Читать книгу Raul's Revenge - JACQUELINE BAIRD, Jacqueline Baird - Страница 7

CHAPTER TWO

‘COME on, sleepyhead; you have ten minutes to get ready.’

Penny opened her eyes and looked up at Raul standing by the side of the bed. She stretched and smiled—a slow, sensuous curve of her full lips. She lifted out a hand towards him. Then, frowning, she let it drop to the coverlet. He was already dressed in a navy silk suit...

‘Not this morning, honey,’ he drawled with a mocking grin, accurately reading her mind. Usually they started the day in a much more enjoyable fashion.

Penny murmured, ‘Spoilsport!’ and snuggled back under the cover. ‘You work if you must, but I feel like another hour in bed.’

‘Sorry, but there has been a change of plan.’

‘What?’ she asked fuzzily, reluctant to leave the warmth of the wide bed.

‘Come on, Penny; move it. The honeymoon can’t last for ever. You’re booked on a flight back to Spain leaving in seventy minutes.’

‘We’re leaving?’ She hauled herself up into a sitting position, her eyes flicking enquiringly to his hard face.

‘Not exactly. I have to stay a few days to sort out a couple of problems with the design of the desalination plant. But you are going back to the hacienda; you will be safer there. I should never have brought you with me in the first place. Too many men around here would pay a fortune for a girl like you, and I cannot be around to protect you all day.’

He crossed the room and pulled back the curtains, allowing the blistering brilliance of the morning sun to illuminate the room. Penny blinked at the harsh light, and the even harsher expression on Raul’s dark face.

‘Really, Raul, aren’t you overreacting a bit?’ she responded drily. ‘I can’t see myself being kidnapped out of the Hyatt Regency, somehow.’ And, sliding out of bed, dragging the sheet around her naked body, she crossed to where he stood lounging against the window-frame. ‘And you did promise to take me to England,’ she reminded him peevishly. ‘I’ve arranged—’

‘Not now, Penny; I haven’t the time to argue.’ He cut her off in mid-sentence. ‘I don’t want you here. I want you back in Spain, where Ava and Carlos can look after you.’ Pushing away from the window, he swatted her bottom as he brushed past her. ‘Do as you’re told and hurry. You now have only eight minutes.’

The master has spoken, Penny thought angrily, but still she did as she was told. Packing took a matter of minutes, and after a lightning-fast shower she pulled on her briefs, a pair of white cotton trousers and a blue halter-top, slipped white espadrilles on her feet and she was ready. But silently simmering with resentment.

She marched into the sitting room, ready to demand an explanation. Raul knew perfectly well that she had arranged to meet her friend Amy in London at the weekend. Now he was suggesting that she stay in Spain and wait for him like a dutiful little wife. Except she wasn’t his wife! And what had he said earlier? ‘The honeymoon can’t last for ever.’

She paused. Was that how Raul viewed the past few idyllic months that they had been together—a honeymoon for him, without the complication of having to marry the girl in the first place?

‘Dios, Penny, are you determined to make a spectacle of yourself?’ Raul’s angry voice sliced the air.

‘Spectacle?’ She glanced up at his frowning face. What had she done wrong now?

‘No bra, bare arms, bare back—is there no end to your stupidity?’

Penny looked down at her neat blue halter-top and back up at her lover’s grim face. ‘Apparently not,’ she muttered, and she wasn’t just referring to her clothes.

‘No matter; you haven’t time to change.’ And, grabbing her arm, he bustled her out of the suite and into the waiting elevator.

‘Even if I had, I wouldn’t,’ she snapped defiantly. ‘In case you hadn’t noticed, it is the middle of June, the temperature is over a hundred degrees, and it will not be much different in Andalusia. I couldn’t give a fig if the women here go around covered from head to foot. I am Christian and British and will wear what I please.’

She almost added, So there. Much as she loved Raul, he could be the most arrogant, chauvinistic man in the world sometimes.

‘Happy you got that off your chest?’ Raul drawled mockingly, with a cynical, sensual glance at that particular part of her anatomy.

Penny felt the colour surge in her face but wasn’t sure whether it was anger or arousal that was making her blush. ‘Yes,’ she snapped back, and turned her head away as he slipped one arm around her waist, his head lowering towards hers. She wasn’t in the mood to kiss and make up. She was angry, confused and bitterly disappointed.

