Kept by the Spanish Billionaire(22)

‘Why?’ Rafael said bluntly. ‘Your mission no longer is to try and charm your boss into the sack. Unless, of course, you’ve already jumped into bed with him and this is just a consolidation exercise…?’

Amy shot up and twisted round to look at him, her cheeks red with outrage.

‘How dare you?’ She jumped to her feet and began striding off. When she felt his hand bear down on her arm, she didn’t bother to look around. She just attempted to shrug him off, but it was like trying to shrug off a ring of steel and in the end she was forced to turn around.

‘You make a habit of this, don’t you? Is that how you deal with tricky conversations? Or tricky situations? By walking off as fast as you can in whatever direction your feet might take you?’

Having twice landed on his doorstep for that very reason, Amy struggled to come up with a snappy riposte. ‘Do you mind? You’re hurting me!’ It was the best she could do and he released her immediately. She could see him visibly regain his composure. ‘I don’t intend to sit on a beach with you and eat…bloody sandwiches on the sand while you insult me!’ She took a couple of steps back and glared at him. ‘You owe me an apology!’

‘I beg your pardon?’ In his entire life, no one had ever demanded an apology from Rafael. He was, literally, astounded by the request.

‘You heard me, buster! I want an apology from you! You just insulted me, in case you’d forgotten!’

‘I did not insult you.’

‘You accused me of being the sort of girl who sleeps around.’

‘I made an educated guess.’

‘Well, it was the wrong educated guess and I’m not budging from here until you apologise!’ Amy didn’t know why on earth she was getting so steamed up. She knew the truth and wasn’t that all that mattered? But she could feel her eyes pricking from the effort of holding back a sudden onset of tears. She had a sudden vision of James with his mystery woman and was overcome by a sense of pathos.

‘Oh, for God’s sake,’ Rafael muttered stiffly. ‘I apologise if you found my remark offensive.’

‘Good—’ Amy sniffed ‘—because I did.’
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‘I really don’t know what you see in him,’ Rafael said, once they were back on the rug with a state of temporary truce between them. Amy had made her mind up that she wasn’t going to let the man get under her skin. She would never be in this part of the world again and she was determined to enjoy the experience. She gave Rafael a withering glance.

‘Would that be because you know him so well?’ she asked scathingly. ‘I know he’s your boss, but he spends all his time in London. In fact, I bet he’s hardly out here at all! When he comes to America, he probably heads straight for the New York office!’

Rafael stifled a grin. Whenever James came to America, the first place he visited was their mother’s house in the Hamptons. The office was just that glass building he popped into to show his face.

‘He occasionally comes out to the house,’ Rafael said diplomatically. He lay flat on the rug, hands behind his head, the dark shades protecting his eyes from the glare of the sun. He felt pleasurably relaxed and realised that it was the first time in years that he had done nothing. It seemed ironic that it would be in the company of a woman who rubbed every nerve in his body the wrong way. But still…He watched as the sun forced her out of her cut offs, revealing a neat, but perfectly proportioned body. And the bikini bottom was just as skimpy as the top.

‘Oh, and from the occasional visit, you think you know him?’

‘You think you do?’ Rafael turned the question over to her. He had the whole day and he intended to use it to his advantage. He would find out just what her intentions were and he foresaw no problem in unearthing the information. The woman was hardly backward at coming forward, and, anyway, he was an expert when it came to extracting what he wanted.

‘Of course I do!’ Amy snapped, rolling over onto her side and propping herself up so that she could direct the full force of her scowl at Rafael’s harshly beautiful profile. ‘Not that it’s any of your business!’ She fulminated silently as he continued to stare upwards, apparently oblivious to her presence.

‘He’s very funny and incredibly popular. In fact, I don’t think there’s anyone who doesn’t fall for James’s charm!’

‘And how often did you actually get to talk to him?’ Rafael asked curiously.

‘We joked around. I handle all of the catering for the directors. Most of the time it’s just a case of deliver, but ever, so often James would commission me to do something special for friends. Actually, I’ve even been to his place to do private functions.’