I brought you here, away from all the trappings of my position, because I wanted to speak to you as just a man. Because I want you as a man wants a woman. I want your face to be the one I see first every morning and last every night. I want to worship your body and give you the pleasure you deserve. I want to cherish and protect you.”

His gaze traveled over her face as though he was trying to will her to say something, but Eve could not make her tongue move. She could barely get any oxygen into her lungs.

He changed tack. “We would be a family. Raul, Grace, you, and me. It would be incomplete without you. You are the glue, the final piece. Without you, there would always be an empty space.”

Tears welled in her eyes at the haze of sadness over his face.

As he leaned forward, his tone became urgent. “Please do not shut me out of your life. Allow me the chance to change your mind.”

Hope was doing a tap dance in her chest, but she couldn’t give in to it yet. “To change my mind about what, exactly?”

“Ay, Eve, I am offering you my battered, rusty heart. No, it is already yours. I love you, cari?o mío! With everything in me.” His grip on her hands was so tight it almost hurt. “I want the chance to make you feel the same way about me.”

She thought her heart would explode with joy. “Oh, you clueless man, I love you too. That’s why I tried to leave you.”

His eyes burned with a luminous exhilaration. “I don’t entirely understand, but I don’t care.” He released her hands to cup her face and kiss her with desperate hunger, his lips questing and yet tender. She hung on to his broad shoulders as she answered him by opening to him and teasing his tongue.

He pulled away an inch to say, “You love me,” with a look of amazement before he kissed her again, his hands sliding into her hair to tilt her head to the angle he wanted. Once again, he stopped, his face a study in relief. “I thought I was going to lose you.”

“I thought I was going to lose you Saturday night,” Eve said. “That was much worse.”

“I had no intention of dying when I had just found a daughter and the love of my life.” He yanked at the ties holding her neckline closed so he could lick the hollow at the bottom of her throat.

Desire raced through her like a wildfire, and she moaned as she let her head fall back. He skimmed his lips lower to the swell of her breast. Heat liquified between her legs, and she ached to have him inside her.

“Wait!” She threaded her fingers into his hair to lift his head away from her. “Did Dr. Ibarra clear you for…this?”

“She told me to listen to my body.” He cupped Eve’s breasts, his gaze a scorch of wanting. “And this is what it is telling me to do.”

The pressure on her aroused nipples ripped electric sensation through her. “I don’t think that’s what the doctor meant.” But Eve’s body agreed with his, so she gave in.

Sliding her hands inside the open collar of his shirt, she traced her thumbs over the sharp lines of his collarbones. The buttons slipped from the buttonholes as she pushed the linen aside so she could brush her palms against the light furring over the hard planes of his chest. She found the raised circles of his nipples and danced her fingers over them.

He groaned and sat still as she jerked his shirt all the way open. “You are so gorgeous,” she said, running her hands over the sculpted muscles of his abs before she skimmed them down to rub the hard bulge of his erection.

“Madre de Dios, yes!” He hissed through his teeth as she stroked him again. “I cannot go slowly.”

He glanced around before grabbing the terry cloth sheet tucked over the lounge cushion. Standing, he flicked it open like a tablecloth and let it settle on the sand.

He took her hands and drew her to her feet before he touched the hem of her dress. “May I?”

“Oh, please, yes!” She would have ripped it off herself, but it was far better to have him drag it up until she lifted her arms so he could pull it off and fling it away. Then his hands were all over her body, unhooking her bra and tossing it, skimming her panties to her ankles so she would step out of them while using his strong, chiseled shoulder to balance herself.

He wrapped his hands around her hips, his fingers stroking the curves of her bottom, while she unbuckled his belt and unzipped his jeans. He let go of her to shove his jeans and briefs onto the sand.

They stood for a long moment, simply savoring the sight of each other naked in this beautiful place. Then Luis reached for her, and their bodies slammed together in a whirlwind of heat and touch.

When he slid his hand between them to glide a finger against her clit, Eve’s knees nearly buckled at the explosion of sensation.

“Now! Please, now!” she gasped out as she arched into his hand. “Make love to me!”

Without releasing her, he moved them both to the spread cloth and sank onto it. Eve lay down, arching her back and spreading her legs in a blatant invitation. She thought she might die of frustration if he wasn’t inside her in the next few seconds.

But he knelt between her legs and did nothing more than stare down at her, although his face was tight with barely restrained lust. “I wish to worship your body, to wrap you in pleasure.”

Eve lifted her hips, knowing that he could see the glistening of her arousal on the insides of her thighs. “I want you inside me now!”

He seized her hips, lifting them even higher before he plunged into her, seating himself deeply, filling the ache while driving her hunger higher. She covered his hands with hers and rolled her pelvis against him.

Then he was moving, fast and hard, and the delicious tension wound tighter and tighter in her belly, building with every thrust. “Yes, yes, yes, yes!” she panted.

“Eve, cari?o mío, mi corazón, mi amor!” he answered her.

An exquisite moment of stillness held her on the edge, the world contracting to the place where they were joined. And then she convulsed in an orgasm so intense she shrieked and arched and dug her fingernails into his hands.

As her muscles clamped around him, he threw back his head and shouted in Spanish, his release pumping inside her and triggering another climax of her own.

Closing her eyes, she savored the ripples of afterglow, but even more the feel of Luis inside her, his grip on her hips easing to almost a caress.

“Mi corazón,” he said, his voice a husky whisper.

She pried her eyelids open to see him gazing down at her, the angles of his face soft with tenderness. He slid out of her and stretched out on the towel, rolling her halfway onto his chest. “I adore you,” he said, stroking his hand over her hair and down her back.

“I’m glad,” she said. “I adore you too.” She couldn’t stop a few tears that trickled down her cheeks and onto his chest.

“Why are you crying?” He shifted abruptly to lift her chin, frowning as he ran his thumb over the wet tear tracks.

“Because I’m so happy. And because we just had amazing sex,” she said.

“It was amazing.” He smirked a little before the frown returned. “But that should not make you weep.”

“It’s a normal thing when you’re madly in love,” she said, cupping his cheek. “It even has a scientific name, but you’ve fried my brain so I can’t remember it.”

“Say that you are madly in love again,” he commanded.

“I’m madly, crazily, insanely in love with you,” she said, tilting her face to receive his kiss. “Now tell me you love me too.”

He whispered it against her lips. “I love you. Je t’aime. Te adoro. In every language I speak, my heart belongs to you.”

His words licked over her skin, into her veins, and curled themselves into her heart.

Luis lay on the towel, cushioned by the soft sand, the sun warm on his face, and thanked God that he was alive. Not because he had nearly died only three days ago, but because of the incredible woman whose body was pressed against his chest and ribs and thighs. He tangled his fingers in her glorious, shining hair and heaved a sigh of pure contentment.

She stirred a moment before going still again, and he smiled. They were both lax with satisfaction.

Happiness soaked into the marrow of his bones. He had not thought he would ever feel this way again… No, he had never felt like this before. Had never known this solid sense of rightness in his world.

He was accustomed to being alone, had accepted that it was how he would live the rest of his life. He had come to believe that being king meant he must be apart and solitary. After his past experiences, he had not dared to seek more. He could still feel the aching emptiness of his isolation.

Yet now he had not one, but two children who filled him with love and delight. His beloved, damaged nephew had found joy again. His country was peaceful and prosperous.

But his profound happiness came from this extraordinary woman, who was more than a friend, more than a lover.

She was the partner of his soul.

As his heart swelled with the immensity of his emotions, he understood why she had cried.