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Rey Peralta has been sent to persuade Paola Lopes to return to Brazil and take up her place as Priestess of the Guardians, protectors of the sacred realm hidden deep in the Amazon rainforest. He knows Paola is the one they need to ensure their survival—but he doesn’t expect the instant blast of desire that sparks between them. Her beauty and power call to him, enticing him to merge with her physically and spiritually; a desire that only increases when they give in to their passion and make love. Can he convince Paola to accept her destiny and stay with her people—and by his side?
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter One
Arrogant was the only word Paola Lopes could use to describe the man standing in front of her desk.
Devastatingly male was the second. Although of course those were two words, she thought, and failed to stifle her chuckle.
“Do you find me amusing, Ms. Lopes?” Rey Peralta said, an almost ebony brow taking flight above eyes that were a glacial blue. The frosty color did little to cool the heat of anger in his gaze.
“I find you…determined,” she began, carefully choosing her words so as not to offend. There were judges and attorneys who might call her a shark, but unlike some of her colleagues, she reserved her aggression for the courtroom and negotiating table.
“I am determined,” Rey Peralta replied and motioned to her guest chair.
Since he had arrived unannounced and her time was precious, not to mention expensive, Paola had been tempted to show him the door. But the enticing masculine energy he possessed was difficult to ignore. His dangerous virility pulled at her, creating unexpected temptation. Plus, today she had the time to listen to his plea, especially considering who had entrusted him with this mission.
She gestured for him to take a seat and was grateful that the width of her desk created space between her body and his potent masculinity so she could regain perspective. “You say my grandmother sent you?” She leaned back in her executive leather desk chair, adding even greater distance between them.
Rey settled himself in the chair, although his long, lean body was decidedly cramped in the small space of the chic designer furniture. He wasn’t meant to be contained. Although his clothes were made from high-priced fabrics and exquisitely fitted to his muscled physique, Rey would look infinitely better in nothing but his skin. Heat erupted across her body when she imagined him running free in something other than his suit.
As if sensing her feminine interest, he smiled and a small dimple emerged along the right side of his mouth. He shifted to the very lip of the chair and leaned forward, narrowing the precious space between them. “Your grandmother wishes to see you before her time comes,” he said, his voice pitched intimately low.
She ignored the way his tone tied her insides into knots of need. “My grandmother hasn’t seen me since I was…three, I believe.”
Not that she remembered anything about the visit. Her family had gone back to Brazil and the remote Amazonian plantation owned by her father’s family. It had been meant to be a last chance to repair a crumbling marriage. Instead, her mother had returned home to New York City with Paola within just a few weeks. Less than a year later, her father had died suddenly, ending any connections to the Lopes family.
“It was not your grandmother’s choice to leave you,” he said, obviously aware of the strife between her mother and her father’s family. Before her father’s death a bitter custody battle had ensued, but it had ended with her father’s abrupt passing.
“Why would my grandmother want to see me now? After so long?” It was a question that had remained unspoken for too long, always a buried ache within her heart. She had wondered for years what had driven her parents apart, especially since she could see the love in her mother’s eyes whenever she mentioned her father. She had likewise pondered why her paternal grandmother did nothing other than send checks for special occasions, unlike her maternal grandparents who came for regular visits.
“As I said, she is concerned about her health, and you are the heir to the Lopes legacy,” he stated calmly, but she could see the tic along his jaw, signaling discomfort. He was as uneasy about his mission as she was about his request and her inexplicable attraction to him.
“A legacy? As in money?” At her question his lips tightened into a knife-sharp line. The words which followed were cutting.
“Is that what attracts you? Money?” he said, shifting his gaze around her office where an assortment of items spoke to the wealth she was accustomed to handling. Trophies from a variety of corporate mergers, or celebrating multimillion-dollar legal actions she had won, were prominently featured along the shelves and walls.
“Money makes the world go round,” she replied defensively, not that she believed it. It was just that he seemed to be able to push her buttons. Feeling cornered by his virile presence, she needed to push back somehow to regain her composure.
“If money is what it will take, you should be aware that as the Lopes heir, you stand to inherit millions.”
She understood the price to be paid for that legacy even if he hadn’t said it. “But only if I abide by my grandmother’s request to come for a visit. Is that it?”
Passion and purpose filled his gaze as he said, “Despite what you say, I don’t believe that it’s only about money for you. Am I wrong?”
She locked her gaze with his and connected with him on a level that went far beyond the physical attraction she had been feeling from the moment Rey walked into her office. This link went much deeper and was possibly far more dangerous. She was used to hiding her emotions in court; confusion set in about how Rey could read her so well in so short a time.
