The Gold Collection: Taming The Argentinian: A Taste of the Untamed / The Untamed Argentinian / Taming the Last Acosta

Shouldering open another door, he let it bang shut behind them. ‘I’m taking you to the hacienda.’

‘To the hacienda?’ she said.

‘And then to bed.’

‘And Buddy?’

‘I’ll make a call.’

Reassured, and yet terrified, she clung to Nacho as he strode across gravel and cobbles, and finally onto an even path. Another door swung wide, and they were inside again, somewhere quiet and calm and warm, where a clock was ticking reassuringly. She heard marble tiles beneath his feet and then a wide expanse of rug. They were inside the hacienda in a big hallway, Grace realised as Nacho turned and bounded up a flight of stairs. A grand staircase, she registered as they went up and up.

Trust Nacho to have his eyrie at the top of the house, she mused when they reached a thickly carpeted landing. He strode straight on and another door opened. Greeted by the scent of clean linen and beeswax, she guessed this was his bedroom.

The room was big. It ate up several of his strides before Nacho put her down on the bed. The windows were open, and she could feel the breeze and hear the swish of voile billowing.

She heard him switch a light on and smiled. ‘I don’t need the light,’ she said.

‘But I do,’ Nacho argued, lying down at her side. ‘I want to look at you.’

She remained still on sheets scented with lavender and sunshine, her head resting comfortably on a soft bank of pillows. She was trembling with awareness, Grace realised, waiting for Nacho to touch her or to speak.

Grace was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He marvelled that someone so tiny and vulnerable could be so strong. She was all he remembered from the wedding and so much more. He smiled to think she looked even better for being flushed and dishevelled after the grape-treading. Her hair had tumbled down and was wild around her shoulders, while the juice-stained blouse did nothing to conceal the full swell of her breasts. Grape juice streaked her cheek and her neck.

Bringing her into his arms, he kissed it away. She laughed against his mouth, and her laugh was the sexiest thing he had ever heard.

‘Don’t,’ she said.

‘Don’t what?’ He pulled his head back to look at her.

‘Don’t treat me as if I’m made of cut glass,’ she warned him. ‘I’m a woman like any other, Nacho.’

Not like any other, he thought. His hungry gaze swept Grace’s body to find the cotton skirt had wrapped itself around her legs, exposing her elegant thighs. He thought of them spread wide and her legs locked around him … He wanted them joined deep. Moving over her, he teased her, with the weight of his thigh for the pleasure of hearing her groan. Taking his leg higher, he pressed more firmly, rubbing and teasing until she was gasping for breath.

‘Don’t—don’t stop,’ she said. Balling her hands, she pressed angry fists against his chest. ‘There’s nothing wrong with me. Nothing. Do you understand?’

‘All I understand is that I want you,’ he murmured, staring down. ‘But what do you want, Grace?’

‘You,’ she said fiercely. ‘I want you. I don’t want you to see a blind woman,’ she added in a voice that tore at his heart. ‘I want you to see me. I want you to see Grace—’

‘I always have,’ he whispered, dragging her close.

And it was the truth. After that first terrible shock he had come to see past the changes in Grace to everything that remained the same, and so much that had grown stronger.

‘There’s no rush. We’ve got all night, Grace.’

‘And this could take hours, I hope?’

He felt her smile against his mouth. ‘At least …’

Happy with his answer, she laughed, and his hunger spiked higher, driving back the ghosts from the past.

She had dreamed of this moment since she first saw Nacho, but never in her wildest dreams had she imagined they would ever be together like this, or that she could have the freedom of his body as he had hers. Nacho had aroused her beyond the point of reason just with his touch, and with the outrageous suggestions he was murmuring in her ear. He was the master of all things sensual, and he had made her want him with a hunger so fierce it frightened her.

‘Enough,’ she complained. ‘Stop teasing me.’ She writhed impatiently beneath him. ‘Please don’t make me wait.’

But Nacho refused to be hurried, and was content to leave her to imagine what might happen next.

‘Please don’t do this,’ she begged in a shaking voice.

His answer was to tease her with his torso, brushing his warm body against her until her nipples were on fire and she was arcing against him, shamelessly seeking contact. When he finally dipped his head to suckle her nipples through the fine fabric of her blouse she uttered a cry of sheer relief. But it wasn’t enough. The pulse between her legs was growing ever more demanding. Every time she inhaled she drew in more of Nacho’s intoxicating scent, and the thought of all his power, so effortlessly controlled and so completely at her disposal, was more aphrodisiac than she could handle.

He had to curb Grace or it would all be over for her too soon. He had never anticipated this level of hunger, and wondered if he had ever seen anyone so aroused so quickly or so fiercely. Grace was like a lioness fighting for her mate, and it took all his skill to stroke and soothe and make her hold back. When she was quiet again he kissed her tenderly, but even then she couldn’t stay still for long. Holding both her wrists, he pinned her on the bank of pillows. He was going to make this good for her. He was going to make this perfect.

He could never have anticipated that the solution to holding Grace back would come from Grace herself.

‘I want to explore you,’ she said.

He released her and, resting back on one elbow, stared down, wondering if this was another test Grace had decided she must put herself through. Closing his eyes, he traced the line of her full lips with his thumb pad as a reminder that Grace saw the world through touch now.

‘Lie back,’ she whispered.

This was the first time he had ever taken instruction in bed, but for Grace he would do pretty much anything right now.

She didn’t just learn through touch he discovered, closing his eyes. Everything a sighted person could communicate with a glance Grace delivered with her hands. They were extraordinarily sensitive. They were such tiny hands, but so cool and strong. They had been as expressive as her eyes on the day they’d first met. He’d learned as much about himself as he’d learned about Grace in those few minutes.

‘Stay still,’ she told him.

Great though it was, this was a complete role reversal for him. No wonder it took some getting used to.

Having mapped his chest, she moved on to explore the muscles of his arm and then his hands and fingers. It was the most sensuous experience he’d ever had. When she moved down the bed he held his breath as she stroked his legs. He needn’t have worried. She stopped her investigations a prudent distance up his thighs. But apart from that she was a revelation. Some instinct seemed to inform her where he felt the most pleasure and how she must touch him to increase that pleasure. She could tease and soothe in ways he had never imagined—ways that sent his senses soaring to a point where it was he who was in danger of losing control. Something that had never happened in his life before.

‘You’re not supposed to do that,’ he murmured, dragging her back into his arms.

‘Not supposed to do what?’ she said. He kissed her, soothing her again. ‘Grace?’ he murmured seeing something was wrong.

‘Did I do something wrong?’ she asked in a small voice.

He laughed softly against her mouth. ‘You did nothing wrong. You did everything right—which is why we need to pause.’ There were tears in her eyes, he noticed. ‘What haven’t you told me, Grace?’

‘It’s the way you make me feel,’ she said, biting her lip. ‘It frightens me.’ Mashing her lips together, she gave him that determined look of hers. ‘And I’m crying because you kiss so damn well.’

He laughed. ‘Then I’d better kiss you again,’ he said.

When Nacho released her she realised how close she’d come to telling him how she really felt about him—that she wasn’t even sure she could survive the strength of her feelings for him. But she had to be realistic. After devoting his life to his siblings, how could she burden Nacho with a blind woman? It was selfish of her even to think that way. She should save those wild emotions and channel them into something with a future attached—like her career.

She had promised everyone who had helped her that she would live her life to the full. Had that been just an empty pledge?

‘Grace?’ Nacho prompted, cupping her chin so he could stare into her face. ‘What is it?’