with degrees pounding on office doors.’ He paused, giving her time for his words to sink in. ‘Your father would like to get to know you. If you had been in any way the sort of woman I thought would hurt him, I would not be standing here having this conversation with you. He...wants to get to know you and I, in turn, want to facilitate that.’
‘Should I be flattered?’ Sofia flung at him. ‘It seems that lots of thought has gone into how my father would benefit from the arrangement, and how you would, but hey, what about me?’
‘Oh, but I feel you should take time out to consider the advantages of accepting what’s on offer, and the greatest of them is your freedom. Freedom from all of this. Think about it, Sofia. No having to do as you’re told, with your free time whittled down to when it suits your employers. Take this deal and I will immediately begin transferring a healthy sum of money into your account. Whatever you want, you will be able to have. Shares in the company would go to me but, as compensation, you would receive a vast amount of money. No more scrimping and saving.’
‘I could never marry you,’ Sofia said weakly. She thought of her cousin, with all his problems, and her aunt who struggled daily to make ends meet. The little she handed over meant so much to them. How much more would she be able to do if money was no object? Expert physiotherapy for Miguel? An operation, perhaps? There were many cutting-edge treatments out there... More than that, she could move them to somewhere nicer, a house with a garden out in the suburbs where her aunt wouldn’t feel scared if she happened to be walking home at night. There was so much she could do and the limitless possibilities hovered over her head, dazzling and seductive. ‘You lied to me. You pretended to be someone you weren’t. How could I ever marry someone I didn’t even like?’
Rafael hesitated but only momentarily. ‘This is a business deal. Marry me and in return you become a wealthy woman. As for the nature of our relationship...you will be free to do your own thing, as I will, within reason and with absolute discretion.’ He lowered his eyes, shielding his expression, guarding his thoughts, doing what came naturally to a man as intensely private as he was.
For some reason, Rafael’s cool, detached logic stung like heck. So he didn’t fancy her and he never had. She’d been mistaken. Was she so full of herself that she’d actually thought that he’d been interested? Giving off all the right signals? Getting under her skin because he lusted after her the way she foolishly lusted after him?
‘So what you’re offering is...’ Her voice was glacial.
‘Yes.’ Rafael met her eyes and held her gaze. ‘The ultimate marriage of convenience.’
WITH HIS BACK to the coffee shop, and a paper cup of over-stewed coffee in one hand, Rafael scanned the faces of the people emerging from Customs out into the waiting crowds. A few were optimistically peering to find loved ones. Most looked frazzled and weary.
Under normal circumstances, Rafael would not have been standing there, drinking mediocre coffee and waiting for anyone to arrive. Under normal circumstances, he would have dispatched his driver to do the honours, but these were hardly normal circumstances.
A fortnight ago, he had left Argentina an engaged man. He had presumed that Sofia would leave with him but, she’d informed him, she had things to do.
‘I can’t just up sticks and leave,’ she had told him, sitting upright across from him in the formal sitting room where the details of this marriage of convenience had been discussed with the formality of two heads of state at a summit. ‘I have things to do.’
‘What things?’
‘Things,’ she had said coolly. ‘All the usual things a person has to do just before they travel to another country to marry someone they barely know.’
‘Thereby ensuring themselves a small fortune in the process,’ Rafael had been prompted into saying, edgily. ‘As a token of good faith, I’m prepared to personally transfer a sizeable amount to your bank account online right now, if you give me your account details.’
‘I also,’ Sofia had added, overriding the offer, ‘don’t like the idea of just disappearing and leaving a farewell note behind. I may not be the Walters’ biggest fan,’ she had conceded truthfully, ‘but I’m fond of their children and I would like to say goodbye to them.’
* * *
So that had been that. In the end, it had worked out for the best because Rafael had travelled back solo and had taken the opportunity to explain the situation to David, who was now on the slow and laborious route to recuperation.
It had also given him ample opportunity to crystallise the what happens next? in the scenario.
Not that he hadn’t thought about it while he had been out there. He had. Eventually. When matters had come to a head.
He’d been confronted with a sexy beauty and for a while his libido had misbehaved but, yes, when he had sat her down and explained the situation, he had known that acting on his libido was not going to do.
This wasn’t going to be one of his transitory affairs. He wasn’t going to be able to walk away after a handful of weeks and bouquet of ‘it’s over’ flowers lovingly chosen by his PA.
No, Sofia Suarez, whose existence he hadn’t been aware of a fortnight previously, was going to be slightly more long-lasting than that.
A year. That was the timeline mutually agreed as they had coolly and objectively discussed the nuts and bolts of their arrangement. A year, during which he would sort out the problem with Freddy and she would build the bonds with her father that would last beyond the inevitable divorce. A year seemed like a reasonable length of time. Having agreed to the deal, not once had she baulked, and he had admired her for that.
It was going to be a mutually beneficial situation for all concerned. For his godfather, who was desperate to meet his flesh-and-blood daughter. For him, because he was not only going to do something for the only human being on the planet he actually had time for but, in the process, would sort out the aggravation of his godfather’s stepson’s interference—and, as no miserly bonus, garner himself a healthy slice of the leisure industry his godfather had made his own. And of course for his bride-to-be, who would suddenly find herself one of the wealthiest women on the continent.
Joy and laughter all round.
But not if he allowed his libido to rule his head.
Rafael had felt the sizzle of attraction between them. He had seen the flare of desire in her feline green eyes and for a short while he had actually contemplated doing something about it. Because the pull towards her, forbidden fruit when he’d started thinking with his head instead of that other, far less reliable part of his body, was the strongest he’d ever experienced.
But this was a business arrangement and he had never been stupid enough to mix business with pleasure.
His solution had been the perfect one. They would maintain their freedom of movement whilst obeying rules of utmost discretion. A year was hardly an eternity in the great scheme of things.
Mind half-playing on the various formalities to be manoeuvred, Rafael spotted her emerging from the airport corridor through which lay Arrivals and Customs. She was walking slowly behind a family and trying hard to control a trolley that seemed determined to explore the opposite direction from the one she was taking.
Her long, dark, curly hair was tied back but travel had unravelled most of it from its restraints. She was dressed in a pair of faded jeans, a loose T-shirt and a scruffy bomber jacket. Her skin was the colour of latte and as smooth as silk and he drew in a sharp breath before briskly walking in her direction.
Just when you figure you’ve got life nicely under control, he thought with grim amusement, you discover that life’s decided to turn the tables and start controlling you.
Just