Passionate Protection. Penny Jordan

that where there was pleasure there was pain. A cynical, sophisticated race who had kept their women closeted away from the world to be enjoyed by them alone.

      Jessica was glad when the time came to go and meet Colin’s plane. He seemed so solid and safe somehow as he came towards her, carrying his briefcase, frowning uncertainly until he saw her.

      ‘Jessica!’ His hug was affectionately warm. ‘Everything sorted out?’ he asked her as they got into their taxi, his tone implying that he wouldn’t be surprised to find that Isabel in her tiresomeness had allowed her problems to overflow into Jessica’s working life.

      ‘I think so.’

      His relief made her laugh. ‘Thank goodness for that! I was terrified that we’d have a tearful besotted Latin lover on our hands!’

      Just for a moment Jessica compared this image to the reality of Sebastian, and wondered if Jorge was anything like his formidable brother. Probably not. She couldn’t see Sebastian allowing himself to be manipulated in the way she was coming to suspect that Isabel had manipulated Jorge. No, when it came to the woman in his life, Sebastian would be totally in control. Was he married?

      ‘Jess?’

      Stop thinking about him, she chided herself, giving her attention to Colin. She was in Seville to work, not concern herself with the private life of a man who was virtually a stranger. Stranger or not, for those first few pulsating seconds when she had seen Sebastian she had been aware of him in a way that still had the power to shock her. For all his repressive arrogance there was a sensuality about him, a total maleness and a dangerous allure, reminiscent of that of a jungle cat for its prey.

      Colin was tired after his flight and it was decided that he would dine in his room and have an early night.

      ‘Have you been to the exhibition centre yet?’ he asked Jessica. She shook her head. ‘Well, the exhibition doesn’t open until tomorrow. We’ve got an appointment with Calvortex after lunch. Keep your fingers crossed, won’t you?’ he asked her. ‘I’ve done all next season’s designs with their fabrics in mind. If they’re anything like last season’s we’ll be on to a real winner—especially if he gives us the exclusive use of his stuff for the U.K.’

      ‘How much do you know about them?’ Jessica asked him as they stepped into the hotel foyer.

      ‘Very little, and most of that word of mouth. The Chairman of the company handpicks his clients, from what I’ve been told. The company is a small family-run business; apart from that I know nothing, except that they produce the sort of fabrics that fill the dreams of every designer worth his or her salt. I’m relieved to hear you’ve sorted out all that business with Isabel,’ he added as they headed for the lift. ‘Tiresome girl! Why should you run round after her?’

      ‘Well, I won’t have to much longer,’ Jessica told him. ‘She’s got herself engaged.’

      ‘God help the man!’ was Colin’s pious comment as the lift stopped at their floor.

      Their rooms were not adjacent and outside the lift they went their separate ways.

      In her own room, Jessica tried to concentrate on the morning and the textile show, but somehow Sebastian de Calvadores’s aquiline features kept coming between her and her work. A hard man and a proud one, and her face burned with colour as she remembered the way he had looked at her, the insulting remarks he had made to her.

      She went to bed early, and was just on the point of falling asleep when she heard someone knocking on the door.

      ‘Jess, are you awake?’ she heard Colin mutter outside. ‘I’ve got the most dreadful indigestion, do you have anything I can take?’

      Sighing, she went to her suitcase and found some tablets. If Colin had one fault it was that he was a hopeless hypochondriac and that he refused absolutely to carry even aspirins about with him, preferring instead to play the martyr for the uninitiated. Jessica had got wise to this within her first few months of working for him, and had grown used to carrying what amounted almost to a small pharmacy around with her whenever she travelled with him.

      She opened her door and handed him the small packet.

      ‘You’re an angel!’

      Colin bent forward, kissing her cheek lightly, and as he did so out of the corner of her eye Jessica glimpsed the couple walking down the corridor towards them; the woman small and petite with smoothly coiled dark hair and an expensive couture evening gown, her escort tall, with raven’s-wing dark hair and a profile that made Jessica’s heart turn over thuddingly as she stared at him.

      Sebastian de Calvadores! What was he doing here, and who was he with?

      Her face paled as he stared contemptuously at her, suddenly acutely aware of her thin silk nightgown and tousled hair, Colin’s hand on her arm, his lips brushing her cheek. Her face flamed as she realised what interpretation Sebastian de Calvadores would be placing on their intimacy, and then berated herself for her embarrassment. Why should she care if he thought she and Colin were lovers? What possible business was it of his? And yet his steely glance seemed to say that he knew everything there was to know about her, and that he doubted that her motives for being with Colin were any less altruistic than those he had accredited her with in his brother’s case.

      ‘Jess, is something wrong?’ Colin asked her with a frown, sensing her lack of attention. ‘You’ve seemed strangely on edge ever since I arrived. It’s that damned cousin of yours, I suppose.’

      ‘Nothing’s wrong, I’m just a little tired,’ she lied huskily, glad when Sebastian and his companion turned the corner of the corridor. ‘I’ll be fine in the morning.’