Chapter Eleven
R aquel rained tiny kisses all over his chest before taking the hard brown nub between her lips.
A hissing sound escaped him, and she thought he would push her off his body, but he didn’t.
Instead, he lifted one hand to the back of her head, cupping it, urging her to continue with the sensual administration.
She took it as a nod of approval and continued to love him thoroughly—selflessly.
There was no part of him she didn’t touch.
His face, his chest, his arms and his rock-hard belly with the ripped muscles that she vowed to revisit another time.
Even his thick thighs and toned calves got their share of kisses.
But what she craved most, was the hardest part of him—the length which jumped needily every time she touched him.
“Raquel.” His groan dripped with need as shaking fingers grabbed her hair and wrapped them around his fists.
The burst of pain in her scalp only added to the heat of the moment, stoking the fire inside her that flared out of control.
She tore the towel off him and took him in her mouth, his harsh moans and loud ragged breathing filling the cabin as she sucked him like he had sucked her breasts.
Vile curses filled her ears and fists tightened in her hair as she continued to pleasure him before she was pulled off his body.
Caught by surprise, she found herself splayed on her back just as his mouth crashed onto hers, parting her lips and a searching tongue thrust into her mouth, sending heat skidding through her, instantly making her wet between the legs.
His kisses were pure joy and—torture. Everywhere he touched her, she burned.
Goosebumps erupted on her body, and she shuddered as he kissed his way down her throat before pulling his t-shirt off her and taking her breast into his mouth.
Raquel bit her lower lip hard as he suckled her, almost to the point of pain, but she did nothing to stop him.
Her hands flew out and grabbed the pillow as she arched under him, allowing him to feast on her breasts, one after the other, until she thought she would come just from him suckling her breasts.
A choked gasp escaped her when his big hand spanned her tummy, almost reverently before sliding down to push her thighs apart.
She cried out when he kissed her sensitive folds before taking the throbbing bundle of nerves into his mouth.
She came with a loud cry—jerking, undulating under him as her thighs tightened around his head.
He continued lapping at her core, sending delicious bolts of pleasure darting through her as she lay trembling under him, totally decimated by the earth-shattering climax.
She felt bereft when he peeled his mouth off her highly sensitive flesh but moaned when he climbed atop her.
Nudging her thighs apart, he notched his shaft at the mouth of her channel before thrusting in—hard.
Her back lifted off the bed as she arched under him, and her breasts smashed against his hard chest. Strong arms wrapped around her body as she was held to a hard, sweaty body while an equally hard part of him thrust inside her.
Their mingled cries, jagged breathing filled the air as Alexandre chased his climax, thrusting in hard before dragging his entire length out of the clutch of her clenching muscles, only to push right back in.
His thrusts picked up speed, and she shook in his arms as her own climax lingered, just out of reach, inviting her to reach out to claim it.
“Alexandre!” she wept when he suddenly pulled out of her.
Flipping her, he urged her on all fours before thrusting in from behind. They came together, a cataclysmic event that depleted them both and left them trembling against each other.
Alexandre pulled her against his chest, one arm lying possessively over her waist while the other cradled her head. Raquel struggled to keep her eyes open as lethargy swept through her but his fingers on her belly reminded her that they had yet to talk about the baby.
“I’m sorry,” he muttered into the back of her head, sending tingles of delight all over her body.
How could she want him again, and so soon?
“What are you sorry for?” She yawned as she fought to stay awake.
He was silent for a long time, and Raquel had a feeling that he was gathering courage.
“For making you pregnant.”
She turned around to face him. “You couldn’t have known the condom would fail,” she said, but he shook his head.
“It didn’t fail,” he replied, his eyes dark and opaque.
Her brow creased as she struggled to make sense of what he was saying.
“I failed to use protection the second time.”
“Second time?” She stared blankly up at him. “We made love twice that night? I don’t remember!”
He looked away, shame suffusing his features. “Sometime during that night, I reached for you again. I was barely awake, but I felt this desperate need to slip inside you, feel you contract around me.”
As he spoke, memories began to surface—of his hand on her breast and her pushing back against him as he thrust into her lazily.
Raquel’s heart raced. She’d thought those images were figments of her imagination, but they weren’t.
She must have been half awake herself, to remember some of what he’d done to her.
“You were behind me,” she whispered, remembering the feel of his naked flesh inside her.
“Yes,” he admitted. “I’m sorry I didn’t stop to think about protection.”
