Читать книгу Modern Romance Books September Books 5-8 - Кэтти Уильямс, Annie West, Cathy Williams - Страница 13

SOFIA EYED THE crystal-clear swimming pool with a mixture of headiness and apprehension.

Under a dazzlingly bright-blue sky, the flat turquoise water glittered and shimmered and beckoned on a day of soaring temperatures.

Of course, she’d used the pool before, but only when the children had been around, splashing and yelling, with the little one clinging to her while she did her best to make sure Josh wasn’t going to do himself permanent damage by flinging himself into the water from the side of the pool while helping his younger sister to keep afloat without arm bands.

This time round...

Sofia closed her eyes and took a few steadying breaths while she mentally confronted the position she now found herself in.

‘Out of her comfort zone’ summed it up.

More than out, she thought giddily. More like teetering on the edge of a precipice with the comfort zone no longer in sight.

Amazing what a week could do!

First of all, she had let herself be talked into a sightseeing tour of Buenos Aires.

‘Live a little,’ he had whispered in a dangerously soft voice and even more dangerous glint in his dark eyes.

Then, in quick succession, there had followed various little jaunts in and around the city, while she had relaxed more and more and found herself dropping her guard and laughing, her curiosity about the stranger who had landed on the Walters’ doorstep growing with each passing second.

A stranger who had not bothered to go near the long list of must-dos that her employer had meticulously and maliciously printed off.

A stranger who had not, in fact, been near the tool shed, the ride-on mower, the green house or any implement connected to gardening.

His audacity thrilled her.

She wasn’t going to lose her head, because he wasn’t ‘settling down’ material, and he would be gone in the blink of an eye. But where was the harm in having a bit of fun, as he had cleverly suggested to her?

And she was having fun. Lots of it.

Even her aunt had noticed.

The evening before, she had gone to visit Misa, who lived on the other side of the city where the tall, shiny towers of the city and the exclusive retreats of the wealthy were as out of reach as the moon—even though, from the bedroom window of the derelict house in which she lived, Misa could spy them in the distance.

‘You’re glowing,’ her aunt had announced, pleased. ‘It’s the first time you’ve actually looked like a young girl since you returned to Buenos Aires. There must be a man in your life. Someone special, Sofia?’

‘I’m not glowing,’ Sofia had protested, but she knew that she was somehow different.

She had hardly been able to focus on Miguel, her cousin, who as always was in his room, immobile and frustrated, facing certain physical disabilities after a motorcycle accident at the age of sixteen.

For once, instead of sitting back and listening to his despair, Sofia had talked about the stranger who had landed on the doorstep like a breath of fresh air.

She’d been full of it.

Her head had been giddy with thoughts of Rafael when she’d left, whereas normally she would be in her usual funk, thinking about her aunt and Miguel stuck in one of the poorer barrios where block upon block of unsightly apartments jostled against one another like little card houses, unsubstantial and ready to topple over into the chaotic, cluttered little streets below. Thinking, as she always did, of how much Misa had been there for her much younger sister when Maria had returned ill and with time no longer on her side. Thinking of how vital was the money she earned as a nanny when it came to helping them both.

Now, with her towel in one hand, clad in the only swimsuit she possessed—an extremely unadventurous black one-piece—Sofia waited with shameful eagerness for Rafael to appear.

He had gone to the city ‘to see what was going on’ as though, somehow, people in high places might be clamouring for his involvement.

‘But meet me at the pool,’ he’d said in that way he had of voicing the daringly unacceptable as though she would be an idiot not to concede. ‘I’ll bring lunch.’

‘You don’t have to do that,’ Sofia had laughed, captivated by the intensity of his gaze. ‘Save what money you have! James and Elizabeth have left sufficient food in the larder for me to rustle something up.’

But he would have none of it and now here she was, waiting for him to appear with food, generous to a fault even though he was no higher up the pecking order than was she.

Her head was filled with dangerous, exciting possibilities.

He’d been the perfect gentleman so far, although his manner was amused, flirtatious, sexy, and his dark eyes lazily, thrillingly speculative. She wasn’t sure whether he fancied her or not and that was a first.

Lust was only something she’d read about in magazine articles but now...

