She turned to follow his line of vision, but there was only a man unlocking and getting into his car, one of the ubiquitous long loaves of freshly baked bread under his arm.
‘Rafe …?’ she prompted with a frown as she turned back to him.
He shook his head. ‘Sorry, what were we talking about?’
Nothing of any importance, Cairo acknowledged heavily, knowing that Rafe had no reason to believe her claim that she hadn’t enjoyed the glamorous Hollywood party circuit. And why should it matter to her anyway? Except that it did….
‘Nothing important.’ Cairo gave him another searching look before turning away to smile at Daisy as she returned and got into the back of the car. ‘Do up your seat belt, poppet.’ Her voice warmed affectionately as she slid into the passenger seat.
Rafe remained distracted as he drove back to the villa, occasionally checking in his driving-mirror for that blue car and its driver.
He didn’t see it, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there….
He had first noticed the car behind them on the drive from the villa to the supermarket, had taken note of the fact that it had followed them into the car park, but had dismissed the coincidence when the driver got out to go to the stall in front of the supermarket where the fresh bread was being sold.
But they had been in the supermarket for at least half an hour, and the man had still been hanging about when they had come out again, supposedly reading a newspaper, although he had sauntered across to his car while they were loading their shopping in the boot.
He was becoming paranoid, Rafe decided as he turned up the lane to the villa and the little blue car was still nowhere in sight.
Paranoid or just hypersensitive after unexpectedly meeting up with Cairo again after years of avoiding her. She was right when she pointed out he hadn’t lived like a monk the last eight years, and those years had fooled him into believing himself well over her. But since he had kissed and caressed her yesterday afternoon in the kitchen he knew that he wasn’t over her at all.
There was no doubt Cairo was different now, sleekly so, her clothes all designer-label, everything about her more sophisticated and self-assured than the bright-eyed twenty-year old he had met while filming on the Isle of Man.
But he would be lying if he claimed that the attraction, that fierce ache to make love with her, wasn’t still burning beneath their thin veneer of civility.
Extremely dangerous.
And it was a danger Rafe needed to get away from, if only for a few hours!
‘For obvious reasons I have to go down into Cannes this evening,’ he told Cairo as the two of them put the shopping away while Daisy collected her swimming things from her bedroom.
‘Fine,’ Cairo accepted without interest as she continued to put cereals away in a cupboard.
‘You and Daisy can come with me if you like?’ Rafe heard himself offer—in complete contradiction to his thoughts of a few minutes ago …
His only excuse was that Cairo’s complete lack of interest in his plans for this evening had annoyed the hell out of him!
Cairo stiffened before slowly turning to face Rafe. ‘Why on earth would I want to do that?’ she prompted incredulously while inwardly shying away from the thought of going anywhere near all that glitzy artificiality again after she had so enjoyed avoiding it the last ten months.
As Rafe had pointed out earlier, she had attended numerous award ceremonies with Lionel over the years, both as an actress in her own right and as Lionel’s wife, had even been nominated for and won an Oscar herself three years ago.
Which meant Cairo knew exactly what the party in Cannes this evening would be like, everyone really there to see and be seen rather than to actually meet up and chat with old friends and just enjoy themselves.
Rafe leant back against one of the kitchen units to study her through narrowed lids. ‘You haven’t worked in almost a year, Cairo.’
She blinked. ‘Sorry?’
His mouth thinned. ‘You haven’t made a film in over ten months.’
‘So?’
‘So, as I pointed out yesterday, the world of acting is a fickle one.’ He shrugged. ‘Too long out of the limelight, and the industry, as well as the public, tends to forget you exist.’
‘Your point being?’
He frowned. ‘My point being, you need to get back to work!’
Cairo gave a humourless laugh. ‘As I told you yesterday, I really don’t see what business it is of yours—’
‘You can’t hide away for the rest of your life, Cairo,’ he pointed out.
