Майя Блейк - His Ultimate Prize

‘It’s called Krav Maga. It works the mind as well as the body.’

He let his gaze rake her from top to toe. ‘I don’t dispute the effects on the body. But I don’t think it’s quite working on the mind.’

He stopped another outraged gasp by stuffing a piece of chicken into her mouth. Her only option, other than spitting it out, was to chew, but that didn’t stop her glaring fiercely at him.

Rafael was so busy enjoying the way he got under her skin that he didn’t hear the low hum of the electric wheelchair until it was too late.

‘Buenos tardes, mi hijo. I’ve been looking for you.’ The greeting was low and deep. It didn’t hold any censure or hatred or flaying judgement. In fact it sounded just exactly as it would were a loving father greeting his beloved son.

But every nerve of Rafael’s being screeched with white-hot pain. His fist clenched around his walking stick until the metal dug excruciatingly into his palm. For the life of him, he couldn’t let go. He sucked in a breath as his vision blurred. Before the red haze completely dulled his vision, he saw Raven’s concerned look as her eyes darted between him and the wheelchair-bound figure.

‘Rafael?’

He couldn’t find the words to respond to the greeting. Nor could he find the words to stem Raven’s escalating concern.

Dios mío, he couldn’t even find the courage to turn around. Because how the hell could he explain to Raven that he and he alone was responsible for making his father a quadriplegic?

CHAPTER THREE

‘DO YOU WANT to talk about it?’

‘The therapy in your job title pertains only to my body, not my mind. You’ll do well to remember that.’

Raven should’ve heeded the icy warning, should’ve just kept her hands on the wheel of the luxury SUV and kept driving towards the stunning glass and steel structure that was Rafael’s home on the other side of the de Cervantes estate from his brother’s villa.

But her senses jumped at the aura of acute pain that had engulfed Rafael the moment he’d turned around to face the old man in the electric wheelchair. The same pain that surrounded him now. Grey lips were pinched into a thin line, his jaw carved from stone and fingers clamped around his walking stick in a white-knuckled grip. Even his breathing had changed. His broad chest rose and fell in an uncharacteristically shallow rhythm that screamed his agitation.

She pulled over next to a tall acacia tree, one of several hundred that lined the long winding driveway and extended into the exquisitely designed landscape beyond. Behind them, the iron gates, manned by twenty-four-hour security, swung shut.

Narrowed eyes focused with laser-like intensity on her. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’

‘I’ve stopped because we need to talk about what just happened. Your mental health affects your body’s recovery just as much as your physiotherapy regime.’

‘Healthy mind, healthy body? That’s a piss-poor way of trying to extract the hot gossip, Raven mía. You’ll need to do much better than that. Why don’t you just come out and ask for the juicy details?’

She blew a breath, refusing to rise to the bait. ‘Would you tell me if I asked you that?’

‘No.’

‘Rafael—’

Arctic-chilled eyes narrowed even further. ‘In case you didn’t already guess, that was my father. Our relationship comes under the subject line of kryptonite—keep the hell out to any and all parties.’

‘So you can dissect my personal life all you want but yours is off limits?’

His smile was just as icy. ‘Certain aspects of my personal life are wide open to you. All you have to do is say the word and I’ll be happy to educate you in how we can fully explore it.’

‘That is not what I meant.’

‘You’ve taken pains to establish boundaries between us since the moment we met. This is one of my boundaries. Attempt to breach it at your peril.’

She frowned. ‘Or what? You’ll fall back on your default setting of sexual innuendo and taunts? Rafael, I’m only trying to help you.’

His hand slashed through the air in a movement so far removed from his normal laid-back indolence her mouth dropped open. ‘I do not need your help unless it’s the help I’ve hired you to provide. Right now I want you to shut up and drive.’ He clipped out the final word in a hard bite that sent a chill down her spine.

After waiting a minute to steady her own shot nerves, she set the SUV back onto the road, aware of his continued shallow breathing and gritted-jaw iciness. Her fingers clenched over the titanium steering wheel and she practised some nerve-calming breaths of her own.

From the very first, Rafael had known which buttons to push. He’d instinctively known that the subject of sex was anathema to her and had therefore honed in on it with the precision of a laser-guided missile.

Seeing his intense reaction to his father—and she’d known immediately the nearly all-grey-haired man in the wheelchair was his father—had hammered home what she’d been surprised to learn this morning at the chapel, and had somewhat confirmed at Marco’s villa: that Rafael, as much as he pretended to be shallow and sex pest-y, had a depth he rarely showed to the world.

Was that why she was so driven to pay penance for the way she’d treated him several months ago—because deep down she thought he was worth saving?

Raven shied away from the probing thought and brought the car to a stop at the end of the driveway.

The wide solid glass door that led into the house swung open and Diego, one of the many staff Rafael employed to run his luxurious home, came down the steps to open her door. In silence, she handed him the car keys and turned to find Rafael rounding the bonnet. The sun glinting off the silver paint cast his face into sharp relief. Her breath snagged in her chest at the masculine, tortured beauty of him. She didn’t offer to assist him as he climbed the shallow steps into the house.

