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And she thought, God bless him, he doesn’t have a clue. It didn’t even cross his mind that she had spent the majority of his absence cleaning the apartment. Izzy simply smiled forgivingly, recognising that he came from a vastly different level of daily life from her own and she was tickled by that revealing question. ‘Nothing special,’ she said quietly, choosing not to embarrass him with an honest response.
‘Let us hope this evening will be different,’ he murmured almost awkwardly, settling the wine down on the counter right in her way where she was dicing vegetables. ‘Where are the glasses?’
Yes, totally clueless, she thought with even stronger amusement, like a guy who had never been in a kitchen in his life. Rafiq was not accustomed to a woman cooking for him and even less accustomed to the working requirements of a kitchen in the midst of the preparation of a meal. She reached into the china cabinet to withdraw wine glasses and set them out for him while trying not to stare at him, because he had dressed down for the occasion. The formal business suit that had fitted him with designer-tailored perfection was gone, replaced with form-fitting denim jeans and a black shirt open at the neck. He still looked amazing. She reckoned he could even have rocked a dustbin bag with that lithe and powerful physique of his and those startling, stunning good looks. She no longer marvelled at her own susceptibility, reckoning that no man would ever provide her with so much temptation. Rafiq was in a class of his own: he was unique.
He poured a foaming golden liquid into the glasses and she squinted at the label on the bottle and her brows flew up. Champagne, the very best! She felt out of her element, watching him out of the corner of her eye as he lounged up against the hob where she was trying to cook, and almost groaned, recognising that she was dealing with a guy who was acting as if he had never been in a working kitchen in his life. It was weirdly cute, him striving to look cool and relaxed when the tension in his stance revealed that he was anything but relaxed and she took pity on him.
‘Why don’t you go and sit down next door while I finish up here?’ Izzy suggested gently as she lifted her glass and sipped.
Rafiq’s wide sensual mouth compressed, a muscle tightening in his strong jaw line. ‘If that is what you want...but it doesn’t seem very sociable to leave you alone.’
‘It’s fine,’ Izzy murmured soothingly, wanting to smooth away the frown etched between his brows. ‘I’ll only be a few minutes.’
‘You look amazing in that dress,’ Rafiq breathed thickly, scanning her shapely figure with a hungry intensity that she could feel.
For an instant that appraisal unnerved her and then that anxious feeling evaporated. Only a few weeks earlier she and her twin had talked about whether or not they were too choosy about men and how uncomfortable, immature and secretive it felt to be the only virgins they knew. They had decided that they were too fussy, too busy holding onto something that that they had got tired of holding onto while everyone else their age moved on into another, seemingly more adult phase of life. When they were teenagers, they had assumed that Mr Perfect would come along, Mr Right, but now they were no longer so naïve about the society they lived in. The men they met weren’t looking for sexual innocence and wouldn’t place any value on it and as a result both of them had reached the conclusion that their restraint was pointless.
After all, even their mother hadn’t waited until she was married. Lucia had been very honest about her life experience, freely admitting that she had got to twenty-five years of age zealously conserving what her traditional parents had assured her she had to conserve. But she had tired of respecting the social belief that to be valued she had to remain ‘pure’ even though the men she met were far from pure and, having fallen head over heels for their father, she had never lived to regret that decision, in spite of her judgemental family’s shocked rejection of her.
So, when Rafiq shot her an all-encompassing look that almost ate her alive, Izzy went pink with awareness but, on another level, she thought, yes, Icouldwithhim, and she felt positively wicked and forward and shameless, but she couldn’t help the heat that mushroomed up through her quivering body, because the desire that he was unafraid to show was coursing through her as well. And why should she be afraid of showing it? Of feeling that way? He made her body come alive in a way it never had before. He made her want what she had never wanted before. And who knew how long it would be before she met another man who had that effect on her?
Striving to act as cool as she knew how while struggling to handle all the different responses assailing her, Izzy set out the simple starter on the table and they sat down. ‘So, how did your appointment go?’ she enquired casually.
Rafiq shrugged a broad shoulder in dismissal. ‘Nothing unusual. I would prefer to talk about you. Tell me about yourself...’
In a few words, she described her family. He asked about her brother, Matt.
‘Was he born disabled?’ he asked with a frown.
‘No, he fell off a ladder when he was very young and broke his spine. He’s paralysed from the waist down. He’s eleven now and because he’s been in the wheelchair for so long he bears it very well,’ Izzy told him with quiet pride. ‘But caring for him is tough on my parents so Maya and I help as much as we can. Hopefully I’ll be able to do more when I can finally start full-time work.’
‘That will be soon?’ Rafiq assumed.
‘Well, no, if everything goes according to plan, and I get a good enough pass in my degree, I’ll have a year’s teaching training course to do next,’ Izzy explained. ‘I want to be a primary school teacher. Maya will probably take a high-flying job in the city. She’s very good with numbers.’
Of course, she wasn’t about to tell him the embarrassing truth that their parents were almost drowning in the amount of debt they had accrued over the years and at risk of losing their home, which had been specially adapted for her little brother’s needs. All their choices always seemed to come down to money, which was mortifying, but Izzy felt sorriest of all for her sister because Maya had no desire to be a high-flyer in the stock market but since that kind of work paid the best, she would have to take it. At least Izzy, being the less academic twin, would be able to follow the career she wanted.
‘Where are your guards?’ she asked curiously, keen to get off the topic of future plans when she couldn’t tell him the truth.
An almost imperceptible hint of colour honed the high cheekbones that lent Rafiq’s lean dark features such powerful impact. The four guards hired at his uncle’s insistence had been banished from the apartment while the remaining pair, who had long been in Rafiq’s employment, were enjoying a night off that they would never mention to anyone. It outraged his pride that even as a fully grown adult male he was obliged to utilise such ploys to escape the intrusive nature of his security arrangements. ‘They’re off duty tonight because I’m not going out.’
‘Tell me about Zenara,’ Izzy suggested.
‘Even though you’ve never heard of my country before?’ Rafiq murmured with a touch of a raw edge to his intonation.
Izzy went pink and then lifted her chin at an angle. ‘I offended you, didn’t I?’
‘Of course not,’ Rafiq countered, noting how that extra colour in her cheeks merely brightened the sapphire blue of her eyes.
‘Yes, I did. Well, I’m sorry, but we all have moments of ignorance,’ she pointed out in her own defence. ‘I expect I could come up with a topic that would leave you floundering too...if Itried.’
‘Not in basic geography,’ Rafiq told her drily.
Izzy compressed her soft pink mouth and shifted a narrow shoulder. ‘Yeah, bet you could have completed the science paper I tanked on this morning too. I’m not gifted at science or general knowledge.’
Rafiq frowned. ‘I thought you were studying for a degree in English?’
‘To complete my degree I had to study a couple of different topics this year and everybody said the basic science course was easy-peasy.’ Izzy’s lip curled at the memory. ‘Well, Maya could probably have aced it at five years old but even after swotting hard I couldn’t answer some of the questions.’
