Page 15 of Shock Marriage for the Powerful Spaniard
‘And you...? If you’re not a gardener, areyouwealthy 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.’
