A Touch of Notoriety Read online

  ‘I’ve said that I am!’ Her eyes flashed darkly in warning.

  He studied her intently for several long seconds before nodding abruptly. ‘Very well. I have finished eating, if you have.’ He ignored their half-eaten meals as he picked up the door key and stood up before moving round the table in preparation for pulling back Beth’s chair for her.

  Beth’s heart was pounding so loudly in her chest, her hands shaking as she placed them on the table and rose determinedly to her feet, that she was sure Raphael must be able to hear, and see that trembling, as he waited for her to collect her bag. He took a light hold of her arm as he accompanied her out of the restaurant and through the bar area to the staircase leading up to the rooms above, Beth hoping he would attribute those things to arousal rather than the nervousness that now held her in its grip.

  The nervousness was not of Raphael. Never of Raphael. Whatever dark and primal desires she might have released from beneath his usually coolly controlled façade, Beth knew that he would never hurt her. She knew instinctively that Raphael was a man who preferred—who enjoyed—giving pleasure to a woman rather than inflicting pain.

  No, it was her own inexperience Beth felt nervous about, and as to whether or not she would be woman enough to sustain and keep the intensity of Raphael’s desire for her burning through the long hours of the night that lay ahead…

  * * *

  Raphael could feel Beth’s nervousness increasing as they began to ascend the staircase to the floor above, feeling the trembling of her stiffly tense body as his hand remained firmly about her arm, able to hear her shallowly drawn breaths, and see how those huge brown eyes dominated the pale delicacy of her face as she stared straight ahead rather than at him.

  She might deny having any doubts about the night ahead, but her behaviour and appearance said otherwise.

  Her nervousness continued as they paused in the hallway so that Raphael could unlock the door to their room. ‘I asked the landlord to give us the best room he has.’

  Raphael glanced at her. ‘I believe a comfortable bed to be our only requirement…’

  ‘And an adjoining bathroom,’ she added tensely. ‘Which the landlord assures me this room has.’

  ‘Good,’ he clipped as he straightened before slowly turning the handle on the door to push it open, standing slightly to one side in the narrow hallway as he waited for Beth to precede him into a small bedroom. There was a low and dark-beamed ceiling overhead, the room like so many other hotel rooms, with its pink and cream chintz curtains and matching bedcover on the four-poster bed, the wallpaper and carpet in the same warm cream, several uninspiring paintings adorning the walls.

  ‘Would you like to use the bathroom first or shall I?’

  Raphael looked across the room at Beth as she stood silhouetted in front of one of the two windows, the darkening night sky behind her making her hair appear more gold shades than ever, her face still ethereally pale, her fingers tortuously twisting the innocent shoulder strap of her bag the only other outward show of her inner nervousness. ‘You may go first,’ he replied smoothly. ‘I have several calls to make before I may call my time my own this evening.’

  A frown appeared on her creamy brow. ‘Would one of those phone calls happen to be the one to Cesar?’

  He quirked dark brows. ‘And if it is?’

  Her breath hitched. ‘Is it a good idea for you to talk to Cesar now, in the knowledge that you intend to seduce his little sister immediately afterwards?’

  Raphael’s mouth tightened. ‘I believe you stated earlier that it was your intention to seduce me?’

  Yes, she had said that, hadn’t she? Beth acknowledged with an inner wince. And she hadn’t changed her mind about that. It was just that, now she was alone with Raphael in this small bedroom, with that four-poster bed only feet away, he seemed so—so physically immediate, his sheer masculinity seeming to suck all the air out of the room.

  ‘You’re going to tell Cesar about—about, the success, of our visit to Stopley today?’ She gave a pained frown.

  Raphael gave a slight inclination of his head. ‘I have respected your wishes in regard to that so far, but I think it only fair that I now inform Cesar of what we have discovered today, yes.’

  She breathed out deeply through her nose. ‘And no doubt he’ll then either turn up in London tomorrow, accompanied by Grace, or maybe just send the private jet over to pick us both up and take us back to Argentina?’

  ‘No doubt. Is that going to be a problem?’ Raphael looked at her searchingly.

