Claiming His Baby

Feeling light-headed, Heather didn’t know where to look. “You shouldn’t have come.”

“You’re right.” His voice grated. “But for once in my life I did something totally against my better judgment.”

She moistened her lips in a nervous gesture. “Th-this is too soon after Salt Lake.”

Her honesty was as disarming now as it was the night they met. Raul bit out an epithet before raking an unsteady hand through his hair. He straightened to his full, intimidating height.

“Shall I let you get back to your practicing?”

“No—” she blurted, absolutely frantic he would walk away and leave her more desolate than ever.

His black eyes narrowed on her mouth. “Where can we go and be alone, Heather?”

Though they weren’t touching, he could feel her tremble.

“Right here.”

She’d finally whispered the words he’d been desperate to hear. Raul knew that if he went into that room, his whole life was going to change. He had the gut feeling she knew it, too. It was as if they could read each other’s minds.

He hesitated, giving her a chance. For what, he didn’t know exactly. She simply stood there, waiting…

Unable to help himself, he moved inside, taking the irreversible step. As he closed the door behind him, he noted the stunned expression on the young man’s face.

Raul fastened the lock, then turned to her. “You know what I want to do.”

“Yes,” came the aching reply. “It’s all I’ve been able to think about.”

“Then come here to me, muchacha,” Raul begged.

She stepped slowly into his arms, raising her mouth blindly for his kiss. He lifted her off the floor to mold her beautiful body to his, but nothing in his imagination had prepared him for the experience of touching and tasting Heather Sanders.

Her overwhelming response swept away all barriers, leaving Raul the one who was trembling from the passion she’d aroused. He’d heard it in her music, had spent sleepless nights dreaming of unleashing it in his arms. The reality was beyond his comprehension.

Together they began to move and breathe as one flesh.

He wanted to know all there was to know about her, and could no more stop what was happening than she could.

Heather had never experienced this kind of ecstasy before. The few kisses she’d exchanged with the boys she’d dated had nothing to do with this mindless rapture. Raul had awakened an insatiable hunger in her. She never wanted this giving and taking to end.

She moaned aloud when he tore his lips from hers and buried his face in the silken sheen of her hair. His breathing had grown shallow.

“Madre de Dios. I want you, Heather. I want you so badly I could swallow you alive.” He crushed her closer. “How am I going to walk away from you, amorada?”

Still caught up in a state of sensual euphoria, his question didn’t register all at once. But when it did, it might as well have been a dagger plunged to the very core of her being. Through sheer strength of will she stopped raining kisses on his face and pulled completely out of his arms.

Shaking like a leaf in the wind she cried, “How can you tell me you want me, and then ask me that question in the same breath?”

His features hardened, making him look older. “How can I not? We have no future. I had no right to touch you. If your father had any idea I had come here—”

Heather grasped the corner of the piano for support. “I—I think you’d better go now.” She forced the words from lips swollen by his kisses. “You’ll miss your plane.”

He felt as if he’d been running for miles and couldn’t catch his breath. “I made a grave mistake in coming.”

Her proud chin lifted. “If you’re worried on my account, please don’t be. We’ve both satisfied a craving. Th-that’s all it was.”

Raul shook his head. “That’s the first dishonest thing you’ve said since I met you.” His face darkened with lines. “I wish to God it were the truth.”

Heather held her ground. “In time we’ll work each other out of our systems. Living on different continents will help.”

His black eyes glittered dangerously. “You don’t believe that any more than I do.”

“I won’t have an affair with you.”

There was a long pause. “You have a lot to learn about me, Heather. The only way I’d take you is in holy wedlock and that possibility is out of the question.”

Another stab wound.

Naturally a thirty-seven-year old doctor who’d lived in the bush without a wife all this time had no plans to acquire one at this late date. Heather didn’t want to hear anymore.

“Please go, Raul.”

“You know you don’t want me to.”

“Now what are you saying?” she cried out in abject frustration.

His hands balled into fists. “So help me, I wish I knew. My life is not a conventional one. Your career on the concert stage is just beginning. You’ve a glorious future ahead of you. A normal courtship is out of the question for reasons too obvious to bother discussing.

“An affair with a weekend here or there every couple of months couldn’t possibly satisfy either one of us. The only solution to our problem would be to get married at some point, or never see each other again.

“If I asked you to be my wife, you would have to walk away from the concert stage and never look back. After certain things Evan shared with me, I don’t even want to think about what it would do to your father.

“I’ll tell you right now, I’m a possessive man. I couldn’t share you with anything or anyone. If you and I were to marry, I’d want you with me every night.”

At this juncture Heather couldn’t take it all in, and sank down on the piano bench.

“My life’s work is in the bush. You would have to come to my world. There could be no compromise. In other words, Heather, I’d be doing all the taking, and you’d end up hating me.

“The environment is so hostile, it’s difficult to find health workers from my own country willing to work in the bush hospital. Someone like you would never survive there.”

She jumped up from the bench. “You don’t know that!”

“The hell I don’t!” His chest heaved. “Much as I might want you for my wife, I couldn’t risk robbing you of the life you were meant to live. You have a unique gift to give to the world. I would never ask you to make such a sacrifice.”

Before she could comprehend it, he’d undone the lock and turned the handle of the door.

“Forgive the intrusion. It will never happen again.”

He meant what he said. In about one second he was going to walk away from her and she really would have seen the last of him. She couldn’t let that happen.