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“Just the one?”

“Maybe more than one. You’ll make it work.”

“What?” he joked, because she had faith in him. “After I work out what I’m looking for in a property.”

“You know what you’re looking for, but you could always ask your dad or Hunter for advice.”

“They might jinx it.”

“You’re a dope.”

––––––––

Later when they stoodside by side in the kitchen, him washing and her drying their beer glasses and cutlery, she hip-bumped him. “You’ve gone strangely silent.”

“Bad habit. I often live in my head.”

She deserves to know all my bad habits.Maybe that’s the way to keep it in my pants? I can list my flaws.

“Dreaming is positive. If you can’t imagine a different future, you’ll never achieve it.” She sounded sombre.

“Do you dream, Beatriz?”

“All the time.” She turned and rested her hips against the bench. “Will you show me some of your designs, please?”

He closed his eyes. “Yes.”

“Now?”

“Let’s make some hot chocolate first.” He was babbling.

“You only drink hot chocolate to distract me.”

“Does it work?”Tell her a fault. “The study’s a bit messy.”

She grinned. “Remember our pact? You can say no.”

“Hot chocolate for two in the study.”

“I’ll make the hot chocolate.” She patted his chest. “Give you time to hide anything you don’t want me to see.”

He was standing at his desk when she arrived with the two mugs.

“We need two chairs, Casildo.”

“I’ll get one.”

He returned with an upright chair. Of necessity, they sat close together. Her thigh rested against his, her knee accidentally bumped his, her shoulder touched his, and he was ready to go up in flames. Wanting her and not acting on it left him permanently turned on.

“Can you start with some of your early ones, to give me a sense of history?”

Her question settled him, giving him a place to start. He pulled a folder from the desk drawer. “These were the first we sold.” He spread a half dozen drawings across the table.

She tucked her hands under the desk.

“You can touch them, Beatriz.”

“They’re beautiful. Did you study Arabic design, Saudi design? There’s a hint of it.”