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“A few difficult questions, huh?” He was wearing socks, cotton probably. He leaned back and cool air pushed between them, leaving her bereft. He put his feet on the edge of the coffee table. “Anna gave me permission.”

“I’ll take your word for that. Tonight’s sister, Daniela asked if I’d met someone. I said ‘When do I have time to meet anyone?’ Her husband came to my defence. He said, ‘Bea knows nothing she tells you will remain confidential.’”

“Is she spying for the whole family?”

“Hard to know. She claimed she could be confidential. I didn’t have to disagree, because her husband snorted and said I’d made the right call. I just said I was house minding for a finite period, reminded her of Anna’s wedding, then shifted the topic to Dani’s pregnancy.”

“Are you envious she’s married and having a baby before you?” he asked.

A perceptive question. Perceptive and brave. No one in her family had skated even close. They’d assumed she was envious. She was only envious that Daniela had found a man who adored her, faults and all.

“How to answer that?”

“Any way you like. ‘Mind your own business,’ ‘I don’t plan to have children because the world’s a messy place,’ ‘Yes, I wish I’d met someone years ago and was happily settled in domestic bliss.’”

He would accept whatever answer she gave.

“Dani and Lucas are perfect for each other. He’s with one of the big accounting firms, a rising star, and she took a job with a family law firm, mostly doing domestic law. They met at university and have been inseparable since. They waited until both of them were working, until they could support themselves without raiding the parental piggy bank. His parents have one.” She swallowed the words “mine don’t,” but a smart man should guess. “A baby’s the next logical step for them. They’ll be terrific parents.”

“And.”

“I’ve never met someone I can’t bear to live without. And that’s partly down to me. I wear a kind ofI’m unavailablesign around my neck. It suits me for now.” There. She was being totally honest. Well, almost totally.

I’ve told him I’m unavailable, have chosen to be unavailable.

You’re the first man to make me regret that decision.

“That’s your criterion? Someone you can’t bear to live without?” His voice held curiosity.

“What’s yours?” She gave herself permission to ask the question, because they’d stumbled headlong into a very personal conversation.

“Maybe someone who can’t bear to live without me.” His face was in shadow, so it was impossible to read his mood. “Me, not my job, not my family’s wealth, not my imagined inheritance—me.”

Who made you feel unlovable?

A dangerous question, she wasn’t brave enough to ask.

I can imagine not being able to live without Casildo Hariri.

In another world. Two years from now, when she wasn’t helping to pay her parents’ mortgage, when no one could say she was after his family’s money. Then it would suit her to do a whole lot of things differently, like climb into his lap, steal kisses, and whisper naughty words,tell him how he makes me feel hot and wet and desperate for his touch.

“They’re forecasting sunny weather for tomorrow.” She drained her cup, wanting to banish the demons who’d joined them. “Want to come for a picnic in Centennial Park?”

“I thought I might be looking for new accommodation tomorrow.”

“I think our week’s trial has worked well. You don’t snore.” Heat rose up her throat.

Bea wanted him to stay. Actively wanted to share this apartment with him, rather than pretend to tolerate him because of a mix-up. That was what her visits to her sisters had proved. Rebellion was addictive—going for what you wanted was infectious and exhilarating.

“Have you been listening at walls?” He grinned.

“I have very sensitive hearing.”

“Thank you. Is letting me stay another act of rebellion?”

“What if it is?”

I’ve admitted I’m not available.