She didn’t look as though she’d even heard him so he repeated the words and this time she glanced at him in shock as if she’d forgotten his existence. ‘Sorry?’ She blinked several times, clearly forcing herself to concentrate. ‘Yes. Thank you.’
He still had a feeling she hadn’t heard anything he’d said and he found himself noting the pallor of her skin and the dark shadows under her eyes. She looked stricken. Exhausted.
Rafael frowned. They’d walked miles in challenging conditions and she hadn’t once complained but the physical challenge had to be taking its toll.
‘You need to take a shower and lie down for a while.’ Even as he spoke the words he wondered why he was bothering to show such solicitude and she must have wondered the same thing because her eyes widened.
‘I’m sorry to inconvenience you by staying another night.’ She was back to sounding like a polite child taking leave of a party and he found himself wishing she’d come back at him with the fighting spirit he’d grown accustomed to during their walk through the forest.
The woman was a mass of contradictions and almost impossible to read. She was a strange mix of humour and seriousness. Innocence mingled with an intense sexuality that seemed entirely unconscious. She didn’t flirt and yet every movement of her body seemed to seduce.
Birds swooped over the lodge in a kaleidoscope of bright rainbow colours but this time their antics drew no gasp of delight from her. No acknowledgement and no questions. In fact she didn’t seem to notice.
It was as if she was in shock.
‘I’ll meet you at dinner.’ Up until that moment he’d had no intention of eating dinner with her and the flicker of surprise in her eyes told him that she was equally astonished by his invitation.
Why did he want to spend another evening with her? Why not just walk away from her, relieved that the whole sordid matter had finally been cleared up? By the morning she’d be gone from his life.
Only he knew that shaking her off wasn’t going to be that easy.
There’d been more to that kiss in the forest than just a steamy encounter between consenting adults. Far more.
Even now it was between them, shimmering like an invisible force, pulling them together. And she must have felt it too because she made a nervous gesture and backed away. ‘Perhaps I should have dinner in my room. But I’d be grateful for the use of a phone. I’ll reimburse you, of course.’
Given the sick state of her finances, he wanted to ask ‘what with?’ but he held the words back. ‘There’s a phone in your room. Use it, but you’ll eat dinner with me.’
She didn’t argue, apparently compliant, but he wondered whether she was just too worn out and ground down to argue. She seemed—defeated?
Which was a good thing, he reminded himself firmly, running a hand over the back of his neck to prevent himself from putting a hand on her arm. If her remorse and regret were genuine then she might even be put off doing a similar thing again.
Grace dropped the phone down into its stand and flopped back on the bed.
Nothing.
No one.
Her father was away on business and so was the manager she’d appointed to help with her business-expansion plan. She’d even tried ringing the dealer herself but had got no further than a message service.
The answers to the desperate questions that had formed in her mind were obviously not going to come easily. Especially not when she was thousands of miles away in the rainforest. Right now she needed to be back in London, tracking down the person who was so cleverly defrauding her company.
But London was an eleven-hour flight from Rio and she was still in the jungle. And she still had a whole evening to get through. An evening with a man who had every reason to think that she was a nasty piece of work.
It was ironic, she thought helplessly, that the action which had finally confirmed to her that Rafael Cordeiro wasn’t the cold-hearted man he was reputed to be was the very one that was going to deprive her of her beloved business.
He was going to withdraw his loan because he thought she’d hurt Carlos and Filomena. It hadn’t been because he was determined to squeeze the last bit of profit out of her. It had been because he hadn’t liked seeing her cheat those straightforward, honest people who were struggling to survive alongside nature.
And how could she blame him for that decision, given the facts at his disposal?
If he was right—and she had no reason to doubt him—then her company had cheated those people and the fact that she’d known nothing about it didn’t excuse her. It was obvious that he cared about them deeply and the knowledge pleased her. So he wasn’t so damaged that he couldn’t feel, was he? There was good in him, if you bothered to look deep enough.
But that didn’t help her business.
Everything she’d built was about to disintegrate into dust. People were going to lose their jobs and it was all her fault. She should have known. She should have noticed. Except that she knew that there was no way she ever could have noticed. She knew that.
Should she tell Rafael the truth?
But what was the point of that? Anything she said now was just going to look like an excuse. It was too late for explanations. Far, far too late.