  No, it wasn’t a problem; Beth was already resigned to the fact that she now had no choice but to return to Argentina and the Navarro family—it was the reason she had asked Graham Selkirk for a month’s leave this morning, after all. Her visit to Elizabeth Lawrence’s grave earlier had been more of a courtesy, a show of respect for the baby girl who had died so long ago, rather than the proof Beth had said she needed to confirm the Navarros’ claim of her being their long-lost daughter. If Raphael said the grave existed, then Beth had no doubts that it did. Just as she had known the consequences, to her, regarding its existence.

  She gave a jerky nod. ‘Okay, you make your calls and I’ll go and use the bathroom first.’ She quickly crossed the room to enter the adjoining room, locking the door securely behind her before leaning weakly back against it, her breathing sounding ragged in the small confines of the black-and-white bathroom.

  She had wanted this to happen, asked for it, and now wasn’t the time for her to be having a panic attack, or have second thoughts, because Raphael was about to give her exactly what she had asked him for…

  * * *

  Raphael continued to stand in the middle of the fussy bedroom as he stared at that closed bathroom door, knowing, despite her determination earlier, that Beth was having second thoughts—maybe even third and fourth ones!—as to the wisdom of her actions.

  He had been deliberately graphic when he’d spoken to Beth earlier, when he had described the many ways he wished to make love to her. Not that he hadn’t meant every word he’d said, because he had, but when—if—he ever made love with Beth, then he wanted her to be very sure it was what she wanted too, and not something she would regret in the morning. Something she would surely do if her only reason for spending the night with him was to block out who she must become tomorrow.

  The two of them making love together was an irrevocable step, from which there would be no turning back, and Beth might not exactly hate him in the morning, but she would most certainly be embarrassed and self-conscious enough to want to avoid his company in future.

  A future that required she become Gabriela Navarro, the daughter of Esther and Carlos Navarro, and sister of Cesar Navarro…

  CHAPTER TEN

  THE ONLY ILLUMINATION in the bedroom was from the lamp on the small bedside table nearest the bathroom when Beth returned to the bedroom fifteen or twenty minutes later, wearing only a towel wrapped about her and secured between her bare breasts. They had no luggage with them, and the inn simply wasn’t big enough to supply bathrobes for its no doubt infrequent guests.

  Raphael lay sprawled on the other side of the bed, having removed his jacket and tie, and completely unfastened and untucked his shirt so that it left his chest bared, revealing that silky dark hair and flat nipples the colour of deep rose against his bronzed skin, the top button of his suit trousers also unfastened.

  He was also, from the slight heaviness of his breathing and his closed lids, very soundly asleep!

  Beth moved to the vacant side of the bed to stare down at him in disbelief, not sure if she felt relieved or insulted that Raphael had somehow managed to fall asleep after making his telephone calls. It certainly wasn’t in the least flattering to have the man who had earlier so vividly described how he intended making love to her fall into what appeared to be a dead sleep in the few minutes she had left him while she took a shower.

  Especially when Beth considered she had spent those same minutes thinking of
the night of lovemaking ahead!

  She gave a low and disgruntled humphing sound as she turned back the bedclothes, turning off the light and plunging the room into darkness before dropping the towel and crawling in naked with her back turned towards Raphael. Her feelings of insult turned to ones of irritation as she realised that having Raphael on top of the bedcovers totally restricted her from pulling those bedclothes up over the bareness of her shoulders.

  Beth tossed and turned for several minutes trying to get comfortable, and all the time she did Raphael remained totally unmoving beside her, his breathing still deep and steady. She finally sat up slightly to shoot a scowling glance in Raphael’s general direction as she punched her pillows into comfortable submission, a part of her secretly wishing it were him she was punching. How dared Raphael just fall asleep after all those things he had described wanting to do to her? It was beyond insulting, it was—

  ‘What did that poor pillow ever do to you?’

  Beth froze at the husky sound of Raphael’s voice, realising her eyes must have adjusted to the gloom of the bedroom as she raised startled lids and easily saw the light glitter of his eyes reflected in the moonlight shining in through the windows.

