Never Say No to a Caffarelli

by MELANIE MILBURNE

  ‘Maybe Rafe Caffarelli will settle down there with one of his lovers,’ Chloe suggested.

  ‘I can’t see that happening,’ Poppy said with an expression of disdain. ‘He doesn’t keep a lover more than a month or two. Playboys like him don’t settle down, they just change partners.’

  Chloe gave her a speculative look. ‘So I take it I’m not the only one who’s done a little online searching on the illustrious Rafe Caffarelli?’

  Poppy went back to the kitchen with her head at a haughty height. ‘I’m not the least bit interested in what that man does or who he does it with. I have much better things to do with my time.’

  * * *

  Just before lunch Mr Underwood, Poppy’s landlord, came in to the tearoom. He usually came in on a Friday afternoon for a cup of tea and a slice of the cake of the day. Poppy desperately hoped this Tuesday visit wasn’t a business one. She had a list of expenses to see to on the dower house. The place needed painting inside and out, and the garden needed urgent attention. There was an elm tree close to her bedroom that needed lopping as it was keeping her awake at night with its branches scratching at the window. Even a modest rise in rent at the shop would just about cripple her financially now.

  ‘Your usual, Mr Underwood?’ she said with a bright and hopeful smile.

  ‘Er, can I have a word, Poppy?’ John Underwood asked.

  ‘Sure.’ Poppy’s smile tightened on her face. Please don’t ask for more rent.

  ‘I thought I should let you know I’ve been made an offer on the building,’ John said. ‘It’s a good one, the best I’ve had, so I’m going to take it.’

  She frowned. ‘But I didn’t realise you were even thinking of selling.’

  ‘I’ve been toying with the idea for a while. Jean wants to travel a bit more. We’ve got three young grandchildren in the States now and we want to spend a bit more time with them. I’m selling this building and another investment property I have in Shropshire.’

  Poppy felt suspicion move up her spine like a file of sugar ants. ‘Who made the offer?’

  ‘I’m not at liberty to say,’ he said. ‘The buyer insisted on total confidentiality until all the paperwork is done.’

  She pursed her lips as the rage simmered inside her. ‘I just bet he did.’

  John looked uncomfortable. ‘I didn’t want to do the wrong thing by you, Poppy. You and Chloe are the best tenants I’ve had. But at the end of the day this is a business decision. It’s not personal.’

  Oh yes it is, Poppy thought sourly. ‘We’ve still got another year on the lease. That won’t change, will it?’

  ‘Not unless the new owner wants to redevelop.’

  ‘Did he say what he intended to do with it?’

  ‘No, he just seemed really keen to acquire this particular building. He said he instantly fell in love with its old-world charm.’

  ‘Ruthless’ didn’t even come close to describing Rafe Caffarelli, Poppy thought. He was clever and calculating, much more than she had realised. But she wasn’t going down without a fight. There was no way she was going to let him have things all his own way. Did he really think he could twist her arm? Blackmail her into his bed by charging her an outrageously high rent? What sort of woman did he think she was? ‘Will the new owner expect a rise in rent, do you think?’

  ‘You’d have to discuss that with him.’

  She gave him an ironic look. ‘How can I if he wants to remain anonymous?’

  ‘I expect the rent will be handled through an agency,’ John said. ‘Anyway, I just thought I should let you know I’ve sold. I’m not one for keeping secrets but he seemed to think it was necessary.’

  Poppy ground her teeth behind her tight smile. ‘I’m sure he has his reasons.’

  She stalked out to the kitchen once John Underwood had left. ‘Grrrh! I’m going to punch him on the nose. I’m going to scratch his eyes out. I’m going to give him a black eye. I’m going to kick him in the you-know-where.’

  Chloe blinked in confusion. ‘But I thought you liked Mr Underwood. What’s he done—put up the rent or something?’

  ‘Not Mr Underwood,’ Poppy said through clenched teeth. ‘Rafe Caffarelli. He’s bought the shop. I know it’s him, even though Mr Underwood didn’t actually say so. It’s supposed to be a secret. And I know why—Rafe Caffarelli wants to blackmail me into his bed.’

