Chapter Three #3
He was here, Erin was here and she had challenged him by revealing just a little bit more about herself than she ever had before. He’d never been one to resist a challenge so right now, Erin was irresistible.
‘Are you listening to what I’m saying, Raffaele?’
Raffaele smiled slowly at her. ‘I’m always listening to what you say.’
Erin reddened. For a couple of seconds, she appeared to be lost for words. She stared down at her computer; Raffaele watched, lazy and amused and interested.
‘Good,’ she told him huskily when she finally dragged her gaze back to him, ‘because I’ve done a lot of work on these hotels…and a lot of background research into the hospitality trade.’
‘I’m getting the picture. Definitely beyond the call of duty.
No need for you to have stayed up working into the early hours of the morning to collate all this material.
I may be a hard taskmaster but even I have limits.
You told me you were curious about my sudden interest in branching out from the well-trodden path. ’
Someone came around to tell them that they could board and Raffaele stood up and waited for her to follow suit.
‘I’ll tell you why…’ He picked up where he had left off and fell into step alongside her, looking down at the smooth, silky, chestnut-brown hair that swung in a shiny curtain on either side of her face.
The little clips restraining it were somehow prissy and sexy at the same time.
‘I came into a sizeable trust fund when I was twenty-one, enough for me to play around and take my time discovering what I was really good at. It was a privilege. I had the luxury of only needing brains and drive to get where I wanted to go. A very gifted guy I met a few months ago, Alessandro Barbieri, had equal amounts of brains and drive but he also had obstacles to deal with that I never had. My trust fund was brilliant but there’s no such thing as a free gift, at least not in my corner of the world with my wealthy parents. ’
‘How so?’ Erin looked sideways at him with wide, curious eyes and shivered as his deep blue gaze lingered on her face.
‘Part of the condition of my trust fund was to continue working for the family company as a form of long-term repayment of the money being granted to me at such a young age. Had I chosen to take my trust fund later, when I was in my early thirties, it would have come with no strings attached. My parents could have waived that condition but they chose not to.’
‘So there was no rush for you. You could have gone to work for your family company, knowing that you would come into a lump sum when it was time for you to settle down and get married.’ She smiled. ‘You’re an only child. Maybe they couldn’t bear the thought of an empty nest.’
Raffaele’s lips thinned. She couldn’t have been further from the truth. His father had always enjoyed power over other people and that had included him. For Franco Rossi, love was control and control could be cruel.
Somehow he had got lost in his explanation but now he found that he was enjoying the rare experience of opening up to someone else.
This wasn’t weakness. He had casually mentioned something that could be found anywhere on the internet if you could be bothered to sift through all the bumph about him that had been posted over the years.
The details of his background were all there for anyone to see. Erin knew that he was an only child and he couldn’t remember ever having mentioned that to her. It was just general knowledge.
If he had elaborated on the bare bones, then it just came under the heading of chit-chat with a woman he actually spent the majority of his life with.
‘Empty nest? No. You haven’t quite got that right.
’ His voice was bitter and as their eyes briefly met he noted her startled look.
He forced a tight smile. ‘I actually paid back every penny of the trust fund as soon as I was financially able to so that I could sever any hold my parents might have felt they had on me. Then I worked furiously to replenish my resources. But now that I have more than I could ever possibly need, I fancy doing something I was never geared to do but was always interested in pursuing.’
Walking at pace and not looking at him, Erin felt a slow flush of heat within her. This sharing of confidences felt incredibly intimate.
She wondered whether Raffaele was aware of the change in his tone of voice, the disillusionment that had seeped through at that passing mention of his parents.
‘That’s brilliant,’ she said warmly but she didn’t glance across at him because she realised that she didn’t want this moment to be over quite yet. It was like having a taste of forbidden fruit—exciting, irresistible…dangerous.
She’d always had a lot of insight into his work ethic, into his many and varied relationships with the opposite sex…into his utter lack of commitment on that front, but she had never had any inkling of his buried dreams or unfulfilled desires, had never once heard him mention his family.
Was that what she was now glimpsing? The real Raffaele that no one ever saw?
Or was she letting her imagination get the better of her?
Was this stuff he routinely told other people but had never told her because she was his employee?
She always suspected that Raffaele only revealed what he wanted to reveal, that he was, at heart, an intensely private man.
But maybe he was, in actual fact, the sort who spilled his heart out to every one of those women he hopped into bed with.
Maybe there was nothing he loved more than a bit of post-coital breast beating and emotion sharing.
No.
Her gut told her that the things he’d just told her were feelings he’d probably never shared with anyone and the heat spread through her again.