Now it was something that called to her, the ultimate adventure waiting to happen. When she thought about being the one to make the first move, her whole body burned and tingled, but more and more in the space of a handful of days she had been contemplating just that.

She wasn’t entirely sure about the technicalities of such an event, but she was willing to give it a go, and that was such alien territory for her that her nervous system went into meltdown when she thought about it.

Her head was in the clouds when she became aware of Rafael, who had paused just by the pool, face shadowed by the overhang of the tree he was standing beneath.

Her eyes roamed appreciatively over him. So tall, so powerfully built, so commanding. He was in a pair of low-slung, khaki shorts, a T-shirt that originally would have been black but was now an off-grey, and a pair of loafers that looked as though they cost the earth but which, Sofia knew, would have been as cheap as chips.

Something about the way he was put together made everything he wore look stupidly expensive.

She began walking towards him and her heart beat just a little faster, the closer she got.

He didn’t move a muscle.

It was curious but there was something about him that was as wary as she was, even though he was crazily sexy and extremely forthcoming with conversation, able to reduce her to hysterics in just a few witty sentences, or have her hanging on his every word with anecdotes that beggared belief.

She was vaguely aware that there was a part of him that was very contained, so automatically she had responded like for like, confiding but only just so much, never letting him get too close.

He knew a lot about her experiences of travelling around with her mother but nothing at all about her life here, when she had finally returned to her home town.

He had guessed, shrewdly, at her experiences of being a nanny and working for James, but she had wisely held back from saying anything that could jeopardise the job which she badly needed, at least for the time being.

She had become close enough to want him in a very, very physical way, but had remained distant enough to protect herself, conscious of the temporary nature of his visit and the unsuitability of his personality.

‘Hi.’ She smiled and stared up at him, uneasily aware that he wasn’t smiling back with his usual easy charm. ‘I wondered whether you’d become lost in the city!’ She chatted away, keeping some distance between them and wishing she had covered herself a little more, because the unreadable remoteness of his expression was making her feel vulnerable and exposed.

‘Is it possible to become lost anywhere in the world if you’re in possession of a smart phone?’ he murmured.

‘So true.’ The smile was still there. ‘Have you brought lunch? I’m ravenous.’

‘Didn’t have time in the end.’ He raked his fingers through his hair and shifted on his feet before settling his dark eyes on her face. ‘Sofia, we need to talk.’

‘Sure.’ The smile faltered and her defences slammed into place, and she stepped back, shielding her eyes to look up at him. ‘I expect you’ve finally got round to realising that the Walters are going to be back pretty soon and you have to get down to actually doing some gardening.’

‘I’d forgotten their existence, in point of fact. So, no, that realisation hasn’t come home to roost.’

‘Shall I make us something to eat? Er...we could talk in the kitchen. Or out here. Although, it’s really hot, and anyway I shouldn’t really be swimming in this pool. It’s not what I’m being paid to do while my employers are away.’

‘Going inside might be a good idea, Sofia. You’re going to have to sit down to hear me out.’

‘Really?’ Her voice cooled because she could smell a warning a mile off. Had he noticed the way she had gradually thawed? Maybe he’d sensed her increasing desire and was politely about to tell her that he wasn’t up for grabs.

She had no idea whether he was involved with anyone, or even married! She’d made assumptions and was now mortified that she might have got those assumptions wrong.

‘Really.’

Rafael began walking towards the sprawling villa, and after a few seconds of hesitation Sofia followed in his wake.

He didn’t swerve towards the kitchen. Instead, he headed towards the sitting room and then turned, waiting as she entered and then stopped dead in her tracks, hovering just inside the door.

‘What’s going on, Rafael?’

‘Sit.’

‘Thanks, but I’m fine standing right here.’

‘I’m not entirely sure where to begin.’ He paused. ‘Maybe you should just take a look at this.’ He flicked open his wallet and pulled out an article on his godfather that he had printed off before he had left London, knowing that when the story emerged the online entry might explain more than he would be able to. He handed her the paper and then stepped back to watch her face as she scanned it before returning it to him.

‘So?’ she flung challengingly at him.

‘Recognise the name?’

‘I haven’t got a clue who that person is.’

‘You mother never mentioned names when she was talking about your father?’

