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The woman was like no one else he’d ever met in his life, he thought as he strode across the room, deftly avoiding calls from other colleagues to come and join their conversations. The woman drew him in, slowly, inexorably, until suddenly he’d found himself about to tell her personal details he would never willingly share with anyone else; it was altogether too...disquieting.
He’d known he was attracted to her ever since he’d seen her give that lecture. But he hadn’t been prepared for this. The way she made the air sparkle around her.
Around him.
If he’d thought her career drive and passion, her ability to shape the medical landscape with every project she undertook, was intriguing, then it was only exceeded by her captivating voice, her Delphian smile, her mesmerising body. Flávia Maura was utterly intoxicating.
And he was already captivated.
Reaching the lobby now, Jake slid his mobile out of his pocket. Once he’d ensured that Brady was all right, he would go back and find Flávia. He still had a plethora of questions for her, but this time he was prepared for her.
This time he wouldn’t allow her to slide into his head.
* * *
‘I was beginning to think you’d left.’
Flávia spun around with a low gasp. She’d thought she’d be alone here, in the botanical gardens, where no one else was likely to want to venture at this hour. Especially since, as Jake had told her earlier, they had indeed been locked up and she’d had to bribe the hotel’s concierge to let her sneak in for a few moments.
Sometimes, it seemed, being the infamously mad jungle woman did have its merits.
‘You startled me.’
‘My apologies,’ he offered. Only, he didn’t seem remotely repentant.
Much the same way that he’d refused to apologise for having Isabella change the seating arrangements last minute.
She told herself not to feel so flattered.
‘I’ve spoken to Isabella,’ she told him before she could stop herself. ‘She confirmed that you asked her to change the table plans for the sole reason of talking to me.’
‘You needed confirmation?’ He looked unperturbed, and she flushed slightly.
Still, she was determined to stand her ground.
‘She also told me that you declined her offer to bump me up to your original table.’
He didn’t answer, though he lifted his shoulders—yet somehow it was too gentlemanly to be a crude shrug.
‘You didn’t want Silvio Delgado causing a scene and making me feel uncomfortable.’
It was a stab in the dark, not even an educated guess, but when after the briefest pause Jake dipped his head, she knew she was right.
That he should have been so considerate to her roared through her like a battle cry, screaming at her to fight this insane attraction to a man she barely knew.
Even if her years of following his work made it feel like otherwise.
‘How did you know I was in here, anyway?’ She tried to pull the conversation back onto safer ground.
‘I’ve been looking for you for the past half hour when I remembered you were heading for here earlier to hide out after that first incident with Delgado. What are you doing in here alone?’
‘I’m not hiding out,’ she snapped, a little too sharply.
His mouth pulled at the corners and, too late, she realised he’d been baiting her and she’d fallen for it.
‘Anyway, why were you looking for me? I thought you were meeting someone?’
It was such an obvious attempt to change the topic and yet, despite his attempt to give himself space and regroup, for some inexplicable reason Jake heard himself replying to Flávia.