  Chloe’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. ‘Hey, have I missed something somewhere? Back up a little bit. Did you say he wants to sleep with you? Did he actually say that out loud?’

  ‘Not in as many words, but I can see it in his eyes every time he looks at me.’ Poppy clenched her hands into fists. ‘I won’t do it.’

  ‘I’ll do it,’ Chloe said. ‘What are you thinking, Poppy? He’s gorgeous. He’s rich. He’s everything a woman could want in a man.’

  Poppy set her mouth. ‘Not this woman.’

  ‘You’re mad,’ Chloe said. ‘What would it hurt to have a little fling with him? He would probably give you heaps and heaps of ridiculously expensive jewellery at the end of it. You could sell them and retire.’

  Poppy threw her a look of reproach. ‘I had no idea you were so shallow.’

  Chloe shrugged. ‘Not shallow, just pragmatic. Think about it. When are you going to get the chance to move in his sort of circles? It’d be worth it just for the publicity. It’d really put the tearoom on the map.’

  ‘I am not going to sleep with Rafe Caffarelli in order to bring more customers in the door.’ Poppy folded her arms tightly across her chest. ‘I have far more self-respect than that.’

  ‘You’re stuck in the dark ages,’ Chloe said. ‘Who waits for Mr Right these days? Most girls lose their virginity before they leave school. You’re twenty-five for God’s sake. Think of all the sex you’re going to have to have to catch up.’

  ‘I don’t think about sex.’ Well, not until recently.

  ‘That’s because you don’t know what you’re missing. It’s not wrong to have sex before you get married. Not in this day and age.’

  ‘I’m not necessarily waiting until I get married,’ Poppy said. ‘I’m waiting until I feel sure it’s really what I want, and that the man is right for me.’

  ‘It’s because of what happened to your mum, isn’t it?’ Chloe said. ‘It’s made you gun-shy.’

  ‘Maybe a bit,’ Poppy confessed. ‘OK, more than a bit. It ruined her life to be cast aside like that. She never got over it. She was truly heartbroken. She loved my father and he treated her like a silly little toy he had grown tired of. And it didn’t just wreck her life, it ruined my gran’s life because she got landed with a little kid to bring up.’

  ‘Your gran loved bringing you up.’

  Poppy let out a sigh. ‘But my mother died so young and she didn’t get to do all the things she wanted to do. I don’t want that to happen to me. I want to have control over my future.’

  ‘There are some things in life that you just can’t control.’

  ‘I know, but I’m going to focus on the ones I can.’ Poppy untied her apron and tossed it on the nearest chair. ‘Starting right now.’

  * * *

  Rafe was working on some preliminary sketches in the makeshift study he’d set up at the manor when he heard a car rumble up the driveway. He knew who it was without looking through the window. Only someone with an axe to grind would slam their car door, stomp across the gravel, to put their finger on the doorbell and leave it there. He smiled as the tinny sound assaulted his eardrums. How boring had his life been before meeting Poppy Silverton?

  This was the most fun he’d had in years.

  ‘We have to stop meeting like this,’ he said as he opened the door. ‘People will talk.’

  Her toffee-brown eyes were slitted, her hands were fisted and her slim body was rigid. ‘You.
..you calculating, low-life swine.’

  He raised a brow at her. ‘It’s nice to see you too.’

  She vibrated on the spot like a battery-operated tin soldier. ‘I can’t believe how ruthless you are. You bought my shop!’

  ‘So? I’m a property developer. I buy property.’

  Her pretty little mouth was white-tipped with fury. ‘I know what you’re doing but it won’t work.’

  Rafe leaned casually against the doorjamb. ‘What is it you think I’m doing?’

  ‘You’re going to blackmail me.’ She glowered at him darkly. ‘You must know I can barely afford the rent as it is. But it won’t work. I won’t prostitute myself to someone like you.’

  He tapped his index finger against his lips for a moment. ‘Mmm, I can see I have some work to do to improve the impression you have of me. What makes you think I’m going to raise the rent?’

  She looked at him warily. ‘You mean...you’re not?’

  He shook his head.

  ‘But why did you buy the shop?’