“You’re not wrong. I’ve always questioned what happened with my parents. Why things turned out the way they did.”
Rey’s gaze lost a little of its chill and the sympathy that crept into his demeanor unsettled her. “It must be difficult having no answers to the questions you’ve had your whole life.”
With a shrug that she hoped would end what was becoming a too-personal discussion, she replied, “I’ve survived. I have my job—”
“Don’t you want your life to be about more than these four walls and their limitations?” He gestured all around her sleek corner office.
How often had she asked herself the same thing? Paola thought. In recent months, the demands of her job had enslaved her, and, as she scrutinized Rey, she realized that he was a man who would never allow himself to be imprisoned like that. Again, that image of him running free, that powerful body unchained and unfettered, created unwanted desire in her. Needing to regain control of the situation, she said, “I have a meeting shortly and need to prepare.”
His small smirk proved that he recognized her lie, but he graciously didn’t press. He rose and towered over her, lethally masculine. Then he reached into his pocket, pulled out a card and carefully placed it on her desk. “I’ll be here until Friday. If you wish to come, I will personally escort you to your family’s plantation.”
She rethought the arrogant part of her description of him in spite of his earlier challenging actions. She realized now he was just a resolute man who wanted only one answer from her.
“Why is this so important to you?” she asked as she picked up his business card.
“Because I love your grandmother as if she were my family. I wish to see her happy before it is her time.”
With that, he left, gently closing the door behind him. Not that his departure did anything to lessen the force of his presence. It seemed to linger, daring her to deny it. Demanding that she consider his request—and not just because of her grandmother.
She perused the card in her hand.
Rey Peralta. President, Lopes Industries.
Her father’s family’s business. She didn’t really think of herself as part of the Lopes family. Although she had occasionally sought out information about them, the Lopes family was a secretive lot. The only things she had unearthed were articles every now and then about the growth of their enterprises and their devotion to protecting the Amazon and the indigenous peoples within the rain forest.
Worthy causes, she thought, laying down the business card and glancing at the walls of her space.
Most would consider her a success. At twenty-eight she already had a reputation for being one of the best in her field. Yet lately there had been a niggling sense of uselessness within her. A desire for more. She wanted the freedom to build instead of destroy.
She thought of her parents then. What if her father had felt something similar? Something that had driven him to return to his home, but which had pushed her mother away?
There was only one way to find out the answer to that question. An answer that was long overdue.
But as she prepared for her upcoming meeting, doubts lingered about the wisdom of going anywhere with the intriguing Mr. Peralta.
Chapter Two
Rey paced back and forth in front of the windows in his New York City hotel room. Floor-to-ceiling, they provided amazing views in every inch of the space. In the buildings surrounding his hotel, there were glimpses of people still at work at their desks, even at this late hour. The lights and displays on every building in Times Square were so bright they chased away the dark of the night, creating an artificial day.
On the street below, tourists milled about the area snapping photos or forming lines for the assorted ticket lines, shops and restaurants while the locals weaved and bobbed around them as they hurried by at a New York pace.
He could imagine Paola racing along at that breakneck speed, rushing to something, but Rey sensed that it was also about running away. Maybe trying to avoid her family history and the questions that lingered in her mind and heart.
Definitely hurrying from him, he thought, recalling her reaction to the immediate link that had happened between them when he had walked into her office.
The pull had come instantly, and he had been powerless to stop that initial blast of desire through his body. Her Guardian energy was strong, and the female spirit within her had called to him, awakening his own energy.
She had experienced it also. He had seen it in her eyes and in the tension of her body. She had been fighting the enticement of the energy as much as he had, but had also been intrigued by it.
He had not expected the attraction. He had not been prepared for it, but he would welcome exploring it if Paola was amenable. He imagined it would be an intense experience to allow such a powerful spirit to merge with his. To join with her physically, as well.
Paola Lopes was a very beautiful woman, a stunning combination of her mother’s Nordic looks and her father’s darker Latin coloring. Caramel-colored hair. Emerald eyes. Flawless skin of a rich, peachy hue with an easy blush. He had seen it today when he’d turned his gaze on her and recognized the passion simmering beneath her apparently calm and professional surface.
Maybe, if she decided to honor his request, they would find the time to explore that passion, although he worried that she would not respond to her grandmother’s plea.
Despite the desire and unrest he had sensed at her core, Paola had seemed to have found her place in this New York bustle, he thought as he turned away from the windows and slowly undressed.
She was successful at what she did. He had performed an Internet search in anticipation of his visit and had found information on case after case that she had won. Plus, the firm for which she worked was top in their field. He was certain that the corner office meant she was going places there.
