‘Admiring your new and improved self?’
She jumped and turned to find Javier striding towards her. Dressed in an open-necked casual shirt and black jeans, he was the epitome of sophisticated chic, and arresting enough to make her gape for several embarrassing seconds before she regained her focus. ‘There was nothing wrong with my old self,’ she snapped after recovering from the shock of suddenly seeing him, larger than life and in the flesh.
‘That is a subject of much debate,’ he returned.
Carla moved away from the mirror. ‘What are you doing here?’
Black eyebrows rose. ‘At my last recollection, I lived here.’
Heat suffused her face. ‘I didn’t mean that. I meant, it’s Friday. I thought you’d be gone by now.’
‘Sorry to disappoint, but if I want to keep my famous work/life balance title I need to take the occasional day off,’ he drawled.
‘Is that what you’re doing? Taking the day off?’
Powerful shoulders hefted a shrug. ‘That depends on how well you do with your first assignment.’
She stopped in her tracks. ‘Me?’
‘Selma tells me you’re fit enough to attend a creative meeting or two as long as your wrist is taken care of. She also tells me you’re going stir-crazy. Was she wrong?’
‘She wasn’t,’ she hurriedly replied. She looked down at the short tunic she’d thrown on after her shower because it’d been the easiest thing to hand. ‘I’ll go and change.’
After a swift perusal of her attire, he shook his head. ‘You don’t need to. The creative director will be here after breakfast. We’ll work from here today.’
He headed for the dining room. She followed him into the large, sunlit room. Before now, breakfast had been a solitary affair, eaten with almost absent enjoyment while her mind worried over what Javier had meant by reparation and just how he would exact it from her.
Now as she walked towards the place set for her, she couldn’t help recall how the last meal they’d shared had ended.
But looking at him, she could see little trace of the capricious emotion that had leapt from him then. She didn’t fool herself into believing it was far from the surface. Javier had bided his time for three years. She didn’t doubt that he would be perfectly content to toy with her a while longer yet.
Suddenly reluctant to touch on the subject she’d spent far too many hours dwelling on, she helped herself to a bagel, smothered it with cream cheese, and took a bite. Swallowing it down with a sip of coffee, she risked a glance and found him staring at her over his coffee cup. ‘I’m not sure exactly what a creative director does.’
‘We’ll discuss the preliminary designs I have in mind for you to work with and then decide how best to go about it.’
‘Don’t I need to be on your speedboat to get the best visuals?’
‘The speedboat shoot has been put on hold until you’re no longer wearing that cast. My new premium tequila brand launches in six weeks. I’ve been struggling to find the right person to front it. You’ll be the face of it.’
Her hand shook as she set her cup down. ‘What?’
‘You’re not deaf, querida.’
‘I’d rather not do that, if you don’t mind.’
‘But I do mind. You drink the stuff, if I remember correctly. In fact you virtually drowned in it at my birthday party three years ago. I fail to see what the problem is.’
‘In light of what happened afterwards, do you really think I’m the right candidate to promote your tequila?’
His mouth twisted cruelly. ‘Since you insist on convincing me the circumstances of your getting drunk that night no longer exist, it shouldn’t be a problem. Besides, you won’t be required to drink it, just pretend it’s the best thing that’s happened to you since the first time you put your ice skates on. That was the single most incredible moment of your life, was it not?’
She drew in a deep, sustaining breath, before she gave in to temptation and slapped his face. ‘You obviously mean to torture me at every opportunity. If that’s how you get your kicks, then so be it. But if you want our collaboration to have any hope of working, can I suggest we resolve this sooner rather than later?’ When one mocking eyebrow started to lift, she ploughed on. ‘So I called you a playboy. Where was the lie in that? Were you not a playboy, then? Are you not now? You date as frequently as you change your socks. In fact, I don’t think the paparazzi has snapped you with the same woman twice!’
An arrogant smile twitched his lips. ‘Have you been keeping tabs on me, querida?’
‘Hardly. But it’s very difficult to avoid seeing a man who flaunts himself as often as you do. If you choose to practise that work/life balance you’re so proud of in public, don’t complain when people take an interest.’
‘Some aspects of my life may be public. You made it your business to dig up private parts about my parentage that were none of your business, and make them public.’