the businesswoman,’ he murmured, standing and snapping shut the computer. ‘I like it. Do you think I could be the sort of guy who enjoys a woman in a uniform? Or maybe I’m turned on by the buttoned-up-to-the neck look...’
She had twisted her long hair into a bun and was wearing a white blouse, a pair of navy trousers and a jacket. Separately, each item was okay. As an ensemble, Rafael was right in that it screamed ‘office’.
‘Maybe I’m Sofia the accountant in the making,’ she said lightly, leading the way out of the kitchen and waiting for him by the car.
‘I’ve never known an accountant as sexy as you.’ He opened the passenger door for her and then swung around to the driver’s side but, before he started the engine, he turned to look at her. ‘I’m glad you’re coming,’ he said seriously. ‘You’re right. David’s headquarters is a part of him and, yes, a part you should see. He would be delighted.’
Pleasure bloomed inside her, and for a second she was lost for words, caught up in that side of him that could be incredibly gentle and incredibly perceptive. If she were to say how she felt, though, she knew that he would laugh, teasing her away from a place that could become too serious too fast. She’d learned how to manage him, had learned how to steer clear of places she knew he wouldn’t want to visit.
‘I thought I’d surprise him—tell him when I next see him.’
‘Nice touch.’
Sofia looked at his arrogant, beautiful profile and wondered how she had ended up in this mess, wanting what was out of reach, hoping to get it just right so that she could grasp what her heart craved, always wondering whether that would ever be possible.
The question had barely been posed before the answer rose to the surface. She’d overestimated her ability to separate sex from love. She had assumed herself clever and cool enough to deal with a man who was leagues ahead of her in the sophistication stakes. She’d idiotically thought that she’d learnt all the lessons she needed to learn from the experiences of her mother and was therefore well equipped to withstand anything.
Now here she was, hoping that some of what she felt might eventually be returned in kind, while the clock ticked, time passed and the year they had set began to ebb away, like sand sifting through an hourglass.
When that year was up, she could of course tell him that she wasn’t ready to quit the marriage but she cringed to think that by then he might be ready to quit what they’d started, having accomplished what he had set out to achieve. Her relationship with David was thawing by the day, as she came to realise just how much he had loved her mother and just how keen he was to get to know her. And as for Freddy... That business would surely be sorted one way or another and, if not, if it was just destined to be an ongoing problem on which Rafael would have to permanently keep an eye, then it was still a pretty good trade-off for all the bits of the company that had been signed over to him and for the happiness David derived from knowing that the problem was being dealt with.
By the time their year was up, he would probably have packed her cases and changed the lock on the door.
‘I’m just curious,’ she said eventually. ‘David has talked so much about how he started with the hotel business and I guess, yes, it’s another facet to him that I’m keen to learn about. I’m not about to wade in and try sorting out the accounts department, so no need to worry about that!’
‘Why would that be a worry for me?’
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Sofia said lightly. ‘Maybe because I get the feeling that my role is to commute between London and the countryside and do not much of anything because I don’t have to?’
‘Have I ever said that?’
‘No, but...’
‘You’re free to do whatever you want, Sofia. I don’t own you, despite what you might think.’ His dark gaze slid to her face, a fleeting glance. ‘I certainly have no inclination to tell you what to do.’
Sofia bit down the impulse to take him up on that and run with it. He was just so stubbornly accustomed to dominance, to rejecting without preamble anything he wasn’t interested in pursuing—such as an awkward conversation. And yet, he was the first to insist that she always finish what she started. In his own infuriating, endearing way, he was very happy to tell her what to do.
‘I’m carrying on with my accountancy work, as well you know,’ she confessed, ‘but it’s not as important as it once was. The money. The no longer having to work at it. Maybe part of me wants to get into an office environment to test the waters—see whether I’m still energised at the prospect of having a career.’
Rafael’s dark eyes glanced across at her. ‘That’s the problem with money, though, isn’t it? It’s a blessing but it can also be a curse. Feel free to breathe in the heady fumes of my godfather’s offices. At any rate, they’re the height of luxury, so perhaps not quite representative of the average office environment. I can’t picture you burying yourself behind books and ledgers once this year is up, actually.’
Once this year is up... A tight knot of tension balled in her chest.
‘You might be right.’ Her voice was non-committal. ‘What is happening about Freddy? David doesn’t really mention that side of things.’
‘I think,’ Rafael said, brows knitted as he gave it some thought, ‘there might be an element of guilt that things were allowed to slip away from him when he was preoccupied with all his health worries.’
‘I never thought of that, but you might be right.’
‘I’m always right.’ He shot her a sideways glance, full of laughter, and she relaxed. This light-hearted banter was what she knew. It was sexy and lazy and, for her at any rate, warmly intimate.
‘Except when you’re not.’ She smiled.
By the time they reached her father’s imposing office in West London, she had swept past her unease about where her relationship with her husband was going.
The building was impressive because, Rafael told her, it was a redevelopment of an old government building, the outside of which had been kept true to its period, solid red brick with a certain prison-like appearance that belied the complete modernisation on the inside.
‘You’re right,’ she breathed, taking in the marble and the giant plants and the banks of lifts to one side. ‘Nothing like the average office block.’
‘Want me to show you around?’
‘You have things to do.’
‘I’ll get Paula to do the honours. David’s PA left when he retired and since then there have been a string of young girls. Paula is the latest in line. I have to stop a deal Freddy has been trying to consolidate before we kiss goodbye to yet more capital. I’ll meet you here in an hour and a half.’
She could see that his mind was already on what he had to do, but she didn’t have to wait long before Paula came to fetch her. She was five-foot-nothing and as pretty as a doll, with long blonde hair and bright blue eyes that were friendly and cautious at the same time.
She was a good guide, yet there was a caginess there that Sofia couldn’t quite put her finger on, but she was too busy breathing