So why would she choose to leave with him? Choose the unknown over her comfortable and well-off life?
Maybe that unrest he had sensed. He had no doubt it was about her father and the many unanswered questions she might possess.
But he also hoped that after today, a part of her motivation would be about him and the connection between them. About the passion he wished to explore and which, even now, roused him physically.
As he slipped beneath the smooth and slightly cool hotel sheets, they brushed along the hard length of his erection. He allowed himself to imagine being with her. Inside her.
He groaned and forced away such thoughts. They would only complicate what was already a complex and risky situation.
Paola’s grandmother Patricia grew weaker every day, despite all her assertions to the contrary. Such weakness threatened the Guardians and their role in protecting the sacred space. The Guardians’ role was why it was so important to get Paola to return to her family home.
As Rey had seen today, her spirit was strong and with training, Paola could easily take over her grandmother’s role as Priestess. But to do so meant giving up her current way of life. Moving away from the only family she had left.
It also meant risking herself, physically and mentally. The allure of the sacred space was immense. Only the strongest Guardians could visit, but it took even greater strength to leave and maintain a balance between their two worlds.
Rumor had it that Paola’s father had been too weak to resist that allure.
Like father, like daughter? Rey worried, but then he recalled Paola’s spirit and the determination he had sensed in her.
Somehow he didn’t think so. Somehow he knew Paola would be just what they needed to preserve the Lopes legacy and insure the continued dominion of the Guardians.
But somehow he also sensed that Paola was just what he needed. He had been alone at this Guardian thing for way too long. With her at his side…
Rey closed his eyes and allowed himself to dream. It was no surprise when Paola was there, waiting for him. Welcoming him into her arms in his slumber.
Her skin was smooth, but chilled and slightly damp, as if she had just come from a swim. Rey knew just what would heat her up.
Raising his hands, he cupped the weight of her generous breasts and circled the coral tips of her nipples with his thumbs until they peaked into hard nubs. A soft sigh of pleasure escaped her lips.
Taking each tip between his thumb and forefinger, he tweaked them over and over again and then bent his head, soothing them with a lick.
Paola moaned and held him to her, her eyes closed and her head thrown back as her passion grew. She moaned his name, and threaded her fingers through his hair, keeping him near. He licked and sucked at the sensitive tips, and her skin grew heated against his.
Easing his thigh between her legs, the dampness of her desire registered against his thigh and he pressed upward, applying pressure as he continued to suckle her. In response, she rubbed herself against his leg, seeking release, and Rey was not about to disappoint.
He took the tip of one breast between his teeth and gently bit down. She shuddered in his arms and drew herself across his thigh with greater demand, her heat and wetness leaving a trail of passion along his thigh.
In his dreams, Rey eased his hand down and parted her legs. Found the nub at her center and applied pressure with his thumb while easing his fingers into her moist vagina. In and out he stroked, alternating that possession with pressure until she whimpered with need and held on to his shoulders for stability as her release neared.
Rey urged her ever higher until she was poised at the edge. Only then did he withdraw his hand to guide himself to her, waiting at her slick entrance for some sign to continue.
With the soft sigh of his name, she gave her permission and Rey plunged into her. She was tight, wet and warm and he was her willing captive, burying himself deep.
The vividness of that dream moment yanked Rey from sleep.
He sucked in a few harsh breaths for control, but it wasn’t enough. He was so hard it was almost painful and nothing short of satisfaction would provide him any respite.
Rising from the bed, nearly hobbled by his massive erection, he hurried to the bathroom and turned on the shower, making it as hot as he could stand it. Then he stepped in and rested his hands on the wall as the water sluiced down over him.
The heat and wet of the water wasn’t as luxuriant as Paola had been in his dream, but it would have to do.
He reached down and encircled himself, his hand slippery from the liquid and a drop of soap. Smooth as he imagined she would be and tight against the thick girth of his cock. He stroked, his motion long and slow at first. Skin creating friction against skin, generating heat.
His gut tightened as his arousal burned through him with each long pull of his hand, dragging him ever higher as he envisioned Paola beneath him. Accepting each hard thrust. Raising her hips to allow him to plunge even deeper.
Groaning, he moved his hand faster and harder, striving for satisfaction while at the same time still longing for more. Longing for her, accepting the slide of him. Arching her back as he rode her to a mutual release and called his name as she wrapped her legs around him at her peak.
He came then, his body jerking as he released his seed into nothingness. He trembled from the force of his climax. With a last few strokes, he milked the final vestiges of his pleasure until he was spent and breathing hard as if he had just run a marathon.
