A Touch of Notoriety - By Carole Mortimer Page 0,44
was alone with Raphael in this small bedroom, with that four-poster bed only feet away, he seemed so—so physically immediate, his sheer masculinity seeming to suck all the air out of the room.
‘You’re going to tell Cesar about—about, the success, of our visit to Stopley today?’ She gave a pained frown.
Raphael gave a slight inclination of his head. ‘I have respected your wishes in regard to that so far, but I think it only fair that I now inform Cesar of what we have discovered today, yes.’
She breathed out deeply through her nose. ‘And no doubt he’ll then either turn up in London tomorrow, accompanied by Grace, or maybe just send the private jet over to pick us both up and take us back to Argentina?’
‘No doubt. Is that going to be a problem?’ Raphael looked at her searchingly.
No, it wasn’t a problem; Beth was already resigned to the fact that she now had no choice but to return to Argentina and the Navarro family—it was the reason she had asked Graham Selkirk for a month’s leave this morning, after all. Her visit to Elizabeth Lawrence’s grave earlier had been more of a courtesy, a show of respect for the baby girl who had died so long ago, rather than the proof Beth had said she needed to confirm the Navarros’ claim of her being their long-lost daughter. If Raphael said the grave existed, then Beth had no doubts that it did. Just as she had known the consequences, to her, regarding its existence.
She gave a jerky nod. ‘Okay, you make your calls and I’ll go and use the bathroom first.’ She quickly crossed the room to enter the adjoining room, locking the door securely behind her before leaning weakly back against it, her breathing sounding ragged in the small confines of the black-and-white bathroom.
She had wanted this to happen, asked for it, and now wasn’t the time for her to be having a panic attack, or have second thoughts, because Raphael was about to give her exactly what she had asked him for...
* * *
Raphael continued to stand in the middle of the fussy bedroom as he stared at that closed bathroom door, knowing, despite her determination earlier, that Beth was having second thoughts—maybe even third and fourth ones!—as to the wisdom of her actions.
He had been deliberately graphic when he’d spoken to Beth earlier, when he had described the many ways he wished to make love to her. Not that he hadn’t meant every word he’d said, because he had, but when—if—he ever made love with Beth, then he wanted her to be very sure it was what she wanted too, and not something she would regret in the morning. Something she would surely do if her only reason for spending the night with him was to block out who she must become tomorrow.
The two of them making love together was an irrevocable step, from which there would be no turning back, and Beth might not exactly hate him in the morning, but she would most certainly be embarrassed and self-conscious enough to want to avoid his company in future.
A future that required she become Gabriela Navarro, the daughter of Esther and Carlos Navarro, and sister of Cesar Navarro...
CHAPTER TEN
THE ONLY ILLUMINATION in the bedroom was from the lamp on the small bedside table nearest the bathroom when Beth returned to the bedroom fifteen or twenty minutes later, wearing only a towel wrapped about her and secured between her bare breasts. They had no luggage with them, and the inn simply wasn’t big enough to supply bathrobes for its no doubt infrequent guests.
Raphael lay sprawled on the other side of the bed, having removed his jacket and tie, and completely unfastened and untucked his shirt so that it left his chest bared, revealing that silky dark hair and flat nipples the colour of deep rose against his bronzed skin, the top button of his suit trousers also unfastened.
He was also, from the slight heaviness of his breathing and his closed lids, very soundly asleep!
Beth moved to the vacant side of the bed to stare down at him in disbelief, not sure if she felt relieved or insulted that Raphael had somehow managed to fall asleep after making his telephone calls. It certainly wasn’t in the least flattering to have the man who had earlier so vividly described how he intended making love to her fall into what appeared to be a dead sleep in the few minutes she