In the Name of Love (7 page)

Charlie pouted. ‘That’s exactly the kind of comment I had to put up with from all the pervert men!’

‘But come on! I’m sure it cuts both ways. For instance, I bet you like a man in uniform? Say … a fireman?’

What woman didn’t?
‘Okay,’ Charlie conceded, ‘but I didn’t like the way the men felt they could say anything to me, and it wasn’t just about the uniform. They thought they were superior to me because of the job I was doing. But people shouldn’t be defined by what they do.’ She gave him a challenging stare and he was aware of the grit and determination within her.

‘I completely agree.’ He raised his glass, and clinked it against hers.

Their meal arrived and they continued their flirtatious banter as they both picked at their food – far more interested in each other than in dinner. She was feisty, opinionated and passionate; he liked that. Paloma only seemed to get fired up about Prada’s latest collection. Charlie made a refreshing change.

When the waiter cleared away their half-empty plates
Felipe
made a point of thanking him. Hell! He would have offered to clear the plates away himself and do the washing up for the entire restaurant if it helped win him Charlie. And just as he thought he was doing well on that score, he nearly blew it with his next suggestion. ‘We could have dessert in my suite?’

Charlie shook her head. ‘You never give up, do you?’

‘No, you will find that I am very persistent. And that I nearly always get my own way.’ But sensing he was in danger of not getting it this time, he added, ‘How about a walk on the beach?’

He felt as if he’d won first prize in a race when Charlie agreed.

It was a beautiful night with a full moon casting a shimmer of silver across the ocean. The air was fragrant with the scent of jasmine, and a slight breeze caused the palm trees to sway slightly and their huge leaves to rustle gently. Charlie stumbled slightly in her heels as she walked down the stone steps and Felipe reached out and held her hand. His grip felt warm and strong. He didn’t let go when they reached the beach and she realised that she didn’t want him to.

The beach was deserted; the sun loungers had been stacked up and the parasols all folded away into ghostly white spikes. Charlie kicked off her sandals. The sand felt refreshingly cool under her feet as they walked along the shore away from the resort. ‘It’s so beautiful here,’ she declared. She felt a wonderful sense of freedom and excitement at being alone with Felipe.

‘Being here with you makes it perfect,’ he replied.
And
he moved towards her and kissed her. At the feel of his mouth, his beautiful mouth, on hers and the delicious probing of his tongue, Charlie felt tendrils of lust unfurl within her body. Now all she could think of was how much she wanted him. She kissed him back. She felt reckless … on fire.

‘I have a dare for you, Charlie,’ Felipe murmured. ‘We should have a moonlight swim. It’s like this whole beach is here just for us – what do you say?’

‘I think we might need to go to the next beach,’ she replied, noticing the two hotel staff patrolling the shore. They were on the look out for any would-be thieves attracted by the resort, but Charlie knew skinny dipping would be frowned upon.

‘You’re on.’

A scramble over some rocks and they discovered a deserted cove.

‘Race you in,’ she challenged.

‘But I have more clothes than you to take off,’ he protested. ‘You should give me a head start.’

‘Okay, shirt and shoes off and then we’re even.’

She moved closer and unbuttoned his shirt, loving the feel of his warm skin, and then she couldn’t resist further exploration and brushed her hand over his rock-hard abs. He was watching her all the time as if daring her to go further. She unzipped the dress and let it tumble on to the sand. Felipe didn’t take his eyes off her as she unclipped her bra and threw it down.

‘You are so going to lose!’ she taunted, naked except for her lace briefs.

‘Believe me, it will be worth it,’ he replied, blatantly
checking
out her body. She contemplated turning away from him and then thought, What the hell? and slipped off her underwear. She raced into the sea and dived in. The water felt like silk against her skin.

By the time she’d surfaced Felipe was in the water beside her. Damn, she’d missed out on the view. ‘Loser!’ she taunted, swimming away from him.

‘Not so fast!’ he called out, quickly gaining on her with an impressive front crawl. Reaching out for her arm, he pulled her to him. Charlie contemplated resisting, and then gave up and curled her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist as he stood up. She shivered with pleasure as she encountered his naked body, which was every bit as muscular, defined and hard as she had anticipated. Felipe kissed her on the mouth and then her breasts, the moonlight glistening on her naked skin. She felt incredibly powerful, sexy and turned on. Ready for anything.

