Chapter 29 Aurora
Aurora
‘I’ve kind of been spending time with someone.’
Dove’s face lights up and she beams at me across the table of the coffee place we’re in. ‘Who?’
‘It’s really new.’
She clasps her hands in front of her face, her eyes gleaming for more information.
I swallow the lump of deceit in my throat.
Guilt is gnawing at me about last night and the fact I had sex with Rafael again.
And now I have plans to meet him for lunch like we’re a couple.
Not confessing to my best friend just feels wrong on so many levels.
‘We’re not even a . . . I don’t know what we are . . . But I stayed at his place last night and . . . Oh God, I’m not sure what you’re going to think,’ I say.
Her face falls. ‘You’re not back with Charlie again, are you?’
‘No! God, no. Although he texted me this morning.’
‘He did?’
‘Ugh, yes.’ I unlock my phone and hand it to her, open on Charlie’s message.
‘He wants to meet you and talk? After the way he spoke to you in the restaurant?’ Dove scowls, handing my phone back. ‘Tell him where to shove it. Dickhead.’
‘I will, don’t worry.’
‘So, this new guy . . . ?’
I need to confess to my best friend that I accidentally banged her hot older brother. Three times. I take a deep breath for Dutch courage. Here goes . . .
Her phone rings in her pocket and she pulls it out.
‘It’s my brother. Sorry, one sec.’
‘Okay,’ I reply, sitting back in my chair as she answers the call.
‘Hey,’ she says brightly.
She listens for a moment, and I wring my hands together underneath the table, wondering which brother she’s speaking to.
‘Trust Benedict.’ She laughs.
My shoulders soften. It must be Gabriel.
‘What did Gabe say?’ she asks.
I tense again. Angelo? Please let it be Angelo.
‘Uh-huh,’ she murmurs, glancing at me. ‘Actually, Aurora’s here with me now. Is there a problem with the campaign?’ She sighs. ‘Why are you always so bloody cryptic? Fine. I’ll ask her.’
She looks at me. ‘Rafe wants us all to meet to discuss something. He’s asking if this afternoon works? He’s got plans for lunch, so after that?’
‘Um . . .’ My own phone ringing rescues me from blurting out something I can’t take back.
Why does he want us all to meet? The knot in my stomach tightens. Does he want to tell Dove about me and him already? Despite that being exactly what I was about to do, the idea of Rafael wanting to do it feels so much more official.
I swipe to answer my phone. The name on caller ID registers too late in my brain as the call connects.
‘Rory,’ Charlie says, sounding delighted I answered.
‘Charlie, now isn’t a good time,’ I say, catching eyes with Dove.
She frowns. ‘Tell him to piss off,’ she hisses. ‘Not you,’ she says into her phone. ‘Aurora’s ex just called her. I don’t know. Wants her back, probably.’ She exhales. ‘Fine, yep, speak to you later.’
She puts her phone down as Charlie continues.
‘Rory? You there? I really want to meet and talk. What about lunch today? I could—’
‘I’m busy. I have to go.’ I jab ‘end call’.
‘Why didn’t the knob put as much effort into your relationship before it ended?’ Dove snorts. ‘Maybe you’d have at least got an orgasm out of him.’
I screw my face up at the memory of sex with Charlie. It feels like a lifetime ago.
My phone rings again with a withheld number.
‘If that’s him again, give it to me,’ Dove snaps.
‘Hello?’
‘Aurora.’ Rafael grits out my name like he’s angry. ‘Where are you?’
I shake my head at Dove. Not him, I mouth.
She gestures to the bathrooms and rises from her seat.
I watch her move far enough away before I reply.
‘I’m having coffee with Dove. You know that. You were just on the phone with her.’
‘Where exactly?’ he presses.
I don’t know what’s got into him, but he sounds like he’s about to pop a vein.
‘Near my client’s house. I’m headed there in fifteen minutes.’
‘Send me your location,’ he growls. ‘I need to speak to you.’
‘Why?’
‘Please, just bloody do it.’
I do as he says, then put my phone back to my ear. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘I’ll be in my car when you’re done,’ he barks.
The black Bugatti shines in the late-morning sun like a black swan on a lake – graceful and calm. But something tells me what’s awaiting me inside is going to be far from idyllic.
