Passionate Protection

'Dios, I have hungered for your touch against my skin,' he told her huskily, burying his mouth in the curve of her shoulder, 'almost from the very first. It is true, is it not, that there was a vital chemistry between us—a desire that neither of us can deny.'

Jessica wanted to say that it was not purely desire that motivated her, but Sebastian was wrenching open his shirt and her eyes were drawn to the naked virility of his body. Without the trappings of civilisation, the expensive suit and the silk shirt, his body was totally male, tautly muscled, his chest shadowed with dark body hair that tapered towards his waist. 'Dios, Sebastian, what is the meaning of this!' They were so engrossed in one another that neither of them had heard the door open. Jessica's shocked eyes saw his aunt's disturbed face and behind her Pilar's glitteringly triumphant one.

'I told you you were wrong,' Pilar said triumphantly. 'I told you they were lovers!'

Sebastian was shielding Jessica with his body, but that didn't stop the shame coursing through her, burning into her soul as she realised how they must appear to their onlookers.

'Sebastian!' his aunt's 'voice was deeply reproachful. 'I am wounded beyond words that you would use your home as…'

'That is enough.' Quietly and calmly Sebastian silenced both women. 'If you will wait in the sitting room, there is something I must say to you both.'

He waited until they had gone and then quickly stood up, his back to Jessica.

'My apologies for that,' he told her curtly. 'I never imagined that…'

That what? Jessica wondered. That he would allow his desire to overrule his dislike of her as a person?

'I must speak with my aunt.'

He was gone, closing the door behind him, leaving Jessica to bitterly regret giving in to the wild clamouring tide of desire he had aroused in her. How on earth could she face his aunt or Pilar again? She felt humiliated beyond bearing that they should have witnessed such intimacies. She had wanted to give herself in love, but somehow their interruption had reduced her to the status of a kept plaything, whose only role was to satisfy the needs of her master who might enjoy her body while openly despising her mind.

'Jessica, could you give us a moment?' The quiet voice suggested that if she didn't he would come in and get her.

What was he going to say to her? she wondered nervously, checking in the mirror that she was properly dressed, before screwing up her courage and walking nervously into the other room.

From Sebastian's aunt she received a kind if somewhat sorrowful look. From Pilar she received one of blazing hatred.

'You cannot mean this, Sebastian,' she was saying as Jessica walked into the room. 'It is total folly!'

'That is something only I can decide,' Sebastian replied with iron inflexibility. 'I have just told my aunt and Pilar that we are to be married,' he told Jessica coolly, his eyes warning her against saying anything to contradict his statement. 'As Pilar and Jorge have pointed out to me, I have already been responsible for the destruction of one girl's good name. I will not have the Calvadores name dragged in the mud a second time.'

'But, Sebastian, to go to these lengths!' Pilar protested, glaring at Jessica. 'It is not necessary. You have only to send the girl away. Nothing will be said.'

'No, Sebastian is right,' his aunt interrupted firmly. 'You must not try to dissuade him, Pilar. Jessica, I am pleased to welcome you to our family.' She walked across to Jessica, grasping her hands, kissing her gently on either cheek. 'Come Pilar, it is time we left. Sebastian, if you will tell me what arrangements I am to make…'

'If he does intend to marry her he will want it done as quietly and quickly as possible,' Pilar said spitefully. 'He will not want another bride giving birth before he can get her to the altar!'

'Enough!'

Jessica quailed at the fury in Sebastian's voice, but Pilar seemed not to mind, merely shrugging insolently as she looked at Jessica. 'He may marry you,' she told her, 'but always you will know why. Can you live with that?'

She was right, Jessica thought as they left the room and Sebastian closed the door. Of course she could not marry him. And yet he had admitted that he desired her, surely from that something might grow? His family was one that for generations had endured arranged marriages, marriages with far less hope of success than theirs, and surely she had enough love for them both?

All these were wild and foolish thoughts, she admitted as Sebastian turned and she saw the bleak anger in his eyes.

'We don't really have to get married,' she faltered. 'I can leave…'

'And have everyone know that once again a Calvadores has betrayed his name?' he said bitterly. 'Never! I cannot believe that marriage to me will be so abhorrent to you. Sexually we are compatible,' he gave her a thin smile. 'At least we will not be bored in bed, and as for the rest,' he shrugged, 'I shall have my work, and please God eventually you will have our children.'

Why, when he said it like that, did it sound such a barren existence, so different from the one she had visualised?

'I should have listened to Jorge and not given into my need to feel the softness of your skin beneath my hands,' he added bitterly. 'We will be married just as quickly as it can be arranged, do you agree?'

Jessica wanted to say 'no'. She should say 'no', but it was a weak, hesitant 'yes' that finally left her lips, earning her a look of burning contempt.

'A wise decision. You will be the first Calvadores bride in nearly a thousand years of history who has not come to her marriage bed a virgin.'

'You once told me you would never marry a woman who had known other lovers,' Jessica reminded him with a dry throat, wonderin