Page 54 of Royal Caleva: Luis

“Ah, let me,” Luis said. “I enjoy the festive sound of a cork popping.”

The mayordoma offered him the bottle and a white towel, while Eve took his wineglass. The light brush of her fingers against his heightened the buzz in his blood. He twisted the cork until it gave a soft pop and he felt the pressure of the effervescence push it against his hand. Annamaria had returned with a silver tray of four champagne flutes, which she held while he poured the pale gold liquid into each one.

Eve had set down the wineglasses, so he handed a flute to her and kept one for himself, calling out, “Grace, Raul, let us drink a toast to this momentous day.”

They seized their champagne glasses from the tray and walked over to where he and Eve stood. Their resemblance when side by side was so striking that he felt his heart squeeze with pride and amazement…and love. Yes, he loved Grace already.

“Un brindis por la familia! A toast to family!” Luis lifted his glass in the center of the group. “The most important thing in life.”

The other three reached in to touch their flutes together in a chorus of soft, musical clinks. “Por la familia!” Everyone spoke in Spanish, which sent a ripple of satisfaction through him, followed by a powerful sense of completion, as though missing pieces had clicked into place. This was the family he had dreamed of having.

After they each took a sip, Raul said, “Since we’re a family, I think we should have a family toast like we did when Gabriel and I were younger. Do as I do. Arriba!” He lifted his glass high, and everyone followed. “Abajo!” Raul swung his glass down low. “Al centro!” He thrust the glass into the center and waited for all to clink against it. “Y pa’ dentroooooooo!” Raul drank down the rest of his champagne in one gulp.

Grace and Eve did the same, revealing the long, graceful lines of their necks, but Luis shook his head in mock horror. “You are a barbarian, hijo mío. This champagne is too fine to be chugged like cheap beer.”

Raul grinned as he picked up the bottle from the table and refilled the glasses before he turned to Grace. “A good celebration requires some craziness, yes?”

“Yes,” she agreed. “But this is really tasty champagne, so maybe we should chug the wine instead.”

“Ah, the always practical American,” Raul said. “But you’re not wrong. Let’s take the wine and grab some tapas.”

He swept the wine bottle off the bar, and he and Grace strolled to the seating area at the far end of the pool.

“Maybe we should let them get to know each other without the parents butting in,” Eve said, her gaze following them.

Luis heard the bittersweet longing in her voice and recognized the pain of not being able to shield your adult child from the world.

“Then we shall go to the beach,” he said, the exhilaration of having his children together bubbling through his veins along with the champagne. He wanted to shout, to dance, to release his elation in some physical way.

Eve’s face lit up, and then her gaze drifted over him in a way he could almost feel before she smiled. “You’re a little overdressed for beachcombing.”

“That is easily remedied.” He unknotted his tie and pulled it off, unbuttoning a couple of buttons on his shirt. Her eyes widened as she watched, and he slowed down his striptease to see how she would react. Shrugging out of his suit jacket, he tossed it on a chair before removing his cuff links and rolling his shirtsleeves up to just below his elbows, observing her with a sideways glance.

Yes, she was definitely breathing more quickly, and that was desire flickering across her face. An answering heat scorched through his body. He eased into a chair where she could watch as he untied his wingtips and removed his socks, relishing the warmth of the heated stone beneath his bare soles and the knowledge that Eve wanted him as he wanted her.

He stood and gestured to her loafers. “You won’t need those either.”

She nodded and toed off the shoes, revealing the painted toenails he had found so sexy the night before. “Oh my gosh, the terrace is warm!”

“Radiant geothermal heat,” he explained. “Provided by Mother Nature.”

She stared down at her toes, curling them against the stone in sensual appreciation. “Amazing.”

“Bring your glass,” he said. “We will savor what the young savages cannot.”

CHAPTER 14

Eve felt like a teenager sneaking off to the beach to drink with her boyfriend as Luis seized another bottle of champagne from the bar and called out that they were going to the beach.

Except the champagne was vintage Dom Perignon, and Luis was a king.

She snuck a glance at the man beside her with his shirt open at the neck, his sleeves rolled up to show muscled forearms, and a glinting smile in his ice-blue eyes.

“This way,” he said, waving her toward one side of the terrace where the cliff dropped away to the surf.

“How on earth do we get down there?”

“There’s an elevator,” he said, tipping the champagne bottle toward a stone-paved walkway she hadn’t noticed.

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