‘Yes,’ Rafe agreed with a smile. ‘For my sins, that’s exactly who I am.’
Daisy nodded. ‘Then he asked me the name of my mummy.’
‘Your … mummy?’ Rafe repeated slowly with a quick glance at Cairo.
‘Mmm.’ Daisy gave a mischievous grin. ‘I told him that her name was Margo. Because it is, isn’t it?’ she added with satisfaction.
‘Daisy—’
‘Don’t you see, Uncle Rafe, that man thought Aunty Cairo was my mummy?’ She giggled at the joke she had played on the other man.
Yes, Rafe did see—better than Daisy, in fact. As he knew that Cairo must.
‘He was a reporter!’ Cairo spoke for the first time since they had returned to the table, anger starting to replace her emotional turmoil as she realized Daisy hadn’t been in danger, after all; she had simply been pumped for information about Cairo and Rafe.
‘I had a suspicion that he might be, yes,’ Rafe admitted grimly.
Cairo’s eyes widened. ‘You had a—? He was at the supermarket this morning!’ she breathed incredulously as she suddenly remembered why the other man had seemed so familiar to her a few minutes ago. She also remembered Rafe’s distraction earlier as he’d watched the reporter getting into his car!
Her mouth tightened. ‘How long have you known he was following us?’
‘Not now, Cairo!’ he snapped, a nerve pulsing in his tightly clenched jaw.
‘But—’
‘I said not now,’ he ordered harshly.
Cairo clamped her lips together as she continued to glare at him from behind her sunglasses.
Rafe had known that man was following them. He had known, dammit, and he hadn’t so much as warned her….
‘For God’s sake, calm down,’ Rafe told her impatiently an hour or so later as the two of them sat on the golden-white sand amongst the rocks in a relatively private cove, Daisy off building sandcastles nearer the water.
‘Calm down!’ Cairo repeated furiously as she turned to face him. ‘You knew that man was following us. You knew, Rafe, and yet you said nothing!’ She breathed agitatedly.
‘Because I knew you would react like this,’ he retorted. ‘Look, don’t worry about it, okay? I’ll make a couple of calls when I get back to the villa, and—’
‘Oh, you’ll make a couple of calls,’ Cairo repeated sarcastically. ‘That’s all right, then. The arrogant Rafe Montero will just “make a couple of calls” and everyone can once again sleep safely in their beds—’
‘Not everyone, Cairo,’ he cut in.
She scowled at him. ‘I’m really not in the mood for your innuendos just now, Rafe.’
‘Then what are you in the mood for?’ he challenged softly.
Her eyes widened as she saw the intent in his. ‘Don’t even think about—’ She broke off abruptly as Rafe reached out to remove her sunglasses and throw them down on the towel before his mouth came down fiercely on hers.
Cairo kissed him back just as fiercely.
Furiously.
All the emotions of the last couple of hours were in that kiss.
The absolute terror when she had seen that man talking to Daisy.
The relief when she’d reached Daisy’s side and was able to hold the little girl to her protectively.
Followed by this burning, almost uncontrollable rage towards Rafe for not even telling her he had thought they were being followed.
How dared he?
How dared he!
She wrenched her mouth free of his to put her hands against his chest and push him away from her. ‘I thought I told you there would be no repeat of—of this sort of thing!’ she snapped fierily.
‘What sort of thing would that be, Cairo?’ he jeered.
Cairo drew in a ragged breath. ‘I’m sure your lethal charm usually silences a woman, Rafe,’ she scorned, her cheeks flushed, eyes fever-bright. ‘But—’
‘Is my charm really lethal, Cairo?’ he interrupted.
‘Not to me!’ she denied, continuing to glare at him as she sat with her arms wrapped protectively about her knees.
His devilish smile said otherwise. ‘All evidence to the contrary, my dear Cairo.’
‘I’m not your “dear”, anything,’ she came back vehemently. ‘And I don’t care what promise you made Jeff yesterday.’ She shook her head. ‘Now that we know a reporter has tracked you down—’
‘Or you.’
Her eyes narrowed. ‘It was you the reporter recognized—’
‘If that’s what he is.’ Rafe shrugged.
