She felt his hand between her trembling thighs, his fingers gently parting her legs, their touch setting her adrift from her body.
‘Look at me,’ he whispered. ‘I want to see your eyes.’
Breath quickening, she looked up at him, and he cupped her buttocks and thrust into her. And then his body was stretching hers and she was pushing back, tugging him deeper, until heat flowered inside her and she arched upwards as his shuddering body surged forward again and again, like the waves that were breaking against the beach…
CHAPTER EIGHT
LUIS WOKE TO the sound of his alarm. Eyes closed, he fumbled across the bed, his fingers reaching for his phone on his bedside cabinet. Only his phone wasn’t there.
‘What the hell…?’ he muttered, rolling onto his side.
But of course he wasn’t in his bedroom, and now he was actually awake he realised that it wasn’t his alarm either.
‘Sorry, sorry—did it wake you?’
Emerging from the bathroom, a towel clutched in front of her throat, another wrapped turban-style around her head, Cristina rummaged in the small clutch bag she had taken to the restaurant and pulled out her phone.
Holding it up, she swiped the screen. ‘I meant to turn it off last night, but I…’
‘You what?’ Luis said softly.
His eyes dropped to the towel and he felt his fingers twitch as he wondered how she had managed to arrange it so that it seemed to both hide everything and yet hint at the spectacular body that lay beneath.
Her f
ace stilled. ‘I got distracted.’
‘Oh, is that what happened?’
His muscles tensed, and a pulse began to beat beneath his skin as she walked towards him. He was still struggling to come to terms with what had happened last night—not just the fact that they’d ended up naked and making love on the beach, but that he’d told her about Bas, and about his part in his brother’s death.
He hadn’t planned to tell her. Hell, he hadn’t planned on telling anyone, ever—let alone a woman who barely knew him. But Cristina had surprised him by actually listening to what he’d said. More surprisingly, her words hadn’t simply been catch-all platitudes. He had felt as if she knew him—almost as if she’d known him for a long time.
‘I don’t know. Is it?’
Her light brown eyes were watching his, and it was suddenly difficult to manage his breathing, let alone his thoughts. And, to be fair, it wasn’t a question he’d ever been asked before?
But then he’d never done this before. He’d had a couple of one-night stands, both of which had been short and satisfactory but neither of which had required post-coital conversation. And in his other, more serious relationships sex had happened after the ground rules about intimacy and commitment had been established.
That first time in Segovia it had been simple. Just raw, powerful sexual need, no speaking required. It had been about bodies, and skin, and sweat, and one sole aim—his need to take her. He had practically torn her clothes off her, such had been the frenzy of his desire.
But last night—this morning—had been more than just sex.
His throat tightened. He could just be honest and tell her that. Tell her that it had felt good, incredible. And not just the sex but holding her against him and feeling her arm curled over his chest. He could tell her that part had felt better than good. That it had turned him inside out, and that no woman had ever made him feel like that.
Only he wouldn’t tell her any of that—not without knowing what she was thinking.
‘It was sensational, whatever it was,’ she said.
He nodded, heat sweeping through him as she unwound the towel from around her head and began rubbing it slowly over her hair in a way that made his fingers itch to unwind the one around her body.
‘So what happens next?’
The words were out of his mouth before he’d even known he was going to say them, and it was too late to take them back. Too late to do anything but meet her gaze.
Glancing over at his lean, naked body, Cristina felt heat pool low in her pelvis. Waking beside him in the darkness, his legs entwined with hers, she had thought she was dreaming, and it had taken several moments before her stunned brain could accept that Luis was there in her bed. Heart pounding, she had watched him sleep, mesmerised by his beauty, wishing silently that it could last for ever. That it could be just the two of them together and one endless night.
Listening to Luis talk about his brother, knowing that his loyalty and love for his family were absolute, she’d felt a fierce protective urge towards him, and more than anything she had wanted to take away his pain. But then at some point he had taken away her pain too.