Page 24 of One More Sleepless Night

‘And are you reassured?’

There was a pause and then it was as if Gaby sort of exploded. ‘Reassured? Reassured? Are you joking? I’m not reassured in the least. In fact I’m going to kill him,’ she spluttered. ‘I’m going to bloody kill him.’

*

Rafael slammed closed the door to his flat, dumped his things in the hall and headed straight to the fridge for a cool refreshing beer. Flipping off the lid, he lifted the bottle to his mouth, leaned back against the counter and took a long swallow.

God, what an afternoon.

As the harrowing memory of it slammed back into his head for the thousandth time since he’d packed up and left he closed his eyes and let out a long deep breath.

How could he have got it all so badly wrong? How could he have so totally lost control like that? How could his rock-solid resistance to temptation have vaporised quite so comprehensively?

His behaviour had been unfamiliar, unexpected and completely unprecedented. And as for the primal urge to stake some sort of claim on Nicky, the one that had surged through him and had made him reach down and grab her, well, that had simply been as scary as hell.

At least in the aftermath of the kiss he’d managed to wrestle back some degree of control, he thought with a shudder. At least he hadn’t high-tailed it to the safety of his vines as he’d been so tempted to do, but instead had stayed there, strong and resolute and in control. And at least he hadn’t revealed any of the turmoil and confusion and still-scorching desire that had been churning through him. That really would have finished him off.

Yes, cool indifference and a refusal to let her speak had been the right way to handle it because he’d had no intention of engaging in a discussion about what had happened and he certainly hadn’t wanted her to rake over the way he’d behaved or analyse his many deficiencies.

Leaving had been a good idea too because, for one thing, Nicky might have agreed to back off but the look in her eye had been fiercely determined and he’d got the impression she was planning to revisit the discussion at the first available opportunity.

For another, he might not have wanted to admit it, but her rejection of him had hurt and he didn’t really need to be constantly reminded of it every time he laid eyes on her.

And lastly, with his self-control in such bits he couldn’t guarantee that kissing her wouldn’t happen again, and if that wasn’t the most terrifying thought on the planet he didn’t know what was.

So he’d walked away from her with what little pride he’d had left, utterly exhausted and defeated and struck by the realisation that finally, finally he’d reached breaking point.

Rafael sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. It had truly been the most shattering, frustrating, painful weekend he’d had in years and frankly he couldn’t wait to see the back of it.

At least it was nearly over, he told himself, glancing up at the clock. He’d use what was left of it and the rest of the beer in the fridge to wipe it from his head, and put Nicky out of his mind once and for all. Then all the stuff churning around inside him would settle down, things would get better and he’d start to feel normal again.

With any luck.

The sound of his phone ringing jerked Rafael out of his thoughts. He dug it out of his pocket and as he glanced at the screen he inwardly groaned because apparently things weren’t going to get better just yet.

Resisting the temptation to ignore the call because look at what had happened the last time he’d done that, he hit the answer button and lifted the phone to his ear.

‘Gaby,’ he said, and took another swig from the bottle. ‘Good of you to get in touch. How’s Bahrain?’

‘Don’t you give me any of that good-of-you-to-get-in-touch-how’s-Bahrain crap,’ said his sister, sounding so uncharacteristically fierce that he tensed, every one of his instincts instantly jumping to high alert. ‘What I want to know is, what the hell did you do to my friend?’

Carefully setting down his beer, Rafael forced himself to relax and stay cool. ‘I take it you’ve spoken to Nicky.’

‘I’ve just got off the phone to her.’

‘How is she?’

Gaby blew out a furious breath. ‘Oh, she’s fine. Just fine, considering… Me, though, I’m in a state of shock.’

He closed his eyes for a second and ignored the urge to hang up and blame it on a low battery. ‘Why? What did she say?’

‘That you’d kissed her.’

‘I see.’

Gaby spluttered a bit more. ‘Is that it?’

Rafael stifled a sigh. ‘What else do you want me to say? You seem to know everything already.’

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