Redeemed By His Stolen Bride / Crowning His Convenient Princess

Even with Leonora’s family connections they’d moved in a lesser sphere than the Torres family.

‘No. But our paths have crossed—even if just peripherally. I realised something this evening—I have always noticed you…on the edges. As if you’d prefer to disappear.’

Leonora blushed to think she’d been so transparent.

‘And I realised something else.’

She looked at him.

‘You have become a very beautiful woman.’

A tingling rush of heat coursed through her blood. The way he was looking at her was so…intense. She could almost feel it…as if he was touching her.

He took another step closer. Almost close enough now that she could imagine him bending down and pressing his mouth to hers.

Leonora was barely breathing. She was hot—so hot. All over. Deep down where no man had ever had any effect on her before.

‘I want you, Leonora.’

For a long, suspended moment neither one of them moved. Gabriel was watching her as she struggled to absorb this information. So, all these sensations making her melt from the inside out…it wasn’t just her.

For a second it was too heady to consider. The fact that he thought she was beautiful. And that he wanted her. Her. A woman who lived a more sheltered existence than most nuns.

At that moment there was a chiming sound. Gabriel emitted a curse under his breath and said, ‘Don’t move. That’s the concierge with your things.’

He turned and she watched him walk across the vast room with athletic grace. He disappeared and she heard a door open, low voices. She saw the French doors and suddenly needed—craved—oxygen. She walked outside, drawing in deep lungsful of the night air. The sounds of traffic floating up from nearby streets helped to ground her in reality a little.

What was she doing? Practically falling into Gabriel Torres’s arms after mere words? He was probably just being polite, helping to soothe what he assumed was her damaged ego. But in all honesty relief was her overriding feeling when she thought about Lazaro and the wreckage of their engagement.

It had been an audacious plan in any case—agreeing to marry a man purely for strategic reasons. Because it would benefit them both. It shamed her now. Yet she knew it was silly to feel shame, because her parents’ marriage had been a strategic one. In their world every marriage was a strategic one. Too much was at stake when legacies and dynasties had to be passed down to the next generation for emotion to be involved in making a marriage.

The fact that her parents got on and had some affection for each other was just a bonus. It had helped them weather the storm of infamy and their son’s vulnerabilities.

But Leonora—much to her eternal embarrassment—had always secretly harboured a desire for more. For a real relationship. For love. Happiness. She saw visiting tourist couples walking through the castle and its grounds, sharing kisses, holding hands. Whispering things to each other.

She’d met an old English couple, married for fifty years. They’d exuded such an aura of contentment and happiness. She knew what they had was rare, but not unobtainable. For normal people. Not for her.

When Lazaro Sanchez had shown an interest and taken her on a few dates, and when he’d put forward his proposal and the fact that he was offering to pull them out of their quagmire of debts, Leonora had known that she had no choice. She had responsibilities, just as Gabriel had said. The Flores de la Vega legacy was bigger than her secret hopes and dreams for a different life. A more fulfilled life.

‘I want you, Leonora.’

She shivered, even though it wasn’t cold. She shivered with awareness. With desire.

‘I have always noticed you…on the edges. As if you’d prefer to disappear.’

How could a man who was little more than a stranger—no matter how much their worlds might have collided over the years—get her? More than anyone had ever got her before?

She’d never felt seen in her life. She’d hovered on the edges, exactly as he’d described. Out of the innate shyness that she had to work hard to overcome. Out of her concern for Matías, who found social situations very challenging.

And also because she’d never really enjoyed the social scene of their world. It had always reminded her of a medieval royal court, with its intrigue and politics. Petty cruelties. The way so-called friends had treated her and her parents and her brother like pariahs ever since they’d become persona non grata had been a formative lesson in human nature.

Had Gabriel Torres really told her that he wanted her? So bold? So direct?

Yes. He was that kind of man. He would just say what he wanted and expect results.

Leonora looked out over the city stretching before her. Millions of people living their lives. Millions of possibilities.

