A Touch of Notoriety(32)

‘Good enough.’ She nodded dismissively as she stepped out more decisively in the direction of her office.

A brisk and no-nonsense attitude, which in no way prepared Beth for Raphael coming to a halt outside the building where she worked a few minutes later, that piercing blue gaze holding hers captive as he took her into his arms and kissed her!





CHAPTER SEVEN



RAPHAEL HAD GIVEN in to the need he had been suffering under for the past hour: to kiss this woman. The initial arousal an hour ago, as he had watched Beth nibbling on bread sticks, had only increased as he had been unable to look away as he watched each morsel of food passing those full and sensual lips.

He gave a groan now and deepened the kiss as Beth parted those lips beneath his, her hands sliding up his chest and over the width of his shoulders, before her fingers became entangled in the short hair at his nape as she curved her body into his.

A response that caused Raphael’s already pulsing arousal to become even harder and more insistent, an insistence that demanded he take this woman...now!

A realisation that shot such a wave of foreboding through him that he abruptly ended the kiss to put Beth firmly away from him before his hands dropped back to his sides, his lids narrowing as he looked down at her warily.

Beth returned that gaze for several dazed seconds, her eyes a dark and slightly unfocused black. ‘What just happened?’

Raphael wished he knew the answer to that. Or did he? This attraction he felt for Beth Blake was becoming something of a problem for him. ‘We have an audience,’ he explained harshly.

Beth glanced dazedly over one of Raphael’s broad shoulders to see several of her work colleagues—including a smilingly indulgent Amy!—looking at the two of them curiously as Beth was very soundly kissed—and returning the passion of that kiss!—outside her office building.

She pulled back abruptly, her eyes accusing as she glared up at Raphael. ‘I don’t enjoy being used!’

He frowned darkly. ‘I believe you were the one who chose to tell your work colleagues that the two of us are involved as a way of explaining my presence here.’

Beth eyed him impatiently. ‘There’s a difference between my having to tell them that and having you make love to me in the middle of a public street.’

Raphael looked down at her for several moments, knowing that he shouldn’t have kissed Beth just now, and feeling angry with himself for further complicating an already complicated situation.

‘As I am sure you are well aware, I had not even begun to make love to you...’ he rasped harshly.

Colour flooded her cheeks. ‘You know exactly what I meant!’

Yes, Raphael knew exactly what Beth meant. Just as he knew the accusation was perfectly justified, and that a few minutes more of kissing Beth and he would have totally ignored—forgotten!—the fact that he was here in England to act as her protector rather than her lover.

He drew himself up stiffly. ‘It will not happen again.’

Beth drew in a sharp breath at the coldness of Raphael’s tone, at the same time as she inwardly acknowledged she was more affected by being kissed by him than she should have been. Or wanted to be. ‘Just—just because the two of us kissed yesterday, doesn’t mean I intend to let you make a habit of it,’ she warned exasperatedly at the same time as her heart skipped a beat—several beats!—just at the thought of being kissed by Raphael again.

‘I have said it will not happen again,’ he rasped icily.

‘And I bet you’re a man who never breaks his word, huh?’ she came back scornfully.

His eyes glittered with that same coldness. ‘I am a man who tries never to break his word, yes.’

Beth grimaced. ‘Well, in this case I advise that you do more than try!’

‘Or?’

Beth was incensed by the glint of mocking humour she detected in those piercing blue eyes. ‘Or you can go to hell along with my big brother—’ She broke off in shocked surprise as she realised that for the first time she had referred to Cesar Navarro as her brother. As if she was finally starting to accept the concept that she just might be Gabriela Navarro, after all... ‘It’s time I went back to work,’ she bit out abruptly, her expression bleak, and her gaze no longer meeting Raphael’s. ‘And no doubt you will continue your vigil throughout the afternoon?’ she rallied enough to mock dryly.

‘No doubt.’ Raphael nodded slowly, ignoring Beth’s outburst in favour of recognising that she had just referred to Cesar as her brother, and feeling a certain amount of relief at that knowledge. No matter how much she would prefer it not to be the truth, it would seem that, inwardly at least, Beth was starting to accept her destiny might be as Gabriela Navarro.