Colour leeched out of her face as she stared at him wordlessly for a few seconds. ‘No.’

‘The man you’ve just read about is your father.’

‘I don’t believe you.’ She stumbled into the room and fell into one of the chairs, then promptly sat forward, horribly conscious of her state of undress. Primly, she draped the towel she had been carrying across her thighs and watched as he drew a chair to sit directly facing her.

Was this some sort of interrogation? Surely he couldn’t be right? She tried frantically to remember what her mother had said about her father aside from, in her last few days, when she had repeatedly told her that he had broken her heart. Had she described the guy at all? No. He’d been much older than her at the time, but she had shied away from details. Sofia had never bothered to pry, because what would have been the use?

‘Why wouldn’t you? What reason would I have to lie?’

‘Look, I don’t know what’s going on but—’

‘Hear me out, Sofia, and you will. David Dunmore is your father. Your mother contacted him shortly before she died. Her conscience, it would seem, got the better of her. She told him that he had a daughter. You. He had people check you out as soon as he received that letter from your mother.’

‘Had people check me out?’

‘These things happen.’ Rafael shrugged.

‘No. Not in my world, they don’t happen.’ She stared at him stonily. ‘Who are you?’ she demanded, leaping to her feet. ‘I don’t want to be having this conversation. I need to... I need to...’

‘You need to sit and listen to what I have to say. Sofia, I didn’t come over here from London to play at being a gardener.’

‘Then why have you come?’ She sat back down, very slowly, riveted to his beautiful face, chilled by the cold containment of his expression. This was certainly not the warm, teasing guy she had begun losing her head over. This was a stranger on a mission and it was dawning on her that the mission might not be to her liking.

But confusion rendered her speechless while her thoughts buzzed in her head like a swarm of angry wasps.

‘David Dunmore is my godfather and I was tasked with coming over here to personally check you out. Not check out the veracity of your identity, but to check out what sort of person you are.’

Sofia stared at him sickly as pieces of the jigsaw puzzle began meshing together, revealing a picture she didn’t want to acknowledge.

‘There must be some mistake,’ she whispered. ‘And even if there isn’t...even if that man happens to be my father...why would he send someone over here to check and see what I might be like?’

‘That man happens to be an extremely wealthy person,’ Rafael told her flatly. ‘Wealthy people take the necessary precautions.’

‘And you...? If you’re not a gardener, are you wealthy as well?’

‘I am beyond wealthy.’

That statement of fact dimly registered in a part of her brain that was already recognising that this was no joke. This man—the man she’d thought she was getting to know, the one man to have broken through her defences—was not the person she had thought him to be. In short, he was a spy sent over to get the measure of her for reasons he hadn’t fully disclosed, but which he was about to.

‘I should have guessed,’ she said bitterly.

‘How so?’

‘Just the way you were. Arrogant. Dismissive. How did you manage to wangle a job here as a gardener?’

‘David managed that feat and, believe me, I was dubious about the validity of this...fishing expedition but...’ He paused, expression thoughtful as he mulled over the direction the conversation should take.

Sofia watched. What else could she do? Watched, and waited and cursed herself for letting her trusted instinct to keep all men at arm’s length go to pot.

She should have known that all that charm, those sinful good looks, that mesmerising personality came at a price. She was paying the price now as she accepted how far she had been sucked into the magical aura he exuded.

She’d been ready to fall into his arms and sleep with him!

‘But...?’ she questioned coldly.

‘But, firstly, I should explain that he has no other natural children of his own. He’s been married twice, and both marriages ended in divorce, and extremely acrimonious divorce at that. And neither of those marriages yielded any children, although he did inherit a stepson who now owns a substantial amount of shares in his company.’

‘What does that have to do with me?’

‘Ostensibly, it should have nothing to do with you whatsoever, but in point of fact you, by virtue of your blood line, are in line to naturally inherit the rest of the shares held by your father.’

‘I have no idea where you’re going with this.’

‘Surely you’re beginning to join the dots, Sofia?’

‘Why would someone I’ve never met, someone who never knew I existed until a handful of months ago, care one way or another about blood lines?’ She laughed scornfully.