  She moistened her lips. ‘I thought you were asleep.’ Her voice sounded unnaturally loud in the stilled silence of the room.

  ‘I was,’ Raphael drawled as he turned on his side, bending his elbow and resting his cheek against the palm of his hand as he looked down at her. ‘You woke me up when you started attacking that defenceless pillow.’

  ‘I was imagining it was you!’ she came back tartly.

  Having decided that it might be prudent on his part to pretend to be asleep when Beth returned from taking her shower, to give her the option of a woman’s prerogative to change her mind, Raphael now found himself giving a rueful shake of his head at Beth’s obvious disgruntlement that he hadn’t been waiting in impatient anticipation for her return. ‘Why?’ he prompted huskily.

  Her eyes glittered at him in the semi-darkness. ‘Why do you think?’

  Raphael reached out and gently touched the soft creaminess of her heated cheek with his fingertips, feeling rather than seeing the quiver that shook her body at just that light caress. ‘Would you believe me if I told you I was doing the gentlemanly thing and giving you the opportunity to change your mind?’

  ‘Why?’ she now returned softly.

  He drew in a sharp breath. ‘Because, despite the outrageous things I may have said to you in the restaurant downstairs, I am a gentleman.’

  ‘Does that mean you weren’t serious about those outrageous things?’ There was a teasing lilt to her voice, her hair a silver-gold cascade over her bared shoulders in the moonlight.

  ‘I meant every single word I said to you earlier,’ Raphael assured her decisively. ‘It is because I meant them, because I want you in all the ways I described, but saw and recognised your uncertainty once we reached this bedroom, that I decided it might be better if I were to go to sleep.’

  ‘To give the appearance of being asleep?’

  ‘Yes.’

  All of Beth’s earlier nervousness evaporated as she reached out to run her hands slowly up Raphael’s chest and over the warmth of his shoulders as she scooted across the bed, only to give a groan of frustration as she realised the bedclothes continued to act as a barrier between them. ‘Either you’re going to have to get beneath the bedcovers or I’m going to get out from beneath them!’ she muttered dryly.

  ‘I believe it best that I be the one to join you,’ he murmured ruefully as he drew her arms gently from about his neck before throwing back the bedclothes and standing up.

  Beth’s breath hitched in her throat as she lay back against the pillows and watched Raphael shed his shirt completely, the moonlight turning his bared and muscled flesh a deep and burnished gold, his shoulders impossibly wide, and his tapered chest and abdomen perfectly toned.

  She stopped breathing altogether as he unzipped his trousers before pushing them, and his boxers, down the long length of his legs, before straightening.

  He stood proudly naked, his body bathed in moonlight, his erection jutting up so long it reached his navel, and so thick around Beth doubted her fingers would be able to encircle it, the bulbous top appearing a dark and glistening purple.

  She licked her lips with the tip of her tongue as she gazed unabashedly at that evidence of Raphael’s arousal. ‘You’re beautiful,’ she breathed softly.

  Some of Raphael’s tension eased at Beth’s typical candidness.

  ‘I believe that is supposed to be my line?’ But not one he could have said when Beth presently held the bedclothes up to her chin in a death grip. ‘Will you release the covers, Beth, and allow me to look at you, too?’ he requested gruffly.

  Her breasts barely moved beneath those bedcovers as she breathed shallowly, before she allowed her fingers to first slowly release those bedcovers, then push them down to her waist. She kicked them fully down the length of her body until she at last lay back naked and beautiful in the moonlight, her hair a shimmering silver-gold halo behind her on the pillows.

  Raphael drew in a hissing breath as he hungrily drank in the sight of the ivory beauty of Beth’s naked body: full and uptilting breasts tipped by strawberry-ripe nipples, her waist slender, hips flaring curvaceously, her legs long and shapely above slender and elegant feet.

  His throat moved convulsively as he swallowed before speaking. ‘Exquisite,’ he groaned achingly.

  Beth hadn’t needed Raphael’s verbal expression of his approval, had seen his response to her nakedness in the thickening, lengthening bob of his shaft and the intensity of the glistening juices at that purple tip.

