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So, she knew who he was and had decided to buy a little time by feigning ignorance. In her shoes, he might have pulled the same stunt. However, she was going to tell him what he wanted to know. No amount of time buying was going to work for her when it came to that. But at that moment he found that he was enjoying the repartee and was in no immediate rush to end it.

* * *

‘You’re Carlos’s brother. I don’t know why you’re here but now’s really not a good time to talk.’ She glanced over her shoulder to see that most of the class had stopped what they were doing and were shamelessly ogling them. ‘You’re distracting my students,’ she said curtly. ‘So you can remove yourself from my workshop and maybe set up a meeting for when I have more time on my hands.’

‘No can do.’

As they stared at one another, Hope could feel the implacable weight of Javier’s dark eyes on her.

Unrelenting and politely, coldly unyielding.

This was the guy Carlos had described to her—the heir to the Mendoza dynasty. He was the man who had run his family’s vast empire from the tender age of twenty-three. He’d been fresh out of university, when the trustees who had kept things ticking over had stepped aside and handed him the keys to an empire he had been born into.

Their parents had both died in a car crash when Javier had been a boy of fifteen and Carlos just five.

‘He’s tough, scary…’ Carlos had once told her. ‘No one crosses Javier.’

Hope was now inclined to think that Carlos might have been a little lenient with that description.

‘I’ll wait quietly in the corner until you’re through here,’ Javier said. ‘Then we can talk.’

Hope raised both eyebrows and folded her arms.

‘I’m not sure my students will be able to concentrate with you here,’ she said bluntly. ‘However quietly you decide to wait in a corner.’

‘I’m sure they’ll give it a shot. Besides, isn’t that your job? To guide your pupils in the right direction? Away from distracting influences and onto whatever it is they’re doing?’

He smiled but his dark eyes remained unflinchingly cool. Hope’s breath hitched in her throat.

Javier wasn’t just good-looking. Carlos was good-looking but this guy was spectacular.

‘Just don’t make a noise,’ she ordered sharply. ‘And don’t touch anything.’

She spun round on her heels, hot and bothered. He obediently strolled towards the back of the room where he promptly began distracting everyone by gazing at the photos and paintings on the walls, head tilted to one side, hands clasped behind his back, oozing wealth and sophistication.

Hope found her eyes flicking over to him every five minutes. Even when she was focused on one of her students, advising them on something or other, she could still see the wretched man out of the corner of her eye, like the dark, looming presence of a hangman.

By the time the final student had left, she was a bag of nerves.

‘Not bad stuff,’ was the first thing he said to her, waiting for her to walk towards him as he perched against one of the tables.

‘Thank you.’

‘How long have you been doing this?’

‘Are we going to do pleasantries now, Javier? Or should I call you Senor Mendoza?’

‘It’s nice that my little brother’s mentioned me to you. It’s cold in here. Why don’t we go somewhere else for our chat? Somewhere with functioning central heating?’

Hope hesitated. ‘I suppose we could do that but only because I need to lock up now.’

‘Great. Where is there to eat around here? My driver can take us anywhere you choose.’

‘We don’t have to eat. Also I… I have plans for later. I can chat but not for long.’

‘Cancel your plans.’

‘Sorry?’