hadn’t planned on it. You haven’t answered my question, Sofia. Did the man frighten you in any way?’
‘We weren’t having a conversation in a dark alley miles away from anyone.’ She tried to laugh but, thinking about it, he had creeped her out.
Rafael leant forward and took both her hands in his. The gesture was so tender and so unsolicited that her heart leapt inside her and she felt that thing again, the thing she cautioned herself against—a feeling of being cared for somehow.
She knew that it was an illusion but that was where hope always broke free and did its own thing. Hope that all her cynicism might one day be proved wrong. Hope that he would realise that, in the end, she was more, than a business transaction.
They made love, they talked, she made him laugh on occasion...they communicated...and then there were these instances of tenderness, a tenderness she knew he didn’t even realise he was indulging. Surely all of that must amount to something?
Sofia knew that that was why she just kept on hoping. Kept on hoping that he was interested in a whole lot more than just sex, if only he could see it with his eyes wide open.
‘Not the point,’ he was telling her now, his eyes pinning her to the spot. ‘Did he frighten you?’
‘What would you do if I told you that he had?’ she returned lightly, but then she wondered what she would achieve by mentioning that he had made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, and if that wasn’t a certain amount of fear then what was? ‘He didn’t, as it happens. Men like Freddy don’t scare me.’
‘Men like Freddy? Join the dots for me, Sofia.’
‘He...yes, he did waffle on a bit about you wasting your time rooting around for something to use against him, and I got the feeling that he was probably telling the truth. He might not be too bright but he’s bright enough to know that anything fraudulent would spell the end of his career at my father’s company, however many shares he was given in the divorce settlement.’
‘He’s read the fine print,’ Rafael said thoughtfully. ‘And you may well be right. I’ve shot down a few dead ends, even when I’ve smelled something fishy, something that might have compromised our man. All I’ve got to show for my hard work is a trail of semi-incompetence and a lot of shuffling and wheedling and machinations to get rid of people who might be inclined to block his crazy ideas and install a bunch of no-hopers who would do whatever he asked them to.’ He shrugged. ‘I might have to resign myself to taking what has been signed over to me and then just keeping a watchful eye on the rest. Damage limitation.’
He sighed with frustration and she could read him so well by now that she knew where that frustration stemmed from. He had assumed he would be able to sort everything out in record time and to find that his efforts might well result in nothing would make his pearly whites snap together in rage. He loathed Freddy, thought he was sly and devious and ultimately capable of ruining the company David had built. Maybe not overnight, but incompetence would eat at the foundations and eventually the whole structure would topple to the ground. And would Rafael be able to stop that? It would be a full-time task and he had his own massive empire to run. Time was not his friend.
‘There is something, though, Rafael,’ Sofia told him quietly. She sipped some water and then, when plates had been cleared away, she leaned towards him, elbows on the table, hands clasped, fingers entwined. ‘He... I’m not sure how to say this...but he touched me. Please don’t think that he frightened me, because he didn’t, but he did touch me.’
The silence that greeted this was so deep and so dense that a shiver of apprehension raced up and down her spine. Rafael’s face was inscrutable but his eyes were narrowed and for a few seconds she was privy to a vision of the ruthless steel that lay beneath the velvet glove.
‘Not,’ she repeated, ‘in any way that was scary. He just ran his fingers on my arm.’ She laughed but Rafael didn’t return the laugh and his body language was so taut and still that she wanted to demand to know what was going through his head.
‘Did he now?’
There was a sickness rising up inside Rafael that he barely recognised. He clenched his fists and controlled a powerful and bewildering urge to punch something. Was this what jealousy tasted like? No, couldn’t be. He’d never been jealous before. He’d gone out with women who graced the catwalk, and commanded second, third and fourth looks wherever they went, and he’d never had a problem with that. And if some guy had made a pass at any of them? He’d certainly never felt this roar of rage inside him, this pounding in his head and throbbing in his temples.
Was it because she was his wife? Maybe it was because of that. In name only but perhaps he was more of a dinosaur than he’d ever imagined and the fact that he was married to her had evoked some kind of primal, possessive streak he’d never experienced. That surely must be it?
He thought of Freddy, pictured that weak face, his manicured hand on her arm and one thought ran though his head—he was going to sort him out one way or another. Things had just got personal.
Sofia tugged his hand gently so that he was once again looking directly at her and she could judge something of his thoughts in his stunning dark gaze. He was clever at keeping concealed what he had no intention of revealing, but she had to try and read his expression, and she wasn’t going to do that if he was looking away.
‘When I said that I’d met men like Freddy before I wasn’t kidding. The way I look...?’ She rolled her eyes with self-deprecation, because it was always embarrassing to discuss her looks. She’d been accused, nastily, of vanity too many times as a teenager, and had learned to shy away from drawing attention to her appearance. Blending into the background had been one of her greatest aims. ‘Men have always thought that they could try it on but I learned how to separate the wheat from the chaff at a very young age. Most guys are obvious but the ones to watch out for are the ones who sneak up from behind and Freddy is one of those. He’s a sneaker-upper kind of guy.’
She paused and then took a deep breath. ‘He might not be guilty of out-and-out embezzlement or whatever but you should try talking to some of the young girls who work in the company.’
Rafael was staring at her and she could see the dawning comprehension in his eyes. He said, in a low voice, ‘Tell me more, my darling. I’m all ears.’
My darling...
For a few seconds, Sofia lost track of what she had been saying. He’d called her his darling. Not cara, but darling, and she thrilled inside. Then she collected her thoughts and licked her lips, thinking of the best way to say what she had to say.
‘I think he might be more than just an office pest. He’s a guy who has a lot of power within that company and, from everything you and David have said, he’s been systematically getting rid of the old-school employees who might have had the wherewithal to stand up to him. Have you had a look at the girls in the main admin department?’
Rafael slowly shook his head. ‘I don’t tend to venture down there,’ he murmured. ‘I’ve been too busy dealing with the books to see whether any cooking has been going on. Too busy trying to stall ill-conceived deals that should never have kicked off in the first place. I’ve really only had dealings with the CEOs.’
‘They’re all young and attractive,’ Sofia said bluntly. ‘And a lot of them have only been there a short while.’
‘I’m