  Her nervousness became a thing of the past as she held out her arms to him. ‘Come and make love with me, Raphael…’

  His teeth gleamed whitely as he gave a predatory grin. ‘First I intend making love to you,’ he murmured throatily as he knelt on the bottom of the bed, gently pushing her legs apart before moving slowly upwards until he knelt between her thighs, the muscled firmness of his own hair-covered thighs pressing against her bared flesh, and sending quivers of awareness to her core, causing her inner folds to moisten and plump.

  She watched beneath lowered lashes as Raphael bent his head and placed a brief but warm kiss against those golden curls, knowing he must be able to smell her salty-sweet arousal as the dark stubble on his chin rasped gently against her sensitivity, and causing a warm gush between her thighs.

  Beth sucked in a breath, her head pushing back into the pillows, her back arching, as Raphael now touched her with just the warmth of his lips as they travelled butterfly soft across the flatness of her stomach before his tongue dipped into the well of her navel, gently probing, leaving a trail of moisture there, his hands lightly clasping her hips as his lips travelled higher still.

  Beth’s fingers clenched tightly into the sheet beneath her as she felt those butterfly kisses against her ribcage, just beneath but not quite touching the swell of her breasts, her nipples tingling, swelling like ripe fruit, in anticipation of the moment when those lips captured and suckled on those swollen berries.

  It became exquisite torture as Raphael’s lips now moved in an open-mouthed caress across and over her breasts, never quite touching those engorged nipples as his grip on her hips kept her from moving, shifting restlessly, as she felt the burn of desire between her thighs.

  ‘Please, Raphael…!’ She groaned her need longingly even as she arched her back, pushing her breasts up temptingly.

  ‘Patience is most definitely a virtue when it comes to lovemaking, Beth,’ he assured her softly, the warmth of his breath a tormenting caress against the curve of her breast.

  She gave a pained moan. ‘I ache, Raphael…!’

  He stilled above her. ‘Tell me where.’

  ‘Everywhere! Oh, God, everywhere! My breasts, Raphael,’ she added breathily as he remained still and silent.

  ‘Cup your hands beneath them an
d offer them to me,’ he encouraged throatily.

  Beth didn’t hesitate, her breath leaving her in a satisfied sigh as his open lips closed over one turgid peak and he suckled deeply, her hands moving up so that she could entangle her fingers in Raphael’s hair as he continued to draw strongly on her nipple even as his tongue lathed a hot caress against that aching flesh, her sigh becoming a pleasurable gasp as Raphael lowered the lean length of his body gently down on top of her, the length of his hot and burning shaft further torment as it pressed against the moistness of her swollen folds.

  * * *

  It took all of Raphael’s self-control not to hurry their lovemaking as he feasted on Beth’s delicious breasts, her nipples as sweet as ripe strawberries against his tongue and the soft rasp of his teeth as one of his hands moved smoothly, caressingly, down over the silky flatness of her abdomen and stomach, before slowly moving lower, seeking out the swollen place between her thighs as she arched up into that caressing hand.

  The tight bunch of flesh thrust engorged and swollen from beneath its protective hood in evidence of Beth’s deep arousal, a low and keening cry escaping her lips as she began to climax as Raphael first stroked and then lightly squeezed her there, quickly thrusting a finger deep into her hot and clenching channel as he felt the climax rippling through her, prolonging her pleasure as his finger curved and stroked against the sensitive muscle deep inside her.

  ‘Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God…!’ Beth groaned and quivered and shook, her fingers digging painfully into Raphael’s tensely muscled shoulders. His breathing was ragged as he kept her poised on the shuddering plateau of her release, holding her there with the press of his finger against something deep inside her as wave after wave after wave of undulating pleasure continued to rage and roil through her body. ‘I can’t take any more, Raphael…!’ She gasped, her eyes wide as her hips strained and surged up again and again into that momentous release.

  ‘You can,’ he assured her fiercely as a second finger surged in hotly to join the first, the soft pad of his thumb caressing the overstimulated nubbin above, around and around, over and over again, until Beth thought she would explode into a million pieces that might never be put back together again.