The Secret Spanish Love-Child (17 page)

‘You underestimate your pulling power, my darling,’ he murmured, stroking her with his voice until her face was redhot.

‘What…what do you mean?’

‘You know exactly what I mean. You just want to hear me say it. Shall I tell you, my darling, so that you’re in no doubt? Or I could just…’ he lowered himself so that he was kneeling in front of her ‘…show you…hmm…? Do you like me like this…? On my knees in front of you…?’

Alex bit down on the whimper that threatened to escape and tried to give him a stern look, but he was already insinuating himself between her legs and playing with the soft cotton of her T-shirt. When his fingers brushed against the bare skin of her breast, she gasped and half closed her eyes.

‘You remembered…’ He shoved up the T-shirt and felt the swift kick of hungry craving.

‘Remembered what…?’

‘How much I like it when you don’t wear a bra. I love your breasts. Have I told you that before? But I think I might have forgotten what they taste like…’

‘Gabriel!’ Alex said in a desperate voice. ‘I’m trying to
talk
…’

‘And I’m listening. Really. I’m all ears. Don’t mind me.’ He delicately tickled the erect bud of her nipple with the tip of his tongue and when she squirmed and moaned softly, he had to struggle to contain himself.

‘The door…’

‘I’ll close it.’ He quietly shut the kitchen door and then stood for a few seconds, just looking at her sprawled in the chair, with her rucked T-shirt and the glistening disc of her nipple where he had been licking it. Her eyes were half closed and she was breathing softly.

Talk or no talk, she had agreed to be his wife and he savoured the taste of sweet elation as he strolled lazily to continue what he had started.

‘W
E STILL
need to talk.’ Alex felt that she had let the side down by falling at the first hurdle and making love with him. How could she have the serious talk she had intended on having when his legs were wrapped around hers and the covers were half off their bodies and she could only vaguely remember making her way up the stairs with him to her bedroom?

One minute she was busily trying to get a grip on the situation and the very next minute she had sabotaged her own good intentions and fallen back into bed with him when he’d crooked his finger and given her that smile of his that could unravel every thought in her head. The devastating effect he had had on her senses the first time round was nothing compared to the effect he was capable of having on her now. She closed her eyes in resigned despair as he pushed back her hair and deposited a kiss on her forehead.

‘So we do. You can’t accuse me of not being willing to listen.’

‘How could I have a conversation when you were…were…?’

‘Having fun with you?’ Gabriel laughed throatily, his good humour fully restored after an hour and a half of very satisfying lovemaking. He slipped his hand under the bed cover and
idly toyed with her breast, liking the way it responded to his teasing fingers, even though they were both too spent at the moment to take that teasing touch any further.

‘There are a few conditions to my marrying you, Gabriel.’ Somehow it didn’t feel right to be having this kind of conversation when she was lying naked next to him, nor did she want to spoil the atmosphere of contentment between them but she knew the sort of man he was, the sort who would take her acquiescence for granted and expect her to do as she was told the minute that wedding ring was on her finger. Right now, she had a certain power over him because he fancied her but that power had a time limit and it was important for her to speak her mind now. Or forever, she thought with ironic humour, hold her peace.

‘
Conditions?
What are you talking about? What kind of
conditions
?’ He propped himself up on his elbow and looked at her with a perplexed frown.

‘I don’t want to live in London. I gave it a try because I felt that I had to escape and do something for myself after I had Luke and was back on my feet, but I prefer living in the country. I’m not saying that I want to move back to Ireland or anything like that, but I’d like to have some greenery around. Maybe somewhere just outside London so that it wouldn’t be too much of a headache for you to commute in.’

‘Agreed.’

‘You agree? Just like that?’

‘Do you think it might be more fun if I argued? Granted, make up sex can be good but it’s not worth the effort in this instance.’ Gabriel lay back, hands folded behind his head and stared up at the ceiling. Being the dispenser of someone else’s wishes felt good and, whilst he had never, not even for a passing second, considered living anywhere but in the thick of it, the prospect of a slightly less frenetic pace of life was not necessarily a bad thing. Train links into central London
were quick and Luke would benefit from country living. What kid wouldn’t? Fresh air, open spaces…all that corny stuff countryphiles were ever eager to mouth on about now seemed a good idea.

‘What sort of house did you have in mind? Country manor? Thatched cottage? No, maybe not that. Converted chapel? Georgian splendour? Give me some details and I can get my people working on it.’

