Until Noon (4 page)

The slight tension inside her, that elusive suspicion that questioned if he’d try to cut her out of this after all, eroded. Even when she hadn’t known his name she’d had a

sense he could be trusted. Otherwise why had she been able to let herself go and quake in his arms like a love-starved virgin?

She smiled at him, ready to kiss him, knowing she should not even put a hand to

him, let alone her lips. “Thank you for that. Your friend at Nemesis will persuade the owner of Roca to see you?”

“Personal trust destroys many barriers.”

Isn’t that the truth?
“Good. I think you will find the Roca executive to be an interesting man.”

“Oh? How so?”

“He is, shall we say, one of those officials who has risen to the point where he

ineffective.”

Raul looked shocked. “Then I must see him. With you, of course.”

“Absolutely.”

“We should head back to Barcelona,” he told her. “I need to call the office and check out some of my other contacts. How about if we get together for dinner?” He grinned

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Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand

that absolutely devastating grin that showed his dimples. “We could do a wonderful

rooftop restaurant on
Las Ramblas
.”

She knew
El Toro
very well. The chef, the wine list, the breezes from the waterfront as the moon rose into a deep-blue velvet sky. This relationship was supposed to be

based on business. Would she be able to dine with him in a romantic setting and keep

her mind on what was happening with this case?

“If you’re trying to bribe me, it’s working.”
Too well.
“Where are you staying in Barcelona?”

He shrugged. “Don’t know yet. When Adam called me I was enjoying some

downtime on the beach up north in Cadaques. I just got in my car and headed here

right away. I’ll have to call you when I get settled.”

“The EU has put me up in a condo in Barcelona for the duration. There are two

bedrooms, two baths. All the amenities.” Pilar heard the words leave her mouth almost before her brain registered that what she was saying.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

His eyes widened in surprise.

She didn’t blame him. She’d shocked herself. What the hell was she thinking?

Before she could take the words back he lifted a hand and cupped her chin, staring

into her eyes for a long time.

“That’s an invitation I can hardly turn down. In fact, I look forward to sharing a

condo with you. Along with the amenities.”

The shiver that raced over her skin had nothing to do with the chill wind blowing

against them. Nothing at all.

18

Until Noon

Chapter Three

Barcelona

Raul piled the last of his clothes into the dresser in the bedroom Pilar had assigned him, shut the drawer and stood there, his eyes closed. Why had he accepted her crazy

invitation to stay here?

Letting my cock make my decisions.

Not wise to work with a hard-on.
He gritted his teeth and spun around, taking in the sight of the art deco furnishings and admiring the simplicity of the cool-gray walls, the icy-steel appointments and the nubby ivory Berber carpet. Even the white duvet on the broad bed looked rich, sleek. And he could envision her on it, naked, her lithe body

coiling in delight around his.

Hell.

He scrubbed a hand over his face and headed for the balcony. Sliding open the

doors, he noted how the veranda wrapped around the corner of the spacious condo.

Where was she? Where was her room? Not on this side of the apartment.

Get a grip, man. Look at the city.
He gripped the cement railing and peered down to the busy
strada
in the
Barri Gòtic
, the medieval quarter of town. From here four stories above the cobbled sidewalk, he watched the couples strolling into the tapas bars to have a drink and nibble appetizers before a leisurely supper at nine o’clock.

Can I be charming for hours with her? We can’t eat and drink all night. Fat or drunk,
neither works when all I want to do is jump her bones.

He stepped back inside, shut the doors on the murmurs of laughing lovers below.
I
need music, sangria and a shower.
Not in that order.

In a flash, he stripped and headed for his bathroom.

As well appointed as the rest of the apartment, the bathroom was a modernist’s wet

dream. Literally. The tub was a Jacuzzi big enough for four. The wall-to-wall shower, enclosed by only a sheet of floor-to-ceiling glass, the place was fit for a king. Raul stepped inside, realizing he only had to wave his hand to get the rain heads to cascade gentle beads of water over him. Even the walls had jets. Minutes later his body was

cooler, but now he fantasized about how to get Pilar in here. Her bath might be bigger or even better, but here, at least, he knew the ropes, how the gadgets worked.

