The Latin Lover

He grabbed her wrist, pulling it away. ‘See what you do to me?’ he said, his words coming through gritted teeth. ‘You cannot leave me like this.’

There was no way she intended to. Not when her prize would be to have that—him—inside her. She let him push her hand down onto the sheets alongside her, watching him climb over her, spreading her legs with his knees.

Between them his erection swayed like a promise. He was beautiful, her Spanish lover. For all his faults she could not deny him that. He was magnificent. Superb. Insatiable.

And for the next however long he was once again hers, if only in bed.

She’d take it.

He kissed her then—her eyes, her lips, her throat. He suckled her nipples, rolling them with his tongue, grazing them with his teeth, devouring them before moving lower, blazing a trail of silken kisses south.

‘Alejandro,’ she protested, but he offered her no respite from the exquisite torture, no relief. His chin brushed her curls and she cried out again, her fingers tangled in his hair. But still he didn’t listen. He spread her wider, his tongue delving into her most secret places, circling that tight but tender bud, dipping into her honeyed depths, before returning his attentions to that swollen flesh.

There was nothing she could do, no place she could go but up, and he took her there—all the way. Launched her into orbit and sent her spinning, spiralling out of control. And then he was inside her, pumping into her, arresting her slide and sending her higher still. She closed tight around him, wanting to take him with her, wanting to never let go, wishing it could be for ever.

And then with a cry he came, a shuddering thunderclap of a climax that sent her plummeting into the abyss once again.

He watched her while she slept, her head nestled against his shoulder, her body tucked tight against his own, one leg nestled between his own. It was nearly five. He’d have to wake her soon, if they were going to get away on time, but right now he was content to watch her in the moonlight, to watch the steady rise and fall of her chest, to feel the fan of her breathing against his shoulder.

She was falling in with his plans perfectly—performing her duties in the bedroom beyond expectations, and dropping all hint of wariness or suspicion around him. It was just as it had been before she had left him. It was as it should be. She was his for the taking.

He hauled in a breath, letting it out on a long exhale. But would the time he had to spend in Australia be enough? Yes, she was his again. More his than ever after that last mind-blowing encounter. Was there any need to terminate things so soon? The sex was good. Better than good. And the longer he kept her around, the more he could enjoy what she had to offer—and, meanwhile, the more she’d think she was on her way to becoming permanent. Then, when the end eventually came, it would pack more of a punch than ever.

He rolled the idea around his mouth, tasting it, testing it for weakness. It was appealing, no question, but that would mean taking her back to Madrid with him, and that came with complications.

No, it was swift and sudden retribution he was after. He would just have to make the most of her here. A few days, surely, would be more than enough to take the edge off his needs, and then he would cast her away as easily as she’d walked away from him.

A few days would be more than enough.

Caloundra had grown up since Leah’s last stay. As the private jet circled the sky before landing, it was clear the beachside town had turned into a thriving city. Apartment blocks lined the magnificent Pacific coastline, luxurious canal housing developments signalled the birth of a new generation of millionaires—millionaires ripe for the picking. No wonder Casino de Diamante saw this as a perfect opportunity to break into the Australasian market.

The plane banked, and the view through her window changed, sprawling suburbs giving way to a verdant subtropical hinterland from whic

h rose the spectacular Glasshouse Mountains, a cluster of eroded volcanic plugs rising hundreds of metres out of the plain.

‘You’ve chosen well,’ she said, leaning across to Alejandro, who was also taking in the view. ‘A growing region and a busy tourist destination. Your casino should do well here.’

He turned his eyes from the window and regarded her solemnly, almost as if she had crossed some kind of threshold by talking business with him.

‘Sí,’ he said at last, breaking the silence and eye contact at the same time, as he returned his gaze to the window. ‘That is what we are hoping. The next few days will be busy ones for our team.’

‘Your team?’

He turned back to her, a wry smile lighting his features. ‘Expansion into Australasia is not a decision I can make alone. There are legalities, endless applications and regulations. And that is if the development is indeed deemed suitable for our purposes.’

‘I assumed you were quite sure.’

He shrugged, pushing himself back in his seat as the plane touched down on the runway. ‘What looks good on paper can look quite different in real life. The structure is half built, and has been left to the elements a long time while parties argued over who was to blame. It may already be too late either to save it or to alter it to our purposes. There are a dozen of our people on their way here now, to evaluate all the angles. We will meet with them, and the vendors and the government officials, this evening at a reception.’

‘So we could be here some time, then?’ she said, trying to get a handle on her immediate future as they taxied towards the small airport. ‘A few days to a week or more?’

He turned to her again, and something unfathomable moved across his eyes. ‘I’d say a week will be more than sufficient.’

His words and his cold delivery made her shiver, even long after she’d stepped from the air-conditioned comfort of the private jet into the warm subtropical air outside.

CHAPTER SIX

THE beachside restaurant was theirs for the evening, turned over exclusively to the meet-and-greet party for the Casino de Diamante team. Leah and Alejandro were late arriving. Guests were spilling out onto the deck enjoying the balmy evening by the time they arrived, already sipping on champagne and nibbling on hors d’oeuvres to the crash of surf on the adjacent beach.