Mills & Boon Stars Collection: Passionate Bargains. Michelle Smart

didn’t answer, his teeth clenching together as they always did whenever he thought of her surrounded by small children on a daily basis.

      Charley loved children.

      But not as much as she loved money...

      Was that really true? All the evidence pointed to her leading a frugal existence without him. And she hadn’t asked for any money for herself...

      She’d lapsed into silence, her head bowed. Then suddenly she lifted her chin and stared at him with enough force to keep his focus on her and not the coffee machine.

      ‘Marrying you was all wrong,’ she said, her eyes wide. ‘You were the shining star turning the family business from silver into gold—everything you touched turned into gold. Everything I touched turned into rust. I couldn’t compete.’

      ‘Our marriage wasn’t a competition.’

      ‘I know, but for me...’

      ‘For you, what?’ he asked, when her words tailed off.

      ‘I wasn’t equipped to deal with any of it. I tried, really, I did, but I knew you wanted perfection. Never mind learning Spanish, you wanted me to speak proper English, to wear the right clothes, to be a wife you could be proud to have on your arm...’

      ‘That was not how it was,’ he retorted, irked she could twist things round to make herself seem like some kind of victim. ‘I was trying to help you fit in with my world.’

      ‘I wanted to fit in too and it took me a long time to realise that I couldn’t because I don’t belong. The world I come from is just too different. You make everything you touch turn into pure gold, but all you could do with me was add gold-plating—underneath I was still Charley, not the Charlotte you tried to create.’

      ‘That’s a good story you’ve spun there but my memory tells it differently. In all the time we were together not once did you say you were unhappy. Not once.’

      ‘That’s because I was terrified that if I said how I felt, you would agree with me. I spent most of our time together waiting for the day you realised I wasn’t up to scratch and replaced me with a better model.’

      She looked and sounded so sincere he almost believed her. ‘Answer me this. In all the time we were together did I ever give you cause to think I would cheat on you?’

      She shook her head. ‘I always knew you’d never cheat, you’re too honourable. But,’ she added, before he could retaliate, ‘you spend a huge amount of your time in hotels and on cruise liners surrounded by beautiful, well-bred women throwing themselves at you. Knowing you wouldn’t cheat didn’t mean I was stupid enough to believe someone else wouldn’t catch your eye and you’d want to get to know them better. I knew I was disposable, just as Jessica was disposable when I came back on the scene.’

      Dios, she could not be serious.

      ‘Why would you even think such a thing?’ he demanded to know, not giving her time to answer before adding, ‘I never once looked at another woman in the whole time we were married.’

      Doubt reverberated through her curvaceous frame.

      The incongruity was laughable. Charley had been the one to walk out. She’d left him. Their marriage vows had clearly meant a damn sight more to him than they had to her.

      ‘Why would I have looked at another woman when I had you to come home to?’ he said, striding over to her and pressing a hand against the wall by her head. ‘You, cariño, are all woman.’

      She tensed, her jaw becoming rigid as she swallowed. ‘You’ve just proven everything I’ve said. You really do think I’m only good for one thing.’

      ‘And that, I can assure you, you are superb at.’

      She grabbed his wrist and tried to yank it down, but he twisted his hand and caught her own wrist, pinning her without any effort, then snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her flush to him.

      Her head tilted back, her green eyes staring at him with the strangest mixture of contempt and desire. ‘When did you become so cruel?’

      ‘When I realised the woman I adored was playing me for a fool.’ And with that, he brought his mouth down to hers, drowning out the voices in his head clamouring to argue with this assessment of her.

      Charley tried to resist. She closed her mouth as tightly as she could, tried to shut her senses off, but it was like fighting the tide.

      His heat, his scent, filled her, creeping through the pores of her skin and down into her blood.

      She could push him away. All it would take was one hard shove and she’d be free. Raul might be many things but he would never use his physical strength to force her to do anything she didn’t want.

      But they had a deal. She was here for his pleasure and no other reason.

      And, if she was being honest with herself, she was here for her own pleasure too because her husband set her alive in a way she would never have known if they’d never met.

      Rationality fighting with her senses, she put a hand to his chest, still uncertain if she was going to push or pull. Her fingers splayed against him and before she knew it she’d gripped his shirt. Her lips softened and parted as she melted into him.

      His kiss was hard, demanding, his tongue moving within her, her own dancing against it.

      Her grip on his shirt loosened and she wound her arms up and around his neck, her fingers pressing into the back of his head, leaning against his strength as he kissed her so thoroughly she doubted she would have been able to stand if he weren’t there supporting her.

      Time became nothing. All she knew and all she cared about was now, this moment, and the heat burning through her.

      His kisses deepened, then he broke away long enough to dip his head and nip her neck.

      Then his hands clasped her bottom and she was pushed against the wall while simultaneously lifted off the ground.

      Wrapping her legs around his waist, she pressed kisses over his face, tasting him, inhaling him, rubbing her nose into the smooth skin of his cheeks that roughened as she nuzzled his jawline.

      He held her tightly to him, as if her weight meant nothing, and carried her through the kitchen to the narrow stairs. She had no idea how he managed to make it up the two flights with her in his arms, could only assume the fever burning through them drove him onwards until he kicked open their bedroom door and threw her effortlessly onto the bed. Stepping back, Raul gazed down at her, his handsome features taut, his chest surging. Her heart thrummed painfully, pulses racing through her as she stared right back.

      Without a word, his eyes holding hers, he pulled at his belt to undo it then opened the buttons and dropped his trousers.

      In reply, she raised herself enough to tug off her top and throw it onto the floor.

      Working methodically, Raul undid the buttons of his shirt while Charley fumbled with the zip of her denim shorts before kicking them off and sending them sailing towards the other clothes that were forming a messy pile by his feet. His shirt joined them, leaving him in nothing but boxer shorts that stretched over his snake hips and tight buttocks, the strain of his erection visible through the fabric...

      Heat bubbled deep within her, a sweet yet torturous sensation that begged for attention, and she dragged herself to her knees, taking in every part of him from his toes to his cropped dark hair as she unclasped her bra and threw it to one side, not caring where it landed. Then, finally, she pulled her underwear down past her hips, as Raul’s eyes watched every move she made, his strong throat moving as he swallowed.

      ‘Lie down,’ he instructed, his words guttural.

      She did as she was bid and laid back, posing provocatively for him with one arm hooked over her head, a hand clasping a breast that was practically crying