Mills & Boon Stars Collection: Passionate Bargains. Michelle Smart

through the pages and pages of analysis and reports Raul had completed, then, still calm, had walked to his office window, opened it, and thrown the pages out onto the street below.

      Then he’d turned back to his son and said, ‘That’s what I think of your ideas.’

      After twenty-two years of Raul’s being on the receiving end of his father’s relentless criticism, something inside him had snapped. He’d walked out of his father’s office without a word, returned to the family home, packed his bags, and left, using the small cash inheritance he’d received when Nestor died to rent an apartment and invest in a friend’s fledgling technology business. He’d recouped his investment in three months and immediately set out to invest in another.

      He’d spent his entire life striving to be the perfect son his father wanted; now he was going to be the man he wanted to be. What he wanted above all else was to be nothing like his father.

      As his business had grown, not once had his father asked any questions about it. Raul had no idea whether he had been pleased or disappointed that his only son had bailed on the family firm. When they had been together as a family no one had spoken of or alluded to it; not even his mother, who came from a wealthy, high-society family in her own right. So long as Raul had still played at being the dutiful son, kept the perfect Cazorla face intact, joined them at important family functions and kept the family name away from the scandal rags that had been good enough for her.

      He was pulled out of his reminiscences when a dark blue minibus drove into the grounds and pulled up beside him. He paid little attention to it until he caught the figure getting out of the driver’s side.

      While he was processing the image of Charley driving a minibus, she spotted him and, unsmiling, held up a hand and mouthed, ‘Five minutes.’

      He shoved his door open. ‘We need to leave now. You’re late enough as it is.’

      ‘I did warn you,’ she replied with a nonchalant shrug. ‘I need to drop the keys back in and sign off. I won’t be long.’

      She hurried off in her jeans-clad legs and disappeared through the double front door.

      He could still hardly believe his wife was wearing jeans. He didn’t think he’d ever seen her in a pair before.

      When he’d refused to take her back to her house in Valencia the night before, although promising to get her to work on time that morning, she hadn’t argued. He’d been quietly satisfied that she was adapting to his authority well, right until he’d discovered her missing. She’d returned a couple of hours later with a bag of shopping, saying, ‘You can hardly expect me to go to work wearing Chanel.’ Thus she had proceeded to take herself off to one of the spare rooms she’d appropriated for her own use, locked the door, and refused to come out until the morning.

      He’d been sorely tempted to kick said door down but had refrained from losing his cool in any fashion. He’d left her alone, dining on marinated fillet of pork while she stayed hungry, stewing in her own righteousness.

      Come Friday she would be in his bedroom with him. If she refused, she knew what the consequences would be. No more funds for her pet project.

      When she reappeared exactly five minutes later, she got into the car and slammed the door.

      ‘You’re doing that deliberately, aren’t you?’ he said through gritted teeth.

      ‘Sorry.’

      She didn’t sound in the least bit sorry.

      Grinding his teeth some more, he reversed, turned round and drove out of the car park.

      ‘Why were you driving that thing anyway?’

      ‘I was taking some of the kids home.’

      Now he recalled her mention of her car the day before. ‘When did you pass your driving test?’

      ‘A year ago.’

      ‘I always said there was nothing to be frightened of and that you were capable of driving over here.’ She’d learned to drive in England but had never taken a test. Despite all his cajoling and his offer to buy her any car she desired, she’d always flatly refused to get behind the wheel of a car in Spain.

      It felt like a slap to know she’d waited until she was out of his life before trying for her licence.

      ‘You’re always right,’ Charley said shortly, thinking of all the times she’d heard the words ‘I told you’ from his lips, before quickly adding, ‘I needed to be able to drive for the job. We take it in turns to collect the kids and drop them back, at least for the ones whose parents don’t drive.’

      Looking back, she couldn’t believe it had taken her so long to take her test. She’d been even more surprised when she’d passed first time. She’d been convinced she was going to fail.

      When the examiner had told her she’d passed, her first impulse had been to call Raul and share the news with him. Finally she’d passed something—it had been a heady moment.

      ‘I assume you charge extra for the taxiing service?’ he said.

      She shot him a look. ‘Of course we don’t.’

      ‘That’s something that will have to change. You’re throwing money away.’

      Charley breathed deeply, biting back every nasty name she wanted to throw at him.

      She’d always known her husband was materialistic but this was something else. How could he have such an attitude towards those poor children?

      ‘Do you know where I live?’ she asked, deliberately changing the subject before she gave in to the urge to punch him.

      ‘Your address was on the divorce papers.’

      They lapsed into silence for the rest of the short journey to her home.

      ‘This is your house?’ Raul asked when he pulled into her driveway.

      ‘Not what you were expecting?’

      ‘I was expecting something more lavish.’ His lips formed a mocking smile. ‘What happened? Did you have to sell up when the money started to run out?’

      She kept her gaze on him even. ‘I bought this house six months after I left you. Lavish is your style, not mine.’ Her two-bedroom villa was modest but more than adequate for her needs. It might not have its own swimming pool or a beach at the bottom of the garden but nor did it have so many rooms she needed a map to find her way around.

      ‘That’s not how I remember things.’

      Oh, yes. That was right. He thought she was a gold-digger. ‘I don’t control your memories.’

      ‘And neither do you control your finances.’

      Fighting the rising anger, Charley tugged at her bag and rummaged through for her keys. ‘Let’s get this done.’

      Inside, she headed straight to her bedroom and began to pack, carefully placing her clothes into the same Louis Vuitton suitcases she’d used when she’d left him. She could hear Raul giving himself a tour of her home. It was a very short tour. Minutes later he was in her room watching her put the last of her stuff into the cases.

      ‘Are you nearly done?’

      ‘Yes. Whatever we can’t fit in the car today I’ll collect on Friday.’ On Friday they would be coming back to Valencia. She would work at the centre while Raul finalised the purchase of the new building. As far as Raul was concerned, her shift at the centre would be her last. She wasn’t prepared to argue about it until the deeds were signed and in her hands.

      Raul heaved her cases off the bed and carried them to the car. Charley slipped into the spare room she used as an office and gathered all her plans together.

      ‘What’s that?’ he asked, entering the tiny space a short while later, standing behind her and immediately making it feel even more cramped