  ‘I like it.’

  She narrowed her eyes again. ‘You...like it?’

  ‘It’s unique.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I like the idea of a traditional tearoom. It’s classy. It makes a nice change from the somewhat impersonal and boring coffee chains.’

  A little pleat of scepticism appeared between her eyes. ‘You don’t even drink tea.’

  ‘That’s true, but maybe I haven’t tasted the perfect cup. A cheap, dusty tea bag jiggled in a Styrofoam cup is probably nothing like the real deal. Maybe you could educate me in the art of drinking proper, high-quality leaf tea.’

  She was still looking at him in suspicion. ‘Why do I get the feeling you’re not really talking about tea?’

  Rafe gave her a lazy smile. ‘What else could I be talking about?’

  Her cheeks went a deep shade of rose and her soft mouth flattened primly. ‘If you want to taste proper tea, then come to the tearoom four o’clock this afternoon.’

  He held her gaze in a smouldering little lockdown. ‘I’d prefer a private lesson. I don’t want to be distracted by other customers. It might ruin the experience for me.’

  She gave him a flinty ‘I know what you’re up to’ look. ‘All right,’ she said. ‘Come at five-thirty. I’ll put the closed sign on the door.’

  ‘It’s a date.’

  Rafe watched as she turned on her heel and stomped back to her car. He gave her a wave as she drove away but she didn’t return it. With a toss of that fiery head, she put her car into gear and rattled off down the drive, leaving a billowing cloud of dust in her wake.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHLOE UNTIED HER apron at five o’clock. ‘I just got a call from my mum. She wants me to pick up some of her asthma medication at the pharmacy on my way home. Do you mind if I leave now?’

  Poppy tried to ignore the little flutter of alarm in her belly. She didn’t mind giving Rafe Caffarelli a private lesson in the art of tea drinking, but she hadn’t planned on it being that private. She had banked on Chloe being in the background in case he wanted to have his cake and eat it too, so to speak. ‘No, you go,’ she said, releasing a little breath of resignation. ‘Say hi to your mum from me. Take her some of that double-chocolate slice she likes so much.’

  Chloe’s smile was teasing. ‘Will you be all right entertaining the deliciously ruthless, rich and racy Rafe Caffarelli on your little ownsome?’

  Poppy put on a confident smile that in no way reflected how she was feeling. ‘Of course.’

  The door chime sounded at five-thirty-five. Poppy had been watching the clock ever since Chloe had left. As each minute had crawled by, her heart rate had gone up. She came out of the kitchen as casually as she could even though her stomach was pitching and falling like a paperboat in a jacuzzi.

  Rafe stooped as he came in the door. He was dressed a little more formally this time in charcoal-grey trousers and a crisp white shirt teamed with a dark-blue blazer and a silver-grey tie. He had shaved since she had seen him earlier that day. He had showered too, as his hair was still damp and had the groove marks in it from a brush or comb.

  ‘I’m sorry I’m late.’

  Poppy couldn’t read his expression, but she knew one thing for certain—he wasn’t one bit sorry. ‘I’ve set up the table by the window. Take a seat while I put the kettle on.’

  ‘Can’t I watch?’

  She pursed her lips at him. His dark eyes were pools of black ink but there was a hint of amusement lurking there; she was sure of it. ‘I can assure you there’s nothing remotely interesting in watching a kettle come to the boil.’

  ‘There is if you’re the one boiling it.’

  She gave him a schoolmarmish look. ‘Are you flirting with me, Mr Caffarelli?’

  ‘Call me Rafe.’

  ‘Rafe...’ Poppy felt like she had crossed an invisible line by calling him by his preferred name.

  His eyes held hers in an intimate tether. It felt like another line had been crossed, a far more intimate one. Her gaze went to his mouth, as if pulled there by a powerful magnet. Her lips tingled as she wondered what it would feel like to have his pressed against them. Would he kiss firmly or with seductive softness? She felt a tiny shiver pass over her skin as her thoughts continued on their erotic journey... What would it feel like to have his hands cup her breasts or stroke between her...?

  ‘Poppy.’

