A Touch of Notoriety - By Carole Mortimer Page 0,28

rather than none; Mr Iceman of the drive into town early this morning wasn’t acceptable to her at all.

But she certainly hadn’t wanted to be reminded of their time in the gym together last night. Or to hear that it had meant nothing to Raphael—he had made that more than obvious enough at the time!

She deliberately changed the subject. ‘I hope you like Italian food.’

‘Does it matter one way or the other?’ he derided dryly.

‘Raphael—’

‘I apologise,’ he bit out stiffly. ‘That was rude of me. Yes, I enjoy Italian food.’

‘But maybe you would prefer not to be eating it with me?’

How was Raphael supposed to answer that question? On the one hand, he should not even be contemplating sitting down and eating lunch with the person he was here to protect. On the other, Raphael very much liked the idea of having lunch with Beth; it certainly couldn’t help but be an improvement on the dinner they had shared together the previous evening!

Speaking of which... ‘Kevin Maddox is going to try and organise a temporary cook for us at the estate in the next day or so, but if we both eat a hot meal now then we can perhaps manage with a snack when we return there later this evening.’ Raphael chose not to answer her question at all.

‘Oh, very practical, Raphael,’ Beth came back dryly.

Raphael shrugged. ‘I am a practical man.’

She gave a wistful sigh. ‘Yes, you are.’

He moved forward to open the door of the restaurant for her. ‘You make that sound like a reason for criticism?’

‘A little spontaneity would be nice on occasion,’ she dismissed lightly, having given her name to the waiter before he took them to the reserved table near the window.

Raphael followed slowly behind her, knowing that spontaneity was responsible for his having crossed the line the previous evening, when he had kissed and caressed Beth. A lapse for which he had paid dearly when he went to his bedroom later that evening, only to lie awake in his bed long into the early hours of this morning as he remembered the feel and taste of Beth, and the perfection of her breasts tipped with those rose-coloured and responsive nipples that he had lathed and suckled with his tongue and mouth.

Madre mia, he was hard again just thinking about it!

‘Raphael?’

He brought his thoughts under strict control as he took his own seat opposite Beth’s at the table—if nothing else the red-and-white-checked tablecloth served to hide the fierce throb of his erection!

Raphael had been totally disconcerted earlier when Beth came out of the building and moved up on tiptoe to kiss him on the lips—he probably had that momentary confusion to thank for not kissing her back, and so making the situation worse, before she explained exactly why she had kissed him. He hadn’t been immune to the warmth of her hand resting on his arm as they walked to the restaurant together, either. And he was still aware that he hadn’t received an answer from Beth as to whether or not she currently had a boyfriend. Which, for some reason, continued to irritate him...

Boyfriend or not, the fact that he now had a raging erection just thinking of making love to Beth told Raphael that, from a practical perspective, he wasn’t the right person to be in charge of Beth’s protection, that his emotions weren’t detached enough for his reactions to be as cool and precise as they needed to be. Although how Raphael would go about explaining that lack of detachment to Cesar, without revealing the extent of last night’s lapse, he had no idea—

‘Have you spoken to Cesar today?’

Raphael looked sharply across the table at Beth as she seemed to guess some of his thoughts, the frown easing from his brow as he knew by the blandness of her expression that she was merely attempting to make polite conversation. ‘Late last night,’ he answered tersely.

‘And?’ Beth picked one of the bread sticks out of the tall glass in the middle of the table and began to chew on it.

‘And he sent you his regards and Grace’s love,’ Raphael drawled dryly even as his gaze was drawn to watching those tiny white teeth as they nibbled delicately on the bread stick. The same delectably delicate nibbles he could all too easily imagine her making on his cock before she took him deep—

‘Which you obviously forgot to pass on to me this morning?’

Raphael gave a shrug as he forced himself to relax back