‘I could do that now,’ he offered. To her amazement, Luisa felt her body hum with answering desire. So soon!
It frightened her how easily he’d made her need him. How readily she responded. Despite his occasional devastating tenderness, to him she was a convenience.
If she tried she’d convince herself what they’d just done meant as little to her as it must to him.
She just had to try harder.
‘I need to get up. This dress will be a mess.’
Abruptly he withdrew, his smile fading. Luisa bit her tongue rather than cry out for him not to move. Without his weight pressing on her she felt lost.
How could she miss his touch so soon?
Shakily she drew her crumpled skirts down over her nakedness while he stood and adjusted his trousers. She had to remember he was used to dealing with desire. With sex. For him it was nothing special.
‘Here, let me.’ He took her arm and drew her up to a sitting position.
Avoiding his eyes, Luisa looked down at her creased and rumpled silk. Her throat clogged. ‘It’s ruined.’
‘Nonsense. It just needs a little attention. Don’t worry, the palace has expert launderers.’
Shakily Luisa stroked the fabric, noticing a tear in the fine lace, feeling dampness at her bodice where Raul had suckled. What had seemed magnificent just minutes ago now seemed anything but. ‘They’ll know what we’ve done.’
‘No one expects us to be celibate.’ Once more he tilted her chin up. ‘You shouldn’t be ashamed of what we did.’ He paused and she sensed he hesitated. ‘Are you?’
Something passed between them, a surge of heat, a sense memory of passion. Luisa felt fire flicker in her belly. So, it wasn’t over after all. It was still there, this … craving for his touch.
That was when she faced the truth. ‘No, I’m not ashamed.’ She wanted her husband still, again.
She shouldn’t crave intimacy with the man who’d treated her so. Yet the feelings he unleashed subverted her pride.
‘Good. Because I intend for it to happen often.’ His hand slipped up to caress her cheek and she caught her breath at the gleaming promise in his look. ‘Turn around and I’ll help you out of that dress. You’ll feel better after a bath.’
Luisa twisted sideways, telling herself she wasn’t disappointed at his prosaic request.
It was only natural she’d enjoy sex with her virile, handsome husband. They were young and healthy. These … urges were to be expected. Yet she couldn’t shake the feeling that nothing was quite that simple.
Luisa didn’t understand her feelings. One minute he outraged her. The next he intrigued. He wasn’t the sort of man she told herself she wanted, yet there were times when she liked him too much.
Perhaps she’d fallen for his expert seduction? He was vastly experienced and she a complete novice. Yet there’d been precious little seduction. He’d seemed as out of control as she. Luisa recalled the dazed look in his eyes and how he’d gasped an apology because he hadn’t been able to hold back. As if she’d wanted him to!
Her lips curved and her thighs squeezed as satisfaction curled within her.
‘Hold still while I get this veil.’ The feel of his hands fumbling in her hair sent rivulets of heat through her. Finally he drew the veil aside and tossed it onto a plush chair, a stream of heirloom lace. A reminder, if she needed one, that they came from separate worlds. She couldn’t imagine treating such a work of art so cavalierly.
Then she remembered how she’d thrown herself at him, heedless of the beautiful things she wore.
He brought out a side to her she didn’t know.
The touch of Raul’s fingers at her nape made her breath catch as the mattress dipped behind her.
‘This will take a while.’ The couturier had insisted on a myriad of buttons, each with its own tiny loop.
Raul sat close, his breath feathering her bare skin. She straightened, nipples tingling. In the silence she heard her breathing grow shallow.
‘I wondered …’
‘Yes?’ She’d never heard Raul hesitant.
‘Why were you so set against coming here? It wasn’t just the prospect of marriage. From the first you were negative, instantly opposed to inheriting.’
‘It bothers you that I didn’t swoon at your feet?’ Yet from the first Raul had got under her skin as no other.
‘If I ever expected that, I know better now. Besides, I prefer you as you are.’ Instead of annoyance, she thought she heard admiration in his voice.
Did her senses conspire to fool her?
His fingers brushed her back and her flesh drew tight. A coiling pulse began low in her belly. He devastated her defences. Luisa drew a sharp breath, seeking control.
‘Won’t you tell me?’ His voice was a dark velvet caress.
She shut her eyes. What would it hurt?
‘When I was sixteen my mother was diagnosed with a terminal illness. I looked after her.’
‘I’m sorry. That must have been hard.’
She nodded, her throat tight. ‘At least I was with her. But the point is, just before that some strangers came to the farm, wanting to talk to me. They were sent by my grandfather.’ Even now she had to force that word out. The man didn’t deserve the title.
‘Not to see your mother?’
‘No.’ A sour taste flooded her mouth. ‘His offer was for me alone. He invited me to live with him and learn to be a real princess.’ She paused, clasping unsteady hands as she recalled the grandiose promises and the demands.
‘At first I was excited. I was thrilled to see him, to be in his home. It was like a fairy tale. Even though he kept me busy at the palace, training me, he said, for when I’d be ready to take my proper place with him.’
‘You actually came here? I didn’t know.’
She nodded. ‘No one did. Obviously I wasn’t up to his high standards. But I was here long enough to get his measure and that of the people he mixed with. That put me off ever returning.’ She laughed hollowly. ‘I was na?ve. It took a while to realise I was just a puppet to manipulate. No choices. No career. No control over my own destiny.’
The skimming touch of Raul’s fingers was gentle, almost a caress. She knew a ridiculous desire to sink back against him.
‘When news came of my mother’s illness I saw him for what he really was. He insisted I sever all links with my parents. He hated that my mother had walked out on the life he’d planned for her—a duty wife to some crony. He never forgave her. When I begged for help to get her better care, he was furious. According to him, she’d ceased to exist the moment she’d left her home.’
Luisa shuddered as she recalled the old man’s vitriol. His cruelty.
‘By marrying a commoner she’d diluted her aristocratic bloodlines. It was only his extreme generosity that enabled him to overlook my tainted birth and offer to take me in.’
A stream of low-voiced Maritzian cut the air. No mistaking its furious, violent edge.
‘I knew he was old-fashioned.’ Raul’s voice was a lethal whisper. ‘But that’s just vicious.’
Luisa felt tears prickle, hearing his outrage and sympathy. It wrapped round her like a warm blanket.
She’d never told her parents. Couldn’t bear to repeat it, though she suspected her mum had guessed some of it.
Relief filled her at finally spilling the awful truth.
‘So you went back to the farm.’