She let herself out of the bedroom and padded across the sitting area to where bedroom number two was located.
The apartment had been cleverly arranged. One bedroom with its en suite and dressing area lay at the opposite end of the apartment to the second bedroom, which wasn’t quite as big and did not lead into an en suite or dressing area. It also had all the accoutrements for an office, which meant, she supposed, that anyone from overseas who needed to use the place for any length of time would be able to convert the smaller bedroom into an office, complete with desk, Internet connection, phone, fax machine and all the other boring paraphernalia that every businessman seemed addicted to.
The kitchen, the living area, the dining area—everything was designed in an open-plan fashion so that the feeling was of airiness.
He was up. She could see the fine line of light under the door. Just as well. It was one thing to apologise on the spur of the moment, but something else to wake him up to do it.#p#分页标题#e#
Amy took a deep breath and knocked. When, after a few seconds, she heard him tell her to enter, she pushed open the door before she had time to back out.
He was lying on the bed, propped up against the pillows with his laptop computer resting on his thighs. And, aside from a pair of dark, patterned boxer shorts, he was wearing absolutely nothing.
That was fine, she told herself sternly. She was just here to clear the air and then she would be on her way.
‘You’re working?’
It dawned on her that it was a bit strange for the gardener to be working on a laptop computer at nearly midnight, but her question was answered when he snapped shut the lid and casually told her that he was just catching up with some personal correspondence.
Amy licked her lips nervously.
‘Right. Well…’
‘You can come in,’ Rafael said. ‘I don’t bite.’ He slid the laptop next to him and folded his arms behind his head, all the better to observe her embarrassed dithering by the bedroom door.
The towelling robe she was wearing had clearly been destined for a much larger wearer because it engulfed her.
‘What do you want?’ he asked brusquely, slinging his feet over the side of the bed and strolling towards the window so that he could perch on its broad sill. Somehow being in bed while she stood there felt just a little…unsettling.
Amy drew in a deep breath and said in a rush, ‘I came to apologise. For flying off the handle and being…well…a bit of a misery to be with after all you’ve done for me today.’ She ventured nervously into the room so that she didn’t have to deliver her speech like someone on stage. ‘I showed up on your doorstep and you could have just dumped me back at the house, but you listened to me babble away and you even volunteered to bring me to Manhattan to spare me the discomfort of being in James’s company last night.’ She could feel herself really getting on a roll now.
Rafael resisted the urge to tell her that it hadn’t been the world’s greatest sacrifice. An unusual good deed from him, true enough, but he had had his reasons and as things turned out had ended up having a…memorable time, despite the anticlimax of the evening.
Amy took a few tentative steps towards him.
‘I don’t think I’ve even really said thank you for…the dress…and the tour guide…and…’ She wondered whether she should start listing all the cabs he had paid for, not to mention the food they had eaten.
Rafael held up his hand to stop her in mid-flow. ‘I get the general picture.’
‘And you were right.’
‘Was I? What about?’ Sometimes trying to follow her conversation was like trying to hang on to running water. And she was now standing pretty close to him. Too close. He clenched his teeth together and pinned his eyes to her tremulous mouth, anything to stop them from straying to the opening of the towelling robe, which was revealing slightly more than she probably thought.
‘When you told me that I was out of James’s league…’ She came closer and impulsively reached out to circle his forearm with her hand. She looked up at him, trembling with a desperate urgency to really make him feel her sincerity.
‘There’s no need for you to pour your heart out at…this hour…’ Rafael’s mouth felt dry. He cleared his throat.
‘I want to,’ Amy said earnestly.
Now both her small hands were resting on his folded arms and he knew that he was reacting like any man would when confronted by a sexy woman wearing nothing but an oversized dressing gown. Even if the sexy woman was not the sort he could ever really be attracted to. On any other level, he told himself, bar the physical.#p#分页标题#e#