Page 31 of Emergency Engagement

She laughed. ‘I would say, asunderstandingsgo, as a win-win situation, it couldn’t be more perfect.’

CHAPTER SEVEN

DIDSHEKNOWexactly where they stood? She should do. She and Rafael were business associates who had temporarily joined forces to conclude a deal that would be beneficial to both of them. That was what she thought every time he wasn’t around. It was a very reassuring approach to the situation.

For the past three days, ever since he had reinstalled those boundary lines between them, Sammy had done her best to take refuge in the kitchen. So long as she was there, hiding away with her two assistants behind pots, pans, hobs and ovens, she could just about manage to get her brain to do its thing and sternly repeat the mantra about them just being business associates.

Unfortunately, the minute she was in his presence, the last thing she felt like was a business associate. He was just sticking to the brief, playing the perfect partner, sending her hot sidelong glances when eyes were on them, and holding her lightly but intimately in a way that conformed to the image of the possessive guy who just couldn’t keep his hands off his woman.

And, however cool and composed she tried to be, her body went up in flames at the slightest touch. The key thing was to make sure he didn’t see the effect he had on her, but it was hard, because she had to respond in kind, which only turned whatever fire she was trying to control into a full-blown combustion.

The evening before, he had dipped a kiss on the side of her neck, a perfunctory piece of terrific acting, and she’d wanted to pass out. So for the past two nights she’d lurked in the kitchen until everyone had headed up, taking her time prepping for meals the following day and doing all sorts of unnecessarilycomplicated recipes that required far more attention than the end result probably warranted. And it had worked because, by the time she’d headed up to their suite, he’d been at the desk working and she’d been way too tired to do anything but yawn and then vanish into the safety of her bedroom. And she was up with the larks in the morning to finish the dishes she had spent the night before prepping.

They only really went into their acting roles at dinner but, even so, Sammy knew that she was going to be a wreck by the time the end of the week arrived.

On the bright side, however, whatever chat Rafael had had with Clement had succeeded because Victoria had backed off. If Sammy could have kept a level head, things would have been easier. Actually, if she could have stuck to the routine she had established—fragile though the routine was, because he could still manage to get to her with a sidelong look or a hint of a smile—she could just about have managed.

But tonight...no cooking. She had a night off.

Sammy stared at her reflection in the full-length mirror in the bedroom. It was a little after six-thirty. She had the windows open and she could hear the orchestra of music from all the insects, frogs and toads in the tropical foliage outside. She could also hear the sound of voices and laughter, because everyone was by the pool, gathering for a night on the town.

‘I should really hang back,’ she had said to Rafael the day before when the plan had been announced. ‘Food to prep...’

‘There’s no dinner to prepare.’

‘Lunch.’

‘The other halves will be out again, exploring one of the more remote beaches. They’ll be very happy with some local fare. I’ve made sure that my driver has sorted that out.’

‘Yes but...’

‘You’re fishing for excuses not to come,’ he had said irritably, his dark eyes cool. ‘And it’s not going to work. You clearly don’t like this situation any more than I do, but we both signed up to it, so you’re just going to have to factor in a night of relaxation.’

That sudden coolness in his voice had been a stark reminder of just how detached he was from the effects of the game they were playing. While she was a bag of nerves, he was as cool as a cucumber. He could kiss her and look at her with such heat that she could feel herself burning up, but none of it was real, and it was a real headache trying to deal with that.

‘And this is a club,’ he’d added for good measure. ‘There’ll be dancing and drinking so feel free to wear...whatever sexy little number you’ve brought with you.’

He’d grinned then, all coldness gone, and she’d wondered whether he was teasing her. Did he think that she was as wholesome as apple pie so couldn’t possibly dress like...all those other women he was accustomed to dating?

Still, staring at her reflection now, Sammy thought about the outfits Victoria had showed up in for the past few nights: small and tight and leaving very little to the imagination. She was eye candy on a major scale. All the other women, who were much older, dressed expensively and sensibly: cotton and silk in neutral shades; elegant and timeless. Sammy had pictured the much younger versions of them dressed in exactly the same way—pearls and diamonds, nothing too short and nothing too tight; nothing tasteless.

Just the sort that Rafael would never be drawn to in a million years. She wondered whether Victoria secretly sneered at her. Of course, that didn’t matter, but still... Summer sundresses and flat shoes worked well enough; and of course loose, workmanlike clothes worked for the kitchen because comfort was everything. But in a revelatory flash she’d seen herself from the outside and hadn’t been overjoyed with the image.

So tonight...something different. Having brought nothingsexywith her to wear—not that she actuallyownedanything that could be called sexy—Sammy had sneaked in a couple of hours shopping on her own while everyone had been occupied, the partners hiding under hats on whatever beach they’d gone to, their other halves poring over documents ready for signing off.

She’d had fun. Shopping wasn’t usually her thing, but this was different because she was shopping for a reason: to shock. Nothing too dramatic, because she wasn’t dramatic by nature, but she wanted to assert herself as someone other than the hard-working, talented chef Rafael had been drawn to in some unlikely turn of events.

Now she slipped on her shoes, took a deep breath and headed downstairs to the join the party. Several cars were laid on for all of them and, if she hadn’t got her skates on, Rafael would have been up in a minute, knocking on the bedroom door and asking whether she’d decided to find some other half-baked excuse for getting out of the evening.

Rafael glanced at his watch.

He always seemed to be glancing at his watch when it came to ‘the love of his life’. It had occurred to him only the evening before that no woman had ever kept him waiting as much as this particular one did.

And, sure enough, he was waiting now. She should have been here fifteen minutes ago. He could see Victoria surreptitiously looking at him out of the corner of her eye.

Thank God he’d had a word with with Clement and her—a gentle reminder to Clement that Victoria might want to take amore subdued approach to his very private relationship with Sammy.

‘We’re both very private people,’ he had confided, whilst wondering how he had got to the point where this felt so much more dangerous than the harmless game of make-believe they had initiated a million years ago. ‘The last thing either of us want or need is for our...er...situation to be discussed on an hourly basis.’

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