Chapter 16 #2
“I’m busy, too, flying in wedding guests from all over the place.” She had her pride. “Just let me know when your ankle is healed and you want to head out to Las Montanas de los Fantasmas.”
She knew damn well that he would find someone else to take him climbing. It would be too awkward to deal with his former short-term lover. And she was relieved about that.
No, that was a total lie. She would rather torture herself watching the flex of the muscles she knew so intimately than never be near him again.
She noticed that she was holding his hands too tightly and eased her grip.
“ Hasta entonces. Until then.” He lifted first one of her hands and then the other to kiss them, his lips warm and firm and sending shimmers across her skin. “Fly safely.”
Then he cursed and dropped her hands to pull her into his arms, his mouth crashing down on hers. The shimmers sank deep inside her and ignited a blaze of yearning. She threaded her fingers into his hair and slanted her lips against his.
She started to hope and then quashed it. If this was the last time, she was going to make the most of it. Because he was so beautiful and sad and noble, and she cared about him to the depths of her soul.
She yanked at his tuxedo shirt so the glittering emerald studs went flying, slipping her hands beneath the fine cotton to feel the beating of his heart under her palms and then skimming lower.
“ Ay, Erica, mi amor .” He whispered it against her cheek. “I want you so badly.”
“And I want you, so there is no problem.” She palmed his growing erection.
He groaned. “There are many problems, but at this moment, I forget them all.”
And then they were unbuttoning and unzipping and stripping each other’s clothes off until they were both naked.
“I want to be inside you,” Raul said, his voice a low rasp. “To be a part of you.”
She lay back on the cushions and opened her thighs in invitation.
He scrabbled in the pocket of his trousers and pulled out a condom, stroking it on at lightning speed before he knelt between her legs. “Are you ready for me?”
“ Fóllame! I’m beyond ready.” The ache was almost unbearable.
He drove all the way in, and they both cried out.
Dios mío, it felt so good to have him moving inside her, melded together.
As he stroked in and out, his chest brushed against her nipples so they tightened to points of pure sensation.
The feel of his thighs spreading hers wide, the huff of his breath against her face, and the coil of her arousal deep in her belly made her pant his name over and over as he pushed her closer and closer to climax.
He flexed his hips to press against her clit, and her orgasm burst like fireworks inside her, hot and explosive and mind-bending. She pushed up against him and wrapped her legs around his waist to hold him there while her muscles clenched and released around his cock. “Yes! Yes! Yes! Raul! Yes!”
He waited until she let her legs fall away to rest on the sofa cushions before he thrust into her one more time and arched back, braced on his forearms. “ Mi amor! Ahh!”
And then they collapsed on the sofa, their bodies crushed against each other, their legs intertwined.
They were connected.
He stroked her hair, and she ran her palm down the ridges and valleys of his back while their breathing slowed. She could feel the post-orgasm flush on her cheeks and the residual tingle in her toes. When she made love with Raul, she came with her whole body and her whole heart.
He lifted his head and started to speak, but she put her hand over his mouth. “Don’t talk. Just feel.”
No apologies, no excuses, no goodbyes…yet.
He nestled his head against her neck, his breath feathering over her skin. She wrapped her arms around his broad back, lacing her fingers to keep him close for these last precious minutes.
She lost track of how long they stayed like that, cocooned in each other’s bodies, but finally Raul shifted and slid out of her.
She mewed in protest, and he kissed her softly as he levered himself upright. “I have to get rid of the condom, mi amor .”
Letting out a long sigh, Erica sat up beside him. As he stripped off the condom, she trailed her fingers over the dragon tattoo’s tail where it curled up his back, touching his smooth, olive skin while she still could.
“Is the dragon male or female?” she asked.
“Female. They’re much fiercer.” A shade of relief sounded in his voice at the innocuous topic.
“Because they protect their nests.” She traced the edge of the dragon’s frill. “Has Bertucci done anything suspicious yet?”
“Nothing that Mikel has reported to me.” He snagged his boxer briefs and pulled them on.
She got the hint and retrieved her panties and bra. He shifted on the couch to open up space between them, and her last shred of hope withered and died. This was the end of their affair.
After they dressed, they stood facing each other, Raul’s shirt hanging open without its studs. She swore the air between them vibrated with longing.
“Erica, you are an extraordinary woman,” Raul said, his gaze skimming over her face. “This has been—”
She couldn’t bear for him to say any more. She wanted to hug his compliment in her memory and keep it untarnished. “Stop.” She dared to interrupt him. “I know who you are and who I am.” She stood on her toes to press a soft kiss against his mouth. “Adios, Su Alteza Real.”
She walked toward the door with her head held high, refusing to look back, even when he said her name in a strangled voice.
She had her pride.
As the door closed behind her, Raul felt as though his guts had been pulled out to leave him hollow and echoing.
He had been agonizing all day about what to do.
When he’d begun the flirtation with Erica, he had expected nothing more than a few pleasurable days with a sexy, interesting woman.
Somehow, it had developed into a relationship so powerful he had lost control…
of his mind and his heart. And he had done the unthinkable.
He had betrayed his family’s darkest secret.