Her eyes widened. ‘I’m not hiding—’
‘What else would you call it?’ he attacked her impatiently. ‘You’re staying in a villa miles from anywhere, and you wear sunglasses and a baseball cap to disguise your appearance when you do go out. I’d call that hiding, wouldn’t you, Cairo?’
‘No,’ she bit out. ‘What I would call it is taking a well-earned holiday after years of constantly working my—’ She stopped and drew in a controlling breath. ‘I can’t remember the last time I was able to just relax and lie in the sun.’
‘You’ll freckle, remember?’ he taunted.
‘I’ll risk it!’ she snapped. ‘And I really don’t see what any of this has to do with my not wanting to come to a party in Cannes with you this evening.’
‘There will be directors there. Producers, too. The people who will give you your next job, Cairo,’ Rafe explained patiently as she made no response.
‘I don’t need anyone to give me my next job, Rafe,’ she assured him.
He studied her carefully. ‘You already know what you’re going to work on next, don’t you?’
Cairo gave a mocking inclination of her head. ‘Yes, Rafe, I already know what I’m going to work on next.’
‘Which is?’
‘None of your business!’
‘Are the two of you arguing?’ Daisy asked from the kitchen doorway, her expression curious rather than concerned.
‘Of course not, poppet,’ Cairo hastened to reassure her. ‘Uncle Rafe and I were just—having a discussion about something unimportant.’ She shot Rafe a warning glance.
‘Oh.’ Daisy nodded. ‘Because Mummy and Daddy always kiss and make up when they have an argument.’
Cairo snorted at the thought of her and Rafe ever being able to ‘kiss and make up’. There was simply too much history between them for them ever to be able to do that!
A sentiment Rafe obviously agreed with as he answered the little girl. ‘As Aunty Cairo said, Daisy, we weren’t arguing,’ he said dryly. ‘So, who’s hungry?’ he added enticingly, Daisy’s shout of agreement completely overshadowing the fact that Cairo said nothing.
She was too irritated with Rafe to speak, that was why!
She had spent years being persuaded, cajoled and pushed by Lionel into taking one film role after another, usually for his production company, of course, and she wasn’t about to be railroaded by anyone else—least of all the arrogant Rafe Montero—into doing anything, or going anywhere, she didn’t want to go.
She certainly wasn’t going to allow Rafe to goad her into going to Cannes with him this evening!
But he seemed no more interested in pursuing the subject as they found a place to park in Grasse before walking through to the shops and restaurants. In fact—thankfully!—Rafe seemed decidedly distracted again, leaving Cairo to enjoy the aromas and atmosphere of the town whose main industry was its wonderful perfumes.
Rafe hadn’t been being paranoid earlier about the blue car and its driver …
He was pretty sure of it now, the little blue car having come out of a side road as Rafe drove down from the villa and out onto the main road. It had then stayed a two-car distance behind them on the drive to Grasse, and followed them into the same car park once they got into the town. Although the driver, definitely the same man as before, noticing Rafe’s narrow-eyed interest across the car park as he got out of the blue car, had quickly locked the doors before
disappearing in the opposite direction to the one Rafe, Cairo and Daisy took.
Admittedly Rafe hadn’t seen the man since, but a sixth sense, a tingling sensation at the back of his neck, told him that the man was still around somewhere.
Was he just an avid movie fan who had maybe recognized Rafe when he arrived at the supermarket?
Or—worse!—a reporter?
Several people had given Rafe a second glance as the three of them strolled through the busy streets of Grasse, as if they thought they recognized him, only to look at Cairo and Daisy and decide they must be mistaken; Rafe Montero wasn’t married, let alone father to a six-year-old girl.
But the man in the blue car seemed more dogged than that, and he had obviously been waiting at the bottom of the access road in the hopes of being able to follow the next time Rafe left the villa.
Or Cairo did….
Rafe gave her a frowning glance. She was still wearing the baseball cap and dark sunglasses, but otherwise seemed relaxed, and was obviously enjoying herself as she and Daisy looked at scented candles as a present to take home to Margo.
Something Rafe doubted she would continue to be if the man following them should turn out to be a reporter hot on her trail!
