A Touch of Notoriety

Hot and bothered more accurately described her reaction to Raphael Cordoba!

‘“Subduing a disobedient woman”?’ Beth gave him a derisive glance. ‘Do you have to behave quite so much the Neanderthal?’

He gave a tight, humourless smile. ‘I assure you, no woman has ever had reason to complain about my…methods of securing their submission.’

Beth would just bet they hadn’t! The man was sexual seduction on two long sexy legs, so what was there to complain about?

Plenty, when Beth really didn’t want to hear about the other women Raphael had been involved with.

‘Then more fool them,’ she snapped disgustedly before turning on her heel and striding off in the direction of Cesar’s apartment.

All the time aware of Raphael as he continued to follow two steps behind her.

Just as she was also aware, by the tingling sensation quivering down the length of her spine, that those piercing blue eyes were now levelled intently on the gentle sway of her denim-clad hips and backside as she walked in front of him…

CHAPTER TWO

‘OH BUT—’

‘I think we should let Gab—Beth go back to England if that is what she wishes to do,’ Cesar gently interrupted his mother as she would have voiced her protest to Beth’s reminder that she was due to fly home tomorrow.

He surprised Beth with that support; she had felt sure that the arrogant Cesar would be just as opposed to the idea of her going back to England tomorrow as his parents obviously were. Maybe Grace’s more reasonable attitude was having a beneficial influence on the man, after all!

Beth smiled her gratitude across the luncheon table at him. ‘Thank you, Cesar.’

He nodded. ‘Raphael will accompany you, of course.’ A premature gratitude, obviously! ‘I don’t think so—’

‘And I will arrange for you to fly back in the private jet—’

‘Stop right there, Cesar!’ Beth bristled just at the mention of bodyguards and private jets. An indignation that only deepened as she saw the mocking smile curving Raphael Cordoba’s chiselled mouth as he appeared to be on watchful guard outside in the hallway—while obviously listening to their conversation. ‘I have a perfectly good return ticket booked on the commercial flight back to England tomorrow—’

‘Carlos…!’ A distressed Esther looked at her husband appealingly.

‘Perhaps it might be better if you were to accept Cesar’s offer,’ Carlos Navarro reasoned gently.

‘I’m sorry, but I’m really not comfortable doing that.’ Beth grimaced apologetically. ‘And I certainly don’t want or need Raphael to accompany me anywhere—’

‘Be reasonable, Beth…’ Grace interrupted quietly but firmly even as she touched Beth’s hand cajolingly.

‘I am being reasonable.’ Beth knew that she sounded, and no doubt appeared, childishly mulish rather than reasonable. ‘No one else but the people seated around this table—and Raphael—’ she shot him an impatient glance as she saw that mocking smile had now become a smirk ‘—is even aware that you all think I’m Gabriela—’

‘We know that you are, honey.’ Esther smiled across at her warmly.

Beth swallowed down the emotional lump that had formed in her throat at the unconditional love she saw shining in the older woman’s eyes. ‘Yes. Well. As you know, I still have difficulty accepting that.’ She avoided meeting any of their gazes as she stared down at the dining table, totally unable to deal with the hope she knew was shining in Carlos’s and Esther’s eyes, the censure in Cesar’s, the understanding in Grace’s, let alone the mockery she knew she would see in Raphael’s piercing blue eyes now that he was no longer wearing those dark glasses. ‘Until Cesar can supply me with further proof, I’m still Beth Blake as far as I’m concerned. And Beth Blake has a home and a job in England to go back to,’ she added firmly.

Cesar scowled darkly. ‘I assumed when you said you wished to go back to England that it was only so that you might close up the house there and deal with any other affairs—such as resigning from your place of work—before flying back here.’

‘Why on earth would you have assumed that?’ Beth gave a pained frown. ‘I worked hard to get my degree, and I love my job, so why would I want to give that up?’

‘Possibly because you are Gabriela Navarro, and as such have no reason to work?’ Cesar grated harshly.

‘Even if you do prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that I’m Gabriela—’

‘We already have.’

‘I will still refuse to sit around here like some pampered poodle—’ Beth broke off as she heard a snort of what she was sure was laughter from the direction of the hallway. Nor was she convinced otherwise by the bland expression on Raphael Cordoba’s face when she gave him a long, suspicious glance before turning slowly back to frown at Cesar. ‘I wasn’t brought up to sit around painting my toenails—’

‘Oh, I feel sure a “pampered poodle” would pay someone else to paint their toenails,’ Cesar snapped.

