‘I had a brief relationship a few months back.’
‘Who was she? What was she like?’
‘Someone I met at a conference in Santiago,’ he said. ‘She was beautiful, well educated, came from a good family. She had a nice personality...’
‘I’m hearing a big “but”.’
‘No chemistry.’
‘Not good.’
‘Definitely not good.’ He brushed a stray strand of hair back from her forehead. It was the lightest touch but it made every nerve in her body shudder in delight. Had anyone ever touched her as gently? Had anyone ever looked at her so intently? As if they wanted to see right into the very heart of her?
‘So who broke it off?’ Holly said. ‘You or her?’
‘Me.’
‘Was she disappointed?’
‘If she was, it can’t have lasted long as she got engaged a few weeks later to a guy she’d been dating before me.’
‘You win some, you lose some.’
His eyes did that back-and-forth searching thing with each of hers. ‘It would be highly inappropriate for me to get involved with you,’ he said. ‘You do understand that, don’t you?’
‘We’re both consenting adults.’
His finger traced the underside of her jaw in a feather-light touch. ‘It’s not a matter of consent. It’s a matter of convention.’
Holly twisted her mouth in a cynical manner. ‘Oh, right—the upstairs, downstairs thing.’
He frowned. ‘That’s not what I meant at all. It wouldn’t reflect well on me if I were to engage in a relationship with you. It would look like I’m exploiting you.’
‘But making me fetch and carry and ordering me about doesn’t?’
He dropped his hand from her face. ‘You really suit your name. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone more prickly.’
‘Your breakfast is getting cold,’ Holly said, nodding towards his abandoned tray out on the balcony.
Julius narrowed his gaze in thoughtful contemplation. His forehead was lined like tidemarks on the seashore. She could almost hear the cogs of his brain going around. ‘You don’t have anything on the hob, do you?’
Holly tried to disguise a swallow. His dark blue gaze was probing. Like a strong light shining into the outer limits of her soul. ‘No...’
‘So unless it’s my company there’s some other reason you don’t want to have breakfast with me on the balcony,’ he said in a tone that sounded as if he was thinking out loud.
A loaded silence passed.
Holly let out a shaky sigh. ‘I have a...a thing about balconies.’
‘You’re scared of heights?’ He didn’t say it in a mocking way. He simply stated it as if it was perfectly reasonable for her to be scared and he wouldn’t judge her for it.
Holly felt something hard and tight slip away from her heart. As if a rigid band had come undone. ‘Not heights, specifically. Just balconies.’
He took one of her hands and held it in the shelter of his. His thumb stroked the back of her hand in a slow, soothing motion. ‘That’s why you didn’t want the room Sophia prepared for you, isn’t it?’
Holly pressed her lips together. Hard. She never spoke to anyone about this stuff. It was stuff she had locked away. But for some reason Julius’s gentle tone picked the lock of her determination. He had unravelled the tightly bound knot of her stubborn pride. She released another sigh. ‘I got locked out on the balcony when I was a kid,’ she said. ‘It was something my stepfather thought was entertaining. Seeing me out there in all sorts of weather. He wouldn’t let me come in until I said sorry for whatever I’d supposedly done. Not that I ever did much; I only had to look at him a certain way and he’d shove me out there.’
Julius’s frown was so deep it was like a trench between his eyes. ‘You poor little kid. What about your mother? Didn’t she stand up for you?’
‘My mum was unable to stand up for herself, let alone me,’ Holly said. ‘He’d done such a good job of eroding her self-esteem, she chose death instead of life. He drove her to it. He hates me because I didn’t cave in to him. That’s why he keeps making trouble for me. He follows me wherever I go. He has ways and means of reminding me I can’t escape. But I will escape. I’m determined to get away and make a new life for myself.’
Julius took both of her hands in his, holding them gently but securely. ‘He can’t touch you while you’re with me. I’ll make sure of it.’