Chapter 16 Rafael
Rafael
‘Your turn next, hey?’
I take my eyes from Seraphina, where she’s talking to another wedding guest on the other side of the outdoor terrace.
‘I don’t think so,’ I reply, knocking back my gin and tonic and signalling to the bartender for another.
‘You sure about that?’ Jenson, a baby-faced member of the Beaufort’s security team, quips from further along the bar, where he’s nursing a glass of something dark with his colleague, Killian.
The two guys are off duty, invited as guests instead of in a professional capacity, but Killian’s eyes still drift to the stand-in security team who are dotted around Sterling Beaufort’s beach house, where Sullivan’s wedding is being held.
‘Positive,’ I reply grimly, running my tongue over the edge of my teeth as Seraphina moves through the sea of guests, swaying her hips in her tight red dress.
She’s head of department at a successful advertising firm.
She’s smart and beautiful and can hold a conversation.
But the second we stepped on to my private jet, I realised I’d made a grave error.
London to Cape Town is more than eleven hours’ flight time.
She spent every available minute informing me of the kind of wedding she’s dreamt of, and asking where I’d want to honeymoon.
Then she started hinting how fun it would be to join the mile high club.
My dick’s lack of reaction told me everything I needed to know.
I won’t be breaking my abstinence anytime soon.
At least, not with her.
‘I don’t know, man. A woman like your date looks like she’d need a ring on her finger if you want to keep hold of her.’ Jenson whistles, admiring Seraphina in a way that should make me want to smack him in the jaw. But I feel nothing.
She approaches, giving me an assessing smile as she stops so close to me that her breasts brush against the front of my shirt.
‘How’s your head?’ she asks, reaching past me and lifting my drink off the bar and bringing it to her lips. She sips it, watching me over the rim.
‘Still pounding,’ I lie.
‘Poor baby,’ she hums, reaching up and cupping my cheek. ‘Maybe you need to go and lie down.’
My shoulders bunch with tension as she leans even closer, pressing the length of her body against mine.
‘Come on. Why don’t we go and get you settled in bed?’
I step back, shrugging off her touch. ‘I’m fine. The fresh air is helping.’
Her eyes narrow and she huffs. ‘You don’t have a headache, do you? Is it to do with that girl?’ She hitches her brows at me impatiently, pressing for an answer.
‘What girl?’ I ask, feigning ignorance.
‘The one you were talking to on the plane?’
‘I told you, I wasn’t talking to anyone.’
My headache might have been fabricated as a means to decline her invitation to join her in the plane’s bedroom for some in-flight entertainment, but I’m being honest when I say I wasn’t talking to anyone.
I was watching someone. A certain blonde who’s dug herself so far under my skin that even six thousand miles isn’t far enough away to stop her hijacking my thoughts.
I could have ignored Seraphina’s constant wedding talk for a good fuck, but my dick didn’t want to know. The moment she went to sleep in the plane’s bedroom, I found myself searching for Aurora’s videos as an experiment.
My dick was hard and leaking before the video reached a play time of ten seconds.
So, it’s official.
I can’t get a hard-on for any other woman.
Only Aurora bloody Thorne.
‘I don’t believe you,’ Seraphina snaps, drawing attention from a few guests close by. ‘Show me your call history.’
‘What?’ I balk at her. ‘I’m not doing that.’
She throws her hands up in the air. ‘Then you’re hiding it because I’m right.’
‘I wasn’t talking to anyone,’ I hiss, hating that she’s turning us into a spectacle.
‘You know, I was warned about you. Rafael Fairfax, the serial bachelor. But I thought I’d give you the benefit of the doubt. You seemed like a decent guy on our dates. I didn’t have you down as a conman, playing me for a fool.’
‘Conman?’ I seethe. ‘I’m not a bloody criminal, Seraphina.’
She purses her lips. ‘Hardly trustworthy, though, are you? If you don’t have anything to hide, you’ll show me your phone.’
Heat flares up the back of my neck, bringing with it an unwavering compulsion to prove her wrong. I’m not a goddamn criminal. Not like people who steal millions of pounds from the company they work for.
Blood pounds in my ears as I rip my phone from my pocket, unlock it, and thrust it at her.
‘You want to check. Go ahead. The last person I called was my brother about some cybersecurity upgrades we’re making.
And before that it was a client who makes rocket engines.
