Rafe stood up too, grasping her arm as she would have brushed past him on her way to the door. ‘And is this what you do, Nina?’ he challenged softly. ‘Run away every time someone says something that strikes a little too close to home?’
Tears glistened in her eyes as she looked up at him. ‘Run home to Daddy, do you mean?’
He winced at the sight of those tears swimming in her pained green eyes. ‘I didn’t say that.’
‘You meant it, though,’ Nina said knowingly, attempting to shake off his hold on her arm but not succeeding. ‘You’re causing a scene, Rafe,’ she muttered as she noticed several people at the neighbouring tables were giving discreetly curious glances in their direction.
Not surprising really. The two of them had obviously been getting on so well, talking and laughing together, all the time with that underlying edge of flirtation and awareness, as they ate their delicious meal, and then lingered over coffee, and now this.
And of course Nina had ambitions and hopes and dreams of her own. Lots of them. And one of them had been to go to Stanford. Which she had done.
But she hadn’t taken into account how frail her father would be when she returned to New York to live three years later, a frailty she felt partly responsible for, because she knew how much of a strain it had been for him, a worry, while she was away. At the time, the most she had felt comfortable insisting upon was that she be allowed to have her own apartment rather than continue to live with her father in the penthouse apartment.
But that didn’t mean that she didn’t still long to start her own design business, to be able to take commissions like the one Rafe had just offered her at the Archangel galleries, in London and Paris as well as here. Just thinking of accepting such a commission made her heart soar with excitement.
But it was never going to happen. Not while her father was alive, anyway, and Nina wanted him with her for many more years to come.
‘Careful, Rafe—’ Nina fell back on mockery as her defence ‘—or the next thing you’ll see in the newspapers is a photograph of you manhandling a woman in your friend’s restaurant!’
‘Gerry doesn’t allow the press inside his restaurant,’ he rasped tautly.
So much for mockery! ‘Nevertheless, I would appreciate it if you would let go of my arm.’ She met his gaze challengingly.
And Rafe would have appreciated it if he could have just managed to get through a single evening with Nina without the two of them arguing.
Maybe he shouldn’t have brought up the subject of having Nina design some display cabinets for the gallery yet. Perhaps he shouldn’t challenge her about having hopes and dreams of her own, rather than those imposed on her by her father’s security. He certainly shouldn’t have accused Nina of running away when the subject became too personal for her!
So why had he?
Because, as she had intimated, she had got too close, Rafe realised. By answering her questions, he had allowed her to see the astute businessman, the ‘new ideas’ man, behind the façade of the playboy. And it had unsettled him. He’d never allowed any woman to question him so deeply about his work or his family.
But having Nina walk out on him in this way unsettled him more!
‘We’ll talk about this in the car,’ he told her stiffly.
‘I told you that I will ride back with Lawrence and Paul.’
‘Oh, no, Nina, you don’t get to tell me anything when it comes to who’s taking you home tonight,’ he assured softly, maintaining a hold on her arm as he strode across the restaurant.
He gave Gerry a stiff nod as they paused in the reception area to collect Nina’s cashmere wrap, knowing, by his friend’s understanding nod as Rafe draped that wrap about the stiffness of Nina’s shoulders, that Gerry was more than happy for Rafe to settle the bill at his convenience. Which certainly wasn’t now. Anything but Rafe’s complete attention and Nina was likely to just walk out of here and not look back.
‘We’re going to my apartment,’ he briskly informed the two security men waiting near the lifts as he maintained a firm grip on Nina’s arm. ‘No doubt you’re aware of exactly where that is?’ he added tersely as he and Nina stepped into one of the lifts together, Rafe pressing the button to close the doors and leaving the two men to follow behind in the second lift.
‘Rafe.’
‘Not now, Nina,’ he bit out through clenched teeth.
‘But...’
‘Please, Nina.’ Rafe’s gaze was rapier sharp as he looked down at her. ‘I’m trying my damnedest not to—’
He drew in a deep, controlling breath. ‘All I want right now is to get you out of here so that we can go to the privacy of my apartment.’