‘You aren’t helping the situation, Cesar,’ Grace cut in with soft reproof.

His expression softened as he smiled down at the woman he loved. But that smile faded as he turned back to Beth. ‘I am sure that Grace would rather you remained here and helped her with the arrangements for the wedding.’

‘Raphael already tried the sister approach,’ Beth told him wearily.

‘And?’

‘And of course I’ll come back for the wedding; I am the chief bridesmaid, after all. But, in the meantime, Grace has Esther to help with those arrangements.’ The latter was an argument she knew Cesar had no answer to. His mother was in her element with the arrangements for his wedding to Grace. ‘Which leaves me free to return to my life and job in England until a few days before the wedding.’

Cesar breathed impatiently down his nose. ‘Perhaps we might…compromise, in that you agree to take a month’s leave of absence from your place of work to come back here—’

‘A month’s leave of absence?’ Beth repeated incredulously as she sat up straighter in her chair. ‘Asking for this week’s holiday just after I had started working there didn’t exactly go down well!’

Cesar’s mouth firmed stubbornly. ‘Then perhaps I should consider buying the company, in which case my first instruction as the new head of that company would be for you to take a month’s leave of absence.’

Beth only wished that he were joking, or at least being sarcastic, but, as she was only too well aware, Cesar was as rich if not richer than several small countries, and so perfectly capable of doing exactly as he said he would.

She turned to give Grace a disbelieving shake of her head. ‘And you’re actually thinking of marrying this megalomaniac!’

Grace gave a husky laugh. ‘I most certainly am. Don’t worry.’ She gave Beth’s hand another conciliatory pat. ‘He improves with acquaintance!’

This time there was no mistaking the sound of Raphael’s throaty chuckle. Beth turned to look at him challengingly. ‘Perhaps you should come in here and join us if you have something to add to this conversation?’

Raphael eyed her mockingly. ‘I am merely an employee…’

This time it was Beth who snorted. ‘I think we both know that, as a long-term friend of Cesar, and head of his security worldwide, you aren’t “merely” an anything! Besides which,’ she continued firmly as Raphael would have spoken, ‘as this conversation has revealed that you’re expected to come to England with me, it would seem to concern you as much as it does me…’ she added with a frown.

‘Yes, come in and join us for coffee, Raphael,’ Cesar invited smoothly before turning to request another cup as Maria brought in the tray of coffee things.

Raphael had found time to speak to the other man before lunch, in regard to Beth’s resentment of having him as her bodyguard, a concern that Cesar had dismissed by assuring him, whether Beth liked it or not, there was no one else to whom Cesar would entrust his sister’s safety. And Cesar knew firsthand just how stubborn the Blake women could be; Grace and Beth might both be adopted, and from completely different parents, but their stubbornness of character was undeniably similar!

‘Please do join us, Raphael.’ Esther turned to smile at him warmly as she poured the coffee for all of them once Maria had returned with the sixth cup. ‘With all that’s happened this last few days I haven’t had chance to ask how your family are,’ she prompted gently as Raphael strode into the dining room.

All that had happened these last few days had included Esther’s own stay in hospital after a car crash in which she had thankfully only received a blow to the head and bruising. She was now fully recovered, but the incident had quickly been followed by the shock of having Gabriela return to them in the guise of Beth Blake. Both were reason enough for her not to have found the opportunity to enquire after the family Raphael usually managed to avoid seeing whenever he was in Argentina!

‘All well, the last time I asked, thank you,’ he dismissed lightly as he folded his length down onto the seat a smiling Carlos had pushed back for him.

‘Does your family live in Buenos Aires?’ Beth’s curiosity obviously got the better of her.

Raphael met her gaze coolly. ‘No.’

‘Then where—?’

‘I believe we were discussing the arrangements for your return to England,’ Cesar cut in decisively.

Beth continued to look at the bland-faced Raphael for several minutes longer, sensing some sort of schism in regard to his own family, a schism the Navarro family seemed well aware of. Not that anyone was going to explain that to her any time soon, if Raphael’s closed expression was any indication. ‘No, you were discussing it.’ She turned back to Cesar. ‘I’ve already stated what my own arrangements are.’

