Page 12 of Legacy of His Revenge
Sophie was so shocked that she looked away, heart hammering hard, barely able to breathe normally.
What on earth was going on with her? It was true that she hadn’t had any interest in men since she had broken up with Alan, but surely that wouldn’t make her susceptible to a man like Matias Rivero? He epitomised everything she disliked and if he was, physically, an attractive guy then surely she was sensible enough to be able to get past outward appearances?
‘Julie isnotdead wood,’ she denied in a voice she barely recognised.
‘If she’s panicking because you’re not there to hold her hand, then she’s incompetent.’
‘Thank you for your advice,’ she said with sugary sarcasm, ‘although I won’t be paying much attention to it because I actually haven’t asked for it in the first place.’
Matias burst out laughing. Against all odds, he was enjoying himself with the one person on the planet he should have wanted to have as little to do with as possible. Yes, he was on a fact-finding mission but he hadn’t anticipated having fun as he tried to plumb her depths for some useful information on her father.
‘Would it shock you to know that I can’t think of anyone who would dare say something like that to me?’
‘No,’ Sophie told him with complete honesty and Matias laughed again.
‘No?’
‘Men with money always surround themselves with people who suck up to them and, even if they don’t, people are so awed by money that they change when they’re around rich people. They behave differently.’
‘But you’re different from them?’ Matias inserted silkily. ‘Or are you just someone who can afford to make penury their career choice because there has always been a comfort blanket on which to rely should push actually come to shove?’
‘I don’t expect you to believe me,’ Sophie muttered. ‘James supported us because he had to. I was grateful for that, but there was never any question about there being any comfort blanket for the...for us...’
Matias looked at her narrowly, picking upsomethingalthough he couldn’t quite be sure what.
‘Because he had to...’ he murmured. ‘You’re not exactly singing his praises with that statement.’
‘But like you said,’ Sophie pointed out quickly, ‘he could have just walked away from his responsibility.’
‘Unless...’ Matias let that single word hang tantalisingly in the air between them.
‘Unless?’ Sophie gazed at him helplessly and thought that this was what it must feel like to be a rabbit caught in the headlights. There was something powerful andinexorableabout him. His head was tilted to one side and his midnight-dark eyes were resting lazily on her, sending little arrows of apprehension racing through her body like tiny electrical charges.
‘Unless he felt he had no choice...’
Sophie stilled. She was caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. Tell him everything and he would have nothing to do with her father, who would probably have to declare bankruptcy if everything he said was true, and where would that leave Eric? Yet say nothing and who knew where this conversation would end up?
She remained resolutely silent and thought frantically about a suitable change of subject. Something innocuous. Perhaps the weather, although that alert expression in Matias’s dark, brooding eyes didn’t augur well for some inconsequential chit-chat at this juncture.
He looked very much like a dog in possession of a large, juicy bone, keen to take the first bite.
‘Is that it?’ he pressed softly. ‘Did your mother apply a little undue pressure to make sure she was taken care of? Is that the relationship you have with your father now? I expect a man like him, in a reasonably prominent position, might have found it awkward to have had the mother of his illegitimate child making a nuisance of herself.’
Lost for words, Sophie could only stare at him in absolute silence.
How on earth had he managed to arrive at this extremely accurate conclusion? And more to the point, how had the conversation meandered to this point in the first place?
‘I thought you might have been the secret child he spoiled, bearing in mind his marriage failed to produce a suitable heir.’ Matias was shamelessly fishing and not at all bothered at Sophie’s obvious discomfort.
‘I really don’t want to talk about James,’ Sophie eventually said, when the silence had become too much to bear. ‘I know you’re interested in finding out what you can before you sink money into...er...his company, but you’re really asking the wrong person when it comes to business details and I don’t feel comfortable discussing him behind his back.’ Something her father had said, in the rush of anger, rose to the surface of her addled brain...something aboutwhereall the money he had given them over the years had come from, a paper trail that should have been brushed under the carpet but was threatening to re-emerge under the eagle eyes of independent auditors. She shivered.
Matias debated whether to press the issue or fall back on this occasion and he decided that, with time on his hands, there was no point trying to force her into revealing secrets that might be lurking just below the surface.
For sure, something wasn’t quite right but he’d discover what that was sooner or later.
In the meanwhile...
‘Is there anything you need to know about the job?’ he asked briskly, finally changing the subject to her obvious relief. The details could very well be left to his head housekeeper, who was busy with preparations in the vast house somewhere, but Matias was drawn to continuing the conversation with her.
