Raul's Revenge

“It’s Leap Year, Raul. Will you marry me?” About the Author Title Page CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN Copyright

“It’s Leap Year, Raul. Will you marry me?”

“Now I get it.” He laughed mirthlessly. “The arguments of the last few weeks, the defiance and then the grand finale—staying out all night. What kind of fool do you take me for, Penny? Better women than you have tried to manipulate me into marriage and failed. You’re good, but not that good.”

His comment was like a knife in her heart. “I take it that was a no,” she got out between clenched teeth.

“Correct, honey. If and when I take a wife, I will do the asking.”

JACQUELINE BAIRD

began writing as a hobby when her family objected to the smell of her oil painting, and immediately became hooked on the romantic genre. She loves traveling and worked her way around the world from Europe to the Americas and Australia, returning to marry her teenage sweetheart. She lives in the north of England, in the county of her birth, and has two grown-up sons. She enjoys playing badminton, and spends most weekends with husband Jim, sailing their Gp. 14 boat.

Raul’s Revenge

Jacqueline Baird

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CHAPTER ONE

‘NICE bed, Raul.’ Penny glanced at the huge bed in the centre of the hotel room, then, blonde head tilting to one side, shot a sexy, sidelong glance at her companion. ‘And we did miss siesta!’

‘Wanton.’ Raul grinned, and, dropping the case on the bed, added, ‘Sorry, no time. You unpack while I shower. A car is picking me up in thirty minutes.’

Penny followed the tall dark man’s progress towards the en suite bathroom with wistful eyes. Business always came first with Raul. Sighing, she did as he had suggested and unpacked the clothes, then, kicking off her sandals, flopped down on the bed and gazed around yet another hotel bedroom. At one time she would have been delighted by the luxury, now she found one hotel room much like another.

She heard the sound of water running in the bathroom and a deep bass voice belting out, singing off key in Spanish. A soft smile curved her lips. Raul, true to form, was performing his usual lusty caterwauling in the shower. The noise stopped and Penny swung her legs to the floor. Sitting up, she brushed her long hair tidily behind her ears, her blue eyes eager with anticipation.

It was stupid, she knew. She had lived with the man for months, she loved him more than life, but he just had to enter a room and she was breathless. A moment later the bathroom door opened and Raul strolled out.

She knew every inch of his magnificent body as well as she knew her own, but the sight of him never failed to make her pulse race and her stomach clench with excitement. He wasn’t a particularly handsome man—his nose was too large and his chin too square—but thick night-black hair and unusual gold-flecked deep brown eyes combined with six feet three inches and two hundred pounds of hard-packed muscle added up to a powerful specimen of the male sex.

At the moment his only covering was a white towel slung low around his lean hips, and as he prowled around the room, flinging open doors and drawers to find his clothes, Penny’s eyes lingered lovingly on his bronzed torso and the thick mat of black curls covering his chest, arrowing down to disappear beneath the towel. As she watched he raised a long-fingered hand to scratch idly the downy covering on his muscular chest.

‘Dios! I’m going to be late,’ Raul grumbled, turning towards the bed. A pair of black silk boxer shorts dangling in one large hand, he flashed her a brilliant glance. ‘So don’t even think of persuading me into bed.’

‘Me persuade you!’ Penny’s blue eyes lit with amusement. ‘As if I would!’ she exclaimed, all fake innocence.

His wide mouth curved in a sensuous smile. ‘You, anywhere near a bed, Penny, could provoke a dying octogenarian.’

‘You’re not that old,’ she mocked.

‘Brat.’ And, sitting down beside her, he caught her hand in his, and with his other hand he pushed the stray tendrils of fine blonde hair from her brow, his expression suddenly serious.

‘I am sorry about this.’ He glanced around the room and back to her face. ‘I know I promised you we would be in London for your birthday.’ With a Latin shrug of his shoulders, he added, ‘But these things happen.’

‘It’s all right, Raul,’ Penny reassured him. ‘How many girls can arrive at a Spanish airport expecting to go to London and end up in the Middle East for the night?’ She tried to make light of the upset to their plans. ‘Unless, of course, you’ve added white slaving to your business empire?’ she teased.

