Katy was taken aback by his sharp comment. ‘Children move so fast—’

‘And it is a mother’s job to be one step ahead of them,’ he shot back, his expression disapproving. ‘A two-year-old girl should not be falling out of windows, no matter how hot the weather.’

‘Accidents happen,’ Katy reminded him gently. ‘People make mistakes. You’re very judgmental.’

‘And you’re very forgiving, querida,’ he observed, stopping dead in his tracks, his dark lashes hiding his expression from her, ‘except, it would seem, when I’m the culprit.’

Heat rushed to her face and she bit her lip, flustered by the hint of a smile pulling at the corners of his firm mouth.

‘Jago—’

‘Tell me, Katy.’ He stepped closer to her and lowered his voice. ‘How long are you going to keep up this pretence?’

She licked dry lips and then immediately wished she hadn’t as his dark eyes lasered in on the gesture with visible hunger. ‘What pretence?’

‘The pretence that there’s nothing between us.’ With obvious reluctance his eyes lifted to hers, holding her captive. ‘What does a guy have to do to get you to forgive? Send flowers? Beg?’

Her body slowly heated up under his gaze, sexual excitement burning low in her stomach. Why did being close to Jago always have this effect on her?

‘I—I forgive you,’ she stammered, backing away slightly from his powerful presence. ‘But it doesn’t mean I want a relationship. We’re too different, Jago. We want different things.’

He gave a smile that was pure predatory male. ‘I don’t think so.’

‘That’s just sex!’ She said the words without thinking and then looked round in embarrassment, realising that any of the staff could have been within earshot. Fortunately they weren’t. ‘You left me, Jago. You left me without a backward glance. Give me one instance that proves that you cared about me and not just the sex.’

‘I kept the photographs,’ he reminded her simply, a smile of satisfaction appearing in direct response to her shocked expression. ‘Think about that, querida.’

With that he touched her on the cheek and walked away, leaving her staring after him.

* * *

He’d almost told her about the ring.

Jago stared at a conference programme, bombarded by totally alien emotions. He sensed that whatever he said at the moment, it wouldn’t be enough. Katy was incurably romantic. As a child she’d played with dolls and dreamed of princes. And none of those dreams had included a prince who left her when the going got tough. It was going to take some very fancy footwork on his part to convince her that he loved her.

He’d always loved her.

And eleven years before she’d been madly in love with him, and he’d killed that love with his lack of trust.

Somehow he had to win that love back.

But how?

Despite her passionate response to his kiss and the fact that her whole body reacted when he walked into the same room as her, Katy wasn’t showing any signs of wishing to renew their relationship.