  ‘Yes?’ Her tongue made a quick darting movement over her lips.

  His mouth tilted in a sexy smile. ‘It’s a cute name. It suits you.’

  Cute? He didn’t think she was stunningly beautiful or gorgeous, just cute, like a puppy or a kitten. ‘Thank you.’ She gave him a tight, on-off smile. ‘Um...the kitchen’s this way.’

  Poppy went through the motion of putting on the kettle but the whole time she was aware of Rafe’s impossibly dark gaze resting on her. She told him how it was important to fill the kettle with fresh cold water each time, and how it was important to warm the teapot before spooning in the leaves—one for each person and one for the pot. ‘Tea always tastes nicer from a china cup,’ she said. ‘Cheap thick, chunky mugs just don’t cut it, I’m afraid.’

  He was looking at her with a smile lurking in those coal-black eyes. ‘Fascinating.’

  ‘Yes, well, I admit I’m a bit old-school about it, but there you go.’ She put a hand-knitted cosy on the teapot and placed it on the tray she had laid out earlier.

  ‘Let me carry that for you.’

  She felt the brush of his fingers against hers as he took the tray. It felt like a charge of electricity shooting to that secret place between her thighs.

  Her eyes locked with his for a pulsing moment.

  His eyes were so dark she couldn’t see where his pupils began or ended. She could smell the clean, male scent of him—the subtle hint of lemon and lime with an understory of something woody and fresh, like a native pine forest. This close she could see the individual pinpoints of his cleanly shaven jaw. Within a few hours it would be dark and prickly around that sculptured mouth and determined chin. Even now it would rasp if she touched it with the softness of her fingertips...

  Poppy curled her fingertips into her palm and shifted her gaze away from his. ‘Right... Well, let’s go and have tea.’

  Once the table was set up, Rafe guided her to her seat with a hand at her elbow. Poppy felt another shiver shimmy up her spine at the contact of his skin on hers. She couldn’t recall a time when she had been more acutely aware of a man. Everything about him stirred her senses until she could hardly get her brain to focus on the task at hand.

  ‘Um...do you take milk?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ He gave her a wry smile. ‘Should I?’

  ‘It rather depends on the
type of tea,’ Poppy said. ‘I drink English breakfast with milk, but I drink Earl Grey, Darjeeling, Russian Caravan and Jasmine black. But at the end of the day, it’s all a matter of personal taste.’

  ‘Give it to me straight, just like my coffee.’

  She poured him a cup and watched as he took a taste. He wrinkled up his nose and put the cup back down in its saucer.

  ‘Well?’

  ‘It’s a bit flavourless.’

  ‘Flavourless?’

  ‘Bland.’

  ‘It’s the highest quality Ceylon tea, for God’s sake,’ Poppy said. ‘What is wrong with your taste buds?’

  ‘Nothing’s wrong with my taste buds. I just don’t like tea.’

  ‘How about if you try it with some milk and sugar?’

  ‘I’ll try the milk but not the sugar.’ He gave her a heart-stopping smile. ‘I’m sweet enough.’

  Poppy rolled her eyes. ‘Here.’ She handed him his cup again. ‘Taste it now.’

  He went through the same routine, wrinkling up his nose as he took a tentative sip. He put the cup back down again. ‘Doesn’t float my boat, I’m afraid.’

  ‘You don’t like it?’

  ‘It’s nondescript.’

  ‘It’s not nondescript,’ she said. ‘It’s subtle.’

  ‘It’s just not my cup of tea.’ He flashed her that grin again. ‘Sorry, no pun intended.’

  Poppy shook her head at him, trying not to smile. He could be incredibly charming when he put his mind to it. She would have to be careful not to let her guard down. He was the enemy. It wouldn’t do to think of him as anything else. ‘You’re incorrigible.’

  ‘That’s what my mother used to say.’

  There was something almost wistful about his tone. She wondered if he was close to his family. She picked up her own cup and took a sip. ‘Where do your parents live? In France or Italy?’

  The light had gone out of his eyes. ‘They don’t.’

  ‘Pardon?’

  ‘They don’t live anywhere. They’re dead. They were killed when I was ten.’