‘Why are you so upset?’ she asked. ‘It’s not as if I’m rushing you to the nearest wedding chapel for an Elvis-themed wedding or something.’
He swung round to fix her with another glare. ‘I’m the one with the reputation being trashed here. You’re making me out to be some sort of soppy, heartsore Romeo who’s gone gaga over a girl he didn’t know from a bar of soap this time yesterday.’
‘What did I tell you?’ She flickered her eyelids upwards again. ‘Self-serving and egotistical.’
He jabbed a finger towards her. ‘Hey, wait a damn minute. I’ve a right to be a little pissed. I did the right thing by you and now it’s coming back to bite me.’
Her pert look was back. ‘Maybe you should’ve taken advantage of me when you had the chance.’
A vision of her gloriously naked and trying to climb into his skin flooded his brain. His groin remembered it all too well. It was responding in the only way it knew how. Instinctively. Urgently. He sent her a smouldering look and watched as her cheeks darkened. ‘Don’t tempt me, mi pasión.’
The tip of her tongue crept out to leave a shiny film of moisture over her youthful mouth. His mouth recalled every passionate movement of hers underneath his: the soft fullness, the sweetness, and the ripeness. ‘It’d be fine if you want to,’ she said. ‘Sleep with me, I mean.’
He frowned at her. ‘I thought you said I was a self-serving, egotistical jerk?’
‘You are, but that doesn’t mean I don’t fancy you.’
Luiz shook his head, hoping it would get his addled brain in order. ‘Let me get this straight… You want me to have a one-night stand with you?’
She put her hands on her hips as if she were addressing one of her infant charges. ‘You’re not listening to me, Luiz. I’m not interested in a one-night stand. I’m not that sort of girl. I will, however, agree to a short-term holiday fling.’
His frown was so deep it was making his forehead hurt. ‘So what was with the sweet little romance thing just now? Why give the press the impression we’re in—’ he refused to say the word love again in case it jinxed him ‘—an item? Why not say we’re having a fling?’
‘It’s not just the school board I have to consider. I have my father to think about. If the press wrote that I stumbled out of your suite and never saw you again he’d be after your blood. Not literally, of course. But he’d be furious if I were to waste myself on someone who didn’t appreciate me. He’s old-fashioned like that.’
‘You don’t say.’ He sent his hand through his hair again. If this farce got any crazier he’d be pulling it out by the clump.
‘I’m only here for four days,’ she said. ‘That’s long enough to have a holiday romance and then move on. Dad will understand these flash in the pan things don’t always last. And hopefully now we’ve made our announcement to the press they’ll leave us alone.’
He studied her for a long moment. ‘So, let me get this straight. You want to have a fling with me. For four days and nights. No strings?’
She smiled brightly as if he had just explained relativity to her after a painfully slow lesson. ‘Exactly.’
‘But why?’
‘Why what?’
‘Why me?’
‘I told you before. I like you.’
‘Even though I’m a morally corrupt layabout?’
She gave a tinkling bell laugh that did serious damage to his resolve to send her on her way as soon as he could. It was a champagne laugh. A bubbly, happy sound that made him think of fun and celebration. Her smile was the same—bright and positive, a smile that in full force made the hot Nevada desert sun look dull.
‘I guess lust doesn’t discriminate, does it?’ she said.
It certainly does not, Luiz thought. If he’d known she was going to be this much trouble he would never have asked her to dance, much less come to her rescue.
Maybe that wasn’t strictly true…
He could have no more left her in that corridor than fly to the moon on a paper aeroplane. Daisy was the sort of girl he instinctively wanted to protect. His brother had done a good job on him. Alejandro was the master at the white knight gig; the way he cosseted his wife Teddy was proof of it. Luiz was happy for his brother finding love. He hadn’t thought it would ever happen. But that didn’t mean he was looking for a similar happy ending. He didn’t do happy endings. He couldn’t rely on them. He was all about living in the moment.
And right now he had a hell of a moment to get through.