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‘I’m afraid you’ll have to take me as I am.’
‘My pleasure.’
‘I don’t have anything clean to wear,’ Sophie explained, viewing her bloodstained jeans. It was a relief to have something else to stare at apart from Xavier’s dark eyes.
He could find no way past her defences. ‘That isn’t a problem. You know my mother,’ he added when Sophie looked at him blankly. ‘She insisted there should be a boutique here. Go,’ he said, gesturing towards the bathroom when she hesitated. ‘I’ll be back in about an hour.’
She had no money to shop. But there was a fluffy cream robe hanging in the bathroom, Sophie remembered. She would just have to put her underwear on after her bath and wear that.
Back in his own suite, Xavier wondered why, of all the doctors in the world, fate had sent him Sophie Ford. Taking a moment to consider, he felt the unmistakable tug of sexual hunger—and it was getting stronger all the time. Why, of all the women in the world, did he want her so badly? And why—when it should have been a simple matter to take her to bed—was he making them both wait? Maybe because the last time he’d seen her she was just a kid. But now… Folding his arms across his chest, Xavier’s expression hardened as he eased on to one hip and stared unseeing through the window into the darkness. She was an adult member of the Ford family. She deserved everything she had coming to her. The chase was on, he mused grimly. The champagne aperitif to the full-bodied claret of sex—he loved them both.
The only thing holding him back was that the suggestion of a relationship with a member of the Ford family might be enough to return his mother to her sickbed. He couldn’t—he wouldn’t risk it. She had suffered enough pain at the hands of the Ford family. But then, what he had planned for Sophie Ford wasn’t about to cause his mother a moment’s discomfort, Xavier reminded himself.
He ground his jaws together as he conjured up a picture of Sophie naked and demanding in his mind. She wasn’t afraid to stand up to him, and she would come to his bed, he determined with a harsh smile of anticipation. She was a modern woman—she understood her own needs as well as he knew his own. He would take his pleasure and they would go their separate ways. The irony in the situation appealed to him. It was a relationship that would suit them both—the temptress and the avenger—both finding satisfaction in their own way.
Sophie could have remained soaking in the warm, scented bubbles till night, but a soft female voice coming from the bedroom brought her to her senses. By the time she had climbed out of the Jacuzzi and wrapped herself in the robe, there was no one to be seen. But someone had been in the room, and that someone had left half a dozen carrier bags behind. On top of one of them lay a stiff ivory vellum card printed with the del Condor name in a flourish at the top. Picking it up, Sophie read the bold black handwriting underneath.
Now don’t be difficult. Consider these an advance on your wages. Xavier.
She should have known his mother would include a fashionable boutique in her plans. But she should refuse, Sophie thought, viewing the line of carrier bags suspiciously. She would refuse, she decided firmly.
It wouldn’t hurt to take a peek inside them first.
She couldn’t refuse, she realised, swallowing hard.
Letting the robe drop to the floor, she plucked out some underwear first: a cobweb of lace held together by a ribbon of silk. Turning it this way and that, she decided he had got the size about right—and then blushed. Xavier had weighed her up pretty accurately, Sophie realised as she settled her breasts inside the minimalist restraint. The matching thong was something else—it tied at the sides. She made a double knot, and then lost the best part of five minutes and two nails undoing it again. He was hardly going to pounce on her; that wasn’t Xavier’s style. Looping it once, she turned back to the carrier bags. Wide-legged linen trousers in cream, and a sky-blue silk sleeveless top with a low-cut neck were simply irresistible, if only because she had never imagined in a million years she would get the chance to wear anything so glamorous in her life, let alone in Peru.
It was almost impossible to convince herself she had made a practical choice for eating dinner and discussing business—but she kept the clothes on anyway, and slipped her feet into some simple cream leather mules she found in another bag.
‘Are you ready yet? Can I come in?’
‘Just a minute.’ Dinner and business—and nothing more, Sophie reminded herself fiercely, as she hunted through the remaining bags. Somewhere she had seen some toiletries—basic make-up, a hairbrush…
‘Make yourself decent. I’m coming in.’
