A Touch of Notoriety(12)

Which, besides being sad, meant that the house was going to be far too big for Beth to live in on her own. Maybe she could advertise for someone to share it with her—

‘Gabriela?’

Beth ground her teeth together at Raphael’s deliberate use of the name she refused to recognise as being her own. And it had been deliberate, she was sure. ‘Yes, I’m very comfortable, thank you,’ she assured him with cool politeness. The same cool politeness that had existed between the two of them since Beth said her goodbyes to Grace and the Navarro family the previous evening before leaving for the airport with Raphael.

Beth frowned slightly as she remembered they had been tearful goodbyes on the part of Grace and Esther, stoic but warm on Carlos’s, and slightly disapproving on Cesar’s...

Although Beth had learnt there were definite advantages to those chauffeur-driven limousines and private jets she had previously pooh-poohed at! No long wait at the airport before boarding the flight for one thing, the limousine having driven them straight to the plane, and the aircraft taking off only minutes after she and Raphael had stepped aboard. There had also been a bedroom at the back of the plane, which Beth had definitely enjoyed. Not only had it meant she could sleep for much of the flight back, but it had also meant she’d had somewhere to escape to when she’d had enough of Raphael’s brooding silence. There hadn’t been the long wait beside the carousel for the baggage to arrive, either, once they landed in London, as the bags were instead loaded straight into the boot of another chauffeur-driven limousine waiting for them on the tarmac.

The English weather wasn’t too welcoming, though. Heavy rain was falling as they stepped out of the plane, causing Raphael to grimace with displeasure as he held an umbrella over Beth until she had descended the steps and climbed into the back of the limousine. He put down the umbrella and climbed into the passenger seat beside the chauffeur, drawing up a definite line of demarcation: he was the employee, and Beth was the younger sister of his employer.

He needn’t have bothered; Beth was all too aware of the fact that, as far as Raphael was concerned, she was just another part of his job.

And did that bother her?

Of course it didn’t, Beth told herself firmly. Raphael Cordoba might be dark and brooding, and handsome as sin, but he was also rude and arrogant, and totally disapproving of her, and the sooner he returned to Argentina, the better Beth would like it—

Was she protesting just a little too much?

There was no doubting that Raphael was older, more sophisticated, and just plain more dangerous than any of the men Beth had been attracted to in the past. And she didn’t usually find dark and brooding in the least interesting, either. Or rude and arrogant. And yet...

Much as she might want to deny it, Beth knew she had been aware of Raphael since the moment she first met him, and there had been a definite frisson of physical awareness when she and Raphael had been alone together in her bedroom two days ago. The sort of awareness that had sent a shiver down her spine, causing her nipples to tingle, and between her thighs to feel warm.

Sexual attraction.

She was sexually attracted to Raphael, in a way she never had been with any of the men she had actually been out on dates with.

Or maybe it was just that she saw his disapproval of her as a challenge?

Beth studied Raphael’s profile now as he talked softly with the chauffeur, a strong and chiselled profile: high cheekbones, a long and aristocratic nose, sculptured lips, and a strong square jaw that at the moment was in need of a shave. He was once again wearing one of those perfectly tailored three-piece suits—charcoal today, with a white silk shirt and meticulously knotted blue tie that matched the cerulean blue of his eyes, and yet those expensive trappings of sophistication did absolutely nothing to detract from the leashed power of his lean and muscled body, as if he were coiled and ready to spring at a moment’s notice. Which, no doubt, he was...

Beth felt that familiar shiver course down the length of her spine as she watched him beneath lowered lashes, her nipples tightening, the fit of her denims suddenly feeling uncomfortably tight against the swollen folds between her thighs.

Telling her all too clearly that it was Raphael himself she was attracted to, and not the challenge he represented!

‘Where are we going?’ Beth prompted in some alarm as she realised they were driving away from London rather than in the direction of her home.

Raphael turned to look at her calmly. ‘Your own house proved too difficult to make secure in the time I had available, so we are going to Cesar’s estate in Hampshire for a few days until your house has been made ready.’