‘Whatever,’ Cairo snapped. ‘He’s following you, Rafe. Which means you’re the one who will have to leave—’
‘I’ve already told you I’m not going anywhere,’ Rafe retorted firmly.
He hadn’t meant to kiss Cairo again just now. Hadn’t meant to. But he had been unable to stop himself. She had looked so damned beautiful as she’d glared at him so fiercely. So achingly desirable.
Cairo was right; he should leave. He should get himself as far away as possible from the temptation she still— incredibly!—represented.
But after the incident at the restaurant Rafe knew he had even more reason to stay. If the man who had been following them this morning did turn out to be a member of the paparazzi, then a little thing like Rafe chasing him off earlier wasn’t going to shake him. The man knew exactly who Rafe was now, and, despite what Daisy might have told the man about her ‘mummy’, Rafe knew that if the other man was any good at his job, then it wouldn’t be long before he found out who Cairo really was, too.
But he was sure Cairo must already know that….
His mouth twisted wryly. ‘It’s just one reporter, Cairo—’
‘Who will no doubt quickly be followed by others!’ she pointed out, her voice rising with her agitation. ‘Daisy and I were doing just fine before you arrived.’
‘Sure you were,’ Rafe said sarcastically.
‘And just what is that supposed to mean?’
Rafe’s gaze ran over her with slow deliberation. ‘Daisy is a great kid, but you—you’re too thin, Cairo. You have dark circles under your eyes because you don’t sleep properly. You’re as nervy as hell.’ He heaved a disgusted sigh. ‘I wouldn’t call that “doing just fine”, would you?’
‘I believe I’ve already told you before that when I want your opinion, I’ll ask for it—’
‘No, Cairo, you’ll get it whether you want it or not,’ he told her forcefully as he dropped down onto the sand beside her to take her chin in his grasp and turn her face towards his. ‘What happened to the Cairo Vaughn I knew and loved?’
‘Loved, Rafe?’ She laughed incredulously. ‘You don’t even know the meaning of the word!’ Her gaze was challenging.
Rafe continued to look at her wordlessly for several seconds before abruptly releasing her, knowing he wasn’t going to reach her this way. If there was any of the old Cairo left to reach …
Cairo glared at him with frustrated anger. Rafe hadn’t loved her. If he had loved her, then she wouldn’t have gone to his hotel suite that day eight years ago and found a naked woman in his bed!
‘This beach is slightly different from the one we once walked on together at midnight, isn’t it?’ he said huskily now.
Cairo eyed him warily, not quite sure how to reply to that comment.
She knew exactly which beach Rafe was referring to, of course. Just as she clearly remembered what had happened at the end of that walk. She was just surprised that Rafe remembered it, too, after all this time….
‘I seem to remember I ruined a pair of perfectly good shoes walking across the pebbles and rocks,’ she said coolly.
‘It was worth it,’ Rafe murmured softly.
Yes, it had been, but—
‘Have you ever been back there?’ Rafe asked, quirking up one eyebrow to signal his interest.
‘To the Isle of Man?’
She had only vaguely even heard of the Isle of Man, a small island located between England and Ireland, bef
ore she had been there on location during the filming of A Love For All Time. The island’s old-fashioned quaintness had been a perfect spot for the post-war love story, in which Rafe had had the role of male lead and Cairo had had the supporting actress role to Pamela Raines’s female lead.
A situation that had, unfortunately, become echoed in real life!
‘I try not to dwell on past mistakes,’ she dismissed in a deliberately offhand tone of voice.
‘It was damn cold on the beach that night, wasn’t it?’ he said, ignoring her supposed lack of interest in the topic.
Until they’d found the ideal way to keep warm, yes….
‘Rafe—’
‘Life seemed a lot simpler then, too,’ he continued wistfully as if she hadn’t spoken.
Her eyes widened. ‘Simpler?’
He nodded. ‘There was just you and me—’
‘And Pamela,’ Cairo put in dryly. ‘Let’s not forget the beautiful and rapacious Pamela, shall we?’
