She didn’t know the etiquette in these situations. What people did and didn’t do. She couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to do this so regularly you had a script for it.
He looked down at her with a smile. ‘You need to get dressed, querida.’
Her chest felt oddly hollow. ‘Alejandro, we need to talk.’
‘Sí, we do.’ He reached out and curved a hand around her neck, pressed a kiss to her astonished mouth.
Lulu melted into him and the eiderdown slid to her feet.
When he released her she was trembling.
‘We really need to get a move on, lucero,’ he smiled.
‘Oh, right…yes.’ She stepped away from him, trying not to be too embarrassed about her nakedness as she heaved up the eiderdown, but Alejandro fetched her robe and draped it around her instead.
It was such a lovely gesture her heart contracted.
‘Alejandro, there’s something I need to ask you.’
He looked amused. ‘Go ahead.’
‘Please don’t say anything to anyone at the castle.’
He stilled. ‘Say anything?’
‘About last night. About us.’
‘Why would I say anything?’ he asked slowly.
‘I don’t know. It’s just I don’t want people to know anything happened. It’s private.’
‘Yes, it is private.’
She relaxed a little, moistening her suddenly dry lips. ‘Then we’re on the same page?’
But he was frowning at her. ‘What exactly is the problem here?’
Lulu hesitated. She had known deep down it wasn’t going to be that easy, but putting it into words made her feel so ineffably sad. ‘It’s just that we’re not going to see each other beyond this weekend.’ She looked at anything but him as she said it. ‘I don’t want people speculating about us and what happened last night.’
She took a peek at him. His expression had relaxed and he touched the underside of her chin to have her meet his eyes. ‘What I said last night, Lulu, about it just being one night—I was too hasty. I want to see you again, hermosa…can you doubt it?’
Misery rose up to flood her as she realised he was saying the words any other woman would be thrilled by.
But that sense of incredible well-being this man had instilled in her was fast being swamped by panic.
‘I can’t,’ she choked.
‘Is there someone else?’ His eyes hardened, only to grow more probing as she shook her head.
‘You might have changed your mind,’ she said softly, averting her eyes, ‘but I haven’t. I was only looking for last night.’
‘Are you sure?’ His voice was coaxing, as soft as hers, but about a hundred times deeper and rendered incredibly sexy by his accent.
He didn’t believe her, she realised. Probably because any normal woman in her position would fling herself at him. The problem being she wasn’t normal…
‘I can’t,’ she said, stepping away from him. ‘Please don’t push, Alejandro.’
He just stood there, watching her, his arms by his side, clearly trying to work her out. Lulu wanted to tell him not to bother. It was really terribly simple—she was too much trouble. He just didn’t know that yet.