you back to the cottage to fend for yourself isn’t on the cards. Besides...shouldn’t the blushing bride spend the first night in the same county as her newly acquired husband at the very least?’
‘Ha-ha, hilarious.’ She rested her head back against the seat and closed her eyes for a few seconds. When she glanced sideways at him, it was to find his dark eyes resting on her face and she flushed.
She deliberately held her hand out and reminded herself that the ring on her finger was worth as much as she would have got in a year of dutiful nannying. Business transaction, she told herself. Keep it real.
‘Very nice,’ Rafael drawled, and he took her hand in his and looked at the ring, which made her heartily wish she hadn’t drawn attention to it in the first place.
‘All in a day’s work,’ she responded, quick as a flash, and he burst out laughing and dropped her hand.
It burned and tingled where he had briefly held it.
‘You don’t give in, do you, cara?’ His eyes rested on her face. He was still grinning. ‘A man could either be scared of that or turned on by it.’
Which are you? The question sizzled in her brain before she accepted that he was just teasing, playing a game, definitely not flirting.
‘Can I ask you something?’ Her voice was hurried and breathless in her eagerness to change the subject and escape the frantic tug of unwanted sensations flitting through her like quicksilver.
‘Fire away.’
‘You said you wanted to lead a single life, a discreet single life...so is there anyone waiting in the wings for you now that this marriage is out of the way?’ She thought of the eager-to-please English roses and wondered if those were his type.
He looked momentarily staggered and she fuzzily thought, Why the big show of ruffled feathers when you lied to me about who you really were and what you really wanted? Since when do liars have any right to look shocked at being asked whether they were having an affair with a married woman? It felt strangely comforting to be antagonistic.
‘Tell me that you’re kidding?’ Rafael exploded with incredulity.
‘Why would I be kidding?’ She shrugged and made to look away but he held her chin in his hand again and she shot him a sullen look from under her lashes.
‘We’re here,’ he gritted, ‘but this conversation isn’t finished.’
His driver disappeared as seamlessly as he had appeared and they entered his sprawling place in silence. She could feel the simmering tension inside him and defiantly told herself that it was a perfectly reasonable question to have asked, given the circumstances of their relationship.
He slammed on lights and then spun around to look at her.
‘Sorry,’ Sofia said stiffly, keeping her distance, ‘I don’t know what made me ask that. None of my business, as I’m sure you’ll rush in and point out, and if you don’t mind I think I’ll go upstairs and go to sleep. Will I be in the same room as before?’
‘Apology not accepted,’ Rafael returned, standing with his arms folded, as immovable as the rock of Gibraltar and as menacing as a bouncer facing down a vagrant outside a posh night club.
‘Actually, I don’t feel too good.’
‘Too bad.’
‘I need to have some water. I need to sit down.’
‘You can have a bottle of water and sit by all means, but you’re going to tell me what the hell you meant by that.’
‘Or else what?’
She looked at him and felt a slow burn as his dark eyes travelled from her mulish gaze to her parted lips.
‘I just think I have a right to know who to steer clear of. Those women at the restaurant were stunning.’ She ploughed on recklessly. ‘Who knows if you’re having fun with one of them?’
‘They’re wives of friends. Jesus, this is getting more unbelievable by the second.’
‘Since when does that make a difference? I’ve had married men hit on me in the past.’
‘Don’t go there, Sofia...’
Suddenly the fight went out of her. Her stomach was back to churning and she could feel a headache coming on.
‘I don’t want to have this conversation, Rafael.’ Her voice hitched and she stared down at the expensive shoes. ‘I feel sick and tired and...overwhelmed...’
‘You have an annoying habit of starting conversations you don’t want to finish.’ He raked his hands through his hair then, without warning and just as she was about to take a few tottering steps towards the kitchen, her mouth as dry as the desert, he covered the distance between them.
She froze, and then promptly un-froze when he scooped her up in one easy movement, carrying her towards the kitchen and kicking the door open with his foot while she wriggled and tried to disentangle herself.
‘Keep still,’ he warned.
‘Put me down!’
‘I intend to.’
He deposited her on one of the kitchen chairs and then stood back as she straightened herself with one shaking hand, barely able to meet his eyes.
‘Why did you do that?’ she asked accusingly.
‘Because I got fed up having a long, going-nowhere conversation in my hall with you.’ He turned and fetched her a glass of water. ‘Drink this. You need to hydrate. Do you want something to eat?’
‘Something like what?’
‘God, you’re the most difficult woman I have ever met in my entire life.’
‘Well, that doesn’t augur well for this marriage of ours!’ Sofia couldn’t contain her sarcasm and he suddenly grinned. Her pulse-rate accelerated into overdrive.
‘Like I said, the one thing it ain’t going to be is boring,’ he murmured. ‘Now, stop talking for five seconds and listen to me carefully. I don’t have relationships with married women. Never. I don’t care how many of them throw themselves at me and I don’t care what they look like. A married woman is out of bounds.’
‘But you would be happy to have an affair with another woman even though you’re married!’ Sofia threw at him for the sake of argument, promptly forgetting all good intentions to keep things cool and civil between them without emotions of any sort getting in the way.
‘As we both know, this isn’t the real deal. If it were, then there is no way I would go near any woman. Believe it or not, I may have relationships but I like to stick to one woman at a time. You look sick. You need to go to bed.’
‘I drank too much,’ Sofia conceded. She stood up but her legs were suddenly wobbly and she had to stand still to gather herself for a few moments. She knew that he was looking at her, so cool, so
