Rafael, who generally didn’t give one hoot what other people thought of him, found himself scowling.
‘Hmm. No jeans. Maybe we should do a bit of shopping today,’ Amy said mischievously. ‘Get you looking a little less like an old fuddy duddy.’
‘You think I look like a fuddy-duddy?’ Rafael shot her a crooked smile and Amy blinked. No! He mightn’t wear jeans but the last thing this man was was a fuddy-duddy! Her mouth went dry and she could feel her heart speed up. What was going on? she thought, panicked.
‘No. I just think it’s odd that you don’t possess a pair. Anyway, I don’t want to go shopping. It was just a joke. I don’t actually care what you wear or what you own…’
‘No…?’ Rafael thought about what had brought him out today, playing truant for the first time in his life. He wanted to make sure that when she left the Hamptons she left behind all thoughts of his brother. ‘Shame…’
Amy thought that she might have misheard. ‘Sorry?’ She cleared her throat. God, but that one little word had sent a shameful thrill racing through her and she couldn’t understand it.
‘I thought all women cared what people thought of them,’ Rafael said mildly.
‘Oh. Yes. No!’
‘I think shopping would be a very good idea,’ he mused. ‘After all, you can’t visit Manhattan and not shop.’ Under normal circumstances, he would have arranged with his secretary to take a couple of hours off work and show her the wonders that were the shopping districts of Manhattan. Failing that, he realised that he would have to take her himself, which might not be such a bad thing if getting to know her was his primary concern. Problem was that he had no idea where women went shopping in the city.
‘I can buy you a pair of jeans,’ Amy said, warming to the idea.
‘You really think I need some, do you?’ Rafael drawled.
‘Absolutely!’ Sometimes when he spoke the timbre of his voice was curiously sexy. Was he aware of that? He gave no inkling that there was a streak of vanity running through him, but surely he couldn’t miss the furtive glances other women directed at him? Could he? ‘And maybe a jazzy shirt as well instead of all those plain coloured ones you seem to like wearing…’
He grinned and wondered how she would react if she only knew the cost of those ‘plain-coloured ones’! Each was hand tailored. Every six months he would dispose of one lot and replace with another. It might be boring but it was damned convenient.
‘Jazzy?’
‘Hawaiian print perhaps?’ Amy amused herself by imagining him in a ridiculous ensemble. It helped still her nervous awareness of him that had either been there all along or else had crept up on her when she was least expecting it. ‘Maybe something with large, bright flowers. That would make a change from dull old white or cream! Thank goodness you don’t work in an office. I bet you’d have lots of pinstriped suits to add to your collection!’
Just the odd thirty or so, Rafael thought wryly.
‘Here’s the deal,’ he told her lazily. ‘You can shove me in something casual and I’ll dress you the way a woman should be dressed.’
‘The way a woman should be dressed?’
‘Oh, yes. No jeans that look as though they’ve been attacked with a pair of scissors…’
‘That’s how they’re supposed to look!’
‘And I pay for the lot…’
‘No way!’ She flushed. ‘That just wouldn’t be right. I mean, it’s not as though we’re going out. Not that that would make any difference. I don’t believe in a man paying for everything.’#p#分页标题#e#
‘Oh. You mean you’re one of those feminist types who insist on splitting everything straight down the middle? What if you had been dating the boss? Would you still have insisted on going Dutch?’
‘That would have been different.’
‘Why?’
‘I know this is going to sound as though I’ve got a different set of rules, but James has a lot of money. If I had been dating him…’ she shuddered at the thought ‘…I would happily have let him treat me to stuff. After all, I’m broke and he’s not. I would have paid him back in my own way.’
‘Why don’t you enlighten me?’ Rafael asked tightly.
Oblivious to his change of tone, Amy gave the question serious thought. ‘I would have cooked him special meals…bought him little things that might have meant something to him…There are ways of showing appreciation that can’t be counted in financial terms. It’s a relative thing, isn’t it? I mean, a rich guy can throw money at a woman without missing it while the woman might only be able to afford something very small in comparison but it would mean a whole lot more because she would have to have saved to afford it in the first place.’