She’d never been in the stables before-she’d been hardly anywhere in this vast, rambling castle-but the stables were unmistakable. They consisted of a vast undercover walkway with stall after stall on either side. Each stall had a horse’s name above. The alleyway in front of the stalls was cobbled and the cobbles were worn with generation upon generation of boots and horseshoes.
Where were all these horses? The stalls were deserted.
Except the first stall. She peered in and found them. Raoul had located fresh hay and spread it liberally. He was sitting against the back wall, with an alpaca baby on each knee.
For a moment the sight of him took her breath away. A big man, a prince, dressed in casual clothes, dressed for the outdoors, a physician…a man with hay in his hair and with a tiny baby on each knee.
‘About time,’ he told her and the spell was broken-or broken a bit-and she managed to smile and go sit down beside him in the hay.
‘I’m not sure how we do this,’ she told him.
‘I’d guess that we stick the teat end of the bottle in the mouth end of the alpaca and see what happens,’ he told her.
‘Gee,’ she said admiringly. ‘That’s what a medical degree teaches you, huh?’
‘That’s not the half of it, lady,’ he told her. ‘Let’s give it a try.’
So they did. And it worked.
And then it became even more unsettling, Jess decided. Sitting on the fresh-smelling hay, her shoulder just brushing the man beside her, with the babies sucking greedily at their bottles as they nestled into the knees of their human carers…
It was so domestic it was scary, Jess thought, and then she thought, yep, she was beginning to be scared. She was definitely scared. Since Dominic’s death-well, ever since his diagnosis-she’d felt way out of control, and now…it was as if there was an edge somewhere really close, and she was about to go into free-fall.
They didn’t speak. Jess couldn’t think of a thing to say, and it seemed Raoul was no smarter. The tiny alpacas drank most of their bottles, but it had been a huge day for the baby alpacas. As the level of the bottles dropped, their drinking slowed, and as the last of the milk drained away the babies drifted off to sleep.
They were twins. They gave each other comfort. Their mother had never fed them, they knew humans as the source of their food and they had each other. So, fed and warm, they nestled together without fear on the soft hay and slept.
‘I guess we can leave them,’ Jess said and her voice sounded funny. That edge was definitely closer.
Raoul had risen and was holding out his hand to pull her up. She took it, uncertainly. ‘I’ll bring Edouard down later to introduce him to them,’ he said. He tugged her to her feet and she rose and was suddenly too close.
Far too close.
‘I guess we should go tell the others what we’ve done,’ Raoul said, but he didn’t move.
‘I guess.’
‘Jess, I want to thank you.’
‘No thanks needed.’ Her voice had fallen to a whisper. She didn’t know why, but it had. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Step away from the edge.
‘Without you…’
‘Without me you would have found someone else.’
‘No one else,’ he said, softly. He was already holding one of her hands. Suddenly he was holding the other. He was looking down into her eyes, he was tugging her against him-and then, without her willing it, without her knowing exactly how it had happened-or why-he was kissing her.
She didn’t want to kiss Raoul Louis d’Apergenet. She did not!
Who was she kidding? She wanted to kiss Raoul Louis d’Apergenet more than anything-anyone!-in the world. He was lowering his mouth onto hers, she was opening her lips to him and it felt the most natural, the most wonderful thing that she’d ever done in her life.
It felt as if she had found her home.
This man could kiss! The sensations she’d experienced during their wedding kiss came flooding back. Raoul was right for her. He was the other half of her whole. They fitted together perfectly, and he filled a need in her that she hadn’t known she had-that she hadn’t known existed. Now it felt so good, so right, that to tear herself away was unthinkable.
He smelled wonderful. New-mown hay, milk, baby alpaca and…and Raoul.
He felt wonderful.
He tasted just fine.
She could forget herself in this man’s arms, she thought blissfully, and promptly did.
For Jess, the last two years had been a blur of misery and despair. She’d emerged at the end of the struggle for Dom’s life thinking she could never again feel life above the grey fog she lived in.
But in these few days…no, in these last few hours the fog had been blasted clear. There was life outside her fog. Life was waiting. Raoul was waiting.
But he was no longer waiting. Raoul was claiming her for life. Life was…beginning.
And she gloried in the sensation. Her fingers were entwined in his hair, claiming him, deepening the kiss. She felt her body respond, aroused as it had never been aroused, wanting as it had never wanted…
Raoul.
How did he make her feel like this? She didn’t know and she wasn’t asking questions. For now there was only this moment, this sensation of pure pleasure, of aching need fulfilled, and the feeling that it was reciprocated.
This man was her husband.
‘My wife,’ he murmured in her ear and it felt right.
This was the start of the rest of her life?
His hands were on her blouse, unfastening the buttons. She wasn’t objecting. Why would she? His hands were rough and warm and tender on her breasts and she wanted this as much as he wanted it.
Raoul. Her husband.
‘We don’t have witnesses,’ she murmured and she felt him smile.
‘Excellent.’
Excellent was good. Excellent was…well, excellent. No more questions.
Or maybe just the one. His hands were moving lower, caressing her hips. She felt herself ache with pleasure and with need, and she knew…she knew that the question that had to be asked must be asked now. Now!
‘Um…do we have protection?’
That gave pause. He pulled back, enough to look down into her eyes-and he groaned.
‘Hell.’
Hell indeed.
‘Hay’s prickly anyway, my love,’ she whispered, trying to ignore the jolt of dismay that she felt run through her whole body. But she couldn’t ignore it. Something had happened to her here that was unfathomable. Every inch of her was screaming that she was married-joined-and they should begin their marriage right now. Protection or not. In this sweet-smelling hay, with sleeping babies beside them…
Babies. Not! They both thought the same thing at the same time and their bodies jerked apart a whole half- inch.
‘Hell.’ It was a deeper groan, heartfelt. Raoul raked his hair in dismay, but he took her into his arms again, tender and yet proprietorial. Claiming his own. Claiming his wife?
‘I guess it does matter,’ he whispered into her hair.
‘It surely does.’ Her words sounded firm. She wasn’t the least bit firm inside though. She was very, very wobbly. ‘If you think I’m going back to Australia pregnant…’
‘Do you need to go back to Australia?’
It was her turn to pause then. To pull back. To stare at his face and try to read his eyes.
‘Of course I need to go.’
‘We could wait and see if this marriage could work.’
Another pause. Everything seemed to still. What was he saying? ‘Yeah?’ she managed, but it was a squeak.
