Page 14 of Shock Marriage for the Powerful Spaniard
‘Really?’ Her voice cooled because she could smell a warning a mile off. Had he noticed the way she had gradually thawed? Maybe he’d sensed her increasing desire and was politely about to tell her that he wasn’t up for grabs.
She had no idea whether he was involved with anyone, or even married! She’d made assumptions and was now mortified that she might have got those assumptions wrong.
‘Really.’
Rafael began walking towards the sprawling villa, and after a few seconds of hesitation Sofia followed in his wake.
He didn’t swerve towards the kitchen. Instead, he headed towards the sitting room and then turned, waiting as she entered and then stopped dead in her tracks, hovering just inside the door.
‘What’s going on, Rafael?’
‘Sit.’
‘Thanks, but I’m fine standing right here.’
‘I’m not entirely sure where to begin.’ He paused. ‘Maybe you should just take a look at this.’ He flicked open his wallet and pulled out an article on his godfather that he had printed off before he had left London, knowing that when the story emerged the online entry might explain more than he would be able to. He handed her the paper and then stepped back to watch her face as she scanned it before returning it to him.
‘So?’ she flung challengingly at him.
‘Recognise the name?’
‘I haven’t got a clue who that person is.’
‘You mother never mentioned names when she was talking about your father?’
Colour leeched out of her face as she stared at him wordlessly for a few seconds. ‘No.’
‘The man you’ve just read about is your father.’
‘I don’t believe you.’ She stumbled into the room and fell into one of the chairs, then promptly sat forward, horribly conscious of her state of undress. Primly, she draped the towel she had been carrying across her thighs and watched as he drew a chair to sit directly facing her.
Was this some sort of interrogation? Surely he couldn’t be right? She tried frantically to remember what her mother had said about her father aside from, in her last few days, when she had repeatedly told her that he had broken her heart. Had she described the guy at all? No. He’d been much older than her at the time, but she had shied away from details. Sofia had never bothered to pry, because what would have been the use?
‘Why wouldn’t you? What reason would I have to lie?’
‘Look, I don’t know what’s going on but—’
‘Hear me out, Sofia, and you will. David Dunmore is your father. Your mother contacted him shortly before she died. Her conscience, it would seem, got the better of her. She told him that he had a daughter. You. He had people check you out as soon as he received that letter from your mother.’
‘Had peoplecheck me out?’
‘These things happen.’ Rafael shrugged.
‘No. Not in my world, they don’t happen.’ She stared at him stonily. ‘Whoareyou?’ she demanded, leaping to her feet. ‘I don’t want to be having this conversation. I need to... I need to...’
‘You need to sit and listen to what I have to say. Sofia, I didn’t come over here from London to play at being a gardener.’
‘Then why have you come?’ She sat back down, very slowly, riveted to his beautiful face, chilled by the cold containment of his expression. This was certainly not the warm, teasing guy she had begun losing her head over. This was a stranger on a mission and it was dawning on her that the mission might not be to her liking.
But confusion rendered her speechless while her thoughts buzzed in her head like a swarm of angry wasps.
‘David Dunmore is my godfather and I was tasked with coming over here to personally check you out. Not check out the veracity of your identity, but to check out what sort of person you are.’
Sofia stared at him sickly as pieces of the jigsaw puzzle began meshing together, revealing a picture she didn’t want to acknowledge.
‘There must be some mistake,’ she whispered. ‘And even if there isn’t...even if thatmanhappens to be my father...why would he send someone over here tocheck andsee what I might be like?’
‘Thatmanhappens to be an extremely wealthy person,’ Rafael told her flatly. ‘Wealthy people take the necessary precautions.’
