‘Don’t think about it,’ she urged. ‘Just act on instinct.’
‘If you say so,’ Chico murmured dryly.
Their mouths were almost touching, and before he did as she asked he kissed her in the way she loved to be kissed. She would never tire of Chico kissing her, just as she would never tire of stroking him, or mapping his powerful muscles and the wide spread of his shoulders. He was so bronzed, so hard, so big, so perfect. Turning her, he found her with his hand, and as she arched her back to make it easy for him he entered her again, making his strokes deep and regular, and slow, so they could both savour each lazy thrust. She exclaimed shakily as his hand worked skilfully to the same easy rhythm.
‘Don’t hold back,’ he growled against her neck. ‘We’ve got all night, so why not indulge yourself?’
She didn’t need any more encouragement, and let go, her muscles convulsing around him as she gratefully and powerfully lost control.
When she woke dawn was streaming in through the windows. She was in Chico’s arms, and he was watching her. She had no idea how many times they’d made love, only that each time had been better than the last.
‘Well?’ he murmured. ‘Are you ready for the new day?’
He was doing something incredible—and not just with his hands—so all she could manage was a sleepy moan of agreement.
‘Brazen hussy,’ he murmured, pressing his hand into the small of her back to make her even more available to him.
‘Barbarian,’ she countered as Chico took her buttocks in a firm grip and began to move.
And now one of his big hands had moved to tease her nipples, while the other worked rhythmically on the heat at her core. She was a slave to sensation, and Chico was the master of seduction. It wouldn’t have mattered if she’d been wearing armour rather than lying naked in his bed, nothing on earth could have stopped the wave of sensation that roared up inside her and spilled out in screams.
‘What’s this?’ he murmured later when she was quiet. He’d caught one fat tear on his fingertip and was staring at it in surprise.
She would have to go home after the graduation. She would have to leave him.
‘We will never be parted again, Lizzie Fane,’ Chico told her as if he could read her mind. ‘We’ve spent too long apart already.’
‘But—’
‘I told you, no buts. We’re going to do this thing together, you and me. We’re going to rebuild the Rottingdean estate and make it the go-to place for polo training and polo ponies in Europe, and we’re going to change the lives of hordes of children, while we keep this place right up there too.’
‘But how are we going to do that, when Scotland and Brazil are half a world apart?’
Chico smiled. ‘The world’s a small place when we have private jets, and teams with people like Maria and Annie in them, and we have the Internet at our command. Believe me, it can be managed, Lizzie.’
‘Managed between us,’ she confirmed. ‘Just thought I should check,’ she added, smiling, when Chico shot her a look.
‘We’ll make a great team, too,’ he confirmed. ‘Though you still have a lot to learn,’ he added after a moment’s thought.
‘Like you have a lot to learn about Rottingdean?’
Chico’s answer was to roll her on the bed. ‘I’m going to start as I mean to go on. You can give me a full rundown on the estate as we continue our activities.’
‘On the contrary, Senhor Fernandez,’ she said, wriggling free. ‘I would hate you to think you must carry the burden of leadership alone.’
‘Am I arguing?’ Chico said, his mouth curving in a contented smile as Lizzie mounted him and pinned him to the bed.
EPILOGUE
THERE WERE NO windswept plains peopled by wild men and magnificent horses as Chico and Lizzie had temporarily swapped their home in Brazil for their home in Scotland for this, the most important day of their lives.
The weather was being kind to them in the leafy glen where Rottingdean House sat like a symbol of longevity, surrounded by snow-capped mountains under a sky of silver-blue. Lush green grass, purple heather and rich black peat took the place of swaying pampas grass, and, instead of mountain lions and wolves, a noble stag with ten-point antlers stood guard over the glassy loch. The only sound to break the silence was the eagle’s stirring cry as it soared from its eyrie on the first hunt of the day, but now the skirl of the pipes set the scene as the entire village turned out to toast the newly-weds, as they walked back in a winding procession to the big house from the small kirk in the village where Chico and Lizzie had exchanged their marriage vows.
In spite of protesting that she was allergic to weddings, and that she would prefer to remain in the background throughout, when they arrived back at the house it was Danny who caught the bride’s bouquet. Lizzie had made sure of it. ‘Though you can’t leave me yet,’ Lizzie insisted. ‘Not now you’re my right-hand man, so to speak. I’m going to need you around.’
‘Feed me enough chocolate and I’ll see what I can do,’ Danny promised, her cheeks flushing red as Tiago came towards her. ‘The one thing I don’t want,’ she added to Lizzie in a heated whisper, ‘is a wild polo man.’
‘They’re not so bad,’ Lizzie reassured her with a glance at Chico, who was doing the rounds of people she’d known all her life, and with whom he was already on the easiest of terms. Chico got on with everyone, she reflected happily.
‘Give me a pipe and slippers man any day of the week.’ Danny sniffed. ‘And now, if you will excuse me, I have some mild-mannered folk to catch up with.’
‘You’ll be back,’ Lizzie predicted with a smile, noticing how Tiago was watching her friend as Danny slipped away into the crowd.
It was a thrill for Lizzie to see that, instead of uncertainty, there was cause for celebration at Rottingdean. And to see Maria being brought into the fold by Annie and all the other women in the village made her confident that the two worlds could be combined.
The log fire was blazing in the hall, and people were flowing back and forth through the newly renovated rooms. There was still a lot to do, and they would have to close the house for a while to complete the improvements, but for now there were colourful, seasonal decorations—berries, twigs, and flowers—and that most important diploma hanging over the door of Lizzie’s office. Her grandmother would be pleased, Lizzie thought, because the estate was safe for the next generation, and the next. In fact, the next generation was growing happily and well, according to the doctor she had visited with Chico to confirm her pregnancy. Stroking her stomach, she wondered how long it would be before this next generation sat in a basket saddle on the back of their mildest Shetland pony.
It had all turned out well in the end, she reflected. Even the end-of-term match had gone well. They’d won.
‘Of course they won,’ was all Chico had said. ‘What do you think I’ve trained you to do? To lose?’
As if she didn’t know—anything less than a win was unthinkable for him. But she’d forgive him. For every arrogant comment and autocratic stare, Chico’s personality was balanced with kindness and care.
‘There will be reels and dancing,’ she warned him when he came up to her side.
‘So long as we don’t have to stay too long,’ he growled, dropping kisses on her neck as he held her lightly.
‘Don’t you ever think of anything else?’
‘Do you?’
‘Must you ask me such difficult questions on our wedding day?’
‘Only one more,’ Chico promised, smiling wickedly.
‘Which is?’ Lizzie demanded as they linked fingers.
‘Will you live with me and be my love, for ever, Lizzie Fernandez?’
As their bodies were only a hair’s breadth away, and the temptation to bring them a lot closer was overwhelming her in hot, hungry w
aves, she could only say yes.
‘I do agree. We shouldn’t stay too long at the party,’ she said, reaching for Chico’s hands. ‘For ever,’ she pledged, standing on tiptoe to kiss her wild polo man.
‘I’m pleased with your decision,’ he said as he lifted Lizzie into his arms.
‘Hey—I thought we’d stay a while.’
‘Did I say that?’ Chico frowned.
Lizzie pulled back to give him a look, but Chico had turned serious.
‘We must thank Eduardo and your grandmother for bringing us together,’ he declared, heading for the stairs.
‘I hope they’re looking down on us,’ Lizzie agreed softly.
Chico thought about this for a moment. ‘For now, that’s okay, but when we reach the bedroom?’ He shrugged.