Perhaps it was just as well that they were parting for a while. The events of the last twelve hours had left an unpleasant taste in her mouth. She had glimpsed herself through a stranger’s eyes—those of an Arab prince—and she did not like what she saw. Plus, Raul’s attitude did not help one bit.

It was as if coming to an Arab country had heightened in him the characteristics of his Moorish forefathers. The Moors had once dominated southern Spain for nearly eight hundred years, and, watching Raul now, she could quite imagine him locking her away in purdah, given half a chance.

His home, situated west of Granada, was built in the Moorish style—all graceful arches and elegant balconies but with iron grilles at the windows. A central courtyard, sheltered from the burning heat of the summer by ancient olive and lemon trees, also effectively blocked off the outside world.

The land had been in Raul’s family for generations—a huge estate with vast expanses of olive groves stretching across the gently waving plains and higher up into the hills where roamed cattle and the horses which Raul kept as a hobby. She loved the place, but it was isolated...

She glanced up at him, her disturbing thoughts clearly reflected in her blue eyes. But at that moment the elevator doors swished open and Raul straightened to his full height, his dark face impassive as he ushered her across the elegant foyer and out into the scorching heat of the morning sun.

A chauffeur opened the door of a waiting limousine and, without a word being spoken, Penny found herself in the back seat with Raul beside her.

‘I suppose I should be honoured you can actually spare the time to take me to the airport,’ Penny sniped, still hurting at his high-handed action in shipping her back to Spain. A long arm curved around her slender shoulder and Raul’s other hand caught her chin and turned her face towards his.

‘Penny. My darling girl. Please don’t be angry.’ One long finger traced the outline of her mouth and a soft sigh escaped her. Why was she fighting with him? She loved him; one touch, a tender word and she ached for him.

‘I’m not angry.’ She smiled slightly. ‘Only sad. It’s just hit me that we have never spent a night apart from the day I moved in with you. I will miss you,’ she confessed with blunt honesty.

Raul hugged her to him as his dark eyes caught and held hers. ‘I hate for us to be apart even for one night. You must know that, honey. But I wasn’t totally honest with you last night. I was furious that you met the Sheikh but it wasn’t just that. The trouble at the plant was a contributing factor for my appallingly bad temper.’

‘Oh, Raul, you should have confided in me. That’s what partners do, you know,’ she chided him gently, adding, ‘I’m not dumb; you can discuss your work with me.’

‘I should not have called you dumb,’ he admitted, planting a brief kiss on her nose. ‘Naive, maybe, but I had no right to insult your intelligence. Only, it is hard for me, this relationship thing! I have been too many years on my own. But I will try and do better, I promise.’

His dark head bent and his mouth gently covered hers. A long, satisfying kiss followed, Raul finally ending it by easing her head back against the seat and groaning, ‘I have a suspicion that kissing in public, even in a car, is against the law here.’

Penny snuggled into the curve of his broad shoulder. Once more at ease, she prompted, ‘So tell me about the plant. It sometimes helps to talk out a problem with a third party, I find.’ And it might stop her thinking about the hardness of his thigh against her own, and what she would really like to be doing.

‘Such wisdom from one so young,’ he mocked, but continued in a more serious vein. ‘I was your age—twenty-three—fresh out of university with a degree in engineering specialising in design. I thought I would work at a large firm in Granada and live happily at the hacienda, helping out on the estate for the rest of my days. Unfortunately my father died. I discovered the ranch was mortgaged to the hilt, and that a salary, however good, would not allow me to redeem the mortgage in one lifetime. That is why I started my own business—’

‘I didn’t realise. I simply assumed you had always been disgustingly wealthy,’ Penny interrupted teasingly.

‘So did I,’ he said with dry irony. ‘Until I found out different. It is only in the past ten years I have actually been solvent. And this desalination plant in Dubai was to be my crowning achievement.

‘I designed it. It is an innovative and slightly controversial design. Unfortunately one small part needs to be rethought. I have to stay here and solve the problem, because the rewards if I succeed are astronomical—not solely in monetary terms but in human terms. Think of the millions that die each year in Africa alone because of drought, and yet in some countries the sea is there to be used but is ignored.

‘I can foresee the design being used not just in the Middle Eastern countries but any coastal area in the world where a shortage of water is a major problem—including my own country.’

Penny was stunned. This was a new Raul, talking about his life and work as he never had to her before, and she was enormously impressed at the depth of his commitment and flattered that he had confided in her. She felt as though it marked a new phase in their relationship, increasing her belief in him and his love for her.

