She kept her gaze on him even. ‘I bought this house six months after I left you. Lavish is your style, not mine.’ Her two-bedroom villa was modest but more than adequate for her needs. It might not have its own swimming pool or a beach at the bottom of the garden but nor did it have so many rooms she needed a map to find her way around.
‘That’s not how I remember things.’
Oh, yes. That was right. He thought she was a gold-digger. ‘I don’t control your memories.’
‘And neither do you control your finances.’
Fighting the rising anger, Charley tugged at her bag and rummaged through for her keys. ‘Let’s get this done.’
Inside, she headed straight to her bedroom and began to pack, carefully placing her clothes into the same Louis Vuitton suitcases she’d used when she’d left him. She could hear Raul giving himself a tour of her home. It was a very short tour. Minutes later he was in her room watching her put the last of her stuff into the cases.
‘Are you nearly done?’
‘Yes. Whatever we can’t fit in the car today I’ll collect on Friday.’ On Friday they would be coming back to Valencia. She would work at the centre while Raul finalised the purchase of the new building. As far as Raul was concerned, her shift at the centre would be her last. She wasn’t prepared to argue about it until the deeds were signed and in her hands.
Raul heaved her cases off the bed and carried them to the car. Charley slipped into the spare room she used as an office and gathered all her plans together.
‘What’s that?’ he asked, entering the tiny space a short while later, standing behind her and immediately making it feel even more cramped than usual.
‘The plans for the redevelopment of the new centre.’
‘Don’t bother with them,’ he said dismissively. ‘I’ll get my own architect onto it.’
She placed everything into the briefcase she’d taken to the bank manager only the day before, sliding it on top of the financial aspects of the loan she had pored over for hours. Do not bite, she warned herself. Raul still has a number of days to change his mind. Do not bite. ‘Your architect can use these plans to guide him.’
‘You think you know better than an architect with twenty years’ experience?’
‘I think this is something to be discussed when the deeds have been signed.’ Until then, do not bite.
‘Cariño, do not forget, this project is now under my control.’ He stepped closer to her, close enough that she could feel his heat warm her back. His voice dropped to a murmur. She could feel his breath in her hair. ‘As are you.’
Charley froze, keeping herself ramrod straight, and swallowed the moisture that filled her mouth.
How did he do this? How did he make her want him so much while simultaneously making her want to scratch her nails down his face?
‘I’m not yours until Friday,’ she reminded him in a strangled voice. ‘No touching until then.’
‘I don’t think you’ll make me wait that long.’
‘I hate you.’
‘I know.’ His breath whispered through the strands of her hair, heating her scalp. ‘It must be awful for you, hating me so much but wanting me even more.’
‘I don’t want you.’
‘I never realised when we married what a liar you are.’ The tip of his nose nestled into her hair. ‘If I hadn’t been so blinded by lust I would have known your words of love and your promise of a child were nothing but lies to access my fortune.’
His tone was playful but when Charley spun round to face him she saw the darkness in his eyes.
‘I didn’t lie to you and I didn’t marry you for your money.’ She hated that he thought of her as a gold-digger, making out that the times when they’d been happy together—and there had been times when she’d been delirious with happiness—were nothing but a lie.
‘Then what did you marry me for? My wit and personality?’ he taunted in that same playful way, as the darkness in his eyes turned cold.
‘You.’ She felt heat creep up her neck. ‘I married you for you. I thought you were wonderful.’
He feigned injury. ‘You don’t think I’m wonderful any more?’
‘I think you’re cruel. You’re using those poor children as pawns to get me back into your bed and all because of some ridiculous notion of revenge because I wouldn’t have your baby.’
Where her words came from she didn’t know and she would gladly have swallowed them back if she could, but they spurted out as if they had a force of their own.
His eyes had gone cold enough to make her shiver. But the smile hadn’t dropped. He leaned forward and brushed his cheek to hers. ‘It’s not revenge, cariño. I’m giving you what you want. In return you’re giving me what I want.’
‘My body.’
‘Exactly that.’ He nuzzled against her cheek. ‘But if it was revenge I sought, then having you back in my bed would be the sweetest-tasting revenge there is.’
* * *
‘I think you’re cruel.’
That was what Charley had said.
Was he being cruel?
Raul didn’t like to think of himself as cruel. His own father, when he’d been in good health, had had a great capacity for cruelty and it was a trait Raul had sworn he would never adopt. He was prepared to accept that he was forceful and direct, arrogant even, but never cruel. Not until the woman he’d lavished everything on thought she could come to him for help as if nothing had passed between them.
He forced his mind back to their marriage. He’d been happy to indulge her when she’d announced she wanted to run a luxury chauffeur hire for travelling business people. He’d had his doubts from the off—for a start, Charley couldn’t drive, but, as she’d pointed out, she would employ drivers. Despite his misgivings, he’d given her the money to buy a handful of limousines and premises from which to run the business. With his extensive contacts book at her disposal, he’d seen no reason why her fledgling business should be anything other than a success.
A year later, the company had folded. Contracts had dried up and instead of coming to him for help she had thrown in the towel.
He’d tried to be understanding. It was a big thing she’d undertaken, starting a business of her own, especially coming into it with no qualifications or business experience.
The next venture she’d embarked on, he’d supplied her with both his financial backing and a team of his personal staff to help her with it all. It had gone bust within four months. The third—which he couldn’t even remember—had lasted only a month longer.
It