‘Is everything all right, Rafe?’ Cairo queried once the three of them were seated at a shaded table in the square where they had decided to have lunch.
He raised dark brows. ‘Why shouldn’t it be?’
Cairo frowned. ‘You seem—preoccupied, that’s all.’
‘I get that way when I’m hungry,’ he dismissed, before pointedly turning his attention to reading the menu.
Cairo continued to look at him for several more seconds before looking down at her own menu; after all, she had no reason for complaint as long as Rafe continued to help keep Daisy entertained.
Besides, he was probably as worried about Margo as Cairo was.
She had spoken briefly to Jeff on the telephone this morning, her brother-in-law promising to call her later today once he had any news about Margo and the baby. Cairo’s mobile was turned on in her shoulder-bag for just that reason.
It was very pleasant sitting here in the sunshine, Cairo decided as she relaxed back in her chair once they had given their order to the waiter and Daisy and Rafe were busy discussing the merits of the beaches in the area, something they were both familiar with if the friendly argument that ensued was anything to go by.
Cairo watched the two of them from behind dark sunglasses, appreciating how good Rafe was with Daisy, talking to her as an adult rather than a child as he considered the merits of her suggestions, Daisy obviously equally enthralled with him.
Again Cairo asked herself why he had never married and had children of his own …
Rafe was thirty-seven now, at the very top of his profession, a successful director, as well as one of the most sought after—and sexy—actors in the world: the most sexy according to that American poll last year!
There had been plenty of women in Rafe’s life over the years, too, photographs of him with those beautiful women often appearing in the glossily expensive magazine that she occasionally read while waiting in her trailer to be called on set.
Yet he had never married, had remained one of the most elusively eligible bachelors in the world … whom Cairo knew herself to be completely physically aware of!
It would be futile to claim otherwise when she was sensitive to everything about him, from his silkily dark hair that brushed the collar of his black polo shirt, down to the bareness of his slimly elegant feet casually thrust into black deck-shoes.
He was as sexy as hell, Cairo acknowledged achingly. Even more so than he had been eight years ago, maturity having added another dimension to his already many-faceted personality, lines of experience now beside the deep blue of his eyes, his rare smile one of mocking challenge.
‘She’s a great kid, isn’t she?’ Rafe said as Daisy excused herself to go to the ladies’ room inside the restaurant.
‘Er—yes, she is,’ Cairo agreed abruptly even as she wrenched her gaze away from the moulded perfection of Rafe’s sensually curving mouth and her thoughts from the memory of how forcefully that mouth had claimed hers yesterday afternoon.
Rafe’s gaze narrowed on her flushed cheeks. ‘Have you ever wondered that if we had made it together, we might have had a daughter of Daisy’s age by now? Maybe a couple more, too?’
‘Certainly not!’ she denied firmly.
Rafe shrugged. ‘Just a thought.’
Thank goodness she hadn’t become pregnant during their three-month affair—that really would have complicated a situation that had ultimately proved heartbreaking enough when Rafe had become bored with her naïve adoration and secretly turned his attentions to another, much more experienced, woman.
But she couldn’t deny that at one time, in her naivety, she had inwardly, deliciously thought about becoming the mother of Rafe’s children….
‘I think I’ll just try giving Jeff a call while Daisy isn’t here.’ She took her mobile from her bag and put the call through to her brother-in-law, effectively putting an end to that conversation.
But if nothing else, it had served as a reminder that Cairo hadn’t been enough for Rafe eight years ago, and despite her earlier thoughts of how wonderful he was with Daisy—of what a good father he would make to his own children someday—Cairo knew that she wouldn’t be enough for him now, either.
Rafe took advantage of Cairo’s preoccupation to sit back and run a lazily sweeping glance over the busy square, aware that he still had that uncomfortable prickling sensation at the base of his nape, as if he was being watched.
Not that he had actually seen the driver of the blue car again.
But perhaps that wasn’t surprising after Rafe had shown him so clearly in the car park that he was aware of the other man’s interest?