He sounded pissed on the phone. So pissed.
I open the passenger door and slide into the cool leather interior. Rafael’s eyes drift over my legs as I lower into the seat and close the door. It shuts with a deep thunk, sealing off sounds from the outside world and trapping us both inside.
The air is thick with tension that makes goosebumps pepper along my forearms.
‘I thought we were meeting for lunch?’ I say hesitantly. ‘It’s not even ten thirty.’
Rafael sucks in a sharp breath through his nose, then lifts his gaze from my legs and locks eyes with me.
‘That was before I learnt that you’re still talking to your ex.’
I snort. ‘Hardly. I answered by accident. I’ve been trying to ignore him.’
‘It’s not the first time he’s called you?’ he hisses.
Wow, he sure zeroed in on that information.
‘I mean, it’s the first time he called me today, if that counts.’ I shrug.
The whites around Rafael’s eyes shine as his focus takes on a deadly precision, like a hunter’s. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘I hadn’t seen you for a week until yesterday, and anyway, why would I? It’s nothing.’
‘Do you want him back?’ he snaps.
I stare at him. He’s all tense in his suit, his shoulders practically bunched up to his ears.
‘Why would you even ask me that?’
‘Do you?’ he presses.
This is ridiculous. He’s being ridiculous.
‘No!’
‘Because he can’t have you!’ he rages, twisting in the driver’s seat to face me. ‘You hear me? I won’t bloody well share you, Aurora.’
‘You won’t share me?’ I scoff. ‘What the hell does that mean?’
He flexes his fingers before they curl right back into a white-knuckled fist again. I’ve never seen him this angry. Not even when I called him out for being rude to AJ, and then the other time I insinuated he had a small dick. How mistaken was I with that assumption . . .
‘You’re mine. No other bastard’s. Mine,’ he seethes, making the temperature inside the car soar by at least ten degrees.
‘I’m no one’s,’ I correct, anger bubbling inside me as I cross my arms to fight the urge to smack him in his gorgeous mouth for being such a neanderthal.
His eyes flick to my cleavage in my scoop-necked t-shirt and heat pulses between my thighs at the small, tortured groan that rumbles in his throat, like me standing up to him turns him on.
But I’m not going to let him get away with this.
Who the hell does he think he is? Calling me and demanding I meet him just because he heard something he didn’t like?
He at least has the sense to keep his mouth shut as I shoot him a look that would turn any other man to stone.
‘You’re jealous,’ I state.
‘Of course I’m bloody jealous. The bastard’s touched you.’ He swallows thickly, lowering his voice. ‘He’s been inside you. But the worst thing is . . .’ He screws his face up and looks away cursing. ‘The worst thing is, he hurt you.’
The anguish on his face as he works through it, his cheek clenching like he’s grinding his teeth to dust, sends butterflies fluttering in my stomach.
That’s what bothers him? That he thinks Charlie hurt me? The giant idiot’s getting all worked up because what he told me at my place yesterday is true – he cares about me.
‘He didn’t. I hated what he said to me that night in the restaurant, but losing him didn’t hurt. I wasn’t in love with him.’
Rafael’s brow smooths a little, and the flicker of tentative hope in his eyes makes me want to hug him.
‘You weren’t?’
‘No. Not even close. Our relationship was a welcome distraction after my dad was convicted. It helped take my mind off things. But I never loved him. I don’t think I ever saw a real future together.’
Silence engulfs the car.
‘Are you going to say something?’ I ask.
He stares through the windscreen, his elbow resting on his door, hand scrubbing around his jaw like a storm’s still raging inside him, just beneath the surface.
‘I didn’t love him,’ I repeat. Surely we can move on now? And talk about something more fun than my ex before I have to leave for my client’s house.
Rafael licks his lips, then speaks slowly. ‘Good. It’ll make firing him much easier.’
‘Pardon?’
He reaches across me, opens the glovebox, and takes out a thick manilla envelope.
‘Here.’ He hands it to me, and sits back in his seat, regarding me closely.
‘What’s this?’
‘The company where your ex works. I bought it.’
I stare at him in shock. He can’t be serious. But I know him well enough now to understand that he never bluffs. This is like him buying my building so he could ensure Mike’s soundproofing was installed all over again. Only this is bigger.
