Page 48 of Shock Marriage for the Powerful Spaniard
‘Sofia...’
‘What?’ She clicked her tongue impatiently and spun around to stare at him, hands on her hips.
‘You asked a question back there in the kitchen,’ Rafael said roughly, ‘and I should have answered it.’
‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘Well, clearly it does, considering you’re packing to leave me because you didn’t get the answer you wanted.’
‘There was noanswer I wanted!No right or wrong way of responding! Just something more than you waving your hand and swatting me away! So don’t youdaretry and lay the blame for this at my door, Rafael.’
‘I wasn’t aware that I was doing that.’ He raked his fingers through his hair and walked into the bedroom to drag the chair by the dressing table across to the window and there he proceeded to watch her as she continued her packing. He didn’t sit still for long. He stood up and walked to the dressing table, picking up random stuff and repositioning them. Her hairbrush. A magnifying mirror. A lipstick. It was disconcerting and she found that she couldn’t carry on doing what she was doing while he was behaving so...weirdly.
‘Anyway,’ she muttered, ‘It doesn’t matter. I shouldn’t have asked.’ Her mouth twisted in a semblance of a sarcastic smile. ‘It was way beyond my brief to ever think that you might have seen fit to share something as huge about your past as a marriage. What a fool I was, forgetting that I was just your business partner!’
‘Don’t.’
‘Don’t what?’
‘Be sarcastic. It doesn’t suit you.’
‘Oh, dear. Well, I’d better listen and obey that command. Except...why should I? I’m leaving you so I don’t actually have to listen or obey anything you say.’
‘You never have.’ Rafael perched against the dressing table and folded his arms but his usual air of self-assured cool was missing.
He looked...rattled.
Before she could start analysing whatthatmeant, she flung open the wardrobe doors and stared down at an array of shoes befitting the woman she had become but certainly not the woman she had once been.
For some reason, the sight brought tears to her eyes and she remained very still for a few seconds, eyes downcast, before gathering herself and sifting through the shoes to remove a pair of trainers and a pair of walking boots. She didn’t think she’d be needing stilettoes or designer slip-ons again. Her next step forward was back to Argentina, back to where she belonged, where she would take stock, and then maybe see a bit of the world. Travel was good for the soul, and although she wouldn’t be travelling like a princess, with a trunk of fancy shoes and fancy ball gowns, neither would she be heading forth without knowing where she would be sleeping when nightfall rolled around.
‘It’s what I’ve always liked about you.’
His deep voice was so close behind her that she actually jumped and then spun around to find that he had managed to creep up on her without making a sound. How could a big guy move so silently? She inched back and he made no move to close the tiny gap between them. He just stared down at her with an expression that she couldn’t begin to read but which was as unnerving as his lack of cool.
‘Yes, I was once married. I was young...’
‘You don’t have to.’ She looked away, red-faced, heart beating like a sledgehammer. ‘In a fake marriage no one has a right to confidences and, if I chose to confide in you, then you didn’t ask for any of it.’
‘You have a right,’ Rafael said seriously. ‘To know.’
‘I have no idea what you’re trying to say, Rafael, and I can’t deal with riddles. Not right now.’
‘I’m being straight with you.’ There was the ghost of a tremor in his voice and she pretended not to notice, because she knew that to notice would just open the door to all those stupid questions in her head, and she knew from bitter experience that those questions never led anywhere she wanted to go.
‘Not only do you have every right to be curious about my past but I have absolutely no right to deny you whatever answers you want. In fact, I should have told you about my marriage. God knows, there were enough opportunities, because what we had, the relationship that unfolded between us, stopped being about a business arrangement a long time ago.’ He cupped the side of her face with his hand and she didn’t jerk back. ‘You confided in me and it should have been natural for me to return the favour.’
‘You were never going to do that, Rafael,’ she said brusquely. ‘You have always made it very clear that you don’t do the touchy-feely stuff.’
‘I know,’ he admitted freely. ‘And therein lay the problem.’ He shot her a crooked smile that rocked her from the inside out and made her pulses race, and her heart speed up just a little bit more.
The atmosphere between them was electric and she didn’t want to break it. Asking him to carry on because she was riveted risked breaking it so she remained silent, staring at him, eyes as wide as saucers.
‘I’ve never confided in anyone, and old habits die hard. David is about the only person on the face of the earth who has ever had the ability to make me do anything I may not have wanted to do.’
‘I know. I get that. He asked you to go to Argentina to check me out and I don’t suppose you ever really thought that you might turn down the request.’
‘He gave me purpose. My parents had no time for me. He did. I owe him.’ He shifted on his feet and slid his gaze over to the bed. ‘This is a...difficult conversation for me. Maybe difficult isn’t quite the right word. What I’m saying is that I’d rather we had it on more...neutral territory.’
