Modern Romance Collection July 2024 Books 1-4

CHAPTER TWO

‘IT’SNOTLIKE you to make a personal call at my home,’ Raj told his British lawyer in surprise, two weeks later. ‘Has some catastrophe occurred?’

Marcus chuckled and extended the large wrapped tube he was carrying. ‘It’s for you...from Sunny Barker, I understand. As she doesn’t know where you live or have your phone number, she asked us to see that you received it and her letter.’

Raj tensed as he accepted the tube. ‘Letter?’

Marcus moved forward to settle an envelope on Raj’s tidy desk.

Raj ripped open the envelope with scant ceremony and pulled out the single sheet. He was stunned to realise it was an apology and a generous one, even if her wording made his wide sensual mouth compress. Had she really needed to tell him that she was sorry she had hurt his feelings? He wasn’t an adolescent boy in therapy. No, she didn’t have tact but what she did have was the sort of honesty that Raj had never met with before and decided integrity. It wasn’t a grovelling apology either. She didn’t disclaim the views she had voiced, merely acknowledged that she should have had more sensitivity and that such ‘unkindness’ was not the norm for her.

Raj opened the tube and, with great care, drew out the coiled watercolour within, a sizzling smile flashing across his mouth as he unfurled it to see the painting she had refused to sell to him. He carried it over to the window to check that it was not a copy, but no, she had done what she had said she would not do and had given him the original because he remembered some tiny marks at the edge.

‘That relationship is progressing well, I assume,’ Marcus gathered.

‘We had a...difference of opinion at our first meeting,’ Raj admitted reluctantly.

Marcus raised his brows in surprise. ‘That must have been interesting.’

Raj nodded. He was already wondering where he could obtain a scratching post for a cat. It would get rid of that unseemly log. She had offered an olive branch. Raj was keen to be equally generous because he wasn’t proud of his own behaviour. He became exasperated but rarely did he ever lose his temper and yet he had almost lost it with Pansy’s aunt. He had brooded over that anomaly ever since that incident. Sunny Barker had unsettled him and he didn’t like it. He had had to resist having the last word by making a second visit. That would be childish and he was never childish. Furthermore, any reopening of that controversial topic would have entailed discussing his relationship with his brother and he had no intention of violating his own privacy to that extent.

Clutching Pansy to her bosom like a magic talisman, Sunny clambered clumsily out of the helicopter onto the tarmac before being guided across to the private jet. One of his jets, she reminded herself dizzily, not his personal one, just simply one of a fleet. She couldn’t comprehend that level of wealth. It was simply too overwhelming but, if she wanted to support her niece having a relationship with her rich uncle, common sense told her that she had to suck it up.

Raj had responded handsomely to her gift of the painting he had admired by inviting her and Pansy out to his home in Italy on the Amalfi coast. They were both trying to forge a familial relationship for a child’s sake and she didn’t want to screw that up a second time, especially not when the social worker in charge of her adoption application was delighted that she was making that effort with Raj. That had brought home to her as nothing else could have done that she was stuck with Raj Belanger in their lives. Stuck with a guy who set her teeth on edge with his arrogant, far too clever ways.

The jet interior was amazing. As soon as she stepped onboard a woman in a uniform asked to take Pansy. ‘I’m Maria. I’m the nanny engaged to give you a break, Miss Barker,’ she was informed.

Afraid her mouth was dropping open at such an announcement, Sunny watched her niece being carried to the rear of the cabin. Pansy was sociable and quite happy with people who were equally friendly. Recalling the complete lack of contact between Raj and his niece on his previous visit, Sunny felt guilty for throwing him out of her home. She had never done anything of that nature in her life before but that was, unhappily, a result of his effect on her. And why was that?

She knew, of course she did. In some weird way, Raj reminded her of the male who had once been the love of her life: Jack. Jack had been tall and broad too, the very masculine, outspoken type. For once, Sunny allowed herself to take those painful, youthful memories out. Jack, who had told her he loved her, had dumped her the day after she told him that children were an unlikely possibility in her life. They hadn’t been lovers, for she had been only seventeen, but she and Jack had grown up together, had been childhood sweethearts. Even now, she still had to see Jack every week at church, where they acknowledged each other with a distant nod as he settled his wife and many children into their family pew.

