‘Really?’ Flávia raised her eyebrows sceptically. ‘Then who did?’
‘Isabella Sanchez,’ he answered slowly, flicking his arm out to where Isabella was leading another guest—presumably the guest originally intended to sit at their table—to Silvio Delgado’s table—as if playing his trump card.
Then again, he was playing it.
Isabella was ultimately responsible for organising this entire programme. She wasn’t a surgeon, or even a doctor, but she practically ran Hospital Universitário Paulista single-handedly. There wasn’t a single thing which went on within the brick, glass and metal walls that Isabella didn’t know about, and she controlled the floors with an iron fist clad in the most silken, smooth glove. She truly was a woman so formidable that even Silvio Delgado would be taking his life into his hands going up against her.
‘Why would she do that?’ Flávia shook her head.
‘Because I asked her to.’
‘Why?’
It still didn’t seem to make any sense.
‘Because I wanted to meet you properly.’ He lowered his voice until she had to lean in to hear him, so that she was no longer sure if they were talking medicine, or not, and it suddenly felt entirely too intimate.
‘I wanted a chance to talk to you.’
Flávia didn’t answer.
She couldn’t.
For the longest time she just watched him, his eyes snagging hers and refusing to let her look away. And she had the oddest sense that she was telling him entirely too much even though she wasn’t saying even a word. That he was reading the truths she preferred to keep securely hidden.
Oh, boy, she really was in so much trouble.
CHAPTER THREE
‘BUT IF A BITE from these vipers could kill a human within hours, or even minutes,’ a Spanish doctor was asking Flávia, ‘surely you can’t cure cancer by injecting the venom without killing them? Not unless you’re reverse-engineering a synthetic version.’
Jake took a spoonful of his dessert, a velvety crème brûlée which he barely even tasted, and tried to work out what the hell he thought he was doing.
Flirting with Flávia Maura?
The way he’d been doing for the past two hours. From even before she’d turned her mesmerising eyes on him and her smooth, lilting voice, which could surely have charmed arboreal snakes from the trees, had wound through him like a boa around its prey.
Business, he reminded himself, savagely turning his attention back the conversation which had all the table joining in.
‘Well, that all depends on the snake, the make-up of its venom and even its delivery method. And, of course, it also depends on what we’re trying to achieve.’ Flávia leaned forward.
There was no doubting that her career truly drove her on, and he couldn’t help but find it an exceptionally attractive quality. She was even more focused than he was—which was saying something.
‘You’ll know, I’m sure, that snake venom is a cocktail of hundreds of different components, including minerals and proteins, peptides and enzymes,’ continued Flávia. ‘Our goal is to isolate and then repurpose certain toxins within this venom, which would ultimately kill cancer cells whilst leaving healthy cells intact.
‘There’s an Australian researcher, Pouliot, who has been working on venom which will stop metastasis in breast cancer. He has been able to reverse-engineer venom from bothrops alternatus, which is a different bushmaster to the one I work with, and lab clone an inhibitor. However, he has still been unable to reverse-engineer and clone an inhibitor from the microvipera lebtina, so for that study he still needs live venom on hand.’
‘Given how aggressive these deadly serpents are, you must be more than keen to reverse-engineer it to isolate and lab clone the toxins you need,’ another of the diners declared. ‘So that you won’t need live snakes so much any more.’
Jake found himself pausing, his spoon halfway to his mouth. Was it only him who noticed the way her body stiffened ever so slightly? The way her back pulled that little bit tenser?
And then Flávia turned that hot, caramel gaze on him and his whole body kicked up a notch.
Business, he roared silently again. Not pleasure.
He suspected he was fighting a losing battle.
Twelve months ago, he would have willingly blended the two. If the chemistry that arced and sparked between them was anything to go off, he could only imagine how glorious the sex would be. Although his mind was doing a sterling job of painting a picture.