Page 220

‘Now you’re beginning to sound a little smug,’ Javier chided with lazy amusement. ‘Maybe I should point out that too much self-satisfaction is a recipe for boredom. No more ambitions left on your plate, Hope?’

‘Well, I’d like to get married… Have kids someday. Wouldn’t we all?’

‘I currently don’t have that particular goal on my agenda. And when the marriage and the kids are under your belt? No regrets that fun might have been a little thin on the ground?’

‘I’ve had my fun,’ Hope told him politely. ‘It wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.’

‘Ah. A broken heart.’

Javier could hear the tension beneath the lightness of her voice and his imagination immediately fired up.

She’d drifted into parting with information she hadn’t intended to share. She’d straightened and was no longer looking at him. Her face was flushed as she began faffing around, gathering up her stuff.

‘Oh…’ he said casually, parroting what she’d said only minutes earlier, ‘…and by the way, you don’t really have to answer my question.’

She pursed her lips and shot him a defensive look from behind the lenses of her sunglasses.

He grinned.

‘If you must know, my heart wasn’t broken,’ she muttered.

‘Not broken but bruised enough for you to decide to do away with fun and batten down the hatches?’

‘I still have lots of fun.’

‘Glad to hear it.’

Her body language was defensive now, her tone likewise. Everything about her was bristling with self-righteous indignation.

She looked magnificently, wonderfully, thrillingly sexy. Just like that Javier reached out and traced the outline of her jaw with his finger.

For a few heart-stopping seconds, they stared at one another. He was the first to pull back.

He swung away from her. He could feel the dark flush spreading on the back of his neck and the sudden raging turmoil in his head made his movements clumsy and un-coordinated.

He had to breathe in deeply before he dared turn around. When he did, he saw her clambering out of the boat with a lot more grace than he had.

Her cap was back on and she didn’t look at all disconcerted by the sudden electrifying chemistry he felt between them.

‘What an amazing spot, Javier!’

She ignored his outstretched hand and hopped nimbly into the water, which barely came up to her thighs.

‘Perfect for some convincing photos. Would you mind bringing my stuff? I can’t wait to get shooting!’

CHAPTER SEVEN

‘SO…’

Javier quietly closed the front door behind them after three hours of overbright, overenthusiastic chit-chat, during which every topic under the sun had been covered except for the one she had been determined to avoid.

‘I think I’ll head up and have a bit of a rest after all that sun, sand and sea.’

Javier lounged against the wall and looked at her with his head tilted to the side.

‘And about what happened between us?’

‘Did something happen between us? I don’t remember anything happening between us.’ She shot him a look of simmering challenge from under her lashes. ‘I’ll admit I did get a little spooked when we were coming back and the water got a little choppy. Is that what you’re talking about? I blame my lack of swimming lessons while I was growing up. I can do a very passable dog paddle and, at a push, a bit of breaststroke. But the thought of being tossed into the middle of the ocean? Quite scary.’ She smiled stiffly at him but then found it difficult to tear her eyes away.