His apology shattered the warm fuzzy feeling that cocooned her. Pushing away from him, she grabbed the sheet and tied it around herself like a rough sarong.
“How could you do such a thing?” Anger spiked her voice as she strived to rummage through the emotions that buffeted her.
Disbelief, and—anger.
“I was a virgin. You were the more experienced one,” she pointed out, while feeling equally responsible for yielding to temptation without any thought of consequence. “How could you be so irresponsible?”
Beside her, Alexandre stiffened with anger, at her obvious attempt to shove all the blame at him, although the blame was entirely his.
“I’m sorry I didn’t think about protection!
” He sat up, comfortable in his nakedness as he glowered down at her.
“I’ve never had sex without protection before. Not once!”
She shot him an angry glare.
“You’re the only woman I’ve shared a bed with,” he added, which only made her angrier.
“So it’s usually just wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am?” she asked, anger staining her cheeks a dark red as her eyes flashed with unbanked fury. “Should I commend you for being such a disreputable rake who won’t even bother to share a bed with a woman he’s had sex with?”
“You don’t know the workings of a purely sexual relationship!” he shot back, affronted.
“No, I don’t!” she cried, pushing at his chest, scowling when he grabbed her hands and pulled her against his chest. “Your carelessness ruined me!”
“Yes, I know!”
It wasn’t his shout of admission that took the wind out of her sails but the absolute disgust on his face—his revulsion, at his own despicable behavior.
“I know I ruined your life. I should have known better.” He sighed dejectedly. “That night... I received some distressing news and it messed with my head. I didn’t know I was looking for comfort... for healing—anything to take away my pain.
“But in your arms, I found pleasure, and peace so poignant that it calmed my troubled mind. I vaguely remember wanting to experience that same feeling again sometime during that night. Only I wasn’t cognizant enough to think of the repercussions of unprotected sex.
” Pain colored his features. “I’m ashamed of what I’ve done and I’m terribly sorry.
You really deserve a better man than me. ”
“After hearing this, do you still expect me to trust you?”
“No, I don’t,” he replied honestly. “But the truth is, that one night has bound us together, forever. And I’m not willing to let you go.”
“Why won’t you let me go?” she asked, when a fierce expression, something like possessiveness, filled his face.
“Because I want to claim my child.”
Her chest suddenly felt constricted. He wanted this baby? But doubt chased away her sudden elation. “Then why did you ask me to get rid of it?”
“Why do you keep saying that?” He glowered at her. “I would never ask you to do that.”
“You did!” she cried, pushing out of his embrace. “When I told you about the baby, you said it was impossible that you could father my child.”
“I remembered our second time the day you came to see me,” he replied honestly, thrusting a hand into his hair, tension snapping his body tight. “I knew I had used a condom the first time, but it was later that I remembered that I had forgotten protection that second time.”
“But why would I lie to you?”
Her question proved how guileless she was, and a strange feeling expanded in his chest. Had he ever met someone so innocent before?
“That’s the kind of woman I know. Cunning and calculating. Always on the lookout for a rich man they can sink their claws, any way they can.”
It upset her that he’d only met avaricious women in his life, but that he clubbed her with them, enraged her.
“I’m not like those women,” she asserted, her eyes flashing fire.
“I came to you, confused and terrified, and you turned me away, called me a liar and ordered me to kill this child.” Splaying one hand possessively across her belly, she said, “I will never do it.”
Alexandre reached out and covered her hand with his, a possessive action which baffled her. “I’m sorry I said those things to you, but I want this child.”
“Then why did you say...?”
Pain flickered in his eyes. “Something happened in my past... the news of this pregnancy caught me unawares and I was thrust right back into that horrible period in my life.”
Alexandre pondered if he should tell her the truth about his childhood but quickly snuffed the thought. He didn’t know her well enough to expose himself to her, giving her ammunition to destroy him. He had to guard his feelings and his heart.
Never again would he let anyone, not even Raquel, close to his heart.
“I want this child, and I promise to love and protect it, Raquel.”
The fierceness behind his promise touched her. That he was capable of feeling remorse and was willing to change, gave her hope. Perhaps she could count on him to help her with this baby, after all. But she also felt disappointment—he only wanted the baby, not her.
“I want to protect this child, and—you.”
His words confused her. Protect the baby and her? From what? The scorn of her family? The media furor kicked up by the newspaper article?
“And there is only one way I can ensure you both are completely protected.”
She looked up at him, puzzled. “What do you mean...?”
“We will get married.”