‘So you see, Penny, much as I want to keep you with me, to be honest, I cannot afford the distraction.’

He stretched a hand across her chest to cup the underside of her breast, and she shivered in reaction, the nipple peaking blatantly beneath the soft cotton of her top. She glanced sideways at his rugged face and caught his wry smile.

‘And you, querida, are a major distraction,’ he husked throatily. ‘At least if I know you are at home waiting for me I will have the incentive to work all the harder, simply to get back to you.’

It was her turn to move and press her lips to his. ‘I do understand, Raul, and I will be counting the days.’

He hauled her into his arms, local laws forgotten, and kissed her thoroughly. Then he murmured against her softly parted lips, ‘And I will be counting the nights. Dios, Penny, you must know you can ask anything of me—anything in the world—and I would move heaven and earth to get it for you.’

As an avowal of love, Penny couldn’t have asked for more, and, with his words warming her heart as his kiss still lingered on her lips, fifteen minutes later she boarded the waiting aircraft. Her confidence in their love was at an all-time high... And she never imagined for a second that two weeks later the reverse would be true...

Penny slowly opened her eyes and groaned. Her sleep had been haunted by dreams; her body burning and aching with need, as she had spent a restless night in the huge four-poster bed. She glanced down at the fine cotton sheet tangled around her naked body and sighed. So this was what sexual frustration did to one, she thought grimly, and wished for the hundredth time that Raul was back.

She yawned and stretched; then, slowly untangling herself from the sheet, she swung her long legs to the floor. Raul’s ‘a few days’ had lengthened into two weeks, and, much as she loved the hacienda, if she was honest with herself, after months of doing absolutely nothing she was beginning to get bored. She was slowly reaching the conclusion that she hadn’t been cut out to be a lady of leisure.

A deep sigh escaped her and she sat for a moment on the side of the bed. She pushed the unruly mass of her long hair back from her face and glanced idly out of the window. Another scorching hot day, but her flesh was burning with a different heat—the heat of arousal unfulfilled.

Still, she told herself bracingly, breakfast and down to the stables for a long gallop on her own small Arab mare, Daisy—a present from Raul the first time she had stayed with him in Spain. Followed by lunch, a swim... Who was she trying to fool? She had done the same thing every day for weeks, and was fed up.

What would her mother have said, she mused, if she could have seen her precious daughter now, a wealthy man’s mistress? Her blue eyes hazed with tears. Deep in her innermost being Penny knew the answer, and it gave her no joy. Her parents had been a wonderful loving couple; they might have tolerated her lifestyle because she was their beloved daughter, but they would never have approved in a million years.

Her thoughts went back to the past. As the much loved only child of the local doctor in a small town in West Sussex, she had had an idyllic upbringing until her father had been killed in a car crash when on a night call to an elderly patient. Even after his death she had still been relatively content; she had grown even closer to her mother and life had gone on.

It had been when she was seventeen that the final disaster had struck: her mother had been diagnosed as having cancer. A braver woman never lived, Penny thought with some pride. Her mother had insisted that Penny stay at school and take her final exams. She had been destined to follow in her father’s footsteps and had been accepted for medical school.

Whether it was the worry over her mother or simply that she was not quite clever enough, she didn’t know, but her exam results had not been good enough for her to take up her place. With hindsight she could see that it had been a blessing in disguise.

The local pharmacy where she had worked every Saturday since the age of fifteen had allowed her to work part-time, twenty hours a week, and she had devoted the next year to looking after her mother. Then, when the end had come and her mother died, the same firm had agreed to sponsor her through pharmaceutical college. Reluctantly she had sold the family house, bought a small apartment in London and started college.

A reminiscent smile curved her full lips. The very first day she’d met Amy, an orphan like herself, but looking for accommodation. They had shared Penny’s apartment ever since. In fact Amy was still living there. Which reminded her...

She stood up and walked across to the en suite bathroom. She owed Amy a phone call; apart from ringing when she had first arrived back in Spain, to apologise for not keeping her appointment in London with her, she had not spoken to her friend at all.

Raul, on the other hand, had called Penny every night, but as she stepped into the shower and turned on the cold spray she seriously questioned the effect of his calls. Invariably she put the phone down in a state of sexual arousal, and she was getting heartily sick of cold showers. In fact she would have loved to know what idiot had actually decided they worked as a cure for frustration, because they did not seem to be doing her much good.