‘It means you’re not really a proper woman any more,’ seventeen-year-old Jack had told her, striving to justify his decision. ‘I’m sorry but I want kids in my future, my own kids, not adopted ones or surrogate ones...or however you were hoping to trick me into marrying you!’

So, that had been that, the bitter end of a rosy adolescent idyll, but Sunny hadn’t put herself out there to be hurt again. She had a fatal flaw and she had accepted it, made her peace with it, but she wasn’t ever going to place herself again in a position where a man could dismiss and belittle her as Jack had. The burst appendix that had almost killed her at the age of twelve had wrecked her fertility prospects and there was nothing anyone could do about that reality. No matter how much that truth hurt, she had to live with it. She never had got the chance to tell Jack that she had got that same news from her poor mother only the night before she told him. Petra Barker had lacked the courage to make that truth known to her daughter before she reached seventeen.

Wiping her brain clean of those memories of disillusionment and pain, Sunny studied the botanical and animal magazines being brought to her with amusement. Yes, Raj already knew better than to bless her with fashion journals. Really, he was too clever for his own good, she reflected wryly. Did he think she hadn’t guessed that he must have had her investigated by some private security firm? Raj Belanger was not the type likely to leave anything to chance and she was not stupid.

An opulent limo collected her from the jet and bore them off to their destination. A huge mansion that could have been a palace awaited her and Pansy at the end of a long imposing drive, guarded by giant wrought-iron gilded gates and security personnel.

Sunny refused to be impressed. Raj inhabited another world, that was all. Money was money and it didn’t necessarily make people any happier. She based that assumption on Ethan and Christabel’s visits before their marriage when family ties had still been acknowledged. Their only conversation had related heavily to Ethan’s misfortunes in business, Christabel’s supposed sacrifices and complaints, their possessions and the famous celebrities they socialised with. Listening had made Sunny want to shout that they were two very lucky people and why couldn’t they appreciate their health, youth, attractiveness and good fortune in being gainfully employed? After all, it was much more than many people had.

Sunny bent down to let Pansy put her feet to the ground in her first proper shoes and she wondered if Raj would notice that his niece’s ability to walk had hugely improved. She was urged through the imposing front entrance into a vast space filled with marble, glittering crystal chandeliers and art works on plinths. There was absolutely nothing welcoming about it. It was an environment that could only influence and intimidate. Raj stood in the middle of it, looking about as friendly and as remote as a towering dark monolith on the moon. Pansy shrank against Sunny’s legs, her little body trembling.

‘Raj...’ Sunny said simply. ‘What a beautiful home you have...’

But that wasn’t really what she thought, Raj guessed, because her expressions were easily read. Presumably she hadn’t expected him to welcome her into a grass hut built in the wilderness, so why wasn’t she questioning her own unreasonable responses? he wondered. She was biased against him. The money? Was that truly the only stumbling block between them?

It wasn’t even as though she tried to fit in anywhere. She was wearing a sort of hippy throwback outfit in a soft blue colour that was so loose and shapeless that an elephant could have climbed inside it with her. He wondered what that was about and then questioned why he was wondering. After all, he had only dragged her all the way to Italy because it would be good for Sunny to appreciate that she would not be the only one calling the shots in the future. She was a damned managing woman and she needed that reminder. And, last but not least, he had fabulous gardens here that he assumed she would enjoy.

‘You’re in ideal time for lunch on the terrace,’ he announced. ‘I hope your journey was comfortable.’

‘It was perfect. You make everything perfect,’ she conceded, out of breath as he cupped her elbow with one hand to steer her out of the giant hall. ‘But you haven’t said hello to Pansy yet.’

‘How can I say hello to a baby?’ Raj enquired brusquely.

Ignoring that response, Sunny dropped down into a crouch and spoke to the child. Pansy waved her hand at him. ‘You see...she can say hello!’

‘No, she can’t, because she can’t actually talk yet,’ Raj pointed out grittily, dropping very reluctantly down to say softly, ‘Hello, Pansy...’

‘’Lo,’ the baby said distinctly, taking him very much aback with that ability.

