Not again, Cairo told herself firmly. Never again would she allow her heart to rule her head.
‘I’ll be outside,’ Rafe whispered, running a slow, caressing finger down the hollow of her cheek before turning and quietly leaving the room.
Cairo stood as still as a statue.
She felt like one, too, at that moment.
A figure of cold marble in which no emotion, no sensation existed.
Not even pain….
CHAPTER EIGHT
‘WHAT the hell do you think you’re doing?’
Cairo was sitting up in bed reading a book—or, at least, appearing to!—when Rafe burst unannounced into her bedroom. A quick glance at the face of the slender gold watch on her wrist showed her that it was now half an hour since he had told her he would be waiting outside for her on the terrace.
She had considered actually lying down in bed with the light off and pretending she was asleep when he came in search of her—as she had known that he would—but had decided that would be too undignified; Rafe wasn’t the type of man to just turn and leave again and was more than capable of switching on the light before dragging her from the bed kicking and screaming!
So instead she had removed her make-up and taken a leisurely shower before donning a pale cream nightgown of the sheerest silk, only a band of matching cream lace across her breasts preventing it from being completely transparent. She’d then stood in front of the mirror brushing her hair until it shone straight and sleek over her shoulders and down her spine.
Her tools of war, she decided angrily as she arranged her pillows before getting into bed to sit and wait, her tension increasing with each tick of her wristwatch.
However, none of that tension showed as she looked over her book at Rafe where he stood in the doorway glowering across the room at her. He was no longer wearing the jacket to his suit or the red bowtie, and the top two buttons of his shirt were open to reveal the silky black hair on his chest.
Cairo suppressed an inward shiver as she acknowledged how dark and dangerous he looked. Instead, she gave him a bright, enquiring smile. ‘I’m reading a book, of course.’
Rafe’s scowl deepened as he advanced into the room, his movements predatory before he came to an abrupt halt beside the bed. ‘I’ve been waiting outside for you for the last half-hour,’ he growled.
Cairo could almost feel his anger, knew by the nerve that pulsed in his clenched jaw just how near to the surface that anger was.
She gave a shrug as she lay the book face down beside her on the bed. ‘I decided I was just too tired for any more conversation tonight, Rafe.’
‘You—!’ Rafe bit off what he was going to say and instead drew in a deep, controlling breath. Like his father before him, Rafe had a volatile Spanish temper. A temper that Rafe rarely, if ever, lost. Only Cairo, it seemed, had the power to stretch his control to its very limits.
He very carefully reached down and plucked the book from beside her and placed it on the bedside table before sitting down on the edge of the bed. ‘We both know conversation was the last thing I had in mind when I asked you to join me outside once Daisy was in bed,’ he said softly.
‘Really?’ She continued to meet his gaze unblinkingly.
‘Yes,’ he acknowledged pleasantly. ‘Good book?’ He nodded towards the bedside table.
‘Very good,’ she confirmed slowly, no longer quite as composed as Rafe saw a slight frown appear between the clear brown of her eyes.
‘What’s it about?’ Rafe reached out and picked the book up so that he could read the back cover. ‘Strange,’ he said as he put it back down. ‘I would never have tagged you as a reader of murder mysteries.’
She smiled. ‘This one’s about a woman who kills her lover after she finds out he’s been cheating on her.’
‘Really,’ Rafe commented, easily holding her gaze with his. ‘But I bet she gets caught in the end. They all do.’
‘Not all of them,’ Cairo said dryly. ‘If you wouldn’t mind, Rafe …? I really am very tired.’ She raised one auburn brow.
Rafe wanted to reach out, grasp her shoulders, and shake her. Anything to put some spark of emotion back into her!
He had become more irritated by the minute as he’d stood outside waiting for her to join him, knowing that earlier Cairo had wanted him as much as he wanted her.
But as he looked at her now he saw none of that softly desirable woman he had kissed such a short time ago. Instead he saw a woman whose barriers were so firmly back in place it was impossible to tell what thoughts were going through her head.
He gave her a narrow-eyed look. ‘Did seeing Bond again tonight reawaken a spark of emotion for him? Is that it?’
She blinked in surprise. ‘You’re being utterly ridiculous, Rafe.’ She gave him a pointed look. ‘Now, if you wouldn’t mind leaving? I really am very tired—’
‘Cairo.’ Rafe spoke her name quietly, but it was enough to silence her.
Cairo’s gaze became less certain on his as she became aware of how dangerous it was for them to be alone together in her bedroom.
Very dangerous.
Not that she thought for one minute that Rafe would use force to get what he wanted. Why should he when he knew he only had to touch her to ignite a passionate response from her?
Perhaps she should have turned the light off and pretended she was asleep, after all!
‘Lionel and I are divorced, Rafe,’ she reminded him.
‘That doesn’t mean you can’t still be in love with him!’
She sighed. ‘You obviously know nothing about me if you believe that. But, then, you never did know anything about me, did you?’
‘I thought I did,’ he muttered.
Her eyes flashed. ‘And you thought wrong, didn’t you?’
Yes, he had been wrong about Cairo eight years ago, Rafe acknowledged grimly. So very wrong.
Then.
And now …
He stood up abruptly. ‘You’re right, Cairo, this was a bad idea. I’ll leave you to get back to your book.’
‘Thank you,’ she snapped.
Rafe paused to look back at her as he stood in the bedroom doorway, his smile self-derisive. ‘I should probably be thanking you for preventing me from making yet another mistake where you’re concerned.’ And yet the ache of his body told him that gratitude was the last thing he really felt….
Cairo’s eyes glittered darkly. ‘I’ll take it as said!’
‘Goodnight, Cairo.’
‘Goodnight, Rafe.’
Rafe gave her one last lingering glance before leaving the bedroom and the villa, stepping outside to take deep breaths of the perfumed night air, his gaze drawn to the swimming pool as the moonlight shimmered invitingly on the water.
He didn’t even hesitate, throwing off his clothes as he reached the lower terrace before diving smoothly into the coolly refreshing water.
She was crying, Cairo realized numbly. Tears that burnt her skin as they tracked down the paleness of her cheeks.
She wiped those tears away impatiently as she got out of bed, too restless to even think about sleep now as she began to pace the confines of her bedroom.