Ending it with Erica was the only possible solution.
Especially since Gabriel’s wedding day loomed, an occasion when Raul would be watched like a hawk to see which eligible and appropriate noblewomen he dined and danced with. The noblewomen from whose ranks his duty dictated that he choose a wife.
He wanted to collapse onto the rug and moan in pain.
Instead, he sent a secure text to Mikel, asking for a meeting tomorrow. He needed reassurance that Erica could be trusted.
And then he had to tell his father about his appalling mistake. Raul winced at the thought.
He started when a text dinged on his phone. Mikel had responded, I am still at the palace. Shall I come to your habitación now?
Why not get the first confession over with?
Sí , he wrote back before going to his bedroom to replace his tuxedo shirt with a black tee. He closed his eyes for a moment. Dios, the feel of Erica’s fingers tracing along his tattoo! But he needed to stop thinking about that.
He walked back to the living room to pour himself a couple of fingers of single malt Scotch in a cut-crystal glass. Too soon, a knock sounded on the door, and at Raul’s invitation, Mikel glided in. It was uncanny how the man walked without a sound.
“Senor.” He made his usual half bow and waited with a still, coiled energy.
“Drink?” Raul asked, raising his glass of amber liquid.
Mikel surprised him. “I would not say no.”
“You’ve had a long day,” Raul said as he poured another glass and handed it to Mikel.
“So have you,” Mikel said, taking a sip and then another larger one. “Ahh, this is excellent Scotch.”
Raul waved a hand toward a seating area with two wing chairs and a table. He couldn’t look at the sofa without remembering what he and Erica had done there.
“How may I help you?” Mikel asked as they settled into the deep green leather chairs.
“You vetted Erica Ortiz for her job as Gabriel’s pilot. That means you feel she would not reveal any…indiscretions she discovered, correct?” Raul had to work up to his confession.
“Yes. She also signed the usual nondisclosure agreement.” Mikel cupped his glass in both hands, his attention laser-focused on Raul as he waited.
Raul took another swig of Scotch. “You know that Erica and I have had a…a brief relationship, which is now over.” He didn’t want to cheapen it by calling it a fling , because it felt like far more than that to him.
“I was so comfortable talking with her that I made a comment that revealed more than I meant it to.”
Mikel remained still and silent.
Raul braced his shoulders for Mikel’s condemnation. “Erica knows that Odette is Grace’s birth mother.”
“That is unfortunate.” Mikel swirled the liquor in his glass. “However, I believe that Senorita Ortiz is both honorable and intensely loyal to your family. The secret is probably safe with her.”
Raul’s shoulders sagged as the tension released. Mikel was not unduly worried, so he did not need to be either.
“I am glad you informed me, though,” Mikel said. “It will keep us from being blindsided if something unexpected occurs.”
“Thank you for not beating me up about my lapse of judgment,” Raul said with a rueful smile.
“I imagine you have done enough of that yourself,” Mikel said.
Raul nodded. Mikel knew him too well. “Now I have the unenviable task of confessing to my father.” Raul swallowed the last of his Scotch at the thought.
“Why would you do that?” Mikel raised his eyebrows. “I will keep tabs on Senorita Ortiz. There is no need to worry your father.”
“ De verdad? You really think that?” Raul had never hidden information he deemed important from his father. It felt like lying.
“Will it help or hurt him?” Mikel asked.
Raul frowned into his empty glass. “It will not help him, but I feel wrong in not confessing my mistake.”
“So your confession would make you feel better, but it would not be useful to your father.”
For some reason, he thought of Erica choosing the sky rather than the water, separating herself from her father. Was this a moment when he needed to do the same?
“I would rather tell Pater the truth,” he said. “But you make me think that it would be a selfish choice.”
It would also create the smallest hint of a barrier between them that his father wouldn’t even know was there.
“I am tired and possibly a little drunk, or I would not say this.” Mikel set his empty glass on the table between them.
“As hard as you try not to be, Senor , you are human. You cannot watch every word you say every minute of your life. In Senorita Ortiz, you seem to have found someone you can let down your guard with, and I applaud your instincts in choosing her as your confidante.”
That was a lot to unpack. Mikel—the head of the royal family’s security—was sympathetic about Raul’s blunder. Even stranger, Mikel seemed to be endorsing Erica as a girlfriend.
Maybe the man really was drunk.
“I thought you would be more upset,” Raul said.
“Perhaps I will be in the morning.” Mikel stood, and for a moment, Raul could see the exhaustion in his eyes.
Mikel was coordinating with every branch of the police, security forces, and military in Caleva to make Gabriel and Quinn’s wedding safe for everyone attending, a massive and stressful job.
Raul should not have dropped another problem on the man’s shoulders.
“You’re right,” Raul said as he also rose. “I can trust Erica. She has assured me of that, and now you have as well. I will consider the matter settled.”
“Gracias, Senor.” Mikel gave his signature half bow and let himself out of the apartment.
But Raul did not feel settled. He wanted Erica back. Even Mikel thought she was a good person. But she was not someone Raul could marry, and it wasn’t fair to her to continue the relationship. It would just get harder to break it off the longer they were together.
Right now, he hated being the prince.