Why had she left so abruptly this morning? Was that how she usually reacted after spending the night with a man? If she had been the one to wake up beside him this morning and regretted spending the night with him? And lastly, why had she chosen today, of all days, to decide to begin to break away from her father, to pursue her own career, by accepting Rafe’s commission to design the display cabinets for the three Archangel galleries?
All of her answers to those questions had been either outright avoidance or glibness. Two behaviours Rafe had never before associated with Nina.
Two behaviours he found damned irritating, if he was honest with himself. Because they stopped him from reaching Nina. They erected a barrier between the two of them, and one that she seemed determined to keep firmly in place.
He sighed his frustration with the situation. ‘Is there going to be any fall-out for you, with your father, because you stayed at my apartment last night?’ he prompted impatiently.
Nina hadn’t seen her father yet today, but she had no doubt he would know by now that she had spent the previous night at Rafe D’Angelo’s apartment. Just as she had no doubts he would mention it to her when she saw him later this evening.
And Nina had absolutely no idea what he was going to say to her on the subject.
She was close enough to her father that she usually knew how he would react in any given situation, but her having stayed the night at Rafe’s apartment was so unusual that Nina really had no idea what her father’s opinion on that was going to be. No doubt she would find out later this evening.
‘It’s a little late to think about that, isn’t it, Rafe?’ she said dryly.
He shrugged. ‘I’ll talk to him if that would make it easier for you.’
Nina eyed him scathingly. ‘And say what, exactly?’
‘That it’s none of his damned business where you spent the night.’
‘No, thanks, I think I can handle it.’ She chuckled wryly, recalling the phone conversation she’d had with her father the first time he realised she had been with a man. It had been embarrassing for them both, but that was all it had been; much as he wanted to protect her, to keep her safe, her father also wanted her to enjoy what other twenty-something women enjoyed. As long as it was in the circle of his protection.
‘This isn’t the first time it’s happened, hmm?’ Rafe rasped knowingly.
‘Now you’re being deliberately insulting again.’ A frown creased Nina’s brow as she looked across at him reprovingly.
‘Am I?’ He crossed the room in restless strides before sitting down in the chair behind his desk. ‘Maybe that’s because I’m finding the whole of our present conversation insulting. We spent an enjoyable evening together—apart from when I made you cry,’ he acknowledged tightly. ‘But we got over that, and spent an even better night together. And yet this morning you’re telling me that you don’t want to go out with me again, because you want to concentrate on your career.’
‘I don’t recall your having asked me to go out with you again,’ Nina replied. ‘But you’re quite right in assuming my answer would have been no if you had,’ she continued firmly as he would have spoken. ‘We did have a lovely evening, and a fantastic night, and now it’s time to get back to the real world.’
‘And your real world doesn’t have a place in it for me.’ It was a statement rather than a question.
The only place Nina wanted Rafe in her life was one she could never have, nor was it one he was interested in her occupying. Despite the other side of Rafe she had discovered last night as they talked together, he had never pretended to be anything other than what he was: a thirty-four-year-old very eligible and handsome bachelor, who enjoyed women—lots of them.
Unfortunately Nina knew she wasn’t made that way, which was why it was better, for both of them, if this ended now. And not just because of her father. She had to end this now, before she lost her pride, as well as her heart, to the point she was completely broken when Rafe ended their affair in a few weeks’ time. As he surely would.
She raised her chin determinedly. ‘Not at this point in time, no.’
He raised dark brows. ‘And do you ever see a time when that might change?’
‘No.’
‘Fine,’ Rafe rasped harshly. He wasn’t about to beg, like a starving man asking for the scraps from Nina’s table. If one night was all Nina wanted from him, then one night was all they would have.
All they’d had.
Because Nina had left him in no doubts that she considered the two of them to already be in the past tense.