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Poppy picked up her champagne flute for something to do with her hands. He was lethally charming in this playful, flirty mood. But she mustn’t forget she had something he wanted—the dower house. He had tried other means to get her to sell it to him. Maybe this new approach was nothing to do with how attractive or unique or cute he found her, but rather another clever ploy of his to achieve his goal. ‘I suppose you think that if you flatter me enough I’ll change my mind and sell you my house?’
‘I think you’re mistaking my motives.’
She gave him an arch look. ‘Oh really? So you’re going to sit there and tell me you asked me out to dinner, not as a ploy to get me to change my mind, but just because you find my company scintillating?’
That sexy half-smile was still lurking around the edges of his mouth. ‘I find your company electrifying. You’re so unlike anyone I’ve ever met before.’
Poppy felt her belly do a complicated tumble turn as his wicked gaze held hers. ‘I guess I must be even more of a challenge to you now.’
‘Why’s that?’
‘Because I’m...you know...what I told you before.’
He cocked his head quizzically. ‘What did you tell me before?’
Poppy blew out a breath. Did she really have to spell it out for him? She felt the heat of embarrassment ride up from her neck as the silence continued.
Finally, she let out a little breath and dropped the V-bomb. ‘I’m still a virgin.’
CHAPTER SEVEN (#u1ab9e895-62cb-5648-9281-8abc9e3d533f)
RAFE PICKED HIS jaw up from the table where he felt it had dropped. ‘Are you serious?’
‘I told you before...’
‘You told me you hadn’t slept with your ex. You didn’t tell me you hadn’t slept with anyone.’
Her expression was defensive. ‘Go on—call me a dinosaur. Call me a pariah.’
Rafe couldn’t get his head around it. He had slept with dozens of women and not one of them had ever been without experience. Some had had much more than him, particularly those he had slept with in his teens.
He liked to think he didn’t operate a double-standard; he liked to think he was as twenty-first-century, open and progressive about sex as everyone else. But something about Poppy’s inexperience struck a chord of something terribly old-fashioned deep inside him that he hadn’t even been aware of possessing until now.
A virgin.
In this day and age!
Rafe looked at her taking careful sips of her champagne, her toffee-brown gaze meeting his every now and again, as if she was trying to act normal in a totally abnormal situation. Or at least, it was abnormal for him.
He had the routine down pat: dinner and sex. It was a combo that always worked. He couldn’t remember a time when it hadn’t.
He always got the girl.
But Poppy Silverton was another story. From the moment he had walked into that tearoom of hers he had seen her as the enemy that he would eventually conquer, but somehow she had the edge on him now. It was laughably ironic. He was known for his steely determination, for his merciless intent, yet in this case he felt totally ambushed.
He had not seen this coming. He had been totally unprepared for it. She was the most fascinating and intriguing woman he had ever encountered.
And she hated him.
OK, so that was a minor problem, but he could work on that—get to know her, charm her a little and get her to feel a little more comfortable around him.
Get her to sell him her house.
That was still his goal. Nothing was going to sway him from it. He didn’t back down from his goals, not for anyone. He wanted that house because without it the Dalrymple Estate would not be complete. He didn’t do things in half-measures. When he set his sights on something he got it. It didn’t matter what or who was standing in the way of it. The fact that a mere slip of a red-haired girl was standing in his way was immaterial. There had to be a way around this so he could win.
He always won.
Losing would be playing into his grandfather’s belief about him—that he was not good enough, not strong enough to withstand the opposition. Vittorio had instilled in him and his brothers the sense that, like their late father, they were just paltry imitations of him. That he was the patriarch that no one could or would dare to outshine.
His grandfather’s arrogance had fuelled Rafe’s determination since childhood. It was like a river of steel in his blood. He abhorred failure. It was a word that didn’t exist in his mind, let alone his vocabulary.
Rafe wasn’t supposed to like his enemy. He wasn’t supposed to respect her, or be intrigued by her, or want her like he had wanted no other woman. Desire was a pulsating force inside him even now. Just watching the way her lips cupped around the rim of her glass as she sipped from her champagne flute made him hard. He watched the rise and fall of her slim throat as she swallowed and wondered what it would feel like to have those rosy-red lips suck on him, to bring him to the brink of primal pleasure...
‘So how did you get to the age of...?’
‘Twenty-five.’
