Dios, he’d forgotten how much he’d missed her. Missedthis. Missed the magic that he’d singularly failed to replicate with anyone else.
Revelling in the softness of Beth’s lips and the warm silkiness of her tongue, Xavi set the glass in his hand onto the cabinet and then wrapped his arms tightly around her, kissing her back with matching hunger.Dios, she tasted even better than he remembered, and he deepened the kiss until her breasts were crushed against his chest and they were nothing but two tightly locked bodies and fused faces.
It was Beth who pulled away first.
Keeping her hands linked around his neck, she drew back to gaze at him with dilated pupils. Her cheeks were flush and there was a breathless quality to her voice as she murmured, ‘Well, that’s answered my question.’
‘What question was that?’ he asked huskily.
‘Whether the chemistry is still there…’ She brought her mouth back to his. ‘Let’s do that again.’
Lips and bodies crashing back together, the thrills that raged through him were strong enough to melt bone.
Thiswas why there had been no magic with anyone since Beth. Xavi didn’t feel his desire for her just in his loins but in the whole of his being. Theirs was a chemical formula impossible to replicate.
Squeezing the succulent bottom that was as soft and pillowy as her glorious breasts, he gathered the skirt of her dress; would have steered her to the desk and lifted her onto it if she hadn’t broken the kiss again and gently pushed at his chest in an unspoken gesture to say their chemical experiment was over.
His breaths as heavy as the thumps of his heart and the weight of his erection, he gazed into Beth’s desire-laden eyes and didn’t know whether to laugh or groan when she blew her fringe out of her eyes, staggered to the desk to grab her bag and then staggered to the door.
Arousal coursed so strongly through him that it took a moment to speak. ‘Where are you going?’
The breathless quality in her voice deepened. ‘Somewhere to think.’ She turned back to face him and lifted her chin. ‘I’ll let you know of my decision soon.’
‘How soon?’
After gathering her gorgeous autumn-leaved hair onto the top of her head, she let it fall as she smiled knowingly. ‘As soon as I’ve made it.’
Another knowing smile, and she slipped out of the study, shutting the door quietly behind her.
Xavi stared at the closed door for an age and then shook his head and laughed, more with relief than anything else.
Considering he’d half anticipated a punch in the face, he’d say that had gone damned well.
Beth had given him a fair hearing, which, despite the friendly nature of their relationship since their split, was more than he’d expected. More than he deserved if he was being honest with himself. She hadn’t thrown anything at him. And she’d kissed him…Dios, how she had kissed him.
He wondered how many other men she’d kissed with such boldness, then cut the thought off at the knees with much-practised precision. He’d been Beth’s first, and if he had his way, he would be her last, a thought that was almost as satisfying as securing his control of the Rosbel Group.
All the years spent apart from her had been with the hovering thought that one day the time would be right to bring Beth back into his life. Now was that time. All the things that had driven him to end things the first time no longer existed; the dangerous power Beth had had over him that had driven him to forget his responsibilities to the business now muted.
If she agreed to marry him, he had full confidence he could keep her compartmentalised in the way he’d never succeeded before.
Draining the last of his whisky, he came close to allowing himself the luxury of imagining Beth giving her agreement. But only close.
The only thing predictable about Beth Granger was her unpredictability.
Beth waited at the de la Rosas electric gates for her taxi and searched on her phone for a hotel. She’d sort out her hire car later. There were other things to do first. Things that had to take priority.
By the time her taxi turned up, she’d booked herself into a reasonably priced, superbly located hotel with decent reviews. Twenty minutes later, she was striding into its reception and being given the key to her room.
The room itself was clean, the bed large and comfortable. Most importantly, it had a multitude of pillows. She unzipped her boots, yanked them off and chucked them onto the floor, then crawled under the duvet, put her face on one of the pillows and pulled another two over her head, sandwiching herself in them.
Only then, knowing her screams would be muffled, did she open her vocal cords.
She screamed and raged until her throat was raw, and then she sat up, grabbed another pillow, got on her knees and started battering it with her fists. Imagining it was Xavi’s face, she punched the pillow so hard and for so long that her knuckles stung.
She wished she could cry; would give anything to cauterise her pain with the release of tears. Not that tears cauterised anything, but they allowed emotions to be purged, even if only for a short while.
Beth hadn’t been able to cry since the ocean of tears that had fallen when she’d miscarried her baby.
