“Cristiano,” she said, suddenly feeling guilty. “These gentlemen came to keep me company while I was alone.”

Cristiano handed her the gelato, but kept his gaze fixed on the other men. Keira realized that it was like watching animals defending their territory. She’d never seen this side of Cristiano before. Was it because he saw danger in the three men that she herself had not? Or was it because he did not like the idea of her flirting with anyone other than him? It was a confusing situation for Keira. Surely Cristiano wasn’t as taken with her as she was with him!

“Well, now you are not alone anymore,” he said, his dark eyes seemingly becoming several shades blacker. “So your gentlemen friends can leave us be.”

Luis stood, his hands in truce position. “We didn’t know she was taken,” he said.

“But you should keep a better eye on your woman,” Jorge added. “We won’t be the first men to try and steal her away.”

Keira watched on, caught between two very opposing emotions of excitement and alarm. On the one hand it felt exciting to be at the center of the heated debate, to know that Cristiano had been riled by the idea of her being hit on, but there was a bit of fear there too that he’d had to posture himself that way in the first place.

“Were they bothering you?” he asked, sitting beside her at last, looking about him cagily.

“Not really,” Keira replied. “They were just trying it on. Flirting. Sweet talking. Nothing I can’t handle.”

Cristiano looked suddenly crestfallen. “I should not have intervened?” he asked.

Keira studied his face, trying to understand what was going on in his mind. “I mean in the sense that I didn’t need rescuing. They weren’t being creeps or anything, just trying their luck.”

She watched as Cristiano exhaled, his chest sinking, his shoulders hunching.

The boldness that Keira had been lacking over the last days suddenly appeared.

“Cristiano, are you jealous?” she asked.

He shook his head emphatically. “Not at all.”

For all his perfection, Cristiano was no actor. He may have said the words that expressed his lack of care but his tone revealed quite the opposite.

Keira realized for the first time that Cristiano may indeed have feelings for her too. Not in the stereotypical way he’d warned her not to pay too much heed to, but in a real way. Was the real reason her two opportunities to make a move had faltered because she’d picked up these small micro-expressions from him, his resistance because of having sworn off love and marriage forever?

It all seemed suddenly very clear in Keira’s mind.

“Cristiano,” she said, more firmly. “Do you like me?”

He looked away from her, not even answering the question, his silence in itself an answer. He’d been flirting with her before because it was his way, but somewhere along the line he’d started to feel something, to get close, in a way he’d avoided doing since his divorce from Maria. The resistance, the hesitance, it was all coming from him.