His Ultimate Prize Page 15

  He stared down into her face, a face flushed with pleasure from the activities of the day or, he thought semi-cockily, from kissing him. All at once he wanted to blurt his very innermost secret to her.

  He stopped himself just in time.

  Permanent wasn’t part of his vocabulary. He wasn’t about to seek it out now. And, really, he should thank his lucky stars because Raven knew his flaws and had adequately cautioned herself against getting too close.

  So why did the thought not please him?

  His phone rang and he happily abandoned the questions that threatened to flood him. But he didn’t abandon his hold on the soft body of the woman next to him. Delight curled in his chest when she slid closer.

  ‘De Cervantes,’ he answered.

  The conversation was short and succinct. And it raised every single hair on his nape to full, electrifying attention. Feeling slightly numb, he ended the call.

  ‘What’s happened?’ she asked.

  ‘One of the drivers has pulled out of the remaining races.’

  ‘Can they do that, pull out without warning?’

  He shook his head. ‘I’ve never had a driver pull out before. Normally I have them begging to race.’ She didn’t miss the frown in his voice. ‘But he’s just been offered a race seat for the coming season and it’s an opportunity of a lifetime. I recognise how important that is to a young driver.’

  ‘So what does that mean for your event?’ she asked, pulling back to stare up into his face.

  He looked down but didn’t really see her. The thoughts tumbling through his head both terrified and excited him at the same time.

  ‘They can find a replacement if they search hard enough...’

  Raven pulled away further. He wanted to tug her back but he couldn’t seem to summon the strength it took because of the feelings rushing through him.

  ‘Or?’

  ‘Or...the general consensus is that I should step in.’

  ‘No,’ she said. Naked fear pulsed through the single word.

  He finally focused on her, felt a burn in his stomach from the impact of her searing look. ‘No?’

  ‘You’re not ready.’

  ‘Shouldn’t I be the judge of that? And didn’t you say yourself I was almost healed?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes, almost! As your physiotherapist, I strongly do not recommend it. You could reverse everything you’ve achieved in the last several weeks...’

  ‘If I crash?’

  She paled a little, and he felt a tug of guilt for pushing her. ‘I won’t answer that. What I will say is that you’re the head of X1 Premier Management. All you need to do is make a single phone call and any one of dozens of drivers will fly out and take your driver’s place. You don’t have to do this. Please don’t do it.’

  The naked plea in her eyes struck deep. The unsettling angst of a moment before subsided as he traced his finger down her face.

  ‘Dare I believe that you care about me, just a little bit?’ He couldn’t stop the question from spilling out. But, once it was out there, he needed to know.

  ‘I care, Rafael. More than a little bit, I think.’ The naked truth struck them both. Their eyes met, locked.

  Breaths held until the banking helicopter jolted them. The sight of the villa sprawled beneath them made Rafael want to swear. Instead he activated his phone again.

  ‘Angelo—’ he addressed his second-in-command ‘—call around the teams, find out if there’s any driver who isn’t testing and offer them a place on the newly available seat on the All-Star event. You know which guys I rate the most. Tell them they’re guaranteed a spread in the next issue of X1 Magazine and my personal endorsement of whatever charity they choose. Oh, and I want a driver on his way to the racetrack in Los Cabos by the end of the day.’ He ended the call and looked down at her.

  ‘Now what?’ he asked softly as the helicopter blades slowed to a halt.

  Her smile held such radiance he found it hard to breathe. ‘Now, I may let myself adore you a little bit more...see where it takes me.’

  He regretted that he wasn’t healed enough to swing her into his arms and carry her off to his lair. But he was well enough to drag her from the helicopter to his bedroom. And he made sure he kept her fully occupied until neither of them could move.

  * * *

  ‘You never told me what was in the package,’ Raven murmured, drifting somewhere between I-can’t-move satiation and a drugging need to experience that mind-bending pleasure all over again.

  The wicked grin he sent her way made her heart pound all over again. He left the bed and she could no more help herself from visually devouring him than she could stop breathing.

  He picked up the package from the foot of the bed and returned it to her. ‘This may just buy me a few more Brownie points.’

  That got her attention. She dragged herself up to lean on one elbow. The sight of his naked chest threatened to fry her brain cells. ‘What is it?’ Her mind whirled with the possibilities, then latched onto what she wanted it to be. Could it be the rest of his manuscript?

  Her senses now on a high, she stared down at the box, feeling like a kid on Christmas morning. ‘What’s in the box, Rafael?’

  He lifted the lid. All she could see were sheaves of wrapping paper. ‘See for yourself.’

  Carefully, she lifted the sheer paper. The first items made her heart knock in her chest. And not in a good way. Praying she was dreaming, she nudged the material aside with her finger and looked underneath. Each layer held more of the same.

  ‘Naughty underwear? That’s what you got me?’ Raven let the garments drop back into the box, unable to stem the cold wave of hurt that washed over her. She wasn’t even sure why it hurt so much. But it felt as if she’d climbed a mountain only to look back and find out that she’d only taken a few steps.

  He looked genuinely stunned. ‘You don’t like it?’

  ‘What’s wrong with my own underwear?’