Alex was torn between amusement and annoyance. In Gabriel’s world, where having exactly what you wanted was only the snap of a finger away, choosing a house would really not even constitute a minor inconvenience. People to source the right one in the right place, whatever the cost and just maybe one viewing so that the box could be ticked and the green light given.

‘Which brings me to my next condition,’ Alex said carefully, which earned her another frowning glance.

‘What is this?’ Gabriel asked, controlling his irritation with difficulty. ‘A lesson for me on how to jump through hoops? I should tell you that that particular form of exercise isn’t something I plan on getting used to.’

‘Marriage is about compromise. I happen to be compromising a lot to marry you because I think it would be right for Luke.’ That sounded a great deal more noble than it felt because she couldn’t think of a single thing she wouldn’t toss to the four winds for the man lying next to her. ‘And I want him to be brought up with the values I grew up with,’ she continued hurriedly. ‘Respect for other people and determination to work hard. I don’t want him thinking that he’s better than anyone else because his father happens to have a bit of money.’

‘I have more than a bit.’

‘Having a house appear out of nowhere, like magic, isn’t the right way for him to start learning those life lessons.’

‘You are the most difficult woman in the world to please! You want to move to the country. I agree. But that’s not enough.’ He leapt out of bed and Alex sat up in consternation.

‘Where are you going?’

‘To take a shower.’

‘But I’m talking to you!’

‘You’re not talking to me!’ Gabriel headed towards the connecting door to her en suite bathroom, the single most important luxury Alex had looked for when she had bought the house. ‘You’re laying down rules and regulations.’

‘That’s what people do with business arrangements!’

‘Since when does sex enter a business arrangement?’ Gabriel threw over his shoulder and she glared at him because, even when she was mad at him, she still found him so sinfully sexy that she could barely take her eyes off him.

‘It’s called fringe benefits.’

Gabriel would have slammed the bathroom door behind him but Luke would probably come flying into the bedroom from the sound of it reverberating through the tiny house and there was no way that he wanted his son to see him in this mood.
Business arrangement! Fringe benefits!
He found both descriptions outrageously offensive, even though he was pretty sure he had used those terms himself in the past.

‘That’s not the language I expect any woman of mine to use,’ he informed her coldly, before shutting the bathroom door behind him.

It took a few seconds before Alex was galvanised into action and she scrambled off the bed, hastily flinging on underwear, her T-shirt and a pair of stretchy drawstring shorts from a drawer before pushing open the bathroom door and being greeted by a wall of condensation.

‘I’m sorry you don’t like the language I use—’ her voice was trembling and her knuckles were white as she gripped
the sides of the toilet seat, which was the only place to sit in the small bathroom ‘—but I’m trying really hard to get a perspective on this.’ Did he think that, because she fell into his arms, her principles would also obey the same laws and collapse without putting up a fight? ‘I don’t want something as big as a house purchase to be without our involvement. Luke should have a say in the kind of home we’re going to provide for him and so should I. Money might be a convenience but time is priceless and that’s what I want you to put into this marriage. I know it’s going to be difficult for you because you’re accustomed to doing exactly what you want but…’ Her voice was suddenly very loud as the shower was switched off and Gabriel stepped out of the cubicle, which he dwarfed.

He took his time drying and then slung the towel around his waist. ‘I have taken more time off in the past few weeks than I ever have in my whole life.’ Except when he had first met her. He had behaved out of character then as well. ‘And, if it means so much to you, then we can look for a house together.’

Alex smiled with relief and followed him out of the room. ‘That’s great. So…’

‘
So
…?’ Having brought no clothes with him, he contented himself with a baggy old bathrobe of hers which was hanging on a hook behind the door, then he took a seat at her dressing table and folded his arms. If getting her on board meant listening to everything she had to say, then so be it, but he didn’t intend to be a pushover.

‘There’s just one more thing.’

‘Just the
one more
? I’m shocked. I thought we were here for the rest of the night with your list of provisos and conditions.’

Alex flushed. ‘It concerns other women.’

‘Other women?’
Gabriel couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He realised that the thought of another woman hadn’t actually crossed his mind since he had met Alex again after all this time.

‘Yes. Other women. You have to promise me that there won’t be any.’

‘What kind of a promise is that?’ Gabriel threw his hands up in the air in a gesture of frustration. He had had a lifetime of doing exactly what he wanted when it came to the opposite sex. He had power, money, good looks and status and that had all been enough to ensure compliance in the female sex. Even Cristobel had recognised his boundaries and had steered clear of them. He felt his hackles rise at the thought of someone dictating what he could or couldn’t do. The question of whether he wanted to or not didn’t come into it.

