She stared at him suspiciously. ‘You do realise you said that out loud?’
He smiled. ‘I am aware of that, yes.’
She bit her lip and, watching her bite into the soft pink flesh, he felt his heart-rate double as his brain unhelpfully offered up an image of those same soft pink lips parting beneath his mouth.
Suddenly the need to have her commit to the project became as intense as the ache in his groin.
‘She’s your friend—your best friend—and I know she doesn’t ask much from you because she doesn’t ask much from anyone,’ he said bluntly, watching a flush of colour seep over her cheekbones. ‘But she has asked you to do this one thing.’
He could see by her expression that she was confused by his words, and then abruptly her face cleared.
‘Oh, I get it. This is you trying to persuade me so that you can tell your sister what a good brother you are.’ Her chin jutted. ‘Well, if that’s all you’re worried about you don’t need to pretend. I’ll tell her you tried and I wouldn’t listen.’
‘I’m not pretending. I think you’d do an excellent job. You’re a good filmmaker.’
‘Right...’
She shook her head, and the defensive expression on her face chafed at something inside him.
‘And you know that how, exactly?’
‘Alicia showed me some of the films you used to make at school.’ His eyes met hers. ‘They’re clearly amateur, but you really capture that teenage sense of waiting and wanting. There’s not a wasted breath,’ he said softly.
There was a beat of silence, and then his breathing stalled as she looked up at him with such sweet, desperate hope in her blue gaze that for a few half-seconds he forgot the past, and everything that had happened, and he was simply fighting against the insane urge to reach over and pull her closer, until her body fused with his just as it had two years ago.
Across the room, a champagne cork popped, and they both blinked at the same time.
Tuning out the heat pulsing over his skin, he regulated his breathing. ‘Like I said, you’re a good filmmaker, and this is your chance to be a good friend as well. So please say yes and make some happy memories for my sister.’
There was a beat of silence and then her shoulders slumped. He knew he’d won even before she began to nod her head.
‘Okay, I’ll do it.’
‘Good.’ Brushing aside the relief warming his skin, he glanced at his watch. ‘I’ll get your number from Alicia and then my PA can call you and talk flights—’
‘Flights?’ She cut across him, her eyes narrowing. ‘What flights? To where?’
‘Buenos Aires,’ he said calmly. ‘Don’t worry, I’m paying. First class ticket, and obviously you’ll stay at the house before we go to Patagonia.’
She began to shake her head. ‘No, no, no. I’m not doing that. I’m not going to Argentina.’
‘Really?’ He frowned. ‘So, have you got some kind of satellite camera on loan from NASA? Because London to Buenos Aires is one hell of a long shot.’
Ignoring her outraged expression, he pulled out his phone and swiped casually through his diary.
‘I can’t do anything for the next couple of days, but I can fly down from the States on Friday.’
Her eyes flashed. ‘I don’t care if you can fly to the moon and back. I’m not going to Buenos Aires on Friday. Or on any day you care to mention, in fact.’
‘Oh, but you are—and I’ll explain why. The wedding is in less than three months, and Alicia is flying out with my father in a few weeks to settle in. She’s going to have enough on her to-do list without you wandering in at the last minute with a hundred and one questions that could have already been answered in advance. By me.’
He was impressed by the plausibility of his words, and he could see they had taken the wind out of her sails.
‘It’s got nothing to do with you,’ she managed finally. ‘It’s not your wedding and you don’t know anything about film making.’
‘Oh, I think it’s got everything to do with me,’ he said mockingly. ‘Given that the whole event is going to be happening in my homes, and I have very specific and inflexible house rules.’
He saw her teeth clench.