began to leak out.
Horrified, she stared down at her feet and clenched her jaw.
‘You’re...crying. Are you crying, Sofia?’
Sofia shrugged. She didn’t trust herself to speak but she heard him curse softly under his breath and then he was lifting her up again, as if sweeping her off her feet was becoming a habit, and this time she didn’t bother to put up a fight.
She squeezed her eyes tightly shut. Her dress was riding up, exposing her thighs, but she couldn’t be bothered to redress that by trying to tug it down.
Instead, she kept her eyes shut while he laid her very gently on the bed, then she immediately turned away and buried her head in the crook of her arms.
‘Wait right there,’ Rafael said gruffly. ‘I’m going to bring up a jug of water and some tablets. And something to eat. You need to put food into your stomach. Don’t move.’
How long was he gone?
She didn’t know. She was aware of him putting the water on the table by the bed, and after a while she heard the sound of the door shutting quietly. When she peeped out, it was to find that an inelegantly enormous door-wedge of a sandwich had been made for her, which made her smile.
It was man fare, but it tasted wonderful.
And then, still feeling sick but so, so relieved to be in bed, she found herself drifting off.
The day she had been dreading was at an end. She would put all thoughts of her father on hold for the moment. She would definitely put all thoughts of Rafael on hold! Although, she felt herself smiling again at the sandwich he had made for her, stuffed full of cheese and ham but lacking everything else.
She fell asleep to the throbbing of a dull headache.
When she next opened her eyes, the room was pitch-black and it took her a few seconds to surface and remember exactly where she was.
In Rafael’s house, with the duvet cover loosely draped over her, because she had obviously kicked it off at some point during the night.
Her half-closed eyes peeped from beneath the duvet but she was already registering what she wanted her startled eyes to confirm. The lilac dress had been removed, as had the shoes she’d been wearing when she had been deposited on the bed.
No bra! But then, she hadn’t been wearing one. Her underwear, the lacy thong for her eyes only, was still there...
With a groan of horror, she began sitting up...and there he was, a dark shadow in a chair next to the bed.
He’d dragged over the chair by the dressing table and positioned it so that he could stretch out his long legs. His hands were linked loosely and his computer was on the ground next to him. She could see the dull flicker of the screen, which had gone into sleep mode.
Was he asleep? Awake? Something in the middle? He’d changed into a pair of jeans and a T-shirt.
She’d begun to sink back under the duvet when, as calmly as if he were continuing a conversation they’d only just been having, ‘You’re awake. How’s the head?’
‘What are you doing here?’ She shuffled into an upright position, making sure that the duvet was tightly tucked around her, although she could feel the press of her bare breasts against the silky cotton.
‘You were sick during the night.’
‘I wasn’t!’ Had she been?
‘Too much alcohol. Happens.’
‘You took my dress off.’
‘I took your dress off. One of us had to do it and it wasn’t going to be you.’
‘How could you?’ she half-sobbed.
‘Sofia, you were half-asleep and clawing at it because you were uncomfortable. No one can sleep in something that’s as close-fitting as a second skin. You’re probably embarrassed, but you don’t have to be. You’re not the first naked woman I’ve ever laid eyes on.’
Sofia drew her knees up to her chest and rested her head on them, wishing, more than anything else that he would just disappear—poof, like a genie heading back into the bottle where he belonged.
It was okay for him—so she was just another half-naked female body!—but it wasn’t okay for her. This wasn’t supposed to have happened.
‘I’ve never felt so mortified in my entire life!’ she all but wailed, then froze as he levered himself up and moved to sit on the bed right next to her.
‘I didn’t lay a finger on you,’ Rafael said roughly. He shifted and she drew back.
‘That’s not the point. I wouldn’t have expected you to. It’s not as though you’re attracted to me. But I just hate the thought of...of...’
‘Not attracted to you?’ Rafael laughed shortly. ‘What ever gave you that idea? And you don’t get to clam up on me this time and go into hiding because you’re finding the conversation you started a little uncomfortable. Have you looked in a mirror recently, Sofia? Do you have any idea how sexy you are? Especially in a dress that was made to be torn off.’
‘Made to be torn off?’
‘I saw you walking towards me and I discovered what it felt like to forget how to breathe.’
‘You don’t mean that!’
‘I was attracted to you the first time I ever set eyes on you.’
‘You weren’t, Rafael.’ Her nerves were racing and she knew, she knew, that she shouldn’t be having this conversation, because it was as dangerous as throwing a match onto tinder, but she couldn’t help herself.
And she liked it. Liked hearing what he was saying.
‘You went out to Argentina to check me out, to see whether I would pass muster for the rich father I’d never met. You pretended...’
‘Pretended that I was attracted to you? Hate to burst the bubble of self-righteous hostility, Sofia, but I’m not that good an actor.’
Sofia could barely breathe. She was spellbound by the intense glitter in his dark eyes, mesmerised by his softly spoken words. She didn’t know whether he was saying stuff he wanted her to hear, but why would he do that? What would be the point?
‘You made sure to tell me that this wasn’t a real relationship,’ she pointed out accusingly. ‘You made sure to let me know that you intended to be off doing your own thing while I pottered and did whatever I fancied doing for a year, buried in a cottage in the countryside.’
‘Think that was because I didn’t want you in my bed?’ He leapt to his feet, leaving a cold, empty space next to her on the bed. She watched as he restlessly paced the room when the only thing she wanted was for him to return to the bed. Her head was as clear as a bell but the darkness gave her courage to say what was on her mind. She felt a surge of reckless, heady daring. When she thought about what he’d said, everything inside her melted.
