He raked his fingers through his hair and glared at her. ‘He should be lucky I didn’t thump him.’
‘You still haven’t told me what you’re doing here!’
‘And you still haven’t told me who that was!’ Rafael responded without pausing for breath.
They were standing in the hall like combatants. Amy, still in a state of shock, had a thousand questions burning in her head but she was done with laying all her cards on the table and putting herself at his mercy. Never again!
She swung round and padded towards the kitchen, really because she needed to sit down because her legs felt like jelly.
She was aware of Rafael following her. It made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.
‘Well?’ he demanded, as soon as they were in the kitchen. She sat down but he remained standing, giving him a towering advantage over her.
‘It’s none of your business who that was,’ Amy said bitterly. ‘There’s nothing more to be said between us.’
‘And so you decided to just head out and find another man?’
Yes! Amy wanted to shout. Yes, I did. Just walked out one fine morning and picked up the first guy who strolled along and offered to go on a date!
‘Is that the kind of woman you think I am? No, don’t answer that! Because once you thought I was a gold-digger, so I guess I’m just about capable of anything, in your eyes!’ Which is why you wouldn’t dream of looking at me as anything other than a quick and easy romp in the sack! ‘Where’s the love of your life?’ she asked snidely. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve abandoned her again! I hate to say this but even the most controlled, well-bred, intelligent women with power jobs have a breaking-point.’#p#分页标题#e#
Rafael shook his head and sat down. ‘Elizabeth has gone.’
Huh, Amy thought, would that be so that she can begin preparing for The Big Day?
‘I finished with her.’
‘What?’ She looked at him warily. She could feel her treacherous heart lifting and tried hard to stamp it back down.
‘It didn’t work out. I thought it would but I was wrong.’
She was desperate to know the details, but she hung onto her resolve and just stared at him in silence.
‘Now tell me who he was, Amy.’ Even applying his cool, logical brain to the question of what he would do if she started spilling out details of her new lover, he still couldn’t control the sick surge that rushed through him, leaving him shaken in its wake.
‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, Rafael!’ The sweet fantasy of being able to exclaim that she had just so happened to meet the man of her dreams regrettably evaporated. ‘That was just Jack, my brother.’
‘Your brother!
‘Who’s probably bruised and shaken, thanks to you!’
‘Why the hell didn’t you tell me who he was?’
‘Because you didn’t exactly give me much of a chance, did you?’ She fuelled her anger and tried to feel some justified horror at the way he was coolly sitting at her table. ‘I mean, one minute my brother was giving me a hug and the next minute you were attacking him! Tell me where you see polite conversation and explanations fitting into that little scenario!’
‘Point taken,’ Rafael said. Her brother. He was her brother. The man was her brother. He couldn’t believe the relief he felt! He wanted to jump up and down and dance. Ridiculous reaction. Just as laying into her brother had been a ridiculous reaction. Not him at all! But then, nothing was these days, was it?
‘I shouldn’t have attacked him, even if I had thought that you had found someone else, found a replacement for me…’
If only life were that simple, Amy thought glumly.
‘Why did you?’ she asked eventually. ‘I mean, don’t you hate causing scenes? All that passion and emotion on show, Rafael! I would never have thought it of you! But then, no, let me answer my own question…’ She looked at him bitterly. ‘You thought that was what I might want to see. You thought that because I’m open and expressive, that I would be bowled over by a Rafael who didn’t mind showing his feelings. A brand-new Rafael. Because you’ve given your ex a chance and you’ve decided that you’d rather use me for a while, even though I’m not up to scratch on the permanent front. Am I heading in the right direction, Rafael?’
Amy stood up abruptly. Her legs felt like pieces of lead and she needed to walk to get her circulation going.
Also she didn’t want to look at him. Unfortunately the kitchen was small. Not too many spots from which she didn’t have a full on, glaring view of him, lounging against the counter and dwarfing everything around him.