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He killed the engine and turned to her as soon as they were parked outside his magnificent villa.

‘I know what you’re going to say,’ Hope said. ‘I haven’t changed my mind. I still want you, Javier. I still want to sleep with you.’

* * *

Right there and then, Javier could have taken her. She was beyond tempting.

Looking at her now, it took every ounce of straining willpower not to get her into the house and into a bed as fast as humanly possible.

Desire had never felt so overwhelming. He was a red-blooded, virile male but he didn’t think he’d ever wanted any woman the way he wanted this one.

As long as she didn’t confuse lust with love, then how could he hope for anything better? Would she start getting ideas?

Just the thought of any woman imagining for a second that he might be open to love, commitment and a trip down the aisle brought him out in a cold sweat.

Just the thought of surrendering himself to anyone, handing his heart over to anyone so that it could be damaged when things came crashing down, made him feel sick. The pain of losing his parents had broken him and that was something he’d had to accept. Of course, he loved his brother, but that love would always be different to the sort of love that would come with a relationship. Loving a woman required levels of trust, faith and a willingness for every part of him to be exposed. He just didn’t have that in him. He never would.

He opened his mouth to issue another cautionary warning, but she spoke before he could.

‘When I say I want you,’ Hope told him, her green eyes sombre, ‘I mean…that’s all there is to it.’

* * *

Hope could drown in those deep, dark eyes of his. Every second spent in the car had felt like a waste of precious time but there was some part of her that needed to state the obvious. Even if only to remind herself of the pitfalls of sleeping with a man like Javier.

Sure, he wasn’t one of those losers her mother had once dated, but there were enough similarities for her to know that she would have to be careful around him. She would have to protect her heart.

She would never fall into the sort of trap her mother had been so fond of falling into.

‘Explain.’

Hope looked at Javier thoughtfully. ‘I mean… I learnt a lot from my mother’s mistakes. I know you’re different from the rich guys who used to pick my mother up and drop her like a hot potato just as soon as they got bored. But…what happens here, now, between us… It stays here.’

‘Meaning?’

‘This is like a little bubble.’ She half smiled. ‘Like you said, it doesn’t make any sense…’

‘Although we strangely do get along.’

‘I thought I annoyed you.’

‘Challenge is a better word.’

‘At any rate, once we find Carlos, this thing between us is over. You’re not what I’m looking for and I’ve seen how easy it is to end up wasting time with a guy who doesn’t fit the bill.’

‘You don’t pull any punches, do you?’

‘Maybe that’s something we have in common.’

‘That works for me,’ Javier told her gruffly, but did it? Of course, it sorted out the potential problem of her thinking that there might be more between them than there was just because they happened to have had sex but this was a novel situation. He hadn’t expected to find himself on the receiving end of the very cautionary warning he’d been preparing to deliver himself.

And what had she meant by this being like a little bubble, anyway?

It felt vaguely insulting.

He shook his head to clear it of ridiculous notions and focused on the fact that at least they were both singing from the same sheet.

‘Enough talk,’ he said as he pulled her into him. This time his kiss was ravishingly intense. An assault on all her senses.