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‘Yes, you do, and you’re right.’
‘You w…want me…?’ Her cheeks burned. ‘I mean you…’
‘Right first time.’ Natalie’s jaw dropped. ‘Listen, I hear what you’re saying about your daughter, but what are you going to do, remain celibate?’
‘It’s worked for me so far.’ She saw the flicker of shock in his eyes and hurried on. ‘People put far too great an emphasis on sex.’
‘It’s a very basic need. Sex is like any other appetite…’
‘For men maybe.’
‘For women, too, trust me…’ he drawled.
‘Do I look that stupid?’
‘A lot of women don’t want a deep and meaningful relationship. A hotel room and a long lunch hour,’ he elaborated crudely. ‘Functional sex is more to their taste. Maybe you should try and develop a taste for that if you don’t want any involvement.’
Was he trying to insult her? She found the idea of the sort of cold-blooded clinical encounter he described appalling. ‘Is that what you’re offering me?’
‘I thought it was the other way around.’ He didn’t have the faintest idea why the idea of sex without the complications should outrage him so much.
‘How do you figure that one?’
‘Well, you do want to keep your home a male-free zone…’
‘How does that put me in a hotel room with you?’ Natalie tried to sound amused and failed.
‘You don’t seriously expect the attraction between us to simply go away, do you? Pretending it’s not there doesn’t work—we’ve tried that! It’s inevitable that we’ll end up in bed at some point.’
‘How dare you talk to me like that?’ she gasped.
‘I dare because I’m the man who wants to go home with you,’ he reminded her softly.
Natalie’s eyes widened; this was news to her and, maybe from his expression, Rafe, too.
She bit her lip. ‘We can’t talk about this here.’
‘Then I hope for the sake of my sanity that you’re not going to be here long?’
‘I think they’re going to let us out in the morning this time,’ she revealed, half of her wishing it were longer if it meant she didn’t have to confront the issues he had raised. ‘Which is a big relief. If Rose hadn’t got to go to the wedding I don’t like to think what sort of fuss she’d have kicked up.’
‘Wedding?’
‘Yes, the one that Luke was going to come to with me. Rose is going to be bridesmaid at her dad’s wedding—on Valentine’s Day,’ she explained with a wry smile. Mike had not been such a romantic when he’d been married to her.
‘You’re going to your ex’s wedding?’
Natalie grimaced at the incredulity in his voice; she’d seen that response before. ‘Before you ask, I’m not actually a masochist, or that forgiving, it’s just Rose wants me to come and see her in her bridesmaid dress, and Mike might not be my husband any more but he’ll always be her father,’ she explained gravely.
The last thing she wanted to become was one of those mothers who bad-mouthed their ex-partners to the kid caught in the middle.
Despite her apparent composure when she mentioned her ex, Rafael couldn’t help but wonder if she had come to terms with the situation quite as well as she liked people to think. Inexplicably any number of women nurtured passions for men who treated them appallingly. He frowned as he scanned her face for signs of the secret passion he had half convinced himself she was nursing. It was quite possible Natalie still carried a torch for the pathetic jerk.
‘And Luke was going with you?’
‘He was,’ she confided with a sleepy yawn.
‘Then you two are…?’
‘Just good friends. This is so strange…’ she mused.
‘What’s so strange, Natalie?’
‘Talking to a real person…as in one who is over ten,’ she elaborated, ‘here.’ Her gesture took in the walls, which were covered in brightly coloured childish paintings. ‘The nurses are lovely but they’re always so busy.’ She was totally unaware of the wistful note in her voice. ‘And sometimes you just want to talk to someone who doesn’t consider tomato ketchup on chips the height of sophistication.’
‘I will try and do my best to supply some adult conversation.’
‘So long as you remember that’s all I want.’
‘How could I forget? Why was Luke going with you?’
‘If you must know, I didn’t want to turn up alone looking like a sad loser.’
‘Why would you look like a sad loser?’
Natalie threw him a pitying look—this man knew nothing about being a single female approaching thirty or, for that matter, looking like a sad loser. She was dimly aware that a combination of exhaustion and relief was making her not just light-headed, but dangerously garrulous, too.
‘Think about it,’ she suggested. ‘I’m a woman whose husband left her for a gorgeous blonde and everyone knows a female is unfulfilled unless she is half of a partnership.’
‘I hesitate as a mere man to disagree, but isn’t that a slightly old-fashioned attitude?’
‘It’s the way it is. I suppose I should have the guts to be single and proud; asking Luke to pretend to be my lover is even more pathetic than being dumped. Poor Luke.’
‘And I sent Luke away.’
Natalie nodded and took the cup of coffee he handed her from the vending machine. Nursing it, she sat down on one of the nasty, shiny fake leather seats. ‘You could say you owe me a pretend lover.’ She took a sip and winced as the scalding liquid burnt her tongue.
‘Then I suppose I’m obligated to provide you with a substitute.’
‘Know a good escort agency, do you? Mind you, even if you did I doubt if I could afford the rates of the sort of place you would use.’ She chuckled weakly at her joke.
Rafe blinked. ‘I can’t say anyone has ever accused me of being au fait with high-class escort services before.’
>
‘Gracious, I didn’t mean…I don’t think that you…’ She gave a gusty sigh of relief. ‘You were winding me up? I thought you were about to sack me for sure, or have you already done that? I forget,’ she admitted with a yawn.
‘No, and I have a suggestion to put to you. I have this idea about starting up a facility to offer advice to small businesses…’ He stopped. ‘Well, like you said, this isn’t the place and you are dead on your feet.’
‘I’m fine.’
‘Sure you are,’ Rafe murmured as he took the seat beside hers.
‘I’ll just rest my eyes for a minute.’
‘Good idea.’
The periods her lashes lay against her waxily pale cheek before she forced her eyes open got gradually longer. For some time after her head had fallen against his shoulder Rafe stayed still, afraid to wake her. When it became obvious nothing was going to do that he shifted so that he could look at her sleeping face. It was the sort of face a man could look at for a long time without growing tired—maybe never!
Natalie woke in a strange bed. It took a few panicky moments before she recognised her spartan surroundings. She wished she weren’t so familiar with the small room reserved for parents who wanted to stay overnight with their children.
Yawning, she threw back the covers. She was still fully dressed. Her frown deepened as she saw her shoes neatly placed at the bedside. She couldn’t recall putting them there or, for that matter, taking them off. In fact she had no recollection of getting into bed at all—the last thing she remembered was in fact… Good God!
She hadn’t forgotten because she hadn’t done any of those things, which meant that someone had done them for her. That meant…
The nurse at the desk looked up as Natalie approached.
‘Oh, you’re awake.’ She smiled. ‘I was just going to take your boyfriend a cup of tea. Would you like one?’
‘My boyfriend?’ Natalie echoed warily.
‘He’s in with Rose. He’s got quite a way with her, hasn’t he?’ she observed. ‘Until he turned up I thought we were going to have to wake you. She was really cranky when she woke.’
