personality, Sofia.’
‘You weren’t cold and distant like this…’
‘I’m being practical,’ he offered brusquely. ‘It’s the best way of dealing with this situation. This is not Argentina and it’s better for the both of us if we approach it from the same perspective. We’re in an arrangement and we need to view it as such.’ He looked at her, at her smooth, stunningly sexy profile, the gentle curve of her neck, the sweep of her dark hair, and his body stirred in unwelcome and definitely inappropriate response. ‘It’s essential, in fact,’ he felt compelled to stress in a roughened undertone.
Sofia didn’t say anything but she was sitting next to a stranger.
‘It’s just a little weird to think that I’m about to embark on a wedding and a marriage to a guy who is more of a stranger now than he was when I first met him.’
‘Not such a great idea to go there,’ Rafael said, picking up pace now that the airport surroundings had been left behind and they were shooting away from the city. ‘This is what we both signed up for and we both had our reasons. Let’s just hit Acceptance Road and keep on it.’
‘But don’t you feel just a little bit sad that you’re not getting married for all the right reasons?’ She laughed lightly to cover up the sincerity of what she was saying. Funny thing was, she’d always considered herself the sort of practical girl who didn’t have a romantic bone in her body. Not really. Yes, she believed in love, but a sensible sort of love. Not the sort of tempestuous carousel of emotion that had plagued her mother and driven her into relationships that had been doomed before they got off the ground.
‘The right reasons being…the starry-eyed business of true love?’ Rafael laughed shortly. ‘In a word, no.’ And just like that he thought of times past and his brief and disastrous foray into married life. Hell, he thought he’d relegated that slice of insanity to the past! Too young to know better and too green round the gills to realise that some women loved money more than they loved the men they claimed to adore. He shut the wayward memory down. You learned from the crap that was thrown at you and you moved on. He’d learned from having rich parents who hadn’t given a damn about him and he’d moved on. He’d learned from that costly, juvenile mistake when he’d married in haste and he’d moved on.
‘You’re very cynical, aren’t you?’
‘Very realistic. I’ve seen where so-called true love ends up and it’s not in a happy-ever-after scenario. I’m comfortable with this arrangement. And you should be too because, as we’ve agreed, there is a time limit to it.’
‘I remember,’ Sofia said dryly. One year, he had concluded, during which time the relationship with David could be forged, the business of Freddy would be concluded and thereafter she would be free to divorce and pick back up her life, but as a wealthy woman.
‘I didn’t take you for the romantic kind,’ he eventually remarked to break the silence and kill the remnants of uninvited memories. ‘In fact, you were pretty spiky when we first met.’
‘I’m not the romantic kind! And you were pretty arrogant when we first met, which was probably why I was spiky.’ It was suddenly unnerving because he’d lost the cool voice, and that glimpse of the sexy, easy guy she’d found herself attracted to was back. It was just a glimpse but it was still enough to make her skin tingle. This time, though, she was prepared and she quickly changed the subject because there was no way she was going to lose her head a second time round. He’d turned the charm on when he’d descended in his fake role as gardener because he’d needed to suss her out, get to know her, and that had been the most efficient way of doing itt. But charm was inherent in his personality and she guessed that it would be far too easy to fall victim to it again. It was something she wasn’t about to do.
‘When…er…do I get to meet…er…?’
‘David?’ Rafael half-smiled. ‘Scheduled for the day after tomorrow. Saturday. He’ll be back in his house and up to visitors, although any visit will have to be brief. And the big day…the following Saturday. It’ll be a suitably small affair. Thereafter, we’ll be man and wife—although, as I’ve said, I’ll be working in London during the week and on weekends you might want to travel down and stay in my apartment…handy for setting up a routine of visits to David once he’s home.’
No time together was what Sofia read into that statement of fact, and it came as no great shock, as he’d previously sketched out that scenario.
‘So I’ll be out in the sticks during the week.’ She would carry on with her studies. She’d enjoy the discipline, even though she wouldn’t need the job at the end of it. She would explore her surroundings, maybe do something crafty with her spare time, volunteer somewhere or maybe just see what sports were on offer. It would be a life she had never envisioned but she would need something to do for herself while she was here.
‘Unless you prefer my apartment. It’s more than big enough for the both of us.’
‘Won’t that be an intrusion?’ Sofia murmured inaudibly, because she’d already worked out that if Rafael spent the week away from her it would give him ample opportunity to continue uninterrupted in whatever life he had involving the opposite sex.
She thought of him with another woman and was shocked at the raw sting of jealousy that swept through her in a tidal wave.
‘Come again?’
‘Nothing,’ she said brightly. ‘Just…enjoying the scenery and…being somewhere different.’
The car ate up the miles and, despite the flurry of nervous tension inside her, she really did enjoy the scenery as the roads became less congested and the land more open, rolling in a patchwork quilt of different colours on either side of the dual carriageway until they cut away from the main drag.
Then they drove up smaller roads, narrower streets that opened into tiny villages announcing themselves with a single signpost. She saw lots of greenery and lots of trees and then, eventually, the car swerved slowly through electronically controlled wrought-iron gates.
This wasn’t what she’d been expecting. The drive opened out to a small courtyard and then an elongated cottage that was picture-perfect. White walls, clambering ivy, roses.
‘You own this house?’
Rafael drew to a stop and flashed her a smile of such utter charm that for a few seconds she struggled to breathe.
The worst of it was that he didn’t even realise the effect that smile could have on her.
‘Investment,’ he said succinctly. ‘Apparently out here old and quaint sells. As it happens, I’ve hung onto it far longer than I originally planned, because David’s always enjoyed coming out here, but in the meantime it’s done very nicely indeed pricewise. That answer your question?’
‘Perfectly.’
There was a snazzy black car in the drive and now an attractive blonde in her mid-thirties emerged and walked towards the Range Rover.
‘The ring selection,’ Rafael murmured, reaching across her to snap open the door and pausing before withdrawing his arm that was inches from her breasts. ‘For the love-struck couple, giddy after their whirlwind romance.’
‘Is that what everyone thinks?’
Rafael shrugged. ‘David knows the ins and outs, and Freddy has already begun to make outraged noises, but I’d say the rest of the world probably think that this is the real deal. Why wouldn’t they? I honestly don’t care but it might be easier all round for you to give as few people as little to talk about.’
Sofia was trying hard to concentrate on every word he was saying but her eyes were compulsively looking at his well-defined, sensual mouth and her body was way too aware of that arm of his almost but not quite brushing her breasts.
She barely saw the rings, which were a blur of diamonds and gold, small, glittering