By Request Collection Part 3. Robyn Donald

her blouse off. Her skirt followed moments later and she shivered in sensual delight as he ran his big hands over her hips.

      ‘I just did what was expected.’ Yet she felt a tiny burst of pleasure at his words. Having accepted her new role, she was determined to do it well.

      She sighed as he fastened his mouth on her lacy bra, sucking hard till the nipple stood erect and darts of liquid fire shot to her core.

      Convulsively she shuddered, cradling him close, overwhelmed by the sudden need to embrace him and comfort him. This big man who needed no one.

      He lifted his head and met her eyes. His own were shadowed, as if he veiled his thoughts. The knowledge pained her. He worked so hard to maintain his distance. Had he never learned to share anything? Was she crazy to think they could make this work?

      Then his mouth descended and he swung her up in his embrace. Heat surrounded her. Hard-packed muscle. The steady beat of his heart.

      By the time he lowered her to the bed and stripped both their clothes with a deftness that spoke of practice and urgency, Luisa’s thoughts had almost scrambled.

      ‘Contraception!’ she blurted out as she sank beneath him. ‘I don’t want to get pregnant.’

      His brows rose. ‘We’re married, Luisa. Having a child is a natural outcome.’

      She shook her head. Despite the wonderful weighted feeling of his lower body on hers, this was too important.

      ‘No. I’m not ready.’ She gulped down air and tried to order her thoughts. ‘It’s been too fast.’

      For what seemed an eternity Raul stared, as if seeing her for the first time. Finally he nodded and rolled away, reaching for the bedside table.

      When he turned back he didn’t immediately cover her body with his.

      For a man who’d married her out of necessity he had a way of making her feel the absolute focus of his world. As if nothing existed but her. His total concentration, the intensity of his gaze, the knowing, deliberately seductive touch of his hands on her body, were exhilarating.

      Raul’s gaze softened with each circling stroke and she felt something shift deep inside. She arched into his touch and her pulse pounded in her ears. When he leaned close his breath was an erotic caress of her sensitive ear lobe that sent sparks of heat showering through her.

      ‘Come for me, Luisa.’ His fingers delved and a ripple of sensation caught her. ‘Give yourself up to it.’

      Gasping, she focused on him, feeling the dip and wheel of excitement while the intense connection sparked between them. His set face, his mouth, no longer smiling but stretched taut in concentration. The furrow on his brow, his eyes …

      Out of nowhere the orgasm hit, jerking her body and stealing her breath. Heat flared under her skin as he dipped his head to take her mouth in a long, languorous kiss that somehow intensified the echoing spasms.

      Spent at last, she sank back into the bed.

      Now he’d come to her. Dreamily she smiled, her inner muscles pulsing in readiness. Despite her exhaustion, it was Raul she wanted. The hollow ache inside was proof of that.

      He moved, but not as she’d expected. Shocked, she saw him settling himself low, nuzzling her inner thighs.

      ‘No! I want—’

      His kiss silenced her. She shouldn’t want more after the ecstasy that still echoed through her, but the caress of Raul’s tongue, his lips, sent need jolting through her.

      That was only the beginning.

      Dazed, Luisa gave herself up to new caresses, new sensations that built one on the other till all she knew was Raul and the pleasure he wrought in her malleable, ever eager body. The taste of him was on her tongue, his scent in her nostrils as she grew attuned to his touch and the deep approving rumble of his voice.

      Blindly she turned to him as finally he took her for himself, his rampant hardness a contrast to her lush satiation. She breathed deep, taking his shuddering, powerful body into hers as she seemed to absorb his essence into her pores.

      Raul cried out and pleasure drenched her at the sound of her name in that raw needy voice. Instinctively she clutched him protectively close.

      Raul lay completely spent, only enough strength in his body to pull Luisa close, her body sprawled over him.

      He told himself the post-coital glow was always this intense, but he knew he lied. From the moment he’d bedded his wife he’d known the sex was different.

      Why? His brain wouldn’t leave the question alone.

      Because she didn’t meekly comply with his wishes? Because, despite agreeing to marry, she was still her own woman, not like the compliant lovers who gave whatever he wanted because of what he could provide in return?

      With Luisa he had the thrilling, faintly disturbing sense that he held a precious gift in his arms.

      She was far more than a warm body to sate his lust.

      This was unknown territory. Or, if he were honest with himself, a little too like the feelings he’d discovered in his youth, when he’d believed in love. The thought should terrify him. He was well past believing in such things.

      His lips quirked ruefully. That was why he’d seduced his wife as soon as they’d got back from the civic ceremony. Not just because he wanted her, but to stop himself puzzling over what she made him feel.

      And to stop her questions. His hand clenched in the silk of her hair and she shifted delectably, soft flesh against his. Was it possible he’d used sex to avoid talking about his past? Even something as simple as his childhood?

       Was he really such a coward?

      His life was an open book. It had been pored over and dissected by the media for years. Yet the discomfort he’d felt answering Luisa’s questions surprised him.

      As did the unfamiliar need to open up to her. To share a little of himself.

      He frowned. It was absurd. He didn’t need a confessor or a confidante. There was no need for conversation. Yet deep down he knew he lied.

      Perhaps because of the sense that he owed her for agreeing to marry?

      Whatever the reason, when she shifted as if to move away, he slipped a restraining arm around the curve of her waist and cleared his throat.

      ‘My father was interested in me only as heir to the throne.’ His voice sounded husky. Raul told himself it was the aftermath of that stunning climax.

      ‘That’s awful.’ Her words were murmured against his chest. She didn’t look up. Somehow that made it easier.

      He shrugged. ‘Staff raised me. That’s the way it’s always been in the royal household. He dropped by just enough to remind me I had to excel to be ready to wear the crown one day.’

      ‘And you wonder why I’m not ready for children!’

      Shock smote him. He’d spoken blithely about the possibility of pregnancy, but the reality hadn’t sunk in. Luisa, pregnant with his child …

      ‘No child of ours would be raised like that.’ Certainty firmed on the words.

      ‘Really?’

      Raul nodded. He’d spent years adhering to tradition as he fought to stabilise the monarchy and the nation, working behind the scenes as his father’s focus narrowed to pleasing his capricious young wife. It had been Raul who’d tried to redress the damage after the fiasco with Ana.

      But some traditions needed change.

      ‘You have my word.’

      He might not be a success as a father. Certainly his father’s model of paternal love had been distant and unemotional. He thought of Peter, the boy with his dog. At least Raul knew what not to do. And Luisa would make up