‘Don’t even joke about it.’ Raul grimaced. ‘Not in this country; you’re mine, and mine you will stay, so don’t you forget it.’

‘Yes, oh master...’ She bowed her head in mock subservience while her small hand teasingly stroked his muscular thigh. Her action was greeted with a guffaw of laughter.

‘Witch...behave yourself; I really do have to leave you for a few hours, but I’ll make it up to you later, and that’s a promise.’

They had left Raul’s home that morning to catch a plane for London. A call on his car phone had resulted in his having to attend an emergency meeting in Dubai. Luckily there had been a scheduled flight to the Middle East some ten minutes after the London flight. Before Penny had known what was happening she had found herself in the first-class section of a Boeing 747 heading across the Mediterranean.

Penny had become used to Raul flying off around the world at a moment’s notice. As the owner of a large international engineering company, along with a hacienda and a few thousand acres in the Andalusian area of Spain, plus a host of other interests, her boyfriend was an extremely wealthy man.

Her lips twitched in the briefest of wry smiles. ‘Boyfriend’ was hardly the right word, she admitted to herself, her deep blue eyes searching his hard face. At thirty-seven Raul Da Silva couldn’t be called a boy by anyone...

‘That’s what I like about you, Penny, darting—you never fuss,’ Raul offered complacently, rising from the bed after first driving her almost senseless with a long, hard kiss.

Fighting to recover her breath, Penny watched as he moved around the room, all male efficiency, and marvelled at how easily he switched from passionate lover to hard-nosed business tycoon. Exactly three minutes later he stood beside the bed, elegantly dressed in a grey, three-piece silk suit, the white of his shirt contrasting with the dark bronze of his rugged features, a blue and grey striped tie at his strong throat. He stuck out his arm.

‘Fasten these cuff-links for me, honey.’ She did, smiling slightly at the ‘honey’. Raul spoke perfect English but with an endearing trace of an American accent.

‘Thanks, Penny; I don’t know what I would do without you.’ He smiled down at her, his golden eyes glowing, and like a magician presenting a rabbit from a hat he slid his hand into his jacket pocket and withdrew a square velvet box. ‘I was going to give you this over a candlelit dinner at your favourite restaurant by the Thames, but under the circumstances you’d better have it now. Something for you to gloat over while I’m gone.’

Penny’s lashes lowered to hide the sudden disappointment in her eyes. She had been hoping against hope that her birthday present would be a ring, but one glance at the box and she knew how wrong she was. Hiding her disappointment behind a bright smile, she took the box from Raul’s outstretched hand and opened it.

A gasp of amazement escaped her. Inside was an exquisite diamond bracelet fit for a queen.

‘Happy birthday, darling. Do you like it?’

‘What’s not to like? It is magnificent. Thank you,’ she said softly, and, holding it out to him, murmured, ‘Put it on for me.’ She kept her head bent as he fastened the exquisite jewels around her wrist, supposedly admiring it. ‘It must have cost you a fortune; you’re spoiling me.’ She tried to smile but she could not look at him in case he saw the moisture glazing her eyes.

A long finger tilted her chin up. ‘That’s another of the things I adore about you, Penny; you’re such an emotional little thing and you’re not afraid to show it.’ And with his other hand he wiped the solitary tear from her cheek. ‘Hey, you deserve it, darling—you’re so good for me.’

But was he good for her? Penny wondered, and then hated herself for the disloyal thought, simply because he had given her a bracelet when she longed for a ring and had completely misread the cause of her tears. Raul was not an insensitive man, he simply saw only what suited himself and his high-powered, workaholic lifestyle.

She glanced at him as his hand fell from her face, and abruptly he straightened up. But he was not looking at her. He had already left, if not in body then certainly in spirit. She knew the signs.

A frown marring his broad brow, he checked the flat gold Rolex on his wrist. ‘I have to go. You rest, and if I’m not back by eight this evening order dinner in the suite,’ he commanded briskly. Turning, he strode across the room and, with a careless backward wave of his hand and a casual ‘see you later’ he left, Penny forgotten and his whole attention on the meeting ahead.

