as not glamorous.
Camilla took a folded newspaper from her bag and spread it on the table. Rafael, oblivious to Maggie’s violent plans, did not even glance at it.
He can’t even take his eyes off the woman, Maggie thought miserably…and who can blame him?
‘That afternoon on the deck when we got… It turns out we weren’t alone. Tragic, I know, and so shocking—there’s absolutely no privacy these days. I think it must have been that speedboat that passed.’
‘Just as you took off your top.’
Maggie closed her eyes and thought, Just kill me now, let me die or, failing that, let me come up with a really good exit line!
‘Timing is everything.’
Rafael walked over to Maggie’s side. She tensed as she felt his fingers massage the tense muscles of her neck. ‘You all right?’
Maggie moved away and, unable to come up with an exit line of any variety, mumbled, ‘No, if you’ll excuse me…’
He moved to block her exit and declared autocratically, ‘No, I won’t. I want you to hear this.’
Tears of anger and humiliation formed in her eyes. Did he want to rub her nose in it for some reason, or was he genuinely unaware of how humiliating this was for her?
Maggie wasn’t sure which explanation was the worst.
‘So why are these photos appearing now, Cami, three months after the event?’
Cami and Rafe? She really wanted to throw up now. A choked sound escaped Maggie’s throat.
‘What’s wrong?’
That he could ask the question spoke volumes about his sheer titanic insensitivity.
‘I always knew there was something missing, now I know what it is…a pet name for you, darling.’
The corners of Rafael’s mouth twitched. ‘I’m sure you’ll think of something, honeybunch.’ He turned back to the other woman and folded his arms across his chest. The levity left his eyes as he snapped coldly, ‘Come clean, Cami.’
‘All right, I can see you’ve guessed—you always do. The studio are meeting this weekend and there have been rumours flying around that they are going to cancel the show. The viewing figures were low, but that was because they killed off my love interest… I always said—’
‘Cami!’
‘All right, all right. I arranged for the photo to be taken as an insurance policy, and it turned out I needed it, and,’ she added, clapping her hands and releasing a squeal of delight, ‘it has worked. The photos are all over the Internet, your name guarantees that, and the studio have been on the phone all morning. They are definitely going to commission a third series and give me a pay hike. Aren’t I brilliant?’
Rafael was at his most dry as he responded, ‘Not the word I would have used.’
Cami gave a wide complacent smile. ‘I knew you wouldn’t be mad if I explained things.’
‘You are a very devious woman, Cami.’
Maggie had struggled to follow the explanation—the American spoke very quickly and her brain was on a go-slow—but if she had got the facts even half right Rafael’s attitude made no sense. The woman had used him and the apparent public appetite for stories about him, and he didn’t even seem mad.
That made no sense at all unless…unless he was in love with the beautiful actress.
‘Darling, a girl has to watch her back in this business if she doesn’t have a man to do it for her.’
‘Your agent would sell his soul for you, always supposing he ever had one.’
‘Gus is a treasure but he doesn’t do it for free.’ She picked up a croissant from the table. ‘You know, I’m totally starving.’
Rafael put his hands on her shoulders and turned her around. ‘Say goodbye, Cami.’
She gave a philosophical smile. ‘Goodbye…’ She waved over her shoulder to Maggie, who stood like a small statue and watched Rafael steer her through the door.
When he returned a few moments later she was still standing in exactly the same place.
‘Your luggage has arrived,’ he said, setting her cases on the floor.
Maggie expelled a deep shuddering sigh and felt the life return to her body, and the anger and the burning humiliation.
She marched over to him and picked them up. ‘I won’t be unpacking.’
‘Fine. I will buy you new clothes.’
She scrunched up her face in a grimace of loathing. ‘I would prefer to walk around naked!’ she yelled.
‘I can work with that.’
She compressed her full lips into a thin line. ‘I have no interest in being part of your harem!’
He studied her angry face for a moment in silence. ‘Do you not think that perhaps you are overreacting?’ he suggested calmly.
‘Mildly!’
She stood her ground as he walked across to her, though by the time he reached her side her knees were shaking.
‘You’re crying.’
‘Not because I give a damn about your sleazy sex life, I’m mad, that’s all.’
‘You’re jealous.’ The first display of jealousy was his signal to walk, but Rafael could see that this situation was different.
In what way exactly? asked the pedantic voice in his head.
Different required a different approach—not compromise, because he did not do compromise, but an explanation perhaps?
‘You have no cause. Cami and I were lovers…’
She rolled her eyes. ‘Shock, horror, call the press—oh, I forgot,’ she trilled. ‘They already know.’ The world knows and he appears to care less. ‘And save your explanations. I’m just someone you picked up—you don’t owe me any.’
‘Do not speak of yourself in that manner!’ There was a reason he had spent his life facing problems head-on and not manipulating and nice talking his way around them—nice talk didn’t work!
She blinked at the lash of anger in his voice.
‘It’s the truth.’
‘It is a crude version of the truth and you are deliberately trying to provoke me.’ A spasm of impatience tightened his lean face as he snapped, ‘Shut up and listen. Past tense—we were lovers. I do not have a harem, I have one lover in my bed at a time and at the moment it is you.’ And for some reason even though she drove him
