Page 3 of His Innocent for One Spanish Night

She and Gordon’s relationship had never been passionate enough for that.

‘Tell him to take care of the sale of his own business,’ Anna said. ‘He’s used you enough.’

Emily said nothing, just pressed her lips together so that her tense breath blew white out of her nostrils.

‘Mummy, look!’ a delighted Willow said as she ran back to them. ‘Emily’s a dragon.’

‘Half-dragon,’ Emily said, taking her goddaughter’s hand on one side as Anna did the same on the other. ‘Whole dragons breathe fire.’

‘Are you really half-dragon?’ Willow asked.

‘I’m trying to be,’ Emily said, and nodded, wishing she did have an inner dragon she could summon. A bit of fire to her spirit. Because as they tramped towards Anna’s little home Emily knew that where Gordon was concerned she’d been more than a bit weak.

Whereeverythingwas concerned.

She should have resumed her studies in business and hospitality, but instead she’d taken the easier option and moved in with Gordon and his mother and worked in their family business.

It was nice to talk it through with Anna. Though Anna could be rather blunt at times, Emily appreciated it, for there was a decision to be made.

‘So?’ Anna broke into her thoughts. ‘You met Sophia at university...?’

‘Yes.’ Anna nodded. ‘She was in the Spanish group I went to.’

It had been a part of university she’d loved. A group that had paired up Spanish students with those learning the language.

‘And you’ve stayed friends?’

‘A bit...’ Emily nodded. ‘Well, we follow each other online. She saw my photography there, and the work I’d done for the B&B website, and the one for that restaurant chain...’

‘Things are starting to take off for you.’

They were.

Her purchase of an expensive camera body had been far from impulsive, and had been the most money Emily had ever spent at once in her life. Gordon hadn’t exactly been encouraging, and she’d felt dreadful spending the money left by her frugal parents on something so extravagant, but she knew if she was going to make a career out of website design then she needed the best equipment she could afford.

Slowly Emily had saved and added to her camera with various lenses and lighting equipment, and she had bought a tripod that, even though it had been second-hand, was fiercely expensive and, she was now realising, rather heavy.

‘Six weeks seems like a long time to update a website...’ Anna said.

‘Not really... It’s for some vast sherry bodega in Spain.’

‘Vast?’ Anna checked. ‘I thought a bodega was a deli?’

‘Not in Spain! The vineyards are out of town, but the bodega is where the barrels are stored and the sherry matured.’ She’d been researching it since the second she’d hung up on Sophia. ‘There are restaurants,tabernas, and the building itself is like a castle. It’s more than a website makeover—they want a new one from scratch, as well as fresh images...’

‘“They”?’

‘It’s a family business—though I think it’s mainly run by two brothers. When they’re there...’ she added.

‘Meaning...?’

‘They sound like two spoiled playboys.’

Alejandro and Sebastián Romero, from everything she could glean, were as good-looking as they were depraved.

‘It looks as if the whole of the Mediterranean is their playground.’ Emily took a breath. ‘I don’t think I’m anywhere close to qualified to do it. This is a multimillion-dollar empire—multibillion, even...’ Emily’s eyes went wide at the prospect of such a huge client. ‘They want a completely fresh take...for their business to be looked at through untainted eyes...’

‘Virgin eyes?’ Anna nudged her. ‘Well, that’s not you...’

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