Leaning his hands on the wall of the shower once more, he let the water wash away the final traces of his desire, but as Rey thought of Paola again, passion surprisingly roused yet again.
With a curse, he twisted the knob and allowed a freezing torrent to hit him, driving away renewed desire. One thought stayed in his mind.
The next time it would be the real Paola touching him as they made love.
I’d do it all again.
Her mother’s words echoed in her mind as Paola gazed at the photo of the three of them, her mother and father laughing with their arms wrapped around each other and her as she sat in her mother’s lap. An identical copy of the photo had sat on the mantel in her mother’s home for as long as Paola could remember. There was such love shining from their faces that it was hard to believe it could just disappear barely months later. She had always wondered why her mother would keep such a possibly painful reminder in a highly visible place.
It made Paola consider what it would be like to feel that kind of love, but also the despair which followed. And it made her speculate how her grandmother must have suffered, losing her grandchild and then her son barely a year apart.
I’d do it all again, her mother had insisted barely hours earlier during their dinner together.
Which made Paola feel like a coward for not even considering doing it once. After all, what did she have to lose? she thought as she poured herself a glass of wine and sat down on the sofa in her apartment.
How about your partnership? the little voice in her head challenged.
For months, the rumor had been that she was being considered for a position amongst the firm’s partners. It would mean more money, not that she had need of it. Her mother’s family was well-off, and she made enough of her own to not only pay for her expenses, but to squirrel away something for the future. If she was going to be made partner it would happen, if not now then in a few months or a year or two.
How about your comfortable life? the voice insisted while Paola sipped the cab franc, savoring its full-bodied taste, so unlike her not-so-full life.
In fact, her boring life, she shot back to that imaginary adversary. Lately, she had been spending too much time at work with little time to play, and the thrill of winning… It had become hollow since she had no one with whom to share the success.
How about losing yourself?
Now that was an argument that was difficult to ignore. Just earlier that night her mother had hinted at the fact that during their return to her father’s Amazonian plantation it was as if her father had disappeared before her eyes. Her mother had lost him to his frequent trips into the rain forest and the demands of his legacy.
A legacy you know nothing about.
But if her grandmother passed…
More than just the supposed Lopes legacy would be gone. She paused for a moment, considering that. Considering that she stood to lose a bit of herself, a bit of what had made her who she was, if she didn’t take this trip to learn more about her father’s family.
She laid the wine glass on her coffee table and dipped her hand into her jacket pocket. Fingered the card tucked inside. Ran her fingers over the embossed edges of his name and title.
Rey Peralta. Her personal guide to her father’s world. To the grandmother she had never known. Possibly a guide to something else she had ignored—the needs of her heart and body. She couldn’t deny her attraction to him from the moment he had walked through the door of her office. Even now, just the thought of him pooled warmth in her center and awakened something hidden within her.
What would it be like to take and be taken by a man like Rey? To lose all caution and dare to explore the unexpected as her mother had done nearly thirty years ago?
I’d do it all again.
Her mother’s words challenged her.
Rey would be waiting for her answer. But only until Friday. Just a couple of days away. But she wasn’t one to rush, especially considering that her mother’s headlong dash into her father’s arms had caused her great heartache.
Paola was determined not to repeat that bit of painful history, no matter how attracted she was to her grandmother’s emissary. She had to make a logical choice about what to do and not be ruled by reckless emotion or a needy heart. That had already brought her family too much pain.
Whatever this legacy was, she’d have to find a way to deal with it and with her attraction to Rey.
She tossed Rey’s card down on the coffee table and picked up her glass of wine. She took a sip and leaned back, letting her mind run through all the variables. Although the Friday deadline loomed large in her brain, she was certain of one thing.
Rey can wait until I’m good and ready.
It was a mistake to be here, he thought, as Paola’s assistant let him into Paola’s office and he closed the door behind him.
She was in that big executive chair, a sheath of papers in her hand that she slowly laid down as she swiveled to face him.
“It’s not Friday yet,” she said and took no other action to either welcome him or push him away.
Rey had never been someone who easily gave up. Walking to her desk and then around the edge, he stood there, hands clenched to keep from touching her. “I’m not one to leave things to chance,” he said.
“Neither am I,” she replied and did a slow turn to peer up at him, hands braced on the arms of the chair, long elegant legs crossed. Her position hiked up her skirt, allowing him a glimpse of something deliciously lacy just below the staid navy blue fabric.
He itched to explore that bit of sexy lace.
“We both know you’re more than just a buttoned-up suit,” he said and dared to graze his hand along the straight line of her shin to just below her knee.
She trembled beneath that caress and uncrossed her legs, hiding that view of the lace, but providing yet another little turn-on.