'It's not like you're a stranger, Raphael,' she sneered. 'It's not the first time we've shared a bed.'
'Yes,' he admitted coldly. 'But there have been many men since me, and perhaps you've forgotten how to please me.'
She hadn't forgotten about giving this man pleasure, just as she hadn't forgotten about the pleasure he gave her—she'd lived it a thousand times since they split up! And how could she forget the one man who had truly been her lover? Paul's immature fumblings didn't make him a lover.
'I'm sure it'll all come back to me, Raphael,' she sighs. 'You're not suggesting we go to bed right now to refresh my memory, are you?' Her brows furrowed in mockery.
'And if I were?' he inquired, his eyes hard.
'Of course, I'd have to comply,' she said, her voice bored. 'But I had a feeling you were more sophisticated.' Unless you need my body so badly that you can't wait until later?' She raised her brows, confused.
'Did you spend the afternoon with your agent?' Raphael rasped abruptly.
This abrupt shift in subject concerned her. 'Rod?' she asked, frowning.
'Don't pretend to be innocent, Sophia; you're well aware that I saw you together at lunchtime,' he snapped.
She cocked her head in acknowledgement, despite the fact that she had forgotten about the incident. Raphael had obviously not! 'I also recall you telling me that I needed to tell the current man in my life that it was over between us.'
Raphael's jaw tightened. 'And have you been doing that all afternoon?'
'What I was doing this afternoon is none of your concern,' she said dismissively. 'Our transaction began this evening.'
He tensed up, as if she had struck him. 'Is this the real Sophia Williams, the one you kept hidden from me five years ago?' he grumbled.
'Why, what do you mean?' she mocked.
'You were all sweetness and innocence back then,' he mocked his contempt. 'When my father tried to convince me that your interest was purely mercenary, I told him he was wrong about you.'
Sophia smirked. 'Why should you doubt him when I had already accepted the check?'
'Not then,' he scornfully replied. 'My father tried to warn me prior to that weekend, but I refused to listen.' 'God, I was a fool!'
She averted her gaze, not wanting him to see the anguish in her eyes, hating Darius Mcklerin more than ever at the time. 'You were, weren't you, Brittly?' she agreed.
'Forget about going to bed,' he grumbled disgustedly. 'I find the thought of making love to you right now repulsive!'
She shook her head. 'In that case, I believe you mentioned dinner...? Unless you've also lost your appetite?' She mocked to distract herself from the pain she was inflicting on herself.
'No,' he snarled.
'Where are we going then?'
'We're not going anywhere,' he said emphatically.
'Do we eat here?' The idea didn't appeal to her because the night was already drawing in.
'That's the general idea,' he said, nodding. 'Didn't you make anything for our meal?'
'Me...?'
'Yes, you,' he mockingly said.
'Was I supposed to?' she asked, frowning.
'Do you see anyone else here to get it?' he snidely asked. 'You don't have a housekeeper?'
'I had a woman come in twice a week to keep the place dust-free.'
'Had?' she asked emphatically.
'Mm,' he mockingly said to her. 'I told her not to come in any longer because she won't be needed now that you're here,' she said.
'Are you sure you don't want me to clean the apartment and cook?' She sounded scandalized, despite the fact that the idea didn't sound too bad to her.
She hadn't looked forward to having a third person witness Raphael's contempt for her.
'You never used to mind,' he said, drawingling. 'Actually, you stated that you preferred it.'
'That was five years ago, Raphael,' she brushed off. 'I'm afraid I no longer do floors.' She wore a bored expression.
He gave her a cold stare. 'Then this place is going to get very dirty, and you're going to run out of clean clothes,' he mocked.
'Really, Raphael,' she grumbled. 'You can't be serious about this, can you?'
'Yes, I am.'
'Don't you think I'll be able to make ends meet in other ways?' she asked, her voice raspy.
His lips twisted. 'If my memory serves me correctly, which I'm sure it does, then I know you will,' he said, biting his lower lip. 'However, since you'll be here all day, there's no reason why you shouldn't take care of the apartment and cook.' 'I thought you were only interested in my nights!'
'And now I've changed my mind!' he exclaimed.
'Does this mean you're going to change the terms of our agreement whenever you want?' she asked, frowning.
'Yes!'
'Then I'll have the same right,' she ominously warned.
His pupils constricted into glittering slits. 'What do you mean?' he inquired cautiously.
She shrugged nonchalantly. 'Well, the way things are going, this isn't looking like such a good deal after all. I'll take something better if it comes along.'
She may have thought she'd seen Raphael angry before, but in that moment she realized she'd never even scratched the surface of his rage. He turned almost white with rage, his eyes glacial, his mouth tight, his nostrils pinched, his hands painful on her arms as he shook her roughly.
And in that moment, she realized she had pushed him too far, her act too flawless, Raphael's expression threatening retaliation.
'No way, Raphael—'
'Yes!' he screamed, stilling her hands so she could twist them behind her back as she would have clawed him. 'And it won't be because I crave your body.' He flung her to the carpeted floor beside him, pinning her arms above her head with one of his hands, ripping open the buttons of her blouse to reveal her bared breasts, pulling the denims down her legs, the lace panties beneath tearing at his rough handling. 'It will be because you need to see that this time we'll do things my way!'
'No way, Raphael!' She pleaded with dry sobs as he also didn't bother to undress completely before thrusting himself into her. 'Raphael...!' she screamed angrily.
His face was fierce as he moved above her, one of his hands still holding her hands. 'You've been begging for this since we met again,' he said crudely.
'No,'
'Yes!' he grumbled between clenched teeth, gripped by an uncontrollable desire. 'This is how it will be, Sophia. You didn't expect tenderness from me, did you?' he mocked the emotion.
She wasn't sure what to expect, but this—'! This was killing her, for God's sake! It wasn't just the physical pain—though there was plenty of that, what with the lack of preparation and Raphael being their first lover since their break-up five years ago! But the emotional and mental anguish was even worse, with Raphael treating her as if she were a sex slave.
Raphael's face was solemn. 'I'm going out to dinner; if you want to join me, you should dress appropriately,' he announced icily.
She moisturized her swollen lips. 'I—I think I'd rather stay here,' she says.
'Are you not hungry?'
'No,' she choked, sickened, wondering how he could think about food after what he had just done to her.
He shrugged his broad shoulders. 'I'll see you later,' she says.
Even when she heard the apartment door close behind him, Sophia couldn't move, her emotions in turmoil. Raphael had treated her like a savage, and then he had calmly left to go out to dinner, his evening clothes providing him with the physical cloak of a sophisticate. God, how he must despise her to have subjected her to such humiliation, to have treated her as if she were a mindless body with no feelings or desires of her own.
It took her over an hour to drag herself out of the chair and into the bedroom, where she climbed beneath the cool sheets of the bed to stare up at the ceiling.