‘Those arrangements are unacceptable,’ the man who would shortly be her brother-in-law—if not her actual brother!—dismissed with his usual arrogance.

‘Not to me.’

‘Beth, try to understand how Cesar and your—His parents feel,’ Grace encouraged softly. ‘They’ve already lost Gabriela once,’ she added.

Beth felt what was becoming a familiar sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach.

Having no children of her own yet—never having come even close to being involved in a serious relationship, let alone thought of having children!—Beth found it hard to completely relate to the tragedy of having a child abducted when she was only two years old, followed by twenty-one years of not knowing what had become of her.

It became even more of a nightmare when she considered that the Navarros so obviously believed she was that child returned to them!

And no matter what Cesar and Raphael might think to the contrary, she really did like Carlos and Esther, and had no wish to hurt them any more than they had already been hurt over the loss of their young daughter…

She sighed. ‘Okay, I’ll agree to fly back in the private jet.’ She grimaced. ‘I’ll even agree to having Raphael accompany me—Don’t say a word,’ she warned hardly as he raised mocking brows. ‘But I draw the line at taking a leave of absence from my job—and if you dare to buy the company, Cesar, I will simply hand in my notice and go elsewhere,’ she warned firmly as he would have spoken.

‘At which time I will simply buy whichever company you seek employment with next,’ he stated mildly.

‘You really are a control freak.’

‘And you are as stubborn as a mule!’

‘Hah, it takes one to know one!’

‘I see now, Grace, why you came to the initial conclusion that Cesar and Beth may be related,’ Raphael spoke mildly. ‘Even without the proof of the blood tests, it is possible to see that the two of you are brother and sister,’ he explained as he found himself the focus of two pairs of identical chocolate-brown eyes, the one coolly questioning, the other accusing.

Grace chuckled softly. ‘It is pretty noticeable, isn’t it?’

‘Oh, yes!’ Raphael confirmed with feeling.

‘Everyone’s a comedian!’ Beth threw her hands up in disgust.

Raphael grinned, unabashed. ‘No doubt the situation is more amusing looked at from the outside.’

‘No doubt it is,’ Beth acknowledged dryly. ‘So, where were we? Oh, yes.’ She turned back to Cesar. ‘I’ve agreed, as the sister of your future wife, to the private jet, and having Raphael see that I’m safely delivered back to England, so now it’s your turn to agree to your half of the bargain and let me get on with the career I’ve worked so hard for.’

Raphael looked at Beth appreciatively; she was approaching this situation from a business angle Cesar could and would relate to. The only problem with these particular negotiations was that Cesar never compromised when it came to the welfare of the people who mattered to him. Stubbornly independent as Beth might be—and in denial as to her true identity—Cesar firmly believed her to be the sister he had adored when she was a baby, and for whom he and his parents had mourned these past twenty-one years.

Although none of them could possibly have realised that Gabriela would one day be returned to them a fully grown and independent young woman who refused to accept her heritage!

Cesar sat forward to take his coffee cup from his mother. ‘I do not believe you understood my earlier remark correctly. Raphael will not only accompany you back to England, but remain there for as long as you do.’

‘What?’ Beth gasped incredulously. ‘Not only is that utterly ridiculous, it’s also impractical!’

‘Nevertheless, that is my compromise.’ Cesar remained stubbornly decisive.

Beth turned to look at Raphael impatiently. ‘And you’re happy with that, are you?’

His eyes narrowed. ‘I go wherever Cesar wishes me to go.’

‘Oh, wonderful!’ She gave a disgusted shake of her head. ‘And exactly where do you intend staying while you’re there? Because you certainly aren’t staying in my home with me!’

Raphael eyed her coolly. ‘Hopefully I will have things in place before we leave tomorrow.’

She eyed him warily. ‘What things?’

Raphael maintained a blandly unsmiling expression as he held back his inner amusement at Beth’s obvious suspicion. ‘Things.’

‘Grace, do something!’ She turned to appeal to her older sister.

‘Darling, I know this is difficult for you, but—’ Grace winced ‘—in the circumstances—’ she glanced at Esther and Carlos ‘—I have to agree with Cesar and Raphael.’