Twenty-five! He’d lost count of the number of lovers he’d had by the age of twenty, let alone twenty-five. ‘How did you get to that age without having sex?’
‘I didn’t want to end up like my mother, falling for the first guy who paid her a compliment,’ she said. ‘I guess it made me overly cautious. I just wanted to be sure my first time was with the right person. It’s not that I’m hankering after a wedding ring or anything. And it’s not because of religious beliefs, although I have a lot of respect for those who have them.’
Rafe wished he could say the same. But the God of his childhood hadn’t answered his prayers the day his parents had been killed. He had felt alone in the universe that day and the feeling had never quite left him. ‘I don’t think you’re a pariah at all,’ he said. ‘I also think there’s nothing wrong in being selective about who you sleep with. To tell you the truth, I wish I’d been a bit more selective at times.’
She gave him a tiny ‘let’s change the subject’ smile. ‘What do your brothers do?’
Making neutral conversation was good. He could do that. ‘Raoul’s involved in the family business on the investment side of things but he also runs a thoroughbred stud in Normandy. He’s a bit of an extreme sportsman; not only does he ride horses at breakneck speeds, he’s a daredevil skier on both snow and water. And Remy is a business broker. He buys ailing businesses, builds them up and sells them for a profit. He loves his risks too. I guess it’s the gambler in him.’
‘You must be constantly worrying about both of them. I’m almost glad I’m an only child.’
Rafe had survived the loss of his parents but the thought of losing either of his brothers was something that haunted him. They were both so precious to him. He didn’t tell them—he rarely showed his affection for them, or they for him—but he would be truly devastated if anything happened to either of them. Ever since he was ten it had been his responsibility to keep watch over them. ‘We each have our own lives. We try and catch up when we’re in the same country but we don’t interfere with what any of us is doing unless it’s to do with the family business.’
‘What role does your grandfather play in the business?’
‘He’s taken a bit of a back seat lately, which is not something that comes naturally to him,’ Rafe said. ‘He had a mild stroke a couple of months ago. If anything, it’s made him even more cantankerous.’
She looked at him for a little moment. ‘You don’t like him very much, do you?’
Rafe shifted his mouth in a rueful manner. ‘I try and tell myself it must have been hard for him, suddenly being landed with three young boys to raise, but the truth is he was never really all that interested in us even before our parents were killed. My father and he had always had a strained relationship. But it got worse when my mother came on the scene. My grandfather didn’t approve of my father’s choice of wife. It wasn’t just that my mother was French and lowly born. I think it was more to do with jealousy than anything.’
Poppy’s brow lifted. ‘Jealousy?’
‘Yes, he hated that my father was happily settled with someone while his wife—my grandmother—was lying cold in her grave.’
‘Did he ever see someone else or think about remarrying?’
Rafe made a little sound of derision. ‘Oh, he had his women; he’d had them while my grandmother was still alive: housemaids, cleaners, local girls who he paid to keep silent with a few trinkets. He had them all from time to time, but what he didn’t have was what my father had—a woman who loved him not because he was rich or for what he could do for her but because she simply adored him.’
‘That’s very romantic,’ she said. ‘How tragic they didn’t get to have more years together.’
Rafe picked up his glass again. ‘It was, but in a way it was better they went together. I can’t imagine how either of them would’ve coped if they were the one left behind.’
A thoughtful expression settled on her face. ‘Is that what you hope to find? A love like that?’
Rafe refilled both of their glasses before he answered. ‘I guess I’ll have to settle down one day. Sire a few heirs.’
‘You make it sound rather clinical.’
‘I come from a long line of Caffarellis. We’re meant to marry and reproduce, ideally in our early thirties. It’s a familial responsibility. Romance has very little to do with it.’
It had had nothing to do with his grandfather’s marriage, which had been arranged by his grandfather’s parents to increase wealth and possession of property. But, from what Rafe had gleaned from staff or relatives of staff who had previously been in the family’s employ, it had been a miserable marriage from day one.
‘So how will you go about selecting a suitable wife?’ she asked. ‘Check her teeth and bloodline? Conduct auditions to see if she knows what cutlery to use? Take her for a trial ride, so to speak?’
He chuckled as he lifted his glass to his mouth. ‘Hopefully nothing quite as archaic as that.’
‘So you plan to fall in love the old-fashioned way?’