‘I admit I love what I do and I’ve always been invested in the importance of having financial security…’ Thoughts of her parents and their casual disregard for anything that smacked of putting down roots or planning for a future sprang to her mind. ‘But I’ve always been interested in painting…’
‘Painting?’
‘No need to sound so shocked, Raffaele,’ Erin laughed. She’d barely noticed that they’d been checked through and were now heading to board the plane.
She’d travelled first-class with him before on business trips and every time she’d been impressed all over again by the sheer luxury. The plush bedding, the flat bed, the gourmet à la carte dining and the all the little extras as well, none of which she had ever taken advantage of.
Now, though, as they were shown to their seats, which were side by side and as comfortable as armchairs, Erin barely noticed the opulence around her or the fawning of the good-looking crew eager to hand them flutes of champagne.
As she settled in and half turned to look at him, she felt the thrill of danger zip through her again.
Tomorrow she would definitely put all this wild curiosity to rest but in the meantime…
Her eyes drifted treacherously to Raffaele’s forearm resting on the wide leather armrest between them. Bronzed, muscled, strong.
She looked away guiltily.
‘I’ve always absolutely loved drawing but with all the travelling we did…’
‘Travelling? What travelling? I always got the impression that the Greek islands and Rhodes was the extent of your travels.’
‘I meant…’ Too late, Erin realised that she was on the verge of sharing way too much.
What was going on here, she thought with a flare of panic?
Had she forgotten that Raffaele was her boss?
She had worked hard to make sure that boundaries between them were always maintained.
She had known from day one that he didn’t tolerate inappropriate behaviour from the women who worked for him.
That had suited her fine because she was, by nature, guarded and self-contained.
So what was happening here?
Did she really want to jeopardise her job for the sake of satisfying her curiosity?
Worse, was she beginning to think that because she had shared a little more of herself with Raffaele and because he had said a couple of things about himself, that they were somehow striking forth on some kind of relationship?
That they were now going to be sharing little confidences and eyeing one another across their laptop computers?
Had she taken leave of her senses?
She thought about the crush she’d had on him for years. Had that managed to scramble her brains?
She strapped herself in and reached into her bag for the book she had brought with her, a pointed reminder to herself that she wasn’t here to make incessant small talk and tell him all the ins and outs of her private life.
The thought of having to face him in an office setting after a series of indiscreet confessions filled her with dread.
‘I meant that I’ve always wanted to do a lot of travelling, landscape painting.
It’s an impractical dream but yes, I suppose if I could have, I might have chosen to study fine art but…
’ She shot him a wary look and began opening her book to her bookmarked page.
‘Not many of us have a trust fund to be going on with.’ She smiled at him, one of her practised cool, unrevealing smiles.
‘Do you want to carry on working on the flight over? I know it’s going to be a long one. Or is it okay if I read my book?’
She turned her focus to the page, even knowing that Raffaele was still staring at her. Only when he tilted the book, forcing her to look up, did she meet his amused gaze.
‘What are you reading?’
Their eyes tangled and he grinned. ‘Looks verbose.’
‘How can you tell anything from the cover?’ Erin tugged the book and he released it but carried on looking at her.
‘I can’t. I’m going on the blurb at the back. I can’t say that “a moving and epic poetic masterpiece” is the sort of thing I would find captivating.’
‘It’s riveting. Can I ask what does interest you?’
‘Nothing poetic or epic. Feel free to devour your book on the flight over. I have a lot of work to attend to so you can settle down in comfort without fear of being interrupted. You’ll probably fall asleep on the flight over.’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘Even with a bed? You can also change into pyjamas. There’s a luxury pair waiting for you so that you can really relax.’
‘I’ll stick to my book.’
‘Of course you will but I’d be shocked if it doesn’t put you to sleep.’
He was still grinning as he flipped open his laptop and she settled into the enormous seat and made herself comfortable.
Fall asleep?
Pyjamas?
She’d rather drink twenty cups of black coffee and prop her eyelids open with matchsticks.
She stared at her book while her mind chattered away, diving off in a million different directions.
The next sound she heard was the captain’s voice congratulating himself on an excellent and turbulence-free flight.
She was nudged into consciousness and blinked her way to the surface to see Raffaele’s face way too close to hers for comfort. There was a cushion under her head and, horror of horrors, she was propped up on his shoulder.
‘Ah, Sleeping Beauty’s awake!’
‘You should never have let me fall asleep!’
‘And deprive myself of the chance to hear you snoring? Wouldn’t have dreamed of it. But it’s wakey-wakey time now. Our adventure’s waiting just around the corner!’