‘That’s not so hard, is it?’ Raffa murmured, smiling down.
‘It’s extremely hard,’ she approved, taking him a little way inside her.
‘Like this,’ he husked against her mouth.
The initial ecstasy of Raffa sinking deeper gave way to frustration when he pulled back. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Protecting us both,’ he explained as he quickly sheathed himself.
He was so gentle and patient, which was good, as he was big and she was small. It didn’t seem possible for such a mountain of a man to be so tender, but when he finally sank inside her to the hilt and rotated his hips, she was drawn into a deliciously unavoidable vortex of pleasure.
Much later they threw themselves down on the bed. As they turned to face each other in silence, it was as if they’d both accepted that something more than sex had just occurred.
But the sex had been truly astonishing, Rose silently conceded as she rolled closer to Raffa simply for the pleasure of having him wrap her in his arms. She dozed off for a while, but woke with a start.
‘You okay?’ Raffa murmured. Drawing her closer, he brushed Rose’s tangled hair away from her face.
‘I’m fine,’ she whispered back, snuggling into his muscular chest as scenes from the past flashed behind her eyes. The thrill the Kelly family experienced whenever her father came up with another of his crazy schemes. But as sure as night followed day, crashing disappointment always followed. The tin on the mantelpiece, where Rose’s mother kept her scant savings, would be emptied, and there’d be a call from the pub to say someone was bringing her father home. Was all closeness fated to end that way? Was this bliss she was sharing with Raffa an illusion? Could she trust it? Could she trust anything? What about Raffa? Was all the publicity about the perfect family he’d been a part of before his parents died all a sham too?
And was Rose being selfish, only thinking of herself right now?
‘If you’re okay, why are you so tense?’ he asked, pulling his head back to stare into her eyes.
‘Tell me about your parents,’ she said.
There was a long pause, and then Raffa began to speak. ‘I drove them to the airfield that day. I even helped them with their luggage. I stood and watched as their plane took off. It was our private jet, so there was nothing to stop me going on board to speak to the pilot.’
‘Why would you have done that?’
‘I don’t know—I just...’ Raffa shook his head, at a loss for words. ‘If I had visited the cockpit, I would have smelled the drink on the pilot and realised something was badly wrong. I could have stopped that flight.’ He grew more heated. ‘I should have stopped it—told them to get off—’
‘But you had no reason to go on board in the first place,’ Rose pointed out gently. ‘How many of us live with guilt, and what good does it ever do? I could have stepped between my father and mother when they were arguing—snatched the bottle from him, searched out the rest of his seemingly endless supply of booze. He even hid the bottles in the rubbish bin outside, and that was one of the more obvious places. I could have made more effort to find help for both of them, but instead I did as my mother asked, and stayed quiet. I was much more obedient in those days. Only when it was far too late did I learn to speak up.’
‘You were young, at school, and then laying the foundations of your career,’ Raffa reminded her. ‘A career your mother surely wanted you to have.’
‘She did,’ Rose confirmed. ‘But, d’you see what I’m getting at? We can both blame ourselves endlessly, but what good does it do? We’ve learned from our mistakes, and now it’s time to move on.’
‘Says you,’ he teased as he drew her back into his arms.
The emotion Rose stirred inside him was almost too extreme. Feelings, memories, everything he’d brooded on for years, threatened to escape the carefully built dam. What had really changed was that he suddenly wanted to confront the past head-on, rather than banishing it to some forgotten part of his mind. Rose had done that. Her determination to love and protect those she cared for touched him. He was the instigator, the protector, the hero, and occasionally the villain, the man who had never needed support from anyone, but, in the high-octane setting of a professional polo ranch, someone with heart, as well as an organised mind, was ideal. Rose was that person. He was right to have appointed her Head Groom. Fearless when it came to brushing convention aside, Rose had passion and fire that matched his.
It was only a matter of time before that passion distracted them both once again, and what started out as gentle, soothing caresses turned fiercely demanding. Lavishing attention on her breasts, he teased her nipples into even tighter buds, while Rose writhed against him, seeking the release they both craved. Taking hold of his hand, she brought it down, her intention clear. Rose knew what she wanted, and how to get it too. At his first touch, she claimed her explosive release, and very soon wanted more. ‘I’ll be quiet this time,’ she promised with a teasing grin, forcing him to remember his comment about the security guards.
‘Make all the noise you want.’ Sex was an exercise at which he excelled, but with Rose it was so much more. He’d never laughed so much, nor found a woman so appealing. They ended up on the floor laughing, and the next minute things turned wild and raw. Every rule went out of the window. Between them, they had rewritten the rules. All he cared about was Rose’s pleasure—and all she cared about was his.
It was only later when they were quiet again, he noticed that she was studying him intently. ‘Is something wrong, Rose?’
How to tell this man what she was thinking? Rose stared silently into eyes that weren’t bloodshot with booze, or narrowed in anger...into a face that was strong, but not cruel.
‘Nothing’s wrong,’ she lied with a gentle smile. Raffa had helped her to understand that sex could be deeply meaningful, as well as fun. To think those fumbles in the back seat of a car had left her with the impression that sex was a waste of time, and why bother? She knew why now. Raffa had shown her what sex could really be like, and how close it could bring two people.
But for how long nagged at the back of her mind.
Pulling his head back, he stared her directly in the eyes. ‘Unhappy thoughts? Hey, come on, or I’ll worry about you.’
‘Worry? After that?’ She laughed to reassure him, but was she as strong as he thought her? Her father’s situation was getting worse, and for all he’d done wrong in the past she would never desert him. If she confessed that, Raffa was bound to question Rose’s long-term commitment to his team.
‘If you need to talk,’ he pressed.
