The Forbidden Touch of Sanguardo

He said something in Spanish she could not catch and smiled down at her again. And though his smile was warm his eyes were warmer still...

Warm with desire...

She felt a little thrill go through her—a shimmer of awareness, of more than awareness. Intimacy. She had felt it earlier that day at lunch, when Rafael had told her of his parents just after she had told him about her father, his life cut short so young.

A sense of wonder came over her as she thought about that. She had been so reluctant to say anything at all of herself, even of the distant past and her childhood. The past was dangerous—all of it. Yet somehow she had found it possible to tell him something of her father’s life, even if only that brief fragment. Tragedy had struck them both, she realised, losing their parents far too young, and perhaps that realisation was another thread that was drawing her to him.

Drawing her closer and closer yet.

How close?

The question hovered tantalisingly in her mind as they went down to dinner, her hand still loosely held in his.

It felt, she thought, with that little thrill again, the right place for her hand to be...the only place...

This is right—it is the right thing to do. To be here with Rafael. To accept all that has happened, all that will happen...

Certainty filled her. And a sense of peace. Rafael had been right all along. She could remake herself. She could leave the past behind.

She would give herself to what was between them wholly and fully, with no more reluctance or resistance.

The past is gone—there is only the present. The wonderful, magical present that has Rafael in it.

Happiness glowed within her, radiant in its power.

* * *

They ate, that evening, once again at the French cuisine restaurant by the shore. They had tried others, but this had proved their favourite. The setting was so spectacular, almost at the sea’s edge, and the lights from the hotel were shaded by the palm trees and plants framing the restaurant’s terrace.

After they had dined they walked along the pathway that led in the opposite direction from the beach, out onto a little headland beyond, where they paused.

‘Look,’ said Rafael.

Celeste followed where he was indicating.

A sliver of new moon was rising in the east—a slender crescent of silver. Rafael took her hand, nothing more than that, standing beside her as they stood in silence. His clasp was warm and strong.

She felt his fingers twine between hers. Felt her heart-rate quicken. Felt her head turn towards him. Felt the dark glow of his eyes holding hers. So rich, so full...

For one terrible moment she felt panic rising in her, clutching at her throat...then she felt it fading...fading in the warmth of his lambent gaze.

‘Celeste,’ he breathed, and then slowly, so very slowly, his mouth came down to hers.

His kiss was as soft as the breeze, as gentle as the caress of the new-risen moon. Moving slowly, sensuously, tenderly over her lips.

Wonder filled her, and as he drew back from her she could only gaze up at him, eyes wide, lips parted.

His free hand lifted to cup the side of her face. ‘Will you come to me, Celeste? Will you give yourself to what there could be between us?’

His eyes were searching. His fingers tightened on hers.

He took a breath, speaking with more care than he’d known he possessed. ‘I know that this has not been easy for you.’ And now his voice changed, became both hesitant and more resolute. ‘And I know you have scars on your soul.’ He took another breath. ‘I know that something bad happened to you a long time ago.’

He made himself go on, for this had to be dealt with—the buried poison in her had to be drawn out at last.

‘Perhaps something similar to the fate you saved that ingénue Louise from. No!’ he urged, for he had seen the flinching in her eyes, the pulling away of her hand, which he had to reclasp. ‘I say this to you only to show you that I understand, that I wish with all my heart that you could leave all that behind you. I ask nothing—only that you trust me. Trust me to share with you what should be between a man and a woman...this precious gift that nature gives us.’