Rest. She didn’t feel like resting. She stood up, the glitter of diamonds on her wrist catching her eye, and with a soft sigh she removed the bracelet from her arm and dropped it on the bedside table before walking into the bathroom.

The scent of Raul hung in the air and she breathed in greedily as she discarded her clothes. She loved Raul and she was sure that he loved her, even if he never said so in as many words. He showed it in a hundred ways. He was unfailingly generous—as a man and, more importantly, as a lover—he looked after her every need, he protected her. And also himself, a devilish imp of mischief echoed in her brain. He never forgot birth control; he was taking no chances on being trapped into marriage, that was for sure.

Penny shook her head to dispel the unsettling thought. She was ungrateful, she told herself firmly. Simply because he had given her a bracelet worth a fortune rather than the ring she had secretly hoped for.

She was about to step into the shower, and then changed her mind. Instead she picked up a bottle of bath oil and, tipping half of it into the tub, leant over the huge white marble bath and turned on the taps. Why not luxuriate in a scented tub for a change? She certainly had the time...

God! What was the matter with her today? She wasn’t usually restless, and it was so childish to be upset over a damned birthday.

Straightening to her full height of five feet five inches, she surveyed herself in the mirrored wall of the bathroom. Months spent mostly in a warm climate had streaked her long ash-blonde hair almost white in places. Usually she wore it in a twist or braid but today, at Raul’s insistence, she had worn it loose, simply brushed behind her ears and falling in soft waves down past her shoulder blades. Her breasts were high and firm, with a few rosy marks left by Raul last night. Her waist was narrow, her stomach flat and her hips gently curved. Her legs were long in comparison to her height, and well shaped.

Running her hands through her hair, she lifted it up in a bunch, revealing the long line of her throat, the firm chin. She had a wide, generous mouth—maybe a bit too wide—a small, straight nose, and large deep blue eyes.

Her skin glowed with health and a light golden tan; she was not one for sunbathing excessively—she was too fair in any case. But all in all she was not bad for twenty-two—No, twenty-three, she reminded herself, as of today, and with determined cheerfulness she turned off the taps and stepped into the tub.

She sank down beneath the soothing water and laid her head back, closed her eyes and willed her mind to go blank—something she was becoming remarkably adept at doing. But that wasn’t so surprising because, while at college studying pharmacy, she had also taken a course in yoga to help her to relax. Whether one was supposed to use the technique in the bath, she didn’t really know, and didn’t much care as long as it worked.

Half an hour later she opened her eyes, the rapidly cooling water making her shiver. Quickly she stepped out of the bath and into the shower. Minutes later, with her long hair freshly washed, she took a towel from the towel-rail and wrapped it around her head. She reached out for a larger one and, unfolding it, read the name embossed in the thick, fluffy fabric: Hyatt Regency. So that was where they were staying.

Penny paused in the process of wrapping the towel around her naked body, and slowly shook her head. There was something terribly depressing, she realised sadly, about being reduced to reading the hotel towels to remind herself where she was... How and when had the thrill of foreign travel and luxury hotels faded into simply waiting for Raul?

She didn’t try to answer the question—she didn’t dare—and in a flurry of activity she dried her hair, brushing it until it hung like a soft curtain of silk over her shoulders.

She lingered over applying her make-up, but as she only used a moisturiser and a touch of eyeshadow and mascara, the finishing touch being a natural lip-gloss, she was ready by seven. She slipped into a straight, halter-necked dress of soft ivory crêpe-deceptively simple but cunningly cut to curve around her breasts without needing a bra, and leaving her back bare, with the skirt ending just over her knees.

Raul had objected to her wearing miniskirts, which, considering they were popular these days, was endearingly old-fashioned of him. Or was it? she found herself questioning again, and shook her head irritably. Apart from her shoes, she was ready.

Idly she strolled into the sitting room of the suite and, crossing to the French doors, flung them back and stepped onto the balcony. After the air-conditioned comfort of indoors the heat hit her like a blowtorch, but the view took her breath away.