‘David’s stepson,’ Rafael informed her heavily, ‘has been proving to be something of a problem ever since he came of age.’ Rafael lapsed into temporary silence, his dark brows knitted in a frown. Without warning, he vaulted upright and began pacing the room, a vision of such superb grace and elegance that the breath caught in her throat and she had to look away to stop the treacherous pounding of her heart.

He came to rest directly in front of her, staring down into her upturned face.

‘He was given shares courtesy of my godfather’s extremely cunning ex-wife and her very efficient divorce lawyer. Not enough to take over the company but enough to be a nuisance. Under normal circumstances, David would be able to contain the situation, as he has done in the past, but his health has not been good.’ Rafael’s face shadowed. ‘He has lost the desire and no longer has the energy to exert some much-needed control.’

‘I still have no idea where you’re going with this.’

‘I was sent here to see whether you were a worthy heir.’

Silence settled between them. She looked away, sick to her stomach, because she knew now that all that flirting, those dangerously seductive glances, that lazy banter that had made her squirm with crazy, stupid excitement and lust, had all been part of a bigger plan. While she’d been busy letting her heart rule her head, he’d been busy keeping tabs to see what sort of person she was.

‘A worthy heir,’ she said woodenly. ‘A worthy heir to do what, exactly? Bond with someone I don’t know from Adam and have no desire to meet?’

‘A worthy heir to take over from David...at the very least in name.’ He resumed sitting but this time there was a tension in his posture that hadn’t been there before.

Sofia noted it without even realising that she was doing so. Her mind was too full of other things to pay attention to what was happening on the periphery of her consciousness.

She burst out laughing, genuine, unrestrained laughter, because the whole situation was beginning to feel a little preposterous. If it weren’t for the deadly serious expression on Rafael’s face, she would almost have expected a camera crew to jump out from behind the sofa, yelling that she’d been tricked.

‘Share the joke?’ Rafael asked coolly.

‘What’s funny is the thought of me being checked out to see if I fit the bill as a company director! I hate to break the bad news, but nannies don’t really have that level of experience. Sure, I’m doing my accountancy exams in my own time, but somehow I don’t think that’s going to be sufficient, do you?’

‘No. You could no more run my godfather’s company than you could harness a horse and ride to the moon.’

‘Thanks for the vote of confidence, Rafael,’ Sofia said acidly.

‘I’m being realistic. You’re not equipped to go near a billion-dollar business. But here’s where it gets interesting, Sofia.’ His eyes locked to hers and a shiver ran up and down her spine, a fast, cold, tickling sensation that suddenly made her pulses race. ‘I’m not just here to check your suitability as an heir. I’m here to check your suitability as a wife.’

For a few seconds she thought that she had misheard him. Her mouth fell open, her eyes widened, but whatever she wanted to stay remained stuck firmly in her throat.

‘You’re in shock,’ Rafael told her calmly. He stood up, vanished for a couple of minutes while she remained sitting as frozen as a statue, then returned with a glass of something strong and golden and told her to drink it.

She obeyed and the fiery liquid coursed a burning path down her throat. It did the trick. She felt the tension ease out of her as she dared to meet his opaque, speculative gaze.

‘Before you tell me that you may have heard incorrectly, let me assure you that you haven’t. Not only was I asked to search you out and verify your personality, but dangling at the end of the request was a very tempting titbit. I marry you and I get ownership of vital sections of my godfather’s companies. Vital shares in certain areas would remain within your control. It’s complicated, because of the size of the concern, but suffice to say that David’s proposition...’ Rafael half-smiled, the tension draining away for a few seconds, ‘Was pretty shrewd. The leisure side of his portfolio would be signed over to me, and that sly old fox has known for a long time that I’ve expressed interest in that side of his company, so handing it over would be quite the temptation. And, as your husband, I would legitimately be able to put things in order within the rest of the company and sort Freddy out once and for all.’

And his godfather would be happy. David’s happiness was all that mattered to Rafael and, as far as he was concerned, a marriage of convenience unsullied by emotion made a lot of sense.

‘You’ve got to be joking.’

‘I fully intended to take a bit more time getting to know you, but I’ve broached this now because things have unexpectedly come to a head. My godfather...’ He glanced away and Sofia saw the giveaway tightening of his jaw that revealed a depth of emotion that she suspected was never allowed to surface. ‘My godfather, your father,’ he continued, gathering himself in record time, ‘has been rushed to the hospital with another heart attack. The consultant called me to say that he’s out of surgery but whether he will fully recover or not remains to be seen.’

