A Touch of Notoriety(33)

Which might be as well, when Raphael might, hoped, to be in possession of confirmation of that fact later on today...

* * *

‘This morning I now understand, but your silence this evening is very...un-Beth-like.’

Beth turned from gazing out of the window to look at Raphael instead as he once again sat in the front of the limousine beside Edward. A limousine that had, thankfully, been parked around the corner from her office building when Beth left work half an hour ago. At Raphael’s request? Out of consideration for the fact that he knew Beth didn’t want any of her work colleagues to see her getting into the back of a chauffeur-driven limousine? Probably.

To say Beth had been disturbed by that unexpected kiss earlier—no matter what reason Raphael claimed for instigating it!—would be an understatement. So much so that she had found herself wandering over to the windows once or twice during the afternoon—or it just might have been a dozen times!—and gazing down at him in frowning confusion.

Not only did his dark and brooding good looks make her heart beat faster, but she was also drawn to the quiet strength Raphael exuded, an unspoken assurance that no harm would come to anyone he cared about—or, as in Beth’s case, who was in his care—on his watch. It was a strange, and yet intriguing, combination; dangerous sensuality alongside that quiet and yet totally reassuring strength.

An irresistible combination as far as Beth was concerned!

Which, in the circumstances, was pretty stupid of her...

She gave him a tight, humourless smile. ‘I thought it was a woman’s prerogative to be unpredictable? As well as irrational and unreasonable? Edward obviously understands that, if you don’t,’ she added dryly as she heard the chauffeur chuckle softly.

‘I’m a married man, miss. What else need I say?’ The chauffeur continued to chuckle indulgently.

‘And, as a married man, you find this uncertainty of mood acceptable?’ Raphael gave the other man a searching glance.

‘It is what it is, Mr Cordoba.’ Edward shrugged. ‘Can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em. Besides, it’s the unpredictable element of our women that keeps a man on his toes.’

‘If you say so...’ Raphael murmured slowly.

Beth would have laughed at the doubtful expression on Raphael’s face—if she hadn’t been reeling slightly from Edward’s comment of ‘our women’! Because she wasn’t, and never would be, Raphael Cordoba’s ‘woman’.

Did she want to be?

Her life felt too complicated at this moment for Beth to be sure what she wanted. From anyone or anything.

‘You sound less than impressed, Raphael,’ she drawled dryly.

He arched one dark brow. ‘At least you are talking now.’

Beth gave a rueful smile. ‘I thought talking was another thing we women did too much of.’

His mouth twisted derisively. ‘I believe it is the conversations that begin with “the two of us need to talk” that are apt to send shivers down a man’s spine!’

‘And do you speak from personal experience?’ she came back sweetly—at the same time as Beth realised she didn’t like even the thought of Raphael ever being so deeply involved with a woman that there had ever been the need for one of those conversations. That she actually felt jealous of the women from Raphael’s past. And possibly his present? Because they might have discussed whether or not Beth had anyone else in her life right now, but the subject of Raphael’s past or present relationships had never entered their conversation.

‘No, I do not, thank goodness.’ Raphael’s dismissive reply was no help in answering that question, either.

‘I think I’ll close my eyes and have a sleep for the rest of the journey,’ Beth muttered before leaning her head back and closing her eyes, effectively shutting out the sight of Raphael if not her complete awareness of him.

Raphael frowned as he looked at Beth’s closed lids. The eyes were the windows to the soul, he had heard. And it could not have been more true where Beth was concerned. Those dark brown eyes, fiery with anger one moment, gleaming with laughter the next, and then dark and seductive during arousal, were a complete reflection of Beth’s emotions.

Emotions Raphael had no chance of reading when her lids were closed.

Deliberately so, he believed.

Because, for all of her outward bravado, there was another part of Beth that she kept completely hidden. The part deep inside her that was confused and hurting at the mere thought of being Gabriela Navarro rather than Beth Blake.