It was as if she’d stepped out of her life and into an alternative realm. Where anything could happen. She was in a moment out of time. In a place she’d never expected to be. With a man she would never in a million years have expected to know her name. Let alone…desire her.

Unless it wasn’t desire.

It must be pity.

A wave of humiliation rose up through her. Oh, God, was she so desperate that she really believed—?

She heard a noise and tensed to face Gabriel again. She needed to leave. Now.

Gabriel saw the moment Leonora heard him return. Her slim shoulders were suddenly a tense line. He stood behind her, drinking in her graceful figure. The smooth pale olive skin of her back. The sleek dark ponytail that he wanted to wrap around his fist so he could tilt her head back, giving him access to her lush mouth.

He might have started this evening fixated on Lazaro Sanchez, and wondering what the man was up to, but now all he could see was this woman.

‘I have your things.’

She turned around but he noticed that she avoided his eye.

She held out a hand. ‘Thank you. I really should go now. There’s a back entrance into the estate. I can use that. I’m sure they won’t see me.’

Gabriel handed her the wrap and bag, noting how she avoided touching his hand. A novelty when he was used to women throwing themselves at him. Especially if he told them that he wanted them.

‘Are you really willing to take that risk?’

She put her wrap around her shoulders, covering up her skin, crossing it over her chest like a shawl.

Eventually she looked at him. ‘Look, thank you for helping me, but you really don’t need to go out of your way to do any more.’

Gabriel moved closer to her, watching how her eyes flared and colour tinged her cheeks. She wanted him. He knew it.

‘Did you not hear what I said?’

She swallowed. Her fingers clutched her wrap.

For a second the possibility trickled into Gabriel’s mind that she was different from other women he knew in terms of experience, but he batted it away. She was twenty-four. To be inexperienced at her age, with her stunning beauty, in this modern cynical world, was practically an impossibility. Far more likely she was playing him. She knew he wanted her and she was getting off on watching him work to seduce her.

There was little novelty in Gabriel’s world and he suspected it was the same for her. She was hardly a wide-eyed innocent when she’d been about to announce a business arrangement masquerading as a marriage.

‘I want you, Leonora. You felt it too this evening. I saw it.’

She flushed and her eyes were huge. ‘But…we don’t even know each other. How can—?’

‘How can it be possible?’ Gabriel decided he’d indulge her faux innocence. ‘Because chemistry transcends such mundanities.’

Every line in her body was tense.

‘You don’t have to do this, you know.’

There was a fierce pride in the aristocratic lines of her beautiful face. Her eyes had turned stormy.

‘I don’t need your pity, Gabriel.’

Leonora was resisting the pull she felt to this man with every atom of her being. He was toying with her. He had no clue how inexperienced she was and she wasn’t about to let him expose her any more than she’d already been exposed tonight.

She went to move past him, intent on getting out of there before she could unravel completely, but he caught her hand, stopping her. Heat travelled up her arm. She clenched her jaw.

‘You seriously think I pity you?’

The incredulity in his tone compelled her to face him, her hand still in his. He was frowning. Suddenly she was very aware of their proximity, and of the darkness of his chest under the white shirt.

She swallowed. ‘Maybe you just feel sorry for me…for what happened. You feel some kind of responsibility to make me feel…better.’

Even as she said this out loud she wanted to cringe. It sounded ridiculous.

He shook his head. ‘You give me far too much credit. I’m not that nice. I told you I want you because I meant it. And I believe you want me too. You wanted me even as you stood beside your fiancé.’

Leonora flushed with guilty heat. She tried to pull her hand back but Gabriel didn’t let go. He tugged her closer. She couldn’t breathe.

‘You don’t believe I want you? I can prove to you that I do. And that you want me.’

Leonora knew that if she tugged hard she’d be free. She knew that if she did that, and if she turned and walked away, he wouldn’t stop her. He was too proud for that. Too sophisticated to chase a woman or force her. And yet…she couldn’t move. Didn’t want to. That sense of being in a moment outside time, outside of her life, was acute.