‘Unbelievable!’ Beth stood up noisily from the table. ‘By all means, Cesar, you and Raphael arrogantly go ahead and finish making your arrangements—personally, I intend to go and start packing,’ she muttered emotionally. ‘The sooner I’m out of here, the better!’ She rushed out of the dining room.

‘She doesn’t mean it, Esther.’ Grace sat forward to reassure her future mother-in-law as the other woman paled. ‘Beth’s upset, and a little disorientated by all the changes being asked of her.’

‘She is spoilt and willful.’ A nerve pulsed in Cesar’s rigidly clenched jaw as a door was heard slamming down the hallway. Beth’s bedroom door, no doubt.

‘She is frightened,’ Raphael corrected softly, his gaze still turned in the direction in which Beth had just departed as he rose slowly to his feet. ‘Will you allow me to go and talk to her?’

‘Would you?’ Grace turned to him gratefully. ‘I would go myself, but at the moment Beth seems to see me as having defected to—’ She broke off with an uncomfortable grimace.

‘The enemy,’ Esther finished for her sadly.

‘No, not the enemy,’ Grace assured her instantly. ‘Try to understand this from Beth’s point of view,’ she continued gently. ‘Not only has she lost two sets of parents already, but she’s lived the past twenty-one years of her life in complete ignorance of all of you, and it’s going to take time, and patience on your part—’ she gave Cesar a pointed look ‘—for her to accept exactly who she really is.’

And, in the meantime, for all that Raphael understood and sympathised with Beth’s confusion of emotions, it was time for her to start considering feelings other than her own. ‘If you will all excuse me,’ he muttered with grim distraction before striding purposefully from the room.

Beth refused to cry as she threw her clothes into the open suitcase she had tossed on top of her bed a few minutes ago.

How and when had her life become such a nightmare? Including all of her carefully made plans for a future in publishing?

The moment Grace had met Cesar Navarro’s parents just over a week ago, that was when. And Beth refused to—

‘If you were my sister—newly returned to me or otherwise—I would have put you over my knee and soundly spanked your spoilt little backside by now!’

She hastily blinked back all evidence of tears before turning sharply to face Raphael, her spine straightening determinedly as he stood overwhelmingly tall and wide in the now open doorway. ‘Then it’s just as well I’m not your sister, isn’t it?’ she snapped.

Those laser-blue eyes narrowed in warning. ‘You hurt Esther just now, and that is as unforgivable to me as it is to Cesar and Carlos.’ The steely edge to his tone was unmistakeable.

Beth eyed him warily. ‘I didn’t mean to hurt Esther…’

‘And yet you did.’

Her gaze dropped guiltily from his. ‘I’ll apologise to her before I leave.’

He sighed heavily. ‘As I said earlier, why do you continue to fight what is inevitable?’

Her eyes flashed darkly. ‘And as I answered earlier—because to me it isn’t inevitable!’

Raphael gave an impatient shake of his head. ‘You are a fool if you believe that. Even more so if you think Cesar will ever leave you, his sister Gabriela, in a position of vulnerability ever again for even a moment! The fact that the Navarros are allowing you to leave at all—’

‘No one is “allowing” me to do anything.’

‘But they are,’ Raphael corrected harshly. ‘You think that Esther could not stop you if she were determined to do so? That she could not break down and cry, beg you not to leave them, and so make you feel too guilty to go?’

Beth flinched. ‘Esther is far too dignified to ever behave in that way.’

‘Yes, she is,’ he acknowledged softly. ‘But you are the daughter she has grieved for for over twenty years. Letting you go now is like having her mother’s heart ripped out for a second time.’

Beth blinked. ‘Then why doesn’t she try to stop me?’

He shrugged. ‘I can only believe it is because she knows it is best to let you go, and simply hope that one day you will choose to come back.’

‘And if I don’t?’

‘You will.’

‘You sound very sure of that.’

‘Yes,’ he replied abruptly.

Beth sighed deeply. ‘You’re so obviously of the opinion that I should just accept all of this—’

‘I think you should accept what is,’ Raphael corrected harshly. ‘And that the sooner you do so, the easier this situation will become for you.’

‘I didn’t ask for any of this—this mess.’

‘Neither did your mother, father, or brother!’

Her cheeks flushed. ‘They aren’t—’

‘But they are, Beth,’ he insisted softly.