But then she noticed a couple walking along the beach and wriggled out of Felipe’s embrace. He was about to protest, then registered they were no longer alone.

‘I think we should go somewhere a little more private, don’t you?’ he commented, mirroring her thoughts exactly.

‘That’s a very good idea, Mr Five Star,’ Charlie replied as she quickly swam back to shore.

Checking that the couple weren’t looking their way, she raced out of the water and slipped on the dress. She would most likely have to buy Zoe a new one as she wasn’t sure the designer number could take the salt
water.
Then she couldn’t resist watching Felipe bounding out after her. He made no attempt to cover his very prominent erection.

‘I’m surprised there hasn’t been an eclipse,’ she teased. But secretly she was very, very impressed …

And she was even more impressed when they finally made it back to his penthouse suite. Without a trace of inhibition he pulled off his clothes and fell on to the bed with her. ‘Now where were we?’ he murmured, expertly unzipping her dress and sliding it off her body …

Charlie woke up exactly where she had fallen asleep, with Felipe’s arms around her. Last night felt like a dream, a wonderful dream … except judging by the evidence of Felipe lying next to her, it had been real. She carefully slipped out of his embrace and nipped to the bathroom. As she might have predicted her hair had been transformed into wild curls but everything else seemed in pretty good shape – her eyes seemed to have an extra sparkle and her skin had a glow about it. She felt amazing! She had forgotten how good sex could be … good sex, that was. Actually, forget that, amazing, orgasmic, mind-blowing sex where she had lost count of how many times she had come …

She quickly showered and cleaned her teeth. Wrapped in a towel, she crept back into the bedroom, intending to slip back into bed, but Felipe was already up and sitting on the terrace, dressed only in a pair of white boxers and Ray-Ban Aviator sunglasses. He was outrageously handsome, even first thing in the morning. He waved at her. ‘Charlie, I’ve ordered room service. I
wasn’t
sure what you’d like so there’ll be a selection of fruit, pancakes, eggs, juice.’

She padded over. ‘You know, you would make a very lovely boyfriend.’

He put his arm around her and pulled her on to his lap. ‘Is that a proposition?’

‘Actually, I just want you for sex and breakfast, if that’s okay?’ she teased.

‘Fine by me,’ he deadpanned, then cheekily whipped the towel from her body and threw it out of her reach.

‘I’m sure the resort has strict rules about this kind of thing,’ Charlie told him, attempting to cover herself up with her arms.

‘You’re right,’ Felipe murmured. ‘I was going to make love to you in the sunshine, starting perhaps like this …’ He gently moved Charlie’s arm away and kissed and sucked at her already-hard nipples, causing ripples of desire to pulse through her body, which intensified when he slipped his hand between her legs and began caressing her with his fingers, causing her to sigh with sheer pleasure and forget about the possibility of anyone being able to see them.

But then he stopped. ‘Let’s go inside.’ While Charlie lay on the bed, he put the Do Not Disturb sign outside the door before joining her. He brought her to another trembling orgasm with the delicious flicking of his tongue, and while she was still quivering with ecstasy he pushed inside her and fucked her with an intensity that had them both gasping for breath …

*

They finally had breakfast around midday.

‘Really, every day should start like this,’ Felipe told her as they once more sat outside on the terrace, this time dressed in their robes.

‘Agreed.’ Charlie grinned at him. And then she felt a pang of guilt. She was supposed to be on holiday with Zoe. She didn’t want to abandon her friend just because of a man, even a man as gorgeous as Felipe.

‘I should go,’ she added. ‘I need to catch up with Zoe.’

‘There’s no rush. I’ve told Luis and Zoe to meet us at the beach in an hour. We’re taking a boat out.’

‘Oh?’ Charlie was surprised that Felipe had thought of this.

‘I didn’t think you would be the sort of girl to drop a friend, and even I would feel bad about leaving Luis to his own devices.’

Charlie was impressed by his thoughtfulness. TFB would have sulked in such a situation, expecting her to drop everything for him. Felipe was altogether more mature. She appreciated the difference.

Once she’d finished breakfast Charlie tracked Zoe down by the pool. Her friend was reclining on one of sunbeds beneath a blue parasol and looking the epitome of beach chic in yet another of her bikinis – this time a vivid purple number – and an over-sized pair of sunglasses, sipping a healthy-looking fruit smoothie.