Rafe studied her expression for a beat or two. Would he allow himself to fall in love? It wasn’t something he had ever planned on doing. He didn’t like getting attached to people. Loving someone gave them power over you. The one who loved the most ended up with the least power in the relationship. Falling in love was losing control, and the one thing he didn’t like was losing control over anything, especially his emotions. Even during sex he always kept his head. He always kept a part of himself back, which was why that kiss had unsettled him so much.
Control was his responsibility.
Hadn’t he spent his childhood protecting his younger brothers from the vitriolic and often terrifyingly violent outbursts of their grandfather? He had taken the verbal hits, and on more occasions than he liked to remember he had taken the physical ones as well. His grandfather’s unpredictable temper and emotional outbursts had made his childhood and adolescence hell at times. It had been better once he and his brothers had been packed off to boarding school in England. At least then it was just the holidays Rafe had to keep his brothers out of the line of fire.
No, falling in love was not something he planned to do any time soon, if ever.
Morgan came over to take their orders for their meals. ‘How’s the decision making going?’ she asked.
‘I’ve decided,’ Rafe said. ‘How about you, ma chérie? Do you know what you want?’
Poppy’s eyes widened momentarily at his endearment but she recovered quickly. ‘Yes, the pork belly with fennel and lime.’
‘And you, Mr Caffarelli?’ Morgan stood with pen poised over the order pad.
‘I’ll have the lamb with redcurrant glaze and red wine jus.’
Once Morgan had left Poppy leaned forwards across the table again with a quirked brow. ‘Ma chérie?’
‘It means “my darling”.’
‘I know what it means but why are you calling me that in front of her?’
‘You don’t like being called darling?’
‘Not by someone who doesn’t mean it.’
‘I’m actually doing you a favour,’ Rafe said. ‘Think of what Morgan is relaying to your ex-boyfriend in the kitchen right now—here you are, out with one of Europe’s most eligible bachelors. That’s going to sting a bit, don’t you think?’
Her scowl turned into a reluctant smile that made gorgeous dimples form in her cheeks. He suddenly realised it was the first time she had genuinely smiled at him. ‘Maybe.’
‘Were you in love with him?’
Her smile faded. ‘I thought so at the time.’
‘But now?’
She gave a little shrug of her shoulders. ‘Probably not...’
‘So you had a lucky escape.’
She met his eyes across the table. ‘Thank you.’
‘For what?’
‘For making me come out tonight.’ She twisted her mouth. ‘For making me face my demons, so to speak.’
‘You mean the one who’s too cowardly to come out of the kitchen and say a simple hello to you?’ Rafe said. ‘Maybe I should think twice about asking him to cook for me while I’m staying at the manor.’
She jerked upright in her chair. ‘You can’t ask him!’
He picked up his glass and took a leisurely sip. ‘Why not?’
‘Because...because I’d like to do it.’
Rafe arched an eyebrow at her. ‘You’ve changed your mind?’
She gave a little toss of her head, which made one of her curls bounce out of its restraining clip. She tucked it behind her ear with one of her hands. ‘It makes sense, since I only live next door. Besides, he’d only be using my recipes. I might as well get the credit for them.’
‘Indeed.’
‘And I need the money.’
‘Things have been pretty lean in spite of what you told Morgan, haven’t they?’
Her brow crinkled in a frown. ‘I know I’m not very good at the business side of things. Chloe’s always telling me I’m too generous and give way too much credit to people who could pay if I made them.’
‘So why a tearoom?’ he asked. ‘Why not a regular restaurant?’
‘I knew I wanted to open a tearoom when I was about ten. My gran had taught me how to cook and I loved being in the kitchen with her. I thought I should do the right thing and get a proper qualification, but it was very different being in the kitchen in a busy Soho restaurant.’
‘So you came back to look after your gran when she got sick.’
‘Yes, and I don’t regret it for a moment.’
Rafe couldn’t help admiring her loyalty and devotion. It was so at odds with how he felt about his grandfather. He couldn’t wait to get away from him, and loathed having to visit to fulfil his familial duty, such as for birthdays and at Christmas. He rarely spoke to him unless he had to. ‘You must miss her.’
‘I do...’ She ran her fingertip round the rim of her champagne flute. ‘Do you know what I miss the most?’
‘Tell me.’