She shook her head. ‘I simply can’t—I won’t accept that, not until Cesar comes up with more conclusive proof.’

‘The blood tests are conclusive proof.’

‘Not to me!’

Raphael sighed. ‘What would it take to convince you?’

‘I have absolutely no idea.’ She sighed wearily.

‘Perhaps a headstone in a graveyard with the name Elizabeth Lawrence, aged two, engraved on it?’

Beth raised her head slowly to look at him, her face paling even as her breath caught in her throat as she could read nothing from Raphael’s closed expression. ‘Are you saying that such a headstone exists?’

He shrugged those broad shoulders. ‘Would it help to convince you if it did?’

The palms of her hands felt clammy just at thoughts of that tiny grave with its damning headstone. ‘Do you already have the proof that Elizabeth Lawrence died?’

‘Not yet, no,’ Raphael admitted reluctantly.

‘But you will have?’

His mouth firmed. ‘Possibly.’

Beth stared at him wordlessly for several moments, unable to look away from those piercing blue eyes. ‘You aren’t just coming to England to act as my bodyguard, are you?’ she realised dully.

He gave a slight smile. ‘Did you ever believe that I was?’

Had she? In her heart of hearts, had Beth really thought that Cesar would ever give up trying to prove she was his sister Gabriela? And that he wouldn’t take full advantage of Raphael’s presence in England to continue those investigations.

‘And if you find that proof?’

Raphael shrugged. ‘Then perhaps you will finally be convinced.’

Would she? Was it really possible the original Elizabeth Lawrence had died? And if so, where was she buried?

It had only been a matter of a few days since Grace had put forward the suggestion that Beth might be the Navarros’ missing daughter, and those blood tests had convinced the Navarros, if not Beth, that she was. But they had also been days when she knew Cesar was continuing his own investigations, looking for the truth of how Gabriela could have been taken from Argentina to England twenty-one years ago, and given the identity of Elizabeth Lawrence…

‘There are many of us who, given a choice, would have preferred to have been born into a family which is not their own,’ Raphael drawled as he saw the array of emotions flickering across Beth’s expressive face. Dismay being the last of them.

‘Even you?’

His jaw tightened. ‘We were not talking about me.’

‘Weren’t we?’

‘No,’ Raphael replied with finality. His family, and the reason for the years of estrangement from his father, was not a subject he wished to talk about. The same reason that Raphael preferred to keep his relationships with women to the physical rather than the emotional. A line Beth Blake deliberately stepped over almost every time the two of them were together…

‘And if—if you find there is such a grave, are you going to tell me about it first or just report straight to Cesar?’ She looked at him challengingly.

His mouth thinned. ‘I am employed by Cesar—’

‘Please, Raphael!’ She looked up at him appealingly.

Raphael frowned darkly as he knew he was not as immune to that appeal as he might have wished. ‘Shall we just wait and see what happens?’

‘You sound as if you’re placating a child!’

‘Then perhaps you should stop acting like one.’ Raphael bit out his frustration with this situation. With the fact that he had never regarded Beth as a child.

Oh, she was almost ten years younger than him, and outspoken in a way he had never encountered before—except perhaps from her adopted sister, Grace—but there was no doubting Beth’s womanly curves, or her kissable mouth, or that Raphael’s response to those curves and those sensual lips was purely male!

She gave a pained frown now before turning away. ‘If you wouldn’t mind leaving now, I need to finish packing.’

‘And if I do mind?’

Beth stilled, as she knew, by the closeness of Raphael’s voice, that he was now standing just behind her. So close that she could feel the heat of his body and smell the spicy allure of his cologne, and that pure male smell that was Raphael alone. An insidious and heady combination, along with the predatory power of the man himself, that Beth responded to in spite of herself…

‘Beth?’

She kept her expression deliberately cool as she turned to face him, that coolness wavering slightly as she found that Raphael was standing only inches away from her, those piercing blue eyes still narrowed in his harshly chiselled face as he looked down the length of his nose at her.

Beth’s chin rose determinedly in the face of that implacability.

‘I’ve agreed to go back to England in Cesar’s jet, and to having you accompany me. Isn’t that enough?’

‘For now, perhaps…’

Her eyes flashed darkly. ‘What more do any of you want from me?’

What did Raphael want from this woman?

From Beth Blake, a woman he could not deny that he found physically attractive?