Page 75 of The Billionaire's Demand

‘A brief statement,’ he said with a nod. ‘And by brief, I mean five minutes. I can provide more tomorrow.’

The officer opened his mouth as if to argue but then he nodded. ‘Of course.’ He pulled out his notepad and asked for the bare outline of events. Raul detailed what had happened. Libby nodded. It was over quickly. The officer handed Raul his card. ‘If you remember anything else, give me a call.’

Raul’s eyes glittered. ‘Count on it.’

As quickly as it had begun, it was over. The officers left, the sirens stopped, and they were alone. Libby’s adrenalin had completely evaporated now and she found herself shaking from head to toe.

‘I...should go,’ she said, turning to Raul, frowning, because it had truly been the strangest afternoon of her life.

‘No, I forbid it,’ Raul responded, his lips twisting in a half-smile, yet his voice was deathly serious. ‘Sit.’ He guided her into the captain’s chair then disappeared, returning a moment later with a blanket, which he wrapped around her shoulders, before leaving once more.

When he came back it was with a tumbler of Scotch. ‘Drink this.’

Libby wrinkled her nose. ‘I’m not really one for hard liquor.’

‘Desperate times,’ he said, with a quiet gentleness to his voice.

Her gaze was drawn to his and something exploded in her chest. It was the strangest feeling! As though something in the very depths of her soul recognised something within him, calling to her, making her trust him implicitly.

She reached out, taking the Scotch, eyes latching onto his and holding as she lifted the tumbler to her lips and tasted it. Shuddering a little, she let the liquid touch her tongue, discovering there was something pleasing about it after all, something steadying to her nerves. She scrunched up her face and drank the rest, then coughed as it hit her palate like a Molotov cocktail.

‘Okay?’ He patted her back as he asked, crouching down beside her, and this time, when their eyes met, everything inside her seemed to jolt into place. She was floating and flying all at once. Her bones seemed to turn to jelly.

She nodded, but she was shaking. From the terror of what had just happened? Or from something else?

Strangely, she hadn’t been afraid. Not once they’d entered the room and she’d seen how in control Raul was. He’d made it all seem fine. Somehow, she’d just known he would triumph. He had a quality; there was something inherently trustworthy about him, something Libby had never really experienced first-hand in a man. Not her father, whom she’d never known, not any of the men her mother had dated, and not her first—and only—boyfriend.

She stared at Raul because it was impossible to look away.

‘I feel—’ she said, pressing a hand to the middle of her chest, frowning as she searched for the right word.

His eyes were shuttered, impossible to read. But something was bubbling up inside Libby. An awakening, something that was vitally important. It caught her completely off-guard because it ran contrary to all of her usual instincts. Having seen the way her mother flung herself headlong into romantic entanglements, Libby had very, very carefully always been the exact opposite. Oh, she wanted love, she craved it in many ways, but not like her mother had. When Libby fell in love it would be for keeps, with the right kind of man. Someone kind and gentle who wouldn’t hurt her. She’d certainly never give in to something as superficial and unreliable as physical chemistry!

Yet now she felt desire running through her like a current, sucking her along with it, hypnotising her and seducing her, making her want to act on these impulses despite her better judgement. Was this what it had been like for her mother?

‘Raul,’ she said desperately, moving her hand from her own chest to his. ‘You were incredible.’ She heard the awe in her voice, the admiration, wondered if she should contain it, act cool or something. But she couldn’t. ‘I feel more alive than I’ve ever felt,’ she said, smiling, and when his gaze dropped to her mouth she was propelled forward. There was an inevitability to it, a sense of rightness, and before she could overthink it and listen to the warning instincts that had kept her safe from heartbreak all these years, she brushed her lips to his, seeking connection.

She’d half-expected him to pull back. She felt him stiffen and knew he hadn’t been anticipating her action. She hovered there, lips pressed to his, but not deepening the kiss, just breathing him in, wondering if she’d just made a colossal, embarrassing mistake.

But then, as if the same inevitability was driving Raul, suddenly he was kissing her too, with a visceral growl ripped from his chest, a hand coming to cup behind her head, holding her there for his pleasure, his tongue rolling hers, his lips commanding, demanding, perfection. They moved as one, her standing, or being pulled to standing, by Raul, his hands drawing her closer, into his chest, which was broad and rugged, and through which she could feel his heart beating rapidly.

It was like the bursting of a dam.

The tension and the danger of the preceding thirty minutes had accumulated to form a ground swell of need that was threatening to devour Libby, but in Raul there was salvation, there was relief.

His hands moved deftly, removing her clothing, and she didn’t question how out of character this was, how strange; she simply went with the flow, surrendering to a moment that was so much bigger than her.

His chest was bare beneath her hands; she realised she’d done that, shucking his shirt then moving to his trousers, which he stepped out of at the same time she pushed at them. There was desperation in their movements and now they knelt in unison, then his body was over hers, hungry, urgent, his mouth demanding, his hands roaming her skin, touching every inch of her, worshipping her breasts until she could hardly breathe, his mouth following his fingers, chasing his kisses. She felt as though everything was spinning too fast, like she couldn’t focus on anything beyond this.

But then he was moving, his body gone, and confusion swamped her. She pushed up on her elbows, watching as he unfolded his wallet, removed a condom and pressed it over his length.

Her eyes widened, because he was huge and she hadn’t done this in a long time, and even then only a few times, and hadn’t really enjoyed it, so in the midst of the inevitability of this, something sharp jabbed her consciousness, making her doubt.

She should stop this.

She wasn’t her mother.

She’d learned her lessons all too well.

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