‘Good night?’ Zoe enquired.

‘It was all right, if you like that kind of thing.’ Charlie tried to sound low-key, but couldn’t stop an enormous grin from spreading across her face.

‘And what kind of thing would that be?’

Charlie flopped down on the sunbed next to her friend. ‘Hot sex, hot sex and more hot sex, with a hot man, who is gorgeous! And clever and sexy and gorgeous … did I already mention that?’

Zoe laughed; she didn’t think she had ever heard Charlie speak like this about a man before. Nor had she seen her looking so relaxed. Since her accident it had been as if part of Charlie had shut down and she had no longer been her old carefree self.

‘So what did you do last night?’ Charlie went on.

‘I spent a great evening with Luis, playing cards and watching the football. And checking out his wardrobe and telling him what to wear so he doesn’t end up looking like a crustacean. His wife is
so
going to thank me.’

‘I knew you were only pretending to be ill!’

‘Yep, all part of my scheme to get you to go out with Felipe. Weren’t you impressed by my acting skills? Oscar potential, I reckon.’

Charlie gave a rueful smile, partly at her friend’s cunning plan and partly at the idea she had needed any encouragement to see Felipe. The only thing she was going to find hard was not seeing him.

‘And I got the lowdown on Felipe,’ Zoe continued. ‘He broke up with his girlfriend four months ago, which I think seems like a decent length of time, so he’s not on the rebound. And
he
ended it with her.’ She glanced over at her friend who was gazing up at the sky.

‘I think I really like him,’ Charlie said dreamily. Then she looked at Zoe. ‘I might have to buy you a new dress. We went skinny dipping and it got wet.’

‘No problem, I don’t think it suited me anyway. So come on, tell me, out of ten, how would you rate him?’

‘Off the scale.’

‘Oh, yeah, baby!’ Zoe exclaimed, adding cheekily, ‘Aren’t you glad you had that Brazilian?’

‘The Spaniard was a lot more fun,’ Charlie replied, grinning.

It turned out to be an idyllic day. Felipe had hired a catamaran skippered by a local man called Captain Jack, who insisted he’d been called that long before the
Pirates of the Caribbean
movies existed and that he’d had the dreadlocks and gold tooth before Johnny Depp was even born. He also had the loudest laugh Charlie had ever heard, which he put to good use when he found out that Zoe and she were enjoying this holiday at her boyfriend’s expense.

‘I would never dare to forget my wife’s birthday. She’d be likely to cut off my balls and wear them as earrings!’ Captain Jack declared, causing Felipe and Luis to look a little uncomfortable at the image.

‘Oh, no, I’d never do that,’ Zoe said sweetly. ‘I much prefer my diamonds. They’re from Tiffany’s.’ Prompting another guffaw from Captain Jack.

They motored along the coast for an hour to an area popular with turtles. There they spent several hours snorkelling and swimming with the graceful amphibians who were well used to humans and seemed unconcerned by their presence, and were happy to allow the swimmers to observe them at close quarters.

Charlie had wondered if it might be awkward seeing
Felipe
again after their passionate night and equally passionate morning. But she felt completely at ease with him as they chatted to their friends, swam together and sat next to each other on the boat, he with his arm around her. Charlie loved that he was so affectionate with her in public, kissing and hugging her. She felt treasured and desired. Felipe was a wonderful contrast to TFB who had only ever seemed to show any affection in the bedroom.

For a late lunch Captain Jack steered them to a tranquil bay and served up a delicious picnic of miniature crab cakes, shrimp salad, slices of watermelon, and mango and lime sorbet. Felipe made a point of thanking him for everything he did and helping out wherever he could, and Charlie smiled, wondering if he was only on his best behaviour in front of her.

‘Your wife has a beautiful smile and beautiful green eyes. You’re a lucky man, Señor Castillo,’ Captain Jack commented as he topped up everyone’s wine glasses with ice-cold white wine.

Felipe smiled. ‘I agree entirely, but she’s not my wife.’

Captain Jack froze. ‘Well, I would change that pretty soon, my friend!’ he exclaimed. ‘You two are meant to be together, that is obvious. I can see that. Anyone can see that. And I am never wrong about these things. I can show you many, many photographs I have been sent over the years by couples who got married after I had predicted it.’