Groaning with frustration, she emptied all the bags out on the floor and then pounced on what she needed.
She looked like a child on Christmas Day, Xavier thought. His heart lurched in a way he hadn’t anticipated as he watched Sophie rooting through clouds of tissue paper and the new clothes he had sent her as a prelude to seduction. ‘I’ll go out again if you’re not quite ready,’ he offered casually.
‘No, no, that’s fine. I’m ready,’ Sophie said, hastily gathering everything up. ‘This is far too much,’ she protested as he walked over to help her. ‘I’ll never be able to pay you back.’
‘Don’t be too sure,’ Xavier murmured as he picked up the beautiful designer swimming costume she had just dropped on the floor. ‘I’ll get my money’s worth out of you one way or the other.’
‘Don’t you be too sure,’ Sophie countered, ignoring the icy fingers that clutched at her spine as their gazes met.
Dinner was possibly the most delicious meal Sophie had ever tasted in her life: a selection of pasta in the lightest, most flavoursome sauces, and salads designed to seduce the palate. There were so many delicacies she couldn’t even begin to try them all.
‘I hope you have left space for dessert,’ Xavier said finally. They were sitting on dining chairs covered in the vibrant local weave at a small table next to the window on her open-fronted veranda with flickering candles as their only light.
‘I’m not sure I could,’ Sophie admitted, dabbing her lips with the huge linen napkin.
‘But you must,’ Xavier insisted, ringing a bell.
While the earlier courses were being removed he turned the conversation to medical matters as he had promised. Sophie felt her defences wavering. Xavier’s passion for the project was infectious, and the semifreddo concoction of moist, light sponge cake and ice cream he had ordered to finish the meal was irresistible too, she mused happily, thinking herself foolish for ever doubting his intentions. He had his ghosts from the past, sure, but under it all he was still Xavier—and a brilliant doctor now. And who would have followed him to Peru if he hadn’t been straightforward…trustworthy… For some reason her mind switched to the thought of him choosing her underwear.
‘Good?’ he murmured.
Could he read minds too? ‘Absolutely perfect.’ She risked the double entendre.
‘You never answered the question I put to you in the truck regarding your relationship status.’
Sophie came to with a jolt as he took her off guard. ‘I did,’ she argued. ‘I told you then it was none of your business. It’s still none of your business.’
‘So, nothing too serious then,’ he said, capturing her glance with his dangerous blue eyes.
‘I didn’t say that.’
‘You didn’t have to.’
‘And you know that, how?’ she demanded.
‘Quite simple.’ He tossed his napkin aside. ‘No man, having captured you, would release you immediately to fly to Peru.’
‘I am not a bird, Xavier,’ Sophie said coolly. ‘I make my own decisions when and where I travel. Can we change the subject?’ He inclined his head graciously, but not before she had seen the gleam of something in his eyes that made her uneasy.
‘Let’s talk about your job here,’ he said after a few moments.
Sophie relaxed again. But when that conversation faltered he turned back to their sleeping arrangements.
She stiffe
ned immediately. ‘You said you were right next door—’
‘At Reception, yes,’ he agreed. ‘Seeing if there were any more rooms available.’
‘You mean there aren’t any?’ Sophie swallowed back her panic.
Xavier shrugged. ‘What if I told you that is the case?’ He smiled wryly to himself as he waited for her reply. For once in his life the outcome to an invitation to spend the night with him was uncertain. It should have pricked his pride, but it only served to heighten his desire for her. She was almost as skilled at the chase as he was.
Sophie followed his gaze. It was a very large bed. ‘No problem at all,’ she said, levelling a clear violet blue stare at him. ‘You can sleep in the truck.’
Her reply only fuelled his hunger. It amused him too. ‘Ouch!’ His lips tugged up in a wry smile. ‘Do you treat all your men mean? Or is it just me?’
Was he flirting with her? Sophie wondered, wishing she could put a hand round her heart to stop it bouncing about in her chest. ‘So, are there any rooms?’ she said, in an attempt to steer the conversation out of the danger zone.
