And then she lowered her gaze and gaped even harder, taking a long moment to soak in all she was seeing. ‘How on earth did you get permission to do this?’
Thisbeing the most gloriously spectacular roof terrace. Its perimeter aglow with soft night-lights, its central pièce de résistance was an enormous swimming pool with a gorgeous mosaiced bottom of dolphins at play. Around it, plentiful plush seating for sunbathing and dining alike, along with a Caribbean-themed bar and an outdoor cooking area.
It was the panoramic view, though, that really took her breath away. It felt like the city went on forever. The pond-lake at the rear glistened under the lights of the stars like a private oasis of tranquillity, the trees surrounding it dark shadows melting into the night.
Standing behind her, Xavi put his hands on her hips and brushed his lips against her neck. ‘Money and power talk.’
Surprise and disappointment lashed her even as shivers of excitement coiled up her spine. ‘Bribes?’
‘No,mi vida.’ His hands were working on the sash of her robe. ‘There is no need for bribes when you pay for the restoration of many of your home city’s historical monuments and fund numerous shelters and rehabilitation units.’
Relieved, although why she didn’t know, supposed it was that she didn’t want to think the Xavi of old who’d always taken pride in the Rosbel Group being built on honest endeavour could have changedthatmuch, she closed her eyes and leaned back into his strength. ‘You’ve become a philanthropist?’ Philanthropy made much more sense.
‘Don’t sound too impressed—it is all for the sake of my soul. I’m following in the footsteps of my father and grandfather. They taught me that with great wealth comes great responsibility.’ As he spoke, he cupped her breasts and squeezed them in the way she so liked. ‘Also, Blanca is always keen to remind me of the biblical quote about it being easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, and on the off chance that she’s right, I prefer not to take any chances.’
She laughed and wriggled her bottom provocatively against his arousal. ‘And how much of her personal wealth has Blanca given away?’
Still squeezing a breast, he slipped his other hand down her belly, bending her forward a little. ‘At least half of it to various human rights charities. Carlota uses hers to fund the archaeological digs she goes on—her work benefits people in a very different way, but as she is always keen to tell Blanca, humans need to know where they come from and the journey that took us to where we are today.’
‘To think they could both just sit on their backsides and live off their trust funds…mind you, that applies to you, too.’ The de la Rosa family’s fortune had been secured when Xavi’s father was a child. Their vast portfolio, even outside the business, meant none of them or future generations ever needed to work.
Xavi could have married her eight years ago and spent his life doing exactly what he was doing to her now with barely a dent to his wealth.
‘My father had such a strong work ethic that he would turn in his grave if we sat around doing nothing all day.’
‘You’ve all got way too much energy to sit around doing nothing, even if you wanted to,’ she conceded, closing her eyes as his fingers dipped between her legs. ‘I admire your sisters so much. I don’t think I would’ve progressed as far and as quickly as I did at Miss Amore without their attitudes to inspire me—honestly, the number of times and situations where I’ve doubted myself is ridiculous, and all it needed to snap me out of it was to imagine Blanca strutting around a courtroom like a dog with an ankle in its teeth or think of Carlota spending hour after hour patiently brushing away at millennia-year-old soil to find a fragment of pottery.’
He nipped at her ear and slipped a finger inside her heat. ‘No more family talk. I don’t want to think about my sisters when I’m seducing you.’
‘Isthatwhat you’re doing?’ she asked huskily, even as the pleasure of what he was doing to her was filling her with heated sensation and had her wriggling her bottom against his rock-hard arousal again.
He growled and moved his hand off her breast to pull his shorts down and release his erection.
‘Excuseme,’ she said primly, pulling his pleasuring hand away and darting out of his orbit. ‘But I thought you brought me out here so I could swim?’
Shrugging off her kimono, she threw him a wicked grin over her shoulder and then ran, naked, to the swimming pool and jumped in.
The water was wonderfully refreshing, but there was no time to consider this for Xavi dived in beside her, grabbed her legs and pulled her under. Spluttering and laughing, she resurfaced, only to be enveloped in his arms. A moment later, he had her pinned to the side of the pool. They were both still laughing as he dived intoher.
Movement woke Beth from a deep, sated sleep. Or was it sound that had woken her? The room was dark, but the bed was empty.
She sat up and strained her ears. The shower was running.
Reaching for her phone, she checked the time. Five a.m. What was he showering for at this unholy hour? He could have had only a couple of hours’ sleep.
She must have dozed off again because when she next opened her eyes, Xavi was sat on the edge of the bed, fully dressed in a suit and tie.
‘You’re working today?’ she asked sleepily as she tried to blink herself back into full consciousness.
‘Back-to-back meetings.’
She shuffled over and put her head on his lap. ‘I didn’t think you were working again until after the honeymoon.’
He ran his fingers through her mussed hair. ‘I’m taking six days off for the wedding and honeymoon. I can’t take any more, not with the buyout of the Grimaldi brand.’
She tried not to let resentment stab her. It shouldn’t bother her that Xavi was only carving out five days in his schedule for their honeymoon on his family’s Caribbean island. She had the feeling he thought she should be grateful for that! He’d mentioned a couple of times about the Grimaldi buyout and how it had dragged on longer than anyone had anticipated. At some point in their near future, he’d be flying out to New York to oversee its push over the line.
What shewasgrateful for was the reminder of where she lay in his priorities: as a vessel to sate himself with in the evenings when the working day was done, a state of affairs she was determined to change.