What sort of loser tolerated a woman dictating his every movement? Certainly not him!

‘I think if we’re to take this whole thing seriously, then…’

‘This is getting more ridiculous by the minute. Who knows what’s going to happen in the future? Do you think I have a crystal ball stashed away somewhere?’

Alex shook her head mutely. It had been a stupid request but his refusal to give it house room was telling. This wasn’t a guy who loved her and would be overjoyed to forswear all other women. Duty to his son might run bone-deep but he had no responsibilities to
her
.

Could she marry someone who would be a hero, but only when on show?

She thought back to Cristobel, to her smug, sly, knowing smile when she had explained to Alex that Gabriel was a Spaniard, that sooner or later he would find his eyes straying, that that was to be expected.

She thought back to what he had told her, that if she didn’t marry him then he would inevitably take his attentions elsewhere. She remembered all too well the sick, cloying feeling that had generated in her. Right now, Gabriel wanted her physically. It was a bonus to a marriage which, in his eyes, was the inevitable consequence of their situation.

But Gabriel was a man accustomed to variety. He lived life in the fast lane and the past few weeks spent with her and his son were probably the most normal he had ever had. He had made a huge effort to spend time with them, had set aside his compulsion to work and had condensed his essential business conversations to those times when she was either asleep or else involved with Luke. It would have constituted a big sacrifice and yet, here she was, like an unwelcome drill sergeant, dishing out orders and expecting obedience.

In her desperation to build up her defences and set some rules that might erect walls around her vulnerable core, she had overlooked one very important thing. Gabriel didn’t take orders and certainly not from a woman to whom he had no bone-deep emotional connection. They were bound together by Luke but a child could only provide so much glue to a relationship.

And didn’t she want this marriage to work? Wasn’t that why she had raced back to London so that she could accept his proposal?

From her muddled train of thought there slowly emerged the clarity of her options. She could either love Gabriel in silence and wait hopelessly for the day when he got bored of her or she could do her damnedest to
make
him love her. She could be a passive victim or she could fight for her man.

Yes, it was galling to think that all those sweet dreams of a guy who would fly to the moon and back for her were no longer on the cards, but whoever said that love was a walk in the park? She had loved Gabriel years ago and it had got her
nowhere and here she was again, loving him even more, and, unless she did her own groundwork, it would get her nowhere in the end again.

She drew in a deep shaky breath and eventually gave him a rueful, conciliatory smile.

‘You’re right. It was crazy of me to ask the impossible of you.’

‘Are you saying that you don’t think me capable of fidelity?’ Gabriel growled aggressively and Alex bit back the temptation to tell him what a
difficult
man he could be. His personality was one of extremes. It was why she loved him. He made her feel alive.

‘I wish you wouldn’t put words in my mouth, Gabriel. I never said that.’

Gabriel ignored that interruption. ‘No. But you imply that I am the sort of man who would marry a woman and then proceed to bring a harem of mistresses into the marital home. In front of my son!’

‘You look really silly in that bathrobe,’ Alex said, to defuse the tension.

‘You’re trying to change the subject.’

‘I’m trying to tell you that it was a stupid condition and I shouldn’t have said anything.’

Never one to dwell on imaginary scenarios, Gabriel’s mind did a swift detour and began to rocket down an altogether different road. ‘Is this whole fidelity issue your way of looking for some kind of excuse to have outside relationships?’

‘What?’

‘You heard me. I’m not going to repeat myself.’

‘Of course that wasn’t what I was implying! I’m not that devious!’ Alex tried and failed to get her head round the concept of having another guy share her bed. ‘But if I
did
,’ she couldn’t resist adding, ‘would you be jealous?’

It was one of those rare instances when Gabriel felt put on the spot and he instinctively shied away from committing himself to any kind of answer.

‘I am not a jealous man. I never have been.’

But you would be if you loved me
, Alex thought sadly, pinning a brave smile to her face.

‘Okay.’

‘Which isn’t to say that I’m not possessive.’ He thought it better to clear up that little issue, once and for all. ‘If I thought that you had even looked at another guy when you were wearing my ring on your finger, I would beat him to a pulp.’ A red mist descended on him when he thought of her with someone else and he expertly fielded that uncomfortable thought by shoving it to the back of his mind.

That was something, she thought, with a definite lift of her spirits.