Rafe’s mouth tightened. ‘I forgot about her years ago.’
Cairo gave a derisive smile. ‘How convenient to have such an—accommodating memory!’
His eyes narrowed and his voice turned positively icy. ‘Pamela meant nothing to me.’
‘Has any woman ever meant anything to you, Rafe?’ Cairo enquired hotly.
How could he sit and claim Pamela had meant nothing to him?
The other woman had been naked in his hotel room that day, her hair all tousled, that look—that look of sleepy satisfaction on her face the result of Rafe’s lovemaking that Cairo had seen so often on her own face when she’d looked in the mirror.
His gaze became hooded now. ‘Just the one,’ he murmured, his meaning obvious as he steadily held her gaze.
‘Oh, please!’ Cairo muttered in disgust as she stood up and moved away from him. ‘I’m not that naïve twenty-year-old any more, Rafe. So don’t even think about trying your seduction routine on me again—’
‘It isn’t a routine, dammit—’
‘Of course it is!’ She turned on him angrily. ‘You sailed into Douglas Bay that day looking like a Spanish pirate captaining his ship and completely swept me and every other woman on the island off their feet!’
Cairo could remember it as if it were yesterday, standing at the window of her hotel room, watching as the three-masted sailing ship came round the headland and anchored in the bay, a small launch leaving the ship minutes later, the man at the wheel—looking every inch that Spanish pirate!—clearly the darkly handsome Rafe Montero.
Cairo had lost her heart to Rafe’s dark and rugged wildness before she was even introduced to him an hour later.
And she wasn’t going to fall for it again.
Ever.
‘I’m going for a swim,’ she told Rafe abruptly as she took off her T-shirt before peeling her skirt down over her hips and legs and revealing that she wore a brief white bikini beneath.
Rafe stood and watched Cairo as she ran down the golden sand to wade thigh-deep in the water before diving smoothly beneath its surface, his hands clenching at his sides as he appreciated how the white of her bikini emphasised the golden tan of her skin. Smooth, silky skin he could still feel against the palms of his hands.
Cairo was right; she was no longer a naïve twenty-year-old. Just as he was no longer twenty-nine and bowled off his feet by her beauty the moment he was introduced to her.
But a part of him wished that he were….
CHAPTER SIX
‘I THINK you’re being absolutely ridiculous, Rafe,’ Cairo told him coolly as she hung their wet costumes and towels on the line strung between two trees at the back of the villa. Daisy was inside watching a cartoon channel on the television.
They had all showered and changed since returning an hour ago, Cairo now wearing a loose cream-coloured blouse over fitted jeans, the dampness of her long hair twisted into a knot and secured at her crown, her face completely bare of make-up.
She looked about eighteen, Rafe decided impatiently. Although that in no way stopped her being so damned stubborn he wanted to shake her until her teeth rattled!
His gaze narrowed on her warningly. ‘If you won’t agree to come down to Cannes with me this evening, then I’m not going, either,’ he repeated evenly.
‘Scrap my previous statement—your behaviour is positively juvenile!’ Cairo glared at him. ‘I won’t if you won’t,’ she mocked as she reached for another of the towels and began to hang it on the line. ‘You have to go to Cannes this evening, Rafe—I don’t!’
‘I don’t have to go anywhere until I’ve managed to find out the identity of the man who spoke to Daisy at lunchtime,’ Rafe assured her just as stubbornly.
Rafe had called several people he knew in the newspaper business, but as yet none of them had been offered a story about himself and Cairo. They would call him back when, or if, they did.
Admittedly his own temper was slightly frayed around the edges after those memories earlier of their time together on the Isle of Man. But Cairo’s adamant refusal to even think about reconsidering her decision not to go down to Cannes with him tonight was only increasing Rafe’s frustration, which was already exacerbated by a sexual tension that was becoming more unbearable by the minute.
She sighed. ‘So much for your “couple of phone calls”.’
‘If he’s a reporter, then we’ll know by tomorrow morning, anyway,’ Rafe pointed out. ‘I only said if he’s a reporter, Cairo,’ he said as she gave a pained groan.
