is something, though, Rafael,’ Sofia told him quietly. She sipped some water and then, when plates had been cleared away, she leaned towards him, elbows on the table, hands clasped, fingers entwined. ‘He... I’m not sure how to say this...but he touched me. Please don’t think that he frightened me, because he didn’t, but he did touch me.’
The silence that greeted this was so deep and so dense that a shiver of apprehension raced up and down her spine. Rafael’s face was inscrutable but his eyes were narrowed and for a few seconds she was privy to a vision of the ruthless steel that lay beneath the velvet glove.
‘Not,’ she repeated, ‘in any way that was scary. He just ran his fingers on my arm.’ She laughed but Rafael didn’t return the laugh and his body language was so taut and still that she wanted to demand to know what was going through his head.
‘Did he now?’
There was a sickness rising up inside Rafael that he barely recognised. He clenched his fists and controlled a powerful and bewildering urge to punch something. Was this what jealousy tasted like? No, couldn’t be. He’d never been jealous before. He’d gone out with women who graced the catwalk, and commanded second, third and fourth looks wherever they went, and he’d never had a problem with that. And if some guy had made a pass at any of them? He’d certainly never felt this roar of rage inside him, this pounding in his head and throbbing in his temples.
Was it because she was his wife? Maybe it was because of that. In name only but perhaps he was more of a dinosaur than he’d ever imagined and the fact that he was married to her had evoked some kind of primal, possessive streak he’d never experienced. That surely must be it?
He thought of Freddy, pictured that weak face, his manicured hand on her arm and one thought ran though his head—he was going to sort him out one way or another. Things had just got personal.
Sofia tugged his hand gently so that he was once again looking directly at her and she could judge something of his thoughts in his stunning dark gaze. He was clever at keeping concealed what he had no intention of revealing, but she had to try and read his expression, and she wasn’t going to do that if he was looking away.
‘When I said that I’d met men like Freddy before I wasn’t kidding. The way I look...?’ She rolled her eyes with self-deprecation, because it was always embarrassing to discuss her looks. She’d been accused, nastily, of vanity too many times as a teenager, and had learned to shy away from drawing attention to her appearance. Blending into the background had been one of her greatest aims. ‘Men have always thought that they could try it on but I learned how to separate the wheat from the chaff at a very young age. Most guys are obvious but the ones to watch out for are the ones who sneak up from behind and Freddy is one of those. He’s a sneaker-upper kind of guy.’
She paused and then took a deep breath. ‘He might not be guilty of out-and-out embezzlement or whatever but you should try talking to some of the young girls who work in the company.’
Rafael was staring at her and she could see the dawning comprehension in his eyes. He said, in a low voice, ‘Tell me more, my darling. I’m all ears.’
My darling...
For a few seconds, Sofia lost track of what she had been saying. He’d called her his darling. Not cara, but darling, and she thrilled inside. Then she collected her thoughts and licked her lips, thinking of the best way to say what she had to say.
‘I think he might be more than just an office pest. He’s a guy who has a lot of power within that company and, from everything you and David have said, he’s been systematically getting rid of the old-school employees who might have had the wherewithal to stand up to him. Have you had a look at the girls in the main admin department?’
Rafael slowly shook his head. ‘I don’t tend to venture down there,’ he murmured. ‘I’ve been too busy dealing with the books to see whether any cooking has been going on. Too busy trying to stall ill-conceived deals that should never have kicked off in the first place. I’ve really only had dealings with the CEOs.’
‘They’re all young and attractive,’ Sofia said bluntly. ‘And a lot of them have only been there a short while.’
‘I’m joining the dots.’ He looked at her thoughtfully but he wasn’t looking at her. His mind was somewhere else. Sofia could see that. Then he was looking at her again, eyes sombre. ‘You said you were accustomed to men like Freddy,’ he murmured. ‘By that you mean seedy creeps who have tried to prey on you?’
Sofia looked away and shrugged. ‘It’s life.’
‘Any of them succeed in doing what you tell me Freddy didn’t do?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Any of them frighten you?’
Sofia reddened, suddenly restless and feeling exposed. Opening up was one thing when you were doing it with someone who truly cared about you. It was a different matter when you were revealing yourself to a guy who didn’t really care.
But there was something in his voice, a questioning gentleness that pierced right to the very core of her.
‘My mother was a very sexy woman. Very beautiful. Men chased after her and sometimes, when they saw me, they thought that I might come as part of the deal. Most just looked. Surreptitiously, making sure my mother didn’t notice. She could be a tiger like that. But I noticed and always made sure to take evasive action. But one night...well...there was a party and I was in bed. Someone came into the bedroom.’ She shivered, living the memory. ‘I was terrified,’ she admitted. ‘He was disturbed before anything could happen but I always knew that that was luck on my side and if luck had been busy somewhere else...’
Rafael reached out and took her hand in his, linking fingers. ‘Shh...’ His voice was low and persuasive. ‘That time has passed. You’re here with me now. Safe.’
Her eyes flickered to his.
Safe? She almost wanted to laugh. She’d stopped being safe with him a long time ago. She’d given her heart and was wandering in alien territory and, the last thing she was was safe. If only he knew...
SOFIA WAS BASKING in the warm glow of David’s satisfaction. It was writ large in the quiet pleasure in his eyes. He had peppered her with all sorts of interesting anecdotes about some of the people at the company and about deals long done when he had been climbing the ladder of success.
Sofia listened, quietly marvelling at how far their relationship had come. She had been so antagonistic to start with, so convinced that there could be no meeting ground between them, no place where they could join hands and look to any kind of future without the past being a stealthy, toxic intruder. How wrong she had been. She was guiltily aware that she should have had a bit more faith in her mother who would not have given her heart so completely to someone who wasn’t worth the gift. She had never loved again, even though she had carried on searching for love, and it was as though she had lost her compass, choosing all the wrong kinds of guys, desperately becoming a woman who relied on her looks to find her what she was looking for.
She wondered what she would tell David about her visit to the company because looking around had not been the straightforward meet-and-greet she had anticipated, interrupted as it had been by Freddy and his threatening behaviour. But she had selectively decided to omit that aspect of her visit and concentrate, instead, on her genuine delight at seeing where everything had started all those years ago.
Freddy and what was going to happen to him was something she had left at Rafael’s door. Certainly, after her revelations, Rafael had looked like a man on a mission. She would have felt sorry for the younger man if she hadn’t known, in her gut, just how much of a creep Freddy could turn out to be—already was.
She