‘I’m really sorry, Rafael.’ Her natural instinct to empathise won over the horror of being manipulated by the man sitting in front of her.

‘Let’s leave that to one side,’ was his brusque response. ‘The fact is that time is no longer on my side. I came here to do a job—suss you out and take the necessary steps.’

‘Well, you’ve wasted your time.’ She stood up, empathy safely back in its box, and walked towards the door. She half-expected him to tell her to sit back down, but he didn’t. However, she still didn’t leave the room, as her head was telling her to do.

‘Like I said, I don’t know my father and I have no interest in finding out about him. And marry you?’ She laughed incredulously. ‘You’re living on a different planet if you think that I would just walk up the aisle with some guy I’ve known for five minutes because he’s running an errand for his godfather and I happen to be part of the errand!’ When he didn’t reply, she threw him a genuinely perplexed look, her slanting green eyes narrowed and questioning. ‘And why would you consider marrying a perfect stranger anyway?’

‘I see it as a business arrangement. I have no sentimental attachment to the notion of marriage. In fact, I’d never considered getting married at all until my godfather mentioned it. As arrangements go, it happened to be one that suited me on a number of fronts. It would solve the difficulties that have been plaguing my godfather for a while. I could legitimately go in and take control. And, like I said, it would also be a nice and interesting addition to my own portfolio of companies.’

‘Why doesn’t he just give you the whole damn lot and be done with it?’

‘Perhaps he would have in time. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t have considered it because he has always been a very vital man, more than capable of steering his vast company. But he’s been diminished and Freddy has jumped into that breach to exploit it. Hence his proposal to me,’ Rafael said honestly. ‘And there’s a great deal of sentimentality attached to seeing you. He would like to get to know the daughter he’s never known...at any rate, that’s my interpretation of events.’

‘Not going to happen.’ Sofia thought of the way her mother’s life had meandered in all sorts of unfortunate directions after that life-changing affair had ended, after she’d been dumped—no doubt because at the time David Dunmore had wanted nothing permanent with some woman who had been cleaning his room.

From remarks made over the years, confidences uttered when her mother had been dying, Sofia had worked out that her mother had fallen, and fallen hard, for a guy who had walked away from her, disappeared without warning and without a backward glance. Thereafter she had lost her innocent belief in all that nonsense about love conquering all. One minute he’d been there, hot in pursuit and spinning her stories about everlasting happiness, and then poof, he’d gone. She’d been told by his friend and colleague that he wouldn’t be returning, that the best bet would be for her to hand in her notice and save herself the embarrassment of fingers pointing, because the whole messy business would hit the public domain sooner or later and she’d be kicked out.

Sofia had grown up with a mother who had traded her looks for promises of love, always searching for what she had lost and believing that she could recapture it. Loving the wrong guy had made her vulnerable. It was an excellent lesson when it came to choosing right.

‘Because you have romantic dreams about what a marriage should be?’ he questioned, expression unreadable.

Sofia stiffened and looked at him. She’d always thought herself far too practical to get swept up in the whole starry-eyed business of romance. She’d never wanted to be vulnerable the way her mother had been. Her head was firmly screwed on, and she liked it that way, but when she considered the past few days she had to admit to herself that silly romantic feelings had crept to the surface, altering the way she behaved, turning her into someone she didn’t recognise.

All that for a guy who had been sent over to do a job and had probably figured that turning on the charm would be the most efficient way of succeeding in his task.

It was humiliating but she had to concede that a very wealthy, drop-dead sexy guy could have his pick of women and, even though she knew what it was like to turn heads, she was certainly not the most beautiful woman in the world.

‘You could have anyone...’ she heard herself say out loud and then blushed furiously at the lapse in concentration.

Rafael slowly smiled and tilted his head to one side. ‘I could...’ he agreed softly, without an ounce of false modesty. ‘But I find that the price tag attached to getting too involved with a woman is one I’m not prepared to pay. My godfather is fully aware of my views on marriage, which is why he never thought twice about the offer he made. You may not want to get to know your father,’ he continued, voice hardening, ‘but, believe me, it would be very much worth your while.’

