Page 34 of His Innocent for One Spanish Night

He turned his head and looked at her.

‘I’ve never done anything...’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘I’ve never slept with anyone...’

‘What?’ He frowned. ‘But you lived with your fiancé...’

‘We had separate bedrooms.’ She wanted to run away, but there really wasn’t any point, given they were miles from anywhere and he was the one with the car. ‘He said it was for religious reasons, and I accepted that.’

‘Look I’m a good Catholic boy, well-lapsed, and it never stopped me...’ Then he stopped joking. ‘Are you serious?’

‘Yes, but it doesn’t have to change things. I mean, just because I’ve never...’

‘You’re telling me that you’re a virgin?’

‘Please don’t make it sound like an ailment...’

‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘No, it’s more a...’

He tried to think of a more suitable word, but where Alejandro was concerned possibly she’d chosen right.

‘Emily, it changes a lot of things. Look, I want you, but I don’t want...’ How best to say it? ‘I think if you’ve waited this long, why throw it away on someone who...?’ He was trying to be honest. ‘It makes sense now.’

‘What does?’

‘We were so hot for each other last night...we should have ended up in bed.’

‘So, you’d have been fine if it had just been a pick-up in a bar?’

‘What’s wrong with that?’

‘Everything.’

‘See?’ he said gently. ‘You do want more.’

‘I’d want more than one night,’ she admitted, surprising herself with how, even on such a personal topic, she found it easy to be honest with him. ‘Gosh, can’t I have a little romance with my sex, please? I’m not asking for life...’

‘Emily...’ He looked into her eyes and with clear regret shook his head. ‘I don’t do romance.’

She would have liked to refute that, because as he helped her up they stood under the lights that he’d arranged to be turned on just for her. And under the starry Jerez night, he was kind...

It was the most romance she had ever known.

It was a horrible walk back to the car.

There, he dusted them off. He even kept one of those lint rollers in the car.

‘Do you keep one handy for all the times you take virgins out into the Romero vineyards?’ she asked.

He didn’t laugh at her joke—just brushed himself down and very neatly did up his tie.

Then there was the long journey home.

Not unpleasant...not tense.

They just talked about work, and the odd cloud formation, and how there were more nails in professional dancers’ flamenco shoes than the cheaper ones.

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