He had not noticed her before this moment.
He had not noticed any other women for a long time—not since Rachel came into his life.
His gaze flicked away from the smiling woman and across the street again.
He was in shock. He knew that. He knew that several important things were happening inside him even as he watched Rachel’s other Italian lover fold an arm across her shoulders and guide her towards his car.
Car horns were blaring. The street was alive with impatient car drivers trapped behind Alonso’s car.
‘One quick coffee, then,’ Rachel agreed as he swung open the door and helped her inside.
She should not be doing this. But they were drawing too much attention and getting into Alonso’s car seemed the better of two evils if coffee somewhere was the only way she was going to get rid of him.
Alonso joined her in seconds, sliding into the seat beside her and sending her one of his reckless grins as he slipped the car into gear. He drove them away with a panache that completely disregarded the minor chaos he had been causing in the street.
‘Like old times, eh?’ he laughed at her.
And it was, just like old times, when he had used to sweep up in one fast car or another without a care while he waited for her to scramble in next to him. His handsome carelessness used to excite her then. Now it just scared her witless as she glanced quickly around them as they drove off, hoping she did not see a face she recognised in the street—or worse, a camera flashing.
‘Somewhere quiet, Alonso,’ she told him quickly. ‘I can’t afford to be seen with you.’
‘Scared of what your rich new fiancé will say?’
You bet I am, Rachel thought. ‘I call it respect for his feelings.’
‘And a healthy respect for his bank balance too.’
Before she could challenge that last cynical remark, Alonso pulled into one of the less fashionable squares off the main street. Two minutes later they were sitting opposite each other at one of the pavement cafés that lined the square.
Rachel looked at Alonso and saw a man who worked very hard to look, dress, behave like the man he wished he could be but never would be.
And how did she know that? Because she had spent the last month with the genuine article, a man who didn’t need to work hard at being exclusive and special, he just simply was. It was she who, like Alonso, had to work hard at playing the part of someone she was not.
The comparison hit her low in her stomach.
As if he could tell what she was thinking, ‘You have done very well for yourself,’ Alonso said.
Rachel didn’t answer, giving her attention to the waiter who had come to their table. ‘Espresso,’ she told him. ‘N-no, I don’t want anything else.’
Alonso ordered the same, then casually dismissed the waiter with a flick of a hand. Had he always behaved with this much casual arrogance and she had been too besotted with him to notice?
‘Whatare you doing here in Milan?’ She repeated her question from earlier.
Sitting back in his seat and crossing a knee over the other, he said, ‘I moved here six months ago—to a better position, of course.’
Of course, Rachel acknowledged. Alonso had always been ambitiously upwardly mobile. ‘Still selling cars?’
‘Super-cars,cara ,’ he corrected dryly. ‘They are not merely cars but engineering works of art. But let us talk about you,’ he said turning the subject. ‘You must be happy with your new lover. What woman would not be?’ His mouth turned cynical as his eyes drifted over her. ‘No longer the rosy-cheeked innocent up from the country, eh?’
Recalling that innocent young girl Alsono had known last year, with—if not quite straw in her hair as Raffaelle described her—then pretty close to it, made her smile.
‘No,’ she agreed.
Their coffees arrived then, putting a halt on the conversation while the waiter did his thing. Eventually, Alonso sat forward to catch the
hand she’d used to reach for her cup.
‘We had a good time, didn’t we?’ he said softly. ‘I missed you when you left me to go home.’