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Javier watched as Hope approached him.

‘Can I help you?’ she asked him politely.

Javier looked down into wide green eyes, a heart-shaped face and a tumble of long auburn hair that had been pulled back into a loose braid. Her skin was pale and satiny smooth with a dusting of freckles. She was waif slender and very slight, at least compared to him. Five foot four tops. And no artists’ smock. Instead, she wore jeans and a jumper.

‘You can if you’re Hope Jamieson. Are you?’

‘Yes, I am,’ she replied. ‘If I can just hurry this along, you can help yourself to a brochure on the table right next to you if it’s one of my courses you’re after.’

She nodded brusquely to a table right next to him. ‘Or you can find me online. Just search for my name.’

So this was the woman his brother was involved with. Not a girl of nineteen but a woman and a stupidly pretty one. How Carlos might have met her was a mystery. Surely they wouldn’t have been mixing in the same circles?

His brother was completing his degree in Business and Economics while this woman… She seemed to be in charge of some kind of art class. He caught himself staring at her and was annoyed with himself for having been distracted by a pretty face.

‘I’d rather have a word,’ he said flatly.

‘This isn’t a good time. As you can see, I have a full class and it’ll be half an hour before they finish here. Having a word is out of the question.’

Javier shifted and frowned. Her cool voice contained a reprimand and that was something he wasn’t used to.

However, what could he do?

He was on the back foot and it was dawning on him at speed that getting what he wanted might not be as straightforward as he’d assumed.

What had he expected to find? Carlos almost never mentioned the people he mixed with. The fact that he had mentioned this particular woman on several occasions was telling in and of itself. Even so, the details had been scant.

All he’d been told was that Hope was funny and creative and lived in London. And he knew that his brother had seemed to spend a lot of time with her.

He didn’t have a lot to go on.

That said, he’d never associated his brother with being involved with a woman who looked as though attack mode was her default position. Where was the giggly young thing he’d expected to find?

‘I’ll wait.’

‘Suit yourself,’ she said in response.

‘That’s not exactly a welcoming approach to eager new recruits.’

Javier watched the slow tinge of colour stain her cheeks and felt a kick of sexual awareness that shocked and infuriated him.

Hope sighed.

Why bother pretending that she didn’t know who the man was? Sooner or later she would have to admit that she knew exactly who he was and why he was at her workshop.

‘You’re not a new recruit, though, are you?’

‘What makes you say that?’

‘Many reasons starting with the fact that I’ve never had a single person interested in this course who’s shown up wearing shiny shoes and designer gear.’

‘The shoes aren’t shiny and just for the record they’re handmade.’

‘That’s worse and even more of a giveaway. Shiny, handmade shoes don’t go well with paint and glue, and there’s a lot of paint and glue here.’

‘I see…’ Javier drawled.

He lounged against the doorframe and stared down at her, admiring the pugnacious set of her full mouth and her confrontational stance.