Or maybe Rafe was wrong and it really was coincidence that he had seen that particular man in that particular car twice in one day?
Maybe …
He just didn’t happen to believe that strongly in coincidences—
‘Dammit!’ Rafe grated harshly even as he surged angrily to his feet and turned to stride towards where he had just seen Daisy emerge from the ladies’ room in the restaurant.
To where a man—the same man who had earlier been driving the blue car, Rafe was sure of it—had stopped her and engaged her in conversation!
CHAPTER FIVE
‘FOLLOW him, Rafe!’ Cairo cried anxiously behind him as the man saw Rafe’s approach and quickly broke off his conversation with Daisy to turn on his heel and hurry out through the back entrance of the restaurant.
Rafe didn’t need any encouragement—he had every intention of going after the other man.
‘Take care of Daisy,’ he instructed grimly, before hurrying out the back entrance himself.
But no matter how hard Rafe looked both ways up the street and in several shops, he couldn’t find him, the other man having apparently disappeared. He knew where the man’s car was, of course, and debated whether or not he should just go straight to the car park and hope to get there before the other man did.
But Rafe’s first concern had to be Daisy and Cairo, so he returned to the restaurant.
‘I lost him.’ Rafe scowled as Cairo looked at him, her face having taken on a greyish tinge, her hands trembling as she held Daisy tightly against her. ‘I’m pretty sure it isn’t what you think, Cairo,’ he added more reassuringly. ‘I’ll explain later.’ He shot Cairo a warning look before going down on his haunches beside the little girl. ‘Okay, Daisy-May?’ he prompted gently.
‘Can we have lunch now, Uncle Rafe?’ she asked hopefully.
He gave an appreciative chuckle. ‘Sure we can. Okay with you, Cairo?’ He looked up at her.
Cairo felt too sick with reaction to answer him immediately.
She hadn’t even realized there was anything wrong until Rafe had stood up and rushed into the restaurant and she had seen the man tal
king to Daisy.
A man who had seemed strangely familiar….
‘Fine,’ she answered distractedly, knowing from Rafe’s warning expression that he didn’t want either of them to alarm Daisy when she seemed to have taken the incident in her six-year-old stride.
Unlike Cairo.
It was every parent’s nightmare!
They had only taken their eyes off Daisy for a minute or so. What if—
‘It really isn’t what you think,’ Rafe assured her quietly, taking a light hold of her arm as they followed Daisy back to their table. ‘At least, I’m pretty sure that it isn’t,’ he added grimly.
‘You’ll have to give me a better explanation than that, Rafe.’ She gave an involuntary shudder. ‘What if he had taken Daisy? I would never have forgiven myself if—’
‘Don’t even think about it.’ Rafe squeezed her arm. ‘I would never have let that happen.’
Cairo believed him.
After all that had happened between them, the way Rafe had proved so unfaithful as a lover, Cairo still believed him implicitly when he assured her that he would keep Daisy safe….
Rafe wished he could be as sure of being able to keep his promise to Cairo as he sounded! But until he found out who the man in the blue car was, and why he had been following them most of the day, he really had no idea whom he was actually supposed to be protecting.
Daisy … or Cairo?
Daisy was the one to give him part of the answer. ‘I think that man was one of your fans, Uncle Rafe,’ she told him once she had eaten a piece of pizza.
‘Why do you think that, Daisy?’ he asked, at the same time aware that Cairo was picking at her salad rather than eating it, obviously still very shaken by what had happened. Even so, Rafe couldn’t help but admire the fact that she was trying to appear as if everything were normal.
‘He asked me if you were Rafe Montero,’ Daisy explained happily before picking up another piece of her pizza.
Rafe shot Cairo a frowning glance before answering the little girl. ‘And what did you say, Daisy-May?’
‘I said you were.’ She nodded. ‘Because you are, aren’t you?’
Hot Nights with a Spaniard (Mills & Boon M&B) (Mills & Boon Special Releases) Page 5