She shook her head. ‘We both know that he is. Do you think he has photographs, too?’
‘If he’s any good at his job then, yes, of course he has photographs.’ There was no point in even attempting to lie, Rafe knew, when tomorrow morning’s newspapers would tell their own story, no doubt including wild speculation about their relationship.
He could see it now, photographs of himself and Cairo shopping for food, of them walking through Grasse with Daisy, of the three of them laughing together as they sat down at the table in the square outside the restaurant.
All very cosily domestic.
Deceptively so.
Anyone who had ever listened to a single conversation between himself and Cairo would know differently—they couldn’t even discuss the weather without getting into an argument about it!
‘I don’t see anything in the least funny about this situation, Rafe!’ Cairo snapped as she saw his rueful smile. ‘The reason I’m annoyed is pretty obvious after the publicity following my divorce from Lionel.’ She grimaced. ‘But I’m sure there must be someone in your own life who isn’t going to be amused, either, by photographs of the two of us together.’
Cairo hadn’t spent long, boring hours in her trailer waiting to be called on set for months now—that was the only time she flicked through the glossy magazines that contained those sorts of gossipy articles—so she had no idea whether or not Rafe was involved with anyone at the moment. But he probably was….
His mouth twisted mockingly. ‘I doubt any of my family will be concerned.’
Cairo sighed. ‘I wasn’t talking about your family and you know it.’
Rafe had occasionally talked about his family when they were together. Of his Spanish father who had visited America as a student and fallen in love with the blonde-haired, blue-eyed daughter of a Texas rancher, the two of them marrying once they finished college, and now working that ranch in Texas themselves, along with Rafe’s younger brother, Pedro, and his wife and young family.
Rafe grinned. ‘I’m well aware of that, Cairo,’ he drawled. ‘And, no, I very much doubt that photographs of you and I together are going to bother anyone but the two of us.’
‘What a shame,’ she came back insincerely.
Rafe sobered. ‘Cairo, I would never have kissed you last night if I was involved with someone else.’
She raised sceptical brows. ‘Really?’
‘Dammit, Cairo—’
‘Rafe, I have no intention of getting into ye
t another argument with you,’ she told him wearily. ‘Just accept that I am not going to Cannes with you tonight—’
‘Why the hell not?’
‘One, I don’t want to go. Two, I didn’t bring anything suitable to wear. Three,’ she added simply, ‘I’m still waiting for Jeff to return one of my calls.’
She had made two so far. One at the restaurant when she had reached his answering service, and hadn’t bothered to leave a message as she had quickly rung off to be with Daisy. And another one at the beach when she had returned from her swim and had left a message asking Jeff to call her back as soon as possible to let her know how Margo was.
She had brought her mobile outside with her now in the hopes he would call back soon.
Rafe scowled. ‘One, I don’t give a damn what you want; I’m not going out and leaving you and Daisy here alone this evening. Two, you can go naked for all I care. And three, that’s what mobile phones are for!’ he all but snarled.
‘There’s no need to shout—and I told you not to touch me again, Rafe!’ Cairo’s eyes flashed a warning as she looked down at the fingers that had reached out to curl like steel bands about her arm.
Rafe breathed unevenly as he looked down at her for several long seconds. ‘You would try the patience of a saint, Cairo!’
‘You should be just fine, then, shouldn’t you?’ she baited him. ‘I told you to let go of my arm, Rafe.’ She looked up to meet his gaze unflinchingly.
The very air seemed to have stilled about them, not a sound to be heard except their own breathing as they continued that silent battle of wills, their faces only inches apart as blue eyes held brown.
Cairo felt as if the whole of her insides were melting as Rafe stood far too close to her, those fingers encircling her arm sending waves of awareness to her breasts and thighs.
Only Rafe had ever been able to make her feel like this with just a look. Only Rafe had ever been able to make her want him with just the touch of his hand against her flesh.
A hand he now let drop back to his side even as his gaze continued to hold hers captive. ‘Do you know what I want to do to you right this minute?’ he murmured.
Hot Nights with a Spaniard (Mills & Boon M&B) (Mills & Boon Special Releases) Page 6