Page 60 of Royal Caleva: Luis

The choice is yours, but I hope you will choose me.

So simple. So direct. Not a seduction, a plea. It was perfectly calculated to get past all her defenses.

How could she not choose him, this man who made her ache with the longing to touch and be touched, who made the air in any room he entered dance with electric energy, who drew her to him like a jaguar luring his prey with his lethal beauty?

This man who had suffered because he was born to be a king. The pain that lived behind his eyes tugged at her heart while his hypnotic blue gaze and long, lean muscles tempted her body.

She closed her eyes, and the memory of how her body had come alive at his touch burst through her. She hadn’t felt such a sensual yearning in years. Didn’t she deserve some pleasure?

She didn’t answer his text because she didn’t want to think. She slipped out of her suite and glided silently down the hall, alert for the sound of others stirring. Silence surrounded her as she followed the route Luis had guided them all along earlier, regaling them with stories about the artworks, the previous owner, and the technology embedded in the house. No one would have known that he was also instructing his lover on how to reach his bed.

Her steps slowed as objections raised their ugly heads. Luis was a king, a man whose behavior was scrutinized and held to high standard. Could their short fling be kept a secret? If it was revealed, how much would it damage him in the public eye? Even worse, how would Grace and Raul feel about their parents having a relationship that was based on sex? Except her attraction wasn’t just about sex, and that was what made this affair dangerous.

Yet she kept going until she arrived at the floating staircase that led from Luis’s office to the master bedroom. The cryptocurrency billionaire had liked to work at all hours, so he had stacked his sleeping quarters above his working quarters.

Her foot on the bottom step, she hesitated. She could turn back now and Luis would never know she had come this far.

CHAPTER 16

Luis flicked through the pages of the book on fencing strategy without reading a single word. He had brought Camacho’s gift with him, thinking he might have time to enjoy a chapter or two while at Casa en las Nubes.

However, Eve had derailed his concentration the moment she had brushed her fingers over his beard at the beach, her featherlight touch streaking down to his cock like a laser. As he stared down at the open book, all he could think of was the feel of her lips against his, of her hands on his skin inside his opened shirt, and of her softly curved body pressed along the length of his.

At dinner, it had taken all his concentration to converse coherently when she sat so close that he could reach out and touch her. For a few moments, he had imagined ripping off her blouse to cup the curves of her breasts before he lowered his head to suck her nipples into peaks. He had forced himself to banish the delicious idea from his mind until now.

Now his cock hardened again as he let that picture linger in his mind.

But his phone lay stubbornly silent on the coffee table after he had allowed himself to send the one text.

A good sign or a bad one?

He slammed down the book and paced the length of the sala again, glancing out the wall of windows to see the lights of a large ship riding the dark sea. Probably a U.S. naval vessel since the American base lay farther along the coast.

He had tried hard not to let this happen. Eve being Grace’s mother complicated the situation. Yet relationships in his life were always complicated. If he had allowed that to stop him, he would be even more alone than he already was. He had made his decision. Now it was up to Eve to make hers.

He pivoted and stalked back to where the book lay on the coffee table, hurling himself into a chair beside it. Before he could sweep up the tome again, a soft chime sounded. He went still as anticipation burned through him like a flare.

Someone was climbing the stairs to his suite. The paranoid billionaire had installed alarms within alarms in this house, and Mikel made sure they all continued to function.

Then Luis was on his feet, striding to the door to pull it open. As Eve reached the top of the staircase, she stopped, looking startled. “Luis.”

Instead of racing across the landing to pull her against him and slam his mouth down on hers, he opened the door wider and stepped back. “Please come in.”

She nodded and walked toward him. He tried to read her intentions, but she looked more nervous than anything else. Perhaps she had come to tell him no. It would be like her to do that in person because she would deem it the right way to handle a rejection.

Once she was inside the room, he closed the door. She stood in front of him, her eyes wide and unsmiling, her hands twisted together at her waist, her beautiful hair cascading over her shoulders. Not throwing herself into his arms.

“You did not answer my text,” he said, keeping his voice neutral.

“It would have required that I think, and I didn’t want to do that.” She took a deep breath. “Luis, I made my choice.”

“And what is it?” He braced himself for her answer.

“I choose you.”

Eve saw the moment his control snapped, and she almost turned and ran. The desire that blazed across his face was so intense that it scared her…and sent an answering flash of wanting burning through her.

He needed only one long stride to reach her before he banded his arms around her and brought her against the hard, hot wall of his body. Her breasts were crushed against his chest, her nipples hardening to aching points, while his mouth came down on hers in a fierce claiming.

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