As if sensing her vacillation, Gabriel said, ‘Here you are beholden to no one. There’s no duty or responsibility. We’re just two people. A man and a woman who want each other. Who are free to indulge our mutual desire.’

Leonora searched the hard planes of his face, those dark eyes. Was it really that simple? Could it be that simple? Was she free?

She thought of where she would be now if that woman hadn’t interrupted the announcement of her engagement.

She would be in a very similar situation with a man she’d liked, but hadn’t wanted. Maybe he would be kissing her now and she would be feeling nothing, resigning herself to the fact that this was as good as it would get. Because so much more was at stake. The future of her family. Her brother’s security.

She considered the vagaries of fate and timing and how she might not be here at all, how she wouldn’t be feeling this terrifying but exhilarating wildness coursing through her blood right now.

But she was. And it sank in that Gabriel Torres was deadly serious. He wasn’t being nice. Or pitying her. He wanted her. And she wanted him. For one night. One night out of time.

The wildness rushing through her body turned into something far more reckless. Tonight she really was free. Tomorrow she would return to reality and pick up the pieces of her life.

She wanted to seize this moment that fate had handed her. A chance to experience true desire with a man who wanted her for her. Not because of who she was or what her name represented.

Gabriel was watching her. Reading her.

Without saying a word, letting his actions speak for him, he let her hand go and reached for her wrap, tugging it out of her hands, pulling it off her shoulders slowly. The silk trailed across her skin and she shivered minutely at the sensation. She’d never thought of herself as sensual before, but she felt sensual now. Under his gaze.

His eyes not leaving hers, he draped the wrap over the back of a nearby chair and Leonora could see it out of the corner of her eyes, a vivid red splash of colour.

Danger. Passion.

He took her bag out of her hand and put it down. Anticipation built inside her, deep down. Coiling tight. She couldn’t take her eyes off his face.

He said, ‘I’ve told you I want you and I mean it. I haven’t wanted a woman like this in a long time. But you owe me nothing. I brought you here to give you refuge, and my guest suite is at your disposal for as long as you need it. It’s your choice what happens next.’

She let out the breath she’d been holding unconsciously. She hadn’t expected that kind of consideration. And at that moment Leonora almost resented him for not just kissing her and taking the decision out of her hands.

She knew it would be so easy to gather up her wrap and bag and say, No, sorry…not now. But something inside her had bloomed into life and she suspected he knew that very well. Better than she did.

She felt totally out of her depth. Another woman, more experienced, would no doubt be sliding her arms around his neck, pressing herself against every hard muscle of his body. But she felt paralysed with sudden shyness.

Gabriel’s gaze narrowed on her face. He frowned slightly. ‘Leonora, if you don’t want to—’

‘I do,’ she blurted out before she could lose her nerve. ‘I do…want you.’

She stepped closer. They were almost touching. His sheer physicality was overwhelming but it didn’t intimidate her. It excited her.

He put his hands on her arms and tugged her closer. She rested her palms on his chest. It was like steel. A spasm of sheer lust gripped her insides in a vice of tension. She pressed her thighs together to stem the heat flooding her core. But it was impossible. Every nerve quivered with anticipation and her heart was thumping so loudly she was sure it had to be audible.

Slowly, Gabriel took his hand off one of her arms and brought it up behind her head. She felt him undo her hair, so that it was loosened out of the ponytail. He massaged her scalp, his long fingers strong but surprisingly gentle. It made something else quiver inside her. Not just desire. Emotion.

But before that could really register he was lowering his head to hers, and as if in some desperate bid to cling on to a semblance of reality she kept her eyes on his, on those gold-flecked pools of brown. Intense and direct. Anchoring her to the moment.

But any hope of clinging to reality dissolved in a flash flood of heat when his mouth touched hers. Firm and unyielding. Soft but hard. Masterful. She was helpless against the giddy rush of desire that ripped through her body as his mouth moved over hers, enticing her to further intimacy, coaxing her to open up to him, pressing her closer so she could feel every inch of his long, lean body.