  His perplexed look deepened. For the first time, Rafael looked seriously nonplussed. It would have been funny had it not been so far from funny.

  ‘I didn’t...I just wanted to...’ He stopped, a flush lighting his high cheekbones.

  If someone had told her as little as a week ago that she’d be sitting in bed discussing naughty lingerie with Rafael, she’d have laughed herself blind.

  Now, she forced herself to glance at the lacy silks and delicate satin bows that didn’t seem as if they would stand up to any overt pressure.

  ‘That’s not even my size, Rafael. I’m a size twelve, remember?’

  His flush deepened. ‘I have a feeling you’ll punch me when I tell you I don’t have a clue what size underwear you wear or what yours look like. By the time I get to your panties, I’m nearly insane with lust. Damn it. I’ve got it spectacularly wrong, haven’t I?’

  ‘Not all wrong. You got my favourite colours right.’

  He picked up the package and flung it across the room. Then he tugged her close. ‘Is there any way I can make you forget the last ten minutes?’

  Against her will and certainly against her better judgement, she glanced at the lilac silk material caught over a chair back. It seemed so delicate and forlorn.

  ‘I don’t need expensive lingerie to feel sexy. If you don’t want me as I am—’

  He caught her chin between his fingers. ‘I do,’ he breathed. ‘Let me prove it...’ His head started to descend.

  Raven’s gaze swung once more to the basque. Pulling herself from his arms, she walked, naked, to the garment and plucked it off the chair. Carefully, she rubbed the material between her fingers and turned. Rafael’s breath caught as she slowly traced the warm silk over her body.

  A glance from beneath her lashes showed a definite effect on him.

  Pure fem
inine power washed away her misgivings. With a wanton smile she’d never have believed herself capable of, she sauntered back towards him.

  ‘You need to understand one thing, Rafael.’

  He nodded but his eyes were riveted on her breasts. ‘Sí?’

  ‘You promise never to buy me lingerie again as long as we’re together. I choose my own underwear.’

  He swallowed and nodded.

  Raven glanced down at the panties and shook her head. ‘I can’t believe you thought I was a size eight,’ she muttered.

  ‘Por favor! Forgive me.’ He wet his lips in such a blatantly sexual way, a blush suffused her whole body.

  ‘You’re just saying that so I hurry back to bed.’

  ‘Si. And you can forget the lingerie if you wish.’

  ‘And give up the chance to see you sweat. No can do.’ She slowly, deliberately swept her hair to one side before sliding the lace-trimmed garment over her head.

  She nearly bottled it then, but the scorching intensity in his eyes had the direct effect of firing up her courage. The soft lilac tulle basque hugged her breasts in such a blatant caress, she bit her lower lip to stop a moan of excitement. She turned, then glanced back over her shoulder.

  ‘Are you going to help me with the laces?’ she rasped.

  ‘Dios mío, what are you trying to do?’

  ‘Teach you a lesson.’

  He got off the bed, almost a little too eager for his punishment. ‘Turn around,’ he instructed.

  She did, and heard him hiss out a breath as he pulled the delicate laces and tied it.

  ‘Once again, I have no knickers.’

  His moan was a heartfelt balm to her soul.

  Turning, she placed her hands on her hips, feminine power fuelling her desire as she saw her effect on him.

  When he stumbled back and sank onto the side of the bed, she laughed. ‘Hoisted by your own petard, Rafael?’

  She took a step towards him and gloried in the slide of the silk on her skin. She would never don anything like this again. Naughty lingerie wasn’t really her style but, just for tonight, she would allow herself this experience.

  His face was strained like the steely erection that jutted from between his legs. Heat oozed between her thighs, made her movements slow as the magnetic force between them pulled her inexorably into his orbit.

  When she reached him, she raked her fingers down his chest. ‘You won’t see me like this again, Rafael, so look your fill.’

  His features altered, a look of regret passing through his eyes that made her stomach hollow out. ‘You’re breathtaking without it, Raven. How can I make this up to you?’

  Her heart thundered at the sincerity in his voice. ‘You don’t need to. Just see me as I am.’

  He inhaled, long and deep, and dropped his head between her breasts. For a long moment, Raven held him close. Then his breathing altered. Hers followed as lust sizzled, rose to the fore once more.

  She pushed him back on the bed and climbed on top of him. By the time he donned the condom, they were both nearly insane with need. She’d barely positioned her thighs on either side of him when he thrust hard and deep inside her. Raven lost all coherent thought.

  In the sizzling, excruciatingly heady aftermath, she curled into him but found she couldn’t breathe, even after his deft fingers pulled the basque from her body and flung it away. She’d always known that Rafael’s dominance was larger than life. But she’d trusted herself not to get pulled into his devastating, fast-spinning orbit. Her emotions were fast skittering out of control. How long had she watched her mother experience the same devastation over and over? Now she was running the same risk—

  ‘What is it?’ he demanded, his intuitiveness almost scary.

  ‘Nothing...’ she started to say, then stopped. ‘How many times have you done this?’ she blurted.

  ‘I think I definitely need a definition of this, otherwise I’ll have to plead the fifth.’