Pipe dreams to get her alone?

Forget it. She’d refuse.

He toweled dry, strolled back into his room—and there she stood.

Naked, the Cordona family jewels dangling there for her to see, he halted.

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Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand

Her mouth dropping open, she stared at him—every inch of him. She didn’t budge,

but wow, did she get an eyeful of everything his mama and papa had bestowed on him.

“I’m sorry,” she said, swallowing hard and then glancing back down at his cock

that was rising to the occasion with speed. “Your door was open and I

thought…um…you might be on the balcony. I didn’t hear you…and I…ah…do wish

you’d help me out here!”

Water dripping over his brow, he gave her a playful look, but didn’t move a

muscle. “What would you like me to do?”

Gamine and flustered, she licked her lips. “Do? Well…turn around.”

She could have done that herself, but she hadn’t thought of that, had she? She

wanted to look.
Okay.
He spun, containing the urge either to chuckle or to catch her and spread her over his knees and spank her until she orgasmed.
Not a bad idea, actually.
He hooked his hands on his hips. “What do you think?”

“Nice glutes. Tight.” Her voice was hoarse.

Glad she couldn’t see his shit-eating grin, he had to tease her. “I remember yours

are too.”

“Don’t,” she warned on a thread of sound.

“Why not?” Confused now, he crossed his arms but he did not face her. If he did,

he’d grab her and that was no way to induce the lady to recreate those hours two years ago when they’d fucked each other silly. “I want to see them again. Feel them in my

hands. Against my hips as I slide inside your hot pussy from the rear.”

“Stop, Raul.
Please.
”

He shook his head. “No. You didn’t come in here on a whim.” He faced her then,

his cock at full-blown height, dripping to have her. “And what I feel for you is no

whim, either. So do us both a favor. Know we will make love. Not now. Maybe not

even tonight. But soon and it will be as good as before.”

She snorted, looked away as an unfamiliar blush heated her skin all the way down

to her low-cut t-shirt. “You can’t predict that.”

“I can. You could even lay odds on it. What’s your pleasure, lady?”

She snapped her head around and locked her pretty almond-shaped eyes on his.

“You are. Clearly.”

This time when he smiled, he did so with empathy for how sweetly she had

admitted she wanted him. “So why don’t you get the hell out of here and get dressed. I want to take you to
Els Quatre Gats
for tapas and
El Toro
for dinner. Wear something that flows over that tempting body of yours and then I will—”

“No, you won’t.” She stepped toward him and for the first time that day, he

remembered how delicately God had made her. She was a flower, sensual, fragile and

graceful. She was perhaps ten inches shorter than he, her frame slight, her arms long, but her muscles toned. Her hair was a tangle of dark-chocolate curls, her eyes crème

20

Until Noon

caramel, her lips lush, wide and wanton. And against his bare chest, he felt the rise and fall of her own—and the points of her hard little nipples.

“You don’t know what I meant to say,” he insisted.

She rolled her eyes. “You were going to tell me how you would do something

outrageous. X-rated.”

“Perhaps.” He inched closer to her, his every cell crying out to him to press her

against him, give his hard cock a happy home between the apex of her thighs. “Perhaps I was going to tell you what we’d do after dinner.”

She put both hands to his chest and arched away from him, laughing lightly. “I

don’t want to hear.”

“Ah.” He couldn’t let her go just yet and drifted near. He buried his nose in the

fragrant lemon scent of her hair and whispered, “You know then?”

“I have a good idea. But it will not happen.”

“No?” He stepped backward, feigning despair. “You don’t do it, then? Ever? Or

don’t you know how?”

“What a man! You
know
I know how.”

“But you just said—“

She gave him a gimlet eye. “What
are
you talking about?”

