A Mediterranean Marriage. Lynne Graham
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to the ground floor to satisfy her lively curiosity.
‘Mrs Kasabian says…’ The hotel executive acting as Nelispah’s guide and translator skimmed Rauf a strained glance of apology before turning to address Lily. ‘Mrs Kasabian says…what a lovely dress you are wearing!’
Rauf blinked and then scrutinised the billowing folds of Lily’s shroud. Yes, he supposed a dress that only hinted that an actual female body existed beneath it was right down his very modest great-grandmother’s street. The entire family and their staff conspired to ensure that Nelispah’s delicate sensibilities were protected from the shocking moral laxity of a world that would distress her for her heart was weak. Fortunately, she did not watch television or even read the family newspapers because she believed that her late husband would not have approved of her engaging in either activity.
‘I have the honour of introducing you to my great-grandmother, Nelispah Kasabian…Lily Harris.’ Rauf performed the introduction with gritty reluctance but spoke in soft, gentle Turkish to the little woman, who barely reached his chest in height.
‘Please tell her how very happy I am to meet her.’ Lily returned Mrs Kasabian’s big, beaming smile with warm appreciation.
Resting a frail hand on Rauf’s supportive arm, Nelispah chattered on in Turkish while Rauf employed a fast covert signal to send her translator into silenced retreat. ‘Lily hanim has a sweet smile. I like what I see in this young woman’s face,’ his great-grandmother confided with alarming enthusiasm. ‘Would she like to join us for lunch and tell us about herself and her family?’
Striving not to wince at the threat of what might emerge were Lily to come into contact with the matriarchal inter-rogation team, Rauf depressed that hope and, with a quiet word of apology to Lily, he walked the old lady back towards the lift. Seeing the affection that had softened his stunning eyes, Lily glanced away again, pained by that contrast to Rauf’s abrasive treatment of her.
But then this was a business matter, not a personal one, she reminded herself doggedly. Evidently, Harris Travel had messed up big time when it came to that contract. Had Brett been responsible for that? Although Lily loathed her sister’s ex-husband, she knew that both Hilary and her father had been very impressed, not only by the efficient way in which Brett had run the family business, but also by the long hours he had worked. Profits might have sunk to a dismal level but nobody had blamed Brett for that reality. After all, it was hardly his fault that another travel agency had opened up in competition in the same town.
Whatever, Lily was uneasily aware that Rauf had only been willing to relent after she had mentioned the villas that were to be sold. What was going to happen if those payments made into the wrong account could not be tracked down and retrieved? And if the cash from the sale of the villas had to go to Rauf rather than Harris Travel, would Hilary still be able to stay in business? Deciding to wait until she had concrete facts at her disposal before passing on any bad news to her sister, Lily tensed as Rauf returned to her side.
‘My limo will take you back to your hotel,’ Rauf imparted, shortening his long, fluid stride to her slower pace to walk her outside.
On the pavement, she hovered and stole a strained glance up at him, intimidated and troubled by his continuing detachment. ‘This business stuff aside…can’t we still be friends?’ she heard herself ask in a rush.
As he met her beautiful blue eyes seething derision at that appeal flamed through Rauf’s big, powerful frame, hardening his superb bone structure, firing his fantastic eyes to raw, shimmering gold. It infuriated him that once upon a time he had swallowed her every mushy sentence. ‘I’m not five years old and neither are you.’
Lily flushed in embarrassment and cringed for her own impulsive tongue.
‘On the other hand, güzelim,’ Rauf growled soft and low as he reached for her with two lean, purposeful hands and pulled her to him on a surge of anger so strong he did not even question what he was doing, ‘I hate to disappoint a woman.’
Pinned into startling connection with six feet four inches of hard, masculine muscle and power, her heart pounding like crazy, Lily gasped, ‘Rauf—?’
His wide, sensual mouth came down on hers with explosive force, all the passion of the volatile nature he usually kept in check powering to the surface to drive that kiss. For an instant Lily froze in total shock and then, without any mental prompting she recognised, she stretched up on tiptoe and wrapped her slim arms round his neck. As the first wild wave of response rocked through her trembling length, she loosed a low moan, angling her head back, letting the erotic plunge of his tongue feed from the sweetness of her mouth.
With an abruptness that left Lily in a turmoil of confusion, Rauf set her free again. A dark line of febrile colour scoring his taut cheekbones, he was appalled both by his own reckless disregard of his surroundings and by her unexpected encouragement. Trust Lily to change her game plan when he could least afford her to do so! Such public displays were frowned on by his people. What the hell had come over him?
Her lush mouth reddened from the fiery imprint of his, Lily focused on Rauf with dazed eyes and a helpless surge of pride in herself. She had stayed in his arms without succumbing to an attack of unreasonable fear. Finally making herself acknowledge those disturbing feelings and openly discuss what had caused them with a counsellor the previous year had worked.
‘That will not be repeated,’ Rauf breathed with icy emphasis, yanking open the door of the long silver limo waiting by the kerb with his own hand. ‘There is nothing between us now.’
Then why had he touched her in the first place? Stiff with hurt bewilderment, Lily climbed into the opulent car. She wished she had pushed him away, indeed done anything other than thrown her arms round him in encouragement. She was furious with herself. Here she was almost twenty-four years old, still a virgin and still, it seemed, as immature as an adolescent. Obviously Rauf had reacted to the willing signals that she must have been putting out! On the strength of that demeaning conviction, Lily stopped being angry and felt that she had asked to be humiliated.
But then who would ever have forecast that she of all women might ever be guilty of forward behaviour around a male of the species? As Rauf’s limousine drove Lily back to her hotel in Gumbet she was pale and taut and already mental miles away from their recent meeting. Memories that she only rarely allowed herself to take out and examine had engulfed her…
Hilary had married Brett when Lily had been only twelve. Delighted to be their bridesmaid, Lily had been thrilled that Hilary had been so much in love and even happier that Brett had been willing to move into their family home rather than take Hilary to live somewhere else. Their father had been equally impressed with Hilary’s bridegroom for Brett had always awarded the older man pronounced respect and deference. A year later, Douglas Harris had signed his house over to his daughter and son-in-law.
Just two years after that, when she’d been only fifteen, Lily had had her first sight of Brett with another woman. Heading home from a friend’s house, she had cut across a car park on the outskirts of town. Seeing Brett’s sports car parked there and the shadow of movement within, she had hurried towards it thinking that she would get a lift with him. Instead she had seen her brother-in-law locked in a passionate embrace with a stranger. Devastated by that sight but grateful that the guilty couple hadn’t noticed her, she had been so upset that she had wandered round town for several hours before she’d been able to face going home.
All her life up until that point, Lily had told Hilary virtually everything. But what she had seen that day had deprived her of her only true confidante for she had been painfully conscious that her big sister had worshipped the ground her handsome husband had walked on and had also been heavily pregnant with their second child. Lily had agonised for weeks over what she ought to have done before finally deciding to confide in her father and put the responsibility of that knowledge in his hands.
But in no way had Douglas Harris reacted as his teenage daughter had imagined he might have done. ‘You were mistaken,’ her father told her in instant angry rebuttal.
‘But I saw them…it was Brett and it was his car!’ Lily protested.