Page 42 of His Innocent for One Spanish Night

There was nothingtonotice, of course.

Everyone else simply carried on working, presumably more used to his presence than she. Yet she could smell that gorgeous cologne...and was rather too aware of his thighs just inches from her hands. More than that, she knew she was blushing and awkward now. She’d arrived back from her first flamenco lesson so exhilarated and bold, but her newfound confidence had soon faded.

‘Emily?’

There was a note to his voice that had her stomach folding in on itself, but his rejection still stung, and so she carried on typing as she gave a curt, ‘Yes?’

‘Can you stop?’

He put his hand over hers and removed it from the keyboard. She refused to acknowledge the effect his touch had, just looked up and somehow managed to meet his eyes.

‘Sorry.’ She put her hands in her lap and gave him her full attention. ‘What did you want to discuss?’

‘I can’t give you an answer to your question.’

‘That’s fine,’ Emily responded. ‘I’ll do two versions dealing with the label and your father’s bio.’

‘That would be best.’

‘One more thing,’ she said as he moved to go. ‘Is there a photo of all five of you? Only I’ve been through the archives—’

‘There’s no photo of the five of us.’

‘I thought there might be one at the family home. I’m happy to look myself if you just point me in the right direction.’

‘There are no photos of the five of us. Maria put on a bit of weight when she was pregnant with Carmen and didn’t want to be photographed until she’d recovered her figure.’

‘Oh...’ Emily said, trying to pretend that what he’d said was completely fine instead of entirely messed up. ‘It was just an idea.’

‘I would leave that one well alone, too. There really aren’t many happy family photos... Maria always liked to be centre stage.’

‘Good to know,’ she said, and then thought of earlier, when she’d said,Good for him, with that sarcastic edge. ‘I wasn’t being facetious that time. I really do mean it’s good to know...’

And it was good to know a little more about him...although of course that wasn’t what she was trying to convey.

‘I might have started planning a family page or something like that...’

‘Well, I’ve saved you some time.’

‘You have.’

‘So, youwerebeing facetious before?’

‘A bit...’ she admitted, and watched the way his face was changed by the ghost of a smile.

Aside from the fact that he was incredibly beautiful, there was something about him that moved her. She could see the tension around his eyes and mouth dissolving, just with that small shift of his sensual lips.

They were in an office, with others present, and nothing untoward had happened at all, because Andrés came over, and chatted with Alejandro about cyber land for a moment, and how the sherry was performing on some blockchain.

It was all gobbledegook to Emily, and yet she wished—how she wished—that they would carry on talking for ages, simply because it was so nice to have him here.

‘Right,’ Alejandro said, as Andrés headed back to his desk. ‘I’ll let you get on. Two versions...’

‘Yes.’

He nodded, and looked at her with brown eyes that seemed to want to say something else...eyes that were dangerous to her self-control.

Eyes that were so dangerous that as she came home from work Emily didn’t fully close the front door...

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