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Julie said she’d called her Hope because when she’d given birth, alone and abandoned by a rich pop star who had turned his back on her, she’d hoped that her daughter would avoid making the mistakes that she’d made.

Her mother had certainly preached all the right things over the years. She had never shied away from looking at the insecurities and neediness that had driven her choices. She had also instilled in Hope the mantra that falling for rich guys was always a mistake, yet it was a mantra that she had never adopted for herself. At least not while Hope had been growing up. It had taken a long, long time for her mother to finally heed the advice she’d always given her daughter and it only came after she’d been conned by a fraudster.

Hope had watched helplessly from the sidelines as her beautiful, fragile mother kept falling for men who told her exactly what she wanted to hear and flattered her with expensive gifts before they grew bored and walked away.

Because rich guys, in the end, married rich girls.

Meanwhile, Julie had continued to wait tables and work behind tills. She finally found work in a florist’s shop, which she loved, where she still worked as she tried to get her finances back in order.

So, this disturbing attraction Hope felt towards Javier? Rich, arrogant, dismissive, coldly self-assured Javier.

It confused and frightened her because it bucked against all the principles she’d had in place for so long.

Hope gathered herself.

‘Are those security guards by those gates?’

‘The security is very discreet,’ Javier murmured. ‘It’s virtually impossible to get past the gates that protect most of the villas here. We’ll be at my place very shortly.’

‘Carlos has keys?’

‘Yes, keys and access codes. Everyone else has to come to me if they want to use any of the villas I own.’

‘Hmm…’ Hope mused. ‘No wonder you have such a God complex if everyone has to come running to you for this, that and the other…’

Javier burst out laughing.

‘You’re the woman who finds me annoying? It seems we might have something in common when it comes to the ability to be annoying.’

The easy, lazy amusement in his voice made her blush but she didn’t respond. Instead she chose to stare out of the window as the car made its way towards impressive gates that opened silently for them.

They were in the middle of a gated community where the villas were all separated by acres of land.

The car continued to move up the hill. Hope craned her neck and could just about make out the ocean below where the cliffs plunged downwards into the sea.

Then they drove through another set of gates before Javier’s villa eventually appeared in the distance—a feat of glass, steel and warm stone ablaze under floodlights surround by a sprawl of landscaped gardens.

Javier hadn’t been here in months. The last time he visited he had brought a contingent of clients for the weekend so that they could hammer out the fine details of a deal that had been ongoing for several weeks.

It was impossible to tell if Carlos was at the villa. Even when no one was there, the villa and gardens were always lit up using timer switches to make sure the lawns were kept watered.

‘Are you okay?’ Hope asked, as the car slowed to a stop outside the impressive villa.

‘Why wouldn’t I be?’

‘You must be nervous.’

‘I don’t do nerves. No point.’

‘Oh. Right.’

* * *

Hope stared at the house in front of her, vaguely aware of Javier making a call asking someone to ready the helicopter as and when they wanted to return to the airport.

‘Carlos isn’t here,’ she said flatly as they walked towards the front door. They left the chauffeur to bring their bags, such as they were, inside.

‘And you know that because…?’