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‘We’re only a few weeks away from Christmas Day. If Carlos was here, the place would be a riot of Christmas decorations. I don’t think he could resist even if he was hiding out.’ She smiled.

Having punched in the combination number on the keypad, Javier opened the door then stopped and looked down at her.

‘Really?’ He asked with something like a smile tugging the corners of his mouth.

‘I know you haven’t spent Christmas with Carlos in a while…’ she said uncomfortably.

The night breeze was just a touch crisp. She could almost smell the scent of the sea mixing with the fragrance of the jasmine and bougainvillea that bloomed in beds on either side of the gravelled, circular driveway.

The sound of waves, as they crashed on to the rocks below, was soft and rhythmic, barely disturbing the deep, still quiet.

‘I haven’t. I had no idea Carlos went in for Christmas in such a big way.’ He stepped aside so that she could brush past him through the door.

Hope didn’t hear him. She knew that he was chatting in rapid Spanish to the driver but she was too busy gaping around her to pay much attention to that. Not that she could have understood a word being said anyway.

The foyer was double height and fashioned from natural stone. It led straight though to a vast, open plan space with low sofas in clusters and a glass wall.

She began walking towards the wall, pulled by the promise of a breathtaking view, but she felt Javier’s hand gently tug her. She reluctantly turned to look at him.

‘We should go and see if Carlos is here before we do the tourist tour,’ he said gruffly.

Hope nodded and stared at him. The feel of his fingers curled around her forearm was as hot as a branding iron and the intensity of his gaze pinned her to the spot.

As though reading the situation, he pulled back but continued to look at her in brooding silence.

‘Why do you sound so surprised that Carlos celebrates Christmas?’ she asked belatedly. ‘Just because you seem to have a problem with it doesn’t mean that the rest of the world follows suit. I happen to love Christmas.’

The silence lengthened.

‘Okay. I get it. You’re about to tell me that that’s none of my business either. Remember the boundary lines. Which incidentally you seem to put up and remove at will.’

‘Our parents died on Christmas Eve,’ Javier heard himself say. He cleared his throat and uncomfortably raked his fingers through his hair. He wasn’t breaking a code of silence, he told himself, because that was a simple fact that could be read anywhere on the internet by anyone who could be bothered.

He saw the shock on her face and reverted to type.

‘Something else my brother kept from you?’ he said, pulling back, his voice silky smooth and his handsome face shuttered. ‘Along with the drugs?’

‘I didn’t know,’ she said quietly. ‘He always seemed to enjoy the festive season so much. I’d never have associated it with…with such a sad and traumatic event.’

‘Maybe that’s because I made a big effort to keep the tradition alive for him when he was a child,’ Javier said tersely. ‘Until he got older, at which point he decided that Christmas in my company was something to be endured rather than enjoyed.’

‘Javier…’

Hope took a step towards him and rested her hand on his arm. She kept it there, even though she could sense his discomfort with the show of empathy.

‘Shall we check upstairs? Although I’m inclined to agree with you.’ He politely pulled back. ‘My brother isn’t here, Christmas decorations or no Christmas decorations.’

The moment was lost but suddenly, the guy she was intent on keeping in a tidy box had broken free. He had become three-dimensional.

It was heartbreaking enough that he and Carlos had become orphans when they had both been so young, but the fact that everything happened at Christmas made it all the more tragic.

Pieces of the puzzle fell into place. Carlos’s anguished adolescence, Javier trying and eventually failing as the brothers took separate paths, neither knowing how to breach the divide. But there had been a time when Javier had known how to show tenderness towards the tiny little child who had suddenly become his responsibility.

She remembered Javier’s warning to her. It was tempting to forget it because there had been a few times when something about him had sucked her in, perhaps those flashes of wit and humour, or maybe the way he had listened to her when she had talked about her mother. Listened as though every word that left her mouth was vitally important.

Curiosity sparked inside her, dangerous and tantalizing. She would do well to keep away from his spell.

But as she fell into step alongside him, she was so aware of his presence that she could barely focus.