Half an hour later, after a quick cup of coffee—she could not face Ava the houskeeper’s idea of a breakfast—Penny was astride Daisy, cantering along the dusty track that led to her favourite spot—a wild grove of orange and lemon trees, gnarled and old, planted decades ago by whoever had once lived in the tumbledown adobe building at the edge of the orchard. A small stream trickled by only twenty feet from the ruined home. The stream was almost dried up in the mid-summer heat, but still Penny found it soothing.

Eventually, reluctantly, she returned to the hacienda, groomed and fed her horse, and then made her way back to the house.

‘I won’t be five minutes,’ she called to Ava in her rapidly improving Spanish before lightly running up the wide marble staircase. One positive thing to come out of her relationship with Raul, she thought smugly, was that, having studied Spanish as a second language at school, she had finally got a chance to use it, and had discovered that she had a remarkable aptitude for the melodious tongue.

Nipping into the shower, she had a quick wash, then dried herself and dressed equally quickly in a pair of brief white cotton shorts and a plain white shirt, which she didn’t bother fastening, simply tying the ends together under her breasts before slipping on a pair of soft leather mules and leaving the bedroom.

The sound of the doorbell ringing made her hesitate for a second on the top step of the wide staircase. In the many times she had stayed here, there had been few visitors. The ones that did call when Raul was around Penny rarely met. The thought made her pause, and she frowned, wondering who it could be.

Penny heard the voice before she saw the unexpected guest. And she knew enough Spanish to stiffen in outrage.

‘My God, I thought Raul would have got rid of you and that useless husband of yours by now, Ava. Tell your master I’m here and fetch me a drink. I’ll be in the salon.’

Penny ran down the stairs, taking in the scene before her at a glance. Ava was standing by the open front door, her face a picture of hurt surprise and disgust, her kindly old eyes fixed in horror on the girl marching past her.

The young woman was small, dark and looked as though she had just stepped out of Vogue. From her perfectly coiffured black hair piled on top of her head to the elegant high-heeled shoes that tapped out a staccato tune across the mosaic floor she looked like a woman who owned all she surveyed.

‘Excuse me; can I help you?’ Penny said frostily, stepping in front of the stranger. Close up, it was obvious that the woman was older than Penny had first thought—mid-thirties, maybe.

‘I very much doubt it. It is Raul I have come to visit. Now get out of my way and tell that stupid old woman to fetch me a white wine.’

Anger turned Penny’s cool face to bright scarlet in seconds. She had never in her life met such an ill-mannered, arrogant woman and she acted without thought of the consequences.

‘Raul is not here, nor is he likely to be for some time. In his absence I am in charge and I suggest you leave immediately. Ava is the housekeeper here and she is not employed to put up with insults from uninvited guests.’

‘How dare you talk to me like that? I am Dulciana Maria Costas; my father is a government minister.’

‘Well, he should have taught you some manners. Now, if you don’t mind, Ava will show you out.’

The perfectly made-up face twisted with rage. ‘Raul will hear of this, you little English whore. I have heard all about you-Raul’s latest bed-mate. If you have any sense you will pack up and leave now. Once Raul knows I am back he will have no further use for you. That I can promise.’

Penny went from red to white to red again, with a mixture of fury and not a little embarrassment. ‘Get out,’ she spluttered.

‘I will leave—but I will be back. And if you have any sense you will take my advice. Do yourself a favour and save yourself total humiliation.’ And, spinning on her heel, the arrogant Dulciana Maria Costas marched back out of the front door.

Penny sat down on the bottom step of the stairs, her trembling legs refusing to support her. ‘Who on earth was that witch of woman, Ava?’ she asked, glancing across at the older lady.

‘Dulciana Costas; her father is in the government, but he also happens to own the adjoining ranch.’

Penny got to her feet. ‘So I have just insulted our nearest neighbour.’ She grimaced and caught an unexpected flash of sympathy in Ava’s dark eyes.

‘I am honoured you came to my defence, Penny, but I wish you hadn’t for your sake. Dulcie Costas is a bad lady to cross.’

‘She can’t harm me.’ Penny shrugged with more nonchalance than she actually felt.

‘I’m not so sure,’ Ava responded, with a worried shake of her grey head. ‘Come.’ Gesturing with one hand for Penny to follow her, she walked through an open door at one side of the hall, through the splendid dining room and out into the central courtyard.

‘I have set lunch in the courtyard, and while you eat I will explain.’