“Why, doing the tango.”

She blinked. “The tango.”

“Of course.”

“With you?”

“Me.”

She backed up a step, hands on her hips, leisurely assessing his chest, his arms, his thighs and his erect shaft. “Humf. Better get dressed then,
Señor
Cordona. I am going to wear you out.”

As he watched her stride away, her firm glutes inspiring his hunger for the

evening’s fare, he nodded. “I welcome your attempt,
Señorita
. You have just waved a red flag at this very aroused bull.”

Desire gave her an appetite. For the fresh anchovy and basil tapas. The paper-thin

slices of Iberico ham on garlic toast. The violin music in the Four Cats. The starry sky above them as they dined later on succulent veal and roasted potatoes on the rooftop

restaurant
El Toro
over the busy
Las Ramblas
.

The breeze ruffled her hair. His too.

She curled her fingers, itching to run them through his thick curls. The texture, she recalled all too vividly, was heavy satin. That boyish lock that dipped over his brow had tantalized the swell of her breasts as he’d sucked her nipples. The wealth of it had 21

Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand

tickled her inner thighs when he had spread her heavy labia wide and eaten her pussy

for long, luscious minutes.

She shifted, picking at her gauzy summer skirt, squeezing her thighs together, the

mere memory of his mouth on her swollen cunt making her channel pulse. She had

come so many times that night she’d spent with him. It was why she had run. Yes, more than the fact that she did not know his name. More than the fact that she wanted to

know everything about him. She had escaped him and the multiple orgasms she’d

enjoyed with him. In fact, sometimes when she envisioned that night, she could bring

herself to near hysteria. One night, in a Paris bar with her friends, she had seen a man who resembled Raul and merely hoping it might be he, she had excused herself and

gone home. She had been on the verge of a huge orgasm and she’d had to seek privacy

to bring herself the pleasure she thought she would never again have with him.

Yet here he was. Sitting across from her. Smiling. The rogue.
Do you know how you
are making me wet?

“I had a good idea, of course,” he said.

“What gave it away?”

“The way you move.”

“Do I? Move like a woman who—” She snapped out of her reverie without any idea

to what he referred.
While I am still thinking of getting laid.

His eyes narrowed, his head tipping. “I was telling you that you are very agile. That you look like a runner. That I look forward to dancing with you. Especially the tango.”

“Oh. Of course.”

His brows arched. “And you were thinking of precisely what?”

She delicately wiped the corners of her mouth with her napkin. “That if I eat any

more you will have to roll me home.”

With a quick grin, he indicated her empty dessert plate. “That was fuel for the

dance floor.”

And what comes afterward? Arghh.
She had to stop concentrating on jumping into bed with him. “You know Barcelona well?”

“I have been here many times as a child. My father was in the diplomatic corps and

my mother was American, her mother Catalan. We came here often and my mother

insisted we vacation up north along the coast in Cadaques. I was there on holiday when Adam Molloy called me today. Have you ever been there?”

“No. I like the sea, but don’t care for vacations.”

“Why not?”

“My mind is too busy. I find myself bored within a day or two. Then I go back to

work early.”

“Perhaps you don’t know how to relax.”

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Until Noon

“I am out of practice. I have worked so long and hard to get where I am that I carry

my job home with me. Even on holiday. It’s a bad habit.”

“Is there no one in your life to help you break it?”

No one since Rhys left me.
She inhaled, sat back and gazed down at the pedestrians drifting in and out of shops and bars.

“I apologize,” Raul shot back. “That was intrusive and I don’t mean to be.”

No. But the way you made love to me was the most intrusive act I’ve experienced in years.

“Pilar.” Raul reached across the table and wound his fingers in hers. “Don’t clam

up on me. I like you. A lot. As a rule, I don’t pick up strange women and take them

home to bang them blind. I’m careful about sex. About who I like. Two years ago, I did care for you. I haven’t forgotten you, either. Our hours together were explosive. Unique.