Kept by the Spanish Billionaire(54)

‘Elizabeth?’ Amy felt the blood rush to her head and thanked the Lord that she wasn’t having this conversation with him face to face.

‘Oh, sorry. Have I been tactless? I knew you and he were involved…had something going on…’

‘Oh, good heavens! Brief fling, James. Very brief! In fact, I haven’t given your brother a passing thought until I saw that article in the newspapers about him the other day.’

‘Which article? There’ve been a few. When Rafael puts his mind to it, the whole world stops and listens and right now they’re listening hard because his next step might have a big impact on the stock markets.’

‘Oh, right, sure.’ Amy wondered how to steer the conversation away from the deadly subject of stock markets and back to the more pressing topic of Elizabeth. Who the heck was Elizabeth? How on earth could Rafael have met a woman in such a short space of time?

Then she remembered his vast millions. The sort of vast millions that could pull any woman from any distance in any country. Add his killer looks to the equation and what did you have? An Elizabeth.#p#分页标题#e#

‘He used to go out with Elizabeth in New York,’ James was saying. Amy tuned into the conversation and held her breath.

‘Really?’ She tried to maintain just the right level of polite interest that would get him to expand on the subject, but he didn’t. He wound up their conversation, just, she thought regretfully, when it was getting interesting, by telling her to keep in touch and to call him as soon as she decided on that restaurant of hers. If they decided to really expand in the leisure industry, there would be an opening for a fresh new chef to head up their restaurants.

‘Brilliant!’ Of course she knew where the mysterious Elizabeth would be staying. Where else but Rafael’s luxurious house in the heart of the city? And she wasn’t going to give him up, not without a fight.

Yes, the sensible side of her was telling her that it would be a pointless fight. Yes, every single member of her family, with whom she had shared her problem, had advised her to focus on her career and save the heartbreak for later.

Unfortunately, another less well-behaved side of her was telling her that her life had been miserable for the past few weeks and what the heck? Either she tried to be the stoic person she had never in her life been or else she just gave in and tried her damnedest to win him back. Her pride would take a beating, but suffering for the sake of pride seemed a painful, uphill struggle.

She came off the phone with just the vaguest skeleton of a plan forming in her head.

It might take a bit of sneaking around and calling in favours owed and, when she thought about it, she felt sick inside, but then when she thought about the endless empty days stretching in front of her, she felt even sicker.

Claire still worked at the company. So far, Amy had tried to keep a lid on her curiosity. She had avoided asking her friend any questions about Rafael. Her reasons for this were twofold. Firstly, she had been desperate not to appear desperate, and secondly, she knew that just one whiff of interest and Claire would unleash a torrent of questions. She knew the basic facts of the fated affair but Amy’s silence on the subject had made it difficult to get down to the nitty gritty.

She resolved to at least think things over for a day or two but in the end that noble resolution lasted just as long as it took her to have a bath. Then, with her towel still wrapped around her, she was on the phone to Claire, bypassing the usual pleasant gossip and getting straight to the point.

‘So let me get this straight,’ Claire rounded up, when she was finally satisfied with Amy’s thrilling agenda, ‘you want me to find out his movements and let you know.’

‘Shouldn’t be too hard,’ Amy said airily. She started thinking about Rafael’s possible reaction to her cunning plan, but didn’t spend too much time dwelling on that particular thought. It was a little too scary. ‘You can potter around that directors’ floor with a tray of sandwiches in your hand and ferret out the information from Jules.’

‘Jules doesn’t work for him. Some new woman does and she looks the sort that eats small children for breakfast.’

‘Well, I’ll leave it to you. Honestly, Claire, it’s not as though you haven’t done the odd underhand thing in your time!’

‘I’ll try my best. But there’s a price to pay. You’ll have to tell me everything that goes on, leaving nothing out, and also invite me to the wedding.’

‘Yes to the first two and, ha, ha, what a good joke to the last.’ Amy wasn’t born yesterday. She wasn’t looking for love and marriage. She was just looking for a way to get the man out of her system. She had fallen hopelessly in love with him and had turned him away because she had wanted so much more than he was offering. She had now had ample opportunity to experience that vicious little emotion called regret. It was the thing that woke her up early on a Sunday morning and filled her head so that relaxing and having fun was a distant memory.#p#分页标题#e#