‘Hello, Pansy,’ Raj murmured, a sudden smile of acceptance flashing across his firm lips.

Sunny watched in satisfaction because he had finally taken notice of the sole reason she was in Italy: her niece. But, my goodness, that smile of his was remarkable head-on, transforming his far too serious features into a darkly handsome face filled with a disturbing amount of charisma and sex appeal. A little tremor slivered through Sunny’s taut frame, infiltrating places she didn’t like to think about too much. It was physical desire and she fought that response to the last ditch.

He swept them out onto a tiled terrace with a magnificent outlook over beautifully maintained gardens.

‘May I?’ Maria, the young woman in a nanny’s uniform who had been onboard the jet stepped forward and bent down to engage Pansy with a toy. Sunny released the child’s hand and watched without surprise as her niece was conveyed down to the high chair sited at the far end of an extremely long table. This was how Raj worked with children in his vicinity, Sunny recognised. See a child, provide care and corral it where it could cause the least possible disruption. It was disheartening and it didn’t leave her much room to work on his detachment. Unaware of her exclusion from adult company, Pansy waved at her aunt cheerfully and giggled.

‘She seems to be a happy little creature,’ Raj remarked with satisfaction.

‘She is, and wonderfully adaptable because she takes interest in everything and everybody,’ Sunny commented as pleasingly decorative salad starters arrived for them. ‘I believe she’s intelligent, may even take after you.’

‘God forbid!’ Raj cut in with an undeniable shudder of alarm at such a possibility.

‘No, I didn’t mean that I believe she could aspire to your level, only that she shows all the signs of being reasonably bright,’ Sunny disclaimed in haste.

The tension in his broad shoulders and set features eased. ‘I misunderstood,’ he conceded, finally lifting his knife and fork to begin eating.

‘What caused your...er...consternation?’ she asked, curiosity alight in her vivid gaze.

‘You would have to sign a non-disclosure agreement before I could answer that question,’ Raj stated calmly. ‘What little of my life can be kept private, I guard fiercely. I’m discreet and careful in my personal life.’

Sunny’s eyes were wide and she nodded slowly in comprehension and agreement. ‘I can understand that.’

Only what would remain with her for far longer was the emotional pain that had briefly shadowed his haunted dark eyes. She reckoned that his distrust of others possibly dated back to when he had been young and vulnerable. How many people he had had faith in had betrayed him back then? He was an extraordinary male in every way, who had probably paid a steep price for his brilliance, success and wealth, who had suffered in spite of it or maybe even because of it. She knew that reams of gossip and rumour accompanied his every move in public, but had never paused to imagine what it might be like living in such a goldfish bowl of constant attention.

‘I’ll sign one,’ she conceded ruefully, recognising the necessity in his case.

Raj treated her to a slow-burning smile of approval that lit up her every pulse point and raised goose bumps on her arms. Heat flushed her cheeks, a warmth of awareness she could not suppress. Self-conscious, she concentrated on her meal, only to be surprised when barely a few minutes later a document arrived on the table and a pen was extended to her.

‘Standard stuff,’ he told her, flicking the fat document with a long forefinger in dismissal. ‘But since you’re likely to be in my life for years, I was hoping you would agree to an NDA as it makes life smoother and makes it easier for me to relax with you.’

Sunny rested back in her chair and skimmed through the document, aware of the older man at her elbow, presumably present to act as a witness. Feeling even a little pressured, she wondered if she should ask to take the document home with her and then she just lifted the pen and signed, foreseeing no future day when she would wish to reveal anything personal about Raj Belanger because she had always respected other people’s boundaries.

Raj was stunned by the ease with which she had signed the NDA. People usually quibbled over terms, holding out to the last minute, invariably awaiting a financial reward for their signature, but Sunny had done none of those things, had sought nothing for her own advantage. All of a sudden Raj was in an unusually good mood, although he was thinking that Sunny needed a good legal advisor to protect her, which was an unusual thought for him around a woman. He didn’t understand why but he knew the second thought that assailed him was that, now, he could kiss her.

