He knew better than to let Beth’s spell weave too deeply into him.
Tonight he would make love to her all night long, and then tomorrow, they would fly to the Caribbean and make love whenever and wherever they liked, and then they would come home and settle into their new lives together with the boundaries he’d put in place carefully adhered to.
But for tonight and the next five days, he would honour his promise and be entirely hers.
Beth lifted her hair so Xavi could unclasp the tiny button at the top of her dress, and shivered with pleasure as he slowly pulled the hidden zip down to the base of her spine.
She released her tresses as the dress fell into a puddle around her feet.
He buried his nose into her hair and gripped her hips, pressing his arousal against her back. Thickly, he said, ‘All day I have wondered…’
Naked except for white silk stockings, Beth turned around and wrapped her arms around his neck. Gazing into his eyes, she whispered, ‘Make love to me, husband.’
His molten stare held hers. ‘For all my days,esposa.’
Her heart, incapable of beating properly the whole of that magical day, ballooned.Esposa.Wife. Xavi’s wife.
Gathering her into his arms as if she were as light as a small child, he carried her to the honeymoon bed of the honeymoon suite and laid her down.
Their mouths fused.
There was no hot desperation in their lovemaking. Not that night.
Together, they unhurriedly stripped Xavi out of his wedding suit until they were skin to skin. Hands roaming and exploring each other’s naked flesh, their tender yet passionate kisses came from the same dream that had carried Beth through the day.
It had been a beautiful day, and she wasn’t ready to let it go and for reality to seep back into her psyche.
Let her have this one day and night of believing their marriage was what her heart so wished. One day and night before she pushed the illusion of feeling loved aside and accepted reality back into her heart.
His dark stare locked on hers, he drove into her slowly, then captured her mouth for another deeply passionate kiss.
Limbs tightly entwined and enveloped in a blissful dream of heady emotion, Beth let the pleasure of Xavi’s lovemaking saturate her, heart, body and soul, and when she came, consciousness drifted away until it was only them left in the world.
The dream cloaking Beth was still in no hurry to lift itself. She was still in no hurry to shake it off. The de la Rosas’ private island was a picture-perfect paradise. Situated between the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos, they’d flown to the former, then speed-sailed on Xavi’s new catamaran to the island itself. Barely six miles square, it was thick with greenery and spectacular wildlife and ringed with the finest, softest light golden sand. The shallow turquoise water surrounding it was clear enough for her to swim out and marvel at the colourful fish who’d escaped the coral reefs farther out swimming around her. Even the villa was a delight, in part because it was no villa but a hamlet of Balinese-style lodgings dotted around a main house that had all the facilities of a luxury hotel.
She would have loved her time there no matter the company, but sharing it with Xavi sealed its perfection.
These had been the best days of her life.
‘When can we come back?’ she murmured on their last evening as they lazed in bed after making love. Her cheek lay on his chest. The comforting rhythmic beat of his heart lay beneath her ear. The French windows of their suite facing the sea were open, a delicious, gentle breeze cooling their skin.
His fingers continued their lazy circular motions on her back as he said, ‘As soon as I can carve out more than a few days in my schedule.’
She kissed his chest to stop her mouth from protesting. The dreamlike state she was living in was too wonderful to spoil with words that could wait until they returned to their real life. ‘Can we try for the New Year?’
‘That should be doable.’
She sighed her happiness and nuzzled her cheek over the fine dark hairs of his deeply tanned chest. A veritable sun magnet, their days there, few though they’d been, had deepened Xavi’s olive skin by several shades. By contrast, Beth’s pale skin had gained a few extra freckles. She supposed slathering factor fifty sunscreen on every couple of hours didn’t help the tanning process, but with her complexion, she wasn’t taking any chances. The upside was that Xavi had insisted on being her personal sunscreen slatherer.
‘I have to admit, I thought you would find it boring here,’ he commented.
‘You’re kidding? This place is heaven!’
He chuckled softly. ‘You’re like a bee, always busy, busy flying from flower to flower in search of your next dose of pollen. And you’re impulsive. When you get an idea to do something, you jump in with both feet. There’s not much scope for impulsivity here.’
She considered this. ‘I suppose it depends on where I am and what I’m doing. If something takes my fancy and it’s doable, then yes, I’ll just go ahead and do it because why hold back? Life is short—we both know that—and so I guess I just want to live it while I can because who knows when it will be over for me?’
He was silent for a long time. ‘I can’t be like that, Beth. I don’t think I’m built to be like that. I have to have lines and boundaries on my time, otherwise everything blurs.’
