Page 43 of Emergency Engagement

Rafael thoughtfully tilted his head to one side. ‘I guess it does.’ He sighed. ‘Not that I talk about this at all, but yes. Growing up, it was hard not to pity my father. Survival and resilience deserted him and the worst of it was that the marriage, as I think I’ve told you, wasn’t a good one. It definitely wasn’t made in heaven. But...’

‘But? No, wait—don’t say a thing. Give me your plate and I’ll see to the main meal. I think you’re going to love it. It’s a very special dish.’

‘Need a hand?’

‘I’ve got this.’

Her heart was beating like a sledgehammer as she prepared their mains. She made sure that every garnish was in place and every bit of food on the plate was positioned just so, from the fondant potatoes to the exquisite lobster and the tiny carrots and fresh peas.

He was confiding in her. Was he even aware of that? She didn’t think so. She’d barely been aware of it herself until she’d woken up to her own feelings and had begun to take note of the things that were said between them, the little intimacies spoken in passing.

He shared things with her: titbits about his past. He laughed and told her funny stuff that had happened with clients over the years. A couple of days ago, he’d told her of the effort he’d put in to make sure he succeeded because success was everything.

She lapped up those confidences, lashes lowered, hardly breathing, never daring to encourage in case he backed off and turned away.

‘Ta-da!’ She laughed and flamboyantly laid his plate in front of him. He laughed back and looked at her admiringly.

‘A picture should be taken.’

‘Already did that.’ Sammy slipped into her seat and glanced at him across the flickering candles. ‘Can’t have a website without lots of images, and I’m doing a lot of work on my website while I’m here. You were saying...about your dad and the way he was after your mother left...?’

‘So I was,’ Rafael continued absently. ‘I was saying that it’s partly thanks to you that I’ve squared off some of my disillusionment with my dad—a hangover from the way I felt all those years ago.’

‘How so?’

‘You had a rough ride as well and yet you haven’t become bitter or cynical. You still believe in love, and you still believe that Mr Right is out there, waiting like a knight in shining armour to marry you and give you the happy-ever-after life you want. You could say I’ve softened my stance on my father and his life choices. I always loved him but I can see how he could end up a broken guy.’

‘I’m really pleased about that although, you know, it’s notquiteas straightforward as Mr Right galloping on his horse towards me.’

‘You’re not kidding.’

‘Although, it’s not as impossible as you’ve come to think.’ She felt a fine film of perspiration break out as she wondered where to go from here. Somewhere in the course of the past few days, as she’d untangled her feelings about this man, she’d realised that telling him the truth was going to be the best thing for her. The best way to be her own authentic self.

And she even dared to hope that it would not be in vain. They’d shared a lot. He’d talked to her in a way that she knew, in her gut, he’d never talked to another woman before. He’d told her stuff and, because he wasn’t a guy who shared, she’d known that thatstuffrepresented true confidences.

He hadn’t even been aware of those moments. Like just then, when he’d spoken about his father. Could he see that behind those words lay a world of hurt that he was exposing for her to see? Surely that meantsomething? Sammy knew that he was right when he’d said that, despite what she’d gone through, she still held on to her optimism. She still believed in love. Was she being an idiot to think that he might love her without realising it? That she could tell him how she felt and that he might think about it and realise that he felt the same way? That his heart had been ambushed without him realising, just as hers had?

‘What are you thinking?’ Rafael looked at the distant expression on Sammy’s face. ‘That was stupendous, by the way.’

‘I know.’ She grinned. ‘I’m not a bad chef. Maybe one day I’ll have a Michelin star.’

‘Don’t do that. Michelin-starred restaurants can be very overrated, especially for a man who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks.’

‘I’ll bear that in mind.’

‘I was going to ask you what’s for dessert, but I’ve just decided thatyou’regoing to be my dessert. Come sit on my lap. I want to make love to you right here, right now. Then we can go swim in the pool to cool off. And when we go upstairs we can do it all again.’

‘Is sex all you think about, Rafael Moreno?’ Sammy laughed but she shuffled off her chair and he adjusted his so that she could straddle him. She linked her fingers behind his head, kissed him slowly and tenderly and then sighed with pleasure when he undid the corded belt from her waist and chucked it on the ground.

She shifted this way and that as he raised the dress, pushing it up to her neck where it gathered in soft folds so that he could lick her swollen nipples. She moaned when he pulled away, looked at them and murmured how beautiful her breasts were.

‘Small and perfectly formed,’ he observed. ‘Touch me, Sammy.’

She laughed huskily and, when she stood up to yank the dress off, followed by her underwear, he did the same with his trousers and tee-shirt until they were both naked and feverish with the excitement that had exploded from nowhere.

He kissed her, pressing her against him. She felt his hardness against her and nearly swooned. Love, passion and desire all merged into something that was overwhelming. She gently pushed him so that he was back in the chair. Then she kneltbetween his legs and took him into her mouth, touching his thighs and his rigid shaft the way she knew he loved.

His groans of pleasure were such a turn-on, it was an effort to remain there when all she wanted was to straddle him and feel him deep inside her. She raised her eyes to see him arched back in the chair, his big body swamping it, his eyes closed, and she nimbly mounted him and felt the soft, silky slide of his bigness in her with a powerful surge of satisfaction.

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