Page 140 of Modern Romance Collection Books (5-8)

‘My name is Evelyn and...’ She had started out with confidence but faltered on her explanation, by which time he’d finally realised that she was one of the waitresses for the event.

He supposed at least that he should be thankful shewasn’there to seduce him. He caught her gaze, it was swimming with so much—anger, heat, but also anxiety—and he stepped back again. He bracketed his temples with one hand and sighed.Cristo, what a mess. ‘I’m sure that you were told this area is off-limits,’ he said with more exasperation than anger.

She stared at him for a moment, looked down at her own clothes, and something flashed in her gaze just before she answered that made him pause.

‘Absolutely, sir, I’m sorry. I...needed just a moment and this was the first room I found. I’ll leave. Very sorry,’ she said, backing away from him.

‘About the—’

‘Not to worry, sir. Happens all the time.’

It happens all the time.

Why had she said that? She could see that it had confused him too. That kiss...that kiss had fuddled her mind and dissolved her rational faculties. She shouldn’t have slapped him. He hadn’t deserved that, but she’d been so shocked by...everything. How could she have kissed Mateo Marin? The man that had ignored her and devastated his father? She needed to get out of the room, urgently. And without him seeing that she had the Professor’s notebook.

‘I’ll just be going—’ she said, trying to avoid his gaze and turning in time with the hand she’d concealed so far, holding the notebook. She was halfway across the room—thebedroom...how had she failed to see that?—when he called out to her.

‘Evelyn.’ Her name stopped her and she half turned, reluctant to meet his gaze.

‘If you are...having trouble with any of the clients you cater to, you should let your manager know.’

Evie stared back at him in genuine surprise. ‘You just kissed me. In your...bedroom,’ she whispered as if that would make it any less outrageous.‘And you are advising me to speak to my manager?’ She posed the question slowly in the hope that he would realise just how ridiculous his suggestion had been. And finally, he had the decency to look ashamed.

‘It was a mistake.’

‘Of course it was,’ she said, turning back towards the door, confused by the feeling of hurt and disappointment twisting through her chest. She bit her lip to silence herself. Because that kiss had awoken a desire in her that had emerged gasping for air as if it had been suffocated for years, as if each press of his mouth and plunge of his tongue had breathed life into a need she didn’t recognise. And now she wanted more and she didn’t know what to do with that.

She could accept that he was telling her the truth—that ithadbeen a misunderstanding. But couldn’t help but feel disappointment that Mateo Marin was a man who had been so willing to simply indulge in such an intimate moment with a woman who had been presented to him as agift.

And then, beneath that, a deeper part she wasn’t quite ready to listen to whispered that of course it was a misunderstanding. A man like that would never be interested in a woman like her. That she would only have been kissed if she’d been paid for.

You couldn’t even pay me...

She slammed the door shut on those thoughts, too painful to delve into here, where she was still vulnerable after that kiss. Closing her eyes and summoning the strength she had used to get through much more difficult moments than this, she steeled herself and took a step towards the door, when—

‘Stop.’

As if he had control over her body, it did as he commanded. Frozen, she hesitated. Should she run for it? She was so close...

But his hand closed around her wrist and drew her back round.

When had he got so close?

Her breath stalled in her lungs as he peered down at her with an intensity that raised the hairs on her neck. Would he try and kiss her again? she wondered, half hoping he would but half terrified of the thought.

But when she looked up at his face, she saw a mask. A mask that should have concealed the anger thrumming in his body, but didn’t. He shook his head and tutted, slowly. ‘Now, Evelyn. There I was, thinking that I was in the wrong, and all this time it was you,’ he taunted, his voice a honey-covered growl.

‘Me?’ she asked, heart in her throat as he reached behind her and plucked the notebook from her hidden hand.

‘You little thief.’

Mateo clenched his jaws together before he could say whatever else was on his mind. He’d been feeling utterly disgusted with himself when he’d seen what she was trying to conceal in her hand. And this woman—thisthief—still had the gall to stand there looking at him as if he werestillin the wrong.

Evelyn.He frowned. The name finally ringing the bell to the end of its peal. Edwards. The woman who had been waiting for him outside his office that afternoon, the same woman who had been his father’s assistant.

He huffed out a cynical laugh.

‘Nice to finally meet you, Evelyn Edwards.’

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