Lust, he assumed, although lust had never dug such talon claws of need into him before. Indeed, he had believed that possibly he was not the most sexually rapacious of men until Sunny had strolled her messy but gorgeous self into his radius. And only then had he appreciated that something about this particular woman lit him up into a positive bonfire of sexual hunger. He had not gone a single day without thinking about her since that first meeting.

‘So, I gather that now you will feel free to tell me why you believe a high IQ is a...a burden?’ Sunny prompted over the main course.

‘Not to everyone but it was in my case,’ Raj asserted. ‘My father was a brilliant and famous professor of psychology at Oxford when he met my mother, Clara. She was his brightest student and he seduced her at the age of eighteen.’

‘I thought there were rules about that sort of thing.’

‘Even then, there were. He resigned and returned to Hungary, and he took her with him while at the same time taking advantage of her ample trust fund. He used her, just as he eventually used me. She was already pregnant, and she had no family, nobody more mature to warn her that he was an abuser,’ he admitted with distaste. ‘But she looked up to him, admired him, believed he would know best about how to raise a child.’

Sunny winced, sensing she was unlikely to enjoy what he was on the brink of telling her.

‘He, on the other hand, merely wanted a guinea pig for a science experiment on which he planned to write a book. I was that experiment from birth and he took copious notes on my every failure and achievement. I was raised in isolation, and I was only ever rewarded for the very best educational results,’ Raj imparted levelly. ‘I never played, I never had fun, my mother wasn’t allowed to comfort or hold me. My father believed that the more I was deprived of, the more I would shine to try and please my parents.’

‘Oh, dear,’ Sunny whispered, pushing away her plate, her appetite killed by his confidences. Her empathetic brain was filled with horror at all that he had been denied as a child and her heart overflowed for him.

‘I don’t want your compassion, Sunny,’ Raj told her warningly, recognising the glimmer of tears in her beautiful eyes. ‘I only told you because I can sense your dissatisfaction with my attitude towards our niece. But you need to know first-hand that I can’t play with her, can’t show her affection when I have not the first idea of how to do such things...and that is why you will meet those needs for her that I lack the capacity to fulfil.’

‘Of course, after such cruelty, you’re going to think that, feel that way...’ Sunny framed, luminous violet eyes swimming with an amount of emotion that somewhat unnerved him as she leant closer to him.

‘But you can be fixed,’ she told him, even more disturbingly, as though he were a broken kettle.

Her floral scent washed over him, soft and warm like her and, oh, so alluring on some level he didn’t recognise. She was so close that he could count the three tiny freckles on the bridge of her delicate little nose and dwell on the soft full swell of her pink unadorned lips. Raj went hard as a rock, his sex pushing hard against his zip, a dangerously aggressive response for a male who had always believed that he could take or deny sexual impulses.

‘I don’t want to be fixed, Sunny,’ he confided gruffly, almost laughing at that terminology. ‘I’ve done tons of therapy and I am who I am and content with it.’

Sunny reached for the large hand braced tensely on the tabletop and clasped it tenderly and fervently between her own, little fingers smoothing over his taut fingers, thumbs caressing his wrist. ‘But I can teach you how to play with her, how to show affection, and I’m more than ready to make that effort for both of you,’ she swore vehemently.

‘All I want to do right at this moment is kiss you,’ Raj admitted darkly, fighting off the urge with difficulty.

Sunny blinked, finding it impossible to concentrate when he shot off topic to that extent. ‘Why on earth would you want to do that?’ she gasped in bewilderment, encountering mesmeric dark eyes that paralysed her where she sat.

‘May I?’ he stressed.

Shock claimed Sunny that he should be as attracted to her as she very much was to him. It had not crossed her mind once that that attraction could be reciprocal, but the knowledge of it now shone in the smile she gave him. ‘If you think it would make you more comfortable with me.’

A very large hand reached out slowly as though he was afraid of spooking her. Long fingers stroked even more slowly down her neck to twine into her mane of golden hair and she stopped breathing, could literally feel herself stop breathing as if the earth had without warning screamed to a halt on its axis. She looked up at him with huge violet eyes.

‘Breathe, Sunny,’ Raj instructed hoarsely, enchanted by her reaction. ‘Breathe before you pass out.’