She opened her mouth, and even though she wasn’t a total novice—she had kissed boys a long time ago before her life had been reduced to staying in the shadows—she wasn’t prepared for Gabriel’s expertise.

His mouth and tongue demanded a response she wasn’t sure how to give. She could only react instinctively. Tasting, exploring. Mimicking his movements. She felt rather than heard a growl deep in his throat as he pulled her even closer, delved deeper.

She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, but she knew she never wanted this moment to end. She’d never experienced anything so thrilling. Transporting.

When Gabriel took his mouth off hers she moved with him, loath to let the contact end. Her heart was pounding. It was a struggle to open her eyes. When she did, it took her a second to focus. Both her hands were clinging to his shirt. She was pressed so close against him that she could feel his desire, long and thick, against her belly.

It should have shocked her. But she pressed closer in an instinctive move, emboldened by a feminine rush of confidence she’d never known before. By the evidence of this man wanting her.

He smiled, but it wasn’t a gentle smile. It was hard. Knowing.

Not even that could dent Leonora’s desire. She wanted this man to be her first lover, so that whatever happened next she’d always have this experience locked inside her. That was why she’d said yes. Because she’d realised how close she’d come to never experiencing this.

‘Make love to me, Gabriel.’

He picked up one of her hands and interlocked his fingers with hers. A pulse throbbed between her legs.

His mouth quirked on one side. ‘Your wish is my command.’

Even through the haze of arousal and desire making her feel drunk, Leonora doubted that this man was anyone’s to command.

He kept their hands linked and led her from the living area, down a hall and to a door. He opened it and Leonora took in a vast bedroom. In contrast to what she’d seen of the apartment so far, this room was almost ascetic. Nothing but bare white walls and a few pieces of modern furniture.

Gabriel let her hand go to switch on a light. It sent out a warm golden glow, softening the hard edges in the room. She wondered about that. About its starkness. And yet it soothed her, coming from a castle stuffed to the gills with oversized furniture and dark décor more suited to the Middle Ages.

Her eyes fell on the bed—the most decadent thing in the room. Massive, and luxuriously dressed with sumptuous dark grey sheets and pillows. Unashamedly masculine. And modern.

‘Come here, Leonora.’

She took her gaze off the bed and looked at Gabriel. She sucked in a breath. He filled the space. She pushed down her trepidation and walked the couple of feet over to where he stood. He was taking his cufflinks out of his shirt and placing them on top of a chest of drawers. She stood before him.

‘Take off your jewellery.’

She didn’t think. She obeyed. Giving herself up to this night and this man with total commitment. She took out her earrings and placed them down next to his cufflinks. Then she removed the matching bracelet. He’d probably already guessed they weren’t real, but she didn’t care any more.

‘Take off my shirt.’

Leonora stepped closer, some of her bravado faltering as she reached for his buttons and started undoing them, revealing his impressive chest. She hoped he wouldn’t notice the faint tremor in her hands. When it was open, she pushed it back and looked. Her mouth went dry. He was more like a warrior than a civilised businessman. Hard muscles. Hair curling over his pectorals and descending in a dark line at the centre of a six-pack to disappear under the waistband of his trousers.

He tugged his shirt off completely, letting it drop to the floor. ‘Now you. I want to see you.’

No one had ever seen Leonora naked. Not since she was a child. When she was a teenager, fooling around with boys at after-school parties, it had always been an awkward fumbling in the dark, under clothes. Not this stark ‘I want to see you’ while standing in the golden glow of a lamp in front of the most intimidating man in the world. A connoisseur of women, by all accounts.

Before Leonora could overthink it she turned around, presenting Gabriel with her back and the zip to her dress. She pulled her hair over one shoulder and steeled herself for the moment she would feel his hands at her zip. But instead of going there first, his hands landed on her shoulders, and then she felt his breath at the back of her neck, before he pressed his mouth there, the moist tip of his tongue flicking out to taste her skin.

