Nell dragged a hand through her hair and pushed it behind her ears and didn’t allow herself to think that he might be seriously interested in finding out. They were two ships that passed in the night, or in this case collided. ‘I prefer waking in a bed, curtains, sheets.’
His eyes darkened. ‘That could be arranged.’
She flushed, her eyes falling from his. ‘My bed.’
‘I have a bed.’ And he could see her in it, but she was not mistress material.
Nell angled a direct look at his lean face. ‘Is that an invitation, Luiz?’ Was that shock in his eyes or just alarm? Neither possibility would have surprised Nell considering the irony she had intended to inject into her words hadn’t materialised.
Good question, Luiz responded silently. There was quite clearly only one answer, or there had been until he had returned and found her looking so delicious.
When he had left to organise petrol thirty minutes earlier he had not been thinking about a repeat performance of the previous night—well, he had, but only in a ‘this would be a very bad idea’ kind of way.
He had made love to a virgin. To his mind that automatically put him in the wrong even though she could, she should, have told him. Dios, it just wasn’t something a man expected, and he was used to women who were as relaxed and open about their sexual needs as men.
If she had told him he wouldn’t have—would he?
The question hung there. Could he, hand on heart, swear that if she had told him things would have turned out differently? The silence stretched as he presumably struggled to come up with a way to let her down gently. Nell decided to do the kind thing and let him off the hook.
‘Look, you really don’t have to pretend last night was the start of a beautiful friendship.’
Friendship was what he had shared with Rosa, lots of high-quality friendship, but had their relationship been lacking a vital spark? The moment the disloyal thought formed Luiz felt a vicious stab of guilt that added a harsh note to his voice as he responded.
‘Last night had nothing to do with friendship.’ And everything to do with a blind, compulsive lust that even now was making its presence felt.
‘Do you reserve that sneer for women who sleep with you on the first date?’ Nell struggled to inject a note of amusement into her voice.
Luiz angled an incredulous frown. ‘We didn’t have a date. You were a virgin.’
‘You make it sound like a contagious disease. Well even if it was I’m no longer infected.’
‘This is not a joke.’
Nell watched the muscles in his brown throat work. He was angry but she couldn’t figure out why exactly.
‘There was a farm a mile or so farther up the road. I have petrol, some food and a flask of coffee. The car was locked. I’m assuming you have the keys.’
Nell’s eyes widened. Other things—she determinedly pushed away the details that crowded into her head—had taken the key situation right out of her mind.
‘Slight problem.’
Luiz raised a dark brow and looked expectant; she swallowed. The dark shadow on his chin gave him a piratical appearance and emphasised the brooding danger that was always just below the surface in him.
‘I did lock the car. It’s sensible to take precautions,’ she added, anticipating his mockery.
What she didn’t anticipate was the stern expression of self-recrimination that spread across his face. ‘It was unforgivable.’ Nell, taken aback by the vitriolic harshness in his manner, blinked. ‘What was? Locking the car?’ She stopped as it clicked, a dark tide of colour washing over her skin.
‘You mean the sex—I was not exactly unwilling.’ The recollection of how not unwilling she had been brought a dark crimson flush to Nell’s cheeks.
‘But you didn’t know what you were doing.’
‘Thanks a lot.’
The bitter retort drew an impatient frown from him as he caught her meaning. ‘Do not be ridiculous. You were—’
He paused and Nell inserted her chirpy tone at variance with the pain locked in her chest. ‘Good, bad or indifferent? Do you always grade your one-night stands?’
‘Do not speak of yourself that way and do not cheapen what we shared.’ Luiz was shocked that the words had emerged from his own mouth…because he did not share. Sharing was for Rosa.
Unaware of the inner devils he was fighting, Nell looked at him in shock.
‘I simply wanted to promise you I do not make a habit of having unprotected sex.’ His irresponsibility weighed heavily on Luiz.
‘I hadn’t really thought about it.’ It was one of many things she was trying not to think about, but it wasn’t easy when the object of your persistent carnal fantasies was standing there talking about unprotected sex.