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He didn’t want anyone’s love.
Even when he’d been cold and ruthless, however, part of her had reached out to him.
His careless shrug betrayed his lack of insight into her feelings. ‘I may be a cynic about love but that doesn’t mean I don’t understand what women need. You’re amazing in bed. Last night really blew me away. For the foreseeable future I don’t want you focusing your attention on anything but me.’
Knowing what needed to be done, she shook her head. ‘That isn’t going to be possible.’ Last night was over and the magic of the rainforest was coming to an end. ‘I need to sort out this problem. I have to sort it out. I promised Filomena and Carlos.’
How could she have been so stupid?
How could she have been so naïve, so egotistical, as to think that she could change this man whose entire reputation was based on his inability to feel a single thing for anyone?
She’d thought that there was hope for him—that there was a chink of kindness.
She’d even been arrogant enough to believe that she’d made a connection with him that no other woman had ever made.
Which made her nothing short of stupid and because of that she probably deserved all the pain she was feeling now.
There was a frown in his eyes, as if he didn’t understand her. And he didn’t, she thought, biting back hysterical laughter. Despite what she’d thought last night, he didn’t even come close.
His eyes glittered dark with growing irritation. ‘I’m merely making the point that you won’t find yourself short of money.’
‘So you’re going to pay me for sleeping with you, is that what you’re saying?’
Sensing danger, he narrowed his eyes and finally rolled away from her. ‘No, that isn’t what I’m saying.’
‘Isn’t it?’ Dizzy from the speed with which the atmosphere had changed from loving to recriminatory, she sat up, trying to ignore the rising sickness in her stomach. ‘But aren’t you offering me an income? Gifts? More money than I can possibly spend in normal opening hours?’ Her sarcasm seemed lost on him. He lay sprawled on the bed, watching her through heavy-lidded eyes, a faintly derisive smile touching his mouth.
Gone was the warmth and the lazy atmosphere of seduction. He was cold with her. Remote. Even a little—bored?
‘Of course. Feel free to allow your most avaricious fantasies to envelop you.’
Anger shot through her, the emotion intensified by her own frustration with herself. ‘My fantasies at the moment involve dropping you naked into a pool of extremely hungry piranha!’ Flinging words like stones, she jumped out of bed and reached for her combat trousers. She dragged them on, ignoring the muddy stains in her haste to dress. Suddenly being naked and in the same room as him seemed completely inappropriate. ‘I really thought that there was hope for you! I thought that underneath that hard outer shell you present to the world there lay a decent human being. Damaged, maybe. But buried there somewhere. And now I discover that you’re just as cold and empty as you appear.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘You are behaving like a child in a tantrum and it’s unnecessary. I say again, I really don’t care that you took the money. It’s in the past and I never dwell on the past.’
‘Yes, you do! It’s dwelling on the past that makes you so cynical and suspicious.’ She reached for her shirt, which lay discarded over the back of a chair. ‘I did not take the money.’ She spread her hands in a gesture of helplessness and frustration. ‘Why am I even bothering saying that to you when it’s so obvious that you just can’t see good in anyone? Well, I’m sorry for you, Rafael. Really sorry for you. I don’t know what she did to you but she obviously did it well.’
The sudden flash of anger in his eyes made her freeze to the spot and for a moment they just stared at each other, the tension simmering
between them like a living, breathing force. And then she saw the now familiar glitter in his eyes and felt the colour touch her cheeks.
Heat mingled with pain and it was a physical effort not to step towards him.
‘How can you do that?’ Her voice was soft, but her hand shook as she quickly jammed her arms into the sleeves, concealing her body from his appreciative gaze. ‘How can you look at me like that when you think I’m guilty of stealing? Don’t you have any standards? If you truly believed that of me you should have thrown me out, not taken me to your bed.’
His gaze was hard. ‘Since I have no wish to live the life of a monk, my standards are realistic. As I said when you arrived, you’re a woman. All women practise deception of one form or another. It really doesn’t bother me,’ he assured her in a confident drawl. ‘I expect it.’
‘You expect women to deceive you?’
‘Women are greedy.’ He shrugged. ‘And manipulative. And very upset when things don’t go their way, as you obviously are now.’
‘You know what?’ Her voice was so clogged with tears that she could hardly form the words. ‘You’re right that I’m upset. I’m very upset. Because last night was special for me. Really special. And now I discover that I was nothing more than a convenient female body in a slinky dress.’
He lounged back against the pillow, watching her as though she were a floorshow laid on for his entertainment. ‘You’re stunning when you’re angry, minha paixao. ‘
‘Then prepare yourself to be knocked flat by my beauty—’ she jammed her feet into her shoes ‘—because I haven’t even started. And what does that mean, anyway? You keep calling me that—’
‘Minha paixao?’ He shrugged, looking every inch the arrogant Brazilian billionaire. ‘My passion.’