‘I’m not a pawn on a chessboard to be pushed and manipulated.’ She tilted her chin at a mutinous angle. He was so still, so focused, so beautiful.

It was an effort not to take a few steps closer, just to breathe him in and wallow in the impact on her senses.

It was insane. She had no idea how he had managed to have that effect on her, but he had, and she hated her own weakness, especially now that she was finding out just what he was all about.

‘Proud words,’ Rafael murmured, moving towards her, taking his time, eyes darkening in unwitting appreciation. He was powerfully drawn to her even as his head warned against muddying the waters with unnecessary complications. ‘I admire that, but you should really think about what’s on offer here.’

‘I’ve thought.’

‘No, Sofia, you really haven’t.’ He looked around him, taking in the handsome proportions of the room, and then focused his fabulous eyes on her.

The effect was to render her breathless and confused.

‘You see this as your future?’

‘Of course I don’t! I told you... I’m in the process of doing my accountancy exams...’

‘Which won’t be completed for...how long? Six months? A year? Longer? And in the meantime you remain here, working for some guy who wants to get his hands on you?’

‘I never said anything of the sort!’

‘You didn’t have to.’ He walked away from her, headed towards the window ledge, against which he perched with a magnificent sense of complete authority. ‘Like I told you, I’m an expert when it comes to working out what’s not being told.’

Addled and furious, Sofia thought of James and that way he had of looking at her, undressing her with his eyes. He would never do anything, because he was fearful of consequences, but he certainly didn’t make life comfortable for her...and who knew? A little drink and she might wake one night to find him standing in her room...

‘You could always leave the job,’ Rafael continued thoughtfully. ‘But, without any qualifications, how easy would it be for you to get a well-paid job to replace this? One that allowed you sufficient time to continue your studies? I’ve looked around here and the economy’s good but there’s heavy competition out there...lots of people with degrees pounding on office doors.’ He paused, giving her time for his words to sink in. ‘Your father would like to get to know you. If you had been in any way the sort of woman I thought would hurt him, I would not be standing here having this conversation with you. He...wants to get to know you and I, in turn, want to facilitate that.’

‘Should I be flattered?’ Sofia flung at him. ‘It seems that lots of thought has gone into how my father would benefit from the arrangement, and how you would, but hey, what about me?’

‘Oh, but I feel you should take time out to consider the advantages of accepting what’s on offer, and the greatest of them is your freedom. Freedom from all of this. Think about it, Sofia. No having to do as you’re told, with your free time whittled down to when it suits your employers. Take this deal and I will immediately begin transferring a healthy sum of money into your account. Whatever you want, you will be able to have. Shares in the company would go to me but, as compensation, you would receive a vast amount of money. No more scrimping and saving.’

‘I could never marry you,’ Sofia said weakly. She thought of her cousin, with all his problems, and her aunt who struggled daily to make ends meet. The little she handed over meant so much to them. How much more would she be able to do if money was no object? Expert physiotherapy for Miguel? An operation, perhaps? There were many cutting-edge treatments out there... More than that, she could move them to somewhere nicer, a house with a garden out in the suburbs where her aunt wouldn’t feel scared if she happened to be walking home at night. There was so much she could do and the limitless possibilities hovered over her head, dazzling and seductive. ‘You lied to me. You pretended to be someone you weren’t. How could I ever marry someone I didn’t even like?’

Rafael hesitated but only momentarily. ‘This is a business deal. Marry me and in return you become a wealthy woman. As for the nature of our relationship...you will be free to do your own thing, as I will, within reason and with absolute discretion.’ He lowered his eyes, shielding his expression, guarding his thoughts, doing what came naturally to a man as intensely private as he was.

For some reason, Rafael’s cool, detached logic stung like heck. So he didn’t fancy her and he never had. She’d been mistaken. Was she so full of herself that she’d actually thought that he’d been interested? Giving off all the right signals? Getting under her skin because he lusted after her the way she foolishly lusted after him?

‘So what you’re offering is...’ Her voice was glacial.

‘Yes.’ Rafael met her eyes and held her gaze. ‘The ultimate marriage of convenience.’