  ‘Bought risqué underwear for a woman?’

  His lids dropped for a second before rising to spear her with that intense blue. ‘Never.’

  Her snort was borne of disbelief and a sharp pang she didn’t want to touch with a dozen bargepoles. She shook her head and started to move away.

  He caught her back easily. A shiver ran through her when his finger slid under her chin and tilted her head up. Almost afraid, she looked into his eyes.

  ‘I’ve never lied to you, Raven. I’m skilled in evading subjects I don’t wish to discuss, but I have never and will never lie to you. Understood?’

  She was stunned by how much she wanted to believe him, how much she wanted to be the first at something in his life. ‘Why haven’t you done this before?’

  Surprise flared in his eyes. ‘You’re asking me why I haven’t bought lingerie for a woman before?’

  She pursed her lips. ‘It seems the kind of thing ruthless playboys specialise in.’

  His own lips flattened at the label, then he shrugged and relaxed onto the pillows. ‘Not specialise. I have knowledge of it because I’m always the recipient. The assumption has always been that I would prefer the bedroom unveiling to be a knock-my-brains-out surprise, not a joint enterprise. I haven’t felt the inclination to alter that assumption.’

  A small fizz of pleasure started in her belly. Which was really foolish because she knew this particular experiment had been a means to an end for him.

  Unwilling to face up to what all this meant, she buried her face in his neck. ‘I’m glad.’

  ‘Enough to forgive my grievous error?’

  ‘That depends.’

  ‘On?’

  ‘On whether you’ll give me what I expected to find in the box when I opened it.’ She told him.

  Another peculiar look crossed his face. ‘The story has reached a crossroads.’

  ‘Are you saying I did all of that for nothing?’

  He pushed her firmly onto her back and leaned his powerful, endlessly intoxicating body over hers. Unable to resist, she let her hands wander at will over smooth muscle.

  ‘For nothing? No, bonita, it was most definitely not for nothing. I think you could be the key to unlocking everything.’

  Although she went into his arms at his urging, Raven sensed he wasn’t as in control as he made out. She’d heard a different note in his voice—part vulnerability, part bravado. She slid her hand up and down his back in a strong need to comfort him. The persistent voice that had cautioned against getting too deep was receding—almost as if it knew the path she’d chosen. She would live in this fantasy now.

  This magic, this overwhelming sense that she was exactly where she wanted to be, was too great to deny. Reality would encroach soon enough.

  So where was the harm in experiencing it for a little while longer?

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  IT TURNED OUT a little while was all she would get.

  Things started to go wrong the moment the helicopter touched down at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City the next morning. The replacement driver Angelo had lined up didn’t turn up. As the day went on with no immediate solution, Raven felt the pressure mount as everyone turned to Rafael for a solution.

  Even though this was primarily a charity event, high profile sponsors had channelled millions of euros into it in the hope of gaining maximum exposure, courtesy of the sold-out events. Racing five cars instead of the usual six would make the headlines and throw negative publicity on the event—something X1 Premier Management and Rafael in particular couldn’t afford to let happen.

  Already the paparazzi, sensing blood in the water, were sniffing around, cameras and microphones poised to capture any salacious gossip.

  She recalled how they’d decimated Sasha de Cervantes and her gut churned at the thought o
f what that type of publicity could do to Rafael.

  As if she’d conjured him up, Rafael walked past the window, his pace carrying him from one end of the air-conditioned VIP lounge to the other, his gait remarkably improved despite the physical stress she’d put on his body in the last three days.

  Feeling a blush creep up her face, she glanced away before he or any of the other management team hastily assembled for the meeting could guess at her thoughts.

  Angelo, Rafael’s assistant, approached him, a phone in his hand. Rafael listened for several seconds, his tension increasing with each breath he took.

  ‘Tell him if he threatens me with a lawsuit one more time, I’ll personally see to it that his brand of vodka never leaves the icy wilderness of Siberia...bueno, I’m pleased you’re finally seeing things my way. We will find a driver, and your logo will be emblazoned on the side pod just as we agreed.’

  He hung up, glanced around the room and caught a few nervous gazes. ‘They want to play dirty; I’m more than happy to oblige.’

  A three-time world champion, now in his early sixties, cleared his throat. ‘The race starts in three hours. I don’t see that we have much of a choice here. You all but agreed to step in two days ago when we were a driver short. I’m not sure what changed your mind but perhaps you’d revisit the idea of racing?’

  Raven half rose out of her seat, the scrape of her chair on the tiled floor drawing attention from the rest of the room.

  She collapsed back into her seat when Rafael’s fierce gaze settled on her. When the quick shake of her head didn’t seem to register, she cleared her throat.

  His eyes narrowed. Then he turned, slowly, deliberately away from her.

  A block of ice wedged in her chest and her stomach hollowed out. From very far away, she heard him address the race coordinator and chief engineer of the driverless team.

  ‘I have a couple of spare seats around here somewhere. Angelo will arrange to supply you with one to fit into the car. I’ll be along in ten minutes to go over race strategy with you.’ He looked around the room, the devil’s own grin spreading over his face. ‘Gentlemen, let’s go racing.’