She realised she was holding her breath when she felt him straighten behind her and stroll away until he was standing at the head of the conference table, gazing at them. Only then could she breathe out.
‘So I think I’ve done all my due diligence.’ He moved to perch on the edge of the boardroom table. He was so mesmerising, so exquisitely good-looking that it felt as though everyone else there was also holding their breath waiting for him to finish talking. ‘I have all my facts and figures so thank you all for your cooperation. No need to extend your hospitality further. Erin and I will now do a little exploring of the area on our own.’
Erin’s mouth dropped open.
He caught her eye and his eyebrows shot up, feigning innocent surprise at her expression. ‘We’ve already been to the town but there are a couple of beaches, I’ve been told, which are only accessible by boat…?’
Voices faded to a blur.
She was doing her best not to look appalled but wasn’t sure what sort of job she was making of that.
She knew that at some point she was standing up, shaking hands with lots of the people there, making smiling noises about seeing them all again before she and Raffaele headed back to London.
When the door to the conference room was opened and people started filing out, she felt the blast of hot air rush in, cutting through the cool of the air conditioning.
Then the door shut, and she and Raffaele were alone in the room.
‘They’ve worked hard,’ Raffaele said. ‘They don’t need to keep disrupting their timetables to entertain us.’ Erin looked at him, her expression carefully guarded, as he walked slowly towards her. ‘I’d…like to have a chat with you, Erin.’
‘What about?’
‘Can’t be summed up in one word. It’s something of a spectrum.’
‘I have no idea what you mean by that. Should I be concerned?’ She laughed nervously and stared up at him.
‘I guess it’s a wait-and-see scenario.’
Erin kept a polite, curious smile pinned to her face but her heart was beating wildly as a million unpleasant outcomes raced through her head.
Top of the list was the sinking dread that he had somehow sensed her attraction to him and had been spooked by it. He might enjoy a bit of light flirtation here, in a place that was alien to both of them, but was he now backing away at speed from the terrifying possibility that she might be yet another woman greedy for love and commitment? Especially after what he’d shared with her?
All her insecurities rose to the surface with suffocating urgency.
She’d told him so much about herself and now she felt trapped by those unwitting confidences as though he could read her soul by putting together the path of breadcrumbs she had laid down. As though he could justseethat his idea of light flirtation with the secretary he now knew a little more about had provoked a disproportionate, inappropriate reaction within her.
‘How I love wait-and-see scenarios,’ she said with an attempt at her usual dry humour and he obligingly smiled.
‘Why don’t we take a walk? We can head in the direction of the waterfall. It’s probably quiet out there at this hour. People taking it easy after a day in the sweltering sun.’
‘Sure.’
It was cooler than it had been, with rain in the air. Still steaming hot, though, and here, without any pretty lanterns and fairy lights, the forest around them felt wilder and lusher.
There was no one on the path they took. No locals, no tourists. They walked through a shadowy twilight semi-darkness under the canopy of trees with the squish of fallen leaves underfoot. Occasionally the fading sun would penetrate the canopy, sending shards of pale light through the branches of the trees. After a handful of minutes, during which they had walked in silence, they emerged into a glorious clearing where the waterfall, not very big at all, crashed over dark rocks into a crystal clear pool empty of people.
Erin walked down to the water, mesmerised by the thunderous sound of the falls and the way they cascaded down, rippling outwards until the turmoil gave way to ice-cold water as still as a swimming pool.
She felt Raffaele next to her and her whole body stiffened with tension.
‘Spit it out, Raffaele,’ she stated as she spun around to face him. ‘The suspense is killing me.’
‘I want you.’
‘Sorry?’ She twisted to look at him but he continued staring out at the water, his jaw clenched.
‘I want to sleep with you, Erin.’
‘What? Wait. What are you saying? No!’ Her voice shook. ‘That can’t happen!’
