‘I wasn’t sure if she needed a cot or a bed.’
Gwen looked at the bed with the safety sides, a little girl’s dream. ‘This looks perfect as she’s already started trying to climb over the sides of her cot. Thank you, this is all very thoughtful.’ A lot seemed to have been achieved in a short space of time.
She had thought it was impossible but Rio actually looked embarrassed.
‘Your room adjoins this one, and there is just the small corridor that way. The child monitors are in every room and the volume control is on the pad by the door.’
He looked at the bed and hesitated. ‘Shall I put her to bed?’
‘Yes, please.’ She took a deep breath and thought,You’ve got to let go some time, Gwen.‘I’ll leave you to it, while I’ll explore a bit if you don’t mind.’
It was a gesture but a start and he seemed to recognise it as such. ‘Thank you,’ he said quietly.
Gwen made her way back to the car, popping her head around the door of the incredibly appointed modern kitchen on the way. They were clearly not going to be roughing it in any way!
At the car, she selected the bags that contained her essentials and some more stuff for Ellie and made her way back to the house. She was halfway there when she was intercepted by Rio.
‘No, I’m fine.’ Her fingers tightened around the handle of the heaviest bag.
Her stubborn determination to retain her grip brought her up against his chest and as his fingers curled over her own, it wasn’t just the unexpected impact that made her gasp. She knew she should be doing something else rather than standing there panting, her small gasps now less to do with exertion and more to do with the buzz of expectation that tightened like a fist in her belly as the last remaining resistance drained from her body in one slow shuddering breath.
Gwen’s eyes drifted closed, Rio’s lean male body and the support of the hard breadth of his chest the only things keeping her standing. She was vaguely conscious of the bags hitting the floor but much more aware of his fingers pushing into her hair, his hand sliding to her waist and the words of husky Spanish as his hot breath stirred the skin of her cheek.
‘I want you...’
Did I just say that to him?
She must have done because he was replying to her, but in Spanish, the words sounding as fevered as he felt. She leaned in at the waist, increasing the pressure of his erection against the softness of her belly. He was still murmuring against her mouth, her lips parted, willing the words to be lost in her mouth.
It took a couple of seconds for either of them to react to the sudden racket that cut through the still of the night. With a soft cry that was lost in the deafening sound of a helicopter flying incredibly low over their heads, Gwen sprang back, her hand pressed to her trembling mouth, her eyes wide and shocked.
Rio hadn’t moved. He stood as still as a statue, Gwen’s bags dragging around his feet, his face raised to the sky as he raked a hand through his dark hair. He let loose a string of fluent curses in several languages as he followed the helicopter lights above them with unfriendly eyes.
The noise diminished as the flashing lights moved farther away, remaining loud but no longer deafening.
Gwen was shaking like someone who had just stepped neck deep into a pool of ice water. ‘Does that happen often?’ she asked desperately, trying hard to sound normal, although it was incredibly difficult when her entire body was thrumming with frustration.
What was it about Rio that turned her into a totally different person, a person she barely recognised?
‘No.’
‘What’s wrong?’Beyond the fact you dissolved the moment he touched you,she thought with dismay. There had been no gradual build-up—the passion had simply exploded between them and she was still shaking inside and out.
‘We have a visitor.’ He took his narrowed eyes off the distant lights where the helicopter had just put down. ‘The only question is, is it my mother or my brother? I didn’t expect either of them.’
The idea of meeting a member of his family at any time would have bothered her, but now, when her emotions felt so exposed and raw, and when all she wanted to do was... No, she didn’t want to think about what she wanted to do right now. An interruption was a good thing, she insisted to herself.
Delaying the inevitable, Gwen?
Ignoring the goading voice in her head, she lifted her chin. ‘You have a brother?’
Looking distracted, Rio nodded, a faint frown line pleating his brow as he gave her his attention. Or at least he looked at her mouth, as pink and swollen as though he had got as far as kissing her. ‘Didn’t I mention him before?’
‘There’s no reason you should have, is there? I should go inside and check that the noise didn’t wake Ellie.’
‘Fine. You do that and I’ll go and check out the visitor.’ He half turned, then paused. ‘Don’t worry, they won’t be staying.’
‘You can’t make them go!’ she exclaimed in shock.