like or approve of Lionel. ‘No, there’s just the three of us,’ she answered pointedly.
‘Hmm,’ he murmured enigmatically. ‘It’s really is good to see you again, Cairo,’ he added huskily. ‘The two of us need to talk—’
‘I don’t think so, Lionel,’ she cut in firmly; she and Lionel had absolutely nothing left to say to each other. They had spent months, years, trying to sort out the problems between them, all to no avail.
He reached out and grasped her arm. ‘Tell me where you’re staying, Cairo, and I’ll—’
‘Take your hand off her, Bond!’ Rafe snarled between clenched teeth.
Lionel shot him a look of pure dislike. ‘Butt out, Montero—’
‘I’ll give you until the count of three—’
‘And then what?’ Lionel challenged. ‘This is absolutely none of your business—’
‘I’m making it my business,’ Rafe said in a lethal tone.
‘Please don’t, Rafe.’ Cairo put her hand on his arm, her look one of pleading before she turned back to her ex-husband. ‘We both know we have nothing left to say to each other, Lionel, and I certainly don’t appreciate the way you’re drawing attention to all of us,’ she added as she became aware of the many curious gazes turned in their direction. ‘I believe it’s time that we left, Rafe.’
‘I’ll call you,’ Lionel called after her.
Rafe turned to give the other man an icy glare, his hands clenching at his sides as he saw the almost desperate look on Bond’s handsome face as he gazed after Cairo.
‘Do we really have to go?’ Daisy frowned her disappointment. ‘I’m not in the least tired,’ she assured them, widening her eyes as if to prove the point, and looking absolutely adorable as she did so.
Rafe chuckled softly as he released his hold on Cairo’s waist to swing Daisy up into his arms. ‘Aunty Cairo needs her beauty sleep,’ he told her teasingly.
Daisy turned to look at her aunt. ‘Aunty Cairo can’t be any more beautiful than she already is,’ she informed him proudly.
No, she couldn’t, Rafe acknowledged heavily. She was absolutely gorgeous. Assured. Desirable.
‘Then maybe it’s me who needs my beauty sleep,’ he said ruefully.
‘You’re much better looking than Uncle Lionel,’ Daisy confided with innocent candour.
Rafe looked at Cairo over Daisy’s head, wondering how she was taking the comparison, but unable to read anything from her composed expression as she coolly met his gaze.
‘I like you better than Uncle Lionel, too,’ Daisy continued with that same innocence. ‘He never played with me like you do.’
Cairo thought this conversation had gone far enough. Even if she did completely agree with everything Daisy had just said!
Rafe’s rugged handsomeness was much more appealing than Lionel’s suave urbanity. And, despite their differences, like Daisy, Cairo liked Rafe much better than she did Lionel, too….
‘All the flattery in the world isn’t going to stop us from leaving, young lady,’ she teased her niece, although it was still several minutes before they got outside as people engaged them in conversation as they made their way towards the exit.
Daisy was fast asleep in the back of the car within minutes of their leaving the bright lights of Cannes. ‘So much for her not being tired,’ Cairo murmured wryly as she turned from making the little girl more comfortable within the confines of her seat belt. ‘Phew.’ She sighed deeply. ‘I can’t say I’m sorry that’s over!’ She leant back wearily against the headrest and closed her eyes.
Rafe gave her a brief glance, a frown creasing his brow when he turned back to the road as he was once again struck by Cairo’s air of fragility. ‘Is that the first time you and Bond have met since the divorce?’ he asked.
‘Yes.’
‘I’m sorry it had to be in such a public way.’ Rafe grimaced.
‘I’m not.’ Cairo turned her head to look at him. ‘Thank you for being so—supportive,’ she told him huskily.
Rafe’s mouth tightened as he once again wondered how she really felt about seeing Bond again….
He shrugged. ‘Bond didn’t really give me any choice in the matter.’
‘No,’ Cairo accepted ruefully. ‘But I thank you, anyway.’
Rafe couldn’t think of a single thing to say in answer to that comment as they made the rest of the drive back to the villa in silence.
A tense, almost expectant silence, as even the air between them seemed to crackle with a taut, nerve-tingling tension that was electric in its intensity.
‘I’ll carry her inside,’ Rafe offered as he parked the car in the driveway of the villa to get out and lift Daisy from the back seat.
‘Thank you,’ Cairo murmured, barely able to look at the broadness of Rafe’s back as she followed him through the villa to Daisy’s bedroom.
What had happened between them in the car just now?
Because something had. Something so tangible Cairo felt she could almost reach out and touch it. Could reach out and touch Rafe.
As she knew he wanted to touch her….
‘I’ll be waiting outside on the terrace when you’ve finished putting Daisy to bed,’ he breathed softly as he straightened after laying Daisy down on the cool sheets.
Cairo looked at him wordlessly, her gaze searching the hard, unreadable arrogance of his face. ‘Rafe—’ She broke off, her eyes wide, as Rafe moved to stand so close to her their bodies almost touched, that crackling tension she had been so aware of in the car intensifying as their gazes met and held.
Cairo could barely breathe. Rafe made no effort now to hide the desire burning in the luminous depths of those deep blue eyes, the same desire that had been there earlier this afternoon when he’d told her of all the things he would like to do to her.
He lifted his hand, his palm cupping her chin as the pad of his thumb moved gently across her bottom lip. Cairo instinctively parted her lips at the softness of that caress even as she felt her nipples harden and swell beneath her dress.
Time seemed to stand still.
Not a sound, not a movement of air disturbed them.
All there was at that moment was Rafe and this wild, singing awareness that heated the blood in Cairo’s veins and made her skin burn with the need for the caress of his hands upon it, stroking, cupping, arousing.
She didn’t move—couldn’t move as Rafe began to lower his head towards hers, her breath catching in her throat as his lips moved softly, enticingly, against hers. He was no longer touching her in any other way but held her captive there with just