‘You bought it? Just now?’
He exhales with a humourless chuckle. ‘I’m a man of means, Aurora. But even I can’t acquire an entire imports company in fifteen minutes whilst driving like a bat out of hell across London to get to you.’
The envelope is a dead weight in my lap. ‘Then when? And why?’
‘The day after I heard the way he spoke to you in the restaurant. I intended to keep it for myself until I’d finished .
. . dealing with him the way I saw fit. But seeing as he’s still calling you, trying to weasel his way back into your life, I figured, what better way for you to show him you’re done with him, than to take over his company yourself . . . and get rid of him.’
He rolls his neck, cracking it, unable to meet my eyes.
And it dawns on me.
This isn’t about me. It’s about him.
‘This is a test,’ I say in disgust. ‘You want me to go all psycho revengeful ex on him, and for what? Because he’s a bit of a prick sometimes? Because he said some nasty things to me? So what? You’ve said a whole lot worse, and what did I do? I had sex with you, like an idiot!’
‘Aurora,’ Rafael growls in warning, but I’m on a roll. The arrogant arse sitting beside me needs to hear this. I bet no one’s ever stood up to him in his life.
‘Don’t!’ I hiss. ‘Don’t you dare make out you’re doing this for me.
You’re doing it for you because you’re a jealous, insecure man who throws his toys out of his pram when he doesn’t get his own way.
I don’t care what Charlie’s doing. Him and I are done.
And I certainly don’t think about him enough to want to ruin his life in some weird, twisted revenge fantasy.
And, frankly, the fact that you would is disturbing! What else are you capable of, huh?’
His lips thin into a grim line. ‘You’re behaving like a child. Not to mention being ungrateful. Take the company, or don’t. But there’s no need to start acting like a brat about it.’
‘A brat? So we’re on to name-calling now? Wow.’ I blow out a breath. ‘Funny, I thought dating an older man would mean they’re more mature. Seems you blew that misconception out of the water. Thanks for clearing it up for me.’
‘Are you saying you have a problem with me being older than you?’
I roll my eyes at how dense he’s being. ‘I’m saying I have a problem with this.
’ I throw my hands out. ‘With you being a dickhead and saying arseholey things. With you thinking you can buy companies because someone you don’t like works there.
And then give them to me, and what? Expect me to flutter my eyelashes and say thank you?
Maybe even suck you off in your fancy-arse car because I’m so grateful? ’
‘That’s not what I—’
‘It is, though. You say I’m being a brat. That I’m being ungrateful. But I didn’t ask you for any of this, Rafael.’
‘Then what do you bloody want?’ he hisses.
I look back into his wild eyes, the molten bronze flecks in them rippling like flames, ready to burn if you get too close.
This is him. A man I’ll never truly understand.
Because he doesn’t let anyone get close to him.
Not really. He tells me he wants me. And the way he touches me makes me believe there’s something real there.
Something worth holding on to and fighting for.
But when it comes to it, we’re too different.
I don’t need revenge like Rafael. I just want the truth and my father back.
My shoulders sag. ‘I don’t want this. Whatever this is. I’m sorry.’
‘Beauty,’ Rafael rasps, his tone turning from angry to pleading.
‘Don’t call me that. Please. Whatever this was between you and me, it’s done.
I don’t want to sneak around behind my best friend’s back with her brother, for God’s sake.
’ I rub at my temples, the threat of a headache making my brain fog.
‘And I’m not going to play into any of your weird little power games.
Keep the company yourself. Or sell it again. I really don’t give a toss.’
I throw the door open before he can argue back and jump out of the car, closing it behind me.
‘Aurora?’ His deep voice booms as he flies out behind me and rushes on to the pavement.
‘Leave me alone,’ I call over my shoulder as I march away, tears bubbling in my eyes even though it was always destined to come to this.
He’s Dove’s brother. We never used to even like one another.
‘I swear to God, Rafael, if you follow me, I’ll scream for help,’ I threaten, knowing it’s the one thing that might stop him.
Because we can’t do this. We never should have in the first place.
His low, muttered curse echoes off the buildings behind me as I turn the corner and leave him in my past.