Her legs nearly gave way completely.

She was dealing with a consummate seducer—not an over-eager boy.

His hands trailed over her skin as if he had all the time in the world to learn her shape. Goosebumps popped up even though she was warm. Hot. Melting…

Then his hands moved to the top of her dress and he started to pull her zip down, all the way, until it stopped just above the curve of her buttocks. His knuckles brushed her skin there and it felt as intimate as if he’d kissed her.

The dress was loosened around her chest but she brought her arms up, stopping it from falling down.

‘Turn around.’

Her heart pounding, Leonora turned. After a moment she looked up and saw Gabriel’s face. It was…stark. Hungry. She shivered.

He put his hands on her arms and slowly pulled them apart. The dress stayed up for a moment and then, under its own weight, fell down to her waist. She wore a matching strapless bra. Red lace.

Gabriel let her arms go and reached behind her to undo her bra. It fell away to the floor before she could worry about him noticing how frayed and worn it was.

He looked at her for a long moment. Saying nothing. And then, ‘You are more beautiful than anything I’ve ever imagined.’

Gabriel reached out and reverently cupped her breasts. Leonora had always felt self-conscious about their size, but they fitted Gabriel’s palms perfectly. He rubbed his thumbs across her nipples and she had to bite her lip to stop herself from moaning out loud as they stiffened under his touch, almost to the point of pain.

He stopped for a moment, bringing his hands up to cup her face before seeking her mouth again and drawing her deep into a drugging kiss. Her hand clasped his wrist, needing something, anything, to root herself in this dream.

The friction of her bare breasts against his chest was sensory overload. But that was nothing… He stopped kissing her and trailed his mouth across her jaw and down the side of her neck to her shoulder, and then down to her breast. He cupped the plump flesh again and lifted it to his mouth, teasing her stiffened flesh with his tongue and teeth.

She couldn’t stop the moan this time. It came out like a guttural plea to stop…never to stop…to keep going. Her hands were on his head, her fingers in his thick hair as he lavished the same torture on her other breast until they were both tingling and wet from his mouth.

When he stopped and lifted his head Leonora could barely keep standing. Gabriel pushed her dress down the rest of the way, over her hips. It fell to the floor with a barely audible swish of silk.

Now she wore only panties and stockings. Her shoes. She kicked them off, dropping a few inches in height. It made Gabriel seem even taller, more impressive.

Then, before she could worry about how to stay standing on her wobbly legs, she was lifted into the air against his chest and carried over to the bed, where he lay her down as reverently as if she was made of spun glass…

CHAPTER THREE

GABRIEL WASN’T SURE how he’d managed not to ravish Leonora before now, but he knew something was holding him back. Her reticence—which he felt sure had to be an act—was having an effect on him.

For a man who had slept with some of the world’s most beautiful women, and who’d been sexually active since he was a teenager, he was finding lately that sexual liaisons had become merely satisfactory. More often than not disappointing. But here, now, he hadn’t done much more than kiss Leonora and already he was having the most erotic experience he’d had in a long time. If ever.

His instincts about her had been right. She was exquisite. Every line of her body sleek and perfect. Her skin was like silk. Her breasts were perfectly shaped. And her nipples—His mouth watered again, just at the thought of how they’d tasted and stiffened against his tongue.

She was looking at him with huge eyes. As if she’d never seen a man before. Part of him was irritated that she could get to him with such a rudimentary act—was he so jaded that faux innocence turned him on?

Enough playacting.

Gabriel divested himself of the rest of his clothes.

Leonora watched as Gabriel efficiently undressed, revealing a body honed and densely muscled. And hard. She couldn’t stop her eyes widening on his arousal, thick and long.

He came down on the bed, resting over her on both hands. She suddenly felt trepidatious. What if he noticed straight away how inexperienced she was? What if it hurt? What if he was too—?