This was her first visit to an Arab country, and the landscape was alien but magnificent. Dubai lay before her, sparkling white, pristine clean, with towering buildings, fantastically delicate minarets and, in the distance, the blue of the Gulf.

After drinking in the sight, she walked back into the room and picked up the information provided by the hotel. Dropping into a comfortable, soft leather chair, she read with interest of the restaurants and bars of the shopping arcade incorporated in the building. Better yet, situated close to the city centre as the hotel was, it was only five minutes’ walk to the gold souk...

Eight o’clock came, but Raul didn’t. Penny, with a determined glint in her blue eyes, picked up her small ivory clutch bag, slipped her feet in matching fabric strappy sandals and without a second thought walked out of the room and across the corridor into the elevator.

It was her birthday, and, by heaven, she was going to enjoy it. Not for her a meal in the room; a snack in one of the restaurants and a stroll around the gold souk sounded much more fun.

After a light meal, and armed with a small diagram from the hotel receptionist, Penny walked out into the cooler night air and turned left as instructed.

She had only walked two paces when she heard a car door slam and a voice snap, ‘Penelope.’ A firm hand closed around her upper arm and swung her around. ‘Where the hell do you think you’re going?’ was hissed in her ear as she gazed up in surprise at Raul’s taut features.

‘Raul, you’re back. I was—’

‘Shut up,’ he grated, and it was then that she saw his two companions alight from the long white stretch limousine—one a gentleman in a Western-style suit, and the other a man taller even than Raul and draped in the flowing white robes of an Arab sheikh.

‘Raul, you must introduce me to this charming creature,’ the Arab commanded.

‘Of course, your highness; allow me to present...’ Raul hesitated ‘...my companion, Miss Penelope Gold.’ And, looking down at Penny, his dark eyes cold as ice, he continued, ‘Penny, this is Sheikh Ali Ben Hammat.’

For the first time in their relationship Penny felt truly embarrassed, and coldly furious at being introduced as a companion. Good manners alone brought a polite smile to her wide mouth, while there was no mistaking the blatant, sensual interest in the Sheikh’s black eyes as he caught her hand and raised it to his lips.

‘Charmed,’ he murmured. ‘I’m honoured to meet such an exquisitely lovely young lady.’ And, reluctantly releasing her hand, he added, ‘Senor Da Silva is an extremely lucky man.’

‘Thank you,’ she mumbled, but it took all her self-control not to cry out—not because of the kiss but because Raul’s fingers on her arm tightened to such a degree that she thought he would draw blood.

The conversation that ensued was lost on Penny, simply because the men spoke in Arabic. But ten minutes later she found out...

The walk through the hotel and the ride up in the elevator had been conducted in a tense, angry silence, and now, as the door swung closed behind Raul and he finally let go of her arm, Penny swung around, her blue eyes flashing fury. But, before she could open her mouth and demand an explanation for his ill-mannered, overbearing conduct, Raul silenced her with a string of curses that made the colour surge in her face.

He had never spoken that way in front of her before. But then, as her blue eyes clashed with furious black, she realised that she had never seen him so angry before. Involuntarily she took a step back; she could see the barely leashed tension in every line of his tall body, and felt suddenly threatened by it.

‘What the hell did you think you were doing?’ he snapped. ‘Have you gone stark, raving mad?’

Penny shrank back from the black rage in his eyes, but before she could answer his wild accusations he added furiously, ‘Look at you—a dress that reveals every curve... My God! Do you have to flirt with every man you meet, and in Dubai?’ Suddenly he caught her shoulders, his long fingers biting into her flesh. Her head fell back and she was looking up into his bitterly twisted features. ‘A sheikh no less...’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about...I wasn’t flirting with anyone. I was going for a walk—’

‘A walk—on your own—in a Arab country—at night.’

She flinched as he shot the words at her like the staccato fire of a machine gun, only inches from her pale face.

‘You have good reason to cringe. Their own women aren’t even allowed out without being draped from head to foot in black. A white woman on her own is considered little better than a whore and fair game.’ His hard mouth twisted in a sneer. ‘You had to know that, Penny. Even you are not that dumb.’

