Page 49 of Midnight Surrender to the Spaniard

It was more than that already, though. Standing in the gorgeous water, lying on the loungers, eating together... For her, at least, if not for him.

‘A holiday,’ she stated again.

‘That’s quite a demand.’

‘Oh, please,’ she mocked. ‘Yourlife’sa holiday.’

‘You really think so?’

She took a breath and looked back at him. She knew how hard he worked, so she wasn’t sure why she had said that.

He worked hard for his family—that much she knew too. They wouldn’t be here if that wasn’t the case.

‘No,’ she admitted. ‘I don’t think that. So why not take some time...?’

‘It’s impossible.’

‘And another one-night stand with you is impossible for me.’

‘I regret that.’

He didn’t push. Instead he removed that beam of his attention in a way she couldn’t quite define.

He still held her hand as they walked out of the water, and as she wrapped herself in her sarong there was no impatience from him. In fact, he was so polite that he even offered to prolong the day with a very late lunch.

‘It’s almost three,’ she pointed out, smiling despite already missing the sensation of being the focus of his desire, and knowing the indefinable promise of tonight that had thrummed between them had, upon her request, been removed.

‘That is lunchtime in Spain.’

‘Oh, well...no, thank you. I have to go to the shops and find something for Emily. I might try Old Marbella.’

‘Of course.’ He nodded. ‘I should do some work, anyway.’ He pointed to a path. ‘That takes you back to your villa.’

Only lovers got to use the bedroom route, it would seem.

Still, they parted amicably, though he didn’t suggest dinner. Instead, he told her she was welcome to call Reception for a driver to take her wherever she wanted to go.

He was not, Anna guessed, going to provide extended handholding for his brother’s wife’s friend if he was not going to get to sleep with her again. Sebastián had found her gorgeous accommodation, had taken her to dinner the first night, had driven her to and from the hospital, had even taken her to the beach, offered to do lunch...but now there was an end to it.

‘Hasta luego,’he said.

Duty done.

And she only had herself to blame.

CHAPTER NINE

ANNAWOKETOREGRET.

It was a different kind of regret, though.

She hadn’t been woken with a kiss.

Nor by her sexy lover carrying a tray bearing breakfast in bed—or however this morning might have been had she given in to another night with him...

Instead, she woke alone, in gorgeous surroundings, and wished she’d been brave enough to say yes to Sebastián.

After they’d parted yesterday she had showered and pulled on new shorts and a top and wandered around Old Marbella. She’d found an odd shop tucked away that sold silk threads for her embroidery and cotton to re-stitch the backing of the blanket.

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