And before that it was my mother. In fact, the only women you’ll find I’ve called on that phone in the last week are my mother, my sister, or two female CEOs whose business we insure.
And they’re both married . . . to each other! ’ I snap.
Seraphina narrows her eyes, and I hold my hand out, expecting her to return my phone to me.
But instead, she twists her lips and scrolls through it.
My gut tightens as she opens up my internet app, and Aurora’s smiling face fills the screen.
The caption across it reads, ‘Cute Swimwear for the Perfect Beach Break’.
Seraphina’s brow wrinkles as she presses ‘play’ and listens to Aurora’s bubbly commentary spilling from the video as she showcases the pale blue bikini she’s wearing.
She doesn’t do swimwear videos. It’s the first she’s ever filmed.
I drink her in, watching the way she moves on screen. The way her fingers skate over the skin either side of her belly button as she talks about the cut of the bikini bottoms. The way she shivers and goosebumps prick up along her arms like a breeze has blown on her as she’s filmed.
I lick my lips, my dick stirring to life.
Seraphina shoves my phone into my chest.
‘She looks about twenty-two. And you’re what? Forty next? For God’s sake, Rafe. You’re a walking cliché. Is this what you do? Get off to young women rather than get into a relationship with a woman your own age?’
‘She’s twenty-five,’ I snap, making Seraphina’s eyes widen.
‘Oh God, it gets better. You’ve googled her. Fed into your pathetic fantasy. You’ve . . .’
Her mouth drops open suddenly, and she stares at me.
‘Wait . . . she’s the girl we saw at the restaurant. The one fighting with her boyfriend.’
I don’t make it any worse by trying to deny it.
‘Her name’s Aurora. She’s a friend of Dove’s.’
Seraphina reels back. ‘Oh my God. You’re ridiculous. I can’t believe I came here with you.’
‘It’s nothing. I don’t even like the girl.’
I don’t know why I’m bothering to try to explain.
‘Does your sister know you watch videos of her friend?’ she sneers.
My jaw hardens, ‘Now, wait a minute. It’s not—’
‘Not what? Not like that?’ She scoffs. ‘So, you’re telling me that if I call up your sister right now then she’ll be perfectly fine with you watching her friend’s videos in secret?’
I stay silent, and she snorts. ‘To think I wasted time on you, believing you were actually one of the good guys, when you’re just an insecure man lusting after a woman who you shouldn’t even be looking at.’
She spins and every drop of blood in my body vibrates with pent-up anger. No one makes me this angry. No one except . . .
‘Aurora!’ I snap. ‘Don’t walk away from me.’
Seraphina turns and pins me with a dark, menacing glare. ‘Excuse me?’
I stare back at her, forcing myself to breathe slowly through my nose. How the hell am I so stupid? I’ve never called a woman the wrong name in my life. Even when I’ve forgotten their name.
Jesus Christ.
‘You know what?’ Seraphina says. ‘You deserve this and more.’
She grabs my glass off the bar and hurls the contents into my face. An ice cube cracks me on the nose.
She slams the empty glass down on the bar. ‘I’ll get my own flight home.’
Storming off through the guests, she attracts more than a few curious glances.
‘Ah, bloody hell,’ I hiss, turning back to the bar.
‘Here you go, buddy.’ Killian hands me a towel he’s got from the bartender.
‘Thanks,’ I grunt, wiping my face.
‘Sister’s friend, hey? I reckon you might have more of that coming if she finds out,’ Jenson says.
He chuckles as I toss the towel on to the bar.
‘I need another drink,’ I rasp, not wanting to think about how accurate he might be if Dove were to realise I have my own private stash of every video Aurora’s ever made.
Forget workaholic, she’ll discover I’m a goddamn wankaholic. A bloody fiend. Unable to stop bashing one out at every opportunity.
I should be disgusted at myself.
I should.
But fuck, the only thing I can think about – the only thing that would make me feel better right now – is if Aurora bloody Thorne was kneeling at my feet. And if I was feeding her my cock and making her gag on it.
She’s Dove’s friend.
I don’t even like her.
She’s a goddamn thief.
I scrub a hand around my jaw, letting out a low curse.
What the hell’s wrong with me?
Killian claps me on the back. ‘Get the poor guy another drink,’ he says to the bartender. ‘He looks like he needs it.’