In the marble-floored hallway, he shrugged off his suit jacket, handed it to Diego and pulled his shirt tails impatiently from his trousers. At the glimpse of tanned golden flesh a pulse of heat shot through her belly. Sucking in a breath, she looked away, focusing on an abstract painting that took up one entire rectangular pillar in the hallway for an infinitesimal second before she glanced his away again, to find him shoving an agitated hand through his hair.

‘Do you need—?’ she started.

‘Unless I’m growing senile, today’s Sunday. Did we not agree we’d give the Florence Nightingale routine a rest on Sundays?’

Annoyance rose to mingle with her concern. ‘No, you came up with that decree. I never agreed to it.’

Handing his walking stick to a still-hovering Diego, he started to unbutton his shirt. ‘It’s a great thing I’m the boss then, isn’t it?’

Her mouth dried as several inches of stunning flesh assaulted her senses. When her brain started to short-circuit, she pulled her gaze away. ‘Undressing in the hallway, Rafael, really?’ She tried to inject as much indifference into her tone as possible but was aware her voice had become unhealthily screechy. ‘What do you think—that I’m going to run away in virginal outrage?’

His shameless grin didn’t hide the strain and tension beneath. ‘At twenty-four, I seriously doubt there’s anything virginal about you. No, mi dulzura, I’m hoping you’ll stay and cheer me on through my striptease.’

The sound that emerged from her throat made his grin widen. ‘Don’t you want to heal completely? That limp will not go away until you work hard to strengthen your core muscles and realign the bones that were damaged during the accident. If you’d just focus on that we can be rid of each other sooner rather than later.’

Although she thought she saw his shoulders stiffen as he turned to give his shirt to Diego, his grin was still in place when he faced her. ‘You’re under the impression that I want to be shot of you but you couldn’t be further from the truth. I want you right here with me every day.’

‘So I can be your whipping girl?’

‘I’ve never been a fan of whips, myself. Handcuffs, blindfolds, the odd paddle, certainly...but whips?’ He gave a mock shudder. ‘No, not my thing.’

His hand went to the top of his trousers. Deft fingers freed his button, followed by the loud, distinct sound of his zip lowering. She froze. Diego didn’t bat an eyelid. ‘For goodness’ sake, what are you doing, Rafael?’

He toed off his shoes and socks. ‘I thought it was obvious. I’m going for a swim. Care to join me?’

‘I...no, thank you.’ The way her temperature had shot up, she’d need a cold shower, not the sultry warmth of Rafael’s azure infinity pool. ‘But we’ll need to talk when you’re done. I’ll come and find you—’ She nearly choked when he dropped his trousers and stepped out of them. The way his designer cotton boxer shorts cupped his impressive man package made all oxygen flee from her lungs. Utterly captivated by the man whose sculpted body, even after the accident that had laid him flat for months, was still the best-looking she’d even seen or worked with, Raven could no more stop herself from staring than she could fly to the moon.

His thighs and legs bore scars from his accident, his calves solid powerful muscle that made the physio in her thrilled to be working with such a manly specimen. Dear Lord, even his feet were sexy, and she’d never been one to pay attention to feet unless they were directly related to her profession.

Helplessly, her gaze travelled back up, past his golden, sculpted chest and wide, athletic shoulders to collide with icy blue eyes.

‘My, my, if I didn’t enjoy it so much I’d be offended to be treated like a piece of meat.’

She snapped back to her senses to see Diego disappearing up the granite banister-less staircase leading to Rafael’s vast first floor suite. The click of his walking stick drew attention back to the man in question. One brow was raised in silent query.

‘What do you expect if you insist on making an exhibition of yourself?’

One step brought him within touching distance. ‘That’s the beauty of free will, querida. The ability to walk away when a situation displeases you.’

‘If I did that every time you attempted to rile me, I’d never get any work done and you’d still be in the pathetic shape I found you in five weeks ago.’

Another step. Raven breathed in and clenched her fists against the warm, wicked scent that assailed her senses.

‘You know what drew me to you when you first joined Team Espíritu?’ he breathed.

‘I’m sure you’re going to enlighten me.’

‘Your eyes flash with the deepest hypnotic fire when you’re all riled up but your body screams stay away. Even the most seductive woman can’t pull that off as easily as you can. I’m infinitely fascinated to know what happened to make you this way.’

‘Personal subjects are off the table. Besides, I thought you had me all worked out?’

His gaze dropped to her lips. She pressed them together to stop their insane tingling. ‘I know the general parameters of your inner angst. But I can’t help but feel there’s another layer, a deeper reason why you want me with every cell in your body but would chop off your hand before you would even bring yourself to touch me in any but a professional way.’

The ice that encased her soul came from so deep, so dark a place that she’d stopped trying to fathom the depths of it. ‘Enjoy your swim, Rafael. I’ll come by later to discuss the next steps of your regime.’