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While the smiles and laughter were no more evident now than they had been by the end of their marriage, the earthiness had returned.
He’d assumed the casual way she’d dressed when they’d first met had been due to her lack of money, had assumed that all women wanted personal shoppers, hairdressers, beauticians and dieticians on speed-dial. His mother and sister did; all his exes had. He’d never met any woman who didn’t.
But then, he’d never met a woman like Charley before. His inner circle was insular, he acknowledged, filled with like-minded people with the same wealth and outlook on life.
Charley had embraced it all, he reminded himself, right down to the rationing of chocolate.
All he’d wanted was for her to be happy and fit into his world and, with a little help, she’d fitted in perfectly. With his help she’d never had to feel that anyone was judging her. Or so he’d believed...
To see her eating a bar of chocolate...it was such a small thing, but enough to shift his perspective even more. Enough to make him question...
Gone was the haute couture. Gone, the immaculately coiffured hair. Gone, the rigid diet. Gone too, were the rock-hard abs she’d developed during their marriage, replaced with the luscious softness he recalled from their early days.
When he’d completed his daily two hundred lengths, he hauled himself out of the pool. For once there were no hunger pangs. Everything felt tight inside him, far too tight to eat.
He grabbed his towel and rubbed it over his hair and face. As he towelled the water from his back Charley came out into the morning sunshine and walked over to him, her phone in hand.
‘Have we got anything planned for tomorrow?’ she asked, keeping a respectable distance from him although he noted with some satisfaction that her eyes lingered on his chest for longer than was respectable. All at once, the disquiet within him evaporated. He closed the distance and reached for her hips.
‘You’ll get me wet,’ she scolded but with definite half-heartedness. After a week of erotic lovemaking, he knew her resistance was nothing but a measure to prove her own self-control against him.
‘That’s the idea,’ he murmured. Unable to resist, he pulled her in for a kiss, delighting in the sweet, chocolate taste of her mouth.
She sighed into him, slipping her tongue into his mouth and sliding her arms around his neck, before her hands balled into fists and she stepped away. A dark, wet stain now marked her top.
‘Tomorrow?’ she reminded him.
‘You will be with me.’
‘Doing what though? Anything important or am I going to be stuck in my office again?’
‘Doing whatever I require.’
‘Seve’s just messaged me.’ Her speech came in a rush. ‘Two of the staff at Poco Rio have caught a sickness bug.’
‘And that involves you how?’
‘They’re going to be short-staffed.’
‘No.’
‘I haven’t asked for anything yet,’ she protested.
‘Do I have to remind you that our deal is for you to stay by my side?’
‘No, but if they don’t have the staff, the centre won’t be able to open and the children...’
He did not want to hear a single word about children, not from her lips.
Every time she uttered the word he was reminded of her treachery.
‘I’m not prepared to debate the matter. We have already agreed that your day-to-day work at the centre is over.’
Her face darkened, her eyes ringing with obvious contempt. ‘But—’
‘Shh.’ He placed a finger to her lips. ‘It’s a beautiful day with no work or anything else to worry about. Let’s not waste it by arguing about things we have already agreed on.’
Gently he moved his finger off her mouth and traced it down her neck.
He could see her thinking, her eyes moving as she deliberated his words. When his fingers found the band holding her hair back and carefully tugged it out, to let her hair fall down across her shoulders, her breath hitched. When his lips reclaimed hers, there was no more protest. Only willingness. Followed by ecstasy.
* * *
After a day spent making love and a night spent doing the same all over again, Raul awoke on Monday morning to an empty bed and the distant sound of a helicopter flying close by.
He stretched and looked at his watch, surprised to see he’d overslept by a good hour. He could have sworn he’d set his alarm.
Wondering where Charley had got to, he showered and dressed quickly. He had a meeting with the MD of his air fleet at ten a.m. and if there was one thing Raul did not appreciate, it was tardiness, either from others or himself.
The scent of fresh coffee and newly baked bollos—sweet rolls—pervaded the air: morning aromas that never failed to lift his spirits. The household staff worked at their chores with their customary zeal. The dining table had been set...
