He stared up the street. His conversation with Ramon hadn’t lightened his mood. His brother had got wind of a competitor sniffing around Reynaud’s assets. It renewed Xav’s suspicions that Reynaud was intentionally stalling their deal.
Voices caught his attention and he glanced up the street to see a middle-aged couple in hiking gear emerging from a small general store. They disappeared down a lane and then the street was empty again.
Blowing out a frustrated breath, he pushed away from the car and started up the street. He’d taken no more than two steps, however, when Jordan bounded out of the store onto the cobblestones and turned in his direction. He stopped and she hurried towards him, her features animated.
‘Xavier!’
The impact of her smile combined with the breathless, eager way she said his name made a pulse throb in his groin.
She halted in front of him. ‘You won’t believe this.’
He almost snorted. If he’d learned anything about this woman over the last couple of days it was to expect the unexpected. Someone should tattoo a warning across her forehead: Beware: unpredictable.
He looked into her upturned face. ‘What?’
‘The couple who own the store knew Camila,’ she announced, her eyes, with those extraordinary striations of amber and green, sparkling up at him. ‘Can you believe that? They were childhood friends until Camila went to Australia and they lost touch. They’re lovely...’
She sank her teeth into her bottom lip and Xav braced himself for whatever was coming.
‘They’ve invited us to lunch.’
A different sort of tension that had nothing to do with desire gripped his insides.
‘Please say yes,’ she said in a rush, before he could get out a word. ‘They won’t know that you’re related to Camila. I simply told them I’m with a friend.’ She stepped closer, latching those big, beautiful eyes onto his. ‘Please, Xavier,’ she entreated. ‘It’d be rude to refuse. And it would mean so much to me.’
Dios. Why did he find it so damned difficult to say no to this woman?
He glanced over his shoulder at the car. For a second he very seriously considered picking her up and throwing her in, locking the doors and driving the hell out of there.
He looked back to Jordan.
Her hands were clasped under her chin now and she looked impossibly cute. Infuriatingly irresistible.
He dragged his palm over his jaw. Expelled a heavy breath. Damn it.
‘Fine,’ he said. ‘One hour. No more. And Jordan...?’ He waited for her to stop bouncing on her feet and pay attention. ‘They do not learn about my relationship to Camila. Understood?’
She gave a vigorous nod. And then, without warning, she stood on tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his cheek. ‘Thank you,’ she said, her voice low and husky, a touch breathless again.
Xav answered with a grunt and then quickly stepped back, his jaw locked.
‘Xavier?’
Somehow he managed to keep his eyes off the lips he now knew were every bit as lush and petal-soft as they looked. ‘Sí?’
‘You’re scowling.’
He wasn’t scowling. He was concentrating. Attempting through sheer will to prevent the sudden heat that had lanced his belly from infiltrating other, more visibly reactive parts of his anatomy.
With effort he unclenched his teeth. Ironed out his features. ‘Better?’
She tilted her head to the side. ‘A bit. Just...smile,’ she suggested. ‘Try to look friendly.’
She turned and started back up the street, her ponytail swinging like a bright copper pendulum between her shoulder blades, drawing his gaze inexorably downwards to the jaunty swing of her rounded hips and tight buttocks in the short, clingy dress.
His jaw locked again.
Madre de Dios.