A Touch of Notoriety(63)

‘No, Beth, you said we had not, I did not agree. It was only—’ He began to pace the room restlessly. ‘The hospital, with your family all waiting outside, was not the time for this conversation. And you have refused to see me since you came home.’ He scowled darkly.

‘Because—’

‘I have not finished, Beth.’

She drew in a deep breath. ‘Okay.’ She nodded. ‘Say what you have to say, and then will you leave me alone?’

‘I am hoping not, no...’ Raphael looked down at her searchingly. Beth looked much better than she had a week ago when he last saw her at the hospital, but there was still a fine delicacy to the paleness of her face, and she looked as if she had lost weight, her denims and T-shirt slightly too large on her slender frame. It was natural to lose some weight after an operation, of course, but Raphael found he did not like to see her looking so delicate. Not his fiery Beth.

Except she was not his Beth...

‘You said some things to me in the hospital that I feel need an explanation. Not from you,’ he reassured her, ‘but from me. You seem to be under the impression that I passed your security to Rodney because I no longer wished to be anywhere near you.’

A slight blush entered her cheeks. ‘Well, didn’t you?’

‘No.’

She looked up at him uncertainly. ‘No?’

‘No,’ Raphael repeated grimly. ‘I handed your security to Rodney because I no longer trusted myself to be...impartial, where your security is concerned.’

Beth gave a slow shake of her head. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘Obviously not,’ he acknowledged grimly. ‘And I did not say goodbye to you before I left because if I had I would not have been able to leave! And I needed to do so. I had to talk to my father, to attempt to heal the rift between the two of us, before I could move forward with my life.’

‘And did you?’

‘Yes.’ He nodded.

She gave a tremulous smile. ‘I’m glad.’

So was Raphael. He had barely spent more than a few hours with his father before learning Beth had been rushed to hospital, but it had nevertheless been long enough for the two proud Cordoba men to reconcile. A reconciliation he had wanted to share with Beth, only to telephone the apartment to instead learn that she was seriously ill. The drive back from his father’s estancia had been a nightmare as he feared for Beth’s very life.

A chilling fear, which had told him all that he needed to know in regard to his feelings for Beth.

He reached out and took one of her hands in his. ‘Beth, so much has happened in your life in such a short time. You have discovered that you are not who you thought you were, but someone else entirely. And that you have a family, a family you were not aware of, who love you very much.’

She eyed him uncertainly. ‘Yes...’

Raphael straightened to once again pace restlessly. ‘Now is not really the time for me to— I should not—this is much more difficult than I would ever have believed possible!’

‘Maybe if you were to tell me what it is I could help you out a little?’ Beth prompted curiously.

He gave a slightly impatient shake of his head. ‘Can it be that you are the only one who has not realised what I want to say?’

She looked at him blankly. ‘About what? I’m really pleased that you and your father have made your peace—’

‘Beth, this has absolutely nothing to do with my relationship with my father!’ he interrupted exasperatedly. ‘Well, maybe a little,’ he conceded impatiently. ‘I had to...resolve that part of my life, make things right with my father, before I could—’

‘Move forward with your life.’ She nodded. ‘Yes, you said that.’

‘Move forward with my life with you!’ Raphael’s voice rose and he ran his hand through his hair in his frustration. ‘Madre mia, woman, the whole of your family knows that the reason I have tried to see you this past week is because I need to tell you that I am in love with you. So very very much in love with you. That I realised this the night we spent together at the inn. That I wish, above all things, that you would love me, too. That I wish to ask you to become my wife. Once you are completely well again, of course.’ He frowned. ‘And once you feel that you could leave your new family. And—’

‘And after Grace and Cesar’s wedding. And after their first child has been christened.’ Her eyes glowed. ‘And man has settled on Mars—’