Contract Baby

‘But—’

‘No buts, mi esposa, privacy is at a premium this weekend, but thankfully we’re leaving for London on Sunday evening. I have a surprise for you. Monday is your birthday,’ Raul reminded her.

‘London...a surprise?’ Polly’s cup of guilt positively overflowed. ‘I’m really sorry I listened to Melina.’

‘You didn’t know what you were up against.’ Reaching for her, Raul eased her slowly into the circle of his arms. ‘And now it’s time for you to keep quiet and listen to me.’

Polly gazed up into clear dark golden eyes and her susceptible heart quickened.

‘I fell in love with you in Vermont,’ Raul delivered almost aggressively, strain hardening his sensual mouth. ‘But I didn’t realise that until recently. I basked in your response to me then. You asked nothing from me, but your love made you feel as much mine as the baby you carried.’

Polly was transfixed. ‘Did it?’

‘I felt very possessive of you even then. I’m not prone to analysing my emotions...I didn’t have to,’ Raul admitted bluntly. ‘When you went missing, you went missing with my baby inside you, so I never had to question the strength of my need to find you both. I was always able to use Luis as a justification. And when I found it a challenge to keep our relationship impersonal, I told myself it was solely because you were the mother of my child.’

‘You were pretty good at convincing yourself,’ Polly whispered unevenly, almost afraid to believe in what he was trying to explain to her.

‘I even had a good excuse to marry you—’

‘I forced you into it.’

‘I could’ve said no, and I didn’t. You made it easy for me to avoid facing up to the fact that I wanted you on any terms...and then you vanished and I was climbing the walls with frustration again,’ Raul confessed, and shifted a shoulder in a jerky shrug that signified unpleasant recollection. ‘I was angrier than I’ve ever been in my life, and yet so scared that I wouldn’t be able to find you a second time...’

She rested her brow against his broad chest, disturbed that she had caused him that much pain without even suspecting the fact. ‘Oh, Raul... thought it was only Luis you’d be worrying about and missing.’

‘I didn’t know what was happening inside my own head,’ he confided grittily. ‘I even assumed that once I’d satisfied my overpowering desire to make love to you I would go back to feeling like myself again. But it didn’t work like that.’

‘It doesn’t,’ Polly agreed shakily, eyes stinging with happiness because believing that Raul loved her was becoming easier with every word he spoke.

‘When I came back in from that late-night ride and you weren’t where I expected you to be I really lost it, and that’s when I realised how much power you had over me...that was a very threatening discovery for me,’ Raul conceded with driven honesty. ‘And then it got worse...’

‘Worse?’ Falling in love wasn’t always fun, but Raul was making it sound like being plunged into hell.

‘With women, it was always easy come, easy go with me, and then you smiled at Patrick Gorman just the way you once smiled at me in Vermont, and I wanted to knock his teeth down his throat! It was so irrational, so childish, querida,’ he grated, with a highly revealing combination of regret and embarrassment.

‘I didn’t really notice...I was too busy worrying about Melina and my own insecurities.’ Polly winced at how blind she had been.

‘It slowly dawned on me that this was what love felt like...all these crazy feelings, and rage and moments of weakness and fear, and just needing you there all the time...’ His sculpted cheekbones were sharpened by a rise of dark colour. ‘Infierno...I can’t believe I just said all that!’

‘But it’s like that for me too, and, believe me, loving you was not fun when we met up in London again, so I tried to tell myself I hated you,’ Polly complained feelingly, but she wrapped her arms round him so tightly when she said it he wasn’t in any danger of feeling rejected on the basis of his past sins.

‘I wanted to haul you into my arms and I couldn’t let myself...and now I can,’ Raul appreciated, with a blazing smile of satisfaction and relief. He crushed her to him and proceeded to kiss her until her head swam. They ended up on the bed, discarding clothes with more haste than finesse, sealing their words of love with a passionate joining that released every last scrap of tension between them.

‘Yes, you do like being loved,’ Polly teased him as she smoothed possessive fingers through his damply tousled hair and met the tender look of satisfaction in his brilliant dark eyes.

‘You should’ve guessed how I felt at the villa, gatita. I don’t think I’ve ever felt that happy before...except now,’ he conceded reflectively.

‘Why are we going to London?’

‘Surprise...’

‘But I’m curious...’ Polly ran a not entirely innocent hand down over a lean, hair-roughened thigh.

Raul gave her a wolfish grin even as he hauled her closer. ‘You could torture me and I wouldn’t tell you!’

‘Am I going to be pleased?’