‘That was then.’ And he would never be that man again. The intervening years had taught Xavi the needed art of separation. ‘When we make love again, we’re going to do it properly. When I take you, you will be naked in my bed.’
‘I can get naked now, if you want?’ she breathed.
Desire a heavy thrum in his veins, he groaned into her wet, hot, pliant mouth.Dios, he wanted to slide his hand beneath her plain cream top and cup the breasts that were anything but plain, lower his head and take a pale pink nipple into his mouth.
Her fingers dipped beneath the neck of his T-shirt. Her touch scorched his skin. ‘Are you only kissing me now because there’s a table between us?’
‘Damned right.’ Summoning all his control, he wrenched his mouth away and hauled himself to his feet.
One look at Beth’s flushed cheeks was enough to make him suppress another groan. ‘I’m going to take a cold shower in a guest room. Isabel will have unpacked your clothes by now—she will show you around our bedroom suite. Anything you need, she will provide it. We leave in an hour.’
Beth stood beneath the waterfall shower of the most stunning bathroom she’d ever been in and lathered herself with the gel Xavi’s staff had unpacked for her, trying to breathe normally rather than just inhale tight, shallow snatches of air. Her heart was still thumping manically, her skin still so fevered it was hot to the touch. There was a pulsing ache between her legs she’d not felt in eight years. The closest had been two weeks ago in the de la Rosa study. Before that, she might as well have been dead from the waist down for all the sensation she’d felt there.
She wondered what Xavi would do if she were to seek out the guest room he’d hidden himself away in and stand before him naked. In their first incarnation, he’d never resisted an opportunity for sex. He’d been her slave for sex as much as she’d been his, but just as she was different from the Beth of old, he was different from the Xavi of old. She knew he still wanted her—she’d seen the hunger in his eyes and tasted his desire in his kisses—but in their first incarnation, he’d never hidden from it, had let his desires control him. The Xavi of today was a man who never relinquished control of himself.
Ellen’s beautiful, spiteful face flashed into her vision. Ellen, who’d enjoyed Xavi’s incredible lovemaking while Beth was still pregnant with his baby.
How many women had come after Ellen? Obviously, the appendage lady had, but how many others that she didn’t know about? A handful? A baker’s dozen? A score? Two score? More?
Beth had long ago learned not to torture herself with these nausea-inducing thoughts, but as she dried herself off, she refused to push them away. Tonight she would share Xavi’s bed. They would have sex. Her heart would be at its most vulnerable. She needed to shield it. She needed to shield it through all the nights she would share his bed.
The bed they would be sharing was enormous and sinfully inviting. The bedroom itself, with its high ceiling, abundance of mirrors, seductive artwork and blue velvet soft furnishings, was sinfully inviting, and she forced herself to wonder how many other women had been invited into it. How many other women had made use of the shared dressing room? How many other women had sat at this dressing table and applied their makeup?
How many of those women had he lost control with?
By the time she was dressed, her hair dried and smoky eye makeup done, Beth’s stomach churned so badly with self-inflicted nausea she doubted she’d be able to eat anything that evening.
Breathing as slowly and as deeply as she could, she took stock of her reflection.
When she came back to this room later that evening, she would enjoy Xavi’s gorgeous body and let him enjoy hers. She would let him take her as many times as he wanted…and he always wanted more. As the weeks of their marriage passed, she would shamelessly use sex as her weapon of choice to break his defences and drive him wilder and wilder until she was buried as deeply in his head and heart as he was buried in hers, but through it all she would be full in control of herself with her heart shielded. The only control that would be broken would be Xavi’s.
And then she would destroy him.
When Beth joined him with two minutes to spare in the living room, Xavi’s heart doubled in size with just one beat.
Glass of whisky in hand, he got to his feet and drank in the stunning, colourful vision before him.
Wearing a floral sleeveless maxi dress that cinched at the waist and emphasised her voluptuous feminine curves, its autumn colours perfectly complemented her long red hair, loose and gleaming under the last rays of the setting sun penetrating through the windows. The dark tan of her wedged sandals perfectly matched the handbag slung over her shoulder.
As confident in her skin as a catwalk model, she strode towards him with a wide smile. ‘You lookgood!’
Before he could respond, her arms hooked around his neck, and he was engulfed in a cloud of freshly showered and perfumed Beth.
‘This is where you tell me that I look beautiful,’ she reminded him brightly, her face straining up to his for a kiss.
‘You always look beautiful,’ he assured her truthfully before pressing his mouth to hers. He allowed himself only the smallest taste before breaking the kiss and removing her hands from his neck. He took a step back and laughed at her pout. ‘Later,mi vida.’
She tilted her head and pouted again, but her eyes were dancing with a knowing that made his veins thicken and loins tighten, and when the crystal glass was prised from his hand and she tipped the remaining liquid down her throat and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand with a flourish, he shook his head and laughed.Dios, Beth made even the stealing of his drink sexy.
Diving his fingers into her glorious hair, he gazed into her eyes. ‘I take it back—you haven’t changed at all. You’re still fabulously crazy.’ Crazy in the best way. He’d never suffered a moment of boredom with Beth.
Her lips formed their upside-down heart. ‘Only to a degree. I’ve learned to control the crazy…to a point.’
He rubbed his nose to hers and inhaled her skin. ‘Good. You wouldn’t be you without it. Now, let’s get out of here before we’re forced to call the wedding off on account of my mother killing me for being late to her dinner party.’
‘How many people are going to be there?’ Beth asked as their driver navigated the busy early-evening Madrid streets filled with tourists and locals alike heading out for meals and drinks and whatever else people did when the working day was done.
Xavi rarely did anything when the working day was done, mainly because his working day was never done. The grandfathers had split the running of the Rosbel Group, Xavi’s grandfather controlling the financial side, Raul controlling the creative side. Xavi controlled all of it, and with Beth’s shares he could maintain that control until the day came thathechose to cede it. If fortune were in his favour, that control would be ceded to one or more of his and Beth’s children.
