Lily gulped. ‘You...you do?’ But of course he would. A man who had everything money could buy would have a massage table. He probably had one for every day of the week. He probably had one in every room of his château. They were probably lined with gold or dripping with diamonds or something.
‘It’s in the room next to the sauna and Jacuzzi.’
‘But of course,’ she mumbled, not quite under her breath.
He hooked one brow upwards. ‘You find my wealth something to mock, Miss Archer?’
Lily felt the scorch of his gaze as it held hers. ‘No... I was just thinking out loud.’
‘Then please refrain from doing so in my presence
.’
Don’t look away. Don’t let him win this. He’s trying to intimidate you. She held his steely gaze as each throbbing second passed. It was a battle of wills and she knew she was seriously, woefully outmatched but she didn’t care. He was looking for a chance to wield some of the power he had lost. It was a game to him. She was a game, a toy to be played with until he got tired of pressing her buttons.
And he was pressing her buttons. Big time. Buttons that hadn’t been pressed in a very long time—new buttons that had never been pressed before.
Like the one that was deep in her core. It felt like a shot of electricity went through it every time he looked at her with that dark, satirical gaze. Those glinting, knowing eyes were seeing much more than she wanted them to see.
She wasn’t that wilful, reckless girl any more.
She was sensible and stable now.
She had her head screwed on tightly.
She had her emotions under control.
‘What time would you like your massage?’ Had she really said that? Lily heard the words but they seemed to have come from someone else’s mouth. The new girl would never offer to massage a full-blooded man, certainly not one as dangerously attractive as Raoul Caffarelli. Her stomach nosedived as she waited for him to answer. The silence seemed to thrum with an extra layer of tension.
Sexual tension.
Lily smothered an involuntary gasp. Desire was something other girls felt. The new girl didn’t have any place for such primal urges. She was literally dead from the waist down.
Or she had been until now...
‘Shall we say eleven?’ he said. ‘I have some things to see to in my study first.’
‘Fine. Perfect. I’ll go and get set up. Don’t rush if you get caught up with work or phone calls or texts or emails or anything. If you need to cancel, then we can always do it later.’ Much, much later. Or what about not at all?
‘I’ll see you at eleven, Miss Archer.’ A glitter of devilry entered his gaze. ‘I’ll look forward to a bit of hands-on therapy from you.’
Lily let out a flustered breath once he had left. Could this farce get any worse?
CHAPTER FIVE
LILY’S STOMACH WAS a frenzied hive of nerves by the time Raoul arrived at the door of the massage room. She could barely look him in the eye in case he saw how on edge she was. ‘I’ll leave you to get undress—I mean, ready.’ She tucked a strand of her hair that had come loose back behind her ear and chanced a glance at him. ‘Do you need help getting on the table?’
His expression was inscrutable. ‘I’ll call you if I need you.’
‘Right.’ She darted out of the room to leave him to it, her heart flapping like a sheet in a tornado inside her chest.
She came back in a few minutes later to find him lying face down on the massage table. She had left a towel for him to drape over his buttocks but due to his mobility issues he hadn’t been able to position it correctly. It was a little skewed, giving her a good view of his tan line and the taut curve of his right buttock.
He is totally naked underneath that towel!
‘Are you comfortable?’ Her voice came out like a squeak as she carefully draped the towel back over him.
‘Yes.’