And good for him—because as soon as Cruz got up he would tell Lauren to pull out of that particular race. Aspen had won and for once he didn’t mind losing. One day he’d share that with Ricardo. Have a laugh. One day when he understood it better.
But for now he had to face facts.
Fact one: Aspen would want to return to Ocean Haven some time soon. Fact two: he was supposed to be flying to China to check out the site of the first of his—what was it?—fifty new hotels first thing tomorrow. Fact three...
Fact three was that he wanted neither of those things to happen. Fact four was that he didn’t know why that was, and fact five was that she felt divine curled up against his side. Fact six was that he was definitely going crazy because he was yapping to himself again.
His throat felt as if he had a collar and tie around it.
Previously, making sure that he was rolling in money had been all that he could think about. He’d put his polo career on hold indefinitely to achieve it. After he’d left Ocean Haven he could have picked up any number of wealthy patrons who would have happily paid any fee to have him play for them, but he would still have been at their beck and call. Still disposable. Still an outsider in a world of rank and privilege. So he’d worked hard to change that. And, although many might say he had now achieved his goal, pride—or maybe that old sense of being vulnerable—drove him onwards.
But was it enough now? Hadn’t he started to question how much satisfaction he actually derived from pushing himself so hard? Hadn’t that old feeling of wanting a family started poking into his mind again? Wasn’t that one of the reasons he’d tried not to visit his own family? And here was fact seven: he hated that feeling of being the one left out. Maybe Aspen was right about that. Maybe if he became more human around his family they might be the same with him.
Madre de Dio.
He was doing it again.
Cruz closed his eyes and let himself absorb the slender length of the woman who was pleasantly draped over his side like a human rug. Gently, so as not to disturb her, he stroked her hair. She shifted and the rustle of the sheets carried her scent to his nose. She smelled good. Superb.
His mind conjured up how she had looked last night, spread out beneath him while he made her come with his mouth. His body hardened and he had to bite back a groan. He wasn’t sure he could do it again, and he was damned sure she was probably too sore, but his body had other ideas.
Trying to stanch the completely normal reaction of his body to the closeness of a naked woman, Cruz carefully extricated himself from under Aspen’s warm body. Better he get up now, have a shower and start the day. It was going to be a busy one. First a round of meetings to finalise what he hadn’t done yesterday, and then the polo matches would start just before lunch and run till the afternoon.
He would have made it too—except Aspen chose that moment to move again and attached herself to him like scaffolding on a building site. She moaned and smoothed her hand over his chest.
Cruz had closed his eyes, his senses completely focused on the southerly trajectory of her hand, when she suddenly snatched it back.
‘I’m sorry. I...’ She sat up and pushed the tangled mass of curls back from her face.
Fact eight: she looked adorable when she woke up. All soft and pink, with her lips still swollen from where they had ravaged each other.
Unable to help himself, he dropped his eyes to her chest and she gave a small squeak, quickly dragging the sheet up over her nakedness. But not before he’d had a good glimpse of creamy breasts that wore grazes from his beard growth.
For some reason her obvious distress eradicated his own desire to put as much distance between them as possible. Which was surprising when he recalled how he had opened up about his childhood last night. That alone should have had him eating dust. But her loser ex had done her a disservice when it came to intimacy, and Cruz wasn’t about to make that worse because he had itchy feet.
‘Good morning.’
She turned wild eyes up at him. Dampened her lips. ‘Good morning.’
Silence lengthened between them and Cruz realised he had no idea what to say. This was the equivalent of a one-night stand and, while he’d never had what could be considered a long-term relationship, he didn’t indulge in one-night stands either.
‘This is—’
‘Awkward?’
She let out a shaky breath. ‘Yes, but last night was...’
‘Wonderful.’
She pulled a pained face. ‘You don’t have to say that. I mean yes, it was good, great for me but...oh, never mind.’