She gasped in outrage. Dumb was she? ‘If anyone is dumb around here it’s you,’ she shot back. ‘Dragging me through the hotel and back here like a sack of potatoes. Frothing at the mouth because I smiled at a man you introduced me too.’

‘Smiled? Simpered, more like. Have you any idea what you have done? You almost cost me a multi-million-dollar deal for the desalination plant.’

‘You’re crazy. The heat has got to you.’ Penny shook her head, unable to associate this glowering stranger with the man she had lived with for the past few months.

‘Your heat certainly got the Sheikh,’ Raul sneered cynically. ‘I have just spent the worst five minutes of my life trying to explain in not very good Arabic why I could not sell him my companion. You, Penny! He wanted you as one of his concubines...’

His mouth twisted in a bitter parody of a smile. ‘Luckily he did offer to wait until I was finished with you. But I still had the devil’s own job talking him out of it, and now I’m going to have to stay here a lot longer to oversee the alterations, simply so as not to offend the man further.’

Feeling like kicking him, she tore herself out of his hold and shot across the room, tears stinging her eyes. She was furious and so hurt... Now she knew what he really thought of her.

Spinning on her heel, she looked back at him. He was standing, all outraged masculine aggression. Her blue eyes ran over his tall, fit body. She loved him, but the Sheikh was obviously an astute man. He had seen what Penny had refused to acknowledge...

‘Perhaps if you had not hesitated over introducing me as your companion—’ she drawled the word scathingly ‘—he would not have considered me concubine material in the first place. The Sheikh is a man of the world, with a good grasp of English. Companion. Concubine. Where is the difference?’ she demanded bitterly, and almost laughed at the look of outrage on Raul’s dark face.

‘Is that what you truly think? Is that how you truly imagine I see our relationship?’ Raul asked, slightly incredulous, but with an icy authority that demanded an answer.

She stared back at him. ‘I think—’ She stopped. She didn’t know what she thought any more.

When she had first met Raul it had all seemed so perfect—like fate, destiny. She had been working the late shift in the Kensington branch of a national drugs company that had employed her as a pharmacist.

It had been a black, blustery night at the end of January when Raul had dashed into the shop with a prescription which he’d said was for his housekeeper Mrs Grimble’s angina. The old lady had forgotten to have it filled and he had not liked the idea of her being without her medication. Penny had thought what a caring man he was and her admiration had risen another notch when he’d declared that it was very dangerous for a lovely young girl like herself to be alone in a pharmacy at night.

They had got talking and Penny had remarked on his slight accent. He’d told her that he was Spanish and she remembered her response with a sad smile.

‘But you’re too tall to be Spanish.’

Raul had laughed out loud and gently mocked her. ‘A commonly held prejudice of northern Europeans, but may I point out Prince Felipe of Spain is well in excess of six feet? Your Prince Charles is around five-nine, no?’

Admitting her mistake, they had laughed together. But she had sensibly refused his offer to come back at closing time, to give her a lift home. The company had provided taxis for the late staff. But the following afternoon Raul had appeared again and persuaded her to have dinner with him.

That had been the start of their relationship. For the next two months, whenever he’d been in London, he’d called her, wined and dined her, taken her to the theatre, the opera, and opened up a world of wealth and sophistication that she had never thought to aspire to, and finally he had taken her to his bed.

How naive she had been! Penny thought, closing her eyes for an instant as the memory washed over her. Raul had made love to her with all the tender passion and expertise he possessed. Her passage from virgin to woman had been a revelation, a feast of the senses, an explosion of emotions that she had never imagined possible.

It had been the most perfect night of her life, and, the morning after, lying curled up against the hard heat of his male body, she had foolishly asked when they were getting married.

Raul had quickly dismissed the suggestion, declaring that because he was so much older, more experienced than she it would not be fair to rush her into marriage. She might change her mind. Most girls after their first time confused love with sex.

Instead he had suggested that she give up her job and move in with him. He had made it all sound very sensible, as if he was doing her a favour.

She shook her head, her pale hair floating around her shoulders, an unfamiliar cynical smile curving her lovely mouth. Ripe for the plucking, sprang to mind.