‘Explain what?’ Penny asked, sinking down on the wrought-iron chair at the beautifully set small table. The selection of attractively displayed cold meats and salads suddenly made her realise how hungry she was. She loaded her plate with chicken, ham and a lot of crisp green salad. ‘Do sit down, Ava, instead of hovering; I’ve told you before I don’t need you to wait on me.’

Ava sighed and murmured, ‘Perhaps this once.’ And, pulling out the opposite chair, she sat down primly on the edge.

‘So who is this Dulcie? Why all the mystery and heavy sighs?’ Penny demanded, swallowing a mouthful of chicken.

‘First, I wish to apologise that when you first arrived with Master Raul I was disapproving. Never had Raul brought a lady to this house to sleep in his bed. I am old; the modern times have passed me by. But very soon I realised he is in love with you, and you with him. I think you will marry and the hacienda will once again echo to the sound of laughter and children’s voices.’

‘I sincerely hope so,’ Penny said, blushing scarlet but delighted that Ava was confirming her own heartfelt belief.

‘I have never seen Raul so happy. I have known him all his life—as a baby, a young boy and as a man. I know him better than he knows himself. If he has one fault it is that he is fearful of committing himself to a woman. I do not usually gossip but I think you are entitled to know what makes him the way he is.’

Penny stopped eating and, picking up the carafe of white wine from the centre of the table, filled her glass, and, lifting it to her mouth, took a sip, her eyes fixed in fascination on Ava.

‘Go on,’ she prompted eagerly.

‘Raul was eight years old when his mother ran off with an American serviceman stationed in Spain. His father was devastated—never really recovered. Poor Raul did not understand what had happened or why his mother never came to see him again. I tried my best to take his mother’s place, but by the time he was a teenager he was very bitter. His father didn’t help by repeatedly cursing young women, and his mother in particular.’

‘How awful.’ Penny sighed, her tender heart full of sympathy for Raul as a lonely young boy.

‘True, but worse was to follow. You have met Dulcie; you have seen what she is like. Well, with the families being neighbours it was inevitable that Dulcie became Raul’s “friend”, for want of a better word. Raul went off to university in America, but they corresponded and eventually became betrothed.

‘It suited both parents, and Raul was used to looking after the girl. But I had my doubts. Dulcie was totally spoilt by an over-indulgent father, and when Raul was studying Dulcie was off to Paris, Rome—anywhere there were men and money. The rumours were rife and true, but Raul never suspected.’

Penny’s mind reeled. Raul had been engaged to the woman she had thrown out of his home. She couldn’t believe it. He had once loved that witch of a woman and yet had never mentioned it to her. Did she know him at all? She listened with mounting disquiet as Ava went on.

‘The wedding date had already been fixed when Raul’s father died and everything changed. Dulcie discovered that Raul’s father had died in debt and that there was no money to support her extravagant lifestyle, and a month before the wedding she took off with a Colombian cattle baron—though some said his business was more chemical than cattle...

‘Apparently the Colombian traded her in for a younger, more fertile model, and she returned to Spain two days ago. I am telling you all this, Penny, so you are warned. The master loves you and, given time, he will many you—of this I am sure. But beware of Dulcie; she is an evil but clever woman. Around the master she was always sweet and innocent, but you have seen how she treats people when he is not around.’

For some reason all Penny could think of was Raul and that horrid woman together. She was eaten alive with jealousy at the thought of Raul making love to Dulcie, touching the other woman as he now touched her. It was ridiculous; it had all been over years ago but she could not help feeling a certain dread. She tried a smile.

‘Don’t worry, Ava. Raul is much older and wiser; he would never allow himself to be fooled twice, and—’

‘So this is how my two favourite women spend their time when I am not around.’ A deep laughing voice cut across Penny’s. ‘Drinking wine and gossiping.’

Penny spun around in her chair. It was Raul... He was leaning carelessly against the wood frame of the dining-room door, his jacket casually hooked on a long finger and draped over one broad shoulder. A snowy white shirt open at the neck revealed the strong column of his tanned throat, and his eyes glinted with humour and something more. He looked all male and incredibly sexy. Penny jumped to her feet and in seconds had thrown herself at him.

His arms opened to enfold her. ‘You never said last night.’ She reached up and raked her fingers through his dark hair, cradling his head with her small hands. Her head tilted back to gaze up into his handsome face.

‘I decided to surprise you, querida,’ he murmured as his mouth fastened on hers.